I wasn’t sure I’d ever had the urge to lick a man’s skin before.
Maybe it was the bakery. Maybe I was hungry.
I heard Bastien’s voice in my head, along with a burst of wicked laughter:Oh, you’re hungry all right.
Jiminy cricket, why was I acting like Bastien was my BFF? I was getting way too comfy here.
“Avery?”
It took me a second to realize Beck was talking to me, that he had already been talking to me and I’d been spaced out thinking about licking his skin like an ice cream cone and then telling Bastien all about it.
“Um… yeah?”
Beck grinned, like he knew exactly what I’d been thinking. “You wanted to talk to me?”
“Oh… yeah.” I took a deep breath, trying to think of a good place to start. “I wanted to apologize.”
“Apologize?” He looked genuinely surprised. “For what?”
“For not being here more, and for…” I exhaled. “For avoiding you the last couple of days.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” He walked toward me and placed his hands on my shoulders. There was nothing but kindness and warmth in his brown eyes. The problem was his hands on my bare skin were sending another kind of warmth to parts of my body that shouldnotbe part of this conversation. “You have nothing toapologize for, cupcake. There’s no pressure. I just figured you’d changed your mind, which you’re entitled to do.”
I shook my head. “It’s not that. It’s just…”
“Just…?” His voice was gentle.
“I didn’t expect any of this.”
“The bakery?”
“Not that.” I’d known I’d inherited the bakery, although it was true that the idea was a lot more appealing now that I was in Blackwell Hollow. “The stuff with you. With Noah.”
With Dane. No. There was nothing — absolutely nothing — between Dane Calder and me.
“Ah.” Beck lifted his eyebrows. “Too much the other night?”
I chewed my lower lip. “No. That’s the problem actually. It was exactly what I wanted.”
“With me or with Noah? Or… both?”
“I don’t know.” I did know, but I wasn’t ready to say it out loud. “I… I kissed him by the lake the other day, and then I felt weird and guilty, because I’d already kissed you. And then the same night I kissed Noah at the lake you… we…”
“I made you come in the kitchen.” He sounded pleased with himself, but I couldn’t be mad, because just hearing him say the words made me wet.
Made me want him again. All of him this time.
I nodded.
He lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him. “I meant what I said. You’re the one calling the shots here. There’s no pressure. And if you decide you want to fuck Noah — or even Dane?— ”
“I definitely don’t want to… fudge Dane.”
Liar.
His expression said he didn’t believe me. “But if you did, that would be okay too. Not saying I wouldn’t be jealous, because after the other night, I only want more of you, but like I said, it’syour call.” He hesitated. “And if you decided you wanted Noah and me at the same time…”
I held my breath, hating the fact that my embarrassment mingled with something like hope.