Page 42 of Sweets and Sycamores

DO I HAVE SOMETHING ON MY FACE?

Allie decided to eat her turkey sandwiches downstairs, as there was no place to sit in Dom’s room besides his bed.

And she didn’t know if her heart could take that crazy, deafening pounding again anytime soon.

He’d just…pulled her to him, and it took Allie everything not to lean in and kiss him.

Just a peck. At least on the forehead, or on his cheek, anywhere on him would really—

“Here’s your sign.” Mia stomped into the bakery and plastered a piece of paper on the glass door with a loud thump. She’d changed into one of her dark red sweater dresses that fit her like a glove and now matched the blush on her skin.

“What’s up with you?” Allie asked with her mouth full.

“Nothing.” Her friend looked at Allie until her scowl smoothed and turned into a pout. “Brandon.”

“Oh?” Allie couldn’t mask her surprise, her eyes the size of grapefruits. It was the first time Mia brought up Brandon on her own. “Do you want to…talk about it?” Allie asked slowly, keeping the food in her mouth still, as if the chewing sounds might scare Mia.

The Archivist studied her friend for a long moment, blinked more than the average person, and opened and closed her mouth a few times.

“I’m good.” She waved awkwardly and left the store in a hurry, almost tripping over the long skirt of her dress.

Allie wasn’t hurt by it. After all, they were only recently friends, and—

The bakery door slammed open.

“He’s just such a… Ugh!” Mia paced around the floor like a lion in a cage, gesticulating with her hands and yelling in a language Allie didn’t speak. She had no idea how to console her friend, much less when she didn’t really understand the problem, so Allie did what she knew best.

She snuck a cookie between her fingers and approached her friend with careful steps, stopping whenever Mia’s eyes fell on her. When she was close enough, Allie gently grabbed her by the elbow and stuffed the cookie in her mouth.

Mia chewed with wide eyes, a faint smile shadowing her full lips. Allie grabbed her by the arms and fixed her most intense gaze on her.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No?” She deflated, then her brown eyes followed the narrow hallway to the staircase. “How’s Dom?”

Allie’s mind was flooded with his rich laugh, a sound so whole and genuine, and so precious from someone like him. How the skin around his eyes had crinkled, and how his lips had parted with the large grin, how his cheeks stretched and crowded his eyes.

“He’s surprisingly energetic for a magically depleted Mage.”

Mia wiggled her eyebrows, a smirk wiping the grimace off her face. “I might have an idea why.”

“So did you want to tell me about Brandon?” Allie countered, feeling her face heat. Mia’s smirk died a swift death.

“Mean.” She hugged Allie and left, promising to return later to check on her brother and eat more of her cookies.

Allie felt a little bad for feeding Dominic only tea and soup, so she plated two cookies and took them with her after tidying the place up.

When she returned to Dominic’s room, she found him sound asleep. Between standing by the door and sitting on the floor, Allie didn’t know where to place herself in her boss’s bedroom. After awkwardly looking around for a moment, Allie decided to go to the living room and perch on the blue sofa.

“Hmm.” The hoarse purr made Allie stop in her tracks.

“Dom?”

“Come here,” he said in a thick, sleep-coated voice.

Allie approached the bed, dropped the cookie plate on the nightstand, and sat down on the edge of the mattress, so far away from him that she was seconds from falling to the ground on her ass.

She checked his fever, which had decreased but was still higher than healthy.

“I’m going to—” Dominic shifted and hauled her into his arms, snuggling her under the cover. A move too fast and sneaky for someone who was sick. “What’s happening?” Allie asked, feeling her entire body solidify like a brick wall.

Dominic pulled her closer, lining the back of her body with his front, his big, heavy arm hugging her around her middle. He was hot like a furnace, and Allie wondered how much of it was from the fever, and how much was just…Dom.

“You smell so good,” he drawled out, propping his chin in the crook of her neck. His prickly short beard sent shivers all over her body, and her heartbeat sprinted to the front of her chest.

Allie discreetly pinched the side of her arm, hard enough that she barely suppressed a hiss.

Wide awake.

“Was this your first medicine potion?” He hummed in response. “I think I made it too strong. Maybe it wasn’t the best for you,” she whispered and attempted to break free. Dominic’s hold tightened, squishing her to him with no intention of letting her go.

