Page 3 of Seduced in Ink

She didn’t know what he meant by that, so she moved on. “I could use a cupcake right now. Or cheese. I’m starving,” she whispered.

“First off, why didn’t you eat a cupcake or something while you were at your café?”

“Because I was working. And when I’m baking, I don’t tend to eat.”

“I would probably shove my face into frosting if I worked with cupcakes all the time.”

“You get used to the fact that you can’t because of health reasons. And when it’s work, it’s not really the same. I could indulge in cupcakes, but I’d rather wait until I’m not standing in my industrial kitchen to do so.”

“Fair enough. You have to build your own art first.”

“It’s not art,” Madison said with a shake of her head.

“We can agree to disagree on that.”

“Whatever.”

“Now, back to cheese.”

“We’re not going back to cheese.”

“I think we do need to go back to cheese.”

“Stop saying ‘cheese.’”

He grinned. “There is a platter right there. I will make you a perfect plate. Just take a bite.”

“Said the serpent to Eve.”

“I did offer you an apple on brie, didn’t I?” Aaron said with a wink.

“Stop tempting me with dairy. I’ll have some when I get home.”

“Why won’t you have any here?” he asked, his voice soft.

She shook her head, not wanting to go there. “It’s not a big deal. Now, go mingle with other people. I’m going to go check on Lincoln.”

“You’re not going to tell me?”

“There’s nothing to tell,” she lied, then reached out and squeezed his arm, noticing the muscle. She blushed and moved back.

He noticed her blush and gave her a wicked grin. “Have a good day, Madison McClard.”

“It’s night,” she corrected.

“Well then, have a good night.” He practically purred the words before he walked away, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes again since her mother’s friends were watching. Then, she went over to find Lincoln.

Her cousin stood amongst the crowd, looking suave and professional, but she knew that this wasn’t his favorite part of the job.

His new agent had built this show for him after Lincoln took a break from doing them for a bit. While she knew it was going well, amazingly well from the comments she’d overheard and thesoldtags on some of the pieces, she knew that Lincoln would rather be at home painting or cuddling with the two loves of his life.

However, this was part of his job, and he did it well.

The fact that his new agent seemed to understand that and never made him do what he didn’t want to, made everything better.

She resisted the urge to curl her fingers into fists at her sides or growl at the thought of his old agent.

Nobody needed to think about him.

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