Baking Lessons Read online

  “Stop,” he gritted out, and she instantly did, moving her fingers away from his ass and pulling her hands out of his underwear waistband.

  “Sorry,” she said, annoyed at herself for pushing him past his comfort zone. “Too far?”

  To her shock, he shook his head. “I was about to...” He gestured toward where their hips met.

  “You were about to come?” It was just a guess, but he didn’t deny it, so she figured it was probably what had happened. “Why not? Just let it go and enjoy it.”

  He gave her one of his patented are-you-nuts stares. “I’m wearing underwear.”

  “So? You wash them, don’t you? This way, you’ll get a little more out of this washing.”

  “Of course I wash them.” He frowned at her. “I don’t have another pair here. I’d be...sticky for the rest of the night.”

  Leah huffed a small laugh, and he raised his haughty brows at her. “Sorry. This is just a funny conversation to be having when you’re on top of me.” Before he could respond, she had a brilliant idea. Giving him a sharp slap on one ass cheek, she started to roll to the side. Although he didn’t look excited about moving, he rolled with her until they were both on their sides. “Let’s move this.”

  “Where?” He still didn’t loosen his grip on her hair.

  “The shower.”

  Chapter Nine

  “This was an excellent idea.”

  Looking at the huge, ripped body in front of her, Leah had to agree with Hamilton. His erection didn’t appear to have flagged at all in the time it took to start the shower and drop his boxers. She was taking longer to undress, feeling a little self-conscious under the bright bathroom lights. When she was finally naked, she dragged her gaze from her discarded panties in front of her to meet his gaze.

  At the blazing heat in his eyes, all her worries that he’d think she was too round or too short or not pretty enough evaporated. His hunger for her was clear. He raked his gaze down her body, back up and then down again, and she felt her skin flaring with heat everywhere he looked, responding to him as intensely as if he were actually touching her.

  It was almost too much, having those penetrating eyes locked on her. If he stared much longer, she was afraid she’d go up in flames. Tearing her eyes away from him, she pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the shower. He followed close behind her, and she could feel the burn of his gaze on her ass.

  Once they were both under the spray, she expected him to be all over her. His expression told her that he was dying to touch, but he kept as much distance as the small space allowed. The hungry way he stared reminded her of how he looked when she offered him a cupcake, when the angel and devil on his shoulders argued with him until he finally gave in and ate it.

  “You can touch me.” At her words, his gaze jumped from her breasts to her face. “In fact, if you don’t touch me, my head will probably explode.”

  He made a surprised sound that was almost a laugh, but he reached out. His hand hovered over her arm, not even an inch away, and then he finally, finally made contact. Having his fingers stroke lightly over her skin was a huge relief, but, at the same time, it made the fire raging inside her flame even higher.

  “You’re so soft.” He sounded like he was talking to himself as his hand slid down to her elbow and then back up to cup her shoulder. Despite the warm water pattering on her back, a shiver ran through her. His touch disappeared, and she bit back a protest when she saw that he was reaching for the body wash.

  Squeezing some liquid soap into his palm, he rubbed his hands together, creating a layer of white suds. As he reached toward her again, Leah’s breath caught, her whole body trembling with anticipation of his touch. This time, he used both hands, soaping her arms from her shoulders to her fingertips.

  “You’re very...thorough,” she said when she was able to suck in enough air to speak.

  He didn’t look up. Apparently, soaping each one of her fingers at a time took all of his concentration. “Thank you.”

  Before this moment, she hadn’t considered her hand to be an erogenous zone, but she realized that she’d been so, so wrong about that. Darts of pleasure shot up her arm with each slide and press of his soapy fingers, and her eyes lowered to half-mast as she tried to hold back a groan.

  And that was just her hands. As he worked his way back up her arms, leaving a trail of suds in his wake, her muscles tightened as his touch sent shockwaves of arousal through her. His hands slid up her neck, his fingertips gliding under her hair at the back of her skull, and she pressed into the contact.

  It was gone too soon, but she didn’t regret the loss of his fingers in her hair, since he was still touching her. It didn’t seem to matter where his hands landed—it was all incredibly good. His fingers traced her collarbones before dropping lower, drawing lines of heat down her chest to her breasts.

  She couldn’t hold back anymore, and she moaned as his fingers brushed against her eager, erect nipples, leaving tiny crowns of suds on each straining tip. To her disappointment, he didn’t linger, but instead kept moving down, over her belly and to the tops of her thighs. Her hips pressed forward, searching for his touch, as her body happily accepted the trade-off.

  Her hope that his fingers would slide between her legs was dashed, however, when he crouched in front of her, washing her legs and feet with that same thorough manner he’d used for her hands.

  “You’re skipping all the good spots.” Her complaint didn’t have any teeth. Even though she wished he’d focus on her breasts and pussy, she still reveled in every touch, no matter where it landed.

  “If I go to the good spots immediately, nothing else would get clean.” Even as he said that, though, he stood, running his hands the length of the inside of both legs—from the ankles to the calves to her inner thighs and higher still. Despite her recent complaint, the movement caught her off guard and made her squeak. “It’s important to be clean.”

