Hot Buttered Yum by Kim Law

to take to the piano on a stage for the first time in three
years.
    She thunked the palm of her hand against her forehead and squinted
her eyes closed tighter. She still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to that.
    Step, step,
step.
Pivot.
    Somehow Kayla
had talked her into it. A guilt trip. She’d explained
what a thrill it would be to both the contestants and the crowd to have Roni give a special “mini-performance” with the band. They’d
be brokenhearted if she didn’t. And Roni had fallen
for it.
    She supposed it
would be a bit of a thrill for her too. She loved performing. Or she had. So
how could it not be exciting? If she were to be honest, she’d also admit that
she missed the rush of it sometimes. A little.
    Not enough to go
back, though.
    Yet playing just
one song … well, one song with the band and then a small solo number …
was fine. She could do that. It would be fun. But she had not allowed herself
to be talked into a full concert at the end of the two weeks. That would be
going too far.
    Pivot.
    She was retired
from all that. She played for fun now. Only.
    That’s why she
refused to take any money for her performances. And hey, what wouldn’t be fun
about playing “The Twelve Days of Christmas” with an up-and-coming country
band, along with twenty-four gorgeous, half-naked men gracing the stage?
    So yeah, okay. She
could do this. Do her master of ceremonies duties … and stay focused only
on that.
    And do not do Lucas Alexander.
    She slammed into
something hard, only then realizing she was still walking with her eyes closed.
When she opened them, she wished she’d kept them shut.
    Lucas stood in
front of her.
    Big, wide, bare
chest. And of course, he was wearing the requisite smile. The man had to know
what that smile did to her.
    Her heart tried
its best to pound its way out of her chest.
    “Morning,
gorgeous,” he said.
    She gave him the
evil eye. He sounded gravelly and satisfied, as if they’d just crawled from beneath
warm sheets together.
    He chuckled,
apparently unimpressed with her mean look.
    “Shouldn’t you
be out front getting ready to go back onstage?” she grumbled.
    “Probably. In
fact, Kayla will likely hunt me down any second now. She caught me heading this
way.”
    Roni shot a look at
the now closed door. She’d left it open when she’d come in.
    “You closed my door,”
she pointed out.
    “I did.”
    “Why?”
    He leaned in and
put his mouth to her ear. She could smell mint on his breath. “Because I wanted
to be alone with you,” he whispered.
    Her treacherous
hand reached out and pressed, palm flat against his heated chest, and the
muscles behind her panties did a little spasm.
    Damn the man.
    “There’s no good
reason to be back here alone together,” she spoke into his neck, since he was
still leaning into her. His hands had crept to either side of her waist and his
cheek was so close to hers that it would take only a tiny shift to press her
skin against his. If she hadn’t been concentrating so hard on not letting her
fingers burrow into the soft hair on his very, very hard pecs, she might have been
embarrassed by the shaky squeak of her voice.
    “Any chance I
could change your mind today?” Heat dampened her ear as he spoke.
    Her shoulder
inched up, closing the gap to her ear, as if he’d touched his lips to her instead
of merely whispering a hair’s breadth away. The hair on her upper body stood on
end, and her lower body melted. He didn’t have to say what he wanted to change
her mind about. Her. Him. And a little something that would end with a
screaming orgasm or two.
    Her eyes popped
open. She’d closed them again. Sigh .
And her hand was still planted firmly in the middle of his chest.
    And no,
unfortunately, she was not going to have any screaming orgasms anytime soon.
    Drat .
    She pushed
against him, putting a few inches between them, and then forced her hand from
the firm, tanned flesh. She closed her fingers in her palm and lowered her