Page 57 of Baking it Merry

Tugging her close, he whispered for her ears only, “You’ve been naughty, and you know it.That whole cupcake thing last week proves it.”

Her face heated even as the sexy images of the two of them and all the frosting flashed through her head.

Turning her head, she whispered in his ear, “And I’m prepared to do it again whenever you think you can handle it.”

His laugh was deep and sensual and made her want to grab some cupcakes right now and drag him to the nearest office and shut the door.

“Oh, I can handle it.In fact, I plan on handling it plenty after the party tonight.”His tongue traced the shell of her ear.“I hope you packed an overnight bag, because I want you to come home with me.”

“It’s safely tucked away in my backseat, so…”

“Daphne!Tristan!Come get your picture with Santa!”his mother called out.

After that, the party officially started.There were almost a hundred people there and it boggled her mind that so many people worked for this branch of Knight Architects.Tristan explained that it was the main office, so this was where accounting was and HR and their engineering department, so she supposed it made sense.Still, it seemed like a lot.

At some point, Tristan’s father, Dan, came over and introduced her to his brother, Aaron.“He has an office up in Virginia, but he’s currently helping me with a project here in Chapel Hill.”

“The food is wonderful,” Aaron said.“You have a genuine gift.Dan’s been gushing about all the desserts you’ve been doing for the company parties, and I missed the one at Tristan’s house, but now I see that he wasn’t exaggerating.”

“Thank you.I’m so glad you’re enjoying it.”She smiled at the two of them.“What’s the project you’re working on?Anything exciting?”

“It’s a new hospital,” Dan explained.“It’s going to be a massive medical complex when it’s done, but we’re starting with the hospital.There’s a lot of logistics to work out and Aaron and I work well together with large-scale projects like this.”

Nodding, she wondered if she should dig a little deeper into the company business.

No.It’s a party.No one wants to talk about work.

Listening to herself would have been the smart thing to do.Unfortunately, she didn’t.

“It seems like you do a lot of big corporate projects,” she began conversationally.“But have you ever considered doing smaller—more personal—projects?”

They both stared at her for a moment as if they did not comprehend what she was saying.That should have been her cue to drop the subject, but she didn’t.

“You know, things like custom family homes or even smaller stuff like tiny homes?North Carolina is such a great place to live and we’re always in the top places to live in the country, so I just wondered if you would ever seriously consider delving into the housing market with some…you know…well-thought-out designs that aren’t the typical cookie-cutter styles we see so much of.”

“It’s an interesting question for sure,” Dan commented, “but Knight Architects was founded by our grandfather, who excelled in commercial design.It’s a tradition and we’re firm believers in following it.”

All she could do was smile.

Or rather, all she should have done was smile.

“It’s just…Tristan has been very passionate about the idea of designing family homes—both large and tiny ones—and I’d imagine it could be something very exciting to add to the company’s…um…portfolio.You know, something like…”

“Tristan!”Aaron called out.“Come join us!Your girlfriend was telling us you want to design tiny homes.Is that true?”

Tristan looked utterly horrified.Clearing his throat and fidgeting with his tie, he glanced briefly at her.“It was just an idea,” he stammered, suddenly not sounding like his usual confident self.Moving close to her side, he wrapped his arm tightly around her.“Obviously it’s not something I’d ever do.It was just a random conversation we had over dinner one night, that’s all.I never expected anyone to take it seriously.”

And yeah, he shot her a warning look after he said it.

She was saved from the awkwardness of it all when Jackie waved her over.“If you’ll all please excuse me, it looks like I’m needed.It was nice meeting you, Aaron.”And without looking at any of them, she quickly walked away, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her right now.

“Hey, Jackie,” she said, forcing herself to relax and smile.“Is everything okay?”

“We are officially out of cupcakes.Lisa is setting up the goody bags now because it seems like things are winding down.Mrs.Knight said they were getting ready to do the raffle, so I thought we might start cleaning up a bit, if you don’t mind.”

“That sounds like a good idea.Where’s Marcus?Is there anything he can start carrying out to the van?”

“He went out to grab one of the bins.It doesn’t look like we’re going to have to take a lot back with us.With so many of the cups and stands being disposable, it’s really just a matter of picking up the trash.”Grinning, she playfully nudged Daphne’s shoulder.“Less dishes to wash!You’re brilliant!”

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