Mr. Spice Cake (Man Card Book 16) Read online

  “A messy log,” I repeated and struggled holding in my laugh. “We can’t have that can we?” He attempted to lean up but I pushed him back down. “Wait.” I pulled out the condom from the foil package. Before I slid the condom down over his gorgeous length, I moved my tongue around the tip.

  “You’re evil. You know that, right?” He threw his arm over his eyes and groaned.

  “I’ve been told that a time or two,” I giggled and finally rolled the condom down. “This is exactly what I’ve been craving for the last several minutes.” I straddled his legs and placed him inside me.

  “That and cookies.”

  “Right, but I want this more.” I threw my head back and started to move up and down. “Noel, fuck, you feel so good.”

  “Move faster, Holly.” He tightened his hands around my hips and helped me move up and down. I leaned forward and rested my hands on his chest. Everything about this moment felt right. Amazing. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. It felt like we were connected at that moment. Then a feeling coursed through my body and I dropped my head. “Look at me, baby.”

  “Noel, you feel…so…damn good.” I cried out and moved even faster. My body craved another release. It needed another release and now. Without a warning my orgasm shot though me. It felt like an electrical current shooting into every area of my body and then it stopped.

  “I’m almost there.” His face showed signs of pleasure. You could tell he was about to come. Then he squeezed his eyes shut and said my name through clenched teeth.

  When he finally brought his eyes back open I was right there waiting. Everything about this moment felt beautiful. I had been with men before but Noel felt different. The orgasm I had just experienced was unlike anything from my past.

  I dropped down onto his chest. “Yeah, that was way better than baking cookies.”

  “It better be.” He tickled me and rolled us onto our sides.

  “Although…” I held up my index finger. He placed his mouth over the tip of my finger and moved his tongue up and down. “I have no idea what I was going to say.”

  “That’s what I thought.” He quickly kissed me and hopped off the bed.

  “Should we try for round two?” I asked and stared at him as he walked into the bathroom. It was fun watching that bare ass move. Fuck, the man was perfect.

  “Round two.” He said and leaned against the doorframe. “Already?”

  Noel pushed off the wood surface and walked closer to the bed. “Sure,” I giggled and waited while he climbed onto the bed and pushed my body so that my back was against the mattress.

  He straddled my legs and placed his hands on either side of my head. “There are so many things I want to do to you right now, Holly.”

  “Truth time?”

  “Always.”

  “I fucking can’t get enough of you or this.” I reached down and grabbed his cock. Then I lightly squeezed and moved my thumb back and forth over the tip.

  “Fuck.” He closed his eyes. “That’s a serious confession.” He smiled and dropped his head onto my chest. You could tell the movements were making it difficult for him to talk. He surprised me by pulling my hand away and moving off my body. “So serious, we need this now.” He reached over and grabbed a condom.

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  “Are you finally ready to make cookies?” I smacked his ass and ran down the hall.

  “I thought I was.” He caught up with me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Then you touched me inappropriately and now I want to go back to bed.”

  I placed my hands over his. “Nope. You must make me cookies.” Then I had a crazy idea. “Or you could make whoopee pies with your awesome spice cake recipe.”

  “Interesting.” He let me go and walked into the kitchen. A part of me wanted to still be naked and wrapped around his delicious body. I watched him grab some ingredients and realized I had something to look forward to later. “Do you have all the ingredients?” He rubbed his hands back and forth with excitement. “If not, we could run to the store since we need some of the yule log ingredients, too.”

  I groaned and leaned my elbows on the counter. “If we go to the store, then I need to shower and do my hair.”

  “Who says?”

  “This.” I pointed to my frizzy mess and crazy bun.

  “Do you have a baseball cap?” Noel walked around the counter and placed his hands on my waist. “I think you look amazing, but if you have to, put a hat on and let’s go.”

  “Men,” I teased and attempted to step away from him. He leaned forward and tickled my side. Every time I tried to get away he tickled me more. “Noel,” I laughed my protest. “This is so not fair.”

  “Will you throw on a hat?”

  “Maybe,” I giggled and inched away. Finally I got away and he chased me down the hall to my bedroom. Without warning my body was thrown onto the mattress. “We’re back in here. I’m never going to get cookies am I?”

  I watched him inch up my body and knew at that moment this thing between us was so much more.

  He made my body crave things it had never experienced before.

  Most of all, he made me laugh. I loved to laugh. I missed laughing this hard.

  Eleven

  Noel

  “See, no one cares what you look like.” We were walking down the empty isles at the grocery store at eleven o’clock at night.

  “There are cameras. Someone’s watching.” She stopped and grabbed some flour. After two more rounds of sex, we finally freshened up and took that trip to the grocery store.

  “Grab one more bag of flour.” I walked over and scanned the spices. “Do we have enough cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg?”

  “Yup, more than enough.” She wrapped her arm around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder. “Do you need vanilla though?” I found myself staring at Holly as she reached up and grabbed the small box of bourbon infused vanilla.

  “You are so fucking beautiful.” She looked up at me and flashed a smile that made me want to fuck her right there. “And your eyes.”

