“Now you have a spot.”
“Oh, that’s how it’s going to be?” I grabbed more flour from the counter.
“Don’t you dare.”
I absolutely dared.
I smeared it across his cheek, and he retaliated immediately, getting flour in my hair. I went for the cocoa powder. He blocked me, laughing, and somehow we ended up wrestling over the container.
The cocoa powder won, exploding between us in a cloud of brown that coated us both.
We stopped.
Both of us breathing hard. Both of us covered in flour and cocoa powder and probably looking completely ridiculous.
His hand was still on my wrist from where he’d tried to stop me. My other hand was pressed against his chest. The steady beat of his heart thumped against my palm through his shirt.
We were so close. Flecks of gold shimmered in his green eyes. The clean scent of his soap cut through the sweetness of sugar and cocoa. When his gaze dropped to my mouth, my pulse stuttered.
I leaned in.
He leaned in.
We met in the middle.
His lips were soft against mine, tentative at first, like he was waiting for me to pull away. But I didn’t pull away. I kissed him back, my hand sliding up from his chest to his shoulder.
He made a sound low in his throat and deepened the kiss, his hand coming up to cup the back of my head, fingers tangling in my flour-covered hair. I didn’t care. Didn’t care that we were covered in cake ingredients or that his kitchen was destroyed or that this was probably the worst idea I’d ever had.
All I cared about was the way he tasted. The way his other hand settled on my waist, pulling me closer. The way my whole body hummed, every nerve ending suddenly awake and screaming yes, this, more of this.
His tongue swept across my bottom lip and I opened for him, the kiss turning hungry, desperate. My fingers curled into his shirt, holding on like he might disappear if I let go.
Then footsteps.
Small footsteps thundering down the hallway.
We sprang apart so fast I stumbled backward into the counter. Cam’s hand shot out to steady me, then dropped away like I’d burned him.
We stared at each other, both breathing hard, both probably looking completely wild.
The footsteps got closer.
“I should go.” The words tumbled out of my mouth, high and breathless. “I should... yeah. Go.”
“Emily...”
But I was already moving, grabbing my purse from the chair by the door. “I’ll see you later. Tomorrow. Whenever. Bye!”
I practically ran out of the kitchen, nearly colliding with both girls in the hallway. Water dripped from their faces and Alice still had a streak of cake mix near her ear.
“Emily, where are you going?” Audrey called after me.
“Home! I just remembered I have... a thing!”
Not my smoothest exit.
I made it to my front door in record time, my hands shaking as I fumbled with my keys. Inside. I needed to get inside where I could think. Where I could process what the hell had just happened.
