The Heartbreaker of Echo Pass - Maisey Yates Page 0,44

the cookie jar. And she paused. “The Cookie Jar. The Cookie Jar.” The name filled her with warmth. It felt good. It reminded her of better days. Of when they’d been children and things had felt simple. Of her mother making cookies and putting them in that little jar at the back of the counter. It was long gone, that jar.

Even as far back as she could remember, the mouse on it had a broken ear. But she had still been cute, with a pink dress and white apron. And of course, she always held cookies so that made her all the more compelling.

The Cookie Jar.

There. She could make choices. She could decide things. Things like the name of her business.

Things like whether or not she wanted a man.

Griffin Chance.

The idea of trying to...seduce him seemed ridiculous. Mostly because she didn’t think of herself as seductive in any way.

But she also hadn’t imagined a few months ago that she would do something like this. That she would jump into starting her own business, into moving in to the apartment above the bakery. The way that she’d fought for this was unlike anything she’d ever fought for in her life. For herself, anyway.

She was proud of it. So why not go a step further? And if he rejected her... It didn’t matter.

She ignored the slight pain in her chest at the thought. She finished the sugar cookie dough, and put it in one of the large fridges, to be rolled out later.

She felt somewhat resolved. It seemed a bit ridiculous to think that she might seduce a man she hadn’t even kissed. But that was the thing. She wasn’t a child. And she had left things far too long. So as it stood, it was all a little absurd. She couldn’t imagine that a man like Griffin would merely want to be the subject of her first kiss. He would of course assume that there would be more. And she did want more. She imagined the problem with waiting until her age to have sex for the first time was that kind of put you on an accelerated track once you did start.

When you were sixteen, there was a whole lot of fumbling and uncertainty—as she was led to believe, anyway—and fear that parents might catch you, concerns over teenage pregnancy...

Iris winced.

Well, pregnancy wasn’t really a concern. She’d been on the pill for a while just for cramps, so that was covered.

But there was a matter of condoms, which she knew was responsible, pregnancy not being a fear aside.

Though, that would require a trip into Tolowa. She was not buying prophylactics here. No. There was no way.

The very idea made her wish she was dead.

That was it. She was just at the age where she could be pragmatic about these kinds of things. She should celebrate that. It was a gift, really.

That she didn’t have to romanticize. That she didn’t have to turn it into something bigger than it was.

She wasn’t going to fall in love. She couldn’t. Wanting more would mean needing more, trying to earn more, and she couldn’t face that. But that was another gift of age. She knew enough to know that sex didn’t mean love.

But...she didn’t think she’d have been silly enough to think it did even when she was younger.

She couldn’t seduce him in his cabin. And it was entirely possible she wouldn’t be able to seduce him while he was mad at her. So that was another issue altogether.

She walked slowly up the stairs to the apartment, and looked around the vacant space. It was really almost move-in ready. She would need to bring bedding, and things like that, but otherwise...

She walked over to the kitchen sink, and turned on the water, and a spray shot up from behind the faucet. Like a sign from heaven.

Well, that was maybe not a very good way to think about it. Perhaps she couldn’t attribute that sort of thing to heaven. But either way, someone had helped her out. Because there she had it. The perfect excuse to ask him to come down here.

You don’t think he’ll just hire someone else?

She thought back to the work he was doing on that house he clearly didn’t want her to see.

No. She didn’t think that he would just hire someone else to do it. He would want to do it himself, because he was that kind of man. The kind of very stubborn man who liked to do physical