Page 59 of Sweets and Sycamores
“Nothing’s wrong, I promise. I’m just a bit…distracted,” she admitted, keeping the reason for the distraction to herself.
“Hm.” His frown didn’t lessen, but Dominic didn’t press further and tipped his chin back to the dough. Allie followed his lead and managed to knead it slowly into a ball. They let it rest while Dominic took care of the bread and cupcake batter, and Allie tidied the space.
Allie had learned what her boss needed at every step of the baking process. She handed him ingredients and utensils, and since he had agreed to give her more difficult tasks—and had already caught her staring at him—Allie paid more attention to measurements and the order of mixing the ingredients than normal.
Dominic had filled all the ovens and set the timers while Allie took out the croissant dough and stared at it, rolling pin in hand.
How hard could it be? Dom did this every day. Allie grabbed the tool with both hands and pressed it against the dough slightly.
She hardly made a dent in it. Okay, so more pressu?—
“You need to apply more pressure.” Her boss’s voice broke through her thoughts. “Here.”
Dominic came behind her and grabbed her hands, moving the rolling pin over the dough. Allie swallowed a gasp at the overload of sensations provoked in her body. Her heart stopped for a moment then went galloping, raising her blood pressure and pounding in her ears. Dominic’s arms draped around hers, his front lined against her back in a hard, hot wall of muscles. She felt his breath on her neck, turning her skin into goosebumps.
This was much more intimate than the time they’d decorated cupcakes. Then, he merely stood next to her and held her hands over the piping bag, and even that had made her weak in the knees.
Now… Now…
Allie turned abruptly, thinking her boss would step away and put distance between them so her body could cool down. But Dominic held on to the rolling pin over the dough and caught her between the edge of the table…and him.
Dominic picked croissants for Allie to keep himself away from her. There was no decorating to be done, and he even rolled the butter sheets himself.
Watching Allie around the kitchen bewitched him, with her unnecessarily careful movements and the cute line that formed between her eyebrows. He knew he should stay away, but hecouldn’t, and frankly didn’t want to. Ever since she confirmed his flirty reply didn’t make her uncomfortable, Dominic had strayed away from thoughts of leaving her alone and closer to dangerous ideas.
Was there a chance she had flirted with him at the wedding? The possibility filled him with a fool’s courage, and after he had convinced her to stay until Hallows Eve, Dominic decided to shoot his shot. And even if he hadn’t, it only took him looking her over once, roaming around his kitchen in her tight jeans and pastel sweater, to know he had to at least try. It wasn’t like him to waver from one feeling to the other, but the pull he felt toward Allie was too strong to deny anymore.
So when she strained to flatten the dough, Dominic took advantage of the moment like the greedy man he was. Could he have helped her by giving her instructions from a distance? Maybe. But he liked the scenario where he touched her so much better.
He practically draped himself over her, inhaling the tangerine scent on her skin, feeling her soft body against his. Allie’s bun left her neck exposed, together with a sliver of her shoulder and collarbone. Dom hungrily stared at her ivory skin and noticed the necklace she always wore tucked under her sweater. His traitorous eyes followed it, and he wished?—
“Dom,” Allie breathed urgently, turning around in his arms. Her freckled cheeks were flushed, her plump lips parted, and Dominic’s desire flared through his body like a shock wave. Wide brown eyes stared at him with surprise and something else, something urgent. She squirmed between him and the table, and the move sent delicious jolts of yearning through his body.
You are driving me crazy.
He wanted to kiss her. Everywhere. To unravel her red mane of hair and get lost in it. He wanted to be much closer to her thanhe was, and didn’t remember when he’d last wanted something this badly.
“Mhm?” he growled, incapable of forming words through his lips that only wanted her. Dom squeezed the rolling pin so hard the wood groaned under his grip.
Allie’s labored breathing calmed down, and her lips pursed as her dark caramel eyes gazed at him with newfound determination, like she had made a decision.
“We’re friends, right?”
The rolling pin clattered against the table with a sharp sound that tore through the kitchen like claws on a chalkboard. Dominic tookmanysteps away from her, something like hurt flashing in his deep green eyes. A muscle ticked in his jaw, and his fists clenched at his sides.
Maybe he didn’t consider her a friend?
Either way, Allie could not take offense. All she wanted to do was fist Dom’s shirt and kiss him senseless, but Allie couldn’t risk their remaining time together only to fulfill her hot desire. Stronger feelings had taken hold of her, and she had to weather them.
Want. Need.
She seriously marveled that she was still standing and hadn’t melted into a puddle at his feet.
But she was leaving, and Dom was staying, and Allie feared that if she started something with him… She might not be able to leave.
“We’re friends, Allie,” Dominic ground out before storming from the kitchen like a tornado, leaving her gripping the edge ofthe table for support. He said it like an accusation, like the words tasted sour. If she were honest with herself, she would agree.
Because she wantedmore.