“You are the best for me.” His voice was deep and guttural, but it was the statement that made Allie’s heart quiver and turn into mush.

Her skin was on fire and not because of Dom’s heat, but because of the way he drew lazy circles with his thumb on her abdomen, and the way he nuzzled her neck with his nose and chin, and the way he was touching her everywhere.

It was everything she ever wanted. And more.

Allie took a deep breath and relaxed, melting into him like clay into the perfect mold. And she fell asleep.

Allie spiraled into the middle of next week.

After she woke up in Dom’s arms, specifically him lying on his back while she was sprawled over him, Allie quietly left the room before he woke up.

She went outside to the forest clearing with practice on her mind, but ended up wearing a path in the grass by the river, shivering and gritting her teeth in the sunless, windy cold.

About two hours into her overthinking session, which she’d surely win a medal for if it ever became a sport, Allie went back to the bakery and found Dominic at the counter, flipping through his notebook, sweat covering his pale skin.

It took little effort to coax him back into bed with the offer to read him next week’s schedule aloud.

Allie swept their sleeping together under the rug, at least until Dominic felt better.

She wanted and did not want to know his thoughts and feelings.

If his brain had been hazy with the medicine potion, if his judgement had been inhibited, her heart might break.

But if he wanted her there, if he meant the words he’d said that fed her soul. ..

“You are the best for me.”

So Allie postponed the conversation until the next week.

Mia had come by that same night and teamed up with Allie to convince Dom to keep the bakery closed for the entire weekend.

Brandon had brought a jar of honey and some fresh lemons, insisting his friend should rest longer.

The three of them managed the feat, so Dom’s Sweets had stayed closed for two days.

At the beginning of the week, Dominic was up and about in the morning as usual. He wasn’t back to his full strength, but he had declared that, “There’s no way in hell I’m keeping this place closed a minute longer.”

The week was busier with the past weekend’s deliveries and orders being rescheduled, and Dom and Allie barely had time to grab a bite, let alone talk about their feelings.

On the one hand, by prolonging this, Allie’s heart was somewhat safe.

On the other hand, it killed her that she didn’t know what Dom thought about the weekend’s… activities.

At the end of their shift on the fourth day of the week, Allie resolved to talk to Dom. Her heart couldn’t take any more uncertainty. She did about a dozen different pathetic pep talks in the mirror before she came looking for him.

“I’m leaving for the night to meet with my parents,” he said in a rushed voice before Allie got to open her mouth.

“Is everything okay?”

Dom sighed. “Mia told them I got sick, and now they want live proof that I’m fine.

” He seemed to struggle reconciling the inconvenience of travel with the clear desire to visit his parents, who had recently moved to a small village a couple towns after Rocky Hills.

Allie wished she knew such struggles. “Should be back tomorrow morning early enough to open together.”

“No rush,” she said, swallowing all of the words she’d prepared.

Dom came back the next day, an hour before opening time. Allie had baked and prepared everything she could before her boss stepped inside the kitchen.

“Everything okay with your parents?” she asked, giving him an involuntary once-over. Dom had nodded, back to his usual amount of grumpiness. A good sign.

He had paired his deep green turtleneck with dark jeans and black boots, the sweater material so tight that Allie discerned the form of his muscles when he gathered his hair in a bun. When he tied his apron. When he kneaded the croissant dough.

“I want to try a new filling today. For the croissants,” he clarified. “My mother gave me an idea.” That small smile that Allie had glimpsed once or twice twitched around his lips for half a second.

“Is she a baker, too?” A curt nod. “How can I help?” she asked enthusiastically.

“You can taste it when it’s ready.”

Allie fed Ekko a bowl of grapes and pistachios and sent him to their room, then made herself useful by handing Dom ingredients, cloths, and utensils.

He labored around the kitchen with an adorable frown, dedicated to getting this filling right. Ten dirty spoons were scattered around the table as Dominic tasted the cream at different steps in the process.

“I think it’s ready,” Dom said after what felt like an entire day, filling two croissants with the hazelnut cream that smelled divine and made Allie’s mouth water. She had been busy cleaning the worktable when her boss shoved a croissant in her face. “Taste this.”

“What?” Allie looked between his face and the pastry in his hand. She tried to grab it from him, but Dom evaded her, bringing the croissant to her mouth.

