Page 30 of Naughty Nicky

He throws his head back laughing. “I think this was all you, Penny. Let me guess, you turned the mixer on high with a bowl full of flour.”

I lift my hands into a shrug.

“Well, I know why you don’t have a job as a baker at the bakery.”

“I take offense to that. These might be the best cookies you’ve ever tasted.”

He shakes his head at me as he walks away. “I’m going to change into some warm clothes, and then I’ll help you clean this mess up.”

“It’s not that big of a mess.”

He points to the cabinets and then the ceiling. I look up and notice there is flour and maybe some egg on the ceiling.

“I still blame the mixer.”

He smirks and nods his head. “Absolutely, all the mixer’s fault.”

I watch him as he walks away and sigh. Ugh, I was hoping he would still be outside for twenty more minutes so I could have cleaned this mess up first.

I set the bowl of dough to the side and realize I didn’t set a timer for the cookies in the oven since I was distracted by Nick.

I open the oven and check the cookies. They barely look like anything has happened yet, so I start the timer for twelve minutes. That should be good.

I get to work on wiping the flour off all the cabinets and counter when Nick walks back in. I try not to stare at him in a new pair of sweats that I swear are tighter than the ones he was wearing yesterday. These showcase every single inch of his thick thighs, and if he wasn’t wearing boxers, I’m sure there would be a perfect outline of his dick. Goddamn gray sweatpants. They should be illegal!

He grabs a broom out of the closet and starts sweeping the floor up. But stops abruptly, staring at me.

“What?”

He points at my feet.

“What about them?”

“Pen, you are tracking flour everywhere. I’m glad you haven’t left this kitchen. Or else it would be all over the house.”

I look down and sure enough see footprint-shaped flour spots all over the floor.

“Why are you not wearing socks?”

“I was sliding around as I was trying to bake, so I took them off.”

He shakes his head and leans the broom against the counter. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I was trying to do something…what are you doing?” I shriek as I am suddenly upside down, my body thrown over Nick’s shoulder.

“You are going to make a bigger mess cleaning up than the one you made trying to bake.”

I bang against his very hard back. He is literally a stone wall. How much does he work out?

“This isn’t funny. Put me down.”

“I’ll put you down once you’re in the shower, and you are no longer trashing my house.”

“I didn’t mean to. It just kind of happened.”

He scoffs.

“Well, you aren’t getting any of the cookies.”

---