With a devilish glint in her eye, Sophie lowered herself until her face lined up with his cock and her warm breath permeated the fabric of his shorts. Then she placed a searing kiss on the sensitive head and whispered, “Down, boy.”
“Fucking Christ, Soph.”
Before he had the chance to recover, she walked away with an exaggerated swing in her hips, peering back at him over her shoulder like a cat that ate the canary.
“Oh, you’re so going to pay for that later.”
She’d already made her way into the bedroom where he could no longer see her, but she made sure he could hear her just fine. “Promises, promises…”
Xan couldn’t help his strangled chuckle. He shook his head as he set the shower spray to balls-freezing temps. It was either that or taking himself in hand, and he had no desire to do anything with his cock unless it involved his sexy baker.
After the quickest shower of his life, he donned a fresh pair of shorts and padded out to see what had Soph so excited. “All right, you saucy wench, what is it you’re up to out here?”
He took a seat on a stool at the breakfast bar and thanked her for the bottle of water she placed in front of him.
“Okay, so you know how the bakery hasn’t been doing great the last couple of years because of all the crazy-compulsive-health-nuts—”
Xan raised a brow and cleared his throat a tad dramatically.
A slight blush crept into the apples of her cheeks with her wincing smile. “I meaaaan,” she dragged out while rethinking her words, “because of all the positive life changes people are making?”
He couldn’t help the chuckle at her expense as he raised the bottle to his lips and took several long drinks. “Much better. Go on.”
“Well, I started wondering if maybe I shouldn’t use the old if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em tactic and try to come up with healthier recipes that stay true to the flavors Grams created, but are less of a diabetic’s nightmare.”
He stopped mid-gulp. “Healthy cake balls? Can you do that?”
“Cake truffles. And not ‘healthy’ exactly, but definitely ‘healthi-er’. I’m not under the illusion that I can make some kind of magical sugar-free, calorie-free dessert of the gods. But I’ve already made adjustments to my standard white cake recipe and nailed something that tastes almost just as good and only has a fraction of the calories and almost no sugar.”
She grabbed a cupcake from the cooling rack and placed it on a napkin in front of him like she was offering him a golden chalice. “Here, tell me what you think.”
Xander stared down at the mini dessert with equal parts fear and anticipation. Sophie was obviously determined to make this work, but he wasn’t sure something like a cupcake could still taste good after removing all the bad stuff that made it taste good in the first place. And what should he say if he didn’t like it? He knew he’d have to be honest, but the last thing he wanted was for her to be upset at something he said.
Deciding he couldn’t stall any longer, he broke off a bite-size piece and put it in his mouth, hoping like hell it tasted—
His eyes widened as his gaze snapped up to meet hers. “This is really fucking good.”
“Yes!” She bounced on her toes with a happy squeal. “I knew it! I mean, I knew it was good, but it’s hard for me to gauge because I’ve been eating Grams’s recipes my whole life, so nothing else tastes as good to me, not even other cupcakes. But you’re a Sweet Spot virgin and a clean eater, so you were the true test.”
“You definitely passed this test with flying colors. I’m right impressed. Truly. What are you working on now?”
“Well, now that I have my standard white cake recipe, I want to work on a variety of frosting flavors. Then, as time allows, I can work on perfecting the other cake flavors to go with them.”
“Makes sense.” He glanced around at the multitude of bowls, ingredients, and various utensils that covered every inch of counter space. It rather looked like the bakery had launched an air strike in his kitchen. “How many frostings have you got so far?”
“Technically?” Sophie’s eyes traveled the same path as she turned in place, calculating her progress. Facing him once again, she said, “None.”
He raised an eyebrow. “None,” he repeated in disbelief.
“None that are good enough. Not yet, anyway. But I have a few more ideas on how to get the sweetness up without raising the sugar levels.” She clasped her hands in front of his chest and batted her eyes. “Wanna help me?”
Xan crossed his arms and absently scratched at the day’s beard growth, pretending to weigh the pros and cons. “Will you be naked?”
She grinned. “No.”
“How about naked, but wearing your apron?” he tried, nodding to the white one she’d discarded earlier.
The grin grew into a smile. “’Fraid not.”
“Can I be naked wearing nothing but your apron?”
Laughter burst from her and warmed his chest. “Be my guest. Just keep your hands where I can see them, you big hornball. This is a sanitary operation.”
She turned from him and started arranging things on the island that she needed, his joke all but forgotten. She doesn’t think I’ll do it. He shook his head. Still so much to learn. It took him less than five seconds to pull the apron on, tie it in the back, and shuck his shorts. Then he crossed to the other side of the kitchen to wash his hands.
He didn’t turn to look, but he noticed all sounds halted behind him. Then he heard her mumble what he thought was something about quarters. He tore off a paper towel and dried his hands as he finally faced her again. Doing his best to keep a serious expression, he asked, “Sorry, love, what was that? I couldn’t hear with the water running.”
“I said I could bounce coins off your hindquarters. You know your ass is ridiculous, right?”
“Ridiculous as in good or bad?”
“Oh, ridiculous as in good,” she confirmed, nodding slowly in a trancelike state. “Very, very good.”
