Bad Boys Online

Chapter One

"I don't feel the love in this room."

Jared Kincaid stared at Harold, who was standing in the middle of his office, hands on his leather pants-clad hips.

What Jared felt was not love, but a skull-grinding, breath-robbing headache. Trust him to get hired at a marketing firm where the boss was having an existential midlife crisis.

It had started with Harold's leaving his wife six weeks ago. Now it had graduated to his boss's wearing a gay hairdresser's wardrobe to work every day, preaching to the staff about oneness with self, and eating massive quantities of hummus.

Since Jared's instinct was to tell Harold to take his love and shove it up his leather pants, he remained silent. With a little luck, in a month or two Harold would rediscover his true passion lay in Beamers and Armani suits and they could get back to normal.

A sultry low laugh filled the room. Jared gritted his teeth.

That laugh was a perfect example of why he was doomed to middle management and a lifetime of dodging trouble. Trouble followed Jared. Everywhere he went.

Trouble usually had long legs and breasts. This trouble had all of that plus blowzy blond hair, a Southern accent, and lush cherry lips that pouted and taunted.

And her name. Who the hell named their kid Candy Appleton? Had her mother envisioned her newborn baby as a future porn star?

Maybe it had been cute when Candy was a little girl, before she'd grown breasts, but now, on that body… it was just perverted.

Candy, who looked relaxed and sexy as hell in her red suit, kicked the heel of her crossed foot up and down, annoying Jared even further. When she did that, he had a view straight up her thigh nearly to the promised land.

She'd be the type to wear garters, he was sure. Black ones, green ones. Red ones, cream ones.

He shifted in his chair, slouching to hide the fact that he now had a steel boner.

A boner. In the middle of the goddamn day, in the middle of his boss's office.

Trouble. Plain and simple.

Trouble spoke. "Harold, I don't think Jared's ready to feel the love."

He sat up straight. What was that supposed to mean? He could feel the love if he wanted to. If he could ever figure out what the hell Harold was talking about.

Candy tossed him one of those sultry, open-mouth smiles that made him want to tug her full bottom lip into his mouth and suck hard. He dug his fingernails into his thigh.

Harold frowned. "Is that true, Jared? You're not ready to feel the love?"

He was ready to feel up Candy's curves. Did that count? Jared cleared his throat. "Uhh, what exactly are we talking about here?"

"I'm talking about the fact that we have exactly three weeks to get together the ad campaign for Chunk o' Chocolate, and you and Candy have barely spent an hour on it."

That's because he just about ran away every time Candy came near him. She scared the hell out of him. He had been forced to leave five years of hard work and a 401k plan behind him when he'd left his previous marketing firm, due to an unplanned encounter in the copier room with the big boss's secretary. Unknown to him at the time, that secretary was also the boss's girlfriend.

Work and sex didn't mix. Jared and women didn't mix. Every embarrassing and detrimental incident in his life could be traced back to a woman and his inability to control himself around them.

The buck stopped here. Or his dick, however you wanted to look at it.

He was not going to screw this up. Or screw Candy, no matter how much he wanted to taste those lethal lips.

"We can work on it whenever Candy likes." He avoided looking at her and focused on the bright yellow spot Harold had dyed on the front of his rapidly diminishing hair. It looked like a flashing caution light.

Caution: Middle-aged man approaching baldness.

Candy said, "Maybe you should assign someone else to work with Jared. I don't think he really likes me all that much." Her words were slow, and rolled, like a water drop across his skin.

That's where she was wrong. He liked Candy. Candy was sweet and lickable and belonged in his mouth, where he could swirl it around, sucking and tasting every delectable inch.

Harold clapped his hands together, startling Jared out of his erotic fantasy.

"See, that's what I'm talking about! Jared doesn't like you, and you don't like Jared. I can't have that."

Candy didn't like him? Jared turned to her in amazement. Well, hell, that hurt. It was okay if he was avoiding her, but she wasn't supposed to avoid him.

He was likable. He returned phone calls and held open doors for women. Of course, whenever Candy was around, he usually just grunted and bolted for the nearest exit. He supposed she might take that personally.

But what was he supposed to do? Tell her it wasn't her, it was her hot knockers that had him running like a cat from water? That was sure to go over big.

"I like Candy," he managed to say, not at all sure he wanted to know where Harold was going with this.

Candy laughed again, and he was suddenly aware of his poor word choice.

"Liar," she murmured. "But that shouldn't have anything to do with this client."

"It doesn't."

Harold studied them both and said, "I've noticed the tension between you two, and it's got to stop. It's affecting the rest of the staff. It's altering the feng shui state of the office. There are negative auras camped in my company, and that has got to go."

If Harold pulled out crystals and started chanting, Jared was out of there.

Not that he could afford to quit. As luck would have it, he'd bought himself a pricey condo right before he'd gotten canned from his previous job. The three months pounding the pavement had put a real dent in his assets. Another stint of unemployment and he'd be eating macaroni and cheese out of his car after the bank foreclosed on his mortgage.

"We don't want negative auras." Candy dropped her foot to the ground and smiled at Harold.

It made Jared suspicious. She never looked as if she was being sarcastic, yet he suspected she was. She was intelligent, and her ad work was brilliant, yet that brain was housed in a stripper's body.

He had the feeling that, if left alone, Candy could outmaneuver them all, leaving a string of drooling men in her wake as she deftly climbed her way up the corporate ladder.

Maybe he'd catch a glimpse under her skirt on her way up.

Jesus, he was hopeless.

"So Candy is willing to work on improvement. What about you, Jared? Do I have your word that you'll open your mind to a more natural unity?"

Sure. Why not. He had to say yes. This was his boss, no matter how off-the-wall Harold was acting, and he was still in charge. Jared didn't like macaroni and cheese, so he forced his mouth to open and say, "You have my word, Harold."

Harold beamed. He said, "Yesterday I had the best idea.

You're going to love this. There is obviously something holding you and Candy back, something that needs to be resolved." Harold put his finger to his lip. "We could be talking about a betrayal in a past life, I'm not sure."

Jared pressed his hand to his temple. If he'd had a past life, he'd obviously done something really shitty to have earned this torture in his present life.

"What did you have in mind?" Candy leaned forward as she redirected Harold.

"I've signed the two of you up for online couple counseling!"

Jared's head pulsed so violently he could swear he went momentarily blind.

"Oh!" Candy cleared her throat. "Well, that sounds like a great idea."

It wasn't a great idea. It was a stupid, asinine, garbage-can-full-of-crap idea cooked up by his boss who had temporarily lost his mind due to the onset of male pattern baldness.

"We're not a couple, Harold. We don't need counseling." He tugged on the pant leg of his black suit trousers and tried not to panic.

He didn't want some unlicensed Internet shrink telling him he had the hots for his mother or some other such sick shit.

"Yes, you do. There are unresolved issues between you, maybe some domination control problems from your past life, and I want this resolved before we lose Chunk o' Chocolate." Harold pointed to his computer, sitting on his large masculine cherry desk.

"You're all enrolled, ready to go. This is a three-hour session. You are not to leave my office until you've finished the session and given me the printable certificate of completion."

Jared couldn't breathe. Oh my God, Harold was locking him in the plush corner office with Candy for three hours? Alone? With a touchy-feely counseling session to muddle through?

Maybe he could suddenly develop a fever. Or trip and take his eye out on the corner of Harold's desk.

Trouble. Had he pegged her or what?

Candy watched the horror flash across Jared Kincaid's face with interest. He really didn't like her.

She had joked about it, but it was starting to bother her. Everyone liked her, especially men. She had been born a flirt, had always known how to work a smile and a hair flip. It was in her genes, passed down through the women in her family, and instead of fighting it, she had learned to embrace it.

Candy was proud of her femininity, but even more so of her brain. But just because she had that brain didn't mean she wanted to deny she was a woman. She liked wearing heels, and soft flirty dresses when the occasion warranted, and she liked the casual push-pull between men and women.

She liked to flirt, and she was good at it. Candy knew she in no way qualified as a slut, having slept with only two men by the age of twenty-seven. Nor was she a dick-tease as her ex-husband had once accused her. To her mind, you were a tease only if you let a man touch, then taunted him with no. You were a tease only if you promised him sex, then laughed in his face.

Those were nasty games she wasn't interested in playing. But smiles and friendly conversation, that she couldn't resist. And men responded.

All men except for Jared.

She was starting to take it personally.

Jared was saying coldly, "I don't think I can do that, Harold. I don't see the value in that type of exercise."

Ouch. Probably not the best thing for Jared to say. Candy waited, watching Harold's bowling ball-shaped face turn pink.

"I think there is value. And that's all that matters. Don't make me angry, Jared. We're all about love here at Stratford Marketing."

Jared's jaw twitched. Candy pressed her lips together to prevent laughter from spilling out.

She didn't think Jared was all about love. Jared was all about getting his job done and getting the hell out of the office, from what she could tell. He didn't socialize with any of the staff, and he was downright cold to her.

