Page 33 of Delicious

“I think you know I want you too,” Marco murmured and then kissed him again.

Even though he’d been attempting to resist this man for less than a week, giving in felt like peace after a hard-fought battle.

But with Andrew’s tongue in his mouth and his hands stroking across Marco’s shoulders, it felt less like a bloodless accord and more like a whole body surrender.

“God,” Andrew groaned deep in his throat as Marco’s mouth found his neck, nibbling at the tendon there. “You’re too good at that. Too good at everything.”

“It’s the Moretti in me,” Marco admitted, panting as their hips aligned better. Andyes,he might actually come in his pants like that randy boy he wasn’t anymore.

“No.” Andrew leaned back against the tree, putting an inch or two of distance between them. It felt like a mile. Or maybe that was the look in his blue eyes. Hard, suddenly, and determined.

“No?”

“You think I want you because you’re a Moretti?—”

“Apparently we’re an irresistible bunch,” Marco interrupted wryly. He didn’tlikeit, but he could see the truth in Marcella’s argument. Izzy alone made her point, and there’d been many, many others besides her.

“No,” Andrew repeated. Then he laughed self-consciously. “You really don’t know, do you?”

Marco shook his head, because apparently he didn’t.

“I only had the world’s worst andmostobvious crush on you in high school. I couldn’t get enough of you.”

“But you and Marcella?—”

“Oh, we were friends. For sure. She took pity on me, a little, I think. Actually encouraged me to go to Paris, which frankly,wasthe best way to get over it.” Andrew’s eyes were a fathomless blue now, and Marco wanted to get lost in them. “Though I suppose the jury’s out on whether I everreallygot over it.”

“I don’t want you to be over it,” Marco said gruffly. “Why didn’t you justsay?”

“Because it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference back then. And now? Well . . .I didn’t know . . .I didn’t know I still had it in me. Not until we met at the coffee shop and you looked so fucking poleaxed at how I’d grown up.”

“You came intending to say no, and you just . . .” Marco trailed off. Andrew had said it himself last night. He’d come to the Beanery thinking he might ask Marco out. Not that he’dworkfor him.

“Couldn’t resist?” Andrew teased and pressed a light kiss to Marco’s mouth. “You’re very persuasive, it turns out.”

“I didn’t doanypersuading,” Marco protested. He’d barely gotten a word in, too shocked at how attractive Andrew was. How attracted to him he was.

Andrew’s hands curled into his hair at the base of his neck and tugged in an unexpected and highly arousing way. “You looked desperate and I felt bad. Also, I’m still looking around for a good spot for the bakery, so it seemed like a decent enough way to pass the time. And to get closer to you.”

“But—” Marco took a deep breath. “Now youworkfor me.”

“That would be very, very easy to remedy.”

“But the dessert menu!Daniel.I need—” Would he say fuck it to those things? He might. It would not be the kind of thing a responsible and business-minded Moretti might do. But it might be exactly the kind of thing an in-love Moretti might do. Case in point: Luca fucking off to the wilds of South Carolina when he’d fallen in love with his now-husband, Oliver.

“No need to worry about me. I said I’d give you a month or two to train Daniel, and that was before I even knew how promising he was.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to poach him,” Marco warned.

“No. No, of course not. I only mean Iwantto train him. He’s perfect for you, Marco. Perfect to be your head pastry chef. Responsible and dependable, without too much imagination.”

Marco heard what he wasn’t saying. That Andrew would be bored in a week. Less, probably.

“So what, we need to keep our hands to ourselves for a month or two?” Marco wanted to protest that Andrewdefinitelyshouldn’t have kissed him then. Now that he knew what he tasted like and smelled like andfeltlike, it was going to be pure fucking torture to not do it again, andmore.

Andrew laughed. “No. Well. Maybe for a few days. Depending on how good Dario is.”

“Dario?”

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