Tough Cookie

About Tough Cookie She’s feisty. Fierce. And trapped in the elevator of a building I own. So I climb down the shaft determined to distract her. My tools aren’t the kind on a toolbelt, but I manage to cool Skye’s rage as we heat up this tiny box dangling two stories off the ground. The hot young med student has good reasons to be pissed, and better ones for dodging relationships. Why should she trust a stranger 14 years older to know what she needs? But the sexy spitfire gets under my skin, and it’s clear Skye’s hungry for my touch. Time to prove not all men are jerks. Especially one with a few wicked tricks up his sleeve. Tough Cookie is a short, scorching hot standalone m/f erotic romance with a little m/f/m/f/f surprise. If you like age gap, enemies-to-lovers, and menage, this one’s for you. The story contains no cheating and an HEA is guaranteed! Tough Cookie A Sugar & Spice erotic romance Tawna Fenske This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Text copyright © 2023 Tawna Fenske All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author. www.tawnafenske.com Cover design by Craig Zagurski Created with Vellum Also in the Sugar & Spice erotic romance series Eye Candy (Lyla and Aidan) Tough Cookie (Skye and Devon) Honey Do (Nina and Josh) A note to my awesome readers Hello, lovely! If you’re looking for one of my fluffy rom-coms that’s heavy on heart and light on heat, you may want to stop here. No hard feelings! See, years ago, I ghost-wrote erotic romance under a pen name. I’d almost forgotten until a surprise email from my publisher explained they’d discontinued the pen name and granted me rights to the two books I’d written. Did I want to do anything with them? Uh…yeah! Writing these tales in the first place was a kick in the pants, and I loved returning to the spicy world of no-holds-barred sexytimes laced with kinky fuckery. I re-wrote and re-edited the two existing books (now Eye Candy and Tough Cookie) to add more of my rom-com voice and link these standalone stories. Then I wrote a third book (Honey Do) to round out the trio. The Sugar & Spice books are short, not sweet, and packed with heat. If you’ve read this far, I hope you enjoy these racy tales of couples exploring their sexual desires with a little help from their friends. Happy reading, my friendly fellow perv! Love, Tawna Contents 1. Chapter 1 2. Chapter 2 3. Chapter 3 4. Chapter 4 5. Chapter 5 6. Chapter 6 7. Chapter 7 8. Chapter 8 9. Chapter 9 10. Chapter 10 11. Chapter 11 12. Chapter 12 Epilogue 13. Your exclusive sneak peek at Honey Do Don’t Miss Out! About the Author Also by Tawna Fenske Chapter 1 Skye Fuck that guy. These are the words screaming through my brain as I storm through the doors of my apartment building and make for the elevator like there’s a chocolate fountain inside. For the record, I don’t mean “fuck that guy” like it’s on my to-do list. I’m talking about my boyfriend, CJ. Make that ex-boyfriend. Shit, should I even say boyfriend? What’s the word for a guy you meet on Tinder, sleep with on the second date because he has a cute laugh and a sweet corgi and you think there’s a chance this could turn into something serious, so you delete your Tinder profile and show his photo to a friend who takes one look and says, “That’s Kate Zane’s fiancé”? Asshole. The word is asshole, not boyfriend. That’s the new word echoing in my head as I stomp past the handmade wood desk in the lobby of my apartment building and punch the elevator button a lot harder than I should. Not that it matters. The thing is older than dirt, and probably full of it, too. The elevator car wheezes to a halt on the first floor, doors groaning open with a sound my neighbor, Nina, describes as a ghost hacking up a hairball. I charge inside, snagging the heel of my Garavani Rockstud Wave slingback stiletto on the plush carpeting that always catches me off-guard. Who the hell puts plush carpeting in an elevator? An idiot, that’s who. Idiot. I swallow hard as the door swishes shut behind me, and the car starts to move. That word stings more than the others. What kind of idiot falls for the same kind of guy over and over again and expects something different? Me. I blink back tears, determined not to cry. I’m the idiot, Skye Cross, the dummy who’s smart enough to graduate from college at twenty, but stupid enough to think she’ll find her soulmate on a dating app. Like that’s even a thing. Not that I’m looking for a soulmate, exactly. I’m a twenty-four-year-old med school student, for crying out loud. I’m hardly ready to settle down. But is it too much to wish for a genuine connection once in a while? The elevator shudders and I grab the handrail to steady myself. A hunk of hair falls free from my ponytail, blurring my vision with a curtain of red-gold. Yeah, I know. It’s always the gingers with the hot tempers and the bad judgment. I’m a walking goddamn cliché. I fix my hair as the elevator starts moving again, aimed at my apartment on the fourth floor where a pan of brownies waits for me to devour the whole batch. That’s assuming I don’t give them to neighbor Nina. I borrowed a cup of sugar last night when I ran low. Since I loaned her a stapler the day before, it seemed