  “I don’t know.” His hand was close, so close, to the center of all the wet heat he’d created that it was hard for her to force out the banter. “There’s something to be said about being...dirty.” She lowered her voice so that the last word came out in a growl.

  He gave her a startled glance before a tiny, filthy smile turned up the corners of his mouth. “You’re really good at being both.”

  His fingers stroked across her pussy, and she rose on her tiptoes for a second. The sensation was too strong, too much, but he didn’t let her escape, following her movement until there was nowhere for her to go. Her calves quivered with the strain of staying on her tiptoes, and she allowed her heels to drop back down to the shower floor. As her body lowered, his hand stayed in place, pressing against her clit while two of his fingers slid inside her.

  A shock of pleasure rocked through her, more intense than anything she’d felt before, and her gaze snapped up to meet Hamilton’s hungry eyes.

  “You feel...” His voice was so deep and low it was barely more than a rumble in his chest. “Fuck. You feel so hot and slippery, and you’re squeezing my fingers so tight.”

  She couldn’t wait any longer to touch him. Reaching out, she took his erection in a gentle, soapy grip.

  “Wait!” He sounded slightly panicked, but his hips thrust him deeper into her fist rather than pulling away. At the same time, his hand jerked, driving his fingers even farther into her as the heel of his palm ground against her clit in the best way, making her fingers tighten around him. “I can’t hold back if you do that.”

  “Why hold back?” Dragging her fist up his length, she swept her thumb over the head, making him grunt and thrust into her grip again. Her pussy clenched around his fingers. Knowing that she was the first one to do this to him, the first to make him feel this way, the first to watch him as he teetered on the edge of losing control, drove her arousal even higher. She was going to come. She could feel it building, but she d
idn’t want to orgasm until after he had. It was going to blow her mind, she knew that, and she wanted to watch him as he climaxed for the first time with a woman’s hand on him—her hand on him. “Isn’t that why we’re in the shower, so you can make as big of a mess as you want?”

  At the word mess, his head fell back and he let out a guttural groan. His hips picked up speed, fucking her fist as his hand moved just as quickly, thrusting deep into her, his palm bumping against her swollen clit. His other hand slid up her side and over her breast, his fingers scissoring the tip. Her nipple was so tight and sensitive that it almost hurt to be touched while, at the same time, it sent shock waves of pleasure down to her clenching pussy.

  She tightened every muscle, trying to hold off, but her orgasm was approaching like a bullet train. There was no way she was going to last much longer. If she wanted to watch him come first, she knew she needed to do something drastic that would push him over the edge.

  Reaching down with her other hand, she cupped his balls and squeezed gently as she tightened her fingers around his cock.

  “Fuck! LeeLee...” His face grew tight, making him look as if he were in agony as he came on her belly. His fingers thrust deeper, curling slightly as his muscles contracted, unintentionally hitting just the right spot inside her to make her go off like a rocket.

  It was her turn to shout his name as she came, her body clamping down hard on the invading digits. An icy heat ran the length of her spine and then radiated through her, pleasure careening through her, making her muscles tremble and her vision gray. Her knees went soft, and she sagged slightly, but Hamilton was right there. Pulling his fingers free, he swept his arm around her waist and pulled her against him so they were plastered together, front to front.

  Still floating from the most incredible orgasm she’d ever had, Leah let her head fall forward. She rested her forehead against his wet, heaving chest for a long moment. Gradually, she caught her breath and returned to reality, tipping her head back so she could see his face. She worried that it would be closed up again, that he’d decide that messing around with her wasn’t worth the hassle and return to the uptight Hamilton she’d known, but that wasn’t the case at all.

  He was staring down at her, his face more open than she’d ever seen before, and his expression was filled with awe. Awe. For her. She’d awed him with a hand job. A sense of wonder and delight filled her, and she couldn’t hold back an enormous grin.

  “Did you enjoy that?” she asked. “Was it worth the mess?”

  “Yes.” The answer came quickly and definitely, but he looked a little surprised, as if he hadn’t expected it to pop out of him. “The shower helps.”

  “Yes, although we’ll have to eventually try this in a bed. Otherwise, our water bill will be gigantic and our fingers will be constantly prune-y.”

  Although she’d expected him to protest moving past the shower sex, his mouth tipped up at the corners, instead. “We’ll be doing more of this, then?”

  “Yes.” It was her turn to blurt out the word. “Unless you’ve had enough?”

  “No. Never.” The urgent way he said it made her smile, and hope rose inside her. Maybe they were just messing around, having fun and giving Hamilton his first taste of sexy times, but maybe they weren’t.

  Maybe this could be more.

  Chapter Ten

  Singing softly to herself, Leah piped frosting, adding another mint-green leaf to the flowers twisting up the side of the cake. It was a special order for a post-baptism party, all soft pastels and sparkling sugar. She glanced up to see Q staring at her, his mouth flattened in a failed attempt to hide his amusement.

  “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

  “Abso-fu—ahh—lutely nothing. I am fabulous.” She tried to scowl at him, but it didn’t work. Thanks to the previous night with Hamilton, it was physically impossible for her to frown. After the best shower she’d ever experienced, they’d just slept, since morning came super extra early for her. Having him wrapped around her was almost as good as fooling around again, especially since she knew she’d get a chance to corrupt him some more later. “Why?”

