Page 10 of Grateful for You
In the meantime, I chopped and peeled apples for the fresh apple pie. Apple pie, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green beans were the absolute easiest dishes to make… and he was just going to serve people crappy instant stuff?
Oh, no. Not while I was here for Thanksgiving. He had most of the ingredients in his fridge that I needed, but unfortunately, fresh cranberries were a no-go. Canned cranberry sauce would have to suffice this year.
My phone’s speaker played Etta James from within a pint glass—an old trick I had learned to amplify sound if you didn’t have a Bluetooth speaker handy—and I sang along, crooning like I was any match for her voice.
I finished chopping another apple and tossed the chopped bits into the bowl of sugar with the others. Then, scraping the seeds out, I tossed the apple core to Athena.
“What are you doing?”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up and my spine stiffened at the deeply resonant voice behind me. I didn’t hear him come home.Dammit.I’d been listening for him so carefully. I knew I’d be caught cooking in his kitchen, but I had planned on being ready for it.
I turned slowly, licking a bit of sugar from my thumb. “How was the bar?”
He crossed slowly into the kitchen—if we’d been out west, I would have called it a saunter—dropping his wallet and keys onto the table. “It was good,” he said. “And actually open.”
My mouth made a pop noise as I sucked my thumb and tugged it from my puckered mouth. “That so?”
“Mm.” He nodded. “Turns out, it’s usually a busy night for them—with people visiting from out of town and meeting up with old friends and such.”
“Andyourfriend?” I pressed, brows lifting.
He stepped forward, closer to me, his jacket dusted with snow flurries. “I have a confession… there was no friend.”
I gasped, feigning shock. “No. You weren’t lying about that simply to run away from having seen my naked body?”
A sexy smile curved on his lips, and he shrugged out of his coat. “I wasn’t running from you,” he said.
I pivoted back to the apples, turning them over in the sugar, ignoring the rising heat flushing my cheeks and chest. “Coulda fooled me.”
“Trust me… only a madman would run away from a woman as beautiful as you.”
I swallowed, the spoon slipping from my fingers and falling to the table. “Then what does that make you?”
“Really fucking crazy.” He leaned in over my shoulder, his breath hot against my ear as he peeked down at the apples. “So, what do we have here?”
I cleared my throat. “Well, when I saw what you had prepped—or rather not prepped—for tomorrow, I couldn’t just sit idly by.”
He laughed and stepped back. “What are you talking about? I have tomorrow covered.”
“Covered? Covered?!” I rushed over to the cabinet and yanked it open. “Salty canned beans, instant potatoes and stuffing, store bought pie filling, and canned cranberry sauce is you having it covered?”
His face fell and he looked momentarily serious. “And that’s…bad?”
I laughed at how utterly shocked he seemed to hear this. “Close your eyes.”
“Why? Are you going to get naked again?”
I grinned wider.Maybe.“Just trust me.” With a sigh, he did as I asked. “Now, open your mouth,” I instructed.
The strong column of his throat tightened, and I watched as a swallow worked its way down the roped muscles. Obediently, he parted his lips, opening his mouth for me. I dropped a sugary piece of apple on his tongue, and before I could remove my fingers, his lips closed around them, sucking the sticky syrup from my index finger with a smile. Heat and carnal desire darted from my fingers up my arm, and goosebumps rose all over my body. I became acutely aware, yet again, how hard my nipples were, braless beneath my t-shirt.
Admittedly, when I started cooking in his kitchen, barely dressed, I knew he would be coming home soon. This was what I wanted. It was what I wanted when he knocked on my door while I was touching myself. It was what I wanted when my towel fell, and I didn’t rush to pick it back up. And it was what I wanted now… now that I’d had time to cool off and calm down and think straight… I still wanted Mason.
His slow grin widened as he started chewing.
“Mmmm, sweet. And syrupy.”
“Apple pie filling is so easy,” I started to say, but my mouth was suddenly dry. That hot chocolate I had finished did nothing to quench my thirst. “All you need is sugar, apples, cinnamon, vanilla, and maybe a little nutmeg.”
