Baker's Gonna Bake

Chapter 24

Alfie had tossed and turned all night pondering his decision. His brain ached until he sobered and thought his way out of the mess he had created. He was more rational by the time the alcohol left his bloodstream and just had to be glad he hadn't acted on altered whim and finished anyone. What a Liberty that would've been. He was a blood thirsty savage gangster, the war having driven his need to kill, and yet the presence of Cora in his life had softened him. She was good and pure, innocent and worthy and he wanted to inject her spirit like opium into his very veins.
By morning he definitely knew it. He would not kill a baby, for it would go against everything he wanted to be and everything Cora would want him to be. If he committed a sin so brutal he would never be worthy of her love and he would never be able to look into her eyes and make love to her, buried in her body and leaking his poison into her depths to create a son.
That son would be the son of a child killer and he would not do it, he would not hurt Rosa any more than he had, for he had also felt things for that woman at a low point in his life. She had fed his physical needs when physicality was all he had to give and she had never burdened his mind like he expected he had burdened hers just yesterday. Poor rosa, terrified of violence whilst bearing the illegitimate child of a brutish pig reacting with malice. He would make it up to her. During the next week he would set everything right and make way for his new life as a good man and a good prospect for Cora Limbert. If she discovered the baby and cast him aside then it was God's way of saying "fuck you, Alfie Solomons", but at least his conscience would be clear in this respect.
The thought alone at last allowed him to drift off before the church bells would come to chase away his fractured dreams.

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Cora was simmering with rage under the surface. She had met Bennet at the door of the bakery at the start of the working day and he had informed her that Alfie was ok because he had spoken to him late last night. Alfie was ok, but he wouldn't be once she was able to lay her hands on him. And whilst she instinctively breathed a sigh of relief it was fast followed up with white hot rage at the lack of common decency he had given her feelings. If he thought he would just stroll into work this morning and wrap his arms around her begging forgiveness, like her father always had with her mother. He could think again. She was no pushover. She didn't want him to think it was ok for a husband to act this way towards a wife, and she supposed there was the small matter that she wasn't yet his wife but if he started off their courtship with this level of respect then he could end it here too, because she would'nt have it.

Engrossed in her thoughts she never heard the voices until they were right outside the office door. She could make out Alfie's low grumble, and Bennetts faithful reasoning as he seemed to plead with his boss to change his mind on some matter. She patted down her petticoats, tucking a chocolate curl behind her ear before she engrossed herself falsely in her typing, her eyes cast down as he entered their office space.

He felt the electricity ignite in him when he spotted her. She was typing efficiently and she did not look up as he wandered in, a sheepish look on his face.

He grunted a greeting as he went to his coat peg, hanging up his hat and coat and then rolling up the sleeves of his linen shirt. He got no reply.
"Pleasant morning?" He asked her with a grimace, knowing he would feel her wrath at any moment for his lack of regard.

"Very pleasant" she answered with a polite nod borne of pretence. She didn't look up and it agitated him. He needed her, her reassurance of their love if he meant to go ahead and be a man for the sake of their future.

"Hmmm" he grunted, massaging the course hair of his beard as he sat at his desk looking at her engrossed in her work. He thought he would cope better if she just went at him. The silent treatment wasn't a tonic he could stomach right now.

"I'm sorry I didn't phone you yesterday." He cleared his throat before continuing. He felt nervous and he realised it was because he was terrified of losing her when the time came. "I...... I had some business to attend to that was unexpected and well I..... I was longer than I first thought. And then... well it wor' too late to call wannit?!

She nodded her head once more, her damn fingers still typing. Tap tap tap. Tittle tittle tittle. Alfie's nostrils flared.

After a tense moment she finally spoke again "Oh its Quite alright Mr Solomons, for I was tied up myself actually. I spent some of the afternoon on the floor whilst a nice young man showed me the distillery processes, since I deal with their maintenance admin. And well, that's why I'm busy catching up now. He kept me profoundly distracted" she licked her lips, pausing her finger work for a split second, to take a sip of her coffee in its China cup. Still she did not look at him.

Alfie's grey eyes turned a stormy black at her admission. He knew exactly what her game plan was and he was loathed to admit that it was working. He was seething at the thought of any of the eligible bakery Men spending time with her. She was his. She had given herself to him, and that was that. No Jewish woman would act that way with another man and his good eye twitched at the realisation that she wasn't Jewish and that was exactly why he wanted her. And boy was her indifference making him want her right now. His blood was coursing like liquid fire through his veins, straight into his linen briefs. His thick staff straining a tent in his lap. He shifted uncomfortably.

"I see." He said finally. "And there was I, feeling sorry as fuck that I dint tell ya of my changed plans Miss Limbert... had I ave known you were otherwise engaged I would've never bothered to worry my fucking self." His eyes bore on her face. How dare she be this way with him. He was sorry.

Her breath hitched for a moment at his curse words. He didn't like to swear in her presence, in fact the only times he had were when he barked instructions to his men in the office or during moments of intense passion in the bedroom. It was nice to know he had at least considered calling her, and she knew he was stressed, she did not however, care.

"I would hate you to worry yourself sir. Please don't do it on my account going forward, like I say, I was kept more than busy." She goaded him. She had lay awake half the night worried for the man.

He ran his hands through his unkempt hair, his exasperation slipping to the forefront of his temper. She was stubborn as fuck and whilst it enraged him, he fucking loved it. His dick had never felt so hard.

Alfie tore out of his seat and stomped over to her smaller desk as best he could with his leg.
He slammed both palms onto the wood, leaning his weight on them, making the type writer jump and in turn, her hands.
She focused her gaze on his thick fingers, worn by poverty, war and labour. Her eyes zoned in on the dark ink of the crown tattoo that adorned his palm and she kept it there, biting her lip in anticipation. Would he raise a hand to her? She wasn't altogether sure, but the thought of his rage was sending a leak of moisture and an electric tingle to the apex of her thighs and her pulse quickened.

"LOOK AT ME!!!!!!" He shouted at her. His patience diminished.

Her light green eyes slowly but surely moved from the tattooed hand, to his strong and exposed forearms, thick with veins and weathered with sun, to his shoulders, broad and hunched, and finally to his hair covered face, to hone in on his glare. Her heart stopped for a beat, but the intense passion in them was enough to shock her back to life.

Alfie let everything that had been bothering him over the last few weeks come to a head within himself as he darted around the desk and pulled her roughly from her seat, slamming her body hard against the wall behind it. She whimpered at the impact but softened into him as he pinned her there.

"Alfie..." she started..

"You're making me so fucking angry I want to take you by force right here against this BASTARD dry wall!!!!" He seethed, again letting his misplaced anger spill out of his mouth and hit her all at once with venom. "Have you any idea how stark fucking mad you make me woman, if you were my wife already then I'd fuck the disobedience right out of you"

Her stomach flipped, hot blood flooding her body, her senses heightened like never before. She didn't even feel scared. She wanted him. And she wanted him now. He was like a hurricane and she was caught up in it all, caught up in him.

"So do it." She panted breathlessly.