Page 74 of Perfect Pairing
“Everything okay, sweets?” Leon asked his daughter.
Brie cleared her throat. “Everything is fine, Dad. Ezra just accidentally elbowed me in the side.”
I choked on my sip of wine. A terrible excuse, one I was certain no one at the table was buying for a second. Still, I was surprised when they all returned to their separate conversations. Leon seemed the least inclined to move on, narrowing his eyes and flicking them between us, attempting to suss out the issue. I watched Brie give him a reassuring smile, and he nodded once before giving his attention to Logan on the other side of the table.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she asked.
“God, I love it when you swear,” I groaned. She did it so rarely, I found her loss of control unbearably hot. I did everything I could think of to keep my cock from hardening. The last thingI needed was to pop a spontaneous boner in front of her entire family.
“Seriously, Ez,” she said. “What has gotten into you?”
“I miss you,” I blurted, my voice practically a low hiss. “I thought that kiss last week made it obvious. I’m fucking dying here, Brie.”
Brie’s entire body went still, and she turned to me slowly. We were seated so close, thanks to the number of people crammed at the table, that our noses nearly touched. Each of her exhales became my inhales, and vice versa.
“You don’t get to miss me. This is broken because ofyou.”
I reared back like she’d slapped me, staring at the side of her face in stunned silence until she angled her body away from mine to chat with Amara on her other side.
Okay then.
The worst part was—she wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t giving up that easily.
Brie may have won the battle, but I fully intended to win the war.
The second Delia andBrie were on board with the Wine & Dine event, I’d reached out to the community center to get the date booked. The only day they had available was the first Saturday of November, which had given me plenty of time to cobble together a menu. Unfortunately, I was a perfectionist, and it took me ages to settle on the perfect offerings for each course. Four days before, I texted both Delia and Owen to swing by the winery and sample what I’d created.
I might have been giving Delia a taste of her own medicine, and my work was complete when she and Owen had a moment that left him decidedly hot and bothered for the rest of the tasting—and sent him practically running away when we were done.
I understood that feeling all too well.
And now, it was my turn to suffer torture at the hands of a different Delatou woman.
The day before my event, I set my dad and Hansen up with a vat of macaroni and cheese for dinner and headed to Brie’s Bakery.
I pulled up to the back door, reversing my Subaru into the space so I could unload my supplies from thehatch. I couldn’t help comparing this to the first time I’d come here and recognizing how vastly different the circumstances were.
Though the door was unlocked, Brie was nowhere to be found, and I was a little grateful I’d have the chance to get my bearings before confronted with her and the memories I knew being together in this space again would bring up.
Once everything was spread out on the island and I set to work unpacking the grocery bags, I heard the back door open and close.
A moment later, there she was.
Olive skin free of makeup, hair braided and draped over her right shoulder like always. Black leggings that had flour stains all over them, an oversized2025 Apple Blossom Bay Fall Festivaltee hanging down to her knees.
It was so like those nights, both at the winery and in this very kitchen. I half expected her to lead me out into the dining room to show me around.
And then take me upstairs and let me reacquaint myself with her cunt.
Things between us were still awkward and stilted after the kiss at the winery and my admission that I missed her at dinner a few weeks before, but I was determined to fix it. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that kiss. About her sugary sweet scent stuffing its way up my nose again, about how it felt to have her back in my arms. Those soft, full lips against mine, her tongue slipping into my mouth.
Hell, even the moment she shoved me away. All of it turned me on in the worst way. I wanted Brie in all the ways she’d let me have her, and I couldn’t lie: her stubbornness wassexy as fuck. It’d be that much sweeter when she finally gave in and let me have her.
When I finally got to sink back into that beautiful body and claim it as mine forever.
“Hi,” I said nervously, shaking off that mental image.
“Hey,” she said. “Sorry I wasn’t here to greet you. I fell asleep.”
