All In (7 page)

“You’re going to be bouncing off the walls if you eat any more chocolate,” she warned.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. “I know exactly how to get rid of any excess energy.”

“Well, so do I,” Mariah said. “It’s called whipping cream.
By hand
.”

Tucker groaned loudly and Heidi giggled.

As Mariah propelled him toward the swinging door behind the counter, she said, “Heidi, if you need me, I’ll be in back making that cake.”

“Okay. Have fun,” Heidi said with another laugh.

Behind the storefront was a pristine kitchen of gleaming stainless steel, white tile and large, intimidating appliances. Against one wall were cupboards and employee lockers. Shelving units held neatly organized supplies—bags of flour and sugar, canisters filled with a variety of extracts, stacks of empty cake and candy boxes, some decorated with her signature brown and pink, others plain white. A security monitor suspended in a corner near the ceiling showed the front register where Heidi was greeting a customer.

“Here, put this on,” Mariah said, tossing Tucker a striped apron.

He looked at it with exaggerated horror. “It’s pink.”

“Your powers of observation are astounding,” she said, chuckling. “But it’s only half pink.”

“All right,” he said, tying on the apron, “but any more abuse like this and I’m quitting.”

“That’s an empty threat if I ever heard one,” she replied, after getting a bowl and some other utensils. “Because if you quit, you won’t get your kisses.”

Then she caressed his cheek and damned if his stomach didn’t do a funky little flip-flop thing.

“You know,” he said, “now that you mention it…”

He grabbed her and pressed his mouth to hers, sliding his tongue in and copping a feel at the same time. Her nipple stiffened against his palm and her breath came a little harder. He thought seriously about pushing something in front of the door to ensure their privacy, but knew that was going too far. Unfortunately, Mariah must have been of the same mind and ended the kiss all too quickly.

“Okay, back off,” she said, her eyes bright with passion. “Heidi might come back here and see us, and more importantly, I have a cake to bake.”

“No,
we
,” he said, stepping back. “
We
have a cake to bake.”

* * * * *

No stranger to a kitchen, Tucker took Mariah’s orders and in no time they had several cake pans in the oven and were preparing a large batch of buttercream frosting. While they worked, he talked about his gingerbread house making days.

“Every year during Christmas break, Claudia gears up for her holiday project. There’s always some new theme, bigger and better than the last year’s.”

“Like what?”

“One year she made the Eiffel Tower with a bunch of French shops at the base. She’s done Santa’s Workshop a couple of times. But the absolute best was when I was about fourteen. She made a haunted mansion with all the monsters wearing green and red. That was a lot of fun. Tony and I went crazy making marzipan zombies.”

Tucker’s best childhood memories were of Tony and his family. He still flew back to San Jose for holidays with the DeLucas when he could. His parents were inevitably traveling to one destination or another, the more obscure, the better.

“So how did you get started in the cake business?” Tucker asked.

“Well, my niece needed something special for her birthday party, and I had seen this article about making chocolate lollipops in a magazine. They turned out to be a huge hit and a couple of the moms asked if I would do the same thing for their kids’ birthdays. After that, a woman wanted party favors for someone’s retirement and things just took off. I branched into baking too, as a side thing, but that’s turning out to be as lucrative as the candy.”

Tucker took some of the dirty dishes to the sink and started washing them. Mariah divided the icing into separate bowls, then started adding food coloring for the different hues she’d need for the cake.

“When did you open the store?”

“Four years ago. It took all my savings and a loan from my parents, but I did it.”

“Ah, a risk-taker, just like me.”

She paused in the act of mixing up some black icing. “Well, I’ll agree that I took a risk, but come on. I’m an amateur compared to you. I’ve seen you bet the equivalent of two of my stores on one hand.”

“Yeah, but that’s just money.”

Mariah scoffed. “Just money. Easy for you to say. You have plenty of it.”

Tucker put the whisk in the drainer and dried his hands. “No, listen. What I mean is that I don’t invest my
self
into my work. I mean, come on. Poker’s a game. That’s all it is. If I lose a hand, all I lose is money. But your store, Mariah…it’s you. When I walked in, I saw you all over the place.” He smoothed a hand over the stainless steel counter as he walked over to her.

“All right,” she said, nodding. “I see what you’re saying. Obviously, if I lost the store, I’d be out a lot more than just the money. But you put yourself on the line just as much as I do. If you eat it at the tables, it’s public. It’s on TV for God’s sake. That’s got to be tough.”

Tucker shrugged. “It comes with the territory,” he said, but inside he felt the connection with her deepen. If he wasn’t careful, he might find himself falling for her.

And then he decided that maybe he didn’t want to be careful.

Hours later, all that was left on the cake were the finishing touches. Tucker was piping some silver around the headlights while Mariah added the tiny windshield wipers she’d spent fifteen minutes sculpting out of sugar paste.

“That’s goddamned awesome,” Tucker exclaimed. “Tony’s gonna pop a gasket.”

Mariah wiped her hands on her apron. “Well, some of the gasket-popping will be due to you. Personalizing the license plates to say His and Hers…that was a stroke of genius.”

Stepping closer to her and focusing on her mouth, he said, “A stroke of genius, huh? Sounds like I earned myself a bonus, boss.”

Mariah smiled as he slid an arm around her waist. “Oh definitely…”

“I want it now.”

Mariah raised her brows with a glance toward the swinging door. “But Heidi might—”

Tucker shook his head. “No she won’t,” he said.

A few strides got him to the door. He pushed it open just enough to say, “Heidi, stay outta here for about five. I’m going to be kissing your boss.”

Mariah heard Heidi gasp and giggle. “Oh okay! Can I be next?”

Tucker chuckled and let the door swing closed.

