How to Resist Prince Charming(31)

His cheeks brightened. Pushing off the doorway and edging closer, he examined the object as well. “It’s, uh...” He paused to scratch at the back of his neck. “It’s a latte maker espresso machine,” he finally answered.

“Oh.” Lenna nodded, feeling like an unrefined moron. “Of course.”

Braxton continued to look uneasy.

“So do you make lots of lattes?” she asked, eyeing the machine. He didn’t look like an espresso enthusiast to her. She would’ve guessed him for a regular coffee drinker.

Braxton flushed and finally grinned. “Never have,” he admitted.

Lenna stopped looking at the latte maker espresso machine to turn toward him with an expression full of confusion and crinkled eyebrows.

“So, then why do you have a latte maker?”

Braxton’s lips quivered as if he was trying to hold back a smile. “What?” he asked innocently. Then he caved. His shoulders slumped. “Okay, fine. I thought it looked cool.” When her mouth fell open with incredulous disbelief, he argued, “Isn’t everyone allowed to have at least one basically worthless appliance in their kitchen?”

Lenna threw her hands in the air as if calling defeat. “That’s it,” she announced. “We’re making lattes.”

“Okay,” he said. “Fine by me.” But when she continued to stare at him, he frowned. “What?”

“Well, I don’t know how to use this thing,” she said.

He snorted. “And you think I do?”

Lenna rolled her eyes as she sighed. “Where’s the manual?”

In return, she received a blank look. “Uh...” He glanced around the kitchen as if he thought the instruction booklet would appear in thin air before them.

She groaned, setting her hand against her forehead, “You threw it away, didn’t you?”

Once again, Braxton didn’t have a ready answer. “I might not have.” He opened a drawer and peered inside.

Lenna joined the hunt and was the one who discovered the manual a few minutes later.

“Voilà!” she exclaimed, cheerfully holding it up.

As she read through the instructions, she called out the different supplies they would need, directing Braxton to fetch them from his cabinets.

“Okay,” she announced, once they were ready to start their project. “First we need to pour the cold water into the water chamber.”

Braxton looked at the warm water he’d taken from the faucet. “Should I chill it in the freezer first?” he asked.

She laughed. He looked so boyishly sincere.

“Just give it here.”

He promptly handed over the measuring cup.

“Alrighty then,” she murmured, returning to the instructions. “Now...we place the coffee basket—” She paused to glance at the machine. “Where’s the coffee basket?”

“The coffee basket?” Braxton asked, raising his eyebrows. Then he lifted one finger. “You wait right here. I’ll go ask Little Red Riding Hood if we could borrow her basket.”

Making like he was actually going to leave the room, Braxton started for the door. Lenna laughed and grabbed after him. She caught him by a belt loop and tugged him back. He turned toward her as she did so and gave her a devastating, yet ornery, grin that stopped her heart for a full second.

Wanting to ignore the sexual pull, she quickly let go of him and turned away. Focusing on the machine, she said, “Here it is.”

Keeping her back to him in the vain hope of ignoring how absolutely tantalizing he was, she put a bigger effort into fixing their lattes. “So.” Turning her attention back to the instructions, she read aloud. “Once the liquid starts to flow, it should have brown foam on top.”

“Brown foam?” Braxton wrinkled his face in horror. “That doesn’t sound healthy.”

Lenna threw back her head and laughed. How did he make everything cute and hilarious yet so freaking erotic?

Braxton came up behind her.

“Why do you have to look so sexy doing that?” He set his hands on the counter, one on each side of her. Though he left her plenty of room to move and didn’t lay a finger on her person, he’d successfully trapped her.

She sucked in a gasp as his breath brushed her ear. “Can I ask you something?”

Finding it more and more difficult to concentrate on her latte making, she managed to nod. “Sure.”

“It’s about this no-sex policy we started.”

Lenna dropped the measuring cup, dumping coffee grounds across the countertop. As she rushed to catch the clattering plastic and contain the spilled grounds, Braxton covered her fingers with his to stop her.

“Because I was just wondering,” he murmured, “is just sex prohibited or can we not fool around either?”

Then, as if to answer his own question, he bit her earlobe and sucked it between his teeth, tickling it with his tongue, just before he slipped a hand around her waist.

“Stop,” Lenna said in a throaty voice, even as she moved her head to the side in order to give him better access. “You’re making me forget what I’m doing.”

“I don’t think I can stop.” Another tug from his teeth caused her to moan. “I’ve become quite attached to this ear.”