Page 75 of Choosing the Rejected Mate
His mouth brushes the shell of my ear.“Can I touch you now, bossy baker?”
My breath catches.Even after three months of being claimed.Three months of waking up beside him.Three months of learning his body and letting him learn mine.Three months of Daniel telling me I’m beautiful until the word no longer feels like a trap.
Still, he asks.Still, my heart stumbles every time.
“Yes,” I whisper.
His hands return to my hips, firmer now, thumbs sliding beneath the hem of my shirt to stroke bare skin.“Good.”
“Don’t say good in that voice while I’m handling buttercream.”
“What voice?”
“The one that makes me want to climb you like a pantry shelf.”
A low laugh rumbles from his chest into my back.“Patricia would judge us.”
“Patricia has seen worse.”
“She has?”
“She’s an oven in a small-town bakery.She knows secrets.”
Daniel turns me in his arms, and I go willingly because I’m weak.Also because he’s warm and mine and smiling at me like I’m still the best thing he has ever been allowed to touch.
Which is ridiculous and lovely and mildly terrifying if I think about it too long, so I don’t.Instead, I smear lemon buttercream across his chest.
Daniel freezes and I freeze.The kitchen goes silent.
Outside, the closed sign hangs in the front window.Maisie is off for the weekend after making three separate gagging noises about“the happy couple”and then asking for paid leave because apparently love is exhausting for employees too.
But now, it’s just us.Me, Daniel, and a streak of pale-yellow frosting across his left pec.His eyes slowly drop to the mess, then lift to mine.
“Holly.”
I take a careful step back.“In my defense...”
“You attacked me with frosting.”
“I was startled.”
“You were holding the spatula.”
“Exactly.Dangerous working conditions.”
His gaze darkens.“You know I’m going to make you lick that off.”
My stomach flips, the bond heats, and my wolf, deeply unhelpful creature that she is, practically purrs.
I lift my chin.“You think so?”
“I know so.”
“There’s a cake due tomorrow morning.”
“There’s a mate due right now.”He steps closer and I can’t help but glance down at the generous erection his jeans can’t hide.
“That is not how scheduling works.”My voice is breathy.
