I was falling for Alek, and falling hard.

I thought that much was obvious, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. And I didn’t even want to. He was incredible, truly amazing, and a big part of me was confident he was the man I didn’t even know I had been looking for, yet I couldn’t help but question how a man as good as Alek could want a woman as flawed as me.

Instead of perhaps learning things I’d rather not know, I turned over to look at him, to drink in everything about his presence, and he placed a light kiss on my lips.

“You really are something else.” He grinned at me. “Unexpected and sexy as hell. I absolutely love getting dirty with you.”

I bent over him to kiss him softly, only to screech when his hand connected with my bare ass.

“Get a move on. I’m starving, and there is dessert in the kitchen calling my name.”

I shook my head but climbed off the bed. Snagging his shirt, I pulled it on. It practically swallowed me, but slipping a few buttons through their holes would at least keep it on while I followed him down the hall. Or should I say, followed his naked ass as it led the way back to the kitchen. I wasn’t truly modest, but still, I didn’t traipse around naked as the day I was born. But, if Alek wished to do so, I sure wasn’t about to complain.

Once in the kitchen, he lifted the lid off a cake stand, revealing the most incredible work of art I’d ever laid my eyes on.

“What on earth… or should I say, in heaven, is that?”

“Pavlova,” Alek answered, opening cabinets and drawers to pull out plates and forks. It was created in honor of the prima ballerina, Anna Pavlova, as a tribute to both her talent and her beauty.”

“Well, it certainly is gorgeous,” I said sincerely, climbing up onto a barstool and reaching for a fork only to have my hand slapped. “Hey! What was that for?”

“This is your dessert,” he said, lifting the cover off a much smaller cake stand to reveal the same cookie I’d seen earlier in the day.

“You actually saved it for me?”

“Of course I did,” he said, using a silver cake server to lift the cookie and slide it onto a china plate. “Far be it from me to get between a woman and the dessert of her choice.”

“Ha-ha-ha, very funny,” I said, smiling as he set the plate down in front of me and placed a fork and napkin beside it.

He chuckled and cut a very generous slice of the Pavlova for himself. A sugared raspberry rolled off his plate, and I reached out to snag it before he could set the server down. Popping it into my mouth, I rolled my eyes in bliss.

Alek chuckled again as I picked up my cookie and took a bite. The chocolate melted in my mouth, the tartness of the raspberry serving to enhance the flavor. Swallowing, I broke off a piece of the cookie and held it out across the island. “Everyone needs a little bit of the devil to counter the purity of their angel,” I said, nodding toward the Pavlova on his plate.

His lip curled up as he leaned forward and took the chocolate from my fingers. “Delicious, but nowhere as delectable as the little devil offering it to me.”

“You say the sweetest things,” I teased though his words made me smile as a warmth spread through me.

Alek reached across the slab of marble and cupped my cheek with his palm. “Clara, know that if the dancing we do together leads us to hell, I can’t think of any place I’d rather be as long as I’m with you.”

My throat closed up with the intensity of the emotions he evoked from me. As he brushed his thumb over my lips, my chest eased, and I opened my mouth to draw it inside, sucking it as I had his cock until he groaned. Then I smiled around his thumb and gave it a little nip before releasing my hold.

He grinned and tsked, slipping his hand into his shirt to drop to my breast, brushing the wetness of his thumb over my turgid nipple. “As I said before, you are the white to my black… and are the light to my dark.”

We ate our dessert, Alek slipping a slice of the méringue onto my plate after I finished the cookie. As I took small bites, determined to enjoy every delicious morsel, he finished his and then cut a third slice. I was about to tease him about having worked up quite the appetite, when he slid the slice onto the stand that had held my cookie, covered it with the cake top, and then opened another cabinet and pulled out a box. It was a white bakery box, and he carefully slid the rest of the dessert into it and closed the lid.

Tags: Alta Hensley Crime
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