Hot & Sweet

by Sean Ashcroft

  Possibly because Wyatt had fed him one. He knew Wyatt was just pretending to flirt with him, but he was good at it. The swooping feeling in his gut when Wyatt had pressed that strawberry to his lips had been exactly like it would have been if Wyatt had been serious.

  His body couldn’t tell the difference between pretending be seduced and actually being seduced. It’d been a long time since Kai had been paid attention like that, longer still since it had come from someone…

  Well, someone like Wyatt.

  Setting the strawberries and the remainder of the whipped cream down on the counter, Kai hauled himself up to sit on it, his legs hanging over the edge. The first mouthful of cold strawberry and lightly-sweetened cream made him hum happily, the tartness of the berries bursting over his tongue, sharp enough to sting, and the cream soothing and rich, with just enough sugar to enhance its natural sweetness.

  Kai liked to think he could taste the sunshine in all of it, the warmth of a summer afternoon, a picnic under a shaded tree with someone he could actually take home with him after. He could imagine licking the taste out of his mouth, and if the mouth he was imagining happened to be Wyatt’s…

  He should really have seen that coming.

  Wyatt was gorgeous, and Kai was still tingling all over at the memory of being hand-fed.

  Kai jumped as the studio door swung open, heart pounding in his chest. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, exactly, but he didn’t want to be caught doing it, either.

  “Only me,” Wyatt said before Kai could bring himself to look.

  That was a relief.

  “See you beat me to it,” Wyatt said, heading over and stealing a strawberry, dipping it in the cream without a moment’s hesitation.

  Kai watched him eat it out of the corner of his eye, pretending to be deeply interested in picking out another one.

  “I thought it’d be a shame to let them go to waste,” Kai said. “And this saves me being tempted to eat crap on the way home.”

  “Yeah, I figured about the same,” Wyatt said, setting the core of his strawberry aside and taking another one.

  Kai was going to have to eat faster or defend them if he wanted his share. Not that he minded sharing with Wyatt, not really.

  Having dinner with him had been nice. Surprisingly so. Kai wouldn’t have minded doing it again, though he wasn’t entirely sure how to invite him.

  They weren’t friends, not yet, regardless of their promise to try. They were just successful co-workers, and even that was a recent development.

  “So, you’re gonna have to roll your sleeves up more often,” Wyatt said between bites of his strawberry. “Because did you hear the way they reacted?”

  Heat prickled at the tips of Kai’s ears, but he ignored it and took another strawberry. “I remember you volunteering to undress me on national television. Hell, international television.”

  “Just the shirt,” Wyatt mumbled, finishing his strawberry and setting the core aside again. They were building quite a collection of those, but Kai promised himself he’d clean up after them even if Wyatt didn’t.

  “Well, it was a nice touch,” Kai said. “I knew you could give as well as you got.”

  Wyatt chuckled. “I thought hand-feeding you a strawberry was my crowning moment, actually,” he said, going for one of the last three.

  A curl of heat made Kai’s stomach tense up. “Yeah,” he agreed, throat suddenly dry as he watched Wyatt suck whipped cream off the end of his strawberry, making soft, happy sounds. “Yeah, that was good. Inspired, even.”

  “You asked for it,” Wyatt shrugged as Kai took another strawberry, subtly moving the pack over to his other side. Wyatt could have the last one if he was willing to reach over for it, but Kai was enjoying them too much to just hand it over.

  He had literally asked for it, so he couldn’t argue with that. Not that he was inclined to. Like he’d said at the time, he could have gotten used to Wyatt hand-feeding him.

  No one had ever done that for him, which, looking back, was a surprise. He should have thought of it before.

  One of his boyfriends should have thought of it before. It was hard to think of anything particularly nice they’d done for him. It was hard to think of anything particularly sexy they’d done for him, other than rolling him over and fucking him.

  Not that Kai didn’t like that, but he could have gone for a man who was willing to put in a little effort.

