Perfecting the Odds (20 page)

“
I
drive you insane,” she said with shock, and he laughed.

“Fair enough—we drive each other crazy.”

“Well…” she began, straightening her apron then fiddling with the hand towel tucked in the front pocket. “Do you think maybe we can handle frosting the cupcakes?”

He nodded convincingly, but his eyes burned with wicked intent.
“I suppose…” He paused. “Although it may take all night… with my irrepressible need to have my hands and mouth on you at all times.” Karis choked out a laugh then threw the towel at him. He caught with ease and slung it over his shoulder.

The sexy bastard wasn’t lying. It took
Karis nearly a half hour to set up the cupcake tray and supplies for decorating. So he explained with convincing detail, Michael was so turned on by her Pastry chef-sized pantry of decorating supplies, he couldn’t help but pull her in there to have a naughty make-out session. By the time they made their way back to the counter, she was flushed and trembling. Her hands were not nearly as steady as they needed to be to pipe frosting, and she was growing more frustrated with each failed attempt.

“Here,” he said
, placing his hand on her upper back. “Maybe if I rub your back, it will calm you down enough to finish.” He didn’t wait for her answer and in long methodical strokes, began moving his hand from just below her neck down to the curve of her hip. She turned and glared at him, and tried really hard not to recognize how sexy the man looked in an apron.

“Michael,” she
reprimanded.

“Yes,
Karis.” His lips twitched, indicating he knew exactly what he was doing. 

“You’re touching me. How the hell will that settle me down?”

“It won’t?”

“Very good. It won’t.”

He pouted. “Sorry.”

She huffed out a breath and rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to stop, are you?”

He wrinkled his nose. “Thing is, I’m not sure I can. I’m committed to the hands and mouth rule.”

She smiled
shrewdly. “Fine. Then perhaps I should give your hands something else to do.” She almost laughed when his eyes lit with excitement. “
You
can frost the cupcakes, under my supervision of course.”

He frowned then his
eyes widened. “I can’t do that,” he argued, looking again nervous about such a task.

“Yes, you can,” she said
. Then she firmly placed a second the pastry tube in his hand before he could argue further. She physically had to turn his hips toward the tray of cupcakes.

***

Michael stared at the mission before him. If he hadn’t been sporting a five-hour long boner, the task before him may have been simple, or even fun. Unfortunately, when he said she was driving him crazy, he wasn’t lying.  After going down on her, his brain hardwired an image of sliding into Karis’s wet heat, and now visions of her in nothing but that little apron as he licked frosting off every inch of her body had him at the precipice of control.  A lesser man would be begging for a blow job right now. In fact, he’d never had to ask for anything. Women were always ready and willing. But he didn’t want just any woman. He wanted Karis, who was currently spooning the damn frosting into the bag with so much vigor, her jostling breasts had him fighting back the urge to blow his load right in his pants for the first time since…ever.

“Watch me
carefully, Michael. Grip the bag with two hands.” Well, fuck. “Good, now tilt it at a forty-five degree angle….Mm-hmm, perfect.  Now, it’s important to apply steady pressure. If you squeeze too hard, it’s bound to go everywhere.”
You’re kidding me? “
Watch me first. Circle the perimeter once, twice and once you get to the middle, don’t pull out but press the tip in the center and add a bit more pressure...then pull out. Yessss,” she moaned. “See, a perfect execution?” When she met his gaze, she winked.

He narrowed his eyes
, and she bit down on that addicting lower lip. “Oh, sweetheart, you’re going to pay for that.”

Karis stepped back from Michael. “Pay for what? What did I do,” she said with mock surprise. But one look into his eyes, and she knew she was in for it. But teasing him was just too good to pass up. “Wait,” she rushed just as he took one more step toward her. He lifted his brow. “I promise I won’t tease you with frosting again.”

“Not good enough.”

“I’ll make it up to you?”

He stopped and tilted his head in that oh-so-sexy way. “When?
”

“Soon?”

“How soon,” he asked before leaning back against the door counter.

“Well…no
t now, but only because my kids will be home soon. It’s late, and your probably hungry again, so how about I make us something to eat, and we’ll save the…uh…dessert for next time?” By the time she finished her rambling plea, her voice was high-pitched and frantic.

“Why are you so flustered,
Karis?”

“Well,
you’re standing looking all…all God-like and intimidating. How else am I supposed to act!”

“God-like, huh.” He grinned smugly, inching closer toward her.

“Yeah,” she whispered, looking down.

He wrapped his arms around her
waist, yanking her close. “I think that adjective redeemed your laughing at my boxers earlier.” 

She smiled t
hen wrinkled her nose. “Guess it was sorta mean to tease you, huh?”

“I’ll survive, and I’m definitely hungry, Karis.”

She breathed a sigh of relief then beamed up at him. “Great
!” Reluctantly, he let her go to prepare a late night snack. She decided to make omelets filled with fresh veggies, the quintessential late night meal in her household. Michael watched her dance around the kitchen with ease.

When they sat down to eat, he gushed praise after
praise about the meal. They both put aside the sexual tension—well, as best as they could--and picked up the conversation from their earlier meal. Michael detailed his latest dissertation and courses, and Karis described anecdotes about the life of an English teacher with two small children in tow. They both listened intently, asking genuine questions, clearly interested in each other. By eleven thirty, they had both finished off two Heinekens each and were fuzzy-brained and laughing. Karis stood up and began to clear the plates.

“I t
hink I’ll clean up these dishes. It’s getting late.”

