Page 32 of Decidedly Off Limits

But then I forgot to flour the counter during the last assault with the rolling pin. When I went to peel the dough off the granite surface, it held on tight.

“Nooo,” Kelsey said in a goofy, squeaky voice as I tried to convince the dough it was better off surrendering to its fate. “Don’t make me go in there.” She giggled.

After some careful peeling and a few patch-up jobs, we finally managed to thread the dough into the pasta maker. She cranked the handle while I lowered the dough in.

“Aaaaaahhhh,” she said in the same funny voice as before.

“You definitely work with kids.”

She laughed. “That obvious, huh?”

I grinned at her. Not because of her goofy voice and not because of her laugh. Her cheek had flour smeared on it.

Unable to help myself, I stepped closer and brushed my thumb against it. Her skin was as soft and as enticing as I imagined it would be. Her lips parted, an invitation for me to kiss her, and her beautiful blue eyes drank me in. If I didn’t know better, I could’ve sworn she wanted me the same way I wanted her.

The crash of a pot lid against the floor snapped us out of our daze. I dropped my hand from her cheek.

“You had some flour there.” I swallowed hard, pushing my lust back down, and returned to what we’d been doing before, a new tension now peering over our shoulders.

We continued working the dough with the machine until it was thin enough, then made the little ravioli pillows stuffed with the mushroom mixture.

“Wow, that wasn’t so bad,” Kelsey said. “You think our friends will be impressed?”

“Surprised might be a better word. We’re not exactly world renowned for our cooking skills.”

One corner of her mouth twitched up. “Good point.”

“So is now a good time to ask why you spent the past few years avoiding me?” I casually asked as we prepared the creamy mushroom sauce while the ravioli was cooking. We’d been fairly close as kids. But ever since that incident with my sister’s crazy friend, she’d seemed to go out of her way to avoid me. Whenever we had shown up at the same family events, Kelsey had kept her distance, then came up with a lame excuse so she could leave early.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never tried to avoid you.” She kept her attention fixed on the sauce I was stirring on the stove. Not once did she look up at me.

“Really? So all that time you said maybe twenty words to me, that was you at your yappiest?”

She shrugged, her face growing flush. “Maybe I didn’t have anything interesting to say.”

Did you buy that? I sure as hell didn’t. She’d never had issues talking to me before, even about the most mindless topics, but I also knew I wouldn’t get anywhere with her when it came to finding out the truth. Fort Knox could learn a thing or two from her when it came to keeping secrets locked away.

“Mmmm. That smells so good,” Kelsey said, eyes closed. I had to agree with her there.

I poured the creamy mushroom sauce over the cooked ravioli, grabbed a fork from the counter, and pressed it into a square, cutting it in half. Then I speared a piece with the fork and offered it to Kelsey.

She opened her sexy lips to welcome it in—and for a second, I forgot it was the food and not my tongue that she wanted in her mouth. I caught myself before I had a chance to lean in and suck her lower lip intomymouth.

She closed her mouth around the morsel and moaned a sound that made my cock take notice—craving for her luscious lips to wrap around it. “Oh, God,” she said with another moan.You’re not helping me here, Kels. “That’s amazing.”

I ate the other half. Christ, she was right. The ravioli was amazing.

The final demonstration was for a French apple tart. Like with the soup, there wasn’t enough time for us to make it in class. Chef André showed us how to create the pastry, then removed a previously made one from the fridge. He rolled it out, prepared the dessert, and popped it into the oven, then removed one he’d been baking while we were working on our ravioli. The sweet aroma of baked apples wafted through the room.

“The final step is the glaze,” he said. “Take a cup of apricot jam and heat it so that it melts into a liquid.” He demonstrated how to do this and brushed the liquid onto the baked apples. He then cut the tart into pieces and passed them around the group. Like everything else today, it tasted heavenly.

I must admit that when I first registered for the class, I had only done so to keep an eye on Kelsey. I hadn’t expected it to be fun, especially with Kelsey by my side.

I also hadn’t expected to be so turned on by it. Although that might’ve had to do with the new fantasy parading in my head—one involving Kelsey in her thong and black lacy bra.

And possibly a kitchen counter.

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