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“You’re really beautiful,” Rhiannon whispered from behind as she pulled Carmela closer with the hand still wrapped around her.

Carmela was out of her body. She was floating somewhere above them watching herself moving back and searching for more contact with Rhiannon. Trembling, she watched herself reach down and cover Rhiannon’s hand with hers. Intertwine their fingers and pull her in tighter.

“How are you doing, dear? It came right out, didn’t it?”

The caterer’s voice was a bucket of cold water on the inferno raging inside Carmela’s body.

“Yup,” Rhiannon said, her voice too husky before clearing her throat.

Carmela returned to her body and rubbed the fabric together.

“Did you get it wet enough, dear? You have to really soak it. I have plenty of club soda, so don’t be shy,” she said, causing Rhiannon to have a laughing fit.

“Oh, I think she got it plenty wet,” Rhiannon replied, earning a flushed and horrified glare from Carmela, who was so uncomfortable with the physical repercussions of her arousal in front of the caterer that she might as well have been naked in church.

“I think I got it,” Carmela managed.

The caterer took the garment from her and inspected it herself. “I hope this didn’t turn you o to the aspic.”

“I can’t speak for Carm, but I’m definitely not turned o .

In fact, I liked it so much, I think we should make it the star,” Rhiannon said as Carmela put her wet blouse back on against the caterer’s protestations that she give it some time to air dry.

“I’m fine. Let’s wrap this up, shall we? I think we agree that this will be perfect for the party,” she said, silk shirt

sticking to her chest as she shoved the apron back into the woman’s hands.

Once the lust spell was broken, all Carmela wanted to do was bolt, which she did as soon as they signed the contract.

She didn’t even wait for Rhiannon to get out. After acting like a cat in heat, she was too humiliated to even look at her.

BY THE TIME Rhiannon finished hammering out the details with the caterer, Carmela’s white Porsche was no longer in the parking lot. She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be o ended that she’d high tailed it out of there without so much as a second glance in her direction.

When she was out of the sun and back in her car, Rhiannon reached for her cell phone. She really wanted to call Carmela and ask if she was okay.

Did I do something wrong?

Rhiannon replayed the interaction in her mind. When she’d gone to the back to check on her, she had no idea she’d be shirtless.

I probably should have just turned back around when I saw her, she thought, dropping her forehead against the hot steering wheel. It had all happened so fast and so slow. It was like an out of body experience.

Rhiannon’s fingers itched and her body tensed as she recalled the warmth of Carmela’s body in her hands. She’d never had such a strong pull of desire for anyone in her life.

“You freaked her out,” she chided herself as she banged her head repeatedly on the steering wheel.

But why? There’s no way Carmela isn’t feeling me.

Rhiannon thoughts circled around and around until she decided Carmela’s freak out made no sense to her. Maybe the caterer freaked her out?

Giving up, Rhiannon decided to head for the o ce. Maybe if she could just talk to her, she could soothe whatever fears she had.

“You should have asked her on a date,” she muttered to herself as she pulled out of the parking spot. “Instead of groping her in the back of a store.”

Rhiannon winced. She hadn’t planned what happened. As she tried to pay attention to the road, all Rhiannon could do was picture Carmela twisting in her arms and pressing herself closer.

She swallowed hard and blasted the air conditioner to the max. While she waited for the car to cool, she checked her phone and returned her dad’s texts asking how the meeting with the caterer was going.

CHAPTER NINETEEN