“Well, now, doesn’t that just take the biscuit?”
Her eyebrows shot north. “Who took a what now?”
“Take the biscuit,” he said with a lazy grin. “Means nothing could be better than that.”
That earned him an eye roll. She picked his shorts up and pushed them at his chest. “Put your shorts back on before you start tenting in my apron.”
Speaking of arses, Xan swatted hers with the flat of his hand and then changed as instructed. For the next couple of hours, they worked on coming up with the right flavor combinations that used healthier ingredients.
“I can’t wait to hear what your grandmother thinks of the new recipes.”
Sophie didn’t say anything as she picked up a spatula and began folding the pureed strawberries into the white frosting. A process she’d done literally thousands of times, could probably do in her sleep, and yet she focused on her task as though it was open-heart surgery. Her grip tensed on the mixing bowl, draining her fingertips of color from the pressure.
Xan moved behind her, wrapped his arms around her middle, and tucked her against his chest. She melted into his embrace as he dropped his head and kissed the bare skin of her shoulder. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”
“It’s just that I want her to try them because her opinion matters so much to me. But at the same time I’m afraid all I’d be doing is setting myself up for disappointment.”
Stopping her hand, he turned her to face him and used his thumb and forefinger to tilt her chin until he could see the soft brown of her eyes. Sophie swallowed thickly and blinked back the tears springing from the well of raw vulnerability she always kept sealed. Though he admired her strength and understood why she held on to her brave front, eventually, everyone needed someone they could lean on and trust with their fears, and Xan wanted badly to be that person for her.
He framed her face with his hands and caressed her cheeks with his thumbs. “What would ever make you think that?”
“Becau
se she doesn’t even know who I am anymore. Doesn’t remember the bakery.” Her despair finally spilled over her lower lashes. “Every week I bring her two cupcakes—one she eats while I’m there after her lunch, and the staff gives her the other one after dinner. She calls me ‘that sweet cupcake girl’.”
“There, you see?” he said softly. “She does know who you are.”
She gave him a sad, watery smile that was more of an attempt to humor him than anything else, but he wasn’t trying to be funny. It was a rare moment, he knew, but everything about Sophie seemed to force him to feel things deeper than his typical surface-level shit. “Ah, lass, though her mind might not remember you, her heart couldn’t possibly forget. You are her heart. You know that. And you also know that she can tell a good cupcake when she tastes one, which is why it makes perfect sense to ask her opinion.”
“I want her to meet you,” she whispered. Her eyes widened the slightest bit as though she hadn’t meant to say it out loud. Then resolve settled over her features and she spoke again, but with a surety that wrapped itself around his chest and squeezed. “I want her to meet you, Xander.”
Using his fingers, he tucked the loose tendrils of jade hair behind her ears and cupped her jaw. Slowly, he brought his lips down to kiss hers with all the tenderness he possessed. For her, only for her. He didn’t understand how she did it, but Sophie brought out things in him he didn’t know were possible. “I would love to meet your grandmother, Sophie, as long as you’re sure it’s what you want. I know you cherish your dates with her, and I don’t want to intrude on that.”
“No, it’s not a big deal at all,” she said, backing out of his embrace and waving a hand in dismissal. “I usually take a friend with me whenever I can. She enjoys having visitors so the more the merrier, you know?”
She gave him a smile before turning her attention back to her frosting. She needed to get things back to their former playful banter, so she pulled back and made light of the topic. He’d noticed it was her habit whenever he dug too deep or things felt too heavy, too emotionally intimate.
At least she didn’t hold herself back from enjoying everything physically intimate with him anymore. Ever since they gave in to their powerful mutual attraction the couple of weeks earlier, they’d been insatiable when it came to sex. He still slept on the pull-out at night, though. There was a difference between using the bed as a place for mutual pleasure and using it as a place where their lust-weary bodies could entwine and become used to sleeping with each other.
A half hour later they finished their third attempt at a salted caramel frosting. Sophie broke off a chunk of white cake and added a dollop of the creamy stuff. She’d already tested it, but gave nothing away of what she thought and now waited for his verdict. The first two batches had been rather awful, so he hoped this one was at least a marginal improvement.
“Blow me, Soph, you did it. This is bloody fantastic.”
“I know, right? Xander, we did it. There’s a chance this might actually work.”
“Are you kidding? O’course it will work. Even the strictest of dieters will treat themselves to these occasionally, if not more.”
She chewed on the corner of her lip. “You really think so?”
“I know so.”
“Even you?”
“O’course not me. Do you want me to get fat, woman?”
She narrowed her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. “But you just said ‘even the strictest of dieters’ would eat them.”
“And they will,” he said. “But I’m no dieter.” Xan took slow, deliberate steps toward her with a predatory look that had her backing up. “I’m a lean…mean…fightin’ machine.”
At last her back came up against the stainless steel refrigerator door so she could go no farther, and he took his last stride to pin her there.
“Besides.” He braced his right hand next to her head then used his left to drag her hand down the front of his hard torso. “I thought you liked me all hard and rigid. You don’t want me to go all soft on you now, do you?”
