Page 22 of All This Time (Blossom Peak #1)

She waves her pen back and forth between us. “I’m sensing some tension here.”

Laney huffs. “There’s no tension.”

“Oh, there’s plenty of tension,” I say just as quickly, knowing it’s the sexual tension building between us that has my fucking stomach twisted up.

When I crowded her against the counter in her kitchen last night and told her what I thought about her ex, it was all I could do not to kiss her and show her how a real man would treat her. And her darkened eyes, hard nipples, and shaky breath all indicated that she probably would have let me.

Carolina pops her brows as she begins scribbling a few things on a piece of paper in front of her. “Okay then. Let’s just get down to business. How many people will there be?”

“One hundred.” Laney looks over to me and then back to Carolina.

“Three tiers should do it, then,” Carolina replies. “Do you want them all the same flavor, or different?”

I stare up at Carolina from my chair. “You can make them different flavors?”

“Oh yes. And we can add filling, different frostings…the list goes on and on.”

I look over at Laney. “We might be here a while.”

She blinks at me. “No, we won’t. I have a client at eleven, remember?”

Carolina smiles as she continues to write, clearly finding our interactions amusing. “Okay, well…let me go get the cake samples then so you can start to make some decisions.”

“Thank you, Carolina,” Laney says, watching her walk away before turning back to me. “I need you to take this seriously because I can’t be here for too long. I have a business to run, remember?”

“I’m well aware.”

“Then act like a grown-up, please.”

I lean closer to her, getting my mouth as close to her ear as I can. “Trust me, Laney. I’m all grown up now, in more ways than one. Would you like a demonstration?”

Her breath is shaky as I lean back, smirking at her just as Carolina comes back to our table.

“Okay, here we go.”

Laney clears her throat as Carolina sets the tray down and I pull out my phone.

“Fletcher, now is not the time to be on your phone,” Laney chastises.

I hold up the screen so she can see that I’m checking her glucose level through her app. “Just making sure you can handle the cake right now, angel.”

Laney’s eyes grow wide. “Oh.”

I glance up to see Carolina grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Is she good to go?”

“Yup. Perfect.” Holding my hand out, I say, “Please give us the spiel.”

Carolina clears her throat emphatically.

“Perfect. Now, the flavors are labeled, and here are the scoring cards to help you decide. I’m going to leave you two to sort this out.

Just ring the bell when you’re ready with your choices and then we can talk other details like colors, ribbons or flowers, etcetera. ”

“Sounds good, Carolina. Thank you.” I smile as she leaves and then immediately scour the tray for a Funfetti flavor. “Oh, hell yes.” I lift one of the squares and pop it into my mouth, moaning as the cake melts on my tongue. “Automatic winner for me.”

Laney sighs. “See? You are a child.” I finish chewing as she reaches for the other square of the Funfetti, but I beat her to it. “Hey!”

“Open up, angel.”

“Can you please stop calling me that?”

“If you open up.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “I’m not letting you feed me.”

“Then you won’t get to sample this one and when I tell Carolina to make the whole thing out of Funfetti, I’m going to tell everyone it was your idea.”

Her glare gets deeper each time she flashes it at me, and it only makes my dick harder.

She sighs, licks her lips, and then opens her mouth just enough that I can slide the piece of cake inside, but I make sure to graze her lips with my thumb before pulling my hand away.

What the fuck are you doing, Fletcher? You’re definitely sending mixed signals, and not just to Laney, but also your own fucking dick.

Every time I touch her, I know I’m playing with fire. But the more I do, the more I don’t fucking care.

She reaches up to dust off a few crumbs from her lip, rubbing the spot I just grazed as she chews. “It’s…not bad.”

“Don’t lie. It’s perfect. Moist and sweet, but not overly so. Classic.”

“You seem to have a lot of opinions about this flavor.”

I tilt my head, studying her. “You seriously don’t know why that cake is my favorite, do you?”

She doesn’t glance in my direction as she marks her scoresheet. “Nope, and I don’t really care either.”

I reach for her hand and pull her toward me, our faces inches apart. Laney’s eyes widen and her lips part slightly, just far enough that I can smell the sweetness of her breath.

“That’s funny,” I say. “Because I don’t think I’ll ever forget the cupcakes that a certain someone made for my eighteenth birthday and brought to school.”

Our eyes remain locked when she says, “Interesting how you remember that, but you’ve forgotten other things, Fletcher.”

“Like what?”

