Chapter 15

“What’s the matter?” Gabe asked, striding through the door to my upstairs apartment for the first time. He glanced around, taking in the small size and shabby chic décor. It wasn’t the Ritz, but my place was clean and pretty. Girly. Like me.

I called him the minute Matthew left. Just let him try to talk his way out of this shit storm. He’d first tried to tell me he was busy, until I asked whether fighting fires was a hobby or a career path.

“You lied to me,” I said as I paced back and forth in front of my sofa. Codsworth meowed his disapproval, then sprang away and disappeared into the bedroom with his white-tipped tail in the air.

“I didn’t lie to —”

“Don’t bullshit me, Gabe, you told me you were a broker. You didn’t tell me you were the firefighter who saved me in my own bakery.”

I placed a hand on my chest, steadying myself. I needed to find my core, my center. Meditation breathing. I knew I could do it as I pulled in deep breaths through my nose and expelled them out of my mouth.

No wonder his scent was so familiar. Pair that cologne with some smoke and voila, one mystery savior coming up.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to think I was a creep.” Gabe said, grabbing the back of his neck and stroking it. “After that night, I couldn’t get you out of my mind. It was something in your eyes after I held you in my arms and you realized you were going to make it. I tried to forget you, all huge terror filled green eyes and luscious curves, all right? But you were with me constantly and I couldn’t shake it. I had to see you again.”

“So, you came to my bakery, extorted a date out of me, then promptly lied to me about what you did for a living? Is Gabe even your real name?” I flung my arms wide, then flapped them to my sides.

“Of course it’s my real name. I’m the same guy you met; I just didn’t know how to talk to you about this. It seemed weird, kinda like I was…” He trailed off and searched the living room for the right term.

The sofa remained stubborn and silent.

“A stalker?” I filled it in for him. I wasn’t about to candy coat anything. I did not appreciate being lied to. My mom had cemented that hatred when she’d told me she was clean for the first time. But I could see the tracks up her arms. Like footsteps in the sand.

I’d found her using in the bathroom that same night.

“Yeah, exactly. I didn’t want you to think I was a stalker. I really like you, Allegra, I didn’t want to lose my shot with you. Girls like you, they’re …”

“Save it,” I snapped. “I’m done. Look, it’s been fun, but I think it’s time you leave.”

“Don’t do this.”

“Get real, Gabe,” I replied. “It’s not like we’re dating. We fucked once. Isn’t that what you wanted? A quick fuck? So you could tell your friend on the phone that the fat chick sucked your cock so hard you almost came in her mouth.” I over-pronounced the words, coloring them with vulgarity.

Gabe flinched. My words landed like the weapons I’d intended. “No, that’s not what I want. What friend on the phone?”

“The one that made you leave the restaurant that night. The one you told I’m here with her. Is her the fugly one, Gabe? Was I some kind of a cruel joke for you and your fireman friends? Do you try to get in the pants of every woman you save from a burning building with the hose between your legs? If not, I’m not sure what you want; I’m struggling to see it.”

He remained silent. Glaring me down as if he couldn’t dignify my rant with a response. As if it had actually hurt him. His feelings. His pride.

“Just leave,” I said.

“I can’t. I don’t want to end it between us,” Gabe replied, “not like this. When you’re angry and confused.”

I trembled with anger and something else. Was it desire? Seriously? I wanted him that much that even when I was furious with him, I still longed for him to reach out and touch me. Most of all I wanted his lies to go away. The ones that had hurt me and cut to the quick in spite of the short time we’d known each other. I’d let him in. I’d been wrong again.

He seemed to sense it, so hurried towards me. “I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have lied to you. I just couldn’t stand the thought of never getting a chance with someone like you. Someone I … admire.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that when you came in the first time?” I placed my fists on his chest, trying to push back, but putting no real effort into it.

“You stunned me. I could hardly speak the first time we met.”

I’d felt that too. The incredible need. I’d been so crippled by that electric chemistry so I hadn’t put two and two together. A handsome stranger just happened to wander into my shop and ask me out on a date. How had I not seen it sooner?

Gabe lowered his lips to my throat and kissed it softly. “Forgive me.” His breath feathered across my skin. Danced over it. Tickled it.

I was instantly wet again.

No.

“Can you forgive me for this, Allegra?” Gabe asked, then kissed me again, up my throat this time and onto my chin. He kissed my lips and stared deep into my eyes. “Can you?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

He kissed me again, and I melted against him, grasping at his arms to keep me upright. Why did it matter that he’d lied if he was only a fling? Why did he care? Why did I?

I broke away to ask him.

“Allegra Wilson?” a voice called from downstairs. “This is Officer Carlson, I’m here to talk to you about the fire.”

I pulled away from Gabe as my face burrowed into a concerned frown. Why had the police come? I could understand the insurance company sending a technician, sure, but the cops? This was weird. And worrying.

“I have to talk to him,” I said, then hurried down the stairs and into the bakery.

Officer Carlson stood with his hands behind his back, waiting patiently. He was old, with tufts of grey hair poking out from beneath his dark blue hat.