The trouble with seducing Sophie, even in a somewhat joking manner, was that he ended up seducing himself as well. The double entendres were meant to put nasty images in her head of his thick cock and drive her mad, but the feel of her delicate fingers sliding between his pecs and over the cuts of his abdomen nearly short-circuited his brain.
“No,” she said. Her breathy voice told him he was on the right track, and he had no plans of deviating to another. She dropped her hand farther, pressing into his stiff length on the way down, to end her journey with a glorious squeeze of his balls. “I definitely prefer you hard.”
He sucked in a breath between clenched teeth and moved his left hand to flank her head as his other did. “That’s a damn good thing.” Xan dipped his head to nuzzle her cheek and let his lips move over her. “Because whenever I’m around you, I’m harder than I’ve ever been in my life.”
Closing his lips on the sensitive spot beneath her jaw, he stroked her pulse with his tongue and felt it flutter faster by the second. Christ, this woman would be his undoing.
“And does my unusual talent for making you so hard afford me a liberty or two that others wouldn’t get away with?”
He groaned. “I have a feeling I’d let you get away with just about anything you wanted.” Shit. He’d meant to say that in his head. Why not just sign a contract that gives her carte blanche to do whatever her mind dreams up, ya barmy bastard. Pulling his head back to meet her gaze, he quickly amended his blunder. “Within reason. I’m not dressing up in your knickers or letting you take one of your vibrators and sh—”
Sophie silenced him with a long shush and her fingers barring his lips. “Relax, oh manliest of men,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “I just thought that if you won’t put my delicious creations inside your body, perhaps you’d let me put them on the outside.”
He drew his brows together and was just about to ask her what the devil she was talking about when he felt a single finger coated in silky frosting travel down the center line of his abs. Dropping his head, he stared at the pink strawberry cream as she dipped her finger into the bowl once more and continued to paint the outlines of his muscles with painstaking slowness.
“When I planned on getting a little sticky with you later, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” he said. Finished with her masterpiece, she brought her finger toward her mouth, but he grabbed her wrist and held it up between them. “Then again, I’m always up for trying new things.”
He guided her slim finger into his mouth, all the way to her last knuckle, then laid it on the flat of his tongue before closing his lips and sucking. Xan watched with satisfaction as her brown eyes turned to pitch as night with burning desire. He swirled his tongue and added plenty of suction to clean off the frosting while reminding her of how much he loved the way she sucked him off.
As if on cue, Sophie slid down the refrigerator, taking her delicious finger with her. But instead of going for his cock like he’d expected and bloody well hoped, she paused to take time and enjoy the scenic route. No sooner had her tongue touched his skin than he released a deep moan. Licking him from navel to sternum and from one side to the other—twice—she cleaned him up and turned him on even more, if that was possible.
She nipped him above his waistband and the flash of pain startled him. He sucked in a sharp breath that ended in a grunt through clenched teeth. His she-devil peered up at him with a wicked smirk curving those sensual lips.
He wrapped her ponytail around one hand until he reached the base at her head and pulled it taut. She gasped through an open smile, revealing the pleasure she felt when he pulled her gorgeous hair. With his free hand, he placed his fingers under her chin and dragged his thumb over her lips. Not in a light or grazing manner. He wasn’t in the mood for anything tender. Instead, he pressed his thumb enough that he pulled her lip a little as he moved it.
“I fucking love your mouth, Soph,” he rasped. Her tongue da
rted out for this thumb, but he avoided it and after a few tries, she took the hint and stopped trying. “When you wrap these lips around my cock, it’s enough to kill me from the pleasure. You suck me like you love it as much as I do.”
She ran her hands down his erection, the friction from his shorts creating a wave of sensations that had his balls tightening. “I do love it.”
With the hand at her hair, he pulled her hair elastic out so her jade waves fell around her shoulders. His other hand shoved his shorts down with one swift movement, leaving his heavy cock to jut toward her. “Prove it.”
“Happy to,” she said in a rush, right before her hot mouth enveloped him and sent him reeling.
Xan fisted her thick hair, not to control her movements, but to hold on for dear life like a bull rider trying to last for eight seconds. The woman was a master, never giving him the same experience twice, or at least that’s how it seemed. She used everything at her disposal: both hands, lips, tongue, even teeth. She was everywhere all at once. Licking, sucking, stroking, tugging. Christ Almighty, at this rate he wouldn’t last.
He looked down and took a mental picture so he’d have this image locked away to take out whenever he wanted. Remnants of pink frosting that her tongue had missed streaked across his stomach, and below that, the sexiest woman to walk the earth was gazing up at him with dark hypnotic eyes and her lips stretched around his cock.
“Fucking beautiful.”
Sophie began moaning and he damn near shot his load as the vibrations tingled through his shaft. But he wasn’t about to let her finish him off. He had plans for her body and that frosting.
Without warning, he pulled her to her feet and set her on top of the breakfast bar before dragging her shorts down and off, leaving her sitting in nothing but her top. When she grabbed the hem to remove it, he stopped her. “Leave it.” He wanted her to keep it on, so he had to maneuver around it to get to her tits.
Sweet Victory (Fighting for Love) Page 13
