Always in my Heart (The Subzero Series, #2) (2 page)

“Well, maybe I was being a little sarcastic but in all seriousness, you are pretty amazing with your hands and you can touch me anytime.”

I reach my hands up and place them behind his head, pulling his face towards mine and kiss him lightly right in the corner of his mouth. Tyler opens his mouth to say something but looks up and hesitates, a curious look crossing his face.

“What’s all this?” He asks pointing to the green and white bag and the cardboard box.

“The bag is a bunch of airbrush color from Chloe and Jack for the bakery. That other
thing
is a housewarming gift from my father.”

Tyler drops his hands from my waist and walks over to the counter. He peers inside the box and turns around to look at me, his eyes wide with surprise. Then, he begins laughing hysterically. I’m glad he finds this so funny.

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H
er father sent us condoms.

I’m not sure if I should be creeped out or send the man a bloody thank you card. Abby is completely mortified. Then again, if my dad had done this, I would be too.

“Do you know what this means?” She asks me.

“That your father wants me to give you a good shagging?”

Abby looks at me as if I have gone completely mental.

“No, but it means he knows that we are.”

“Most likely he does and judging by the amount in there he believes we do it all the time.”

“Ew, Tyler! Don’t say that!” She exclaims. “You do realize this is because he’s afraid you’ll get me pregnant. Doesn’t that offend you?”

My face blanches at the thought of us becoming parents anytime soon.

“Absolutely not!  The world is not ready for you to bear my children, though they will be an unbelievably dashing and handsome bunch. Really he is doing me a favor.”

Abby shakes her head, her brown ponytail swings softly. “I can’t believe you’re okay with this. I want to kill him.”

I laugh out loud. “Not me my love. I want to give him a good old fashioned snogging.”

I glance back at the box. It isn’t a terribly big box but there must be at least four or five dozen condoms in there. “Where do you think he got them all?”

Abby shudders and rolls her eyes. “I don’t even want to know.”

It’s no big secret that her father didn’t exactly warm to me straight away but I believe we’ve made some progress since then. For starters, he actually calls me Tyler now and he doesn’t make comments about my hair or my tattoos anymore, though there isn’t much he can say about my hair these days. I’ve let the sides grow in just a bit and my Mohawk is shorter, so I guess you could say it is a bit more faux than mo but it is still as blue as ever.

I’m sure most fathers wouldn’t want their daughters to get pregnant before they were married, but I’m willing to bet Jack didn’t come home to find a special gift from dear ol’ dad waiting for him.

Abby moves the box of fun off of the counter and takes it in the bedroom to bury it in the back of the closet. I don’t blame her. I mean, there is no way we can use them without thinking of the fact that her father sent them. If we are thinking about that, then there is no way there will be any hanky panky going on...which is probably the reason he actually sent them.

Maybe I should be offended but I’m not. I don’t mean any disrespect to her dad but I love Abby and she loves me and that is all that matters. Plus, I am in such a good mood today, he could tell me to my face that I would never have his blessing to be with his daughter and I wouldn’t care. Well, I mean of course I would care, but I’m just too excited today to let anything get to me.

We got word today that this all female punk group called Stardust wants to record a couple of tracks with us! I can’t believe they’ve heard of us but apparently their lead singer, Ann, has a cousin who was here on holiday once and happened to be in Stoaked one night while we were playing. Talk about the stars aligning that night. He liked our sound, bought one of our albums and was playing it one night while he was hanging out with the girls. They liked what they heard and everything is history from there.

“So how long are these girls going to be here?” Abby asks as she walks into the living room, where I am now sitting, and drops down on the sofa next to me.

I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know actually. I’m not even sure how many songs we are doing with them. I can’t wait to meet them. Do you think they’ll come see us play next Friday night? That would be so cool.”

“If you start squealing like a twelve year old girl, I’m walking out of here.”

I turn slightly to put my hands on either side of Abby’s hips and pull her on top of me so that she is straddling my lap. Reaching up, I push a few strands of hair that have come loose from her ponytail behind her ears and softly caress her cheeks with my fingertips.