  “I did, yeah,” Kai said. “Turns out you’re better at pretending to seduce me than any of my previous boyfriends have been at actually seducing me.”

  “You gotta raise your standards,” Wyatt said, stepping around Kai’s knee to reach for the last strawberry.

  “Maybe,” Kai murmured, moving to reach for the strawberry at the same time. His hand brushed against Wyatt’s, and even that light brush against him sent a spark skittering over his skin.

  He looked up, meeting Wyatt’s eyes and staring at him for a handful of seconds.

  Wyatt wet his lips subtly. Just the barest hint of pink tongue poking out, and then disappearing back into his mouth again.

  Kai’s stomach swooped as he leaned in, his other hand coming up to curl around the back of Wyatt’s neck, dragging him closer.

  Wyatt grunted softly as their lips crashed together, but he didn’t pull back, didn’t hesitate to part them, letting Kai’s mouth slide over his own, a hot spike of lust hitting Kai square in the gut, making him moan in response.

  Wyatt tasted of strawberries and salt and cream and the faintest hints of a thousand other things, and it was all Kai could do to stop himself from licking his way into Wyatt’s mouth to catalogue all of them, memorize every note of his taste.

  This felt so damned good, even as Kai’s heart raced in his chest, even as he started to realize that this was Wyatt and he wasn’t supposed to be kissing him, he was supposed to be barely tolerating him, except he already liked him more than he liked most people and that was…

  Terrifying, but dammit, he wanted this, no matter how stupid it was.

  A bang somewhere in the depths of the studio made Wyatt jump back, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment, and his eyes glazed, and his lips just a little kiss-swollen and painted red with strawberry juice.

  Kai stared at him, his heart still pounding, the hot weight of arousal settling in his belly.

  Oh no. Oh no.

  He couldn’t afford to lust after Wyatt. Not now. Not when things were working out for them professionally.

  After a handful of heartbeats, Wyatt chuckled, his hand going to the back of his neck.

  “Guess that was bound to happen eventually,” he said. “You know, with all the…”

  Kai nodded, not really wanting Wyatt to finish that sentence. Or talk at all, if possible.

  His head was spinning with everything that had just happened, and while he was grateful that Wyatt wasn’t going to… hold it against him, or get mad that it had happened, he could feel the beginnings of deep, uncomfortable disappointment sinking in.

  There was no point in even thinking about that, though. Sure, it hurt the same way it’d hurt when Wyatt hadn’t automatically flirted back with him during the second episode, but… he could take a hint.

  Once should have been enough, but this was the second one. Wyatt had been too kind to push him away, and now he was being kind enough to brush it off as no big deal.

  Because he could do better, and he wasn’t interested. Obviously. He could have had anyone, he didn’t need to settle for someone like Kai.

  “Yeah,” Kai agreed, forcing himself to laugh. “Yeah, guess that was always coming.”

  He held out the last strawberry to Wyatt, a peace offering. He didn’t want them going back to being at each other’s throats, no matter how much rejection stung.

  Their careers depended on it, and he liked Wyatt. At least, he enjoyed his company, and appreciated that Wyatt was kind to him. Even now, when he’d just screwed up.

  “You eat it,” Wyatt said, waving the
strawberry away. Kai didn’t really want to, his stomach in knots over misreading the situation so badly, but he was determined not to show it.

  “Your loss,” he said, shoving the berry into his mouth and taking comfort in the bright sweetness of it, forcing the chest-binding hurt of being unwanted—as usual—away.

  “I know,” Wyatt said softly, looking away. “So, uh… see you next week?”

  “Next week,” Kai said, hopping off the counter and tidying up the strawberry cores, as he’d promised himself he would. No point leaving a bigger mess than he had to. “See you then.”

  Wyatt waved back at him as he walked away, which didn’t help Kai at all.

  Wyatt was kind to everyone, not just him. He was stupid to think for even a second that it might mean more than that.

  Besides, it didn’t really matter. It wasn’t as though he was in love with the guy—he’d just had a moment of lust, and he’d acted on it, and been let down gently. Worse things had happened to him in his life.

