Jess had already gone back to the office and Adam had gone off to talk to a cop. Braden came over to talk to me. I was busy tossing papers into my briefcase.
“You look tense,” he said with classic understatement and a note of concern in his voice.
“Why does he have to lecture me for doing my job?” I slammed down a file and turned to face my gorgeous fiancé. I had finally gotten used to calling him that. “Is it my fault that Sister Badass is packing heat?” I knew that I was starting to sound like I was on automatic loop with this whine but I was practically on my last nerve.
“He backed down when he saw that he was pushing you too hard. I actually think that Judge Channing really likes you a lot.”
Braden leaned against the defense table and gave me a sympathetic look. I didn’t want sympathy at the moment, though. I wanted to kick somebody. Not Braden. Somebody else. I had to admit it. Work was really starting to get to me. Ever since we had discussed the idea of starting our own foundation I had been thinking about leaving all of this glamor behind.
“Okay, well, he has a strange way of demonstrating it, but whatever you say, Braden.” I didn’t believe him but I appreciated the effort.
“So, you want to cook tonight?” he suggested, and I must confess, that made me pause. I put down the file I was holding and turned to face him again.
“We cook? That’s news to me.”
“Well, more like heating. I had an idea for a dessert.” He was leaning against the defense table giving me his boyish look and despite everything, I felt a smile coming on.
“You want to stay at my place? Jess might have some food there. She cooks. She had parents who did that.” Unlike ours. Braden’s family had servants and my family had a stack of take-out menus the size of the Manhattan phone book. “She and Cam are going out tonight anyway.”
“Sure. She probably won’t have what we need, though, so we’ll stop off at a market before we get Bruno.”
“Wow! You know where we can buy uncooked food? You’re like a survivalist!” I joked. “So, any ideas for relieving my tension?” I asked lasciviously. Against the odds the smile had broken through and I went back to packing files much more gently.
“Chocolate.”
“Chocolate? That’s your only suggestion?” I asked, looking up at him quizzically.
“You’ll see,” he said with a naughty smile.
That evening, after eating our usual take-out and giving Bruno his supper and a bacon flavored chewy treat, Braden gathered together the ingredients he had picked up for dessert. We were going to dip strawberries in melted chocolate, which seemed to be easy enough even for people with our limited cooking experience. I personally thought it sounded quite yummy too. That probably really would cheer me up. It turned out to be very yummy indeed. We sat down at the table with a couple of plates, bowl of strawberries and a pan of melted chocolate. I went first and dipped my strawberry but I got chocolate on my fingers. I licked it off so it wouldn’t drip all over the place.
“Mmm! This is good!” I looked up at Braden who was watching me intently. It was starting to dawn on me why he had suddenly felt the culinary urge.
“It looks good,” he said in a slightly husky voice. “You missed some, though.” He took my hand and licked the rest of the chocolate off of my finger. My breath hitched and I swallowed hard. He dipped his own strawberry and bit into it while giving me a really hot look. He started to lick the chocolate off of his own fingers but I took his hand, popped his finger into my mouth, swirled my tongue around and pulled it out slowly, never taking my eyes off him. I saw his breathing get heavier and his eyes get darker.
“You taste really good.” I smiled and raised my eyebrows provocatively. I picked up another strawberry, dipped it in the chocolate and bit into it.
“Uh oh. You got a little bit right there…” he leaned over and licked chocolate from the corner of my mouth. You can probably figure out where this was going. “You’re delicious,” he said seductively. “I wonder how this would taste on other parts of you.”
He pulled me up and guided me over to stand in front of him. He pushed my top up to expose my tummy and I held it there. Then he dipped one of his fingers in the chocolate and swirled around my belly button. I started feeling flushed and breathing faster. He leaned in and began licking the chocolate off of me, which incidentally, felt incredibly good and looked amazingly erotic. Suddenly Bruno gave a yip and headed for the door, which was already opening as Cam and Jess came in.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“We can go to my place!” Cam said, immediately assessing the situation, and preparing to vacate the premises. Jess had a slightly surprised and very amused look on her face.
“No! You don’t have to leave,” I said, pulling down my shirt and desperately trying to reclaim a shred of dignity. “I just got some chocolate on me and Braden was helping me get it off,” I said, as if it were completely normal that someone would get chocolate on their stomach and their companion would help them clean it up with his tongue.
“Just let us quickly clean up in here,” Braden said. “Don’t let us get in your way and don’t leave on our account. We’re just planning to hang out tonight.” I guess he meant as opposed to having chocolate-covered sex in the kitchen.
“Okay,” Jess said, looking like she was trying not to laugh. “We were going to go for a drink after dinner but we changed our minds. I probably should have called.”
“That’s okay. It’s no big deal,” Braden reassured her.
“We were just going to hang out too,” Cam added. “Do you mind if …”
“No! Of course not,” I said, smiling in what I imagined was probably a rather maniacal way. I probably looked like a crazed Oompa Loompa.
They headed off to Jess’s room while she changed out of her work clothes. As soon as they were out of earshot Braden and I turned to each other.
“Good thing they weren’t a few minutes later.” He smiled.
“Yeah, or they might have seen chocolate with nuts.”
“Oh, that was bad,” he said, but he still laughed.
Later, the four of us sat in the living room talking and snuggling on opposite couches. Bruno was contentedly nestled with Braden and me as I petted him and Braden scratched him behind the ears. Incidentally, that was Chihuahua paradise. He kept sniffing at my tummy though, which was rather disconcerting. Not to mention an embarrassing reminder of earlier events. I kept subtly shooing him away.