Page 29 of Yours and Mine (Friends with Benefits)

His mouth lowered to mine. Rising higher on my toes, I tasted the sweetness of chocolate on his tongue. There was a sense of danger kissing him in the back of his mother’s bakery – she could walk in any time – yet I couldn’t pull my lips away. When we finally parted, I straightened my apron, and Nick shifted his pants. I wondered whether he was hard underneath his apron.

He took me by my hips and lifted me up to the counter. Our height was now even. Our gazes locked, and his hands slid over my jeans and up my thighs. He slowly lowered his gaze down my body, right over my swelling breasts. I was pretty sure that I stopped breathing at one point; that is, until his concentration zoomed in on my zipper and his nails scratched over the fabric there, sending delectable vibrations right to my crotch. I felt that swelling sensation build between my legs, the same way it did at night when I touched myself thinking about Nick.

“Tell me to stop,” he whispered. “Please.”

I didn’t want to. I wanted him to keep going. I wanted to see how far he’d go and how far I’d let him go. He was testing my patience.

“No.”

“Jo, you have to. Otherwise…”

“I want to have sex with you,” I blurted.

He withdrew his hand from my crotch. His expression became angrier as he stepped away.

“Do you not want that?” I felt my eyes swell, my heart cry, and my body shudder with disappointment. What if I wasn’t enough for him?

“Of course I do, Jo. I mean, look at me.” He pulled away his apron and pointed to the bulge in his pants. “But not now. Not here where anyone can walk in.”

“When?” I jumped off the counter, stepping closer to him. He finally took me by my hips, bringing me up against his body, removing my doubts and making everything right again with one touch.

“Soon, baby. I want it to be perfect and special because you deserve… everything.”

I stole a quick kiss, smiling, hoping I’d have enough patience to wait for that right moment.

“So, red velvet is your favorite, right?”

“Right. But we should probably make your mom’s favorite, black forest.”

“Black forest it is, then.”

We started measuring, sifting, melting, and pouring, then mixing the batter together. I followed all of Nick’s instructions, combining the wet and dry ingredients separately before mixing them all together. It was closer to making bread dough than I had thought. With my experience at Dad’s bakery and a detailed recipe, baking cakes wasn’t that much different. In fact, you didn’t have to wait for the dough to rise. Seeing all the masterpieces in Marge’s bakery had always felt magical to me, and now Nick was explaining that magic to me one step at a time.

Once the cake was in the oven, Nick prepped another batch of ingredients but didn’t tell me what he was mixing. When I saw the burgundy dough, I knew he’d made a red velvet cake for me. My heart was full to bursting. Not for the cake — but for this man who’d found a way of cherishing me with the smallest of gestures.

“Are you going to be a baker like your mom?” I asked, as he removed the chocolate cake from the oven to cool and put in the red velvet.

“I don’t know. I may, one day. But there’s other stuff I want to do before that.”

“Like what?”

“I’ve been thinking about joining the navy.”

“What? Where did this come from?”

“My father went into the navy.”

“And that’s where he died, Nick.”

“I know. But look at how many people he saved. I want to make sure I live up to his expectations.”

“You know that he would have been proud of you, don’t you?”

“For baking cakes?”

“Nick, there’s more to you than being a baker. Wait, please tell me that you’ll be applying to college.”

“I did, but I’m not sure if I’ll go.”

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