I’ve got her now. Ash has the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know, and I’m a baker.
“Yes.” I indicate the bedside table where the tray sits.
“What did you make?”
“You’ll have to see for yourself.”
She bites her lip as she considers the tray.
“There might be pancakes,” I tease.
“What kind of pancakes?”
I stuff my hands in my pockets and rock back on my heels. “Red velvet with cream cheese glaze.”
She gasps and elbows her way past me into the bedroom. She throws her crutches on the ground and flops down on the bed.
“Feed me, Jeeves.”
I chuckle as I place the tray on her lap. “I’ll go grab the coffee.”
“No coffee. I have to finish this recording today. Coffee wreaks havoc on my voice. I’d prefer herbal tea if you have some.”
I don’t have any herbal tea, but I’ll buy all the herbal tea I can find in the store as soon as I can. I want Ash to feel welcome here. I want her to feel at home here. Shit. This can’t be her home. Stop dreaming about stuff you can never have.
“Pineapple juice or apple juice will work as well.”
“I have apple juice,” I announce before scrambling out of the room to get her a glass.
When I return to the room with the juice, I find Ash moaning once again. This time it’s over my pancakes. I enjoy how she digs into and loves food. I know she thinks her ass is too big from eating too much, but she’s wrong. It’s the perfect size.
“These pancakes are to die for,” she mumbles around a bite. “Do you want a taste?”
She offers me a bite from her fork. I’m tempted just for the chance to be near her, but I shake my head instead. I need to stop fantasizing about the woman I can never have.
I drag a chair from the alcove in front of the window toward the bed. “Now, tell me. What’s this whole recording thing about?”
She considers me as she finishes her pancakes. Only when her pancakes are eaten does she set her fork down before finally answering my question, “I narrate audiobooks.”
“That was some steamy audiobook.”
Her cheeks darken and she wiggles in the bed. “It’s erotica,” she mumbles.
“Say what?”
She blows out a puff of air. “It’s erotica,” she says louder this time.
“Erotica? As in romance novels?”
“Not necessarily. You have erotica and then you have erotic romance.”
I’m an idiot. Why did I ask her to explain erotica to me? My cock, which has barely calmed down from listening to her raspy voice pretending to be in the throes of sex in the closet, perks up. It wants to listen to Ash narrate naughty scenes all day long before staging our own naughty scene.
I clear my throat. “And you make money doing this?”
“I do. Not as much as I want since my name isn’t well-known yet, but I’m getting there. I have a few steady gigs from writers who release a book a month, but it’s not enough to pay all my bills. I need more clients.”
A light bulb goes off above my head as the past year finally makes sense. “This is why you do a million odd jobs. It isn’t because you don’t know what you want to do with your life. It’s because you’re still establishing yourself in your chosen career.”