My Gingerbread Man (Man Card Book 13) Read online

  My Gingerbread Man

  Man Card Book Thirteen

  Terra Kelly

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  A note from the author

  Join TK’s Newsletter!

  About the Author

  Also by Terra Kelly

  Books by T.M. Kelly

  Acknowledgments

  Synopsis

  I shouldn’t be in the same room with him. We shouldn’t be allowed to talk. Then he said my name and my body reacted.

  I want him, all of him…

  …the only problem is, he’s my ex-boyfriend’s twin brother.

  I have to help him win a holiday baking competition and after all these years I want more than just first place. I want to finally win his heart.

  The man card series is a collection of short stories that are full of steamy romance. You're guaranteed that perfect happy ending and a cupboard full of sweets from all the cravings.

  One

  Aiden

  “Wait.” Noah grabbed my forearm. “Is that Cora?”

  “You should recognize her, you dated her for two years.” It was hard to keep my voice neutral, but I didn’t want Noah to see how I was really feeling at the moment. I pulled my arm away and continued to pour the chocolate mirror glaze over the mini bundt cakes.

  “And she’s going to help us?” At the same moment my twin brother asked the question, Cora walked toward our table.

  “We’re short an assistant.” I shrugged and worked to avoid eye contact with him by pouring the last of the glaze on the cakes. “It’s been five years. Can you handle working with her for four hours?”

  It was the first holiday baking competition of the season. My brother and I had entered almost every single one during this time of the year for the last five years. We practiced several recipes throughout the year in preparation for these competitions. There was something about the holiday season that brought the competitor out in me.

  My signature recipe involved gingerbread and Noah’s involved snickerdoodle batter. We usually placed first in every competition. Except last year, we placed second for the first time. So of course we had to up our game going into the contests this year.

  “Your offer still stand?” Cora was rubbing the palm of her hands back and forth the moment she stopped in front of our table.

  I waited for a split second before I lifted my head. “Maybe.” Finally, I glanced up at her.

  Fuck.

  Every fucking time I looked at this woman my cock stirred. Walking around with a fucking erection all day was not going to help win any competitions. I needed to focus on the prize money and not her lips. It took every ounce of strength to pull my eyes away from her.

  Just like all those years ago, Cora made me think things I shouldn’t. Like the thought on my mind at this very moment of leaning across the table and finally kissing her.

  “Oh.” Her smile fell. “You don’t need me now?”

  Wait, her smile. I needed her happy again. “Hell yeah, we desperately need some help,” I quickly said.

  And just like that her face lit up. “Awesome. You tell me what you need and I’m there.” She clapped her hands together and walked around the table to stand beside me. “Well, I can do almost everything. Except decorating cakes, that can easily become a shit show.”

  “Cora,” Noah said in a way that indicated he was annoyed. Of course, Noah would have to ruin the moment.

  “Noah.” She nodded. “I hope it’s okay that I’m helping you?”

  I slapped my brother on his back. “It’s totally okay. Right, Noah?” My brother rolled his eyes and walked over to the oven.

  She leaned closer to me and whispered, “Are you sure this is okay?” The smell of lemons and raspberry invaded my senses. It took me a moment to gather my thoughts because all I could think about was throwing her body onto the table and tasting her delicious pussy. “Aiden.” Cora placed her hand on my bicep. “You okay?”

  “What? Yeah.” I cleared my throat and threw a stick of butter into the stand mixer. “He’s fine. Ignore him.” I pointed to the mixer. “Think you you’re ready to whip up a cake? Then I can start building the decorations with the fondant.”

  “If you’re sure.” She grabbed the second stick of butter sitting beside the mixer and threw it in.

  “Yeah, we’re good. He’s edgy because our assistant cancelled last minute.” I grabbed some green fondant and threw it on the table. “I was surprised to see you here.”

  “My friend Mia is helping Eric Appleton.” She moved the spatula around the edges of the bowl to push the butter down. “Mia is out of her element, too. Hopefully with our lack of skills in baking we don’t cause anyone to lose the competition.”

  “She can do whatever. You.” I pointed my index finger at her. “Need to help create a winning gingerbread cake.”

  I noticed how she looked down at the butter and back over at me. “I can’t promise anything but I’ll give it the old college try.” She rubbed her hands together. “What’s next?”

  What I wanted to say was, first, mix up the cake. Then plan to follow me back to my place for an after-party celebration. I shook my head at the thought and tried to keep my mind clean. “You need to add the sugar.”

  Cora had no idea of my feelings for her. Hell, I don’t think Noah even knew.

  For the next few hours I just needed to keep my thoughts on the PG rated side and win this competition. Then I noticed her dip her finger into the batter. “Don’t lick your finger. Don’t do it,” I was chanting to myself. Like clockwork, she stuck her finger in between those pretty lips and I knew I was so fucked.

