Page 7 of Imagine Me and You

“Good morning,” she said, her smile wide. “I made breakfast.Dammit!” She turned and scurried back to the griddle and flipped the pancakes. They were only a little dark. Some syrup and whipped cream would cover that right up. “It’s okay. The pancakes are fine.”

“What the hell are you doing, Sam?”

“Cooking. For you, silly. Before you go out riding the range.”

“I’m castrating calves today.”

“Well...you know. Before you go cut off animal balls. I hear that really works up a sweat. Also, these are kind of a theme breakfast. They’re round like...yeah, well, that’s not appetizing.”

Jace pulled a hand towel off the oven door handle and wiped it over his bare chest. She cocked her head to the side and watched intently, unable to help herself. It was like some kind of weird breakfast porn. And it was kind of fascinating.

Jace walked over to the radio and turned it off.

“Country music hour is sacred in the morning,” she said.

“My sanity is sacred all the time. And I reserve the right to not be assaulted by breakfast.”

“Who hasn’t had a slight pancake mishap?”

He looked down at his chest. “Everyone?”

“Eh.” She waved her hand. “Charming foibles aside, I’ve made you breakfast.”

“Your foibles are possibly less charming than you think.”

She shook her head. “Nah. I’m quirky. It’s adorable.”

“Is that what you call it?”

“Breakfast!”

She used the spatula to put a stack of four pancakes on a plate. Then she added syrup, chocolate chips, whipped cream and a cherry. And held it out to him. “Be mad at me while you eat this,” she said.

“It’s impossible,” he said, sounding defeated as he took the plate and sat down at the small kitchen table, his bad mood lightening even more when he noticed the cup of coffee already in position for him.

“I know.” She smiled and put a pancake onto a plate for herself, sticking to chocolate chips and whipped cream, and sat across from him.

He took a bite and moaned, a deep, guttural sound that echoed in her stomach and made her feel all strange and jittery.

“Good?” she asked.

“So good.”

First the pancake batter show, now he was making sex noises while he ate. The man was a damned hazard to her health.

No, this wasn’t the first time she’d been inappropriately aroused by Jace. There was...well, all of high school. But he’d dated other girls, and she’d dated other boys. And then there were a few months of melancholy longing sprinkled throughout the next twelve years. But nothing she couldn’t deal with. Nothing she couldn’t ignore.

Like a few weeks ago when they’d watched that movie and he’d put the popcorn bowl in his lap. It had forced her mind to what was beneath the bowl. To whether or not he felt her reaching in the bowl. To what he might think of that.

But then she hadn’t seen him for a couple of days due to work obligations, and she’d gotten her head on straight.

It was just that there had been two incidents in the space of a few hours and since she was living with him for the time being, there had been no blessed distance to make sure she could get her brain back in order.

The Jace lust had to end. It was just bad. Bad bad bad. If they were going to live together for the next four weeks she had to somehow manage it without drooling like Poppy.

“I’ve got to head out,” she said, standing and stretching. “I need to get everything going at the bakery. Thank God I just make cupcakes and pies and not breads, or I’d have to be there at three a.m. Still, the meringue will not whip itself.” She wiggled her eyebrows and reached down to the floor by her chair to retrieve her purse.

“What are you doing with your mongrel?” he asked.

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