Page 41 of How to Resist Prince Charming

Lenna joined the hunt and was the one who discovered the manual a few minutes later.

“Voilà!” she exclaimed, cheerfully holding it up.

As she read through the instructions, she called out the different supplies they would need, directing Braxton to fetch them from his cabinets.

“Okay,” she announced, once they were ready to start their project. “First we need to pour the cold water into the water chamber.”

Braxton looked at the warm water he’d taken from the faucet. “Should I chill it in the freezer first?” he asked.

She laughed. He looked so boyishly sincere.

“Just give it here.”

He promptly handed over the measuring cup.

“Alrighty then,” she murmured, returning to the instructions. “Now...we place the coffee basket—” She paused to glance at the machine. “Where’s the coffee basket?”

“The coffee basket?” Braxton asked, raising his eyebrows. Then he lifted one finger. “You wait right here. I’ll go ask Little Red Riding Hood if we could borrow her basket.”

Making like he was actually going to leave the room, Braxton started for the door. Lenna laughed and grabbed after him. She caught him by a belt loop and tugged him back. He turned toward her as she did so and gave her a devastating, yet ornery, grin that stopped her heart for a full second.

Wanting to ignore the sexual pull, she quickly let go of him and turned away. Focusing on the machine, she said, “Here it is.”

Keeping her back to him in the vain hope of ignoring how absolutely tantalizing he was, she put a bigger effort into fixing their lattes. “So.” Turning her attention back to the instructions, she read aloud. “Once the liquid starts to flow, it should have brown foam on top.”

“Brown foam?” Braxton wrinkled his face in horror. “That doesn’t sound healthy.”

Lenna threw back her head and laughed. How did he make everything cute and hilarious yet so freaking erotic?

Braxton came up behind her.

“Why do you have to look so sexy doing that?” He set his hands on the counter, one on each side of her. Though he left her plenty of room to move and didn’t lay a finger on her person, he’d successfully trapped her.

She sucked in a gasp as his breath brushed her ear. “Can I ask you something?”

Finding it more and more difficult to concentrate on her latte making, she managed to nod. “Sure.”

“It’s about this no-sex policy we started.”

Lenna dropped the measuring cup, dumping coffee grounds across the countertop. As she rushed to catch the clattering plastic and contain the spilled grounds, Braxton covered her fingers with his to stop her.

“Because I was just wondering,” he murmured, “is just sex prohibited or can we not fool around either?”

Then, as if to answer his own question, he bit her earlobe and sucked it between his teeth, tickling it with his tongue, just before he slipped a hand around her waist.

“Stop,” Lenna said in a throaty voice, even as she moved her head to the side in order to give him better access. “You’re making me forget what I’m doing.”

“I don’t think I can stop.” Another tug from his teeth caused her to moan. “I’ve become quite attached to this ear.”

Lenna moved back against him. “Okay,” she told him in a high voice. “We can fool around.”

His low chuckle had her loins tightening.

Lenna covered his fingers at her waist. Guiding him, she started to rotate his palm around her stomach. He found his way under her shirt and caressed her warm abdomen, circling her belly button. Every once in a while, his fingertips dipped an inch into the waistband of her skirt. When Braxton licked under the ear he’d been nibbling on, Lenna shuddered.

“You’re going to make the other ear jealous,” she purred, forgetting all about lattes and celibacy.

“Well, we can’t have that.” He obediently started to tease her other lobe as his fingers continued to toy with her abdomen.

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