He stood up and hugged her from behind
, brushing those damn lips against ear. She shivered.  “Let me clean up, Karis….and I didn’t think we had to end the night.”

She put down the plates and turned around to face him.
Even though Eve had texted her saying she’d keep the kids overnight, Karis kept it to herself. She had to rein in her feelings. Things were happening too fast, and if Michael stayed over, they certainly wouldn’t slow down.

“Michael, I have children. I can’t have overnighte
rs with men.  It’s too soon.”

With an expression of g
enuine concern, he asked, “Are they still struggling with Robert’s death?”

“
Actually not really. They’ve both gone to counseling. They’re quite resilient. Funny enough, Robby told me the other day that I should date more.” She shook her head. “He’s unbelievable sometimes.”

“
Ah, so what you mean is my staying over would be too soon for
you
,” he said, placing his forehead on hers. He stared at her, his eyes demanding the truth.

Apprehension washed
over her. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but if whatever they had would never work unless she was honest. “I just want to take it slowly. You know—the whole mouth and hands only rule.”

“
There are a wide variety of things we could do with our mouths and hands,”—
Mercy
She blushed furiously—“but I understand you don’t want me to spend the night.” He took a deep breath. “How about you get a sitter to watch them again tomorrow evening, and you come and stay overnight at my place? If at any point you want to go home, you can. You’ll drive there, so you’ll have your car. And I promise I won’t hold you captive.”

Karis
considered his suggestion. Of course he would come up with a plan that not even she could argue over. He even included a damn escape plan. She sighed heavily for two reasons. One,
this
was just too fast. Two, she knew she wouldn’t be able to control herself if she saw him so soon. “How about next Saturday? Give me a week to…to think. Besides, I have a ton of grading to complete this weekend.”

“
A whole week,” he whined, and she chuckled.

“Hey, you waited
three years, what’s a week between dates?”

“A fucking
eternity,” he quipped, and she laughed again before kissing him softly. He sighed; it was almost pathetic how disappointed he looked. “You love ice cream, right?”

She furrowed her brow. “
Yes, why?”

“There’s no way I’m waiting a week to see you again. I’m taking you
out for ice cream on Wednesday. I’ll pick you up at seven and drop you off here afterward”

“I’ll
meet you there.”

“Why?”

“Because knowing you, you’ll park somewhere so we can partake in less-than-civil
activities
in that damn truck bed.” He threw his head back and laughed heartily.

“
I do know some great spots,” he admitted sheepishly.

“
But I know all of them.” He frowned. “I’ve got the inside scoop, remember.”

He laughed again. “
Ah, yes, a high school teacher hears all the gossip.”

“And m
y luck, one of my students would catch me. I’m a cold-hearted battleax. Being tangled up with you in the back of your truck would definitely ruin my street cred.”

“
But it would improve mine,” he said, but didn’t press the issue, just pressed into her what the idea of tangling did to him. Karis shook her head and pulled away. They commenced cleaning up the dishes together. Soon, he was at the door with her giving her a kiss that left her boneless.

“N
ight, sweetheart.”
              “Good night, Michael,” she whispered, shut the door, and leaned back against it with a heavy sigh.

Eve barged through Karis’s front door promptly at 7:00 a.m, kids in toe and her “Hoes before Bros” coffee mug in hand. Fifteen minutes later, Eve sat at Karis’s quaint oak kitchen table, her hands hugging a steaming mug of home-brewed goodness, eager to probe Karis for details.

Karis
watched Eve study her face slowly. “Soooo, you look a bit more”--she tilted her head—“sated.”

Gripping her own mug
emblazoned with the words ‘I’m going to verb your noun’--another gift from Eve-- Karis exhaled harshly. “Nice, Eve. Has anyone ever told you to work on your tact?”

“Of course, at least once a day
in my office. So tell me how your date went? Most importantly, how was the sex?” Eve huffed as if exasperated. “And
please
tell me that he was at least man enough to give you the big O.”

“
Eve, Jeez! The kids will hear you!”

Eve
tilted her head toward the living room. “They’re watching SpongeBob. No way are they leaving that television for at least twenty five more minutes.” She leaned forward. “Now tell me he verbed your noun before I hijack your cell phone and ask him myself.”

Karis laughed. “The date was great,” she said quietly and sipped her coffee, a smirk playing on her mouth.

“Spill. Now.”

Karis’s smug smile filled her face. “Last night was perfect. I don’t kiss and tell, Eve. Just know”--she shrugged-- “I’m happy, really happy.” And she was. So frickin’ happy, she could hardly sleep last night. At first her sex-deprived evil side regretted asking him to leave, but her rational side convinced her it was the right thing to do. Michael was wonderful. From his unbelievable body, his quick, witty mind, all the way to his kind, compassionate soul. He was the most attentive man she’d ever met, and she was beginning to get over comparing him to Robert. The fact of the matter was he wasn’t Robert. And he didn’t have to be.

Karis
watched as Eve’s eyes began to glisten. “Oh, God, Eve, what’s wrong?” Karis had rarely seen her best friend cry. Eve was tough, a hard shell not easily cracked. Karis knew Eve cared for her. It was clear from how much she did for Karis, from watching her children at a moment’s notice to sending flowers when she was having a rough day. But tears? She’d sworn Eve’s ducts were dry.

“It’s just...
I haven’t seen you happy in so long,” she said, dashing away her tears.

Karis
stepped around the table and threw her arms around her. “Eve, you are the best friend anyone could ever ask for. I love you.”

“I love you too,
Karis.” Eve sniffed. “Now, did you come like a bucking bronco or not?”