Cupcakes and Christmas - R.J. Scott Page 0,75

but I knew I was gone from the competition. Would they televise this? Was my end resulting cake even going to matter?

I squeezed his hand briefly just as they called us to separate because they were restarting the clock. They’d asked me to use a different refrigerator, and I was attempting to stay as calm as I could.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “For whatever happens.”

“Love you,” he whispered back, or at least I thought he said that, and he headed for his station.

Wait? He loved me? Did he really say that?

I should ask him, right?

But then he might say I’d heard wrong, and honestly? I wanted to believe that he’d just told me he loved me.

Chapter Twenty

Life is short… lick the bowl

Brody

Love you? Had I really just said that? It had slipped out as naturally as the next breath. I was mortified and couldn’t bring myself to look up and see if Justin was staring at me. I couldn’t feel the weight of his gaze on me, but there again, he had a lot of work to get done in the next forty-five minutes, and maybe he hadn’t heard what I said. Focusing back on the finishing touches for my cake, I ignored the hammering of my heart and the way my entire world perspective had shifted in just those few seconds of stupidity.

Almost two weeks. That was all we’d had together so how could that be love? Sex. That was all it was. Just all different kinds of sex. Mind-blowing, comfortable, hot, lazy, energetic, we’d covered it all, and the way we’d used whipped cream and chocolate last night had been a long way past sexy and onto highly charged erotic.

I’m getting hard just thinking about the way Justin was sprawled on the bed, writhing as I licked and sucked all that chocolate from his body, and how the cream—

“Concentrate,” I muttered under my breath and pulled myself back to the here and now. I had six roses to complete, and now only forty minutes in which to arrange them. They were already made from individually created petals in a mix of white and ruby chocolate, they just had to be placed in just the right spot. It took me a good few minutes to get back into the swing of what I was doing because somehow in those two words I’d spoken I had rocked my own world and probably messed with Justin’s.

“Bakers, you have ten minutes. That’s ten minutes to go.”

An eerie calm settled over the room, and I didn’t have time to think about anything but finishing my display, spraying the pearlescent highlights on the tumble of roses on my five tier rose and cream wedding cake. Each layer was a different flavor. The bakes were perfect, and when I stood back as they called time, I thought I’d made the best I could in the time I had. If this was for a real wedding, I would have worked for weeks, I wouldn’t have a loose petal on rose three or a slip in the chiffon lemon layer that made the whole thing just ever so slightly crooked. But ignoring all of that I had made a beautiful cake.

“Time! Step away from your bakes!” Courtney called, and I did as I was told, the room spinning a little when I stood upright from bending over for so long. I was relieved, happy, and smiling, and I made the huge mistake of glancing at Justin, who had his arms crossed over his chest, and a thoughtful expression, or was that a pissed expression? He was going to be angry if me saying I loved him meant that he’d messed up this last bake. He must have realized I was staring because he glanced at me, his whole posture relaxing as he smiled at me and then shrugged in a what can I do way. I checked out his cake, a take on Swan Lake with cascading water and swans, along with a space where the beautiful icy flower would have been. Unless a person had been told that it should be there, then it wasn’t missed. Clare had made a festive gift wrapped cake, and I could tell just from looking that it was the perfect cake, although I genuinely thought I had the edge on her.

Would it be Clare and me through to the final? I was so hoping that it would be Justin and me, together to the end, but hell, what was I thinking?