Page 23 of Billionaire Daddies Next Door

“What talents?” I turned to my muffin mix again. “What do you think about this? More vanilla?”

Smith leaned closer and opened his mouth, making me feed the small spoonful of mix to him. His lips closed over the spoon and his eyes burned as he watched me. “It’s perfect.”

Shrugging, I dropped the spoon into the sink and rolled my neck from side to side. “I think so, too.”

“Why’d you ask then?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Also, why’d you leave the door unlocked if you’re in here all alone?”

I started scooping batter into my muffin pans. “I asked because I wanted to know what you thought. And I just forget to lock the door. Lilyfield is a little like living in The Andy Griffith Show, if you haven’t noticed. You didn’t answer about your talents, by the way.”

“I think I’ll wait to let you see all of them. I wouldn’t want to overwhelm you.” He gently nudged me and laughed. “The first one, though, is that I’m a beast at loading ovens for pretty women.”

I bit my lip as he took the cupcake pan from me and slid it into the oven. “I guess that is a helpful skill. How are you at dishes, though? If you’re sticking around, I’m going to make you work.”

“Bossy. I like it.” He looked around me at the dishes piled in the sink. “Are you sure I couldn’t just stand here and motivate you to work?”

I pretended to think about it. “Hmm… Tough choice, but I’m going to have to stick with dishes.”

Barely an hour passed before Smith was starting to come apart at the seams. “Come on, Joanie, you’re just using more dishes on purpose at this point. You do this shit every morning?”

I moved to stand next to him so I could see how many dishes were left in the deep sink. “Every other morning. I’m surprised a man who goes running every morning can’t handle doing a few dishes. I thought you were made of tougher stuff, Smith.”

He waited until I was walking away to slap my ass with a rolled-up dish towel. The look on his face when I spun back around to face him was pure anarchy. “Fine. Give me what you’ve got. Watch me handle it without even breaking a sweat.”

My blood heated at his challenge. “You do realize you’re only tackling my chores for me, right?”

His eyes narrowed. “Backing out? I bet you I can handle everything you send my way.”

“What do you want to lose, Smith?”

He smiled. “If I win, you take a walk with me later. If you win, I’ll come in every morning you work to help.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you have a job?”

“I’m wealthy, Joanie. I can do whatever I want.”

“Of course, you can.” I turned away from him so he wouldn’t see the smile on my face. “Fine. I’ll give you things to do until we’re done with my chores and if you’re still standing, we can take a walk.”

“And we call it a date.”

I gasped. “Smith! Are you serious?”

He nodded. “Yep. I want a date.”

“Fine.” I knew he wouldn’t finish everything I gave him to do if he’d been complaining about the dishes that fast. There was no way he’d win our bet. “It’ll be a date if you win. For the record, though, you’re going down.”

He held out his hand for me to shake but when I put my hand in his, he tugged me into his chest. “On the first date? I’m not that easy, Joanie.”

I gasped and fought a smile. “You idiot.”

“Fine. I’ll admit it. For you? I’d be that easy.” He winked and then spun me away. “Let’s go, Joanie. Give it your best shot.”

He’d thrown me off with talk of going down on me, but I shook my head to clear it and refocused. “There’s a recipe I’ve been wanting to try. I just avoided it because of the mess it would make. Here’s my chance. While you’re waiting to take care of my newest dirty dishes, why don’t you go ahead and check the dates of everything in the walk-in to see if anything needs to go.”

“Anything you say, Boss.”

I frowned. “Wipe down everything in there, too.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Smith winked and disappeared into the walk-in.

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