“Are you getting a bit jealous?”

“Me? Jealous? You think I’m jealous of three rocker chicks that you have already deemed as being so hot? Absolutely not.”

I’m still not really sure if she’s being sarcastic or serious. Probably sarcastic with a smidge of seriousness mixed in.

“Good because these brown eyes of mine are only looking at you.”

Placing my hands on her arms, I give her a playful tug so that she falls into me. My fingertips trail up her arms, round her shoulders and slowly move down her back causing her body to shiver against mine.

“So beautiful.” I whisper before pressing my lips against hers.

I catch her bottom lip between my teeth and give it a gentle tug. She whimpers in response and presses in even closer to me. My hands lightly graze up and down her back one, two, three times before they clasp around her ponytail, pulling on it lightly. I dot kisses along her jaw line, getting dangerously close to that spot just below her ear that drives her crazy.

I grab her shirt by the hem and lift it up over her head and toss it next to us on the couch. My hands roam over the warmth of her skin, stopping to trace the tattoo of an Irish claddagh inside a trinity knot that she has on her left rib cage. I have the same tattoo in the same spot. We got them done together to mark our one year dating anniversary.

I gently push her back a little bit, one of my hands moving up her back, settling at the base of her neck to hold her steady, while the other one remains firmly on her lower back. I lean forward, pressing my lips softly against her tattoo.

Abby’s hands move up my neck and into my hair. Her fingers massage the top of my head as my lips trail slowly across her rib cage and up the valley between her breasts. Abby pushes me back against the couch, moving her hands down to unbutton my trousers. Just as she flicks the button open, a loud knock sounds at the door.

We look at each other and frown.

“Were you expecting anyone?” She whispers.

“No, were you?” I whisper back.

“No...maybe whoever it is will go away.”

She moves to undo my zip and I pull my shirt over my head, tossing it to the side with hers. I pull her close to me so that our bodies are tight against each other, warm skin to warm skin. I cover her mouth with mine, kissing her softly twice before parting her lips with my tongue.

The knocking at the door continues and I am about to tell her to ignore it again when a familiar voice calls out me.

“Tyler, I know you’re in there. Your car is in the parking lot. Get off yer arse and open the door!”

Noah. In all of the years I have known him, I don’t think I have ever hated him as much as I do right now. Suddenly, I hear the jingling of the door knob and panic courses through my body. I grab Abby’s shirt and throw it at her as I slide her off of my lap and jump up to redo my trousers.

“What is going on Tyler?” Abby asks, clearly confused.

“Put on your shirt. He has a key.” I say as I grab my own shirt and pull it back over my head.

“Why does he have a key?” She asks through gritted teeth.

“When I first moved in I had a bad habit of frequently locking myself out. I felt bad having to constantly call someone from maintenance to let me in so I gave him a key because I don’t care about waking him up, especially since he is usually up all hours of the night as it is.”

“That’s insane.”

“I know, I mean how does he function properly? I was convinced for a while he was subhuman or something. I need a solid seven hours just to look beautiful.”

“No, not his sleeping habits Ty! I meant that he has a key and we now have to stop because of it.”

“Hello?” I hear Noah call out.

“In here.” I call out regretfully as Abby gives me the look of death.

I know she’s not exactly happy right now but he knew we were here or at least that I was. What was I supposed to do? Hide behind the sofa?

“How good of friends are you with Noah again?” Abby asks just as he appears in the doorway.

“Hey guys...what’s going on?” Noah asks, looking back and forth between the two of us. A knowing smile creeps on to his face.

Don’t look at me like that. I can tell by the look on your face you know exactly what you just interrupted! This better be good.

“Nothing,” I say, which earns me another dirty look from Abby. “What...uh...what’s up?”

Noah gives me an odd look.

“Ummm...you told me to come by. You said I could have supper and then we were going to watch The Avengers.”

Damn...I did say that didn’t I?

“Right, right, come on in.”

“How are you Abby?” Noah asks as he walks into the room and takes a seat on the sofa.

