his smile and trying to ignore him. She was just turning back to her cooking area when she spotted him sticking his finger into the frosting. With an irritated sound, she picked up the plastic spatula and smacked the back of his hand just as his hand was reaching for another sample.
“Ouch!” he pulled his hand away quickly and looked up at her with surprise. “You hit me!”
She took the bowl of frosting and swirled in flavoring. “Of course I smacked you. You were sneaking frosting.”
“So?”
She glared at him. “No sneaking,” she replied with finality.
He leaned forward to watch her stir. “You know, I could have you imprisoned for hitting me.”
“Please!” she scoffed and turned away just as his finger started to dive for yet another taste. “You deserved it and I’ll do it again if you don’t stay out of my frosting.”
“Even so,” he replied with amusement. “You can’t smack the ruler. It just isn’t done.”
“It’s done when you deserve it,” she countered and added pink food coloring in an effort to deter him. Surely he wouldn’t nip a taste of pink frosting. He was too manly to be caught with a pink glob on the end of his finger.
“Even with the threat of imprisonment?”
“You wouldn’t imprison me.”
He watched her with surprise, knowing she was right but he wasn’t going to lose this argument. “You’re awfully confident. What makes you so sure?”
“Because I would cry.” She stopped stirring and looked up at him. “And I’m guessing you’re the kind of guy who hates it when a woman cries.”
He watched her for a moment, then sighed, nodding his head. “You’re right.” He took another cucumber and leaned his hip against the table. “So what are the odds you might become unangry with me and come to my bed?”
She gritted her teeth and turned away. “Chances are around the zero to nil range,” she countered.
With a grimace he sighed. “Okay. So you need to get over whatever put you in this snit. How about if I give you a little space and we can talk about our relationship tomorrow?”
She slammed the bowl down onto the table and braced her hands on the steel surface. “You can talk all you want. I’m guessing there really isn’t anything you can say that I’d be interested in hearing. But when has that stopped you from discussing your opinion?”
He considered arguing with her but knew that sometimes a strategic retreat was needed. He came closer and looked down into her furious eyes. “Hopefully you will come to me tomorrow and explain what it is that I did to hurt your feelings. Until then, just know that I’ll be in my suite thinking about you, and thinking about all the different ways I want to make love to you and only your stubbornness is keeping us apart.”
Her eyes narrowed and she held her breath, trying desperately hard not to throw herself into his arms and sob out all her frustration and anger, her hurt over hearing that he was engaged to another woman and how betrayed it had made her feel when she’d heard it from someone she’d just met instead of the man who had held her gently in his arms and taken her to heaven with his touch.
She hated the fact that she watched him walk away, taking the cowards way out with her silence instead of confronting him. Her eyes watched with longing as his broad shoulders and long legs took him out of the kitchen and away from her. All she wanted to do was to run after him and beg him to explain, to demand that he choose her instead of that horrible woman. But he wasn’t hers so she had no right to demand anything of him. He was a grown man, so if he wanted to be with Farida, he could and if he wanted another woman, he would have to do something about it but Dana wanted nothing to do with a man who would sleep with one woman while engaged to another.
Since he was walking away, she accepted that he’d made his choice and she had too much pride to accept the role of mistress.
With resignation, she went back into the supply pantry and selected several ingredients to make a filling for her cake, determined to get that man out of her mind, or get fat trying.
By midnight, she had the cake frosted and decorated with a raspberry cream filling, a spinach salad with strawberries and warm