There was a control, a raw edgy dominating control that flickered in his black eyes, and showed in his rigid stance every time she saw him.

It fascinated her.

And he was gorgeous.

It took a lot to draw Candy's interest. Usually men were falling all over her, in a semi-idiotic tongue-wagging sort of way. Maybe that was the reason her eyes were drawn to Jared over and over again.

When he looked at her, she burned. Deep between her thighs where it mattered.

He always looked away with a flicker of disinterest. He never smiled.

Whereas she knew she tended to look as if the wind had blown her into a room, Jared was impeccable in his black suit and merino blue shirt and tie. His black hair never changed, but was short and smooth with a touch of gel that flipped the front up half an inch.

Jared stared at Harold. "So you're saying I have to do this?"

Harold, bless his confused and misguided heart, said firmly with lips pressed together, "That's what I'm saying."

Candy wasn't looking forward to answering probing questions about past lives and intimacy issues either, but she was looking forward to three hours alone with Jared.

Surely in three hours she could make him smile.

Or groan.

Oh, my, where had that thought come from? Appalled at herself, she shifted in her chair and clenched her thighs together. There was enough energy between them to light up the Chicago skyline for three days and nights.

Or heat up Harold's office for three hours.

"Fine." Jared broke eye contact with Harold and leaned back in his chair, unbuttoning his suit jacket. His casual slouch belied the anger apparent on his face.

Candy smiled. "What a great idea, Harold. Jared and I are going to have so much fun getting to know each other."

In more ways than one if she had any say in it.

Harold nodded. "I thought so too. Here." He turned his laptop around to face them. "You're all set to go. See you in three hours."

"Okay." She gave Harold a little finger wave as he headed for the door.

Harold paused. "Be nice to each other."

"I'm always nice," Jared said in a hard low voice that shivered over Candy.

Exactly how nice could she convince him to be?

Candy knew she should be ashamed of herself. But never, ever had she engaged in a casual affair. Nor had a man ever taken so much as one minute to think about satisfying her. They all looked at her and wanted. No one ever cared about what she wanted.

Since the day Jared had walked into the office two months ago, she had been watching, wishing, imagining he would be different.

Jared was making her crazy, making her so achy and desperate that she was liable to start rubbing up against her desk at work if she didn't find some kind of release soon. Would it be so wrong to indulge a little?

If she could break down Jared's mysterious defenses, she would see he was like any other man, out to please himself, and the urgent need would dissipate. Then they could do the Chunk o' Chocolate ad, and she could get back to concentrating on something other than what his chest would look like bare.

"I'm nice too," Candy reassured Harold as he gave them both a doubtful look.

Then the door closed and they were alone.

Jared did nothing. He sat in his chair without moving a muscle and stared out the window.

"Well, no sense in pouting, Jared." She stood up and leaned over Harold's desk, dragging the laptop toward her. "Let's get started."

If she were completely ignorant of her own sexuality, she would have no idea that her backside was in Jared's face. But she was aware of her body, and knew very clearly that bending over meant she was showing a long display of leg. And that her behind with her skirt hugging tight over it was pushed slightly out toward him. She even knew to splay her palms on the desk, lock her elbows, and bend one knee to make the view all the more enticing.

Candy knew how to attract a man's attention. She just didn't know how to keep it focused on her once she had it. Jared, who displayed such iron-clad control, looked as if he would never walk away from a woman until he knew she was satisfied. It would be a matter of pride for him, she suspected. And whoo-whee, was she ready to be satisfied. She wanted a reaction from him.

"Shit," Jared said in a nasty angry whisper.

That was a start.

Candy grinned at the computer screen. "Hmmm? Did you say something?"

He spoke louder. "I said shit. I can't believe I'm letting Harold get away with this."

Candy read the title of the online course in front of them. "Rediscovering Harmony: An Intimate Step-by-Step Guide for Couples in Jeopardy."

Jared snorted.

"We have to type our names in." She starting typing and felt Jared stand up and move beside her.

"You're not really going to do this, are you?"

He filled her space, smothering her with a heady masculine scent of cologne and coffee.

"For my job, I can do Harold's silly little counseling." She flipped her hair out of her eyes. "I don't have anything to hide, and it's not like it means anything."

"True."

There seemed to be a world of meaning in that word and she shifted away from him, her cheeks burning. He was leaning over her to read the screen, his suit jacket brushing against her hip.

"Is Candy your real name?"

It was the first time Jared had ever expressed any interest in her, and she felt her confidence shake a little. Jared might just be too much for her to handle. But she'd never know unless she tried.

"Yes. It's not short for Candace or anything."

He made a noncommittal sound.

She typed JARED kincaid into the spot for the partner's name. "What's your middle name?"

"Just skip it."

Instead, she typed in HOOVER, then smiled at him. "Am I close?"

"No." He didn't even pull a half smile. "Let's get on to the first question."

Candy nodded. She was eager enough herself. To see exactly how far Jared would be willing to go.

Chapter Two

Jared waited for Candy to click on the first question. They needed to make their way through this stupid counseling as fast as humanly possible. Before he grabbed her, threw her on the desk, and shot all his control to hell with a taste of her.

If they rushed through the questions, he could be out of here in an hour and run to the break room and toss ice cubes down his pants. It was his only hope.

This was all Harold's fault. Or Candy's, for having the nerve to walk around with an ass like that. He could blame Jessie, who had gotten him fired from his last job. Or it could be because he'd never been smart enough to get married and indulge himself with regular sex.

Or maybe he was just a horny idiot.

With a soft spot for pouty doe-eyed women.

Candy leaned over the desk again. "Okay, keep your shirt on."

Jared ground his teeth together.

Candy's lips moved as she read the question silently.

"Well?" He waited for her to enlighten him as to what embarrassing personal details they had to reveal.

"This isn't bad at all, Jared. I think it's supposed to illustrate to couples how little they really know about each other. And to rediscover their interest in one another."

Whatever. Jared sat back down in the chair so Candy's thigh would stop brushing his arm. "So what does it say?"

"Question number one just asks where you're from. You know, where were you born and where did you grow up."

Candy was right. It wasn't as bad as he had suspected. And if Harold wanted to pay him to talk about growing up in Skokie, that was fine with him.

She glanced back at him with a smile, her long legs still straight, her elbow resting on the desk. "Guess where I was born."

He pictured her wandering around a wicker-filled bedroom with louvered windows, wearing a satiny camisole and panties and biting a peach. God, when had he gotten such a vivid imagination? And why did it have to involve Candy in her underwear? " Georgia."

She scoffed. "No, dead wrong. Tennessee."

Oh, there was a difference? "Sorry, I'm not an expert on Southern dialects."

Her little pink tongue slipped out and wet her bottom lip. The full one. The one that demanded he bite it. Jared shifted again, wondering if it was possible to sustain an erection for three hours with no other stimulus than dirty thoughts.

"You're a Yankee through and through, aren't you?"

She made it sound like that was slightly more desirable than an ant infestation in her kitchen.

"I've lived in Chicago all my life."

"Brothers and sisters?" Candy wasn't looking at the computer screen, but was just lounging there draped across the desk, looking mildly curious with a little curving smile gracing the corner of her mouth.

He had no reason to answer. He should suggest they get on with the damn quiz. Instead, he found himself saying, "Three older brothers and one little sister. My parents were insane, apparently."

She threw her head back and laughed, those blond wispy curls tumbling down her back. "Your mother must have loved kids, that's all."

He fought a smile, but couldn't stop it. "I'm not sure that she did. She used to tell us that she was guaranteed a spot in heaven. That God would never deny entrance to a woman with five kids as bad as we were."

She laughed.

"Were you bad, Jared?" Her voice was throaty, her laughter evaporating, but amusement still lingering in her eyes.

For a second, he thought she was flirting with him. And his answer slipped out before he could check it. "Oh, yeah. I was very, very bad."

Her eyes went wide. The full smile came back.

Shit. She was flirting with him. And he was doing it back.

Before she could say something that he would regret, he quickly spoke in what he prayed was a casual, innocent, no-sexual-intent kind of voice. "What about you? Any brothers or sisters down there in Tennessee?"

There was a slight pause, before she said, "I have a younger sister."

Jared tried to picture another woman looking like Candy and couldn't quite conceive it. Candy was one of a kind. Delicious.

"So what's her name? Taffy?" He realized immediately that sounded a lot ruder than he'd intended.

But Candy just laughed. "Actually, her name is Margaret and she's studying the cello at Julliard."

"You've got to be kidding me." Margaret?

Jared got a visual of Candy sitting with a cello between her legs. Somehow the image was hard to conjure, though he did feel a pang of envy for the fictional cello and the prized position between Candy's legs. But Candy and orchestral instruments just didn't go together in his mind, no matter what erotic spin he could put on it.

Yet he could see Candy smiling and intelligently directing a room full of ad clients. Damn. Smart and sexy. It was a lethal combination.

