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“No, I’m not married or seeing anyone. I don’t date. Even if I am maybe attracted to you, I can’t have anyone in my life. It’s just the way it is. Please, don’t ask again. Thanks for the taste testing,” she said right before disappearing into the back.
It took restraint not to follow her. Ian came walking out with a smile on his face. I hurried to put a pleasant look back on mine. “How was it?” he asked.
“It was amazing, and I told her it doesn't need any more tweaking. You need to put it on the menu right away. As soon as you do, I’ll need several dozen for the office.”
He clapped his hand and his grin got bigger. “Excellent. See, what did I tell you? She’s a miracle and a lifesaver. It makes me hate the thought of selling the bakery and someone else getting this.”
“Selling? You’re selling the bakery? I didn’t know that.”
He shrugged and sighed. “I’m thinking about it. I know it was Freya's dream, and I kept it going for these past three years, but I’m getting older. My son lives in Florida and has been begging me to move there to be closer to him and the grandkids. In order to do that and afford to get a place there, I need money. I don’t want to live with my son. To have enough, plus some leftover money to have fun with the grandkids and help with their college funds, I need to sell the bakery. I think Freya would be alright with it if I can find the right person to take it over. Whoever it is, I want to ensure they keep Cassia. If it was possible, I’d sell it to her, but it isn’t.”
“Don’t put it up yet. Let me talk to my club. If you’re serious about selling, they might be interested in buying it.”
“An MC owning a bakery? I know you all have a bunch of different businesses around town, but I never thought of you owning a bakery.” His surprise was obvious.
“Don’t knock it. Our chapter in Hunters Creek owns one, and it’s a great business for them. We look for things that will be successful for us and the community. Let me bring it up at our weekly meeting, then I’ll get back to you. Deal?”
I held out my hand. After a moment or two of consideration, he took it. “Deal. I’ve just started to seriously consider doing it. I’ve been talking to my son about it. Don’t say anything to the staff or customers. I don’t want it to get out before I have the chance to tell them.”
“I won’t say a word other than to my club and I’ll tell them to keep it on the down low. We meet on Saturdays, so I’ll mention this then and get back to you. I need to go, but I’ll be back. I can’t stay away. There’s too much here that interests me.”
“If I’m guessing right, it’s not just the baked goods that have your attention. I don’t want to piss you off, but I have to warn you, Blade. Cassia is sweet and innocent, and I look out for her. She’s not the kind of woman who has flings with men. In fact, in the three years I’ve known her, I’ve never seen her go out with anyone. Don’t persist in pursuing whatever it is you want from her. I won’t see her hurt or used.” His smile was gone and a stern look was on his face. I leaned closer to him.
“Ian, I promise you, a fling or anything like that is the last thing I want from Cassia. My intentions are totally honorable. Thank you for looking out for her. Hopefully, soon, that’ll become my job. Talk to you later.”
His tension eased, and he appeared to be surprised at my confession. I left him there to think about what I said. I’d been telling him the truth. What I wanted from her was what all my married brothers had—a woman who was the center of their lives and who they loved and adored. My heart and gut were telling me that Cassia Parrish was that exact same thing to me.
Cassia: Chapter 2
“You’re a woman. You have no rights other than what I say you do, which are none. You’re here to serve as a vessel for a man's seed and to keep his home and raise his children in the manner he sees fit. Not doing so will only result in your punishment. You will do as you’re told, Cassia. Don’t forget that.”
I jerked awake and realized I was dreaming yet again. I hated to have these nightmares. They seemed so real that they made me think what was happening was now, rather than just old memories. Sitting up, I threw off the blankets. My clothing was soaked and so was my hair with sweat. I’d been stuck in that nightmare a long time to get to this state.
Getting up, I headed to the shower. As I passed the alarm clock, I saw it was one o’clock in the morning. Darn. I’d hoped for another two hours of sleep before having to get up and head into the bakery. My day started super early because of the things I needed to bake fresh before the customers began to descend upon us. Some things I made the day before to make it easier and so I didn’t have to get up even earlier. As long as I was there by four o'clock, I was good.
It made for a long day, but I didn’t have anything else to occupy myself with. It was fine with me. I was lucky enough that I could leave by two o'clock in the afternoon each day and I didn’t work weekends, even though Ian, my boss, did have the shop open. There was another baker, Carlotta, who worked the weekends. Customers didn’t rave about her stuff like they did mine, but sales were still good. Those in the know knew if they wanted my pastries, they should stop by during the work week.