  This one didn’t have to hurt any more than any of them.

  Chapter Eleven

  As the day after filming wore on, Wyatt came to the conclusion that he wasn’t going to stop thinking about Kai—or thinking about kissing him—anytime soon.

  He’d been replaying it in his mind from more or less the moment he walked away yesterday until now, and it wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. When he did catch a break, all he could think of was how he probably needed to reach out to Kai so that things didn’t end up awkward between them.

  It wasn’t that he hadn’t liked it, it was just that it had been a terrible idea. Wyatt wasn’t sure that saying so to Kai was a better idea, though.

  By the time he was sitting on the couch in his underwear, barely paying attention to the TV, he knew he’d have to bite the bullet and get in touch with Kai, say something, or he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. What could he say, though?

  He’d brushed Kai kissing him off as nothing. A momentary blip in their otherwise reasonably functional working relationship, complicated as it was by the fact that they were supposed to be convincing the audience they were into each other.

  Wyatt had seen the numbers now. He’d even risked glancing at the show’s social media, though he’d closed that tab pretty quickly when he realized people were buying it. They believed there was something going on between him and Kai.

  It was what they wanted, obviously. For people to be convinced. But he didn’t need to know what people were imagining he and Kai got up to after the show.

  Especially since as of last night, at least one of them had been more or less right.

  Which left both of them in an awkward position, and if Wyatt didn’t talk to Kai now, it’d only get more awkward as time went on. And then all of this would be for nothing.

  He got out his phone, biting his lip as he thought of something to say. It had to be something important, or at least something that sounded that way. Something business-related, too.

  A thought he’d had a few days ago came back to him, and while it wasn’t the best idea, it at least gave him something to say.

  Hey, he began, I was thinking, we oughta swap roles for an episode. You make one of my recipes, I’ll make one of yours. Thoughts?

  Wyatt hit send before he could talk himself out of it. He read the message over a few times, and then decided that it really did seem innocent. Kai had probably already forgotten about kissing him.

  The fact that Wyatt hadn’t was just a part of his personality. He’d felt a little spark of something right as their lips connected, and while that didn’t have to mean anything at all, he was the kind of person who liked to explore feelings like that.

  Just… not with someone he had to work with, ideally.

  Not that it would have been the first time, but experience told him it tended to lead to disaster.

  Sounds good, Kai responded, what did you have in mind?

  Nothing yet. I figure you’d need to give me something foolproof, but I can give you a challenge if you want.

  He’d have to trust that Kai really would give him something foolproof. Which would depend entirely on how he felt about kissing Wyatt. Or how he felt about Wyatt’s reaction, more to the point.

  Wyatt didn’t exactly regret not responding, on the whole, for a bunch of reasons. Except for his own personal curiosity about what Kai would be like when he felt he could relax.

  Which would probably be after he’d come twice, based on how tightly-wound he seemed to be. He’d gotten better at seeming relaxed during the show, but before and after he was tense and serious, and Wyatt got the impression he was more or less always like that.

  Since he was a contrary asshole, Wyatt really wanted to see what it’d take to make Kai unwind.

  Kai took longer to respond this time, though Wyatt understood why as soon as he read the message.

  What if you come over tomorrow and we work on this? Or I can come to you, if you prefer.

  Wyatt wet his lips. That could have been a totally professional, innocent invitation, or it could have been… something else.

  There was that damn curiosity again, welling up inside him. He could see why the proverbial cat had died of it.

  This was dangerous territory, but… he was only going to live once. Might as well see where this took him.

  Besides, it was a good idea. He was shocked that Kai was just going along with it, but he’d already been surprised to learn that he really wasn’t so bad once you got to know him.

  Your kitchen’s bigger, he responded after a few moments of thinking about it. He really hoped that didn’t come across as an innuendo, but his entire sense of normal conversation had been warped after filming just three episodes with Kai.

  Probably because he didn’t spend a whole lot of time talking to anyone else.