Laney’s eyes dip down to my mouth as she licks her lips. But then she shakes herself out of the moment and glares back down at her paper. “Just forget it.”

I huff out a laugh. “And you think I’m the one acting like a child.”

Her mouth drops open before she scowls, familiar tension building between us.

Fuck, if we weren’t in a public place, I’d kiss that fucking snarl right off of her goddamn lips.

I’m getting really sick of this whiplash—one moment where she’s standoffish, and the next where her edges are soft. But I also know that if I push this woman too hard, too fast, she’s never going to talk to me about how the hell we ended up in this tug-of-war where no one’s winning.

Exhaling, I push away from her and grab both squares of the chocolate cake, popping one in my mouth, savoring the flavor before vocalizing my opinion. “The chocolate is solid.”

I hold the other in front of her lips again, and even though she rolls her eyes, surprisingly, she opens up and lets me feed her once more. Her lips graze the tips of my fingers this time as I pull away. Our eyes remain locked as she chews.

“I agree. Not too rich, and something most people would enjoy.” She marks her grade on the scoresheet before leaning over the table and choosing the red velvet next, popping one piece in her mouth. “Oh, sweet baby Jesus,” she moans, and fuck—my dick twitches from the sound.

“That good, huh?” I manage to grate out.

“So good,” she mumbles as she continues to chew. “God, that’s almost better than an orgasm.”

“Ha. I doubt that.”

She closes her eyes as she finishes chewing. “Well, when you haven’t had one in three years from something other than your vibrator or hand, it’s hard to be sure.” But then her eyes pop open, wide and shocked as she slowly slides them in my direction.

The damage has already been done, though.

“Wait a minute…”

She covers her face with her hands. “Oh my God…”

“Three years?”

Groaning, she shakes her head. “I cannot believe I just said that out loud.”

I tear her hands from her face and wait for her eyes to open. “Laney…”

“You know what? Let’s just forget I ever said that.” She fakes a smile before attempting to reach for another flavor of cake, but I stop her.

“Oh, hell no. That’s not something I can just forget.”

“Fletcher…” Her bottom lip trembles. “Please… I didn’t mean it… I was…”

Part of me wants to keep pushing her for more information, but I’ve already done the math in my head.

Laney and her ex broke up a year ago, and if she just said it’s been three years of her own self-satisfying, that means not only did that dipshit cheat on her, but he sure as fuck wasn’t keeping her satisfied to begin with.

I really want to chop off all his fingers one by one now. But the more troubling thought? The overwhelming urge to throw Laney down on this table and fuck her with my tongue until she can’t breathe and forgets her own name.

Yeah, this little piece of knowledge isn’t helping my dick calm down at all.

“Fine.” Leaning back in my chair, I cross my arms over my chest and open my mouth.

“What are you doing?” she asks cautiously.

“Waiting for my sample.”

“You want me to feed you?”

“I think it’s only fair. You got a turn, now I get one.”

Eyeing me curiously, she reaches for the other piece of red velvet and slowly brings it to my lips.

I open my mouth and watch her cautiously place the cake inside, but before she can pull away, I grab her wrist, holding it in place as I close my lips around her fingers and swirl my tongue gently around them, keeping my eyes locked on hers as I do.

She gasps but doesn’t move as I toy with her thumb and index finger, torturing her with my tongue and teasing her before releasing them from my mouth with a pop.

Her green eyes grow darker, her pupils bold and large, and then she stares at my mouth for so long, I almost fucking grab her by the back of the head and smash my mouth to hers right here in this fucking bakery.

Making Laney Hart come has just become the number one thought in my mind, and that’s a big fucking problem.

“So, have we made some decisions?” Carolina surprises us both, making Laney jump in her seat as I move to discreetly adjust my cock.

Laney nods, directing her attention to Carolina.

“Um, yes. We’ll go with the small tier in red velvet, the middle tier in chocolate, and the bottom tier in Funfetti.

” Her eyes bounce over to me for one split second, and hope blossoms in my chest while I mentally war with the lines I crossed in the past fifteen minutes.

But I don’t regret any of it for a fucking second.

Laney and Carolina discuss the other details like flowers and colors, we help her clean up the mess, and then Carolina asks for a deposit for the cake. I slide my credit card across the counter before Laney can blink. “I’ll pay for the whole thing.”

“You don’t have to do that, Fletcher,” Laney argues. “Elliot said….”

“I don’t give a shit what Elliot said. I’m paying for the cake. End of story.”

Laney sighs as Carolina hands me the receipt to sign. “Well, that’s very nice of you.”