It filled me with a sense of pride, knowing my baking was so appreciated. I shouldn’t feel this way. Pride was a sin. However, I was working to forget those teachings and to move on. Even after three years, it was a struggle. That struggle had gotten harder the past month and that had coincided with the increase in my nightmares. All because of one man, a man who’d come into the bakery and literally scrambled my brains and terrified me. My terror wasn’t due to him threatening me physically in any way. It was due to the emotional impact he had on me. He was the first man I’d ever had any kind of sexual response to. I was twenty-two years old, and he was the one man who made me feel like I wanted to have him touch me.
Sure, when I’d been younger, I’d had mild crushes on boys and wondered what it might feel like to have one of them kiss me, but it never went past imagining that. With Blade, the sexy biker, it was way more than kisses I dreamed and thought about. He made my body yearn for everything a man might do with a woman. My confusion was, why would I want that? In my experience, sex was ugly, painful, and something to avoid at all costs. I never understood why so many women out in the world seemed to want it. Why would most of them do anything to experience it with any man they could? Sometimes, they would do it with several men.
I’d worked hard to stay away from him. If I knew he was in the bakery, I made sure to stay in the back, if at all possible. If I had to be out in the front, I kept my eyes down and tried not to make any kind of visual contact with him. I’d hurry to the back as fast as I could. He tried to talk to me on more than one occasion when I wasn’t lucky enough to escape. I didn’t understand why. What was he hoping to achieve by being nice to me, free pastries, or something? Surely, it wasn’t sex.
It was because of him that Jan, one of my coworkers, was being extra nasty to me. She seemed to think I was standing in her way of getting with Blade. I had no idea why she thought that. I’d told her more than once I wasn’t interested in him and that he wasn’t interested in me like that. She didn’t listen. I hated the days when I was stuck working with her. She’d never been nice, but in the past, her dislike had been mostly silent. I hadn’t told Ian about it because I didn’t want to risk losing my job.
Three years ago, when I came to Dublin Falls alone, scared, and wondering what in the world I could do to support myself, it was pure luck that I heard a lady at the grocery store talking about the bakery being in need of a baker. It had been closed for a few months due to the owner dying. Her husband was looking to reopen it. I’d searched town and found the bakery and tried my luck. It took a few days of watching it until I saw an older gentleman going in. I approached him and asked about the job. To this day, I had no idea why he’d hired me. I didn’t have any references. Ian had saved my life that day.
I lived a solitary life, but it was fine by me. Solitary means you couldn't be hurt or forced to do anything you didn’t want to do. It meant safe. Did a small part of me long for friends? Sure, but the risk was too much. If I had to up and leave unexpectedly, I’d leave behind people I cared about and I didn’t want to ever do that again.
Finishing my shower, I dried off and got ready for the day. If I went in early, I could leave early. Ian was always flexible with me doing that. The only time I couldn’t was if he asked me to work the front to cover for someone calling off. Hopefully today he wouldn’t have any unwelcome surprises for me, like he did a couple of days ago, when he dragged me out front to bring my latest creation to Blade. He said he was going to taste test them to check if he thought they were ready to go on the menu. Ian had told me they were. Blade was supposed to be a second opinion.
Spending that small amount of time with him had been hard. I’d started to relax and enjoyed hearing him talk. It wasn’t until he asked me out that I’d seen the danger I was in. I did what I had to and told him no. However, deep down, a part of me had screamed at myself to say yes. That part had to be insane or something.
I threw my long hair up in a bun, slathered in some moisturizer on my face and got dressed. Working in a bakery didn’t require me to dress up, thank goodness. A basic shirt, jeans or leggings and tennis shoes fit the bill. It wasn’t glamorous, but it worked for me. Thinking of that made me think of Jan. She came in with her hair perfectly styled, face covered in makeup and dressed in sexy clothes. Her breasts often were straining to escape due to the fact she wore tops that were at least one size too small for her. It had gotten her more than one offer of a date, but despite that, she was never with a guy for long.
I’d overheard her one day talking to one of her girlfriends when she stopped by. They didn’t know I could hear them. Jan had told her how she was working to get Blade to ask her out. When he did, she planned to sleep with him and to get pregnant. Something about the Warriors taking care of their women and kids. Hearing that had almost made me warn him, but so far, she hadn’t been successful, so I’d kept my mouth shut. If she did succeed, I would have to warn him. Although that would mean talking to him. Ugh. Why I felt the need to warn a man, I had no idea. Men deserved what they got.
After grabbing a quick breakfast, I headed out to my car. It wasn’t anything to look at, but it got me to the few places I went to around here—home, the bakery, and the grocery store. As long as it kept doing that, it was fine. I’d been lucky to find it two years ago and got it for cheap because of the miles on it. Before that, I walked to work and the grocery store.