  Two

  Cora

  Why did Mia encourage me to help the Peterson brothers? Seriously, did I sustain a head injury or something? Aiden and Noah were identical twins. Well, I don’t know if everything was identical.

  I dated Noah for about two years. It was a weird relationship. We were just comfortable, but I never felt a connection with him. Five years ago I finally broke it off and we went our separate ways. This was my first run-in with Noah since the breakup. Until today I didn’t think we were angry with each other, but the way Noah reacted to my sudden appearance, I had a feeling one of us was not happy about the breakup.

  As much as I cared about him, and I did, my heart was never into the relationship. After the breakup I stayed away because it was just the right thing to do. Even today, I don’t think Noah had a clue about my feelings for his brother. I was careful to keep that shit to myself. Plus, there’s a fifty-fifty chance he’d go ballistic.

  I didn’t come to the competition hoping to see either brother. It was honestly a happy surprise. The moment Aiden came into view from Eric and Mia’s table, my heart literally skipped a beat.

  I cleared my head of all the thoughts and threw some sugar into the mixing bowl. I turned the stand mixer down to medium-low so the batter didn’t splatter and I thought about my luck. Here I was at a baking competition helping the two brothers who messed with my emotions and made me run away from love. Okay, run away from love was a bit dramatic, but it was true. I looked over at Aiden and tried not to think about where I wanted his fingers to be right now. This was insane. This had to be one of the worst decisions I’d ever made.

  Or maybe, just maybe, this was exactly what I needed.

/>   One thing was true, there was no way this situation wouldn’t feel fucked up. My emotions for Aiden would always be messy. Noah and Aiden were business partners. They did everything together. The fact that I cared about my ex’s twin brother was a huge problem. Which was why being here right now was very bad. Yet, as Aiden pressed and rolled the green fondant a shiver ran up my spine. I envisioned his hands pressing and rubbing over every inch of my body.

  “Here are the measurements for the gingerbread cake. There aren’t too many ingredients so it should be pretty easy.” Aiden handed me a small piece of paper. “Sorry for the chicken scratch. I don’t have a recipe I go off of anymore. That should work though.”

  My fingers slid across his skin as I grabbed the piece of paper. “This is fine. I’m sure you know how it should look, so I’ll ask before pouring it into a pan.”

  “What’s that?” He pointed to my wrist.

  Fuck. I covered my fingers over the black outline. “Just a simple tattoo.” I pulled the sleeve of my shirt down further in hopes that he would drop the subject.

  “Let me see it.” He took a step closer to me.

  “Why?” I twisted my fingers around the sleeve and tugged on the fabric. “Shouldn’t we be focused on the recipes?”

  “Cora.” Aiden placed his hand over mine. “Show me,” he whispered.

  “Is the cake mixed yet?” Noah stepped up behind me, causing me to jump. “We need to get it into the oven.”

  “Um, yeah, give me two minutes.” I turned away from Aiden, trying to ignore his stare.

  Right as I added some flour to the bowl, Aiden stepped closer to me. “This conversation is not over.”

  I pulled the sleeve down further and grabbed the spatula. “There’s no conversation to have.” I tried to blow him off.

  “I saw it, Cora.” He was right by my ear. I could feel his breath against my skin. The man needed to learn what boundaries meant. If he wasn’t careful I was going to say fuck it to this competition and have my way with him.

  I reached behind me and grabbed a prepared sheet pan trying to ignore Aiden’s stares. At the same moment I heard Noah mumble, “I knew this was a bad idea.” He glanced between Aiden and me. “There’s no way we can win this competition. We have too much to do.”

  “When did you become so negative.” I slowly poured the batter into the pan. “There’s still time.”

  “And too many things to make.”

  I pushed at Noah’s arm. “Then stop yapping and do more baking.” Aiden chuckled. “And you need to step it up, too.”

  Aiden straightened. “Wow.” He glanced over at his brother.

  Noah crossed his arms over his chest and stared at me. “Who died and made you manager?”

  I rolled my eyes and pushed him away. “Bake.” Then I looked over at Aiden. “You. Sculpt.”

  The only way shit was going to get done tonight was if I took the bossy approach. I wasn’t prepared for how my body reacted when I was near Aiden. If we were going to get anything done, I needed to ignore my feelings for a few hours and help them win the damn competition.

  Then, maybe later after everything was over and the excitement had died down…

  No.

  I shook my head. Aiden was off limits. I needed to disappear for another five years. It was safer.

  Yet, being safe sucked.

  Three

  Aiden

  “Holy fuck.” Noah wrapped his arms around Cora’s waist and lifted her up off the ground. “We did it.” When her feet were back on the ground I noticed her take a step away from him. “Sorry, I didn’t–” We were one of the last groups still at the event. There were a few event organizers running around cleaning up the stations.

