I walk over to the tray of cookies that are nearly done cooling on the racks and pick one up to show him. “Chocolate chip cookies.”
His brow shoots up. “You made me cookies?”
Yes.
No?
Ugh, yes.
“Who said they were for you?” I take a big bite and grin around it when his gaze darkens, something heated pooling in the dark brown irises.
For me… or the cookie? I nearly giggle at the thought.
I swallow down the bite and drag my finger along the corner of my lip, catching crumbles before bringing it back to my mouth and wrapping my lips around it, sucking. “Very presumptuous of you to assume that I made them for you,Coach.” The nickname rolls off my tongue, and he simply hums with a barely perceptible nod.
Unaffected, per usual.
Or at least that’s what hewantsme to think.
But… I’m starting to see Wilder in ways I never thought I would.
Learning his tells, discovering the things he uses to keep me at arm’s length. Too bad they’re not working as well as he’d like to think.
Suddenly, Wilder’s in front of me, his large hand curving roughly along my hip before I’m flipped around, every inch of his hard, powerful front pressing flush to my back as my hips are pinned against the counter in front of me.
The cookie in my hand disappears, along with my breath, stolen by the man I like teasing far more than I should.
Which is probably for the best because I have to grip the counter to keep myself upright, my legs trembling when he dips his head and his warm breath skates along the shell of my ear. “Missed that mouth, Sunshine.” The hand still curved around my hip slides around to my front, splaying across my stomach. “Not sure what I want to taste first… this cookie oryou.”
My God.
How did he manage to make food sound so erotic, and why does it have my thighs clenching together tightly?
There are a lot of adjectives I would use to describe Wilder.
Intense. Callous. Guarded. Abrasive. Broody. Temperamental.
Hot.Definitelyhot.
And dare I say now… playful?
Not a word I would’veeverthought I’d utter in the same breath as Wilder Hawthorne.
But I’ve recently discovered a new, very surprising side of him that honestly I’m slightly obsessed with.
Take right now, for instance.
It’s moments like these where it feels like he’s… soft.
But only for me, and that makes my heart flutter for a completely different reason.
It makes me feel like this side of him, this version, is something that only I get. A side I don’t have to share with anyone else.
A part of Wilder that’s mine.
Which absolutely does not help the crush that I’m so desperately trying to pretend doesn’t exist. That nagging feeling that sits in the back of my mind, tugging at the darkest corners of my heart whenever I’m with him. Whenever he even crosses my mind.
It’s dangerous.
