Strip and Tease
Corbin
A Just Breaking the Rules Bonus Epilogue
Dear Mabel,
Happy anniversary, my love. I know the big day’s not until tomorrow, but since I have a game then I thought we could celebrate one night early, especially since Charlotte’s at her mom’s. After all, we’re pretty good at breaking the rules when we need to.
Meet me at the bakery at nine o’clock tonight. We’re going back to where it all began…
Love,
Corbin
I tuck the letter into my purse and study the exterior of our bakery, the blush pink signage, the glass windows with the drapes pulled closed now as it’s night. So much has happened since we opened the doors here many moons ago. I’ve baked thousands of cakes, mixed dough for countless cookies, and won over the hearts of some of the fiercest critics in Cozy Valley.
But the best heart I’ve won belongs to the man who left me this letter at the house we now share—and even though the lights inside the bakery are low, I’m sure he’s waiting for me.
I unlock the bakery door and walk inside, turning the lock again and then running my hand over the empty display cabinet, envisaging the exciting new treats that will fill it in the morning. I’ve been experimenting with profiteroles, which means I’ll face my baking nemesis, the choux pastry—but sometimes in life, you face challenges. And from the hot messes we all make comes the sweetest success.
“Corbin?” I call into the empty room, setting my purse on one of the tables.
“Is it getting hot in here?” Corbin calls from the direction of the dressing room.
I frown and step closer. What’s he talking about? “Uh, no, I think—”
“Because someone’s called the fire department!” he says as a driving drumbeat kicks in from the bakery’s sound system. Lights flash—has Corbin installed a strobe light?—and then he struts from the dressing room into the middle of the bakery, wearing boots, a pair of yellow suspenders and black firefighting pants, with the vintage firefighter’s helmet on his head.
“What are you doing?” I laugh as he pulls out a seat from one of the tables and walks me over to it, all the while “Pour Some Sugar On Me” plays from the speakers.
“You said you enjoyed a good show,” Corbin says, somehow remembering the words I told him when we first toured the station together. He presses my shoulders down and I sit, speechless. “And as a good boyfriend, I thought it was my duty to give you one.”
“By all means. Perform away,” I say, unable to stop my smile as Corbin strides over to the pole. He wraps one hand around it, turns and leans his back against it, rolling his hips over and over in a seductive rhythm.
“I never knew you could dance!” My jaw is on the floor. This is wild.
“What can I say? I’m a man of many talents,” he says with a confident grin as he stalks around the pole, one hand on the brass and the other sliding seductively along the top of his pants in time to the music.
“Yes! Take it off!” I clap, laughing as he shakes his head.
“Patience, Firecracker.” He turns his back to me and slowly slides one suspender over his broad shoulder and then down the curved muscles of his arm. His back flexes and contracts with the movement, powerful, and a shiver dances over my skin. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen him naked—the man’s body is a temple, and I worship there daily. He repeats the action on the other side, and I lick my lips, desire coiling low in my belly.
He glances at me over his shoulder. “Like what you see?”
“Always. More, please,” I reply, making gimme hands as he turns to face me and struts closer, and because I’m an equal opportunity voyeur, I admire his chest instead of his back this time, running my hands along its breadth, enjoying the dips of his abs as he swivels his hips along with the beat.
“Do these really have to stay on?” I pout, toying with the clips on the suspenders where they meet the pants.
“They don’t. And what the lady wants…” Corbin smirks and steps back, puts both hands on the stripper pants, and with a dramatic flourish, rips them off, sending them flying through the room. “The lady gets.”
And somehow, even though he’s fooling around, the sight of him in only his boxer briefs still takes my breath away. Because it’s not just his incredible body that blows my mind. It’s not just his strength, his talented hands, the broad outline of his cock through his underwear—it’s the fact he knows how to use it.
“Take my money! Take it all!” I laugh, unable to stop my smile as he steps closer and removes the hat, then places it on the table behind me.
“I don’t want your money.” He cups my jaw and leans in, his green eyes locked on mine. “All I want…is you.”
And his lips meet mine in a kiss that’s full of heat and passion, of the kind of desire that never seems to fade between us. I stand and run my hands over his back, a fire burning inside me as the dynamic between us shifts from laughter to lust and then, to love, sweet and enduring.
When he pulls back, he pushes my hair away from my face, his expression tender in the low light of the store. The music stops playing and the only noise is the hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen mixed with the sound of our hushed breath.
“Mabel, you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. From the moment I met you, I knew you were the one—and I haven’t doubted that since,” Corbin says in a whisper, then steps back. He strides behind the counter and takes something small in his hand.
“Have you baked me another of your mom’s recipes?” I ask, and lick my lips. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate an anniversary than that.
“Not this time.” Corbin meets me at my side and then drops down to one knee. I gasp. “Mabel, you’re kind, and generous, and so damn amazing. Because of you, my days have been full of more color than I’d ever imagined possible. You bring that to my life—you make it infinitely better.” He shifts to reveal the small jewelry box he must have taken from the counter. He flips it open, revealing an elegant white-gold band with the most stunning amethyst set in the middle. “This stone is the color of love. When I see lilac, I think of you.”
“It’s beautiful,” I breathe, tears pricking at my eyes.
“Will you marry me?” he asks, and I nod so fast.
“Yes. Always yes,” I reply, and I’ve never been happier in my life.
I fall to the ground and wrap my arms around him, and as we kiss again on the floor of the bakery we both built, in the very place where generations of my family have loved and laughed before, I know without doubt. This is a man worth breaking the rules for, and to win his love, I’d break every one of them again.
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