The previous gruelling week of non-stop shifts meant that Seungwan had most of the following week off, and Joohyun was delighted when he spent much of those days at the bakery with her.

Officially he was there to re-fill both of their digital calendars with the business side of things, and be a sounding board as she talked out the menu and ordering decisions.

Unofficially, he would linger as long as she wasn’t busy, and return as soon as the shop closed.

Neither of them could get enough of the other’s presence, it seemed, and she secretly loved the attention.

When Seungwan returned to work, she missed him in a new and sharp kind of way.

Even on his days off, he was often asleep until she finished for the day.

So when Seungwan strolled in right after her last customer left for the day, she lit up like a billboard board glowing in the middle of Seoul.

“Flip the lock,” Joohyun said, a happy smile on her face as she sagged against the counter. “And turn the sign? This shop is closed.”

“Good morning?”

“Great morning.” Joohyun glanced at the clock. “Did you get enough sleep? I’d expected to tiptoe into the house in an hour and hear you gently snoring.”

“Do I snore?”

She laughed. “Way to change the subject.”

“I grabbed an hour.” Seungwan looked like he was going to say more, then slid into a charming, seductive grin instead. “I was wondering if I could convince you to have an afternoon nap with me when you were done here.”

That sounded perfect. “So I shouldn’t make you a shot of espresso?”

“Not today.” Seungwan eyed the glass display case. “But I would take one of those cupcakes.”

“Actually…” Joohyun crooked her finger. “I’ve been working on something new I want youto try. A different flavour of cupcake. Come on back.”

He followed her, and picked up her clipboard as she pulled a piping bag from the fridge. “Hey, these new numbers look great. Right? Am I reading this correctly?”

Joohyun beamed at him. “You are. Thanks to your help last week, this week I had way less wastage than usual, and the margins reflect it. I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but I’m also getting busier. I think the ramp up to Christmas should be pretty sweet.”

“That’s great.”

Snagging a bare vanilla cupcake, she piped a healthy swirl of the new raspberry icing on top and held it out. “A celebratory first taste of a new flavour?”

Instead of taking the treat, Seungwan moved in closer and let her feed it to him.

When it was down to a few crumbs and a swipe of icing left on her finger, she slid that across his lower lip, then closed in so she could have a taste, too.

“We probably shouldn’t…” Seungwan glanced around her pristine kitchen.

“Right?”Joohyun nodded.

“Right. Definitely not in here.”

She closed her non-sticky hand around the front of his shirt and tugged him back to her office, which had a solid door and no windows.

“But here,” she said after closing them into the tight confines, and leaning back against the desk.

“This is fair game.”

Seungwan descended on her hungrily, her shirt going flying, followed by his, and then he peeled her out of her pants before dropping to his knees. “I’m still hungry.”

Joohyun dropped her head back, giving herself over to the sensations.

He was so good at this, thorough and enthusiastic.

It didn’t take long before she was lifting her hips to meet his tongue.

Her body was a taut bow, and as her arousal spiked, and she curled forward, the sight of his head between her thighs, his powerful shoulders the perfect leg rest, was what put her over the edge.

Shaking, trembling in every cell, Joohyun buried her hands in his hair and ground against him as Seungwan swallowed every bit of her .

Seungwan rested his head on her belly and exhaled. “Yeah. That. I needed that before I could sleep. Holy ."

She closed her eyes and rubbed her fingers through his hair.

When her heartbeat returned to normal, she pulled him up her body, giving him a long, slow kiss of thanks, then spun them around so she could return the favour.

It took them a good long while to get dressed again and stumble out into the kitchen, laughing.

Joohyun washed her hands, then picked up the raspberry icing piping bag, thanked it for its help, and returned it to the fridge.

Seungwan watched her with a smirk on his face. “So what exactly happened here?”

She winked at him. “I seduced you with a very slick move. I lured you in with some y profit margin talk and then hit you with the raspberry buttercream frosting.”

“I didn’t see it coming.”

“That’s what makes it a very slick move.”

He grinned sleepily. “You bamboozled me.”

“That’s what I’ll call it! The cupcake. It’s a Raspberry Bamboozle.” She wrote that down on her clipboard, then gestured to the front. “I’ll just put the leftovers into day-old boxes for tomorrow, then we can get going home.”

“You don’t have any more work you want to do today?”

She shook her head. “I’ll work extra long tomorrow, but my only remaining to-do task today is go home and have a nap with you.”

But when they climbed into his bed, they didn’t go straight to sleep. 

Seungwan ran his fingers through her hair, his nails scraping her scalp just enough to make her purr, and turned the conversation back to the bakery. “As much as I really do like being your admin second-in-command, have you thought about hiring someone to help? Someone who doesn’t sleep during the day quite so much?”

Joohyun giggled. “First of all, you’re irreplaceable for reasons I should hope are obvious by now. But…help? I was hoping to hold off on that until next summer. I’d like to have a full year of data, at least for the slower months, so I’m not making any false promises to anyone about work hours.”

“But will busier periods cover the cost of employing someone in the slower months?”
 

“Yes. Definitely. By next summer, I should be able to save enough money to know I can make it through next winter, even if business slows down.” 

“Then what do you think about taking out a line of credit—” The scalp massage stopped as  Seungwan held up his hands, as she lifted her head and glowered gently at him. “Which I will co-sign. We can use the house as collateral.”

The offer to help financially didn’t lessen her glower in the least. “I can’t ask you to do that.” 

“Which is why I’m offering instead. I believe in you, and the bakery, and I don’t think you’ll even dip into the loan. But it would be good to have it just in case.”

“I’ll think about it.” Joohyun wouldn’t accept the offer. She couldn’t. But she knew Seungwan needed her to really consider it, and she’d give him that much before saying no.

She’d show him she didn’t need any help, that she could manage all on her own.

“Good.” Seungwan tugged her back down on