Page 18 of Spreading Her Wings

I think.

Before I was on the first step leading to her porch, I could hear “Get Low” by Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz playing. I chuckled, thinking about the way she’d erupted into laughter when we watched Sandra Bullock dance to the song with Betty White inThe Proposal. My chest tightened, a warmth stirring in my stomach.

The curtains were pulled back, and she was dancing in the kitchen. Her cropped sweatshirt left her midriff exposed, and I widened my eyes when she rolled her hips and dropped into a squat. Raising my eyebrows, I considered watching her from the window for a few minutes longer. The smile on her face was intoxicating, like she was having the time of her life.

After seeing her friends at Pour Decisions last night, I couldn’t resist the impulse to text her. I tried to convince her to come into the bar tonight, but she insisted she wanted to spend Friday night baking brownies and drinking wine at home. So I told Logan I needed the night off, and here I stood with a bottle of her favorite pinot noir.

Her gasp traveled through the open window when I knocked and the music went silent. The door swung open, and my eyes were instantly drawn to her shorts and the muscles that flexed in her legs when she adjusted her weight. Holding up the bottle, I winked at her.

“I had a craving for brownies,” I said, stepping into her house without an invite. “Am I too late?”

I half expected her to argue or ask me to leave, but when the door shut and the lock clicked into place, a satisfied feeling settled over me. “You’re lucky you brought wine.” She giggled, grabbing the bottle and slipping into the kitchen.

When her skin brushed mine, it was warm, and I wanted to pull her body against me and hold her there.What has gotten into me?I looked at the couch, no longer wondering where this infatuation was coming from when images of her straddling me or folded over the back flashed across my mind.

Standing at the island, Katie cleared her throat, and when I turned towards her, she was tying a small, blue apron around her waist. I lifted a single eyebrow, dragging my eyes along her figure and imagining her in nothing but the tiny apron.Fuck me.

“What are you staring at?” she asked, already knowing. The entertained glimmer in her eyes was proof of that.

“That damn apron.” I winked at her, and her cheeks flushed bright pink. I rounded the counter, running my finger along the blush. “You look even more delicious when you’re blushing like that, kitten,” I whispered in her ear.

She shuddered, leaning against the counter as if her legs were hesitant to hold her up. She sucked in a breath, gathering her composure and running her hands over her apron as if to straighten it. “Are you here to help me or distract me?”

“What if my answer isyesto both of those things?” When I put a hand on either side of her, framing her between the counter and me, her breath hitched. “Lucky for you, Ireallylike brownies.”

Katie’s mouth hung open, and she looked at me lazily, her expression decorated with arousal. Then she cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “Well, if you want brownies, you should probably kiss me already, so I can get back to work.”

My surprise was short-lived before I crashed my lips into hers, sliding my hands into her hair and holding her to me while I explored her mouth with my tongue. She moaned and relaxed against me until I pulled my lips from hers.

“Like that?”

“Uh-huh,” she purred, staring at me for a long moment before she widened her eyes and gasped. “Oh!Brownies.”

She jerked to action like she was reminding herself what she was doing, but instead of reaching for the bowl on the counter or turning on the oven, she grabbed a glass from the cabinet. Her hands shook slightly when she poured a glass of the red wine that sat open on the counter and took a long gulp. I chuckled. I could get used to seeing her react to me like that.

Katie instantly zoned out, turning her focus to intricately measuring ingredients and dumping them into a bowl. When she stirred the dry ingredients, she hummed “Get Low.” For each egg she cracked, she danced and wiggled. She shook the wooden spoon in her hand around before stuffing it into the half-stirred mixture. When she mixed the ingredients into a thick batter, she ran her finger through it and stuck it in her mouth, closing her lips around it.

“You look good doing that.” I settled on the stool across the counter from her, propping my chin on my elbows and watching her.

She wiggled her hips, dumping the mix into a baking pan with a cheeky smile. When she stuck the pan into the wall-mounted oven, she bent over more than she needed to and hovered there a moment longer before closing the oven door. I licked my lips and pulled the batter-coated bowl across the counter towards me.

While she set a timer on the oven and wiped her hands off, I ran my fingers through the batter on the sides of the bowl and licked them clean. “Okay, those should be ready in about twenty-five minutes,” she said, stopping when I ran my tongue between my fingers. She swallowed. “What are you doing?”

“Licking the bowl clean. Isn’t that the best part of baking?” I winked, earning me a laugh. “Do you want some?”

I set the bowl down, rounding the counter to where she stood and lifting her onto it while she shrieked. She followed my fingers as I gathered batter from the bowl, and when they were in front of her face, she opened her mouth. I groaned when she closed it around my fingers and sucked, running her tongue along them until the batter was gone.

“Mmm,” she hummed, reaching for the bowl. “My turn.”

She scooped batter onto her finger and brought it to my lips, sighing when I sucked it into my mouth. “Delicious.”

We stared at each other, the tension in the room growing heavier as the number on the timer got smaller. “Auston, what are we doing?” Her voice shook.

“We’re baking brownies.” I stepped towards her, settling myself between her spread legs.

“We can’t keep doing this,” she said as she ran her fingers through my hair, locking eyes with me. “We’re not actually dating.”

Her breath hitched when I leaned in, nuzzling my nose against her neck. “Who said anything about a date? I just plan to see how hard I can make you come apart on this counter before that timer goes off.”

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