Page 9 of Melting the Ice

I’d only been back an hour. It was a pathetically short amount of time, but I couldn’t help myself.

Plopping down on the Pilates machine, I moved back and forth on the rolling seat, taking in the room. It was a pretty sweet setup. Chuckling, I thought about how pink his cheeks had gotten when I’d suggested it was a sex dungeon.

There were few things I enjoyed more in life than teasing that man. He’d been such an easy target ever since we were kids, and I had no self-control. I stood up and made my way over to the closet, pulling open the door.

“Whoa. He wasn’t kidding.”

Jigsaw puzzle boxes were stacked high in two piles. If I had to guess, I’d say one was completed puzzles, and the other was ones to be done. I pulled the top one down from one stack. It was an image of a waterfall at Yellowstone—and it was 1200 pieces! That would take forever. I put the box back and moved toward the table with the partially finished puzzle, careful not to touch anything, even though it would be so easy to mix up his system.

I wasn’t that mean, so I just looked. Then I glanced out the window in front of me. He had a great view of the park across thestreet, which was currently covered in snow. The sun made the ground sparkle. I leaned closer to see the people walking below and ended up bumping into the table.

“Shit.”

A few pieces fell to the floor, and two of the piles had started to merge together. “Shit, shit, shit.” I dropped to the floor and grabbed the fallen pieces, then tried to sort and separate the merged piles. Hopefully, I got his color coding right, or he might ban me from this room.

Or the condo.

Crap.

I gave the table one last glance over and then left the room, shutting the door behind me. A kickass dinner would ease any annoyance he had if he noticed the pieces were mixed up. Probably.

Because he’d definitely notice. He was way too anal not to.

I pulled out all the ingredients I needed for my marinade and started mixing. My plan was to get the chicken and steak marinating and then slice the sweet potatoes and make the cookies. Dinner would be delicious and ready when he walked in through the door.

***

“What happened in here?”

His voice carried into the kitchen, and I poked my head around the island pillar a few hours later.

I flashed him a big smile. “Uh, I made dinner.”

His eyes scanned over the messy space, and I could see him twitching. It wasn’t that bad. I’d even moved the mess to only cover half of the island so we could still eat at it. The steak andchicken were sizzling on the grill pan that had been an awesome find in his cabinet, and everything was almost ready.

The oven timer dinged before I could say anything else. “That’s the sweet potatoes and cookies.”

“You baked.” His tone was wary as he moved closer to me.

“From a bag mix, Micahtron. Don’t worry, I won’t poison you.” I pulled the slightly overdone cookies and perfectly roasted sweet potatoes from the oven, shutting the door with my foot as I set the hot pans down. Then I gave him a shrug. “At least we know the cookies are done. Yay for no salmonella.”

I finished with a small fist pump as Micah shook his head.

He peered at them. “Oatmeal and?”

“Chocolate,” I finished for him. “Chocolate is good for you, and raisins have no business in cookies.”

“Pretty sure the classic is oatmeal raisin cookies,” he said.

“Well, it shouldn’t be.” I grabbed the spatula and removed each cookie from the baking sheet, another surprising find. His fridge was full of premade healthy meals, so I figured he didn’t cook a lot, but he had most of the tools I needed to make dinner and dessert.

“If you say so. Uh, did you use everything you could find in the kitchen?” He scanned the space again, his shoulders tight.

“Stop freaking out. I’ll clean up after we eat. Your kitchen will be sparkling in no time.” I reached over and patted his chest. “Chaos is good for the soul, Micahtron.”

Dammit. His muscles were so nice andmuscly. He’d filled out even more over the years if that was possible. I clenched my legs together as I lightly skated my fingers over his arm.

He shuddered under my touch, or maybe it was a twitch. I was definitely not going to mention the puzzle room.

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