“Only after waking up for the seventh day in a row from the same damn dream.”

“Which was what?” I lift my butt, allowing him to drag my panties down. I help by removing my crinoline.

“A repeat of New Year’s, except on my desk.” He tosses my panties and crinoline on his chair and drops to his knees, making good on that repeat performance from start to finish.

When I open his office door, I’m a little sweaty and definitely flushed, but oh-so-sated. I accidentally kick something on the floor.

“What’s that?” Ronan grabs me by the hips to keep from knocking me over since he bumps into me from behind when I bend to retrieve it.

I hold it up for Ronan to see. “Air freshener?”

“Weird. I don’t remember leaving that in the hall, but clearly I’m on the ball. Oooh, and it’s festive scented.” He releases a spray into his office. It smells like a cinnamon roll. It’s probably a good idea since it helps cover the latex and sex.

He walks me down the hall and I come to an abrupt stop when I spot Lars behind the bar, cutting lemon wedges. Ronan bumps into me from behind. “Oh, hey!” My voice has that high pitch associated with surprise and embarrassment.

He pauses his chopping to tip his chin in our direction. “Hey.”

“Lars? How long have you been here?” Ronan sounds more annoyed than embarrassed.

“Long enough.” A wide grin spreads across his face.

“Oh my gosh,” I mutter as Ronan ushers me down the hall toward the back entrance.

Once we’re out of hearing range I turn to face Ronan. “He heard me.”

“Us. He heard us.” He rubs his jaw.

I throw my hands up in the air. “I thought you said we were alone!”

“We were.” He glances at his wristwatch. “Looks like we got carried away with the foreplay.”

I twist his wrist so I can check the time. “It’s ten! We were in there for an hour!”

He shrugs. “I was hungry, and you didn’t seem to be in a hurry.”

I poke him in the chest. “This isn’t funny! What if that had been Gramps and not Lars?”

“Gramps doesn’t leave the house before eleven these days.”

“Not the freaking point and you know it.”

“Babe, relax. Lars isn’t going to care, and it wasn’t Gramps so we’re safe.”

“But he probably heard me coming and saying…things!”

“I’m sure he didn’t press his ear to the door. He probably passed by, heard some noise, got cheeky with the spray, and steered clear.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Well, he better hope that’s what he did. Look, I’m sorry. Next time we’ll wait until after closing before we get freaky in my office.”

“What makes you think there’s going to be a next time?”

Ronan cocks a brow and smirks. “Because you loved that just as much as I did.”

I don’t respond to that, because he’s right; I did love it. “I have to get back. Callie is probably wondering where I am.” I turn to stalk off, but Ronan grabs my arm.

“Hey. Don’t walk away angry.” He pulls me in for a hug and presses his lips to my temple.

“I’m embarrassed, not angry,” I mumble against his chest.

“I love the sound of your orgasms,” he murmurs in my ear. “I love the way you moan my name. I love that you’re not quiet about what feels good for you. It’s sexy as hell.”

“And now I’m really leaving. We can talk more about that later. When we’re not at work and have to function for the rest of the day.”

He gives my hip a squeeze and releases me. I stand outside in the cold January morning for a couple of minutes to allow the sweat to dry and the heat in my face to calm before I go back in and apologize for taking as long as I did. Not that I regret it all that much.

As January rolls through, I do everything I can to pull in more customers—fun new cupcakes, bachelorette parties, cupcake-decorating classes in the evenings—but I’m still struggling to compete against D&B’s super cheap prices and their endless marketing money. I manage to find a great part-time baker to help alleviate some of the strain on my time and demands. Financially it’s going to be a bit of a struggle for a while, but I can’t reasonably run a business on no sleep.

On the downside, hiring a new baker means I have to find a way to reduce other costs. I end up cutting back on Callie’s hours. It’s the beginning of a new semester and the workload is heavy so she’s not heartbroken over it, but it still doesn’t feel good.

The new part-time baker is great about helping to get the shop open, but cutting back on Callie’s hours means I’m working just as many as I was before. There have been a few occasions when I’ve been able to enjoy sleeping past five in the morning, usually with Ronan, but if business doesn’t pick up soon I’m going to have to put an end to those altogether.

The only saving grace seems to be our cohosted events. I’m grateful that Tori is planning her stop around one of those events, because those tend to be the busiest nights. She always makes her appearance a surprise, but based on her previous stops over the past week, Ronan and I predicted she’d be coming our way this week, and we were right.

She stops by during one of my comedy nights and Ronan’s live bands. Of course, that morning I got a call from the best of the three comedians saying she had the flu and there was no way she could get up onstage without a bucket and a toilet. I was prepared to host it with just the two comedians, but Lars said he had a friend who was hilarious and would love the opportunity.

His friend was hot, which was a bonus, and had a pretty big following on social media so I took a chance, shuffling the acts around so he could go last. As it turned out, his pretty face was the only palatable thing about his act. It was more frat boy humor than anything my clientele would find funny, so he was met with some embarrassingly pathetic chuckles and not much else.

To make matters worse, Tori has the pleasure of witnessing it firsthand. If she’d shown up at the beginning, when everyone was crying with laughter, it would’ve made the final act seem a little less awful, but since she’s missed the best part, it’s taken the shine out of the evening. She stays for a drink and samples the cupcakes, expressing how much she loves the décor and the concept.