  She touched his bicep. “It’s fine.” A small smile emerged as she traced her hand over the contours of the trophy. “And you were worried.” We somehow managed to get first place even with all the cards stacked against us. “I guess I can bake a cake.”

  “A damn good cake, too.” I bumped my hip against hers. “What are you doing next weekend?”

  She giggled and shook her head. “Um…how am I supposed to answer that?” I noticed her looking in between my brother and me. “It’s not a trick question, right?”

  “Well, it could be if you answer with the word busy...” Noah sat the trophy on the table. “We’re down an assistant and you’re our new lucky charm.”

  “Lucky charm.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m not trying to make this awkward but…”

  Noah raised his hand to stop her from continuing. “Let me jump in and finish that sentence.” He didn’t say anything for a moment. I wondered where this conversation was heading.

  As I waited for my brother to continue, something popped in my mind. A random chat I had with him about two years ago. We were at our restaurant in the kitchen testing out a new recipe. I made some off-handed remark about our dating life or the lack of one. He was rolling out dough and stopped what he was doing. When he turned to face me, his look concerned me. Then he said something that surprised the hell out of me. He actually said, “Why didn’t you ask Cora out after we broke up?”

  At the time my brother said the words to me, I blew it off. Honestly, I had no idea how to answer him. When I didn’t answer the question, he didn’t push the subject any further.

  I had a feeling the subject was being approached again.

  Noah inhaled and then let it out slowly. “Cora.” He turned to face her. “We were never meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend. You know that and I know that.”

  “That’s probably true,” Cora said. I was too nervous to look her way.

  “No probably about it,” Noah quickly interjected. My heart was racing. Was this really happening? Would my brother actually give an approval to date his ex? Finally, I let my eyes wander in Cora’s direction. She was staring right at me. “Maybe…if there’s someone you want to date and you’re not sure if you can…you should go for it.”

  She chuckled, probably hoping to cover her embarrassment. “Did you have someone in mind?”

  Noah clapped his hands together and started to head toward the door to leave. “I’ll let you do all that work. I just wanted to say, I’m good, and I’ve moved on.” Right before he left us alone in the small space he smiled. “Oh, and we really could use your help next weekend since our assistant bailed on us.” Then he turned and left.

  The room was quiet. Too quiet.

  “Are you hungry?” I didn’t know what else to say. Talking about food seemed appropriate though.

  “Starving.” She did the cutest thing and placed her hands over her stomach.

  “Should we go the restaurant and make something?” Everything felt different. I knew what my brother had just done; he gave us the green light to date. I planned to thank him with a special bottle of his favorite Scotch later.

  “Or we could go to my place.” She raised her hand up. “To eat. That’s it. My apartment is right around the corner from here.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I knew we were ignoring the elephant in the room.

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re right. That was a dumb idea.” Then she walked to the corner of the space we occupied for the competition and grabbed her coat. “Actually, I forgot, I need to go.” She zipped up her jacket and headed toward the exit. “Raincheck?” It felt like she couldn’t leave fast enough.

  “Um, sure.” I watched her open the door and thought about what had just happened. Did my brother have it all wrong? Maybe my feelings for Cora were one-sided. We flirted in a fun way when she was still with Noah. The flirting was never serious though.

  I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest. “Huh, that went well.” I said to no one in the room and suddenly I had the desire to bake something. I needed to go over to the restaurant for a while.

  Creating a recipe always made me feel better, because at the moment I felt defeated.

  Cora Lee was the one thing off-limits in my life.

&nb
sp; Until today…

  …or so I thought…

  Four

  Cora

  “What was that about?” I yelled to Noah as I stepped outside the convention center. He was leaning against the outside of the building talking on the phone. When I yelled to him, he quickly hung up.

  “Shouldn’t you be inside with my brother?” He stuffed his hands inside his jacket pockets.

  “Come on Noah, what’s this all about?” I wanted to be with Aiden, but something felt wrong about the situation. “I haven’t seen you in several years and all of the sudden you give this weird go-ahead to date your brother.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? It’s fucking obvious you both have a thing for each other.” He pulled the collar of his jacket closer together. “I’m just making shit easier for you both.”

  “What easier?” I rolled my eyes at his words. “You and I have fucked.” I moved my hand in between us. “Now you’re saying it’s okay to fuck your brother. That’s weird.”

  “Now you just made it weird, Cora,” he shrugged his shoulders. “Listen–” he turned and walked over to his car– “I’m good. I’ve moved on.”

  “Okay. I’m sensing a but here.”

  “But, Aiden hasn’t.”

  “How do you know that? Did he say something?”

  “No, but he’s my twin brother, so he didn’t have to say anything.” I threw my head back and closed my eyes. “Hey.” He grabbed my arm. “It’s okay. Seriously.”