Better Than My Ex novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Cake

Levi's POV

At one in the morning the bakery was dark except for the kitchen.

Mara stood in the middle of it with lemon zest on her wrist.

I had let myself in with the key she gave me on Sunday.

She didn't turn around.

"You're early," she said.

"You said one."

"I said one-thirty."

"I know."

I put the paper cup of tea down on the steel counter, honey and milk, no sugar.

Then I stood by the wall where she could see me if she looked.

She was making Christopher Hartnett's cake from nothing.

Four layers of lemon sponge, a curd she had stirred by hand, a ribbon of white chocolate she was tempering on a marble slab.

Her sleeves were pushed to the elbow, and the small burn scar on her left wrist caught the light as she worked.

I watched her hands for a long time before I realized I was gripping my own.

"You're doing it again," she said.

"What?"

"Standing there with your hands behind your back."

"I'm trying not to be in the way."

"You can be in the way." She tipped her head toward the stool. "Sit. Talk to me."

"I'd rather watch."

She put the spatula down and wiped her hands, and then she looked at me properly, down and up, and her mouth curved.

"Levi."

"Yes."

"Come here."

I crossed the kitchen.

She took the front of my shirt in her floury fingers and pulled me against the steel counter beside her.

Then she kissed me.

It was a slow kiss, deliberate, with lemon on her tongue.

I put my hands on her waist, and left them there.

"You can touch me," she said into my mouth.

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