"No, I'm not kidding." Candy pulled a strand of hair out of her mouth, one leg still straight, the other bending at the knee, sending her hip out provocatively to the side.

It also dragged her skirt up another solid inch on that side, showing way more than Jared needed to see. Not that he was complaining. It just sent scissors through another thread of his control.

"Margaret and I have different fathers. My mom says my daddy was her true love, a brief burst of passion that left her heartbroken and alone before I was even born."

Candy shrugged. "He left her for another woman when he found out she was pregnant. So two years later she married Margaret's dad because she thought he would stick around and take care of her."

Jared dragged his eyes off Candy's thighs. Leering at her suddenly made him feel no better than the lecher who had run out on her mom. He placed his eyes squarely on her face and vowed not to let his gaze stray. "Did he stick around?"

"Yeah. They're still married and very happy. They really love each other and he never made me feel any different from Margaret even though I wasn't his blood daughter."

She smiled then, and Jared was amazed at the lack of bitterness in her voice. "He adopted me and gave me the last name Appleton. I was three by then, so too late to change my first name from Candy. So I've been Candy Appleton ever since."

Then she stood up. Her legs went way, way up as she stretched, reaching her arms over her head while she went up onto the tips of her toes in her high-heel shoes. Her blouse tugged and pulled, straining to escape the waist of her skirt and molding to her breasts. Her suit jacket splayed, held together by one overworked button, and Jared watched in morbid fascination.

He was waiting for the whole thing to blow. The button to fly off, the blouse to slide up, her creamy navel skin bared to him all while she tottered on heels at his mercy.

Then he would take the spot previously reserved for the cello and ease her skirt up.

Jared calculated how much money was left in his checking account and gave himself up for lost.

Chapter Three

Candy hoped like heck she knew what she was doing. Jared looked as if he could chew up nails and tie them into bows with his tongue. She couldn't tell if he was turned on, furious, or both.

And what had possessed her to run on at the mouth about her mother and stepfather? Not that she had an ounce of experience in having casual affairs, but she had to assume you didn't start them out by talking about your family.

Give her another five minutes and she'd be whipping out photos of last Christmas and her cat wearing a Santa hat.

She finished stretching, her legs stiff from bending over the desk, and chewed her lip as she thought over her next move. This shouldn't be so doggone hard. She'd been flirting since the cradle, as her mother frequently liked to remind her. But now when she needed it, all she could think to do was smile, which was lame and appeared to have no impact on Jared whatsoever.

It must be nerves. After all, there was a lot more at stake here than getting good restaurant service. Before she left this office today, she wanted a date with Jared. A date that would end up with them naked and Jared turning that intense concentration squarely on her.

Time to take a deep breath and turn up the heat.

"What's the next question?" Jared said, shrugging out of his suit jacket.

Oh, Lord, he had broad shoulders. She didn't think she'd ever seen him without his jacket on, and it was a sight worth lingering over. She lingered so long he raised an eyebrow.

"The question?"

The quiz. Right. With elephantine effort, she turned around and tried to focus on the computer screen, her cheeks burning.

Jared was turning up the heat, and he didn't even know it.

After quickly typing in their responses to birth place, she went on to three. "Question three. Describe the moment you met."

That was easy. Jared had strolled into the office one Monday morning back in January and she had known lickety split that he would be the one to pull her out of the sexual deep freeze she'd been in since her divorce. He had been wearing a black suit with a burgundy shirt and tie, and he had looked at her, scanned her, and moved on. Dismissed. Dissed.

He had never once deviated in his behavior since.

Jared said nothing. Candy kept her eyes on the screen.

"I guess I'll just type in that we met at work."

"Fine."

Her fingers trembled as she typed, and she blew her hair out of her eyes, ignoring the disappointment she felt. Dang, what did she expect? Jared to say his eyes had met hers over the length of the meeting room table and it had been fate?

There was no doubt in her mind he could not even pinpoint the first time he had seen her.

Jared was desperate. They hadn't even gotten to the hard questions yet and he was in danger of barking and drooling.

The first time he had seen Candy was branded into his mind. He had walked into Stratford Marketing and had gone into the meeting room for an eight A.M. appointment with Harold.

Candy had been there, wearing a cherry red turtleneck sweater that matched her lips. Her blond hair had been pulled back into a twist of some kind and she had on a knee-length white wool skirt and boots. He had felt as if he were staring at a life-sized peppermint, all white and shiny and sweet.

The sight had stunned him, giving him a spontaneous and mortifying erection, and had left his brain and body sizzling like a pound of bacon.

He'd gotten the hell out of that meeting room and thus had started the past eight weeks of dodging her like a bullet. She wouldn't kill him, but she'd send him back to the unemployment lines.

"Next question." He crossed his leg, widely, to accommodate for the throb in his pants, and picked a nice spot on Harold's desk to study. There was a picture of a couple of pre-teen kids. Gangly. Little Harolds with hair.

"We're cooking now," she said with a perky little smile. "We're already up to question four."

Just what he did not need. She was acting cute. It had been better when she'd been talking about her family. That had at least made her seem real, a live human being with feelings and obviously someone he could not just tangle in Harold's office with and walk away with no regrets or recriminations. But when she did this… this bent-over, smiling thing, he forgot everything, including his own name.

"What's the matter?" She sat down in the chair next to him, and pulled the laptop closer to the edge of the desk. "You're scowling and I haven't even read the question yet."

He glanced at his watch. "It doesn't feel like we're accomplishing anything. I think we need to skip a few questions or something."

With a little laugh, she let her fingers fall onto the back of his hand. Her fingers, for God's sake. On his skin. Touching him.

"What's your hurry?"

Now hold on. He turned in his chair, hoping the movement would knock her hand off his. It didn't.

He didn't like that tone in her voice. That let's-see-where-this-goes laugh.

"I thought we were in a hurry. You said you were before."

"Did I?" Her fingers squeezed his hand, her thumb sliding down around his, rubbing back and forth. "If I did then I've changed my mind. Sometimes slow is better than fast, don't you think?"

It was a struggle not to twitch. Or grab her and kiss the Southern smile out of her.

"Slow isn't better with Internet speeds. Or when you're driving on the highway. Or waiting for a paycheck."

Her head tilted. There was a gleam in her eye he just didn't trust.

"But slow is better when you're savoring a good meal. Or taking a stroll by the lake. Or making love."

Ah, hell. He'd been really, really afraid she would say something like that. Jared went perfectly still, concerned that any sort of movement, of any muscle in his body, might be misinterpreted as an invitation.

He said slowly, carefully, neither smiling nor frowning, "But we aren't doing any of those things."

Candy pulled her hand back. He was not reassured by the action since it was accompanied by her leaning way forward and undoing that loyal button on her jacket.

Those wonderful full lips parted with a little moist sound and she said, "We're not doing any of them… yet."

Jared swallowed. Hard. Instinct told him to ignore the comment, to change the subject, to spill a cup of coffee on Harold's computer and get out while he still could.

That's not what he did, of course. He had to know. Just had to. "Are you interested in doing any of those things?"

Candy had him. She had done it. She had gotten a reaction from Jared, and it was a very positive one, if the flare to his nostrils was any indication.

"I'm interested in one or two. How about you?"

He nodded. "A walk by the lake sounds nice."

She sat straight up. Was he serious? "It's March and forty degrees outside! One strong wind and we would be coated in icy lake water."

"It was your idea. And I wasn't aware we were talking about doing any of those things together."

His posture didn't change and his expression was the same neutral gaze, unblinking and in control. It took all she had not to just get up and crawl out of Harold's office in humiliation. But if she was any judge of men, which given her ex-husband was questionable at best, there was lust brewing in Jared's eyes.

Way in the back, but there nonetheless. Plus the nostril flare.

It was enough to keep her in her seat. "Well, I certainly wouldn't want to do any of those things alone. Would you?"

Candy smiled at him and shrugged out of her jacket, struggling with the sleeves. She ended up wiggling back and forth tugging on the jacket, trying to keep her blouse sleeve in place, until Jared took hold of both sleeves and stripped her of the jacket before she could even take a breath.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. And I don't like to… eat alone either."

Have mercy. Having spent the last two years wondering why she couldn't get the least bit aroused, Candy now had her answer. She had been waiting for Jared. And all he needed to do was breathe and she found herself with damp panties.

"Question four." Her voice shattered on a mouselike squeak and Candy cleared her throat. "Where do you most like your partner to touch you?"

Candy leaned forward and looked closer at the screen. Was that really what it said or had her personal thoughts done a wishful Freudian voice-over?

Jared said, "What the hell kind of question is that?"

One on the couples' guide to harmony, apparently. Candy had read the question right.

"Harold can't possibly expect us to answer that. And we've never even touched each other, so it's completely invalid."

"Unless we just answer where we'd like, ah, someone to touch us." Candy shocked herself right out of the chair. She bounced up and paced around the backside of her chair, hiding behind Jared.

