The Magnolia Chronicles: Adventures in Modern Dating(33)

"Oh. Hi," I said. He dropped his hand onto the back of my chair and gifted me with a warm smile before glancing to Andy. "Uh, Rob, this is my friend Andy. Andy, this is Rob."

At the same time, they replied, "I've heard a lot about you."

"Oh my god," I whispered.

"Sit a minute, won't you?" Andy asked Rob. "I eat donuts once, maybe twice a year so I'm not likely to share these with you. I hope that's not an impediment to you hanging with us."

Rob glanced inside the bakery box and back at Andy. "Once or twice a year? I'd heard you were a bit severe but that type of deprivation is insane."

"Severe?" Andy repeated, leveling me with an arched eyebrow. "You said I'm severe?"

"Severe is good," I replied. "It's great. We all want to be severe."

Andy studied Rob for a moment. "It's not insanity," she replied. "I don't favor sweets. On occasion, I'll get donuts or ice cream or chocolate on the brain. When I do, I put that craving to bed."

Glancing back at the half-empty box, Rob said, "Apparently."

"What brings you here today?" she asked.

"Rob has a sweet tooth," I replied. "The first time we had lunch together, he ordered two dozen cookies for himself."

"It wasn't two dozen," he argued. "Eighteen. Maybe nineteen. Twenty, tops. Nowhere near two dozen."

"That is still more than the average daily cookie consumption of adult humans," Andy said. "You're in elven territory there."

"Excuse me? What?" he asked, glancing between me and Andy.

"She's talking about witches and wizards and hobbits," I said. "Don't worry about it."

"What if I want to worry about it?" Rob asked, nudging my arm with his elbow.

I took that nudge and did him one better by leaning in, pressing the length of my arm against his. Goddamn, his eyes were fascinating. The ratio of amber to emerald seemed to vary according to the day, the light, the lunar phase. And he smelled incredible. I couldn't pin it to anything particular but I knew he smelled fresh. Rising above the heavenly scent of fresh donuts and coffee was noteworthy but doing it in a subtle, natural way was remarkable.

"Go ahead," Andy said. "Ignore me."

Still focused on Rob, I replied, "Don't worry. We will."

The t-shirt he wore was proof the angels and saints loved me. In fact, they wanted me squeezing my legs together in a bakery because his bare forearms gave me a tiny orgasm. A little squeak of an orgasm, just enough to part my lips and send a rush of heat over my body.

He reached for my iced coffee, his arm ghosting over the side of my breast as he moved. Without asking for permission, he pursed his lips around my straw and drank. The way he gazed at me as his throat bobbed, it was intimate. Almost overwhelming.

Tiny orgasm number two, thank you very much.

He set the cup down, murmuring, "Thanks." The backs of his knuckles ran over my arm and that was it. That was all it took for a third pulse to sizzle through me.

"You're welcome," I replied. "Although I don't recall offering it to you."

The corner of his lips lifted. "You didn't."

"You should ask." Then, I added, "Nicely."

"I ask when it's important." Still gazing at me, he jerked a shoulder up. "The rest of the time, I take what I want."

"That's horseshit," I replied.

Another shoulder jerk. "Maybe it is." He drew his fingertips over my wrist, my pulse, my palm. Curled his fingers around mine. "What are you going to do about it?"

I had a response to that. A wicked good response too. But the world tilted and my train of thought rolled away when I heard the unmistakable rasp of Ben's voice wafting toward me from the other side of the bakery. I was positive it was him. There was a rough quality to his words. I didn't have to set eyes on him to know it was him. I felt it like a cannonball of sweat rolling down my back.

Sweet mother, that sounded ridiculous. Really ridiculous. And I didn't have time for sweaty cannonballs, not when Rob was patiently waiting for a clapback to his grabby hands.

"Well, I'll have you know, I, um," I stammered. "Wouldn't you like to know what I'd do."

"Mmhmm." Rob grinned at me. "I would."

I didn't want to glance away from Rob and I didn't want to burst this bubble. But I had to know whether the major league perspiration was from Ben or—or I'd daydreamed his voice while Rob stroked my wrist.

I was praying it was the former because why the hell would my subconscious complicate matters? Wasn't my entire existence an object lesson in complicated? Why couldn't it be easy for once in my damn life? Meet a nice guy, go on normal dates, have satisfying sex, get married, live happily ever after. Not that I was on the road toward any of that today but I was enjoying some flirting and tiny orgasms.

What was wrong with that? Nothing. And why did everything have to be so difficult? No. Difficult was determining whether I was imagining men's voices without anyone catching anyone's attention while I did it.

I knew I wasn't shifting in slow motion but that was how I was seeing this moment. Like every second was a full heartbeat and every breath was a choice as I turned in the direction from which I'd heard his voice.