Mr. Black's Proposal (Part Two: A Billionaire Erotic Romance) by Aubrey Dark Read Free Book Online Page B

told myself. Lucas was counting on me, and I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of making his mom’s birthday cupcakes.
     
    If I thought Lucas’s apartment was going to be less stressful, I was wrong. Alex led me to the kitchen with a strange smile on his face. He offered to hold one of the mixing bowls full of batter, but I’d already had one delivery man lose my cupcakes today. Instead, I let him carry my bag with my dress in it. I snuck into the kitchen in my yoga pants without Lucas seeing me.
    So far, so good.
    It was when I got into the kitchen that I realized that things weren’t going to be that easy.
    “Thank God you’re here,” Andy said. “I messed up the sugar ratio in the frosting. But we managed to save one of the red velvet sheet cakes, just in case everything goes to shit and we have to serve cake slices.”
    “How the hell—”
    “The measuring cups here are all these stupid minimalist plastic things,” Andy said. “Everything is in Swedish.”
    I dragged my finger through the frosting. It dripped off like watered down glue.
    “Really?” I said. “What’s Swedish for ‘dead little brother’?”
    “Hey, I tried!”
    “Sure. Okay. I’ll redo it. Where are the cupcake tins?”
    “Right behind you.”
    I turned around to find Otis with both front paws on the kitchen table. He looked up at me and wagged his tail.
    “Oh God. Otis. You can’t be in here.”
    I shooed him out the door and closed it. I could hear ladies’ voices. Oh, God. They were already here.
    Before I poured the batter, I realized something.
    “Andy, the oven lights aren’t on.”
    “What? Oven?”
    “You didn’t preheat the ovens?”
    “Oh. Oh Jesus, Steph. I’m sorry.”
    “No apologies. Get the ovens to 350! Where’s that extra sheet cake?”
    “Uh—”
    “It doesn’t matter. Preheat. Now.”
    I poured the batter into the cups quickly. My hands were trembling as I wiped off the excess batter from around the cups. Thank God I was wearing a tank top, because I was already sweating bullets.
    “Steph!”
    I yelped as I looked up to see Lucas’s face poking through the doorway.
    “Hey,” he said. “What’s the matter?”
    “Nothing. Nothing. We’ll be ready.”
    “Can I help?”
    “No. I’m fine.” I needed to redo the frosting, and none of the cupcakes were actually baked, but I was sure that it would end up fine. Right? Right.
    “Come here and look at this, though.”
    My heart sank. Another thing that had gone wrong? I motioned to Andy to keep working, but Lucas had me by the wrist already. Oh, God. I looked down as he pulled me out of the kitchen in batter-stained yoga pants and a tank top that was way too low-cut to be presentable.
    “I can’t meet anyone like this, Lucas,” I said.
    “Don’t worry.”
    He pulled me through a doorway right next to the kitchen that turned out to be the pantry, and he shut the door behind us.
    “Lucas, what—”
    He kissed me hard. I was pinned back against the shelves, and I could feel cereal boxes poking into my lower back. But his kiss, God, his kiss…
    Every inch of my skin tingled from the press of his lips against mine. Even as I squirmed in his arms, I could feel my body burning instantly white-hot. How could he do this to me? Every time he touched me, it was like the first kiss all over again.
    Stupid. This was so, so stupid. Delicious, but stupid. When he gave me half a breath to speak, I pushed him back. In the dim light of the pantry, his eyes still shone blue.
    “Lucas,” I said, “this is not the time. I don’t have time—”
    “But if you did have time, you’d spend it with me?”
    “Yes! Sure!” I would say anything if it would get him to let me get back to my cupcakes.
    “Later, then?”
    “Yes. Later.”
    I nearly shoved him out the pantry door. I thought that if he knew what was going on behind the kitchen door, he wouldn’t be kissing me. I hoped that his mother wouldn’t be disappointed. Most of all, I hoped