“Bite.” It was a command, uttered in a thick, urgent tone.

“Bite?” she parroted, perplexed. Any other time Dom had her taste samples, he’d either offer her a plate, or a piece on a tray, or point to a fork or a spoon. Now he nodded once, narrowing his green eyes at her.

Allie bit into the pastry.

“Mmm,” she moaned, the sweet and nutty cream wonderfully soft and rich in her mouth.

Dominic’s eyes were glued to her lips, as if they held a secret he had to uncover to save his life.

He took a step closer to her. And another, until his leathery, manly scent enveloped her, and she tipped her chin up to keep his smoldering gaze.

“Do I have something on my face?” Allie asked dumbly, incapable of forming another coherent thought.

Dominic scoffed. He lifted his arm and cupped Allie’s cheek, brushing his thumb from the corner of her mouth to the middle of her lower lip, his calloused finger harsh against her soft skin. He was touching her like that again, intimately, setting her nerves on a fire she couldn’t control.

“Dom…” Allie whispered, unsure what to say next. Her mind was blurry with heated emotions and the thousands of scenarios she’d spent all week overthinking.

“Allie,” Dominic said like a plea. A prayer. His eyes darkened with something dangerous, watching her like she was something to eat.

Then he took his hazelnut cream-covered thumb to his mouth and licked it off in a luscious move, swirling his tongue around the finger without dropping Allie’s gaze.

Green fire burned in his eyes, his nostrils flared, and he moaned like he was tasting it for the first time.

This image of him was hot-ironed into Allie’s brain for eternity.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” A voice from the bakery carried to them, breaking whatever spell the powerful Mage had put her under. Allie fumbled with her apron, all too interested in the clean state of her fingers.

“Coming,” Dominic growled, low and annoyed. He left the kitchen muttering words about locked doors and murder.

Dominic had been surprised at the amount of restraint he’d shown by not licking the cream off Allie’s lips, especially as she parted them and fixed him with that innocent-but-secretly-naughty-for-the-right-man look.

And he was. He was the right man for her, and she knew it by the glistening desire that sparked in her eyes.

That look had been the confirmation he was waiting for, if sleeping together had not been enough of a sign.

But he wanted to be sure. Sure that she hadn’t stayed with him the past weekend just because he was sick. Sure that when he kissed her, she’d let him.

Brandon leaned against the edge of the counter with his stupid grin and his arms crossed, creasing the old, brown leather jacket he wore.

“What.”

“It’s impossible you’re already this broody,” Brandon remarked. “You’re not even open yet.”

“Exactly,” Dom snarled. “So why are you here?”

“Why is your face red?”

“It’s not.” Dominic rounded the counter and draped his arm over his friend’s shoulders, guiding him back to the exit. “Thanks for stopping by.”

Brandon dug his heels into the ground and stopped them in place. “As much as I love the warm welcome, I’m here for a reason.” Dominic doubted it was important enough to interrupt his moment with Allie.

“Hey, Dom?” Both men turned to face the counter, where Allie stood holding his notebook and a pencil. Her face was still deliciously red, and her chest rose with uneven breaths that told him she was as affected as him. His smirk faded when she said, “Brandon. Good morning.”

His friend looked between her and Dominic and gave him the smuggest look he’d ever seen on Brandon’s face. He greeted Allie, eyes still on Dom. Allie raised her index finger and turned back to the kitchen.

“I see,” Brandon said, the word longer than necessary.

“You see nothing. Why are you here?”

“Next weekend I’m going to visit the Sanders, and I want you to come with. Mrs. Sanders keeps asking about you, and she insists I’m the one who doesn’t let you tag along.” They scoffed in unison at the silliness of the thought.

“I’ll come,” Dom rushed the words out and urged Brandon to the door again.

“Wait!” Allie jogged from the kitchen. “Here.” She offered Brandon a brown paper bag, then stepped closer to Dominic. Like her place was next to him.

Damn right it is.

Her scent curled around him, and he formed tight fists to keep from pulling her into his arms.

“Thanks, Allie.” Brandon opened the bag and pulled out a croissant, biting greedily into it. “Hmm. What’s in it?” he asked around the full bite.

“Hazelnut cream,” Allie answered, then swept her gaze from Dominic’s fist up his arm, to his lips and eyes. “My new favorite flavor.”