Tess stood next to one of the ovens, glaring at him, but the officer, to his credit, ignored the dagger stares and studied the kitchen instead.

“Can I help you?” I asked as I stepped into view and held out my hand for his meaty one.

The officer started and turned to me, brow wrinkled as he clasped my hand in a firm shake. “You’re Miss Allegra Wilson?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“I’m here to tell you that you’re being investigated for arson. We’ll be sending a team over to sweep the kitchen in a few hours.” He stated it like it was the most natural thing in the world.

My insides crumbled to dust. My knees could barely support me. “Arson?”

“We were contacted by your insurance agency. A guy named Mr. Brown assessed the damages and concluded that arson was the most likely cause of your fire. He suggested we look into it.”

That bastard. I’d known he was up to no good the minute he set foot in my kitchen. I was surprised he hadn’t asked me to go down on him to prevent him from filing his bogus report.

“Officer, I assure you, I didn’t do anything to start a fire. I was upstairs when it broke out.”

“Do you have a valid alibi? Anyone to back that up?”

“Well, no. It was before I opened the bakery to the public. I hadn’t hired Tess yet.” I chewed my bottom lip.

Officer Carlson took out a pen and pad and started making notes. “Do you have a bad financial history, Miss Wilson?”

“What? No! I mean, I owe money to the bank because I took some loans to start my business, but that’s it.”

“I see,” the officer said, in a way that said he saw a lot more than he should.

“No, this is ridiculous, I would never do anything to jeopardize my business,” I insisted, “I had to delay opening this place because of that fire. I almost died! Codsworth almost died.”

“This Codsworth, is he a business contact of yours? An accomplice?”

What the fuck was wrong with this guy? He couldn’t seriously believe I’d set fire to my own damn business. “He’s my cat.”

“What seems to be the problem, officer?” Gabe flew down the stairs behind me, two at a time.

I clenched my fists. Just what I needed, complications.

“I’m here investigating a case of arson. Are you a colleague of Miss Wilson?” He asked the question, but his obsidian eyes said he already knew exactly who Gabe was.

“No, I’m her boyfriend,” he said, reaching out to shake Carlson’s hand. “Gabe Moreno.”

Boyfriend?

The cop wasn’t having any of it. “I know who you are, Moreno. I merely questioned your relation to Miss Wilson.”

“Stop calling me that,” I snapped, “I’m Allegra, or Ally. Enough with this Wilson crap.” I took a deep breath and pressed my lips together, then peeled them apart. “Let me assure you, Officer Carlson, I would never do anything to harm my bakery. I love what I do, and no amount of money could replace that.”

“Not even the amount which the insurance company would pay out? I find it interesting that your boyfriend is a firefighter.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I started.

“Then what the fuck am I?” Gabe asked, grabbing my wrist.

The best fuck of my life.

I wrenched it from his grasp. “Now is not the time!”

Gabe balled his hands into tight fists and turned to the cop. “Officer Carlson, is it?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” he replied, his upper lip curling back in a snarl. Why the fuck did the cops hate Gabe so much? This reaction from Officer Carlson was almost as bad as Matthew’s.

“Do you have a warrant for Allegra’s arrest?” Gabe asked.

My heart practically stopped beating.

“No, but —”

“Do you have a warrant to search this premises?” Gabe followed up, stepping closer to Carlson. Menacing. A rigid, wall of masculine implied threat.

“I don’t think threatening an officer is a good fucking idea, Gabe,” I interjected. Tess grunted her agreement from beside the oven.

“Shut up,” he shot back at me. “Let me handle something for once.”

My eyes widened and I stepped away from him and towards Carlson. “Officer, I’ll be happy to cooperate with your investigation in any way you require. Would you like to take a seat inside, so we can discuss this?” I gestured toward a table near the door, pulse racing, beating a tattoo against the inside of my throat.

Carlson studied my hand, then my face. His gaze darted to Gabe, then back to me. “No, I think I have all the information I require for now.” He spun on the heel of his boot and tracked back to the swinging doors of the kitchen. “We’ll be in touch.”

Then he swept out of the room. The bell tinkled in the front a few minutes later.

I turned on Gabe. “What the fuck were you thinking? Confronting him like that.”

“I know those guys; they’re pricks.” He grunted it, and looked at Tess.

She glared right back at him, arms folded across her ample breasts, grasping a mixing spoon in her fist.

“This isn’t about your personal vendetta. This is about my business! I refuse to lose it because you’ve got problems with authority.”

“I don’t have problems with authority,” he scoffed, then thumbed towards the exit. “Just those assholes.”

I gripped my head in both hands and stared at him through the net of my fingers. “Leave. Get out of here. I have to sort this mess out.”

“Allegra —”

“Go!” I shouted and Tess brandished the wooden spoon in solidarity.

“I’ll call you,” he said, his jaw set in defiance. He clomped out of the kitchen, leaving the scent of his cologne in the air. I scoffed. Gucci Black minus the smoke. He always seemed to have the last word and chased away every last shred of my tenuous control.