Sinful (6 page)

Jensen didn’t back down, but took a step closer to her curvy body. If she wanted to fight then a fight is what she would get. He wasn’t about to back down from a five feet something pastry chef.

“How dare you insult my grandmother’s cupcakes,” she hissed. “I would never over-ice them. My red velvet cupcakes are even better than my pecan pie. Don’t talk about something you know nothing about, Mr. Lowe.”

“I wasn’t insulting your grandmother. I was talking about you, princess.”

Maymi stopped talking and just stared at him with a vacant look in her eyes. Now, what was her problem with him? She was looking at him like she couldn’t believe he just called her that.

“Don’t call me princess,” she said in a low voice.

“Why not?” he asked. “You’re acting like a spoiled little princess.”

“I won’t tell you again not to call me that name.”

He thought he saw her eyes grow a little sadder, but Maymi blinked and then turned away so he couldn’t be sure if he hadn’t imagined the entire thing or not.

“Don’t forget to give those treats to Casper as soon as his class ends. I’ll know if you tossed them in the trash and I’ll be back over to get you if you do it.”

Jensen stood next to the desk and watched in utter disbelief as Maymi ignored his comment and continued on out the front door like she hadn’t heard him talking to her. Why did he ever bother dealing with that woman?

“Can you believe she did that to me?” He spun back around in time to catch Krissy biting into one of the red velvet cupcakes Maymi had left for his brother.

“What are you doing?” Had everyone just lost their minds since Sinful moved next door or was Krissy trying to make him fire her on the spot.

“Sorry boss,” she mumbled around the treat in her mouth. “I love red velvet cupcakes and these are outstanding. I swear you need to try one and you will change your mind about Ms. Monroe. She has a true gift. After tasting one, I’m going to buy some and take them to my son’s class tomorrow for his teacher’s retirement party.”

“No, thank you.” He closed the cupcake box and grabbed it along with the other one off the counter. “When Casper finishes with his last class tell him that I need to see him in my office.”

Jensen could already see where this was going and it wouldn’t be good for their bottom dollar. He was going to tell Casper he didn’t need to see or talk to her anymore

“I sure will,” Krissy said before taking another huge bit out of the fluffy cupcake and moaning softly.

Swallowing down his criticism, Jensen turned away from the reception desk and made his way towards the staircase leading upstairs to his office. How was he supposed to get Maymi away from next door if Casper was trying to befriend her just to spite him?

God, it was days like this than he wished he was an only child!

Chapter Eight

Pausing in front of the trash can by the side of his desk, Jensen thought about tossing Maymi’s gifts for his brother right on inside, but stopped himself at the very last minute. They weren’t his to toss. He would keep his word and give them to Casper when he came to see him.

Going across the room, Jensen laid the two boxes down on a table where he usually ate his lunch. Today wasn’t the day he wanted to run into Maymi again. Normally, he tried to avoid confrontations whenever it was possible, but something about her pushed him to do battle with her anytime they were within five feet of each other.

It is desire
...his mind snickered.
You want her. Stop denying it
. He shook his head getting rid of the nonsense floating around up there.

Working and running Fitness 24 was more important to him that it seemed to be to his brother and ex-girlfriend. Most of his friends had found ways to avoid him so they wouldn’t get caught up in listening to his ideas for this place, but he couldn’t help it.

He was continually trying to live up to his potential and achieve recognition as the top gym owner in town. Nothing was going to stand in his way of getting that item crossed off his list before moving on to the next one.

Was it really wrong for him to be confident in his abilities to make it happen? Carrying out all of his projects with purpose and passion is what made him jump up out of bed every morning.

Fitness 24 was his life.

He had worked too many odd jobs over the years to make this place a reality. He wasn’t about to lose his dream now because of ‘Little Miss Bakery’.

Unquestionably, she had to be the most difficult and trying woman he had ever run across. Even during the five years he spent as a male stripper to save up money to start this place, none of those women in the night clubs had gotten under his skin the way Maymi did.