Of all the tacky, inappropriate, over-the-top things to say. He was going to give her a quarter to go buy a clue. He wasn't interested, and throwing herself at him was just embarrassing them both.

She knew it. It was coming. Where was a whale's mouth to dive into when you needed one?

Jared swiveled around to face her and said, "Well, that's easy enough for a man to answer. I think we all want to be touched in the same place. And I'm not talking about our feet."

She was sure he wasn't.

Before she could think of a response that didn't make her sound like a priss or a total slut, but a nice "I'm interested" in-between, Jared spoke again.

His hand was slung over the back of the chair, and his shirt strained across his muscular chest. "So, if someone was going to touch me, that's where I would want it to be."

Candy forced herself to stop pacing. "Why don't you type that in on the assessment then?"

Jared let out a laugh. It was the first time she had ever heard him amused enough to laugh. It was a deep rich sound that washed over her and sent her goosepimply.

"I'll do that." He grabbed the laptop and typed with both hands, fast and efficiently. "What should I put for your answer? Where would you want to be touched, Candy?"

Everywhere. Times three.

"Weeell." She drawled the word out, hoping time would give her courage. She knew what she wanted, it was just a matter of saying it out loud.

Squeezing her fists shut tight, Candy tossed back her hair and went for broke. "My breasts."

Jared wasn't looking at her, but she saw his fingers pause over the keyboard. His voice was low, persuasive. "Would you say specifically your nipples, or all of your breasts, Candy? And touched with hands, or with a tongue? I want to be as accurate as possible you know, for the counseling."

Candy gripped the back of the chair to prevent falling down in a dead faint. Lord, the man was sexy even on the back of his head. "Both. Everything."

The fingers resumed. "Got it."

Then Jared scrolled down the screen. "Let's see about question five."

Candy had never been a drinker, but she felt the sudden need for a splash of bourbon. Or a barrel of bourbon. She had started this, aided by Harold's ridiculous intimacy quest, and she needed to see it through. Her crotch demanded it.

"I'm ready."

"What is the difference between sex, love, and romance?" Jared snorted. "Oh, this one's easy."

"Really?" Leaning against her chair Candy said, "So what's your answer?"

Jared didn't even look up at her as he typed. "Sex you do, love you feel, and romance you say."

Well he just had it all figured out. Candy protested, "That's not true. You can do love, too, by showing someone you love them with a gift or a thoughtful gesture. You can say you love someone. You can show romance with a candlelit dinner and you can feel romantic. Sex you most certainly can feel, and talking and romance are all involved in sex as well. They're all interconnected but very different."

As anyone could see.

Jared glanced at her with a pained expression. "You're right. I was wrong."

His answer startled a laugh out of her. "What?"

"Isn't that what you want me to say? We could argue, but I figure this just saves us time."

"No, I don't want you to just agree with me. I want to hear your opinion. I want to discuss it, have an exchange of ideas, and possibly learn something new from your knowledge."

He looked doubtful. "No woman has ever wanted to hear what I have to say. Not really."

Candy looked down at him, taking in his gorgeous dark eyes and black hair. The way his cheekbones were so strong and sensual, narrowing down into a proud chin and thin lips. She had a sudden insight. Women probably treated Jared the way men treated her.

Like an object. Like an arm ornament.

The rush of understanding made her blurt out, "I want to hear what you have to say. Whether I agree or not."

His eyes swept over her, and she stood still, defiant, daring him to shut her down. Let him frown at her now and she wouldn't mind so much.

He didn't frown. He paused, pursed his lips together, then shook his head slightly. Finally he said, "I'll keep that in mind."

It was enough for her.

He added, "But we're sticking with my original answer because yours is too hard to type in."

Candy laughed and leaned forward. She was edging closer to him, hoping to innocently glance at the screen over his shoulder. Which would force her to brush against him, of course.

"Oh, look, there's a bonus section between questions five and six. It's a tip on keeping the romance alive." Jared shook his head. "Jesus, what the hell was Harold thinking? Didn't he even look at this thing?"

"I doubt it." Candy put her hands on the back of his chair to steady herself and bent over his shoulder. If she turned to the right, their lips would be a smidgen apart. But for now, she looked straight at the screen.

"What's the tip?"

Jared turned. His breath hit her cheek. "Looking for some advice?"

She shrugged and the movement caused her breasts to brush against his back and shoulder. "You never know. It could be something good."

"It says you should massage your partner. Starting at the feet and working your way up, with special emphasis on erogenous zones."

Candy thought about Jared's hand massaging up her legs, zeroing in on her inner thighs, and settling in for a long, hot haul.

"They also suggest the use of edible massage oils, with flavors like chocolate and raspberry."

Oh, Lord. The idea of him licking chocolate sauce off her nipple contributed to her increasingly damp panties problem. If she spent much more time with Jared she was going to have to start carrying a spare pair.

Candy turned. Jared was watching her. His lips were close enough to touch. To lick. To kiss.

She whispered, "It sounds sticky."

The smell of coffee rushed over her as he breathed, a little harder and faster than was normal. Candy pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and tugged.

He said, "It sounds delicious."

"If you're hungry."

"Oh, I'm hungry, Candy. It's lunchtime, you know." Jared's eyes dropped to her lips.

He was going to kiss her, he was going to kiss her, he was going to… turn back to the computer.

Dang it. Where was a jar of chocolate massage oil when she needed it?

She was going to have to start carrying that around in her purse along with the spare panties.

Chapter four

Holy hell, he had almost kissed her. Had he learned nothing from Jessie and the clandestine copy room kiss? Work and sex didn't mix. Ever.

Even when you were locked in a cozy room with the office babe and she was standing so close a gnat would have trouble squeezing between you.

Especially not when you were discussing the titillating effects of chocolate sauce during a massage.

And certainly not when the same office babe kept lobbing off personal remarks that made you feel as if she might actually listen to you if you spoke.

Candy was revealing herself to be hiding as many layers as an onion. As Jared stared at the computer screen in front of him, he wondered how one woman could be intelligent, kind, funny, and so damn gorgeous all at the same time? If he wasn't careful, he might actually find himself tumbling into some serious like.

If she could cook too, he was toast. Crispy burnt toast, without a job.

"What's the next question?" she said.

Shit, who cared? He had bigger problems here than Harold's dumb-ass counseling. Like the massive appendage throbbing in agony in his pants.

He read the question anyway, painfully aware there was no relief in sight for his poor neglected dick. "Number six. Do you like the city or country better?"

Knowing he should be grateful for the lack of reference to smearing food sauce on each other's bodies, he answered the question quickly. "City."

As he typed, Candy said, "Country."

Jared didn't risk a look in her direction, since she was still hovering over him. But he couldn't stop himself from saying, "A country girl, huh? I'm not surprised with that twang of yours."

Candy stood up. "I do not have a twang. You can't even tell I'm from the South."

Right. Candy had Southern Belle stamped on each and every curve of her body, and she would probably even moan in pleasure with a cute little accent. "You're not a 'Hee-Haw' episode, that's for sure, but there is no way you could pass for a native Chicagoan."

He chanced a look over at her. Her hands were on her hips. "Are you insulting me?"

"Not at all."

She looked ready to argue, but he staved her off by reading the next question. "Number seven. What's your favorite way to spend an evening together?"

Did that mean before they got naked, or after?

Candy had relaxed back against his chair, her hip nestled snug against the side, the twang comment apparently forgotten. "Well, I would want a nice romantic dinner, at home. Good wine, some jazz playing in the background, and a video we could watch together. We would talk about our day, the movie, everything, and then, uh, proceed from there."

It sounded very ordinary. It sounded like exactly what he wanted.

The thought startled him. His relationships had never been particularly romantic. He didn't seem to inspire those feelings in women. Usually the only conversation involved their coaxing and pleading that he do things that he knew were bound to get him into deep shit. Like copy room kisses.

At about seventeen he'd given up on expecting anything that resembled friendship with a woman. The only women he could ever claim to have had an honest-to-God conversation with were a former fifty-year-old coworker, and his friend Kim, whom he'd known since they were nine. He was guessing it wasn't a coincidence that Kim also happened to be a lesbian.

Even his weekly chats on the phone with his mother involved more platitudes and discussion over his laundry and the weather than anything real.

"What about you?" Candy asked him.

He thought about lying, or saying something quelling, but instead he said, "The same. Only add a fireplace to it."

The reward was a glorious smile that spread from one end of Candy's golden face to the other. "Really?"

The pleasure that little word brought him had him shifting from discomfort, and it had nothing to do with his still-very-much-there erection. It was worse than he could ever have imagined.

He had tumbled already.

He actually liked her.

Which meant he was so screwed.

"Really," he confirmed, then rushed on. "So, question eight. Here we go. Why did you choose your current career?"

Easy enough from his point of view. Because it paid reasonably well, he was good at it, and involved nothing gruesome, like slinging trash or probing body cavities.

