last few months with her mother she’d felt more like a caregiver than a beloved daughter. “No problem.”
He drew her into the waiting room and began to introduce her.
She’d never imagined flashing could be such a great icebreaker.
CHAPTER FOUR
Macon finished the cake with a final swipe of his hand. Dark chocolate with a ganache icing. It would be served with a homemade vanilla bean ice cream that hopefully he still had enough of. Ally proved fond of his ice cream. She’d watched him make it with liquid nitrogen¸ her eyes widening when the smoke had gone everywhere.
The door to the kitchen came open and Ally walked through wearing faded jeans and one of those soft T-shirts she always seemed to wear that hugged her breasts in all the right places. Her eyes were wide as she strode in. Ally, he’d learned, did everything with a sort of anxious energy. It was hard for her to stay still. “That is a roomful of babies. They’re everywhere. I want to roll around in them.”
“It’s going to be a roomful of poop in about twenty minutes.” His living room was being used as a nursery. It was the reason the “gang” was using Adam’s place. He had a large playroom and he was the only one with a guesthouse to stash the babies in.
“They’re not free-range babies, so it should be all right.” Ally stopped to admire the cake. “This is beautiful. You have to teach me how to do the roses.”
“I will. I’m doing a cake for an anniversary party next week. You can help me.” He’d started to teach her some of the finer points of his job. She seemed fascinated with cake decorating. He’d taught her the art of writing with a pastry bag. He’d also started thinking longer term. He no longer questioned whether she would be here next week. “And thank god they’re not free range.”
She grinned. “Don’t want to clean up that mess, huh? So who are the two women they have watching the kiddos?”
“They’re actually Dr. Daley’s sisters. Nice ladies. Laurel and Lisa.”
“And they babysit?”
“They’re sub…substitutes. Substitute teachers. They make money on the side this way.” He’d almost explained that the young women were training as submissives at Sanctum, Big Tag’s club. Well, it had been his club before it was blown up by an asswipe traitor who should have his entrails ground into dust and shoved up his anal cavity without lube. Tag’s words, not his. Apparently the dude was dead, but Macon wasn’t so sure that would stop Big Tag. If he thought he could properly punish a corpse, he might do it. The new Sanctum was under construction.
“They’re substitutes? Seriously? One of them was talking about working for a law firm. She said babysitting wasn’t a big thing because she had to deal with shit all day long and at least babies are cute. When do we need to get the cake over? And what about the appetizers? Should I be at the big house heating them up?”
She would have to go to the big house since there was absolutely no heat in this house. None. No making out. No cuddling. For five days she’d babied him, making sure he ate healthy and got enough water. She’d made him stay in bed the whole first day and kept him from working out. She’d driven him to physical therapy and then nagged the therapist about making him do too much.
Not once had she kissed him or even said a thing that would make him think she wanted him to kiss her. They ate together, watched TV together, cooked together.
They were roommates.
“Don’t worry about it. Adam’s going to finish the apps and Serena has all the salads. It’s only a little buffet.”
“A little? It’s magnificent. I can’t wait to see it. Do you think they’ll mind if I sneak a plate? I promise to hide in the kitchen. We should get catering uniforms. You know, black pants, white shirt. They could come in handy.”
“You’re not going.” He’d thought about it that first day. He’d thought about the fact that he could take her over to the mini club the McKay-Taggart group had set up and he could watch her. He could see if she had any interest at all. Of course, that was when he’d thought they would at least have had a heavy make-out session by this point. Now that he realized she was simply looking for a place to stay and a bit