Page 76 of Holly Jolly Cake Fight
“As should you.” Laurin proved himself a true baker by digging into a chunk of carrot cake with his fingers, nicking it just right to get some of the cream cheese icing as well as the cocoa-coconut mixture she’d spread over the top of it to give it an earthy look. She wasn’t averse to food dyes in general — that would be insane on a show like this; Harper was lucky to make it as far as she did with even the all-natural dyes — but withdirt, she liked to go more for color-adding flavors than chemical dyes. “Mmm,” Laurin rumbled, his eyes rolling back, no doubt hamming it up for her. “I always wondered how your carrot cake would be. Now I know. This might be giving me an erection.”
“Laurin,” she tsked with a shake of her head as she nibbled the petit four. She did not need to be thinking about Laurin’s erection right now. She’d been having enough of her own issues with that today. It was crazy that her mind could have been anywhere but the challenge today, but her panties were telling a different story.
“You’re right. It’s you.”
“Laurin!” She nearly choked on the petit four, but it was sinfully good. She hadn’t been able to listen in on his description of it and had expected a chocolate-on-chocolate-on-chocolate profile, but there was a bright, sour burn to it. “Is that kirsch? Is this black forest?” She lifted the miniature cake up to inspect it but only got a flash of white mousse and red gel between the chocolate layers before Laurin snagged it away from her with his tongue.
Sucked the chocolate ganache from her fingertips.
“Laurin,” she attempted to admonish him again, but a flash of a memory of him sucking her fingers clean after she’d touched herself had her breathless and wondering if they had enough time before they had to go back.
Wondering how badly her sweater would be ruined if he pushed her up against a tree and wrapped her legs around his waist and—
“Why did you send me all those texts?” she asked as his lips meandered from the chocolatey fingertips to the back of her hand, where any pretense of cleaning was lost. He was clearlytrying to seduce her, a strategy he’d had great success with in the past.
“Hmm?” he murmured as he closed the gap between them by holding the plate behind her and reaching around to grab another treat for her. He’d made clever bonbons for his lights, even creating a lattice of cherry licorice rope to suspend them from so they wouldn’t interfere with the roof. She’d meant to tell him that she thought his dollhouse structure with four walls but a roof that slid back and forth to reveal either the kitchen or the café was ridiculously clever, but now didn’t seem to be the time, what with that lemon chiffon bonbon at her lips.
She accepted it with a chomp and a withheld moan of pleasure, glad in this moment that she couldn’t also be betrayed by an erection, before she shook her head. “The texts. I never responded, but you kept sending them anyway.”
He ate the other half of the bonbon, the act of sharing the candy as intimate as the hours they’d spent naked together.
“Laurin, I think you need to back off a—”
“You did respond.”
“What? No, I—oh God, did Manon make it look like I was responding?” She’d be mortified if Laurin thought he’d been having a conversation with her the entire time, but never had there been a comment from him that looked like a response to something that hadn’t been said.
He grinned, stole the briefest kiss, nothing more than a peck on the lips, and fished his phone out of his pants pocket. “See, look.” He held it up, showing her his lock screen.
It was a screenshot of the show, of the two of them working on the dinner together, her offering him a spoonful of cranberrysauce to sample. They weren’t standing all that close in that moment, she remembered it clearly, but the camera angle made it look like they were a breath’s width from each other. Candace pursed her lips, refusing to let him see any reaction as he unlocked it.
His home screen was Candace squatting down to give Vivvy a cookie. This morning.
“This could be construed as stalking,” she said.
Laurin just shook his head and pulled up their texts, this one her official Food2Love headshot. “See this, here?” he said, pointing at the extra little bubble her picture sat in next to his text about everyone talking about her. He turned the phone back to himself to type in a short message and spun it back to her. “Now watch that bubble when I send—”
“Laurin!” she cried out as her stomach butterflies turned feral and the blood rushed to her head.
“No no, don’t look at the text, just the bubble.”
But it was too late. She’d already read the three words.
He stared her hard in the eye, unblinking, his smile melting with the intensity of his gaze. “I’m sending it now, Candace.”
She shook her head. “No, please don’t.”
“Too late.”
Her phone vibrated, but not nearly as much as her shaking hands. Laurin’s own hands were full, but he wrapped the sweet-laden arm around her waist to ease the pressure on her wobbly knees.
“Go on, now. Check your phone.”
“Damn you,” she muttered, holding back tears only to ruin it with a sniffle.
Laurin kissed the corner of her eye. “Look at my phone as you check the message.”
She did even though she already knew what she’d see. She unlocked her phone and, as soon as she clicked to open the message, the bubble with her miniature picture dropped down next to his last text.