Candy shifted so that her opposite hip jutted out. "Well, it's sort of complicated. I had to pick a career that was equal parts men and women because if I was a woman in an all-male field, I wouldn't be taken seriously." She glanced at him. "The name, you know."

The name, the hair, the legs, the accent. Just for starters.

"Yet I can't work with all women either. Women seem to exclude me and aren't friendly. I've never been able to figure it out, but it seems like the harder I try, the more they pull back."

Try jealousy. Candy would draw male attention no matter what she did, and women would react to that, he was sure. In the negative.

"So, I decided marketing had a good male-female mix and I like the challenge of anticipating the client's needs."

Well, his answer sounded stupid now. Good thing he hadn't said it out loud.

"I enjoy my job, but I still don't have many friends here. I can't seem to break into the inner circle." She shook her head sadly, all trace of flirtation and the businesswoman gone. Candy just looked hurt and vulnerable.

"No one really likes me."

His brain begged him not to say it. His heart and other body parts didn't listen. "I like you."

Candy crossed her arms over her chest and laughed, a nervous startled sound. "No, you don't. You avoid me like I have something catchy. That's why we're in Harold's office, remember?"

He stood up and turned to her, moving into her space before she could dart away. His hands fell on each of hers. Her eyes went wide as he spoke.

"Maybe that's because I liked you too much."

Then those lips that had been taunting his every waking moment, and a good portion of his sleeping ones as well, lifted and rounded into a perfect O. He took advantage of her surprise by leaning forward.

A second later his lips were on hers. It should have been short and sweet, just a light touch then retreat. The second he tasted her lips, all tangy and plump, there was no chance of that.

She was tense, her hands gripping his sleeves, but her mouth fell open for him on a soft sigh. Without warning his tongue decided to take a detour by her tonsils, and hot pulsing need gripped him below the belt.

Someone moaned. He hoped like hell it wasn't him.

Candy held on to jared for dear life and struggled to stay upright. Have mercy. It felt like he was eating her mouth, licking and sucking and tugging.

It was too much; she couldn't keep up with the hard, fast movements of his tongue and mouth. The only thing she could do was let him consume her, hang on, and groan her pleasure.

She had the moaning thing down pat, whenever there was actually time to take a breath. Mostly she was fighting for air and working hard not to wobble in her heels.

His hands rose up her arms to her face and cupped her cheeks. It wasn't tender, it was fierce, dominating, his strength holding her still while he moved over her mouth.

Confusion mixed with passion, and Candy squeezed his arms harder. This wasn't what she had expected. She had envisioned tight control from Jared, emotion firmly out of the picture as he kissed her with skill and charm.

After her ex-husband and his selfish lovemaking, she had vowed to find someone different, who would focus on her needs, not his. She had thought Jared would be that man.

But Jared was anything but reserved, and her reaction was anything but what she had expected. She was enjoying herself. It was arousing to know that she had sent Jared skittering over the edge, dropping his control somewhere back about question six.

Jared stepped away, taking his heat and masculine scent with him. "Jesus."

Candy forced her eyes open, and dragged in a shuddery breath. Wiping her wet mouth with her thumb and index finger, she watched him, wondering if he would stammer or apologize.

She should have known better. Jared was no stutterer.

"See, I told you I like you." He straightened his tie, but kept his eyes trained on her.

Candy felt her cheeks burn. She had to admit, that was a much better answer than a muttered apology would have been.

None of this was working out the way she had planned it. Her original idea had been to have Jared ask her out, then seduction would ensue.

This was wilder, more uncontrolled, almost dirty. They had been making out in their boss's office. And she liked it.

"Maybe you do," she agreed. Then with an acting ability she hadn't known she possessed, she sauntered past him, catching her arm on his as she approached Harold's desk.

Jared sucked in his breath. Candy didn't look back.

She bent over in front of Harold's desk again and propped her chin up with her hand. "So, how long have you… liked me? As a friend."

Jared pried his eyes off Candy's legs and wondered what game she was playing now. His feelings of friendship had nothing to do with that kiss. That kiss was based on two months' worth of stored-up lust.

Friendship had just come into the picture in the last half hour, and he had to assume he'd just about blown that with his grab-her-and-mash-her kiss.

He found he actually regretted the idea that he might have shattered the growing rapport between them. Maybe if he retreated now, he could salvage some kind of friendship between them.

Dropping into the chair so he wouldn't be tempted to touch her, he cleared his throat. "We haven't really talked to each other a whole lot, but I respect the work you do. You're very efficient, always on time, and your presentations are professional and thought provoking."

He sounded as if he were giving her a yearly productivity review. But better that than saying what he really thought.

Which was that she had an adorable smile and said funny things that made his heart squeeze. Not to mention she had a body that made him wish he were a sponge so he could rub all over it. Wet.

She made a noise with her teeth. "That's not what I mean. I'm talking about liking me."

He was drowning in this conversation. Since he had prom-ised to behave himself, he would not repeat a single one of the R-rated ideas running through his head, all focusing on how much he could like her.

Instead he said, "That's what I was talking about too."

There was a pause, and her finger hovered in front of the screen. "Look, question nine fits right in with what we're talking about."

What were they talking about? Because hell if he knew.

"What do you like the most about your partner?" Candy was still propped up on her hand, leaning over the desk.

Her legs were straight, her curvy little behind back in front of his face, way too close for comfort. Her hair was tumbling over her shoulders, and she had pulled her lip into her mouth and was making little sucking noises with it.

Then, for some unknown reason that probably involved nefarious plans to torture him, she spread her legs. Just widened them a bit so that her feet were planted a foot apart. Her skirt inched up under the strain.

It could be she was getting more comfortable. Or it could be that she knew the effect spreading her thighs would have on him.

He was an arm's length from her. He studied the smoothness of her stocking-covered legs. They were perfect. Narrow, yet muscular, they climbed up to her skirt, double doses of torture.

One lean forward, one hand out, and he could be touching that thigh. He could be sliding up that skirt, not stopping until he hit paydirt. If she wore garters as he suspected, there would be no stockings protecting her panties from him.

And there was nothing to stop him from pushing aside whatever scrap of lace she was wearing and touching deep inside Candy.

"This is a fun question," she chirped on cheerfully, unaware he was battling with the forces of good and evil.

Evil was pulling ahead by a nose, which was quickly lengthening into a mile.

"I like a lot of things about you, Jared. You're a hard worker, you don't gossip, you dress really well, and you're intelligent."

He barely heard her. He was moving. Leaning forward, edging closer and closer to her, until he could smell her scent.

She was wearing a light floral perfume, mixed with something berry, probably a lotion she'd rubbed on after her shower. It pulled him closer, drawing him in, his breath hitching in anticipation. He was there, just behind her, straining to control himself.

He was not going to touch. He wasn't. He was just taking a better look.

Candy's knee bent a little. Her skirt lifted. And he saw it. The edge of her stocking, and the little hook that connected it to the garter. Above the hook was a strap of lace, contrasting against the flash of golden peach skin next to it.

His breath caught and he tilted his head. His own legs were spread, and he was resting his hands between his knees as he bent down a little lower until he found what he was looking for.

A narrow, dark view up her skirt. His eyes trailed past the garter, past the creamy thigh above it to her panties. They were black lace, of course, and shifted a little to the right so that he had a clear shot of the curls covering her soft mound on one side.

"Jared?"

"Hmmm?" He licked his lips. His hands itched and jerked restlessly. There was no possible way he could stop looking. She was so beautiful and lushly feminine, and he wanted her the way he had never wanted another woman.

Candy twisted a little. "Where are you? What are you doing?"

He couldn't see her face as she wiggled around. Swallowing hard, he kept his eyes trained right on her inner thighs. Unable to force a lie past his aching lips, he said in a low voice, "I'm looking up your skirt."

"What?" Candy jerked forward, robbing him of his view. She hit the desk, then whirled around, half leaning, bending her legs in at the knees.

He didn't say anything. There was really nothing good to say in a moment like this. An apology would probably be in order.

But hell, he could not truthfully regret one second. And she would know he was lying. The drool at the corner of his mouth would give him away.

Candy clutched her hand to her chest. She gaped at him. Then slowly, the tension eased out of her. Her hand fell back to her side and her eyes went wide.

The knees unbent. Her voice was fascinated. "Did… did you like what you saw?"

He sat back in his chair so hard it wobbled. "Oh, yeah."

A delighted smile crossed her face. "What else do you like about me? You never did answer."

Candy didn't look angry with him. She looked intrigued. It made him even harder, if that were possible.

As he watched her, all blond and gorgeous, leaning against the desk with a speculative and pleased gleam in her eye, Jared found himself saying things he had never imagined he would ever say to a woman.

"I like your smile, and your laugh. And I like how you talk, like your sentences don't know when to stop. You're smart, sweet, and funny."

