She rolled her eyes, but he didn’t see her since he was still dragging her along behind him. She could just grab a cup of coffee while he grabbed his precious donut, and the additional caffeine, which would help a lot. She hadn’t been able to drink the cup he’d handed her earlier this morning since she’d been too nervous about the flight. Not to mention, she’d been living off of coffee for the past several weeks, trying to stay alert enough in all of the meetings while still maintaining the brutal schedule he’d set out for her “training”.
They waited at the end of the long line and Rachel was surprised that so many people were here. It wasn’t like the donut shop was on one of the main thoroughfares. It was definitely out of the way but people were buzzing around the quirky shop, laughing and devouring donuts and coffee. She didn’t understand it. These were even cake donuts which she really despised because they were dry and crumbly. Ick, she thought but worked hard to keep her face blank.
“What’ll I get for you today, Jack?” the man behind the counter asked.
“We need four of the Coffee Allen Brandy donuts and two large coffees,” Emerson said to the friendly man behind the counter.
Less than thirty seconds later, he was walking away with a bag full of donuts and handing her one of the cups filled with coffee. “You can get milk and sugar over there,” he told her but moved off to one of the tables that had just been vacated. “Grab some napkins while you’re there,” he called out to her.
She grabbed two napkins and poured milk and sugar into her coffee, then followed him to the table. She was just going to sit back and watch the other patrons in the store, but her eyes kept moving to Emerson’s face. No matter how much she wanted to ignore him, she couldn’t seem to do it.
And that was before she’d caught the look of ecstasy on his handsome features with almost every bite. “Why are you doing that?”
He shook his head, breaking off another piece of the donut. “Can’t explain it,” he replied and took another bite. He pushed the bag of donuts towards her, silently telling her to try one.
She was proud of how well she refrained from grimacing. “No thanks. I’m not a donut person.”
He shrugged one of his massive shoulders and took the bag back. “You’re loss,” he told her and finished off the first one only to grab a second.
When he went through the whole process again, she couldn’t resist trying the donut. She didn’t realize it, but Emerson had stopped eating to watch her reaction. And he wasn’t disappointed. She took just a small bite, not really interested. And then the taste hit her and her eyes widened. “I told you,” he smirked.
Rachel was too amazed to be irritated by his comment. She took another, larger, bite, enjoying the moist taste of the donut. “What’s in this?” she asked, using her fingers to break it apart, as if she might see some magical ingredient.
“Just what I told you several minutes ago. They add potatoes to their batter; it makes them more moist. And lots of sugar,” he explained, winking when she blushed.
She leaned forward, digging into the donut and enjoying the experience. Not only was the donut moist and delicious, the frosting was…amazing! There was a sweetness to it, but the obvious taste of the brandy as well. She’d never tried anything quite so sweet and yet not overwhelming.
When he started to reach for the last donut, she smacked his hand away. “You bought that for me,” she told him forcefully.
“Says who?” he countered, laughter lurking in his eyes.
She grabbed the bag and clasped it closer to her body while she finished off the first donut. “You said I’d lost too much weight. You’ve already had two so the last one is mine.” If Nikki or Brianna could see her fighting over a donut, they would be holding their stomachs laughing.
Emerson also laughed outright at her logic but leaned back and watched her eat the rest of her donut, sipping his coffee. When she could only eat half of the second one, she placed it back into the bag and sighed happily. “Oh my, that was delicious. I’m sorry I doubted you.”
He chuckled and started to reach for her second half but she smacked his hand away again, grabbing her donut bag and pulling it closer to her. “Not going to happen, macho man.”
Emerson only chuckled and pulled her up out of the chair. “We need to keep moving. There’s a lot to do today.”
She cringed, wishing they could just take a day to relax. She wanted to figure things out, consider the consequences of telling him that she didn’t want to do this anymore. But he never stopped, never slowed down. There was always something more to do, to analyze, to capitalize on.
She started to say something, not sure what might come out of her mouth. For the first time in several weeks, she spoke without thinking first. “Can’t we just…”
“No. Come on,” he said and took her hand to lead her out of the store. When he opened the Jeep’s door for her, he looked down into her eyes. “Trust me?” he asked her gently.
Rachel gasped, so surprised by the softness in his eyes that she wasn’t able to move for a long moment. It had been so long since she’d seen that look from him. And her heart sped up, beating rapidly just because of that look. Trust him? Did she dare?
She wasn’t able to give him a response since a horn beeped behind them. She jumped and looked around, realizing that another customer was impatiently waiting for their parking spot. She looked down, then slipped into the car before she could change her mind. Something was different about Emerson today. She couldn’t figure out what it was, but she felt compelled to follow him.
Not that she would trust him. She’d been made a fool once by his tricks; she wasn’t going to put herself into that position again.
He drove through the streets of Portland confidently, occasionally turning right or left. But it was a small city and, within only a few minutes, he was pulling into the parking garage down by the harbor. “What are we doing here?” she asked warily. But something told her he wasn’t going to give her a very good answer.
“We’re getting on that ferry if you’ll hurry up.” He walked quickly around the Jeep and opened her door, holding her hand to help her down.
“And why are we getting on the ferry?” she asked carefully. A month ago, she would have curled her fingers around his and reveled in his touch. Now, she stepped down onto the pavement and pulled her hand away, not wanting to touch him. It was a double whammy now because his touch still inspired so much desire in her that it made her knees weak, but she was too afraid of who he was. Too concerned with getting hurt again.