Savoring Addison

There’s a razor-thin line between hate and lust . . .

Addison just got hired as a baker at a high-end resort. The kind of place she never dreamed of stepping foot in.

But after getting knocked down more times than she cares to admit, she’s in a bad spot. She needs a job, even if it’s at a luxury kink resort.

She sure doesn’t need Mason St. John, though.

One of the owners. A Dom too sexy for words. And the man who had the audacity to insult her baked goods.

He hates her on sight.

Or so he tries to tell himself.

His friends are pairing off, the changes at Fairford Manor keep hitting him one after the other, and he can’t quite catch his breath. So dealing with a stunning, grudge holding, sass throwing woman isn’t high on his to-do list.

But sparks fly, and not in the best way. As anger turns to lust, they make a deal. She’ll submit. He’ll get her out of his system. And then they’ll both move on.

But when fear takes over and old wounds reopen, Mason can’t sit back. Will helping her allow him to let go?

Or when emotions run high, will lust turn into something else entirely.

Chapter One
Addison

Addison did her level best to not think the words at least it can’t get any worse. The last thing she needed was to jinx the ever-loving shit out of herself.

It could always get fucking worse.

But damnit, her life was shaping up to majorly suck right now. The café where she worked her ass off for the last nine years would close its doors for good on Christmas Eve. And because the universe had a dick sense of humor, her roommate Kate asked her last night to move out by January sixteenth. Thirty days to find a new place to live when she was a week away from unemployment. Yippee.

“I know it’s shit timing,” Kate had said, genuine guilt in her eyes and filling her voice. “Noah’s lease is up on January twentieth, and we’re ready to move in together. We don’t want to wait another year. I’m so sorry.”

Addison couldn’t even be mad at her best friend. Kate and Noah were the most adorable couple on the face of the planet. Deliriously in love with each other, respectfully talking out disagreements instead of fighting, and splitting things like cooking and housework 50/50.

Hell, the guy regularly wore a T-shirt that said On Wednesdays We Smash the Patriarchy. Her bestie had found one of the good ones, and she wasn’t about to stand in their way.

Addison had no doubt they’d let her stay longer if her only other option was a bench in Central Park, but it would be better for everyone if she got her shit together ASAP. Their Upper East Side apartment wasn’t much bigger than a walk-in closet, and it had taken months to get into a routine with Kate where they weren’t constantly in each other’s way. The three of them wouldn’t be able to manage for long—especially since Noah worked from home ninety-nine percent of the time.

Sighing, Addison finished wiping down the café’s kitchen counters, tossed her apron into the half-full washing machine for Lola to run later, and clocked out. It was only a few minutes shy of noon. At least that gave her the rest of the day to search for a new job.

She was the head (and only) baker at Lola’s Café on Second Avenue, and arrived by five every morning to make the day’s assortment of breads and pastries. Seven days a week for the last nine years, without ever even taking a vacation day, because she thought she and Lola were in this shit together. That if she paid her dues, Lola would let her take over the mortgage payments and run the café when she retired.

The little coffee and pastry shop had done good business for the last nine years, even staying afloat during lockdowns thanks to delivery services, but it never quite reached the level they expected. They remained consistently in the black, but barely. The only way for Lola to get the cash she needed to spend her golden years soaking up the rays on a beach was to sell the property, and Addison had no chance of getting approved for a loan that big.

Fucking hell, she couldn’t even be mad at Lola. The woman just celebrated her seventieth birthday. She deserved to retire down in Florida, and it wasn’t her fault things worked out the way they did. They’d both put everything they had into making the café a success, but life doesn’t always go as planned.

It was just so goddamn unfair. Addison was getting fucked over from every side, and she didn’t even have anyone to blame.

Burying the urge to scream and throw shit, she headed out into the dining room. Fuck, she’d miss this place. The metal tables and chairs that looked like they belonged in an old movie set on the streets of Paris. The faded cream wallpaper with little blue flowers she and Lola picked out together. The gleaming display case she stocked with freshly baked goodies every morning.

The ambiance.

The smell.

I will not cry.