To him, it sounded like the biggest load of crap he'd ever uttered in his life, even though it was all true. But Candy seemed to like it, if the softening expression on her face and the fluttering hand at her breast were any indication.

A little embarrassed, he added gruffly, "Anything else you want to know?"

"Yeah. Why hasn't some woman snapped you up and run off with you?"

"I haven't met a woman yet who thought she wanted to live with me."

It had never bothered him either, not until now. The thought of his overpriced roomy condo didn't please him for the first time since he had bought it.

"Where do you live?" she asked, crossing her legs and leaning back against the desk.

"I bought a place in the South Loop area." If the chair had wheels he could shift it back away from Candy, but it was heavy and firmly in place. "What question are we on?"

The desire to get out of the room was back, tenfold. Another half an hour of this and he was going to be on his knees begging her to put him out of his misery.

"Oh." She shook her head. "I don't remember."

She turned back around and he promised God he would call his mother every Sunday from now until she died if Candy just wouldn't bend over.

Candy stayed standing, but her backside was still tempting him, so he sat on his hands to keep them in place. He thrust his legs out to try and adjust the growing problem in his pants.

"Oh, we have to skip this next question."

"Why?" Not that he cared or even needed to know.

Candy half turned and her hip jutted out toward him. His hands broke free and went screaming in her direction. He stopped them as they were seconds away from landing on her thighs just above the knees.

"It asks when was the first time we had sex and where." She smiled at him, a naughty knowing smile that sent his blood pressure to dangerous levels.

He knew the answer to that question.

They were going to have sex. Now. In the boss's office.

Chapter five

Candy watched strange things happen to Jared's face. His eyes darkened, his breathing went shallow, and he looked as if he was in pain.

One glance below his waist told her why. His erection was more than obvious. It had popped up like a Star Wars light saber.

A thrill raced through her that she had caused that. Jared was turned on by her. And whew, was she turned on by him.

"There's another bonus romance tip after that question," she told him, not bothering to wait for an answer since Jared looked beyond speech.

"Skip it," he said, his voice harsh and raw.

"No, it could be fun." She clicked on the screen. "It's actually a video."

Still a little giddy from the realization that Jared liked her smile, she stepped back away from the desk as the video clip loaded.

Her heel landed on Jared's ankle, and she stumbled, fighting for balance. Shoot, she was going to fall down in an ungracious heap right in front of him.

Flailing her arms about like a misguided chicken, she felt Jared's big hands land on her waist. Then down she went, landing on his lap with a solid thump. Right on his erection.

Lord, that thing was big. It was poking her square in the behind.

"Thanks," she said breathlessly, knowing full well it wasn't her graceless stumble that had her gasping for air.

An indistinguishable sound came from Jared's mouth right behind her ear. Candy wiggled forward, intent on standing up, when the video caught her attention.

It was a couple naked in a bathtub, industriously lathering each other up. "Oh!" she said as desire kicked her in the gut.

She went still on Jared's lap, afraid to move, unsure what he wanted her to do. She knew what she wanted, and Jared's lower half clearly wanted the same thing, but given the tension in his body, she wasn't sure his brain agreed.

Her legs dangled between his, and she crossed her arms across her chest with painstakingly slow movements, determined not to wiggle. She could smell him, that heavy masculine scent of aftershave. She could hear him breathing. Feel the tight hardness of his muscles beneath her.

His chest brushed against her back.

"What the hell?" Jared said, his hands on her waist tightening.

Those fingers of his were right at her waistband. One shift and he would be touching her skin where her blouse had pulled out of her skirt.

Leaning forward a little, Candy read the caption alongside the image. "A great way to relax and rediscover romance is with a long sensual bubble bath. Take the time to explore each other's bodies with the added aphrodisiac of warm water and satiny bath gels."

The pair onscreen did look relaxed. The woman was facing the man, sitting on his lap, and they were kissing, tongues entwined, and her wet breasts pushed up against his chest. The bubbles of the bath covered the major body parts, but it still served its purpose.

Making her crazy, wishing she could be wet and slippery with Jared.

The woman rocked up and down, making bubbly waves around them while Harold's office filled with the sound of their panting.

"They seem to be enjoying themselves," she said, unable to drag her eyes away.

Jared's hands convulsed on her waist. She could swear that his erection was actually throbbing against her, making her want to turn around and beg that he push inside her. She wanted what that woman was getting.

"Candy, stand up."

"What?" Disappointment rushed through her, and her mouth was wet and heavy with desire. "Why?"

"Because this isn't right." He gave her a not-so-gentle shove. "It's wrong. We're in Harold's office."

Despite her disappointment, the panic in his voice amused her. And his words thrilled her. She had known Jared would be different. Instead of just taking what he could get, he was holding back for the sake of decency.

Office propriety.

Which she had been about to toss out the window.

Candy suspected that Jared was waiting for someone too, just the way that she was. He was waiting for the one woman who would see beyond the body and the clothes and show interest in the man.

That woman was her, she decided. Whether it was for one day, one night, or something more, she didn't know. But she wanted Jared, needed to feel him inside her. If not today, then soon. Very soon.

With great reluctance, she let him shove her forward until she was back on her feet. She turned and rested her knees against his, pushing her hair back off her face.

She had to ask. Wanted him to say it. "Do you want me, Jared?"

He nodded without hesitation. "Yes. I do. Since the day I met you."

She shuddered, her body pulsing with need. "That's something else I like about you, you know. I like that you like me, but haven't done anything about it."

Pressing forward, she spread her legs until one was on either side of his. "I want you to do something about it. Now."

He didn't say anything. He didn't do anything. He just sat there, clenching his hands tightly on the arm of the chair, his jaw taut, his eyes tortured.

"Unless you want to hear question eleven instead."

Candy wanted another kiss from him, and plans for a date. Until she got one of the two, she'd stand here in front of him all day and read the random and vague questions of Harold's couple counseling.

Glancing over her shoulder, she said, "Question eleven. What's your favorite smell?"

She was about to go into the scent of freshly cut grass, baking apple pies, and the ocean, when Jared spoke first.

"Sex and Candy. That's what I want to smell."

Have mercy.

Shocked, she whirled around to face him again, sure she'd heard him wrong. She clearly hadn't. The expression of lust raging on his face showed her that he knew exactly what he had said. And meant it.

She went wet, wishing she weren't standing with her legs so far apart. The hot, thrilling ache was unbearable.

She took back that very wish a split second later when Jared reached forward and placed a wide warm hand on each of her knees. Then he shoved the skirt all the way up to her waist, leaving her naked but for her panties a foot in front of his face.

His breath tickled her, and she arched her back, gripping the desk so she wouldn't fall down. Her legs shook a little, and the only sound in the room was their combined ragged breathing.

Leaning in to hover in front of her panties, Jared closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. "Mmmm. I can smell it already."

Candy knew she should be mortified, blushing eight shades of purple and leaping away from him. But the only thing she felt was desire, rushing hot and strong through every inch of her. She felt intensely feminine, in control, and powerful in a way she'd never experienced before.

As his nose brushed across her panties, Candy's fingers found their way to his shoulders. She gripped his shirt, digging in with greedy and desperate need, tossing her head back on a soft moan. Jared took his time, languidly studying her, his thumbs tracing patterns above her knees on her stockings. Once or twice his breath hitched, but otherwise he was perfectly in control.

She was about to lose hers and whimper. Or beg. Or press forward so that his mouth would bump her right where she wanted him the most.

Then he spoke again, eyes still roving over her, fingers light and in no hurry. "Can I taste you, too?"

Are there bears in the woods?

"Oh, yes. Please."

Candy's eagerness came close to undoing him. Instead, he took a deep breath and moved his hands up Candy's thighs, past the line of her stocking onto her smooth bare flesh. She was hot to the touch, the way his own body felt, and he couldn't muzzle a groan from jerking out.

Damn, she was beautiful. Curvy and pink and his for the taking. Right now. The peek up her skirt he'd had earlier hadn't done her justice. Now, laid all out before him, she looked and smelled delicious.

The floral of her perfume had melted with the musky scent of her desire, leaving him dry-mouthed and hornier than hell.

With one finger, he dragged the loose black lace away from her and over to the side, holding it in place there against her inner thigh muscle. Little sounds of encouragement rained down on his head, and her fingers dug into his shoulders, pinching his skin.

With another ringer and thumb, Jared gently spread her folds apart, brushing her blond curls aside.

This time, he was the one who moaned. Damn, she looked so good. And wet. She was more than ready.

He brushed the tip of his tongue across her, closing his eyes against the heat and tangy taste. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he had been imagining this for weeks. It was better than he could have ever dreamed.

As was the lurch Candy gave, and the high-pitched cry that flew out of her mouth. He didn't look up, just gave another long slow lick. This time her pleasure was muffled, and he guessed she'd remembered exactly where they were, and how thin Harold's wood door was.