  Then you’re welcome here. Around 4? That way we should be done discussing and cooking by dinner time.

  Wyatt liked the sound of that. He’d enjoyed eating with Kai last time, and he could have gone for having dinner with him again.

  Works for me, he texted, see you then.

  He set his phone down, satisfied that he’d done something about all of his strange, awkward feelings toward Kai. Knowing he was going to see him again tomorrow was already making him feel better.

  It hadn’t done anything to stop him thinking about kissing Kai again—if anything, it’d made it worse—but at least it had soothed his anxiety that their working relationship was irreversibly screwed. Clearly, they could still get along just fine.

  One out of two wasn’t so bad.

  Chapter Twelve

  “So the trick is that you’re turning the flower nail, instead of trying to turn the piping bag,” Wyatt explained, showing Kai for what felt like the thousandth time how to pipe a simple rosette.

  Despite having been shown so many times—which was probably only five or six, but felt like thousands—Kai still didn’t quite get it. Wyatt’s hand moved too fast, but it had to in order to make the technique work. It seemed like something that just took a lot of practice.

  At least, Kai hoped it was just a matter of practice, and not that Wyatt had come across a technique he couldn’t master.

  He wouldn’t have done that on purpose, would he?

  No, Kai doubted that Wyatt would intentionally try to embarrass him. He wasn’t petty enough for that, even if he was upset about Kai kissing him, which he didn’t seem to be.

  He’d get this. Every baker and pastry chef in the world could pipe a passable rosette, so it was obviously a learnable skill.

  Kai accepted the piping bag and the flower nail—which was a stick with a plastic disc on top of it that he was supposed to pipe the rosette onto—and tried again, holding his tongue between his teeth so the tip of it stuck out.

  He could feel Wyatt’s eyes on him, watching closely. That wasn’t making this any easier, but he couldn’t think of a polite way to ask Wyatt to stop watching him. Besides, he’d never know w
hat he was doing wrong if Wyatt didn’t see him do it.

  “See? You’re getting it!” Wyatt enthused, despite the fact that Kai could see this latest attempt looked like something a drunken three-year-old could have managed.

  It did look slightly more like a flower this time. Kai could see himself improving.

  He scraped the attempt back into the bowl, took a deep breath, and steeled himself to try again.

  “You just need to be more confident. And faster. Remember, it really doesn’t matter if you screw this up. Buttercream can be piped and re-piped pretty much an unlimited number of times. If it starts to melt, we’ll just put it in the fridge for a few minutes.”

  Kai tried again, and Wyatt made a soft noise of approval this time, but he knew it still wasn’t right. It didn’t look at all like the neat little roses Wyatt had made, half a dozen in the space of a minute, in demonstration.

  “If it helps, you can eat your mistakes,” Wyatt said, plucking one of the perfect roses off the tray he’d set them on and licking it off the small square of baking paper he’d piped it onto.

  “That wasn’t a mistake,” Kai pointed out.

  Wyatt shrugged. “It was a little bigger than the others. Whether or not it was a mistake would depend on how many I needed to make. On a cake with like… twelve flowers, consistency matters. On a cake totally covered in them, consistency would look weird.”

  “You know, I never imagined you making elaborate three-tier wedding cakes,” Kai said. Everything Wyatt did on television was very… homey. The kind of thing an average person could put together and get acceptable results from, his expertise only showing through in the effortlessness of his work.

  “I’ll show you my portfolio sometime,” Wyatt said. “What, did you think I was just a home baker?”

  Kai blinked. He had let himself fall into the trap of thinking that Wyatt’s TV persona was the real Wyatt, and he was only realizing that now.

  “You seem very comfortable making pies and cakes,” Kai said carefully. “It never occurred to me that you did anything else.”

  “My sugar work is pretty good, too,” Wyatt said. “But it’s too much for the average person at home. No one wants to watch a cooking show and walk away feeling inadequate. They want to believe that they could do that, too. So I stick to stuff that they could do.”