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Bingo! Just wait until I tell Gideon and Kostya about this!
“I think I’m ready for that dessert now,” Mateo said with a wide grin.
I knew it.
His gut reaction had been right all along. There had been no way that Lainey Simpson could ever have been mixed up with the Kraken, or some kind of money laundering scheme, or even cheating at cards. His woman was way too fucking honest. Bonnie, Jada, Leila, Amy, Lark or even Nolan’s Maggie didn’t even come close to Lainey when it came to honor or kindness. She had it in spades.
She got up from the table, and he started to get up as well.
“No, stay where you are. The dessert is a surprise.”
“Okay.” He flashed a smile at her. He was curious to see how she intended to top tonight’s dinner. He liked pies. Maybe pie?
He heard the refrigerator door open. Then he heard the whoosh of one of the burners being lit. Okay, it wasn’t pie. He waited, and then the wonderful smell of dulce de leche wafted out of the kitchen. His absolutely full stomach, a stomach that had had three helpings of cabonada and three empanadas, suddenly felt empty. But seriously, who couldn’t want dulce de leche?
He watched her come out to the table. For a second he looked at the dessert, but then he focused on Lainey. He watched as her hips swayed as she carefully took each step. Then, before he thought it couldn’t get any better, her breast brushed against him as she placed the dessert in front of him.
He didn’t need to look up to know it was an accident. When she sat down with her plate in front of him, her cheeks were bright red. Yep, a total accident. He looked down at the dessert. The flan looked perfect, and the scent of the dulce de leche took him back to Argentina. He closed his eyes for just a moment, flashing back to a dinner with his mom, Luis, and his abuelo, as they all waited impatiently around the table for his abuelita to bring out the flan mixto. He opened his eyes and sighed.
“The whipped cream is the kind from the can, but everything else is homemade. I hope you like it.”
How in the hell could she sound hesitant? The woman was a miracle worker. No wonder Brax had told him to be careful. Mateo was definitely in over his head.
He continued to stare at Lainey in the soft light of the dining room. He watched as she bit her lip. She looked worried.
“Aren’t you going to try it?”
“Oh yeah. Fuck yeah, I’m going to try it. I’m probably going to ask for fourths. Then I’m going to want the rest of it for breakfast.”
“Uhmmm.” She was blushing again. Finally, after he’d picked up his fork, she responded to what he’d implied.
“That could be arranged. But it’s really important that you heat the dolce de leche up properly. You have to use two pans. One on the bottom filled with hot water, and the pan on top you fill with the chilled caramel. Otherwise, it burns. I could teach you before you leave…”
Mateo put his fork down. He reached over to where her hand was balling up her paper towel. “How about I sleep over tonight and you heat it up for me in the morning?”
“We can’t—I mean, you can’t sleep in my bedroom. Xena’s in my closet. That’s her safe place.”
Oh yeah, the three-legged dog. But it definitely sounds like Lainey is getting on board with the idea of us sleeping together.
Thank Fuck.
“Corazón, I wasn’t thinking about us going to bed together. It’s too early. We’ll work it out a little later. How about that? Right now, I want to savor this gift.” He picked up his fork and scooped up a small bite of flan, whipped cream, and dulce de leche and tasted heaven.
16
Lainey bit back a giggle. Apparently that old saying that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach was true. She took three bites of her dessert and two sips of her coffee and heard Matt groan. She looked up to see him wiping his face, and she couldn’t stifle the laughter this time.
“You ate your second piece that fast?”
“Woman, you’re lucky I showed some self-control.”
She laughed harder. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said when she could finally control herself.
“That was how it was meant.”
“Do you want a third helping?”
Matt leaned forward, his forearms on the table. When had he rolled up his shirtsleeves? God, his arms looked spectacular, all muscled and strong, with just a sprinkling of hair. She frowned. His watch looked really industrial. When she looked at it closer, she saw that the time was set to military time.
