Maybe I was reading too much into it, seeing attraction where it was simply friendliness, but fuck did I want to be wrong. I needed Owen to want me in the same way I wanted him.
It didn’t have to be romantic, I totally sucked at romance and relationships anyway, but it would be nice to have someone to hook up with, take the edge off my stress, and chill out afterwards.
I just didn’t know how to suggest it without straight out saying “hey, you’re really hot, want to fuck some time?”
Yeah, that would go downsuperwell if I was reading this all wrong. Hello immediate letter from a solicitor.
But if I could keep flirting, maybe make it a bit more explicit that I was interested, then there was a chance he’d bring it up.
And if he didn’t, then I’d think of something. Even if it was resorting to extremes like turning up at the beach in the morning in a tiny pair of shorts. I’d freeze my balls off, but hopefully Owen would get the message.
I just had to pray it wouldn’t come to that.
Chapter Six
Owen
“For the tiramisu flavour,I was thinking we could swirl mascarpone and coffee ice creams together, and add some pieces of coffee-liqueur-soaked sponge fingers, then dust it with cocoa powder at the end,” Darcy said as he tapped the end of a pencil against his notebook, leaving tiny dots on the corner of the paper.
It was well-past closing on Friday night, but the two of us were still in the kitchen at Lick It!, ready to get down to testing out some new flavours.
And if I had my way, it wasn’t the only thing we’d be doing.
I’d seen Darcy checking me out in my wetsuit. I’d felt the way he grabbed onto my chest when he tripped and noticed how pretty and pink his cheeks went. And yeah, maybe I shouldn’t be making explicit plans to try and fuck my boss, but the signs were all there.
And if I tried and Darcy said no, then I’d back off, no hard feelings.
Until he said no though, I was going to proceed with my awesome plan to get Darcy laid.
“That sounds amazing,” I said, shooting Darcy a smile and watching him flush. We were stood shoulder to shoulder, and I was way closer than I really needed to be, but he hadn’t moved away.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, it sounds fucking sweet.”
“Great, okay. I know we’ll need to strain the coffee custard, but we already strain custards for the masala chai and tea and biscuits, so it won’t be any different.”
“Easy peasy then,” I said and gently nudged him with my shoulder. “Shall we start with that one then or did you want to try something else as well?” He had a bunch of notes written down for the other flavours we’d discussed, but I wasn’t sure if he was a nail one thing at a time kind of cook, or try a bunch of different things and see what sticks.
“Let’s start with this one first. I’d rather focus on getting this one perfect before we try some of the others. Although, I do want to revisit the strawberry and basil cheesecake we tried, because I think there’s something in that and I want to see if we can do it again. But better. I just want to tweak it slightly. Maybe see if we can balance it a little more.” He pursed his lips and scribbled himself a little note off to one side.
I nodded. “I don’t know if we have enough spare strawberries, but, like, I can always nip up to Tesco.”
“No, it’s fine. Let’s do the mascarpone and coffee custards tonight and see where we get to.” He smiled at me and shifted slightly, leaning his elbows on the bench and pushing his butt back. I didn’t know if it was deliberate or not, but damn did it make me look at his arse. It was so cute and round and I really wanted to squeeze it. And bite it.
“Besides,” Darcy continued, seemingly unaware of what he was doing to me. “It’s a Friday night. I don’t want to keep you.”
“Come on, you and I both know I don’t have any other plans,” I said, leaning slightly closer and dropping my voice slightly. It was the tone I’d found had a pretty solid ninety-percent success rate of getting guys out of their pants or onto their knees.
Darcy shifted slightly, his eyes going wide, and I smirked.
“I mean, you could. I don’t know.”
“Trust me, I have nothing planned.” I let my eyes rake over him, slowly and deliberately. “Nothing that involves anyone else, anyway.”
For a second, I wondered if I’d pushed too hard but then Darcy laughed softly. “Your plans sound a lot like mine.”
“Yeah? And what exactly do yours involve?”
