“You bake for the class?” Lucas frowned. “What kind of teacher are you? All the kids must be in love with you.”
She laughed. “They’re not to eat. They’re for the class to decorate. They’re dinosaur cookies.” She tentatively lifted one up with the edge of her fingertips. “This one’s a T-Rex, see?”
He walked over and looked at it. The shape had the barest resemblance to the king of dinosaurs. It still looked good enough to eat, though. “You want me to check if they’re edible?” he asked her. “You wouldn’t want to give the class a bad batch.”
He reached out for a cookie and she batted his hand away. “Not that one,” she said. Instead she picked one up from the other side of the tray. He frowned, trying to work out what kind of dinosaur it was.
“Is it a velociraptor?” he asked her, trying to think of all the different names. “Or a diplodocus?”
“It’s supposed to be a triceratops,” she said, sighing. “But it looks more like an egg, so you can have that one.”
He took a bite, savoring the sugar and vanilla as it coated his tongue. “Well it tastes a lot better than it looks.”
“Am I supposed to be flattered?” she asked him, raising an eyebrow.
“Nope. Just telling you how it is. You’re a better cook than you are dinosaur maker. Isn’t that a good thing?” He winked. “Maybe I should try another one, just to be sure.”
“They’re all the same,” she said, shaking her head. “One batch of dough, fifty cookies.”
“But what if being shaped as a T-Rex makes it taste different?” he asked her, trying to keep his voice serious. “Shouldn’t I try it out for the kids’ sake?”
“If you touch it, you die. I’ve spent all evening making these damn things.” She folded her arms in front of her chest. “I have twenty children in my class and they need two cookies each, plus enough extra to throw away every time they drop one.”
“If they drop them, you should bring them home to me. Throwing them away would be a waste.”
“Since when did you become a cookie monster?”
“Since I walked in the door.”
“Well I’m glad I’ve impressed you.”
He stepped toward her, sliding his hands around her waist. “You don’t need to cook to impress me.”
“I don’t?” There was that smile on her face again, innocent yet with an edge of wicked.
“Nope. I just have to look at you to be impressed.” He lowered his mouth to her ear, pressing his lips against the soft shell. “Want to feel how impressed I am?”
“I can feel it,” she whispered back. “But that doesn’t impress me much.”
Lucas marveled again at how easy it was being with her. How easy it was to have a crazy conversation about cookies and make each other laugh. Not to mention how easily she turned him on, with only one look from those melted-chocolate eyes.
He wanted more. Even though he knew it could be bad for them both.
“Let’s go to your room,” he said, leaning down to press his forehead against hers. God, she was beautiful. “The smell of those cookies is making me hungry.”
A slow grin broke out across her lips. “Sure, Lieutenant. Show me how impressive you can be.”
* * *
“You okay?” Lucas asked her, his voice thick and low. He pressed his mouth to her bare shoulder, kissing her over-heated skin.
“Mmm,” Ember replied. It was all she could vocalize right now. She felt too good, too warm, too everything to actually form words with her tongue. It was hard to decide what she liked more – their intense love-making or the sensual glow afterward, when he wrapped his arms around her and pressed his chest into her spine, the two of them curving against each other like perfectly-cut puzzle pieces.
She was enjoying this way too much for somebody who wanted to take things slowly. Her thoughts turned back to her conversation with Ally the morning after they’d first been together, and her friend’s assertion that Ember was falling for Lucas. Was it true? Maybe, but she really didn’t want to go there.
They’d agreed not to define what was going on between them. He’d been honest that his work was going to make things difficult. She had to accept it for now.
Lucas’ stomach rumbled against her ear.