Mr. Black's Proposal (Part One: A Billionaire Erotic Romance) (2 page)

“Are they vegan?”

“Uh, no. Um, it’s real cream cheese,” I said.
See the sticker that says ‘With Real Cream Cheese’?

She wrinkled her nose.

“Do you have anything for vegans?”

“Sure,” I said, pointing down to the bottom where it said Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes. “We have some chocolate cupcakes—”

“Are they gluten free?”

“Not yet,” I said, the smile wearing thin on my face. “We’re in the middle of expanding our line right now, and we hope to have some gluten-free cupcakes by next—”

“Ugh.” The woman’s face scrunched up tightly. “I can’t believe it.”

I didn’t know what to tell her, so I automatically reached for my best customer service line.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“You ought to be,” she said. “If I had known that you weren’t going to have anything for me, I wouldn’t have driven in all this
traffic,
my God—”

She kept talking, but I fixed my eyes on the spot between her two perfectly manicured eyebrows and kind of zoned out. Every part of this woman was manicured,
landscaped.
She was a work of art created by a lot of money and other people. Even though she might have had an IQ of fifty, even if half of her body parts were surgically enhanced, she really was quite beautiful. I guess I could see why these two were together.

The man had come up to stand next to her by the counter. I made the mistake of glancing over at him.

Immediately my chest tightened and my pulse began to beat faster. He had a strong, square jawline that made him look like a superhero from a comic book. His golden hair was slightly tousled. I wanted to run my fingers through it. I saw his mouth turn up in the slightest hint of a smile as the woman continued to rant.

“…and there are never any options for us. It’s ridiculous, really. Like, completely ridiculous.”

I wrenched my eyes back to the woman. She might have been beautiful, too, but her face was contorted in a disgusted grimace that erased any hint of beauty from her face.

“Come on, Lucas,” she said, tugging on the man’s arm. “They don’t have what I want here.”

Lucas—that was a sexy name,
Lucas
—let the woman steer him back out the doorway. I watched them go, trying not to be disappointed. I hadn’t even heard him say a word.

Andy sat in the back, hand-wrapping cupcakes individually while I climbed up a stepstool to change a light bulb on the display sign. All the while, I ranted to him about the bitch in the blue dress.

“Flour and eggs and milk - that’s what a cupcake is made out of!”

“I know,” Andy said.

“A vegan, gluten-free cupcake? That’s an abomination against God! Is she insane?”

A cough from five feet behind me made me yelp in fright. I tumbled back off of the stepstool and slammed backwards into the door frame. All my breath rushed out of me in one single
whoosh.

Take my breath away.

Even as I looked up to see the impossibly handsome man in front of me, I was thinking to myself what an idiot I was to turn my back to a broken doorbell while ranting about customers. And now I would pay for it.

Lucas, the golden-haired angel himself, was standing right in front of the counter, leaning slightly over the top. I quickly glanced around, but the woman was nowhere to be seen. Thank heaven for small favors, I guess.

“I. Am. SO! sorry, sir,” I said, gasping for air. “I—uh—I—”

“It’s alright,” Lucas said.

His voice had a smooth, commanding tone. So commanding that when he said it was alright, I almost believed him. I blinked again, trying to learn how to breathe again after my tumble into the door frame.

“I thought that I might get a chocolate cupcake while I was here,” he continued. “I didn’t have a craving for one before, but now I do.”

He looked straight into my eyes as he said it. Now that he was up close, I could see that his eyes were a blue, such a clear blue that I felt like I was falling into the sky. Something inside me clenched, and I swallowed the dryness from my mouth.

“Vegan?” I asked in a uncharacteristically high-pitched squeak. I prayed that he couldn’t see my cheeks blush, but from the way he smiled at me, I knew he could tell I was embarrassed beyond belief.

“No, not vegan. That would be an abomination, wouldn’t it?”

My already fierce blush grew even fiercer.

“I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I didn’t mean—”

“Quite alright.”

I ducked my head and pulled out one of the chocolate cupcakes. I wrapped a napkin around it and put it on the counter, my head still lowered. I didn’t want to meet his eyes again. His gaze did something to me that I couldn’t understand. It was like I was back in middle school again, I was so nervous. My hands shook as I rang him up.

“That’ll be three twenty-five.”

Instead of pulling out his wallet, though, he took a bite of the cupcake. I stared at his lips as he bit off a piece. There was a little bit of white frosting on his lower lip.

You could just lean over the counter and lick it off—

The sudden, stupid urge came and went, and I tried hard to ignore the voice in my head that was screaming about how sexy he looked as he leaned on the counter. His tongue flicked out and the frosting was gone.

Perfect lips. Bet they taste good.

I bit my lip. He peeled back the cupcake wrapper. My eyes moved to his strong fingers holding the cupcake so delicately. Then down his arm, his toned arm. His white button-down shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. The shirt stretched out taut over his broad chest.

Perfect body, too. Those muscles. I bet he could pick me up right now. Pick me up and shove me up against the wall, and those hands could go anywhere they wanted to, oh yes, they could—
His blue eyes flickered up to mine and I swear the air in the shop jumped ten degrees.

“Penny for your thoughts,” he said.

My eyes froze open in fear, as though he had been listening in to what my horny, adolescent mind was thinking.

Come on back behind this counter, and I’ll show you something else you can eat.