“There,” he said. “That takes care of that. We have five uninterrupted minutes.”

As he sauntered over, his eyes took a leisurely tour up and down her figure in a predatory way that made her skin tingle. Obviously, she didn’t look her best after hours in the kitchen, but the wolfish expression on his face made her feel as if she were wearing a slinky teddy and not an icing-smeared apron.

Their lips met and she realized she’d never get tired of kissing this man. His mouth was warm and soft against hers, his arms strong around her. As desire flowed from him to her, she cursed the fact that the door couldn’t be locked. When he slid his tongue into her mouth, she leaned into him, pressing her breasts against his hard body. If only he could lift her onto the counter and do her right now, hard and fast.

Tucker broke away, sliding his lips across her cheek and kissing her neck. “This is crazy. All I think about is going to bed with you.”

She almost told him she had the same problem, but his stomach chose that moment to growl loudly.

He laughed and hugged her. “Okay, obviously that’s a lie. I also think about food. You hungry?”

She rubbed her cheek against his rough one. “Starved. Let’s go out for a thick steak and some crispy french fries. And by out, I mean out.”

Laughing, he turned her around and untied her apron. “Somewhere other than the hotel? No room service?”

“No. I need to go home and get a change of clothes at least.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, the whole naked-under-the-robe thing worked for me…okay, okay!” he said, laughing when she jabbed him playfully in the ribs. “I’ll take you out to a real restaurant. With napkins and everything.”

* * * * *

At her apartment, Mariah holed herself up in the bathroom and dug out the pamphlet. Unfortunately, when she finally dug it out of her purse, she discovered Davina had left her the wrong one. Instead of an explanation of her wish, Mariah had eight pages of company policy regarding the types and extent of mischief that could be inflicted on humans.

“Davina,” she said in a low voice, “you gave me the wrong damn pamphlet.”

Mariah glanced around the small bathroom slowly filling with steam from her shower.

“I need to see the right one, please. Pretty please with sugar on top.”

A few more seconds waiting…

Nothing. Not a tinkle of chimes or a sprinkle of fairy dust.

Damn. Mariah wondered how critical it was that she read this booklet. Maybe it was like those terms and conditions you had to click on before downloading something on the Internet.

But maybe it wasn’t.

* * * * *

While Mariah showered and dressed, Tucker turned on the TV. The Travel Channel was televising the Island Poker Invitational and he wanted to see who was in the lead, but during the commercial break, curiosity got the better of him and he muted the TV and wandered around her living room.

Looking at her shelves, he saw some chick books—the kind with bare-chested guys on the covers. He squinted at one and decided with some pride that he was just as cut as the model. Also displayed were a framed poem from someone named Paige, a dried-up corsage and a dozen family photos.

He picked one up. It looked like Mariah had a couple of brothers and a sister. Also, judging by the “Welcome to…” road signs that appeared in so many of the pictures, it looked like they spent a lot of vacation time together. Tucker put the picture back, remembering the many family trips he and his parents had gone on. If the resort had a kid’s program available, Tucker had been enrolled. His mother and father prized their time alone together.

His cell phone rang. It was Tony.

“Hey,” his friend said, “are you still doing the cake lady?”

“What?” Tucker exclaimed, glancing toward Mariah’s bedroom door, which was thankfully still closed. “What are you talking about?”

“Before, when I called this morning, you didn’t hang up the phone.”

Tucker pinched the bridge of his nose as Tony cracked up.

“Man, that’s gotta be a world’s record. You didn’t even know her five minutes!”

Tucker lowered his voice. “Yes, I did. I met her six years ago. In Palm Springs that time.”

“No shit. At that tournament?”

“Yeah. She was a player too. It’s a small world.”

“You’re not kidding,” Tony said. Then, after a brief pause, “So, ah, are you?”

“Am I what?”

“Still doing the—”

“No!” Tucker glanced again at the bedroom door. “And her name’s Mariah. We’re going out to dinner in just a few minutes.”

“Hey! As a matter of fact, that’s why I called. Me and Rhonda want to take you out someplace nice. Bring Mariah.”

“I don’t know,” Tucker said as Mariah came out of her room. She looked hot in a colorful dress with a plunging neckline that he’d be admiring all night. “Hold on.”

He put his hand over the phone. “You look hot,” he said, honing in again on her breasts. “Really hot.”

“Thank you,” she said, blushing.

“Tony wants to take us out. I can tell him no if you’d rather not.”

“No, that sounds fun,” she said, fastening a bracelet on her wrist. “I know you haven’t seen him for a long time.”

With a thankful smile, Tucker got back on the phone and hammered out the details with Tony. The four of them were to meet at the steak place at the Bellagio.

“Rhonda wants to see the fountains,” he explained after hanging up.

“I don’t blame her,” Mariah said. “They’re beautiful.”

“Hey, wait a sec. Before we go, I want to see who’s at the final table at the IPI. I was supposed to be there, but I had to come be the best man.”

Mariah moved so she could see the TV as Tucker got the remote control and turned up the volume.

“Yeah, see?” he said. “No surprises…Gary, Kho, Sumner. Whoa, and Tran. I’m telling you that kid’s on the rise. He’s a cagey son-of-a-bitch. Real good at protecting his stack, but when he smells weakness, he’ll make a move real quick. He really had me sweating last time we played.”

Mariah scoffed. “Oh give me a break. That guy doesn’t hold a candle to you. You dusted him at the Bay 101 and the Bellagio Five Diamond. Not to mention that beautiful win at the Mirage in May.”

A little stunned at the unexpected accolades, Tucker cocked his head at her. Not even Tony kept track of his wins like that. Pride swelled in his chest and he had a humble quip on the tip of his tongue until he saw her face flush with embarrassment.