He moved again, faster, rhythmically crossing over her, sliding his tongue inside her, and pulling back again. He felt surrounded by her, enclosed by her thighs and her breasts hovering over his head. Her fingers pulled his shirt so hard it had jerked out of his pants as he tasted her, smelled her, loved her.

His tongue went deeper, his fingers pulled her panties harder to the side, and with his other hand he cupped her ass. Her panties had slid into the crevice between her cheeks, and he tugged them back out slowly. He allowed his finger to explore along the path where the underwear had been, sliding along from behind until his finger had met up his tongue, both pressing into her.

Candy bucked and writhed, way too close to ripping off an orgasm without him.

Wrenching his mouth and hand away, he took a deep breath and laughed softly at her startled curse. Getting to his feet, he licked the moisture of Candy's body off his lips and smiled at her.

"I just remembered something."

"What?" She panted, her eyes glazed. Candy was holding on to the desk for support now that he had stood and taken his shoulders up out of her immediate reach.

"You said you like to be touched on your breasts. I should be doing that instead."

Frustration was evident in the way she shook her head and said, "I liked what you were doing just fine."

Jared put a hand on each breast and caressed her nipples through her blouse.

Candy's eyes fluttered shut. "Or this is good too."

He had to agree. Faster than he would have thought possible, he had the buttons on her white blouse undone and was reaching inside to cup her breasts.

She was wearing white lace, a startling contrast to the black panties. As he rolled her nipple beneath his finger, he said, "You rebel. Your bra and panties don't match."

Eyes half closed, she muttered, "I put the panties on first. Then realized I couldn't wear a black bra with a white blouse."

"So you're not a rebel?" he teased, kicking her legs farther apart so he could wedge his thigh in between hers.

"Doesn't sex in my boss's office make me a rebel?"

Jared pressed against Candy, annoyed to find her skirt had fallen back down to cover her. Her words fascinated him. It seemed obvious that's where they were heading, but to hear her say it out loud was a huge turn-on.

"Is that what we're doing? Having sex?"

"Sort of."

Dragging her bra down to expose her full breast, Jared pulled the pink nipple into his mouth and sucked softly. "Nice and sweet."

Candy's hands landed on his head and she tugged on his hair.

He pulled back half an inch. "What should we do to make it more than sort-of sex?"

Then he trailed his tongue along the side of her breast as it popped over the edge of the lace bra. He forced himself to go slow, to stay in control, to not just rip every inch of her clothing off the way he wanted to and sink into her softness.

A hand slithered down and caressed him through his pants, sending a jolt reverberating through every cell in his body. "Candy?"

"This is where you wanted to be touched, right?"

He nodded dumbly.

"Then I'll touch you. And when I'm finished, we can make it full sex by having you inside me."

Yes. Yes, yes, and hell yes.

"If that's what you want…"

"To touch you? Or you inside me?" Her hand stilled.

Damn, she was killing him. He said, "Both."

"Yes, that's what I want. Here. Now."

He was about to agree that was the best goddamn idea he'd ever heard in his life, when she grabbed his belt buckle and undid it before he could even open his mouth. Nimble fingers unbuttoned and unzipped him.

"Very efficient," he murmured.

Candy grinned. "Efficiency in the workplace leads to greater productivity."

He laughed. Then sputtered off into a moan when her hand went inside his pants and wrapped around him.

She squeezed.

He panted.

Caressing up the length of him, her eyes went wide. "Ooh, it's so big."

And he didn't even pay her to say that.

From another woman, that would have sounded insincere, but not when Candy said it. No one could fake the kind of honest pleasure on her face, or the way her eyes struggled to stay open.

The idea that he could trust Candy flitted through his mind, before he lost all rational thought.

"Does this feel good?"

Her speed had increased, and she was rubbing up and down with light feathery strokes. Good was a hilarious understatement.

Any better than this and he was going to be done before he started. "Yes, but…"

Her hand slipped down to cup his testicles.

"Candy, I…"

Shit, now she had both hands on him.

"What, Jared?"

He forced himself to speak. "I have a condom in my wallet. Let me get it out."

She stilled.

He panicked. If she said no, he was going to cry like a baby.

Her hands left his pants and pressed against his chest. Then she kissed his cheek, her full warm lips just brushing across his skin.

No woman but his mother had ever kissed his cheek.

A weird tenderness came over him, quieting his urgent desire and leaving him waiting for Candy to tell him his next move.

If she had changed her mind, he respected that.

"Which pocket is your wallet in?"

But her not changing her mind was better.

"Left." He started to reach around for it, but she stopped him.

"No, I'll get it." Then she was rummaging around in his pocket, feeling here, feeling there, the teasing light touches making him nuts.

Finally she held the wallet up, smiling, looking confident and sure. "Which compartment?"

"I don't know." It was somewhere in there collecting dust.

He watched her riffle through the wallet, stopping to look at his driver's license.

"Checking to make sure I'm who I say I am?" he asked, amused.

"I wanted to see how old you are. Thirty-one if my math's right. And I couldn't resist looking at your picture. You look perfect, like you always do."

It should have been a compliment, but the wrinkling of her nose made it sound like a bad thing. "You don't like that?"

"I do. I love the way you're put together all the time, but Lord, Jared, it's hard to stand next to you." She found the condom and pulled it out. "I'm so scattered-looking all the time, I can't compete with you."

Scattered-looking? Is that what she called it? He would have thought blond bombshell was a better way to phrase it.

"I love the way you look." He smoothed her hair back from her face. "That curvy body and your brains, together they're lethal. You're gorgeous, Candy. Now give me the condom."

Candy stared at Jared in disbelief and something that felt suspiciously like hope. She knew when men were lying, when they were feeding her what she wanted to hear. Half the conversations in her life were based on empty compliments meant to coax her into bed.

Jared was telling the truth. He thought she was smart.

If she wasn't already planning to have sex with him, she would have just for that alone.

Ripping the foil package open, she said, "I've got it."

His eyes darkened. "Okay. But before you do that…"

Hands were suddenly up her skirt. Before she could blink, her panties were down at her knees, then sinking to the floor. Jared's hand lingered on her bare behind for a minute before retreating.

Her mouth was hot and thick with saliva and she reached for him impatiently, rolling on the condom with trembling fingers. She hadn't been kidding about the big thing. Jared was no slouch in the size department and she distracted herself by running her hands across him again, giving his hot skin a squeeze.

The condom stuck, and it took her three times to unroll it, but she finally got it on and flipped her hair back out of her eyes.

Jared surprised her with a kiss, a long wet, lingering kiss that robbed her of the last of her reserve. As his hands held her head, and he rocked against her with his penis, she moaned, "Now. Please."

He pushed her skirt out of the way and without warning his finger sank inside her. A shudder ripped through her.

"You're still nice and wet. Ready for me?"

Since the minute they'd walked into this office. "Oh, yes."

Jared backed her up a foot until she was leaning against Harold's desk, the surface cool on her backside. Then nudging her legs apart, he entered her with one quick thrust.

He filled every inch of her, stretching her, and Candy repeated, "Oh, yes!"

They stood there for long seconds, Jared's head bent down and Candy's nails digging into his arms. She could feel the length of him pulsing inside her, making her want more than this tight teasing.

Jared must have had the same idea. He moved. Slow. In and out until Candy's arms dropped to her sides and she let her head loll back. She didn't thrust her hips to meet him, but just settled back and let him rock into her. It was languid and deep, and Jared leaned forward and dashed his tongue across her nipple.

She barely felt the cold hard surface of the desk pressing into her backside, and hooked a leg around Jared's knee so she wouldn't fall as he started to move faster.

Relaxed went to gripping in a split second as his hands snaked around to grab her ass and push harder, in rough urgent mating. She bit her lip to hold back the violent cries she wanted to scream, and their labored pants mixed together as Jared moved them closer to fulfillment.

It seemed as if she should tell him to slow down, as if they should savor this first time together, but her body wasn't having any of it. Her hips start driving forward, meeting Jared's thrusts with a little slapping sound of skin and zippers.

It was that sound that made her come. Along with the look on Jared's face as his own orgasm overcame him. Candy clung to the desk and felt Jared's shudders mingle with hers as they rode out their pleasure.

The orgasm was tight and hard, pulling at her almost painfully, and she let out a cry as it slowed and passed, shivers racing up her spine.

Candy couldn't move, stunned by her explosive reaction to Jared. The man was good.

He leaned against her, breathing hard, nearly toppling her backward onto the desk with his weight.

"I'm falling!" she cried out, scrambling for a grip, her hand knocking the computer hard.

Strong arms prevented her fall.

"Sorry."

Jared stepped back, pulling out of her, and Candy closed her eyes for a second at the loss. She liked him against her, big and strong, in pursuit of her, and was sorry to be past that. But he continued to lean toward her, placing a soft kiss on her jaw. This was a good look on him too, this triumphant relaxed expression he was wearing.

He smoothed her skirt back down into place, a smile twitching at the corner of his mouth. "Damn, I can't believe we just did it in Harold's office."

