“You are beyond helpless.” Ranger jerks me toward him, my back to his front, and goes about tying the waist and neck portions of my new outfit. It doesn’t escape me that he’s like, literal inches from my bare ass. “You remember how to make buttercream frosting, right?”
“Yes.” That one word squeaks out of me, barely audible.
“Good. Here.” Ranger slams a bowl down on the counter as I turn, and then storms off to do one of another million remaining tasks in the kitchen. For a while, we just bake together in silence, the wind rustling our hair, the riffing of guitars a backdrop for the sound of wooden spoons against ceramic mixing bowls.
There’s this tension in the air, though, that seems to build and build. It’s making me almost physically ill, but I can’t put my finger on what it is, not until I step back and accidentally bump into Ranger. He drops a tray of cookies as my bare cheeks slide nicely up against his exposed side.
“I’m sor—” I start, but I don’t get much further than that before he’s spinning me around with his hands on my shoulders, and shoving me back against the counter. He gets close, too close really, with his arms on either side of me, fingers squeezing the edge of the countertop. His eyes are closed, and he looks like he’s having trouble physically controlling himself.
“You are too fucking much,” he growls out, and the sound of it seems to tug at some primal part of me in my lower belly. My heart is racing, and I’m having trouble finding my breath. Ranger lifts his head up, blue eyes blazing, and leans into me. “I’d screw you on this counter right now if you weren’t with them, I swear to fuck.”
“I’d let you,” I whisper back, trembling so hard my teeth are chattering. But I’m not cold. Oh, I’m most definitely not cold. Instead, I feel like I’m burning up on the inside, the ruffles of my white and pink heart apron just barely touching the blue and white gingham of his. “Please move away from me before I do something I regret.”
Ranger stares at me, his arms pinning me in, his body so close … And we’re just wearing aprons, so it wouldn’t take much.
But I’m not a cheater.
And neither is he.
With a vicious snarl, he whips away from me and storms off toward the weird floating staircase in the corner. It has metal steps, no handrails, and is, like, hovering from the ceiling by a set of metal cords.
“I knew this was a bad idea,” he roars, and I take off after him.
In this ridiculous glass house, it’s not hard to see where he goes, heading down a hallway and disappearing into one of the opaque, black boxes that must be bedrooms. I don’t think he expects me to follow because when I open the door, I see that he’s shed his apron, and that the full length of his hardened cock is pointing right at me.
Our eyes meet.
And then … my eyes stray to the rest of the room.
What fresh hell is this? I wonder as I notice a sea of … like, cute things. There are unicorn figurines, stuffed bears, and enough pink to choke a horse. My gaze widens as I take in the giant bed with its frilly white coverlet and canopy.
“Get the fuck out of my room before I decide you’re not too cute to kill,” Ranger says, his voice like a venomous snake, slithering right for me, fangs bared. But I can’t move. I can’t move because he’s naked, and his room is like, precious as hell, and I just want to go and hug the crap out of him. Even though I know I shouldn’t, even though I know it’s a bad idea, I step into the room and shut the door.
Ranger’s eyes widen, and he yanks his phone off his bed, tapping out a rapid-fire text.
“What did you just say? And to who?” I ask, carefully moving into the room. It’s tastefully done, not nearly as gaudy as it sounds. But it shows me a whole other side to this gruff asshole that I never would’ve believed existed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
“I said get here now, or I’m going to fuck your girlfriend,” Ranger tells me, standing there naked and erect and sweating. We stare at each other as his phone pings about a dozen times, and he glances down at the messages.
He looks back up.
We keep staring.
The tension almost hurts at this point.
“Get. Out. Now.”
I back up suddenly, turn toward the door, and then find that he’s slammed his palms on either side of me. Now I’m trapped in here, and his erection is hovering very near my bare ass. My heart races, and I can’t breathe.
