Zest

By Clare London

Donnie’s new romance with silver fox veterinarian Will looks like a real recipe for love. But first he has to deal with the problems of his job, his friends’ demands, and worries about Will’s privileged background. To say nothing of Donnie’s thwarted dreams of a catering career—and baking something that doesn’t come out a disaster.

Will is fascinated and entranced by Donnie. A mature, professional businessman, he’s far less confident in romance—and in the bedroom. Yet his eagerness to look after Donnie and show him a better life are misguided, and have a disastrous effect of their own.

Donnie is everyone’s friend. He’ll help anyone out. But who’s there to help him when he needs it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clare London
• Release date: Aug 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463825518

Clare London

Clare took the pen name London from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with the weekly wash, waiting for the far distant day when she can afford to give up her day job as an accountant. She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic and sexy characters.Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter 3 stage and plenty of other projects in mind . . . she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home.All the details and free fiction are available at her website. Visit her today and say hello!Join up for her newsletter at http://bit.ly/2WpHlyK and receive a free short story!Clare also writes as Stella Shaw and launched her Love at the Haven series of rent boy romances in 2021.Website + blog: http://www.clarelondon.com / stellashawauthor.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarelondonTwitter: https://twitter.com/clare_londonGoodreads: http://bit.ly/2lNSfC2Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/clarelondonBookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/clare-londonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarelondon11/Quids&Quills: http://www.quidsandquills.com (accountancy for UK authors)

Book preview

ZEST

An Accidental Baker story

Smashwords edition

Copyright ©2019 Clare London

Published by Jocular Press

All Rights Reserved

This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee. Such action is illegal and in violation of Copyright Law.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Blurb and Dedication

When Donnie met Will, it looked like the recipe for true love. But Happy Ever After took just a bit more work.

Donnie’s new romance with silver fox veterinarian Will looks like a real recipe for love. But first he has to deal with the problems of his job, his friends’ demands, and worries about Will’s privileged background. To say nothing of Donnie’s thwarted dreams of a catering career—and baking something that doesn’t come out a disaster.

Will is fascinated and entranced by Donnie. A mature, professional businessman, he’s far less confident in romance—and in the bedroom. Yet his eagerness to look after Donnie and show him a better life are misguided, and have a disastrous effect of their own.

Donnie is everyone’s friend. He’ll help anyone out. But who’s there to help him when he needs it?

Read about Donnie and Will’s meeting in The Accidental Baker.

Other stories to follow: WHISK, BLEND and GLAZE.

Many thanks to Chrissy, Dev, Lillian and Sue for the invaluable input.

And the lovely Esti who insisted I write it!

INDEX

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

More by Clare London

About Clare London

CHAPTER 1

Donnie Watson had a certain spring in his step this early morning.

He bustled around his small living room, sipping at his tea, stopping to fold a couple of clean shirts he’d collected from the launderette next door, checking the time to make sure he had a spare twenty minutes to pop online before he left for work. He hummed a few verses of some catchy music he’d picked up on a cookery podcast the previous night: it had stuck in his brain for some inexplicable reason. Not that he wasn’t always optimistic, but since yesterday he’d had extra reason to be cheerful. Since he met Will, that is.

Will Cartwright. The silver fox veterinarian who’d just taken over the surgery in the shopping parade where Donnie lived. How handsome was he? How sexy! And right here on Donnie’s doorstep—well, only three doors away from Donnie’s flat above the hairdressers. The whole parade was Donnie’s community, really. He wasn’t much of a social butterfly. He liked to stay home after work, maybe watch a movie with his bestie Maisie, help out at the community centre, have a drink at Bar de Bijou (formerly The Dirty Dog pub) at the end of the parade, owned by his other best friend, Henry. Donnie didn’t have a lot of money to spend on entertainment. Besides, what he really liked to spend any spare time and money on was watching cookery podcasts. He loved baking especially.

And that was—sort of, indirectly, by some huge stroke of karmic luck—how he’d met Will. Will. He sighed like some teenage boyband fan. Lucky only the walls of his flat could hear. The Great Meet hadn’t exactly been momentous, had it? Crashing to the pavement at Will’s feet in a definitely not-very-romantic type way, like a shaky toddler, banging hands and knees, and feeling perilously close to tears. Shit, yes, exactly like a toddler. For a stunned moment, he’d sat there, all the Easter chocolate shapes he’d cooked in a spilled mess on the road. Then Will had rushed over, helped him up, and joined in collecting the scattered chocolates.

Can I offer you a cup of tea? Will had said, concern on his face. You should sit still for a while. And he’d helped Donnie into his waiting room.

To Donnie, Will had been a knight in shining armour. Or a vet in wonky glasses with a bemused but definitely delightful smile. Donnie had stayed there all afternoon, and helped out in the surgery.

