Paris bit her lip, and I was afraid I had fucked up. Instead, she reached down for her purse and pulled out a little fabric bag.
“Here,” she said, handing over the little cloth pouch.
I looked down at it, then loosened the little ribbon and laughed.
“I’ll be damned,” I said. “You wrapped yours.”
“I’ve had it in my purse for three days, and I had no idea what to do with it. I’m glad you did it first because this was scary.”
I grinned, cupped her face, and kissed her again. “Beyond scary. So, you get to do the next big thing. Whatever it is. I did my part. I’m exhausted.”
Paris took the keys away, set them down near her purse on the table, and grinned. “Exhausted, are you? It looks like I’m going to have to take care of you, aren’t I?”
From the gleam in her eye, I knew I was going to like this very much.
And when she slowly unzipped my zipper and licked her lips, I knew I had chosen well.
So. Fucking. Well.
Chapter 16
Paris
Tears nearly filled my eyes, my hands shaking. “Yes, I’ve fallen in love with you. From the deepest part of my soul, down to the very essence of my being. I love you.”
“Do you talk to all chocolate pastries this way? Or only the ones in your hand.”
I freed one hand to flip Dakota off before staring lovingly at the pain au chocolat that she had made and brought over especially for me.
My precious. My beautiful precious.
“Now you sound like Gollum.”
“Did I say precious out loud again?” I asked, staring lovingly once more at the half-eaten pastry with the chocolate oozing out in exactly the right way.
“Yes, and you’re one second away from petting the damn thing. I have more, you know. You just need to come to the café.”
“That would require me to put on non-stretchy pants. And after I eat this, I don’t think I’m going to be able to fit into my jeans.”
“Your leggings are perfectly respectable for the café. Go forth and eat.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to. Because, dear God, this is so good. So amazing.”
“Am I going to need to give you some space? Because you truly sound as if you’re about to make sweet, sweet love to your pastry.”
“And maybe I should. Sweet, sweet love.” I leaned forward, pressed my lips to the sweet essence, and got down to it.
“I’ve never heard you moan like that. Maybe I should have asked Prior if you moan like that.”
“Shut up. I’m eating.” I licked my lips and sighed.
“You doing okay?” Dakota asked, laughing.
“I’m doing splendidly,” I said, going to the kitchen so I could wash my face and my hands. It had gotten a little messy.
“I love that you can joke with me about pastries. That was a little much,” Dakota said, wiping tears from her face.
“It just tastes so marvelous. And yet, so simple.”
“There is nothing simple about puff pastry. The amount of folding and butter it takes to make that perfectly? So the butter doesn’t seep out into the oven and make smoke? It’s not simple.”
“I figured that out the hard way once. Prior and I were thinking about making croissants on our own, and then I remembered the last time I tried to cook with that much butter. I almost caught my kitchen on fire. So, we decided against it.”
“Look at you two, baking together and making plans to bake together. It must be serious.”
I looked over at my friend, trying to sort through my emotions. “I think it is. I have no idea how that happened.”
“It happened because you two are great for each other. I’m only sorry we didn’t think to set you up with him.”
“I’m kind of glad that it worked out the way it did. I know that’s weird. I think we needed to like each other as friends first, or at least as acquaintances before we went on a date. I don’t think a blind date would have worked well for Prior and me.”
“Considering that you grumbled at him the first time you met him? Probably not.”
“I feel kind of bad about that.”
“He grumbled right back. It was probably a form of flirting.”
I laughed. “Probably.”
“Anyway, it’s nice to see the two of you together. Gives me hope.”
I didn’t know if I should move the subject to her. “For your blind date?”
Dakota shuddered. “Yes. Let’s not talk about that.”
“You’re next, though.”
“Maybe we’ll take a break or skip over to Myra.”
“We both know that’s not how this works. I take it you don’t want us fishing in the same pool that Hazel and I seem to be bathing in?”
“Let’s not talk about that. I have a feeling that Myra and Nate have their own thing going on.”
“I think they are acting weird, too. I thought that was just my mind playing tricks.”
“I don’t know. However, she’s good about not looking at him.”
“Maybe he offended her in some way.”
“Maybe. Or perhaps I’m seeing things that aren’t there because I do not want to go on a date. Ever.”
“You were the one who helped us come up with this whole pact idea.”
“You’re right. Yet you tried to give up.”
“After terrible blind dates. Truly disastrous ones.”
“I want to apologize for the orgy again.”
“We’ve already discussed that we don’t know if it was going to be an actual orgy or only a threesome.”
“True, true.” She paused. “I don’t want to do this whole dating thing,” Dakota repeated, her voice soft.
“Okay,” I said, leaning forward. “We don’t need to. We can skip to Myra or quit it altogether. Don’t get that tone in your voice, okay?”
Dakota gave me a soft smile and shook her head before her eyes brightened again. Then she smiled like normal.
“Joshua’s off with his friends, and my lunch break is almost over. I have to get back to the café.”
“I could have gone in there today, you know.”
“I know. I needed to leave, needed to breathe, and I thought I’d see one of my best friends.”
“Still, I’m the best of the best, right?” I asked.
“Sure, Paris. Whatever you say.” She kissed my cheek, and then I walked her to the door, closing it behind her after she left.
I flipped the locks and then went back to my kitchen, cleaning up the mess from my pastry. Dakota didn’t always have a lot of time off, and while we usually all met at her café when we could, she also liked to leave the place. Apparently, today meant a trip to my house.
I still wasn’t quite sure how I’d gotten here. A lazy Sunday afternoon while getting all of my housework stuff done and getting prepared for the next day at work. Yet I wouldn’t be doing it alone. Prior was on his way over, and he was even going to use his key to get into the house.
My boyfriend—yes, a title and label and everything—was coming over to my house, using his key to get inside, and we were going to make dinner, plan for the week, and probably fuck hard on my counter.