“Oh I’m good. Gonna get cooking in just a minute here,” She turns and gives me a smile I don’t quite trust. “Just have to go finish something I started real quick.”

Abby doesn’t say anything to me as she turns to walk out of the room.

“Do you need any help?” I ask hopefully.

She turns and flashes the same smile she gave me a few moments before. “Nope, I can do this by myself.”

Then she turns and walks out of the room leaving me standing here with drool on my chin, my jaw on the floor and a tall red haired goon to keep me company. I hear the bedroom door shut and I sit down on the sofa with Noah. He’s going on and on about music or girls or something, I’m not actually paying any attention to him. All I can think about is what Abby is doing in the bedroom.

I can’t take it any longer. I’m going in there!

“I’ll be right back. Do you need anything? A drink or something?”

“Have you got any Guinness?”

I shoot him a look of mock disgust. “Do you have to ask? Of course I have bloody Guinness! I’ll bring you one.”

I toss the remote to the telly at Noah, jump up from the couch and hurry back to the bedroom. My imagination is running rampant at the thought of what I might see on the other side of the door. Grabbing onto the doorknob, I open up the door, rush through it and quickly close it behind me, just in case Noah happens to wander out into the hall for some reason. I turn towards the bed to find Abby sprawled out, flipping through a magazine.

She looks up at me, a wicked smile forming on her face.

“Wow...that didn’t take you long at all.” She says.

“Wait...did you already...”I trail off.

“No! Geez Tyler, did you really think I would do that with Noah out in the other room? What is wrong with you?” She has a disgusted look on her face but she’s laughing.

“Well you said you were coming back here to finish something you started. What was I supposed to think?” I ask her.

She holds up the magazine. “Yes, a terribly fascinating article on the damaging effects of getting your girlfriend turned on and stopping because you forgot you invited your friend over for dinner and a movie.”

I walk over to the bed, climb on top and crawl my way up her body. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

I dip my head down and alternate between kissing and sucking up the side of her neck.

“Noah is in the other room.” She reminds me.

“Who cares? I’ll kick him out on the street so fast he won’t know what happened. Who needs friends anyway?” I say.

Abby laughs and swats me in the arm with her magazine. “You’re bad. I’m going to make dinner.”

I move off of her and she scoots herself off of the bed. I watch her hips sway as she makes her way to the door. Just as she is about it open it, I jump off of the bed, swing her around and pressed my lips to hers.

“I’m sorry about tonight.” I say.

“It’s okay Ty. We have time.” She smiles.

“I’m gonna marry you some day.” I tell her.

“So you keep saying but you have yet to actually ask me.”

I smile and shrug. “Someday.”

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T
he thing I love the most about opening up a freshly renovated bakery is that everything is brand new. The stainless steel appliances are spotless and shiny. The newly laid white linoleum doesn’t have a speck of dirt on it. The glass cases are so clean you can see your reflection in them. The air still has that new paint smell to it from when we painted the walls the very warm and inviting shade of Gobi Tan a couple days ago. I sigh as I wonder how long this newness will last.

The closer it gets to opening day at the bakery, the antsier I am to get into the kitchen. I haven’t done much baking since I left my last job. I did at first, getting up and making enough éclairs, fruit and cream danishes and cherry turnovers to last a couple days. The only problem is they never last longer than a few hours with Tyler inhaling everything in sight or one of the boys popping over.

I shake my head and sigh as I think back to the last time Noah was over. I have never seen 2 grown men polish of a dozen éclairs like that before and I hope I never have to again. It was like feeding time at the zoo. You put out a plate of pastries on the counter, the boys catch one whiff of the decadent smell of chocolate in the air and come running in to stuff their faces like it’s a timed race and then you’re left with cream filling all over the place and no pastry for yourself.

I just hope they don’t think they’re getting tons of free pastries. They’ll end up putting me out of business in the first week!

“This place looks fabulous Abby.” Juan Pablo, my new pastry chef says as he walks into the bakery with one of my new cake decorators, Caroline, and my new bakery manager, Marci.