Broken River - Ruby Shae Page 0,21

except anger the guy. She didn’t understand why, especially since she had done exactly what they’d asked, but all those guys had also turned out to be losers, so maybe the problem had more to do with them and not her.

Either way, she was nervous about touching Liam’s cock, but she wanted to. And she didn’t think he would get angry if she messed up somehow, but God…how embarrassing would that be? Heat warmed her cheeks, and she was thankful none of Liam’s siblings were around.

They had been checking on her periodically, but Lael had gone out to the lake, and Levi was working in his office while Lacey covered the front desk. Not that there was much to cover this late in the day. The office was only open for about another hour, and they didn’t usually get a lot of foot traffic in that hour.

Earlier, after Liam had left for his errands, she had baked the cookie dough in the fridge, and then raided the pantry in the main house for something else to make. A few people checking in had commented on how good the cookies smelled, and she bagged up a few “samples” to give away to guests who happened to come into the building. Word had spread fast down at the lake. So fast, in fact, that she had run out of samples in just a few minutes.

Lacey didn’t have many baking supplies in the pantry, but there was enough to put together a batch of Snickerdoodles, and those disappeared just as fast. Her latest project was a batch of sugar cookies she’d made using an old cookie cutter she’d found in a box of kitchen gadgets hidden in the closet.

Liam’s sister said she picked it up at the Farmer’s Market one day, thinking she would make cookies for the store, but then she never did. The design was of a mama and baby bear, with the baby sitting in front of the mama while they surveyed their surroundings. With a little bit of icing, the cookies would be great to offer new guests checking in, or to sell in the store during the lunch rush.

One by one, Liam’s siblings joined her in the kitchen, and she realized that it was after four, and that the main house was officially closed to guests. She wasn’t sure when Liam would come back, but he had asked her to stay with his family until he returned, and that’s what she was doing.

And she was having a great time.

She had made herself at home, like he’d told her to, and not for the first time, his family had treated her like one of them. Of course, she would refill the supplies she’d used up to make the cookies—she didn’t want to take advantage—but honestly, the only person who seemed worried about her using anything in the house had been her.

The timer dinged that it was time to remove the cookies, and she left the group gathered around the island to pull the first batch of cut-outs from the oven.

She grabbed the cookie sheet, closed the oven door, and then just stared at her creations until the pan was too hot to hold anymore. She set the pan on the stove, and stared for a few more seconds before she burst out laughing.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.”

Everyone crowded around her, looked at the cookies, and then they started laughing, too. Fresh out of the oven, the blobs didn’t look like a mama and baby bear. Instead, they looked like a papa bear with a huge cock.

“And not very realistic,” Lacey laughed. “At all.”

“How…?” Levi asked.

“Elle is not as innocent as she looks,” Lael added.

They all burst out laughing again, and suddenly, Liam was standing beside her. He took one look at the cookies and started laughing, too, which shocked all of his siblings into silence. Elle glanced at the group, and her heart squeezed at the love she saw on their faces, but she also knew that their shock would make Liam uncomfortable. Her husband barely cracked a smile on most days, and she’d never heard him laugh, but staring at him like he’d just grown another head might keep him silent forever, and she didn’t want that.

She slid her hand in his and laced their fingers together, and then she faced him with a huge smile and launched into a long story about the cookies. She started at the beginning, telling him about how she’d found the cutter in the