Page 13 of Biker Under My Tree

A crooked grin spread over his face. “You sure?”

“Yep.” I nodded, more to convince myself that I wasn’t flustered than to answer him. “Next week is when I’ll have a ton of deliveries while I’m baking my butt off, too.”

“Careful, Sugar, or you aren’t gonna have a butt left after this holiday,” he teased, his gaze dipping down just enough to make my cheeks burn.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes to hide the fact that my face was probably turning cherry-red. “It’d take a lot more than baking to work my butt off, Bones.”

He let out a low chuckle, and his eyes flashed with amusement. “Well, I’ll be keeping an eye on it just to make sure it doesn’t disappear on me.”

The heat that had been creeping up my face flared instantly. “W-what?” I stammered, caught completely off-guard.

Bones just smirked and leaned a little closer. “Just making sure all your hard work doesn’t take away one of my favorite things to look at.” His tone was smooth as honey, and I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

“Oh, um…” I felt like a fish out of water, with my mouth opening and closing as I tried to think of a response. His words had short-circuited my brain, and now all I could do was stare at him, completely flustered.

“You always get this red when someone compliments you?” he teased as his fingers brushed my arm just enough to send a little spark through me.

“N-no,” I managed, feeling my blush deepen. “I just—well, I mean, no one really… uh, talks about my… um, butt.” I cringed as the words left my mouth and wondered how I could make this less awkward.

Bones laughed, low and warm, and I could feel his amusement as much as I could see it. “Maybe they should. It’s a damn good view from behind,” he added, his eyes trailing me in a way that was both completely shameless and somehow still charming.

I ducked my head and tried to compose myself. “Shouldn’t you be… you know, working on your bikes?” I mumbled and tried to put some distance between us and get my pulse back to normal.

“Not today,” he said and stepped forward until he was so close I could practically feel the heat rolling off him. “Today, I’m just here to see if you need anything before I take care of something.”

I swallowed and desperately wished my heartbeat wasn’t pounding so loudly in my ears. “No deliveries. I, uh… just the decorating,” I managed.

“Good. Then maybe once I’m done, I can bring lunch over.” His eyes never left mine, and for a second, I forgot all about the mountain of cookies waiting for me to bake and decorate. All I could think about was the way his hand was still on my arm, grounding me while making me feel completely untethered at the same time.

“That’s, um… yeah, that’s fine,” I whispered, trying to sound casual, though I could barely keep my voice steady. On big baking and decorating days, I was not good at finding time to eat. Most of the time, it was just a few cookies and coffee until I was done.

Bones chuckled again, clearly pleased with my reaction. “Well, then, Sugar, get to work, and I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

I nodded dumbly and was still a little stunned that he was actually bringing me lunch. “I… I will do that.”

With another low chuckle, he finally let my arm go and left a trail of warmth in its place. “I’ll be back, Sugar,” he promised with a grin as he opened the door and headed out.

I stood there for a moment and pressed a hand to my chest in hopes of calming my racing heart. What on earth was going on? Bones was bringing me lunch—like, actually taking time out of his day to come back here just to eat with me. My brain tried to process that little fact, but it didn’t seem to compute.

Bones was coming over for lunch.

Crazy.

The sharp ding of the oven snapped me out of my trance and reminded me it was preheated and ready to go—unlike me, clearly. I should have had at least three trays of sugar cookie cutouts lined up and ready, but they were still just lumps of dough waiting to be rolled out.

And here I was, staring off into space, thinking about Bones instead.

I shook my head and forced myself to look away from the door where he’d left.

Focus on the cookies, Snow.

If I kept daydreaming about him, I’d be lucky to get a single thing done today.

The sooner I got back to work, the sooner I’d be prepared for whatever came next—including Bones showing up again with that charming smile and something warm and delicious for lunch.

I took a deep breath to steel myself and got to rolling out that dough.

Chapter Eleven

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