CRAVING YOU
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
1
CONNOR WIPED HIS ARM across his forehead and exhaled as he glared at the moving boxes in his kitchen. How had he acquired all this stuff in one year? He was an expert at moving house after spending most of his childhood moving from one place to another. But this was his final move. He could get through the process one last time.
He paused from closing up the box with heavy-duty tape as satisfaction welled up inside him. He’d finally bought the house he wanted. It would require a lot of work to restore but it was exactly what he needed for the next step of his life.
Connor tilted his head when he heard the singing from the other side of the duplex and smiled. Laura Dawson, his next-door neighbor, was belting out a country song in her kitchen this Saturday morning. Not belting it out well, he decided as his smile widened, but she did it as she did everything else—with gusto.
His smile faded as he realized that was the one thing he was going to miss. It was difficult moving away from Laura. They had been neighbors for a year and had become good friends. He would go so far as to say the best of friends.
And that was why he had to move away. Now, before he ruined an important friendship.
Connor stopped when he heard a mechanical screech followed by Laura’s yelp of surprise. He dropped the tape roll without hesitating and sprinted out his kitchen door and across their shared backyard. “Laura?” he called out.
Her shrieks became louder. He pushed open the screen door and stepped into Laura’s kitchen. His eyes widened when he saw the bright green standing mixer spewing out white powder and a brownish sludge. It sprayed across the floor and he heard it splat on the walls and cabinets.
Laura shielded her face, her curses at the machine as colorful as her clothes, as she tried to reach the mixer. Connor got hit with a glob of slippery batter and he reached for the electrical outlet and pulled the plug.
The mixer went silent and Laura stopped screaming. Connor’s mouth fell open as he stared at her. Laura stood completely still, her arms out wide as if that would keep the batter from dripping off her pale skin.
Her face was spattered with flour and flecks of butter but it didn’t diminish her feminine beauty. Nothing could hide the constant twinkle in her brown eyes, the bold tilt of her pointed chin or the wide smile that could light up a room.
Connor’s body tightened as his gaze dropped. Laura’s orange camisole barely contained her high breasts and it bunched up on her flat stomach. Her belly button piercing glinted in the sunlight, drawing his attention. He swallowed hard when he noticed the scandalous length of her cutoff denim shorts. Her legs seemed impossibly long. He wanted to reach out and see if her thighs were as smooth and soft as they looked.
He also knew that if Laura turned around, her shorts would offer a teasing glimpse of her ass. His skin itched as he imagined cupping her curves in the palm of his hand.
“What is going on here?” Connor asked gruffly. “This place is a disaster.”
Laura threaded her fingers through spikes of her short, fire-engine red hair, but if she was trying to remove the batter, all she really managed to do was smear it in deeper. “I was cooking,” she announced with a hint of defiance.
“Cooking?” Laura Dawson did not cook. It was a point of pride for her. Coming from a family of domestic goddesses who also owned Dawson’s Diner, Laura was the black sheep of the family.
“Baking, actually.” She continued as she sloughed off the sticky tan dough from her arms. “Banana bread for the book club.”
Connor reached out and placed his hand on her forehead. He ignored the jolt of awareness coursing through his veins from the simple touch. “Are you sick?”
“Ha-ha. Very funny.” Laura batted his hand away. “We all have to make something for our meeting today.”
And, of course, Laura had wanted to be spontaneous with her choice. He peered into the mixing bowl and shook his head. He wasn’t an expert but even to him the batter didn’t look right. “Buy something from the diner and say you made it.”
“No one would believe me. Anyway, we have to make one of the recipes in this cookbook we’re reading. Unfortunately, Isabel and Sydney already picked the easiest ones.”
His mouth twitched. “You read a cookbook?”
She gave a sharp nod that made him think her answer wasn’t the full truth. “I tried to get out of it, but Sydney said I had to read it or I will not get to select another book for the club.”
“Choosing a book must be very important to you,” he murmured.
“Enough that I was reading a cookbook and trying to make something on a Friday night. The smoke alarm kept going off and I’ve had to throw away one attempt already. It’s been so frustrating,” she said with a groan. “What did you do last night? I came by to see if you wanted to hang out.”
“You came over to avoid cooking.” Or to get him to help her make something. He knew how Laura’s mind worked.
“But you weren’t home,” she said, ignoring his comment. “Where were you? Checking out your new house?”
“I was out with Marissa.” He didn’t like that his voice went soft or that guilt squeezed his chest. Connor shouldn’t feel guilty about going out with another woman, but lately he didn’t want to share that kind of information with Laura. He grabbed a paper towel and started wiping up the other side of the counter.
“Marissa?” Her eyes narrowed and then went wide as she recognized the name. “Wait, you went out with Marissa Diaz? The current Miss Seedling?”
He nodded and focused on cleaning the counter. Tension skittered along his nerves as the silence pulsed in the kitchen.
“I don’t see it with you two,” Laura finally said.
The knot in his stomach twisted harder as he tossed the paper towel away. “Why not?” He was reluctant to ask because he wasn’t sure if he’d like the answer. Yet he valued Laura’s opinions and he knew he would always get an honest answer from her.
Laura scrunched her nose. “I grew up with Marissa. She’s nice but she’s...well...”