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She smiled at the way his mouth twitched. “Don’t you dare say homey. That means it’s a mess.”
“Cozy. Lived in.” For a moment, his eyes took on a faraway look.
To the past?
“Hot chocolate?” After plugging in the tree lights, she walked into the kitchen, and he took a seat at the island.
“I’m game to try it.”
After grabbing a pitcher from the refrigerator, she turned to him. “You afraid of spice?”
He met her gaze. “It’s my favorite thing.”
Why did she think they were no longer talking about food?
She bent to retrieve a pan from a cupboard, then filled it with a generous amount of the batch she’d made yesterday. After putting it on a burner on low heat, she turned back to him and rested her hips against the counter. “I need to get out of these shoes.” And the corset. But she didn’t want to say that to him. “Make yourself comfortable.”
“It’s easy to do here.”
Abigail walked past him, forcing herself to continue rather than stop to inhale his spicy scent or beg him to kiss her again.
In her bedroom, she removed her boots, then reached behind her to loosen the corset. A stubborn knot refused to come undone, no matter how she contorted her body.
Frustrated, resigned, she padded back to the main part of her apartment. “Hayes, I er…” Her mouth dried.
He faced her, one eyebrow raised quizzically.
“If you don’t mind, I can’t undo my laces.” In the future, if she was alone, she needed to wear something that fastened in the front.
“Happy to help.”
Abigail turned her back to him, and he began to work on the knot. Trying to preserve her modesty, she held the corset close against her chest. The last thing she wanted was to give him an eyeful of her bare breasts.
He took less time to unravel the mess than she expected. Maybe from his familiarity with ladies’ lingerie?
“All done.”
She glanced over her shoulder at him.
“If you need help with anything else, let me know.”
Cheeks scalded with heat from her embarrassment, she fled to the bedroom, and she changed into leggings. Then she chose her thickest bra to disguise her rock-hard nipples before pulling on an oversize sweatshirt that was bedazzled with a reindeer.
Before rejoining him, Abigail slipped into a pair of flats.
Surely the way she was dressed would cool the desire that sparked between them.
But when she took her place in front of the stove to whisk the hot chocolate, he slid back onto his barstool to watch her.
When she hazarded a glance his way, his eyes were an even deeper shade of green than they’d been before. “Bourbon was your choice?”
“I’ll go with whatever you recommend.”
Because her recipe was full bodied, she preferred brandy.
Hyperaware of his scrutiny, she added a few more of her secret spices to the mixture, then placed a couple of stoneware mugs on the counter before whipping some heavy cream.
“That’s a lot of work.”