  She threw the vanilla in the basket and turned to face me. “What about my eyes?”

  “Green is my favorite color.” I tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

  “Is it?” She rested her hands on my chest. “So if I give you the perfect puppy dog eyes, will you cave?”

  “Now that’s just mean.” I covered her eyes and turned her body so she wasn’t facing me.

  She hopped away and giggled. “So it would work.”

  “Maybe.” I grabbed the basket and reached for her hand. “You have a great laugh by the way.”

  “It’s so loud.” She covered her mouth and continued to laugh.

  I pulled her hand away. “I don’t care how loud it is. You can laugh all day long.”

  She let her body fall against my chest as we walked side by side up to the register. This woman was not at all what I expected. When we first met, she seemed so angry and distant. Who knew a Christmas tree with colorful lights could change all that?

  “Do we need to do the traditional yule log? Or can we create what would look like a stump?” Holly spread the spice cake batter out on the sheet pan.

  “I have seen the stump version before. They are cool.” I was forming snowmen with fondant. “Let’s practice it.” I held up the half done snowman. “We need snowwomen, too.”

  She grabbed one of my finished snowmen and held it up. “Yes, we do.” Then she leaned up and kissed me.

  I had always practiced with Kris and sometimes with Beckett (if he was available). Standing in the kitchen working on my special spice cake recipe with Holly felt different. It felt right.

  We even spent time discussing the design before mixing anything up. The sketch on a small piece of notebook paper showed a log (which would now be a stump), snowmen, several trees, and lots of snow to give a winter wonderland feel.

  “Have you ever gone to the competitions here in Charlotte?” Holly asked and
sat down on a barstool.

  “Once, but it was maybe five years ago.” I handed her some fondant and a little sculpting knife. “From what I hear, they’re much more competitive now.”

  “That’s what I heard, too.” She held the fondant in her hand. “I don’t sculpt, Love.”

  My cocked stirred at her pet name for me. I sat down beside her and held the same amount of fondant in my hand. “Let’s do it together.” I glanced over at her. “Unless you don’t want to?”

  She nudged my side. “Teach me, wise one.”

  We spent the twenty-minutes while the cake was in the oven shaping a tree and then I showed her how to make notches with the knife for the branches. “It’s not easy but not hard either, right?”

  The timer started to beep. Holly hopped up and grabbed the hot pads. “Not hard but I do need to practice.”

  “What time is it?” I looked over at the clock on the microwave. “We now have four days until the competition. Lots of time to practice.”

  She sat the pan down and walked back around the counter. “Easy, huh?” She turned my body to face her. “Lots of time to practice, eh?”

  I held my index finger up. “Wait, I didn’t say easy–” then I lifted her body onto my lap– “and four days is a lot of time to practice.” I nuzzled my nose into the crook of her neck. “This may be too soon, but I have an idea.”

  Holly wrapped her arms around my neck and peppered light kisses all over my face. “An idea? Tell me.”

  “What about if we camp out here and practice until the day of the championship?”

  “Here? Together?”

  “Yeah,” I looked over at the cake. It was too forward. I was kicking myself at the moment for even asking the question. “Sorry, that was a dumb idea.”

  She placed her finger on my chin and moved my head so I was looking right into my favorite color. “Who said it was a dumb idea?” I didn’t know what to say. “I’ll admit, it wasn’t on my mind. But–” she leaned forward and kissed me. “I love the idea.”

  “You do?”

  “I do,” she laughed and wiggled her behind. “Now, if we are going to camp out here. I need to set a few ground rules.”

  “You do know we’re at my house?”

  “If you want me to stay, I get to set some rules.”

  “Oh?” I loved how she continued to smile with every single word. “I’m liking them already. Please, continue.”

  “The first rule; when the cake is baking you have to fuck me.”

  I knew my eyes went wide. “Um, sure, that can be arranged. Second rule?”

  “Sometime in the next four days I want to try out the 69 sex position for my first time.” Now I was speechless. She shrugged her shoulders. “I figure I’ve had your cock in my mouth. I can tell you what I’m thinking and you won’t judge me.”

  “I’m definitely not judging you.” We needed to have sex and now. I stood and wrapped her tighter in my arms. “I find you even more attractive right at this very moment.”

  “Because I’ve never done the position before.”

  “No, because you want to do it.”

  The next four days were going to be pretty damn memorable.

  Hopefully we found time to practice the yule log.

  Twelve

  Holly

  The day of the competition…

  “Holly,” Nova ran over and grabbed my hand. “Oh my word, I can’t believe you’re competing.”

  I was standing in a ballroom at a hotel in Uptown Charlotte. There were hundreds of people sitting out in the audience. Noel and I were positioned dead center on the stage. “I’m a little stunned myself, too.”

  “Are you ready? Do you need any help?” Nova squeezed my hand.

  “Um, I think we’re good.” I laughed and looked over at Noel talking to one of the bakers.

  “Then what is it. You look…” I stopped her before she started rattling off words for how I presumably looked.

  “Nova, I’ve spent four full days with Noel.” I fanned myself as I thought of all the things we’d done. “We’ve made this specific recipe for the competition several times… and practiced several other things in between.”

