Free The Christmas Wish by Maggie Marr Page A

you go, that’s better.” She lifted a cannoli out of the box. Feeding people, taking care of them, baking, that calmed her. Her mind could accept that Tyler was here, at her house, for a cannoli, but the idea that he was here for her? Nope. Too much to digest. Sweet treats for a friend was understandable. Tyler in her home, after a date, after he’d said he wanted to take her out again? Her brain might pop out of her head. She pushed the plate across the breakfast bar toward Tyler and held out a fork.
    He cut into the cannoli. “Did you make this?” That beautiful smile, filled with charm, curled up across Tyler’s face. She could stare at that smile for days.
    “I did. These are really fresh. We had to make more halfway through the day. I did them once I got back from the Grande.”
    Tyler lifted the golden-brown pastry filled with mascarpone and pistachio to his lips.
    Brinn’s heart froze in place. Please let him like her cannoli. Nonna said the way to a man was through his mouth, which led to his stomach, which caused his heart to fall. His gorgeous, full-lipped mouth opened. Damn, she could kiss that mouth.
    Heat flamed up her neck.
    The fork slid between his lips. “Oh my God, Brinn, do you have any idea how good this is?”
    Brinn ducked her head and a smile widened across her face. She did. She was a pretty great baker and pastry chef. Always nice to get an acknowledgement of all the work she’d put into mastering her craft.
    Tyler held his fork toward her with a bite of cannoli on the end. Her gaze met his. Heat fired in her belly. Tingles collided in her fingertips. He was so close, his mouth was so close. She opened her mouth and Tyler slid the fork between her lips. The sweet taste of mascarpone with bits of pistachio rolled over her taste buds. So intimate.
    Tyler leaned forward, his lips now millimeters from hers. “Amazing.”
    Her tongue swept out over her bottom lip, which she pulled under her top two teeth.
    “And I don’t mean the cannoli.” He moved forward and his lips were on hers.
    Brinn’s body burst into flame. His tongue pressed along the seam of her lips and Brinn opened her mouth to his. Tyler’s fingertips wove through her hair as his other hand reached out and grasped her shoulders. He stood and Brinn stood with him. The length of her body pressed to his. His maleness pressed against her hip and her nipple pebbled beneath her shirt. How long since she kissed a man? How long since there’d been a man she wanted to kiss?
    Tyler’s hand cupped her chin, and he pulled his lips from her mouth and kissed along her neck. Deep tendrils of heat thickened through her body as his mouth and hot lips trailed across her skin. The desire to strip off his clothes, to strip off her clothes and get into bed with this man clawed through her. His fingertips slid under her sweater and trailed along the edge of her jeans. His hands, those hands. His touch drew her in. Until…
    Oh no. Her muffin top. His hand spread over her belly. Her very soft belly that proved that not only did she bake a lot of cannoli, but she ate a lot of them too.
    Brinn pulled away.
    “I’m sorry Brinn, I didn’t mean to…” His gaze clouded. “I didn’t mean to move too fast.” His lips pressed to her forehead. He didn’t. He hadn’t. She wanted to wrap herself up in bedsheets with Tyler.
    “It’s not you.”
    Would these insecurities forever plague her? How fabulous to have the perfect body and classically beautiful face, the type of beauty that made men swoon. But that wasn’t her. She was a little round, a little soft, a little handsome, and not at all what Tyler was used to. His ex-wife had been near supermodel proportions, and that definitely wasn’t Brinn.
    Even Tyler looked like a god cut from marble. How could she possibly measure up to the women that Tyler had been with? If his ex-wife was any indication, he usually went for tall, leggy, and big-boobed. She had the big-boobed part, but the tall and