Frosting Her Christmas Cookies - Alina Jacobs Page 0,92
an angsty, emo guy with a tragic backstory. Jonathan had the added bonus of being all wrapped up in a, dare I say, edible package.
Instead of obsessing about his Christmas package, I needed to concentrate on my Christmas dessert.
Sarah had already begun mixing a huge bowl of Rice Krispies Treats that she was going to form into shapes.
“She’ll probably cover it in fondant,” I muttered as I went to collect my ingredients. I needed to make sure I collected everything I needed before I started baking. There was no way I was taking my eyes off my station for a moment.
Ornaments were a must, and since I was good at art, I could decorate them nicely. For the dessert, I needed something more, though. A cake? I did love cake, but cake wasn’t really a decoration. For a moment, I considered gingerbread, but that was too expected—and besides, Keeley had a bucket of powdered ginger at her station and was probably baking some gingerbread horror show.
I decided on miniature cake ornaments shaped like presents, tarts shaped like stars, and garland made out of sugared cranberries, gingersnap, and caramel popcorn. Of course, I really needed a tree to display my edible ornaments. Handing them to the judges on a plate wouldn’t provide the full effect.
“Guess I’m making a Christmas tree cake,” I said, grabbing a large bag of cake flour.
Sarah shot me a dirty look when I went back to my station and started on my ornaments. “I know what you’re doing with Jonathan,” she said. “You’re trying to make him love you. It won’t work.”
“I’m just there for a good time,” I told her. “Nothing serious. Which makes it even more pathetic that he doesn’t want anything to do with you.”
“He will,” Sarah insisted. “As soon as he tastes my cooking, he’ll come crawling back.” She stomped off.
“How did she weasel her way in here?” I complained to Lilith as I chopped up the pecans for the shortbread ornaments I was baking.
“Apparently,” Lilith drawled as she took pictures of the dough, “Belle had to bribe Sarah with being on the bake-off so that she would get out and stay out of Jonathan’s building.”
My tree wasn’t going to be that big, so I didn’t need to make large ornaments or a lot of them, which was good. As usual, I was extremely ambitious. I worked on my ornaments all afternoon. Before I slid them into the oven, I carefully used a straw to make a little hole in each that I could thread my candy ribbon through so I could hang it on the Christmas tree cake.
For the cake, I had a chocolate tier, a cranberry rose tier, a vanilla bean tier, and a red velvet tier in the oven. To prevent the cake from looking like a bright-green wedding cake, I was going to cut the layers and shape them a bit to feel more like a tree. I had just slid the pans of batter into the oven when I saw Jonathan standing off to the side and motioning me to him.
I looked around furtively. Keeley seemed engrossed in her gingerbread house, but I was concerned she would sabotage my dish. I could just ignore Jonathan, but I hadn’t seen him in more than a day, and so help me, I missed him.
“Two minutes,” I told myself, ducking around the cameras.
Jonathan grabbed me and pulled me around a corner.
“My cake!”
Jonathan wrapped me in his strong arms, crushing his mouth to mine. As I clung to him, I forgot all about cake, trying not to moan loudly as his tongue claimed my mouth.
“Funny that,” he said in that deep voice that I was quickly becoming addicted to. “I was just thinking about your cupcakes earlier today and how much they needed some frosting.”
I was definitely needing a little frosting on my Christmas cookies. He kissed me again. I wanted him right now, but I was also worried about my cake.
“I could fuck you right now,” he offered.
“Right here?” I said breathlessly.
“You don’t understand,” he said, blue eyes intense. “I’m addicted to you. I want you wrapped up under my tree.”
One of the production staff walked by, and I used the opportunity to duck under Jonathan’s arm before I could be sweet-talked into a quickie. When I scurried back to my station, I did an inventory of my cookies.
They looked fine.
Except for the most important one, which is seriously lacking in frosting and Jonathan Frost!