Olivia dusted her hands off over the sink and leaned her hip against the counter. Hands braced on her hips like she was ready for battle, Margot stared intently at the mixing bowl, narrowed eyes locked on the paddle attachment as it churned and whirred, incorporating the chocolate chunks into the batter. She was so focused, so—
Margot raised her head, eyes meeting Olivia’s. One of her brows rose, a smudge of batter bisecting it. Olivia’s lips twitched.
“What?” Margot demanded. “Is there something on my face?”
Her lips twitched as if even she couldn’t keep a straight face at her own question.
Olivia laughed. “What would give you that idea?”
Margot reached up, wincing as she swiped a glob of batter from the shell of her ear. “Bets on how long I’ll be finding batter in places it doesn’t belong?”
“Hold still.” Olivia reached out and thumbed the smudge of batter from Margot’s forehead. “Look on the bright side. You’re wearing clothes, which limits the exposure zone.”
“Naked baking?” Margot frowned. “Don’t get me wrong—I like to live dangerously, but that sounds like a recipe for disaster.”
“Ba-dum-tss.” Olivia drummed her fingers against the counter. “Punny. At least it would be baking and not bacon.”
Margot recoiled, hands rising to cover her chest. “I’ve never once, in all my life, been tempted to fry anything in the nude. Never.”
Two cocoa powder handprints outlined Margot’s breasts through her white shirt when she dropped her hands.
Olivia laughed and took a peek inside the mixing bowl. All done. She flipped the power switch and disengaged the locking mechanism on the bowl, pulling it free from the base. “Brad fried bacon shirtless once. Never did it again.”
“Yuck.” Margot stuck out her tongue. “Like I said, idiot.”
That’s right. She’d mentioned Brad before the batter had splattered, distracting Olivia from finding out what Margot meant. “You said that earlier.”
Margot hummed and pinched off a piece of cookie dough. She popped it in her mouth, eyes immediately falling shut, a moan escaping her mouth that made Olivia flush for reasons completely unrelated to the oven’s preheat cycle. “Damn, that’s just as good as I remember.” Margot slumped against the counter, eyes fluttering open. “You’re telling me Brad had you and regular access to these cookies and he still took you for granted?” Margot’s lips curved upward. “Clearly, he didn’t know how lucky he was.”
Olivia’s cheeks burned hotter. Heat spread down her jaw and the front of her throat, an ember of warmth flaring to life inside her chest.
Margot couldn’t just say things like that. Not if she didn’t want Olivia to get the wrong idea.
“Well.” Olivia ducked her chin, staring at the kitchen floor, as if that might do something to disguise how Margot’s words affected her. How much Margot’s words affected her. Olivia’s face was probably a neon-pink sign practically screaming look what you do to me. There was nothing casual about this feeling. “Now you get cookies.”
Margot’s socked feet entered Olivia’s line of vision, her cotton-covered toes curling against the tile as she reached out, one hand with dark red–painted nails rising to settle against Olivia’s waist. Her other hand rose, too, before sliding down, both hands tucking into the back pockets of Olivia’s jeans. Warmth from Margot’s palms seeped through the denim, causing Olivia to shiver as she stepped closer.
Olivia’s heart thundered, her pulse pounding in her temples and at the base of her neck as Margot leaned in, lips grazing the corner of Olivia’s mouth. One hand slipped free from Olivia’s back pocket. Margot’s fingers danced all the way up Olivia’s spine, her palm cupping the back of Olivia’s neck. Margot tilted her own head to the side, her lips pillowing Olivia’s bottom lip in a tender kiss that caused Olivia’s breath to catch in the back of her throat, her stomach suddenly full of butterflies.
Margot stepped back, dropping her hands, palms opening and closing like she didn’t know what to do with them. The skin from her collarbone up to the crests of her cheeks was mottled with a pink flush, and the front of her throat jerked when she swallowed, her breath escaping in a shaky exhale, her smile even shakier. “Lucky me.”
Chapter Thirteen
Rain splattered against the windshield, evergreens blurring past as Olivia drove down I-90, heading east to Snoqualmie.