Page 57 of Bribed by the Billionaire Bad Boy

I’ve been wanting to try that one.

“Coffee makes me tired, but Mom loves it, and I like the flavor. I could have one for dinner since you’re taking me home, and she could have one for breakfast while I have my strawberry one.”

She’s already planned everything out.

“These recipes only make about six with my large muffin pans. Is that going to be enough?”

Her eyes are incredulous. “Well, there’s three of us, my mom included, and I don’t know if you want to make some for Jason and Rebecca. You said your parents are out of town, but how many people are on your staff?” Her brows and lips pinch. “Twelve doesn’t seem anywhere close to enough. Maybe we should make smaller ones?”

I blink. “I’m sorry. Are you planning to feed all the house staff now?”

One brow arches. “I’m sorry,Alexander. Are you above feeding the commoners who work for you?”

Snorting, I roll my lips into my mouth and shake my head, murmuring, “No. I just wasn’t aware that was in the plan.”

“Well, of course it is.” Huffing a sigh, she mutters, “Who doesn’t like muffins?”

There’s no room to argue.

It takes the girl all of five seconds to multiply out the recipes by five, then without glancing at the book again, she gathers the ingredients like she’s lived here her whole life and has made these muffins a hundred times. Even some of the kitchen staff have trouble navigating this place, but the mere wander around she started with has given her all the information she needed.

Setting my empty plate aside, I suppose it might be weird if I let her do everything just because she is more than capable and meet her in the center of the kitchen.

Grinning at me, she says, “Boy, Lex, the service here is kinda bad, but the price and portions are out of this world.”

I laugh, and it only occurs to me then—right beside the thought that she’s adorable—that I’ve shared a meal with someone in my house for the first time in months.

Calypso

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lex’s kitchen is a party. I’ve never seen so much food or equipment before in my life. And it’s all perfectly shiny and in place, unlike other kitchens of this size like that fast food one I worked in at Burger Blitz.

The memory of that hot, crowded place sends a shudder down my spine while I pop the last tray of muffins into one of thefiveovens. All of them are on and packed with strawberry and coffee delicacies now, and I’m having just a little too much fun.

Lex closes all the massive bowls and utensils we used up in an industrial-sized washing machine, and that’s literally that. The clean up is done.

This place is amazing.

I feel stupid now for having my breakdown in the car. None of the staff have confronted me about any sort of “relationship” with Lex, outside of Mrs. Yvon’s initial sly assumptions, and we’ve largely been left to our own devices here in this massive room, baking muffins. Nowhere in my head does whatever this is catalog as a date. It, like the rest of our relationship, feels unnamed, unidentifiable, something and nothing at the same time.

I am comfortable with whatever this is, even though I have no way at all to understand it.

“There’s thirty minutes of nothing to do.” Lex lets his hands rest in his pockets as he meets me by the ovens. A grin brightens his face, and I know he’s about to say something insipid. “Wanna see the ballroom?”

Laughter bubbles. “You’re not serious.”

“Oh, deadly,” he quotesThe Magpie Girl.

Linking one arm behind my back, I toy with a braid, rock onmy heels, and quote back, “Interesting choice of words.”

“Hey. That’s my line.”

“Technically—” I stop myself seconds before sayingthey’re all my lines. Because I wrote them.

I quit rocking as Lex passes me, leading to the ballroom, and take a breath. Right. I can’t gettoocomfortable. Lex makes me forget myself. He makes me forget I’m the timid girl in the back of the class who won’t amount to much of anything, not even a side character. When I’m with him, when he’s looking at me, I can almost be proud of what I am and what I love to do.

He makes me feel like a lead. Like a Harriet.