Will. Another, daft sigh.

The best part had been at the end of the working day, when Donnie had sat with Will for some quiet, personal time. The businesslike professional had turned out to be a more tentative man in private, but they’d chatted easily about the day, the clients, Donnie’s job, the people in the community. Will was newly arrived in the area and was interested to know how he could make more friends. Just me first, Donnie had thought. Hadn’t dared to say it aloud.

There’d definitely been a spark between them. He was sure of it. Hadn’t there?

When they shared some of Donnie’s chocolate—oh, but the sexy way Will had slipped a sliver of Easter bunny shape between Donnie’s lips!—things had heated up. Will had leaned in, nudging Donnie’s thigh with his own, breathing softly against his cheek. Admitting he was attracted to Donnie. Maybe they’d only just met, but the memory of Will’s wide, eager eyes behind those crooked spectacles made Donnie’s heart skip a beat.

And yet, Will seemed surprisingly shy. Thanking Donnie again and again for stepping into the breach. A gentle red flush of embarrassment on his cheeks all the time they were talking. Like he was nervous of making an actual move. Donnie wasn’t much of a sex god himself, of course—in fact he reckoned he was as far away from one of those sexy Greek god statues as a Lego model—but he was very happy with liking men, and liking sex with men. And he thought he’d made his interest in Will very clear. So it was funny how Will was such a contrast. At first sight, Donnie would have expected Will to be more assertive. He was older, more handsome, more successful and, judging from his elegant leather shoes and smart clothes under the white tunic, much better off.

But, then, the sexy way Will had wet his lips, the things he’d confessed he wanted to do to Donnie…

Oh. Yes. Definitely a spark! Donnie shifted now at the memory, smiling even more, his dick plumping inside his jeans. Will had asked if Donnie would like to go for a drink—was the sky blue?—but Donnie had reluctantly turned down the offer because of a babysitting duty for a friend.

But Will had at least taken his number when they parted at the surgery. He would call, he insisted. Donnie wanted to hold his breath, he really did, but he knew that would be silly. It may never happen. He wouldn’t want Will to feel obligated. Donnie was all about making other people feel good, as Maisie so often told him. Sometimes, in a particular, familiar tone of voice, she implied this wasn’t a good thing.

Will.

Enough daydreaming! Seven o’clock already. He’d be late at the packaging factory if he didn’t get going. This morning he wore a vivid green shirt in a paisley pattern and jeans, with his favourite hi-tops and blue striped socks. A bright ensemble, which was what he liked best, and smart for work. Hopefully he wouldn’t be crawling over too many pallets, or into the basement storeroom. For some reason, no one else was ever around when those dirty jobs were needed. And all his wondering about what would and wouldn’t be with Will meant he’d only had time for a ten-minute podcast on the creaming method in making a good sachertorte.

Yeah. He sighed to himself and clicked off the browser on his phone. What with the amount of overtime he was doing at work recently, he hadn’t explored any new recipes at all.

The elephant pretty much dominating the room, of course, was Donnie’s lack of skills in the baking department. With cooking in general, in fact. He baked for everyone in the parade, the community centre, the local outreach house, the social events held at Henry’s bar. But in Donnie’s case, a potluck bake was… exactly that. A complete mystery as to what you’d get.

Maybe, just once, a long time ago, when he was younger and definitely more naïve, Donnie had thought he might have a career in baking. He never felt happier than when he was mixing or kneading. He was lost to the world outside when it happened, hands in a mixing bowl, wielding a wooden spoon, surrounded by the aroma of cooked pastry, of sweet sponge. All his troubles evaporated: all his worries about money, his crappy job, why jeans never looked as good on him as they did on his sexy pal Abi—whether men’s or women’s, Abi was an equal opportunities dresser—why the bathroom tap always dripped through the night, and whether Will would really call, and how merely holding his hand had been sort of, really, romantic…

Will.

For God’s sake! He was getting obsessed.

CHAPTER 2

Will Cartwright hadn’t been this eager to face the working day for a bloody long time.

Not that he didn’t love his job as a veterinarian: in fact, he’d enjoyed every part of it, even the five years at university, the subsequent gruelling and ill-paid internships, and then the chequered career experience he’d had at his previous practice, in the centre of London’s fashionable Kensington. The clients there—and the pampered pets!—had their own class of issues. But now he’d launched his new practice, his first venture into being the boss, here in a much smaller, quieter, more domestic part of suburban London… and yes, he was loving the excitement and anticipation of it all.

At seven o’clock that morning, he’d had to shove open the surgery front door. The doorframe had swollen in the damp weather. It probably just needed planing down a millimetre or so. Will wondered how you went about that kind of