his desk. Her breath caught as one palm slid down the back of her thighs to rest on her knee, while the other wrapped around her.
She wanted him to pull her onto his lap and finish their lesson from the other night. They had rounded first, but were interrupted before they could slide into second—and as he leaned forward, his chest pressing her thighs farther apart, she decided she might even be open to a grand slam.
“What are you doing?” she whispered, her eyes glued to his lips.
“Using my hands,” he whispered back, but instead of taking her into his arms and making love to her right there on the desk, he leaned back in his chair, plate in his hand.
He took a bite and closed his eyes, but not before she saw a look of triumph. The only thing that stopped her from smacking him was that he was finally tasting her food. He slid the fork out of his mouth and, eyes still closed, said, “Tell me about this.”
“The client wanted a classic meat lasagna.”
He opened his eyes. “But you didn’t give them that.” He took another bite.
She shook her head, biting her lip to keep from smiling. “Lasagna is heavy for a luncheon, so it’s my take on the classic meat lasagna. I sautéed the spinach in garlic and made the pasta from scratch. Oh, and I use lemon-infused ricotta.”
“Homemade ricotta?”
“Of course. I replaced some of the meat with locally grown porcinis, making them the star of the dish.”
“Nice. It is hearty without being heavy.”
“That was the goal.”
“Then goal beautifully accomplished. Next.”
She leaned back and grabbed the other plate. This was the one that she really loved, but she was afraid it was too out of the box. It was shredded skirt-steak lasagna rolls in a tart peach sauce. “Question first.”
Marc reached for the dish. “It’s getting cold.”
She batted his hand aside. “Then you better answer fast. Did you lose your celebrity judge?”
Marc sat back and sighed. “Yeah, Bo Brock pulled out this morning. Not that I blame the guy. The whole Showdown is kind of a mess.”
“You call this a mess? You are doing an incredible job. You have more entries than any year to date, national press covering the event, and more than half of the tables are already sold out.” Was Marc blushing? “I say losing Brock is a good thing. It will give you a chance to highlight a local celebrity, someone who is a part of the reason we are celebrating.”
“Local celebrity, huh? Like Coppola or Robert Redford?”
“No. I mean, they would be exciting, but they moved here after they got famous. When we were kids, it was always someone who grew up here and was noted for doing something unique. A local-grown celebrity.”
“Smart and beautiful. Impressive.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she asked, “Were you guys talking about me before I came in?”
For a second Marc was silent. Then he gave her his signature smile. It was slow and sexy and made her heart pick up a little. “You mean were my nosy brothers asking about me being your boyfriend?”
“Fake boyfriend,” she reminded him. Or maybe it was herself she needed to remind. Being anything more than friends would be foolish on her part. But she never knew foolish could feel so fun.
“Whatever. And yes, they asked. And no, I didn’t tell them anything, because it wasn’t their damn business.” He reached out and picked up one of the lasagna rolls off the plate, making a big to-do about studying it and smelling it until she was laughing. Then he popped it in his mouth.
“This is the one,” he mumbled around bits of meat and noodle.
“How do you know? You didn’t even try the other ones.” Not that there was any left. His brothers had practically licked the plates clean.
“You didn’t want me to try the other ones. They were distractions.”
“They were not.” He raised a brow. “Okay, they were. But how do you know this is the one?”
“I just do.” He took a single finger and dragged it through the peach sauce. “But to be honest with you, cream puff, I can think of one thing that would make it perfect.”
“What?”
“This.” He painted a line of sauce across the top of her thigh, then bent and licked off every last drop.
CHAPTER 12
I don’t know what you’re looking for, but I’m hoping it’s on the bottom shelf.”
Startled, Lexi straightened so fast she nearly fell over. Smoothing her hands