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“Good morning,” Yulia called out as she met Jane in front of the bakery.
“Ugh. I don’t know about that. It’s far too early to make any determination on whether it will be a good morning or not.”
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today,” Amelia teased as she met the others.
“Yeah, it happens. Even to the best of us,” Jane grumbled. She really didn’t want to talk about why she was in a bad mood or about the dream she’d had. She’d actually rather do anything but that. “Let’s get the coffee going, so we can all wake the hell up.” She twisted the key in the lock and popped the door open.
Waiting for her friends to get inside, Jane sucked in a deep breath of the cool, fresh morning air before pushing the door closed and turning the tumbler on the lock. They had about an hour until the bakery opened, which meant they needed to hustle.
“I’ll get the coffees going,” Amelia called out as she pulled various flavors of java out of the cabinet and turned on several machines.
“I’ll help you get the baking started,” Yulia said.
“Perfect.” Jane grabbed her apron and tossed it on, quickly tying the strings behind her back. After washing her hands, she dried them off and donned a pair of gloves as Yulia pulled the various doughs from the fridge. Jane set the ovens to the correct baking temperature and got the fryers started as the dough warmed.
Silently talking her way through each of the steps kept her mind off the hottie and all the naughty things they had done in her dream. She grabbed her iPad and scrolled through the orders for the day, wanting to make sure she had all of her ducks in a row.
* * *
Jane hadno idea how much time had passed or even what time it was when she finally made her way out of the kitchen to refill her coffee cup. The second she pushed her way through the double metal doors, the hair on her arms stood on end. The scent ofhimfilled her nose over all the wonderful and fresh bakery scents.
He’s here.
“Who’s here?” Amelia asked, looking quite confused.
“Huh?” Jane snapped out of it. Damn. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
“You said, ‘He’s here.’ Who’s here?” Amelia glanced around the small dining room. “Ohhh. Never mind. The hottie. Yeah. He’s here.” She smirked at Jane and continued on her way without another word.
Thank God for small favors, Jane thought, really not wanting to explain anything.
She tried like hell to ignore him.Don’t look at him. Don’t you dare do it!
Too bad she never was very good at listening to herself or taking her own advice. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that he had turned to face her. She tried to look away … at anything else.
What a miserable failure.
Instead of looking away, she turned to face him and gasped. The look on his face … it mirrored the one from her dreams.
“Fuck,” she whispered as goosebumps raced across her skin and heat flooded her core. Her face flushed as images of everything they had done flashed through her mind. A knowing smile crossed his face and left Jane wondering if the man who had somehow invaded her dreams was some sort of psychic.
There’s no way he can know what I’m thinking.
It was just a dream. A dream where she was free to live out her fantasies to the fullest extent of her imagination. He must’ve been smiling about something else altogether. There’s no way he had a window into the way her mind, thoughts, or dreams … for that matter … worked. It wasn’t like he knew anything about her. Hell, he probably didn’t even know what her name was.
Without saying a single word, the man got up from his seat, grabbed his coffee, and made his way to the exit. With one last glance back and a sexy-as-shit nibble of his bottom lip, he nodded at her and left.
Jane felt like putty. Seriously, her legs felt as if they were going to collapse right out from under her.
“Damn, girl!” Yulia sighed. “If any man ever looked at me like that, I’d probably consider leaving my husband for him, … and you keep telling him no. I wish I had your willpower.”
“Me too. Me too.” Jane sighed, wondering if his kissable lips would be as soft and warm as they had been in her dream or if they would be even better in real life. God, how she wanted to find out. And that realization shocked her to the core.
Sure, she had seen lots of attractive men over the years. But not one of them had managed to stoke the flames like this mystery man. She wanted him more than she had wanted anything in a very long time.
Just the knowledge of that left her feeling off-kilter. It wasn’t something she was used to, and Jane wasn’t sure she liked this new and exciting feeling racing through her body.
There had to be some way to push back against it. To get back to her status quo. Her place of sanity. Before these stupid ass dreams made her lose her damn mind.
