Page 23 of Lemon Cake

“So, what theme did you decide on?”

“Zootopia.”

“I wonder where you got that idea from,” he chuckled, remembering how she felt curled into his side that night at Braiden’s.

“I’m making their name tags for the wardrobe and their baskets.”

“Well, I’m all yours.”

Gemma pulled him to a tiny table that was awfully low to the floor and covered in printouts ofZootopiacharacters. She pulled a chair over for Rider, while she chose a spot on the floor. He ignored the chair and sat next to her, enjoying the intoxicating little giggle that move earned him.

“You’ll regret not taking the chair. Your knees will hate you tonight.” She handed over scissors and a few of the characters. “Cut them all out and then we can glue the names on.”

“Yes, boss.”

She blushed and bit her lip. With a quiet voice she asked, “Is that something you like?”

“You being my boss?”

“You know…”

Despite his confident demeanour, Rider squirmed. “Well, you already brought me to my knees so…”

Another precious laugh.

“Is that something you’d be into?” he asked her.

“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it much. What do you like?”

“You.”

Gemma’s eyes shot to him before she re-focused on the sloth in her hands. “I like you too.”

“I haven’t really done anything I haven’t liked.”

“Sounds like you’ve tried a lot.”

“What’s something that’s on your no-no list?” he asked, pleasantly surprised that she was so comfortable. He wanted to keep the conversation going as long as possible.

“I wasn’t very experimental before the accident and after, I never really put myself out there.”

“So, you kept yourself busy?”

Though she was still looking into her lap, the tips of her ears turned that gorgeous shade of red.

“Tell me more,” Rider demanded, voice turning low and gravelly. “Is it just you or do you have little ‘friends?’” Fuck, that definitely was risqué but he hadn’t been fast enough to stop himself.

“Friends,” Gemma rushed.

“Do I get to meet them?”

Gemma met his eyes again, those beautiful blue orbs swirling with want—and insecurity. “You want to use them?”

“Why not? You enjoy them, why wouldn’t I use that to my advantage?”

Laughter filtering down the hallway popped their little bubble and brought them back to reality. A tall blonde woman walked in with a curious smile on her face, a younger brunette following her. “We thought we saw you bring in a visitor, so we were curious to see who it was.”

“Rider, this is Jennette and Laurena.”