She
loved
pulling his strings. He saw the pleasure in her eyes earlier when she stood there holding her boxes of devilish treats. She purposely came over there to rub him the wrong way and not to see Casper. She was getting him back for when he barged into her business and made all of those demands.

However, he doubted Maymi hadn’t counted on her visit only fueling his fire even more. He had a very difficult time not picking up her enticing body and carrying her right back out the front door. She wasn’t ready to deal with that tougher side of him.

So he allowed her to believe that she had won this round, but he always had something else up his sleeve. When the right time presented itself, he would show her.

As much as he wanted to keep his mind focused on his dealings with Maymi, Jensen had to get more done on the new projects he had on his outline. Fitness 24 still wasn’t the premier gym he knew it could be. Everything he had written down on paper had worked out amazingly, but only a few things were left to get accomplished and time was running out to get them done.

Glancing down at his wrist, he noticed his watch showed he only had a few minutes to leave and head over to his appointment with Jack Metz. He was surprised to find a message on his phone from his toughest competition in town.

Everyone around town had heard the rumors blowing around town that Jack was interested in selling his privately owned establishment. His curiosity was piqued by why his nemesis wanted to sell his grandfather’s business to him.

Were the rumors he heard actually true about the high-end workout center? Could Jack’s members be leaving because of the lack of professionalism shown their by his trainers? Could they really be hitting on their female clients and nothing had happened to the guys?

If Jack had allowed all of this to happen and turned a blind eye to keep his employees then he needed to lose his reputation and his business along with it. He didn’t and wouldn’t tolerate any of his trainers, employees male or female, to disrespect anyone before or during their workout sessions.

Turning around, he hurried for the door knowing that Jack might not like the price he wanted to offer him, but it would be a good offer since Health Pro, Inc. wasn’t up to the standards it use to have for people previously. A bad name attached to a building for a year and a half, it was going to take time to rebuild it back up but he could do it for the right price along with the help of Casper.

Finally being able to give Casper a place of his own would give him the opportunity to make his sibling prove himself. It was a great opportunity to show him that he could run the huge kickboxing classes he kept bragging about.

For months now, he had been complaining about wanting a bigger space to expand his classes to include more than fifteen people. Health Pro, Inc. was a lot smaller than Fitness 24 in some ways, but there was one huge spot that could be perfect for what Casper was craving to do with his talent.

He prayed everything would run smoothly with Jack and he could be signing the paperwork in the next few weeks. Maybe having something else to give his attention to would get Casper’s mind off of the pretty Maymi.

Opening his office door, Jensen stepped out then stumbled back to avoid running into his brother standing on the other side. “Shit, I almost ran right into you.”

Casper held up his hands and took his own step back. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were about to leave.” He apologized, dropping his hands. “Krissy told me that Maymi dropped off two delicious thank you gifts for me and that you had brought them up here.”

“Yes, she did. They’re over there on the table by the window,” Jensen said, pointing a finger over his shoulder. “I’m running late to see Jack Metz. So we’ll have to talk about her visit later on when I get the time.”

“I know you won’t forget,” Casper mumbled under his breath but he still heard him.

“Of course I won’t.” Jensen brushed past his brother and continued down the hallway towards the staircase.

He was running late, so he had to make it worth Jack’s time to wait for him. Health Pro. Inc, was almost in the palm of his hand and he wasn’t about to have it snatched away for no good reason.

Chapter Nine

“Come on and tell me what has put that horrible look on your face,” Jazmaine complained, waving a potato chip in her face.

Twenty minutes ago, Jazmaine surprised her with her favorite Subway sandwich for lunch. She was even nice enough to eat in the back of the bakery while she worked on patty cakes and then cookies. Now she was acting like a first class bitch by not answering her questions.

