“Really?” Ash rested his elbows on the counter and stared at me across the empty space.
“Oh yeah.” I told him some of the things I’d heard, and his smile grew wider and wider.
He tapped one of the cookies with a fingertip, then bent to open the cabinet in front of him. “I’ll have to tell Rafe. He’ll love it.”
“He’ll hate it.”
“Yeah, but I’ll love the look on his face when he realizes the town believes in him.”
He brought out a wire cooling rack and began transferring the cookies one by one. “I have the real Santa as my MC president.” He chuckled and shook his head, holding out a cookie in a silent question.
I took it from him and blew on the surface.
He tracked the movement, his tongue tucked between his teeth until he spoke again. “Besides, I don’t need Christmas as an excuse to make cookies. I might leave some for him. I might not.”
His playfulness brought out my own, and I bit into the cookie. “Oh, wow.”
My eyes closed to better savor the flavor. “These are incredible.”
Ash didn’t speak, and when I opened my eyes, I caught him staring at me with that hungry look that pitched my stomach into a frenzy.
I broke off a bite of cookie and held it out to him.
He opened his mouth and wrapped his lips around my fingers and the cookie.
His tongue flicked between my fingers and heat pooled in my belly.
I knew what that tongue could do… and what I wanted it to do.
Ash chewed and swallowed. “It’s good, but I know something better.”
“Oh?” I took another bite and chewed even slower. “What could be better than warm cookies fresh from the oven?”
“The taste of you eating cookies.”
He was around the counter in a blink, his lips closing over mine.
Warm chocolate and sugar mixed with Ash and the heat of sex that never seemed to go away.
His tongue swept across my mouth, and he ran a hand up my thigh.
I still wore my red sweater dress, but I’d taken off the tights at some point while thrashing in the bed with my thoughts.
The heat of his palm on my bare skin turned the low burn into a fiery flame.
I gripped his shirt in one hand and set the remainder of the cookie on the counter.
The door behind us opened and clicked closed.
Ash raised his head, ending the kiss. “Rafe. Bishop.”
I swiveled on the stool. “Um…”
Rafe stood arrow straight, his dark hair rumpled and clothes creased like he’d slept in them.
Bishop looked as tired as I felt, but something in his eyes reminded me of a man finding his favorite gift under the Christmas tree.
Any thoughts of falling asleep vanished.
