"Austin's right," Patti agreed. "We're almost done cleaning. Once the painting is done, you can work on the list, order all of your supplies. Then you'll be open for business and all of this will be a memory."

"You're right." Liv straightened her shoulders. "I know you're right."

Despite her desire to move on, a strange sense of dread sat heavy in her stomach. This was only the beginning of her struggle. She could get over not getting the bank loan, but with a little-too-forceful city inspector breathing down her neck, Liv had no idea what other surprises were in store for her.

"We're going to go back to the kitchen and finish up." Patti grabbed Austin by the arm.

"I'll be right there," Liv called as they headed into the kitchen.

She slapped the papers in her hand.

What was she going to do now?

It didn't take Jake very long to figure out which storefront belonged to Liv. The old sign still hung over the doorway, and it was the only evidence of a bakery within a two-block radius.

After his conversation with Shelton, Jake knew the stakes were even higher than he realized. The promotion he wanted-needed-wasn't the lock he antic.i.p.ated. So here he was, standing outside Liv's bakery like some kind of stalker, just as she'd said.

Despite her abrupt departure the other day, Jake was here to continue his pursuit. He wasn't giving up, no matter how hard she tried to push him away.

He peered through the front window. The inside was a disaster. Boxes were piled off to one corner of the room. Paint and other renovating supplies were heaped on the front side of the showcase. The room was dark and there was no indication Liv was in there. But he knocked anyway.

On his third try, the curtain slid open and Liv peered around the corner of the doorway. She took one step forward then stopped. Jake a.s.sumed she figured out it was him on the other side of the door. He lifted his hand and waved. She looked behind her as if doubting he was waving at her.

"Hi," he said. The cold air acc.u.mulated in front of his face in a cloud of white.

The glare from the setting sun prevented him from getting a good look at her, but she was as beautiful as ever. She wiped her hands on her jeans and walked forward. The click of the lock forced Jake to step back.

When Liv opened the door, he immediately smelled her sweet familiar scent, but this time, it mixed with strong chemicals.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. It wasn't the greeting he had expected, but at least she opened the door.

"I was in the neighborhood." He had to stop lying. At least about the little things. It was bad enough he had lied about why they had met in the first place. The least he could do was be honest about the fact that he wanted to see her.

She didn't believe him, anyway. She c.o.c.ked her hip and leaned against the door, her mouth curving up in a slight smile. So slight that if he hadn't seen it before, he wouldn't have noticed it.

"Have another craving?" she asked. "Because this time, I don't have anything for you to satisfy it."

"I'll be the judge of that."

She bit her bottom lip and pulled it into her mouth with her teeth. It made him think of her teeth and lips, and how they would look wrapped around his...

"Want to come in?"

Jake nodded and stepped over the threshold. She shut out the cold and locked the door behind him.

"It's a little messy in here. I'm sorry." She ran from him to the other side of the counter. Did she feel the need to have a barrier between them? Because even a small divider like that wouldn't stand a chance against the force of him wanting her. He'd jump that hurdle in a second.

"No reason to be sorry."

She laid her palms flat on the counter and leaned forward. "I'm glad you're not in a suit."

"You think that's all I wear?" He'd thrown on a pair of old jeans and a hoodie before he left the house.

She shrugged. "I thought maybe it was part of your game."

She thought he had game. Of course he had game, but that's not how he wanted her to see him.

"I have to admit, it's nice to see you in casual clothes. Makes me feel a little better about myself being covered in gunk." She held out her arms and looked down at her body. Her jeans and zippered hoodie were dirty-covered, actually-with grease and dirt. Even her cheek had a smudge of something.

"You look beautiful."

She blushed.

Jake gestured with his head to the curtain. "So what are you up to back there?"

"I was just cleaning out the fridge." She wiped her hands on her jeans. "It's a dirty job but someone has to do it."

"Do you need some help?" Jake had never offered to help a woman clean anything, except for his mother and sisters.

