Page 6 of Because You Loved Me

“Asher!” Noa grabbed his arm. “What are you doing? You can’t cut the wedding cake!”

* * *

Horrified, Noa looked at the ruined cake, to the baker who did not look nearly as panicked as she should be considering she was going to have to make a brand-new cake overnight or risk the wrath of her mother—which was something that Noa could tell her from experience she wasn’t going to want to do—and then finally she moved her gaze back to Asher, who was grinning.

“What on earth are you doing?”

“This is the best part.” He once more slid the knife through the cake to cut a generous piece.

Gwen handed him a plate, and he easily lifted the cake and placed it on the plate before handing it to her.

She shook her head and crossed her arms, unwilling to be part of the situation. “You just ruined the wedding cake.”

As if he’d onlyjustrealized what he’d done, Asher started to laugh. “No.” He shook his head. “I didn’t.”

She wasn’t convinced.

“This is the practice cake.” He set the cake plate down on the countertop and spun her around gently. “This is the actual cake.”

Noa blinked and just like that, she was staring at another, much larger, wedding cake on the prep table behind them. She spun and looked back at the smaller, ruined cake.

“You mean…” The dots in her brain connected. She smacked Asher playfully. “You made me think that you?—”

“I’m sorry.” He didn’t look apologetic in the slightest way. His lips quirked up through his scruff of a beard and his blue eyes glittered with disarming mischief.

“I can’t believe you got me like that.”

“Honestly, I didn’t mean to.” He picked up the plate again, and with his free hand grabbed a fork from a nearby jar of cutlery. “I just really wanted you to taste this.” She watched his fork slide through the moist cake, and he lifted it in the air. “It will change your life.”

She raised an eyebrow in doubt. “My life?”

Asher nodded with complete seriousness. “I can’t explain it, but it’s a fact. Gwen’s cake will change your life. And your opinion on weddings.”

“I doubt it very?—”

Her protests were lost as Asher slipped the fork full of the most delicious cake she’d ever tasted between her lips.

The rich, velvety chocolate exploded on her tongue in a symphony of heavenly flavors. Noa had never considered herself a chocolate lover, but with one taste of this cake, she was fully converted.

Her eyes closed and the slightest moan slipped from her lips.

“See?”

Her eyes snapped open a second later to see Asher watching her intently, a grin on his handsome face.

“I told you it would change your life.”

She took another moment to finish her mouthful of cake and began to nod slowly. “That is the best piece of cake I have ever had,” she told the baker honestly. “Truly. That’s like magic.”

The woman beamed with pride. “I just hope the bride likes it.”

“How could she not?” Asher answered before Noa could respond. He turned back to her. “So?”

“Did it change my life?” She nodded. “It definitely changed my opinion on chocolate cake.”

He chuckled.

“And weddings?”

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