  She plugged her ears and giggled. “Why are you sharing all this with me?”

  “Because you’re the only person I feel comfortable sharing this information with.”

  “Holly.” Nova dropped her hands and reached forward to grab my wrists. “What is it? Talk to me.”

  “Less than a month ago I was perfectly fine in my boring house with my boring couch drinking my boring tea.”

  “And now?”

  I sighed. “Now, I look forward to walking into my living room with my cinnamon spice tea and resting on my couch watching the lights flicker on the Christmas tree.”

  She pulled me closer and touched her forehead to mine. “Holly.”

  “Nova.” I lifted my eyes and looked at my friend. “This is crazy, right? Tell me it’s crazy so it all makes sense.”

  “Did I tell you how Zander and I finally connected?”

  I realized at that moment we had not discussed her hot man yet. “Um, no.”

  “A dating app.” She proceeded to share the story and I knew my eyes got bigger with every word. “So yeah, things happen for a reason. I like to say, the universe was speaking to you at that moment.”

  “You mean the moment when Peyton walked into your coffee shop?”

  “That exact moment.” She lifted my hands and kissed the top of my hand. “Hey, this is all really, really good. You know that, right?”

  Noel was now walking my way. His six feet and something delicious frame made my girl parts sing All I Want For Christmas. Of course, I planned to change a few lines. “Yeah, I do know all that.” I pulled her close and kissed her cheek. “It just felt fast.”

  “Maybe it was, but who the fuck cares.”

  I stood up taller. “Yeah, who the fuck cares.” We clapped our hands together and I hugged her tight.

  “Just enjoy the ride and all the Christmas fun,” she whispered beside my ear. “You deserve to be happy, Holly.”

  Noel was now standing beside us. “Are you ready? We have ten minutes to discuss the yule log plans before the timer is started.”

  I kissed Nova’s cheek again and whispered, “Thank you.” Then stepped back and clapped my hands together. “So ready.” I reached for his hand. “There may be one problem we need to discuss.” He scowled. “I really want to fucking win this thing.”

  Noel grabbed my hand and tugged me closer to him. “Oh, didn’t you know? I always get what I want.” The way he looked at me when he said the words sent a jolt all the way to my core.

  I started rewriting All I Want For Christmas in my mind as we walked over to our station.

  Four hours later…

  “Five minutes,” the announcer yelled from the side of the stage.

  “Fuck, we only have five minutes left.” I ran over to Noel and stood beside him as he sculpted a snowwoman. The man was sexy as fuck trying to be politically correct with the amount of snowmen and snowwomen we had in our design. “Snow. We need more snow.”

  “Grab the powdered sugar and sift some over the top.” He nodded his head in the direction where the bag was located. “She’s done.” He held up the finished snowwoman. “Do you think she needs a hat?” He turned the small sculpted figure around in his hand.

  “Um, no. Just some pretty hair.” I poured some powdered sugar in a bowl and added a small amount to the sift. He groaned and grabbed the red fondant to quickly make some hair. I looked at the timer and noticed it was at thirty seconds. “Hurry.” I dragged the sift all over our design before I dropped the metal kitchen toy on the counter and stepped back.

  “Time,” the announcer yelled, as the bell rang throughout the large room.

  “You did perfect on the snow.” Noel stepped up beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist. “The hair on my snowwoman is um…”

  There was long strands of
red fondant on one side and short strands on the other side. “Look at her setting a new fashion trend.”

  We both were cracking up when the judges walked over to our table. I quickly cleared my throat and brushed frosting pieces off my chef jacket. They stood there for what felt like hours but was probably five minutes. Every so often one of them would lean over to the other and whisper something. Not one of the judges showed any emotion that whole time.

  As they walked to the next table I let out a heavy sigh. “Holy fuck, that’s pressure watching them like that.”

  “So much.” Noel turned me to face him. “Hey, I need to say something.”

  “This sounds serious.”

  “Holly, you can be my wing woman anytime.”

  “What if I want to lead?”

  “Then I’ll be your wingman.”

  I fisted my hands in his shirt and pulled him close. “Noel Winters, how did I get so lucky to find you?”

  “Holly Frost, I think I’m the lucky one.” We rubbed our noses back and forth and laughed.

  “Excuse me,” a young woman said and stood only inches away from us. “We’re about to announce the winner.”

  “Oh, shit.” I hopped back and glanced around. “Good luck.” I glanced over at the table beside me. The woman smiled and sent luck back my way.

  Noel squeezed my hand and whispered in my ear, “You do realize our design was fucking better than everyone here?”

  I was about to say something when the judge started talking into the mic. “We had six really great competitors this year, but there can only be one winner. This group may have had a spectacular design but that’s not why they won. The cake recipe out shined everyone here. It was moist, perfect texture, and the flavors added were spot on.”

  “It has to be us, right?” I whispered.

  “The winners of the Charlotte Holiday Baking Competition are…” Then they paused for dramatic affect and everyone in the audience started talking louder. “Noel Winters and Holly Frost,” the judge yelled into the mic so loud it caused the sound of his voice to be distorted.