"Oh, I..." She looked as stunned as he felt asking the question. But he needed to spend time with her. Wanted to spend time with her. "I'm almost done."

"Then you'll be done even quicker if you let me help." He knew she loved his smile. He gave her one of his best.

"O...kay."

Jake followed her through the curtain into the kitchen. She pulled the metal clasp and the fridge door opened with a thud. The cool air wafted over him. He was happy he'd decided to wear the hoodie over his T-shirt.

"You might want to get some gloves over there." Liv pointed to the island in the middle of the kitchen. A box of yellow gloves sat on the table.

Yellow gloves? This was some serious cleaning. Jake nodded and shrugged out of his jacket.

"You can put your jacket in that little room there." She pointed to a closet-looking s.p.a.ce. "It's about the only clean s.p.a.ce in this place."

He followed her suggestion and left his jacket on a chair in what was obviously her office. He picked up the yellow gloves and entered the fridge. Liv's tight bottom was the first thing to greet him. She was already bent over, furiously scrubbing the middle shelving unit.

He positioned himself to her left and his groin tightened at the sight of her. He had the perfect view of her a.s.s moving from left to right and her b.r.e.a.s.t.s bobbing up and down with the action. "Where do you want me?"

She peered over her shoulder, giving him a once over before she answered. He knew where he wanted her. Up against those shelves, her body naked and spread wide for his perusal, for his touch.

"You can start on that unit." She motioned to the left with her hand.

Jake squared his shoulders and took in the state of the shelves. Food, dust, and black...stuff...stared back at him. Liv kicked over a brush then placed a bucket of water and cleaner near his feet.

He pushed up his sleeves. "All right, then. Let's clean."

Jake picked up the cleaner and doused the top shelf. Was he doing this right? The black gunk was coming off. Should he maybe wet the brush in the bucket?

They cleaned in silence. He tried to steal a few glances, maybe a look of rea.s.surance over his cleaning skills, but it was no use. Liv was bent over in the opposite direction, barely paying him any attention.

Staying silent isn't going to get this woman to the book launch any faster, Miller.

After another minute of brushing, he finally asked, "Are you going to tell me about that phone call?"

Liv stopped her scrubbing. Her answer was soft. "I was rejected for a bank loan." She resumed her cleaning.

"Did you need the loan?" Of course she needed the loan. Running your own business took a lot of capital, and a safety net was always a good idea.

"I'll be fine without it, but I wanted it just in case." Her long exhale gave away her discomfort. "I crossed all my T's, dotted all my I's. But every day I'm finding out I don't know as much as I thought I did."

"What do you mean?" Jake kept up his part of the job and moved to the next shelf. He placed the bucket on the shelf below for better access.

"I have a list the length of this block of things to fix in order to pa.s.s health inspection." She sat back on her legs then slumped onto her bottom, throwing down her brush.

Jake turned and she met his stare, a half smile curving at the side of her lip.

He stopped scrubbing and joined her on the floor of the fridge. He eased into his seat, the floor cold against his a.s.s.

"It'll be fine. I'll just try a new bank. I have a good support system."

Jake knew those words weren't for his benefit.

Looking at her like this made him ache. And not in a good way.

He leaned forward and cupped her cheek, his thumb caressing her skin. She leaned into his touch, settling in, taking comfort in his gesture.

Jake knew all about wanting something. He wanted it enough to lie to this compelling woman. But his nagging conscience shouldn't be his first priority. She needed rea.s.surance.

"You know, when I first started working at Weston as an intern, I royally screwed up."

She curled up beside him. "Go on."

"I'm not talking forgot to order extra shrimp for a party. I'm talking a colossal, almost-lost-a-million-dollar account screwed up."

She lifted her head and stared back at him with wide eyes.

