Page 197 of A Taste of Vanilla

There’s nothing clean about this.

Only Halston.

I bury myself deep and come with my face pressed into her neck, teeth catching the soft skin there as pleasure pulses through me. It drags out of me so hard that I forget to be ashamed of the sound. So hard that my grip on her hips may leave marks and the entire world shrinks down to her arms around me and her voice in my ear.

“There he is,” she whispers.

I stay buried inside of her, breathing hard against her throat, unable to move.

For several seconds, there is no leaving.

No Maryland.

No temporary.

Only Halston’s fingers in my hair and the terrifying knowledge that the most dangerous part of tonight isn’t coming undone for her.

It’s that she sees me this way and I desperately want her to keep looking.

seventeen

. . .

Measure Twice, Stay Once

HALSTON

My financial booksare not sexy.

This feels important to establish, because I have recently learned that a lot of things in life can, under very specific and deeply inconvenient circumstances, become sexy.

Warren King leaning against my prep table with his sleeves rolled up.

Warren King drinking my coconut latte in secret.

Warren King saying the word “lamination” in the same voice he used last night to make me forget that kitchens have health codes and counters aren’t technically furniture.

Warren King staying. For now.

It’s waking up at two in the morning and finding him still here. Feeling his heavy arm around my waist. Realizing that he did not leave me once I fell asleep, or even before I woke up.

Unfortunately, it’s devastatingly sexy.

But my financial books?

No.

They are not sexy.

They are a crime scene.

“This is upsetting,” I say.

Warren sits on the floor beside my mattress with his back against the wall, one knee bent, his notebook balanced on his thigh, and my laptop open between us. The screen is full of numbers, categories, tables, and deeply rude realities.

He looks perfectly calm.

Then again, the man could discover a haunted sinkhole under my bakery and probably say, “We should assess structural impact before we panic.”