There was no way in hell I was telling him my thoughts. I smiled a broad smile and broke free of my paralysis.

“I was just thinking that I was going to have to fix that door bell,” I said. My voice was a bit more clipped than normal. I pressed my hands against the counter, trying not to give away how tense I felt. Every muscle of mine was pulled so tight I was nearly vibrating.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Steph. You know, Steph’s Cupcakes. That’s me!”

I was rambling, trying to fill the air for fear that whatever was hovering between us would go past sparks and erupt into flames.

He nodded slowly, licking the frosting off of his thumb. He knew exactly what he was doing to me. My body was burning hot as I thought about what else those lips would do.

No. Stop it.

“Do you know my name?” he asked finally.

What was I supposed to say here?
Yes, I know your name, I’ve been rolling it around on my tongue like a lollipop ever since you came in here,
Lucas— “Um, no,” I stuttered. “I mean, yes. I mean, I—uh—I think she called you, um, L-Lucas?”

This was not going well.

“Yes,” the man said, and his mouth turned into a tease of a smile. “Lucas Black. I just opened up an office nearby, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other more often.”

My lips parted. My mouth was dry.
Was he hitting on me?
No. Of course he wasn’t hitting on me. He was just being friendly.

And normally I could do friendly. Normally, I could do conversation. But Lucas was abnormally handsome, and he was leaning over the counter, and oh God, how much of his chest could you
see
with that top button undone— “We offer, um, group discounts,” I said, reaching for anything in my grasp to say.

Way to go with the customer service, Steph. You’re recovering so well from this.

“And a loyalty—here, let me get you a loyalty card.” I scrambled behind the counter for the business cards I’d ordered the week before. “I mean, they’re here. Here they are. It’s, um, it’s buy nine, get the tenth one free.”

Lucas Black. He wasn’t the kind of guy who needed a discount on anything, let alone a three dollar cupcake. What was I even thinking? I held out the pink and green card with a desperately anxious smile.

But he took it. His fingers brushed mine as I passed him the card. Before I could pull away, he was holding my wrist in a loose but firm grip.

I froze. His thumb ran down to my palm, turning my hand over. It was spattered with flour, and there was pink frosting underneath my nails.

He looked down at my hand like he was a palm reader trying to tell my future. There was something in his face now that I couldn’t put my finger on. An opening, something soft in his expression as he touched my palm.

“You make all of your cupcakes by hand?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“How long have you been doing this?”

Now his fingers were touching my wrist gently, pressing down with a pressure so light it felt almost like a caress. My pulse jumped under his fingertips.

I didn’t know why he was holding my hand. My eyes darted to the door. Where was the woman he’d been with?

He squeezed my hand and my attention came back to him. Right. His question.

“We’ve, um, we’ve been open for two years,” I said.

“Is it your passion?”

God. That word in his mouth. It made my legs weaken. But it was also too far. Over the line. So far over that it snapped something inside of me that said this was a very, very bad idea.

“Yes,” I said, gathering my strength with a breath. I stood up straighter, ready to take my hand away. But still he held my wrist, caressing my palm with the pad of his thumb. As I looked down at his strong arm, his shirtsleeves pushed back slightly, a flash of fear passed through me. Who
was
this guy?

Don’t let him get under your skin. That’s what he wants. Stay calm. Stay cool.

He wasn’t hitting on me, not really. He was one of those flashy businessmen just looking for more female attention. Was he even going to pay for that cupcake? Or had he just come back in here to taunt me?

He leaned even closer. I could smell his cologne, pine and vanilla. God, he smelled delicious.

“I bet you’re wild,” Lucas whispered. “I’d like to tame you.”

The spell broke. My eyes refocused onto his mouth. So stern. So possessive. So utterly, impossibly, wrong.

“
Tame me
? You’d like to
tame me?!”

I jerked my hand away from his. He let me break away from his grip.

“I’m not a
pet,”
I snapped. “You can’t
tame
me
.”

There was a flicker of hurt in his eyes.

“Now wait one moment—”

“Isn’t your
girlfriend
waiting for you outside?” I asked. My hands planted on my hips in mute accusation.

Something changed in his expression—his eyelashes fluttered once, then his jaw steeled. I had seen something—almost seen it—but then he blinked and it was gone.

Immediately I regretted what I’d said. He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, after all. The girl might have been his friend, or his sister. But I couldn’t take it back. I crossed my arms and stood behind the counter, shifting my weight from one foot to the other.

Lucas picked up the half of the chocolate cupcake, still looking at me, and wrapped it in his napkin.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

“Thanks for the cupcake,” Lucas said. He tossed a twenty dollar bill on the counter and turned on his heel. I didn’t even have time to stammer out a thank you before the door swung shut. The doorbell jangled, the sound echoing through the shop.

“You’re welcome,” I said with a sigh.

“Wow!”

I turned around to see Andy poking his head out from the back of the shop.

“Was that the guy you were talking about? Capital-H Hottie alert!”

“Andy!” I hissed. I glanced at the door. “We’re going to have to fix that doorbell.”

“Why aren’t you dating someone like that?”

“I don’t know. Why aren’t you dating Neil Patrick Harris?”

Andy let out a sigh.

“If only.”

“Exactly. And in case you didn’t notice, that guy was a total asshole of the pick-up artist variety. Who
does
that?”

“Does what? Flirts with you?”