Chapter 5
Six months later…
Iwipedmy damp forehead and grabbed another load of fresh-baked pastries from the refrigerated area in the back of the van where they were hopefully safe from the summerheat.
“Remind me again why we’re here?” I asked the love of my life.Herebeing the O’Leary fairgrounds, where we were setting up our booth, along with every other shopkeeper and social club in town, for yet another celebration. Seriously, if something stood still for ten seconds in O’Leary, we’d put up a statue to it or arrange a damn festival aroundit.
“Because you love O’Leary so deeply?” Ash teased, grabbing a cooler filled with ice and water bottles. “Because you enjoy the warm summer sunshine? Because you enjoy the break from baking wedding cakes? Because you like doing your civic duty and providing sustenance to the town? All this and so muchmore?”
I put my tray down on the wooden table Ash had built by hand last spring, just in time for thelastmajor town celebration, Lilac Day. The table was sturdy enough to hold heavy trays of pastries on the uneven grass of the fairgrounds, yet portable enough to fold up in the basement between celebrations. The kind of thing I’d needed practically forever but hadn’tknownIneeded.
Just likeAsh.
“Providing sustenance in the form of fruit tarts and mini lemon-meringues? Iguess.”
“No one will get scurvy on your watch, baby,” he said fervently. “Not all heroes wearcapes.”
I laughed out loud, something I did more often than not these days, and started transferring the pastries to the serving dishes I’d laidout.
Ash leaned against my leg as he set the cooler on the grass beneath the table. Because I couldn’t help it, I paused a second to appreciate the way his biceps bulged beneath the green sleeves of theFanaillet-shirt he wore and his cargo shorts cupped hisass.
He looked more delicious than any of the baked goods on the table. Hell, hewasmore delicious; I knew this for a fact. But we’d been so busy preparing for this stupid Summer Picnic, I hadn’t had a chance to do more than flop into bed beside him in days. I wasdying, and Ashley Martin was the cure Ineeded.
So close and yet sofar.
I sighed, and Ash studied me for a second. He had a gleam in his eye that said he knew exactly what I was thinking - he usually did - and helikedit. He stood and wrapped his arms around me from behind, leaning his chin on my shoulder, and I leaned back against him without hesitation. I offered him a meringue tart from the tray and he opened his mouth wide, taking the entire pastry with histongue.
He moaned in myear.
It was the same blissful noise Ash made when I was fucking him and hit just the right spot. I felt my cock twitch in some kind of Pavlovian response. I couldn’t hear that sound without wanting to fuckhim.
Once again, I cursed the fact that we were here at thedamnfairgrounds when we could be home in the privacy of our air-conditioned apartment where we had condoms and lube and blindfolds and silk scarves and beautiful, completeprivacy.
I blew out a frustrated breath and stood up straight - because I knew if I didn’t, my cock soonwould.
“Did they have to have the Summer Picnic when it was sohot?” I complained, swiping my arm over my foreheadagain.
“Mmm. The nerve of them, having theSummerPicnic when it was actuallysummer,” Ash teased. He pulled me in tightly again, nestling his crotch against myass.
The man didn’t seem to understand that I was two seconds away from springing an erection the entire population of O’Leary would see and snicker about for the rest of my naturallife.
“Well, did Maura have to take the day off when sheknewit was the SummerPicnic?”
I gave a strained smile to Jess and David Siegel, the owners of Lyons Imperial, who were setting up their booth nearby, and tried to distract myself by cataloging all the ingredients for every dish on mytable.
“The nerve of her,” Ash agreed solemnly, his breath ghosting over my skin. “Wanting to seeThe Killerson the day they were actually playing the concert, and not driving back in the dead of night on a dangerous road.” He bent to place an open-mouthed kiss on the side of my neck, then slid his lipsupward.
I revised my earlier assessment. Ash knewexactlywhat he was doing, goddammit. And I should really have known better, because this wasn’t the first time. The man had a fondness for getting me excited in public. If he didn’t stop right now, though, I was going to have a tent in my pants the size of… the sizeof…
He bit down on my earlobe and my breathhitched.
Oh,Jesus.
Forget metaphors. I was going to have a tent the exact size and shapeof my dickfor everyone tosee.
“Fuck,” I breathed, and Ash chuckled. He took a half step away from me, only to run his hand down my back and toy with the belt loop right above the center of myass.
I shot him a narrow-eyed glare over myshoulder.