Honestly, food was the last thing on her mind until Jazmaine showed up with sandwiches and that friendly smile of hers she loved so much. After eating several bites, Maymi had to admit her headache was better and she could think a lot clearer than before. “I had a run-in with Jensen again,” Maymi finally answered, dropping her food down on the Subway paper in front of her. “I swear that man must wake up on the wrong side of the bed every single morning. He never has a kind word for anyone.”

“Tell me what happened this time. Did he come back over here again and throw another tantrum demanding you move away from him or else?”

Shaking her head, Maymi pushed a potato around with her finger. “No, this time I was at Fitness 24. He just happened to see me and he threw a major fit. I thought he was literally going to pick me up and toss me out on the sidewalk,” she admitted.

She tried glancing away from her friend, but Jazmaine’s eyes caught and held hers. “Sweetie, I think you and Jensen just need to stay away from each other as much as possible. Why you decided to make an appearance at his gym, I will never know. Usually, you are so reasonable and practical when dealing with people. So why does he seem to get underneath your skin so badly?”

“I believe our personalities clashed so hard the first time because I made a decision then not to let him intimidate me again.

“Jensen seems to believe that he is the only one who has worked their ass off to make their business where it is today. Well, he hasn’t and I’m still angry he came over here and got in my face almost telling me I was too worthless to handle running this place.

“I won’t let him, or anyone else, take this away from me. I've worked too hard to get this far. My pastry arts degree means the world to me and it will help me attain a profitable business doing something I love.”

“Oh, I see what the problem is now. It has become a lot clearer to me,” Jazmaine told her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maymi said. She started clearing away the trash off the table leftover from her lunch.

“Has your father called you at all since the grand opening? I know you called and told him about it; despite the fact, he hasn’t been all of that supportive of your career choice.”

Getting up from her seat, she tossed the remains of her sandwich into her trashcan. Why did Jazmaine have to bring up her father? She wasn’t in the mood to discuss her father.

“Maymi, are you going to answer me?” her girlfriend asked from right behind her.

She spun around and took Jazmaine’s trash from her. “No, I haven’t heard from him, but you know that he isn’t big on giving words of encouragement to the only girl in the family.”

“I can’t believe your father treats you so differently from your brothers. Surely, he’s still not mad because you decided to go after you own dream and not the one he had picked out for you.”

She understood that Jazmaine was trying to be a good friend to her, but this conversation was going nowhere. They had been talking about Jensen and somehow it had turned down a side street and gotten onto her father.

“Look, I know—”

The beeping sound of the timer cut Maymi off signaling to her that it was time to take the cookies out of the oven. Walking away from her girlfriend, she grabbed a potholder off the counter then went over to the oven and removed the cookies. Maymi moved around Jazmaine and sat the cookie sheet down before she worked on removing the warm cookies to a rack.

“Maymi, you need to talk about this. I know you’re upset with your dad, but you need to fix things with him.”

“Aren’t you going to be late getting back to work?” she asked, hoping Jazmaine took the blatant hint and left it alone.

“Alright, I got it. You want me to leave but I do have one more thing to tell you. You aren’t going anywhere and I doubt Jensen is going to uproot his gym to a new location either. So the two of you need to get along or find a better way to avoid each other.”

Angry at the advice which came across more like an attack on her, Maymi twirled around giving Jazmaine a look. “Why do I have to be the one getting a lecture? He started the feud with me. I was minding my own business working away and he came over to my bakery...it wasn’t the other way around. I only went over to Fitness 24 so I could see Casper. I had no interest in looking at his face or hearing his voice for that matter.”

“I’m not giving you a lecture. I’m only pointing out the facts. The more you stay away from him the more productive your day will go.” Jazmaine looked her directly in the eye. “If you see him coming go the other way, it will keep down the arguments. You want to use all of that energy to draw more customers through the doors.
Fitness 24 had been around a while and already has a name in the community. Sinful
has only been here months. You can’t let him detour you anymore than he already has.”