He nodded. "My boss, he pulled me into his office. I thought for sure I was fired." s.h.i.tting his pants was more like it. "But instead of firing me, he said once I was done with my college program, I had a permanent job in his firm waiting for me if I wanted it."

"What?" Liv blurted. "That can't be possible."

"He told me everyone f.u.c.ks up royally once in their career. And that I was lucky to get it over with so early." Jake laughed. There was a weird logic to that statement. "He was impressed with everything I had done up to that point, and he knew that I'd never make another mistake." And until he agreed to pursue Liv and lie right to her face, he hadn't.

"You were lucky," she whispered.

"It's not about luck." He slipped his finger under her chin and tipped her head up. "The moral of that story is that it'll all work out. In my experience, if you want something bad enough, the universe has a way of handing it to you."

There were very few people left at his firm that knew about his screw-up. It wasn't something he liked to tell people, but for Liv, he was willing to humiliate himself to make her believe she was going to make it.

She sighed. "In my experience, strangers don't usually help others clean out dirty fridges."

"Strangers?" Jake clasped his chest. "I thought we were so much more than that."

That made her smile, a real, full smile. She was so beautiful when she smiled. But her vulnerability added another dimension Jake was unable to resist.

"Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever see you again." Liv scooted away and picked up the brush she'd been using and played with the bristles.

"Why's that?"

Liv let her shoulders bunch up and she shrank into herself. "Because I sort of flipped out on you."

"I'm not giving up on getting you to go out with me that easily."

She blushed and her eyes lowered to the floor. There was still time to get her to agree.

"I do wish you would have talked to me." He had more to offer than just his p.e.n.i.s.

She shook her head. "I don't need someone to talk to."

"Oh, no?" He remembered. She didn't need someone to talk to. She wanted someone to have s.e.x with. "What do you need?" he asked.

How the emphasis of one two-letter word could turn a PG-13 moment into something bound for the NC-17 shelves didn't make sense. But she understood his motive. She heard it loud and clear.

Stop it! You're traveling down a road you can't go down. Turn this around.

Liv swiped her bottom lip, her perfect tongue gliding slowly along the plump flesh. All of a sudden taking the high road was not on his mind at all.

She closed the distance between them before he took his next breath. The next thing he knew, her soft lips were pressed against his, heaven against his own. She pushed into him, her arm wrapping around his neck, pulling him closer.

This was exactly what he wanted. Exactly how he had imagined their first kiss in slow, graphic detail.

Jake grabbed her hip and nudged her closer, and in the next second, rubber gloves were ripped from their hands and she was straddling him. Her hot center pressed against the part of him that ached for her the most. She whimpered when he clasped his hands around her and rocked her body, pushing her against him in a slow, smooth rhythm. Their lips tangled, hard and rough. Liv controlled the pressure, her soft hands gripping his jaw. They were like fire against his cold skin. Despite the temperature of the fridge, their bodies had forgotten the cold.

Her palms slid down to his groin and Jake moaned, loving the feel of her hands on him. But out of nowhere, his mission flashed before his eyes. Jake tensed and pulled away.

"Fast..." he panted, moving her hands away from his lap. "Too fast."

Liv struggled with his hands, but the grip he had on her wrists was too strong. "I need this distraction." There was a pleading tone to her voice. Her eyes met his, and all that vulnerability she had tried so hard to hide came pouring out. "Even if for only a minute. Even if for only a night."

One time. One time wouldn't hurt things.

She leaned forward, her nose rubbing against his in a playful gesture, shattering his willpower.

His hands moved to her hoodie, pulling down the zipper and pulling it away from her shoulders. Her nipples stood at attention under the soft fabric of her T-shirt. He rubbed his thumbs over the stiff peaks and she gasped.

He hesitated, but desire won out. He lifted the hem of her shirt, nudging her arms up to strip it from her body. Her bra was black and see-through, her pink nipples calling out to him. He pushed her back and took one in his mouth, suckling it through the fabric.

"Jake."