  “You can swear around me, you know.” Apparently, he’d caught her little slip-up. “I’m not five.”

  She grinned at him. “You’ll always be a sweet young thing to me.”

  His expression showed how not thrilled he was by that, but he changed the subject back to the original topic. “You going to tell me why you’re being weird?”

  “I’m always weird.” Turning to the cake, she added two more leaves.

  “Yes, but you’re not always weird to the point of manically over-decorating.” He snatched the frosting bag and tip from her hands and held it over his head so she couldn’t retrieve it. “If you put one more leaf on that cake, it’s going to collapse under the weight of the frosting. It’s beautiful. It’s perfect. It’s done. Move on to cookies or something.”

  Glancing down at the cake, Leah examined it critically and cringed a little. “It is quite...elaborate, isn’t it?”

  “The customer will love it and think it’s fancy, but you need to stop while you’re ahead.” Q gave the cake a doubtful look. “Well, while you’re not too behind, at least.”

  “Right. Thank you.” She moved the cake stand over to another station and started cleaning up. “Are you excited about tonight?”

  Q’s smirk immediately fell away. “I can’t think about tonight. It’s probably best if we don’t talk about it.”

  “Nervous?”

  “Insanely freaked out of my mind. And what did I just say about not talking about this?”

  “Sorry.” She made a motion like she was zipping her mouth shut.

  He gave her a grateful smile that bordered on a pained grimace and then looked around the kitchen. “What’s left for you to bake today?”

  “Nothing.” Dumping her tools in the dish sink, she grinned at Q over her shoulder. “I’m done. I was like lightning this morning.”

  “You’re done? Already? With the Friday bake and three special orders?”

  “Yep. Speedy.” She knew she sounded smug, but she felt that smugness was totally deserved. Adrenaline and excited anticipation had given her wings that morning, and she’d flown around the kitchen like she’d been turbo-charged.

  Q’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What’s going on? Did you pick up a meth habit this week?”

  Before she could answer, a new voice interrupted them. “Hello.”

  When Leah snapped her head around to see Hamilton at the back door, she clutched the edge of the sink as if it would keep her from running across the kitchen and throwing herself at him. He looked good, all shiny-clean and suited up, and his hungry gaze was fixed securely on her, ignoring all the delicious sugary things in the kitchen he could have focused his lust on.

  “Oooh.” Q’s knowing tone broke the spell, and she tore her eyes away from Hamilton to look at him. Q’s smirk returned as he looked back and forth between her and Hamilton. “Now everything makes sense.”

  “Except for you.” Leah’s voice came out husky, and she cleared her throat with annoyance. If she couldn’t even hide her obsession with Hamilton from her not-quite-seventeen-year-old employee, there was no hope for her. “You’re making no sense at all.”

  “Uh-huh.” Turning toward the kitchen, he gave her a wave over his shoulder without looking back. “You keep telling yourself that. Good morning, Mr. Hamilton.”

  “Q.” Ham’s deep greeting made her look at him again, and she was caught. Absently, she heard Q snickering as he shoved through the swinging door, but everything in her was focused on Hamilton. Her feet moved without any input from her brain, and she stood in front of him before she realized what had just happened.

  “Hi.” Up close, he was even more mesmerizing, and there was enough heat in his expression to set her on fire. “Headed to wor
k?” She wasn’t even embarrassed that she sounded like she was auditioning for the role of radio porn star.

  “Yes.” He shifted closer, his gaze never leaving hers. Leah was beginning to rethink her philosophy on whether kissing and other sexy stuff should be allowed in the kitchen. The silence stretched as he leaned in, and an excited tension vibrated through her, making the butterflies in her stomach dance. His gaze dropped to her mouth, and her lips parted on an audible inhale. She saw his throat move as he swallowed, and her eyes drifted closed as she waited for his mouth to find hers.

  Clearing his throat loudly enough to make her jump and open her eyes, he stepped back.

  “Oh.” Disappointment squashed her stomach butterflies. “We’re not kissing, then?”

  “I didn’t want to assume.”

  “In this case, feel free to assume.” If he was going to keep staring at her with those hungry, hungry eyes, he’d better kiss her, or her body was going to burn itself from the inside out.

  He moved in again, his gaze locked on her mouth. “What are the rules?”

  “Rules?” she repeated, confused and annoyed that he still wasn’t kissing her.

  “Now that we’ve...showered together, does that mean I’m allowed to touch you?” He looked slightly uncertain, which sat strangely on his harsh features. “Whenever I want?”

  Both baffled and intrigued by the question, she took a second to organize her scrambled thoughts. Even though he’d told her that he was new at sex, she was having a hard time processing that Mr. Anthony Fitzgerald Hamilton III was a true, never-been-kissed—well, before last night—virgin. Now, she was realizing that she was playing tour guide to a complete relationship neophyte, and the thought was equal parts scary and thrilling. “As long as I want to be touched, and if the touch is appropriate for the setting and possible audience, then yes. You can touch me whenever you want.”