Then he took another bite, the whipped cream from the first one remaining on his lip.
“Yeah, I bet you’re real proud of yourself for that.”
“Whatever.”
“I think I’m gonna go grab some of that myself,” Maya said. “Judging by your actual expression when you tried it, it’s pretty good.”
“It’s amazing,” I noted, “and takes the skill of someone who knows how to cook the pecans just right, thank you very much.”
Kyle smiled, but still didn’t give me props.
Maya headed off to get dessert while DJ and Bentley got into a playful argument about a contract job they were working on together. That was my chance to tell Kyle, “While you’re being so cocky, I should tell you that you have some whipped cream on your lip.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked, wiping, but missing it, seemingly intentionally.
“Your bottom lip.”
He wiped again, in an even more dramatic fashion, as though to emphasize he wasn’t interested in actually getting it off his face.
“You know exactly where it is.”
“You know where it is too, so why don’t you get it for me.” His gaze was all challenge and interest. He had to know how much I wanted to wipe it right off, touch his flesh and those lips that had felt so good against mine.
Had he set me up? Had it all been a ruse, his act of shoving that bite in his mouth to catch my attention? It felt like a trap, but one I didn’t mind stumbling right into.
I raised my hand to his face, and he held still as I wiped my thumb across his bottom lip. I felt like our wicked intentions were so transparent. Like Bentley or DJ were moments away from commenting on it, but no one said anything. Another secret that was just ours, and why did that feel so right when it should have felt wrong, evil even?
He licked right in the spot I’d removed the cream from before winking. I turned to make sure Bentley and DJ were still too busy chatting to notice me sticking my thumb in my mouth, enjoying the flavor of the cream, but mostly knowing where it had been.
As I took a bite from his lemon bar, he seemed just as interested in my reaction.
I shook my head. “No. You started this, so I’m not going to tell you how amazing it is.”
He burst into another laugh. “Just did.”
Maya returned with a slice of my pie and a few extra desserts, and we continued our conversation, but throughout, I found my eyes returning to see Kyle enjoying the rest of my pecan pie, licking his lips to ensure he’d removed all the whipped cream, as though he wanted to make it clear he’d always had the power to do that from the first instance.
“You keep looking like you want some of your own pie,” he said.
“Yeah, I think I might go grab some too.”
“I got the last slice,” Maya said.
“Well, guess it’s an excuse to try something else, then.”
“Here…” Kyle cut into his slice. Seemed like an innocent enough gesture before he slid his spoon around his plate, inviting me to take it. I could have used my own, but I went ahead, took his utensil, and helped myself to the bite he’d prepared for me, with plenty of whipped cream and chocolate syrup for me to enjoy.
Mmm…it was good, but I enjoyed letting his spoon rest on my tongue.
“Ew. Boys, that’s so gross, sharing silverware like that,” Maya remarked.
I pulled it out. “I hardly even thought about that,” I lied, making eye contact with Kyle, who clearly already knew the truth. “Ah, well.”
I pushed it across my tongue a little more, wanting to get what bit of him I could in me, whatever had been left over on the spoon before he’d passed it to me. Then I placed it back on the plate and handed it back to him.
The way Maya continued with the conversation we’d been having about her new job, it was evident she wasn’t catching how Kyle just shoved the spoon back in his mouth, sliding it along his tongue, making eye contact with me to the point where I couldn’t even look at him because it was making me blush so hard. But I could tell out of my periphery that he hadn’t stopped.
There was this fear within me that Maya must’ve been able to catch on, that surely if his actions didn’t give us away, then my reaction would, but she seemed too involved in