“You’re learning,” Seth said, eyes glittering with joy.
“You’re meant to eat them in a couple of bites,” I went on.
“You want me to bite your balls?”
Clearly, we weren’t done with the ball joke.
That was fine, Iwaslearning.
“More of a nibble,” I said. “Those ones you’re eyeing up are duck egg vanilla with a chipotle jam in the center, dipped in white chocolate.”
“So these are your hot balls?” Seth asked, maintaining eye contact with me as he bit through the chocolate coating.
The sound of the door opening rescued me, Wes grinning at me from the doorway, shoving his keys in his pocket.
I loved him so much.
Especially right now, when he was here to help me with Seth-wrangling.
He pulled up a stool next to Seth, sitting almost shoulder-to-shoulder with him. “What’s this?” he asked, nodding to the plate.
“Hayden asked me to taste his balls,” Seth said casually, licking his fingers.
“Did he?” Wes asked airily.
My stomach sank. He was in the same mood Seth was.
The mood to torture me.
“You should taste them too,” Seth said. “He’d like that.”
“I’m sure he would.” Wes looked up at me, broad grin spread over his face, and I knew I was helpless. Anything to make him happy.
Even blushing down to my elbows in front of all these people.
“These are dark chocolate-coated salted caramel swirl,” I said, pointing to sea salt-topped truffles that I thought looked pretty damned good, if I said so myself.
Seth chuckled. “So those are your salty balls? Come on, Hayden, you’re making this too easy.”
“Well,” I said, bracing myself. “The last ones are chocolate-hazelnut praline with a whole roasted hazelnut in the center.”
Seth looked at me like every Christmas and birthday of his entire life had just come at once, like he could barely comprehend the enormity of the gift I’d just handed him.
“I don’t even know what to say. There are nuts in your balls,” he said. “I’m speechless.”
“That’s a first,” Wes said, grabbing the salted caramel and popping the whole thing in his mouth at once, making a happy sound as he bit into it.
“Oh my god,” he mumbled through a mouthful of ice cream. “Holy shit. I can’t even make a joke, I need to be alone with these.”
“See, you thinkI’mbad,” Seth said, looking at me. “But at least I’m not at risk of being arrested for public indecency.”
“You’re at nearly-constant risk of being arrested for public indecency, sweetheart,” Andre—who I hadn’t noticed come in—said, pulling his own stool over.
“You wanna try Hayden’s balls?” Wes asked. “They’re delicious.”
“Why are you like this?” I asked, producing another plate of the truffles for the three of them to try, now that they were all here.
“You love it,” Wes said, biting into another truffle and making happy sounds. The kind of happy sounds that told meI’dbe making happy sounds later.
