Page 15 of Dessert Flirt Repeat
“When I have a reason to—when I mess up, I say sorry.”
Something in his gaze turns playful, but he blinks, and it’s gone. I catch myself wishing I could see more of that playful side of him, but I quietly scold myself. I shouldn’t be thinking of him in that way. I should be focused on the moment and the fact that he even agreed to come here and meet me.
“So are you going to be in these sexy videos?” he asks, throwing me off.
“Oh, um, no.”
He frowns. “How’s that gonna work then?”
“What do you mean?”
“Were you thinking of just filming metal scoops dragging through ice cream in slo-mo with porno music playing in the background?”
I cross my arms. “No. Er, um, maybe.”
This time when he smiles, it reaches his eyes. And even though I feel absolutely ridiculous and completely out of my element talking to this guy who is sex on two very muscular legs, I also feel happy—proud of myself, even—for getting him to flash such a pure, giddy smile.
“You do some pretty suggestive things with the food in your videos. Always to some sexy slow jam,” I say. “I’ve seen the way you…handle…certain ingredients. That thing you do with the grapefruit halves…how you run your fingers along the membrane really fast…”
The image of him practically fingering citrus fruit at lightning speed flashes in my mind. I almost choke.
“And remember that time you prepared that phallic pastry thing with the mascarpone berry sauce that was clearly supposed to look like…like…”
Gage purses his lips together like he’s trying not to laugh. “Like?”
My skin turns hot yet again. “You know what I mean.”
“Why don’t you want to be in the videos?” he asks.
I honk out a laugh. He looks at me like he couldn’t be more confused.
I gesture along the length of myself while I sit. “I’m not exactly what anyone thinks of when they imagine sex appeal or superhot TikTok video.”
The way he frowns, like he couldn’t be more confused, throws me. Is that because he thinks what I’ve said is ridiculous? Is it because he thinks…that I could actually be sexy?
I shove away the thought. No way. A guy as off-the-charts hot and brooding would never think I’m sexy.
I’m the walking, talking human version of vanilla, remember?
“So what? You want me to do some sexy stuff with your ice cream and you film it for your TikTok?”
“Yes.”
He shakes his head. “I can’t.”
My heart sinks. “Why not?”
“Because this isn’t my shop. Yeah, I could be in some videos, serving up ice cream, but that might not get you the kind of traction you want. If I’m the only person people see in those videos, it might just drive them to my TikTok.”
“Oh. I didn’t even think about that.”
“This is your shop, Becca. You own this place. You should be the face of your business. You should be in the videos, too, so people know it’s your ice cream—so they know it’s you.”
Just the thought of doing what Gage does—act so unapologetically sexy on camera over and over and over—makes all the nerves inside of me go haywire.
He must be able to tell because his expression turns sympathetic as he looks at me.
“What if we’re in the videos together?” I blurt.