She grinned back. "Oh, I can believe it. The dent in my butt proves it."

Alarm crossed his face, making Candy feel like gooey chocolate. "Are you okay, babe?"

She nodded, trying to decide if babe could be classified as a term of endearment or not. "I'm fine."

"We must be crazy." Jared placed another soft kiss on her forehead and gestured to his pants. "And what the hell am I supposed to do with this condom now? Toss it in Harold's wastebasket?"

Good question. She eyed the condom dubiously as he pried it off. "You'll have to put it in your pocket, I guess."

The horror that crossed his face made her giggle.

"And carry it around all day?"

"No, just until you get to your office, then you can throw it in the wastebasket there."

"The cleaning lady will think I'm a pervert."

Candy began doing the buttons on her blouse back up. "Well, then just wrap it in tissues." She plucked six tissues out of the box on the edge of Harold's desk. "Here you go."

Jared took them and wrapped up the condom, grimacing the whole time. "The price of spontaneity, I guess."

He still had her pinned against the desk, so she tried to slide around him as he tucked the mummified condom into his pocket.

Before she could get by him, Jared grabbed her arm and trapped her leg with his. "Where are you going?"

"To get my panties off the floor."

She expected him to grin, but he didn't. Holding her tight, he said, "Can I see you tonight?"

Candy smiled, unable to contain herself. Not only had he asked her out, but he actually looked as if he cared what her answer would be.

"Yes. Now let me get my panties before we manage to get ourselves caught."

Then a knock rattled the door and they heard Harold call out, "How's it going in there?"

Chapter Six

Jared said, "Holy shit." He zipped his pants and moved away from Candy, tripping on the edge of the chair next to him. "We didn't even lock the door."

He was dead. Harold had wanted him to sort out his differences with Candy, not have sex with her. On company time.

The doorknob was turning. One glance at Candy showed her frozen in horror, her hair every which way, and her blouse buttoned wrong, leaving a big gaping hole in her middle, flashing pink skin.

Neither one of them was wearing their jacket, and the entire room had the sweet smell of sex in the air. He didn't even want to think about the condom in his pocket.

In an attempt to stave off the inevitable, he called out, "Uh, we're doing great. Just give us five more minutes, Harold."

Candy's black lace underwear was still lying on the floor.

"Get your panties," he whispered.

She started and bent over just as Harold stopped opening the door. "Oh, you're not finished?"

"Not quite." Jared pulled his suit jacket back on and ran his hand through his hair to smooth it down.

Candy shoved the panties into her waistband.

"Fine, but let me know when you're done."

Harold whistled as he shut the door and walked off back down the hall. The sick feeling in Jared's gut lessened a notch. "Shit, that was close."

Candy pulled her panties back out. "Watch the door while I put these on."

Visions of her with one foot in her underwear and one foot out with Harold throwing the door open popped into his head. "Just leave them off and put them in your jacket pocket."

She looked at him as if he'd announced he was going to start wearing dresses.

"Yuck! I can't walk around the rest of the day wearing stockings and a garter belt, but no panties. It would be uncomfortable and I'd feel like everyone knew." Kicking her heels off, Candy quickly slipped into the panties and shimmied them up her legs.

Jared thought about her sitting in her office with no panties on under her skirt, her soft backside pressing into the chair. Her curls rubbing against her skirt. And nobody would know but him. He went hard again just thinking about it.

Candy stepped back into her heels then put on her jacket. "We need to finish the counseling session, you know, before Harold comes back."

Right. That's why they were there in the first place. Somehow or other that had managed to slip his mind.

"Candy, the screen's blank."

She whirled around. "What? Oh, my gosh, we unplugged it."

Between pounding against the desk and flailing arms, he wasn't surprised. "Why wasn't Harold using his battery? How stupid is that?"

Candy plugged the computer back in and rebooted it. Jared was distracted by her hot little ass bending over and wiggling in the air as she stuck the plug in the socket.

He said, "Maybe this is better. We can get out of the rest of those dumb-ass questions. We'll tell Harold it crashed."

She looked doubtful, but he pulled her into his arms and kissed her with plenty of tongue until she relaxed.

"Mmm," she said.

"You took the words right out of my mouth." He stopped heras she tried to tug loose and head for the door.

"Seven tonight? I'll pick you up." He wasn't letting her out of this office without a commitment to see him again.

"Okay."

"You go out first. I'll run Harold to ground and tell him we've solved our problems and his karma is at peak levels."

She grinned as they paused in front of the door. "I like your karma."

"There's plenty more where that came from." And because he couldn't resist, he squeezed her ass and molded her skirt to her, one finger sliding down between her legs.

Her eyes fluttered shut. "Oh, stop it, Jared."

"Sorry." Not.

Jared opened the door, and when she stepped out, Candy found herself face to face with Harold. "Oh! Harold."

Oh, Lord, she must look guilty as sin.

And Harold was studying them way too closely.

"Everything okay?"

"Wonderful. Great." She cleared her throat and ran her fingers through her hair, guessing it looked like a blond feather duster. "Wow, what a great idea, Harold. That counseling just broke through all kinds of barriers and really brought Jared and me to a… new level of understanding."

She broke off her babbling when she heard Jared cough over a laugh.

Harold still looked puzzled, but he smiled. "So you finished the session?"

Jared spoke. "Actually, we were two questions from finishing when your laptop crashed, Harold." He shrugged. "Just one of those things, so we didn't get our certificate of completion."

Candy tried to maneuver around Harold, being careful not to touch his leather pants.

"What? No certificate?" Harold pouted, which was so not attractive on a fifty-year-old bald man. "Then how do I know you actually did the counseling? For all I know, you've spent the last two hours playing checkers online."

More like naked Twister. Candy couldn't think of a single doggone thing to say and starting inching down the hall, noticing there were quite a few curious heads poking out of offices.

"I can guarantee you that we were not playing checkers," Jared said in a serious voice. "And you'll see the results of your counseling when we hand you Chunk o' Chocolate completed next week. We're going to work on it tonight."

"Tonight? You're working late?" Harold's ears perked up, presumably at the idea of employees working overtime without compensation.

"Yes. We'll work on it all night if we have to."

A gurgling sound left Candy's mouth before she could stop it.

"Are you okay, Candy?" Harold's eyes swung toward her.

She didn't dare look at Jared. She blinked at Harold and grabbed her neck. "No, actually, I have something stuck in my throat. Excuse me, I'm going to go get a drink."

Without waiting for an answer, she got the heck out of there, rushing down the hall on wobbly ankles. First stop was the ladies' room.

Jan from payroll was walking down the hall with a stack of mail in her hand. She fell into step beside Candy.

"How was Harold's kooky Internet counseling?" Jan asked in a whisper.

Since Jan had been one of the few Stratford Marketing women who had been nice to her, Candy couldn't blow her off the way she really wanted to.

She gave Jan a weak smile. "It wasn't as kooky as I thought it would be."

Jan flipped her dark hair over her shoulder and grinned. "But at least you got to do it with a hottie like Jared Kincaid. With my luck, Harold would stick me in counseling with the office geek."

Oh, Lord, Candy was blushing. She could feel the heat stain spreading across her cheeks. "You just treat it like any other work assignment."

Yeah, right. If you were a hooker, maybe.

"What's Jared like? Is he really the cool customer he looks to be?"

Cool wasn't the word she would use.

"He was very… accommodating." Candy choked on the word as she came to a halt outside the ladies' room. "Excuse me, Jan. I have to use the rest room."

Jan stopped next to her. "Well, while you're in there, you might want to fix your blouse. It seems to have gotten crooked during your counseling session."

She winked and started off down the hall.

Candy glanced down in horror. A good deal of her stomach was flashing through the Titanic-sized hole in the middle of her blouse.

And Harold hadn't even seemed to notice.

Maybe his eyes were going the same way as his hair.

Yanking her blouse halves together, she pushed open the door and wondered how long until the last employee would leave the building for the day.

She just might want to hide in the rest room until then.

@ Jared didn't know what the hell he was doing.

Everything had seemed a lot easier when he and Candy had been seminaked and moaning in Harold's office earlier.

Now things were complicated.

Candy had avoided him the rest of the day, and he had been unable to work because of all the confusing feelings tumbling around inside him. Feelings that were about as welcome as the stomach flu.

Feelings that had him standing outside her door sweating in his wool coat like it was July.

As he rang the doorbell to her apartment, he wondered exactly why Candy had agreed to meet him tonight. He also wondered exactly why he had agreed to meet Candy tonight. He didn't know what he wanted any more than he knew what she wanted.

Aside from sex, that is. If she even wanted any more of that. And just why in the hell did he care so much?

Candy opened the door and smiled shyly at him. "Hi."

Oh, damn, she was wearing jeans that hugged every inch of her hips and rounded ass. A red turtleneck sweater stretched optimistically across her breasts and pulled northward toward her belly button when she reached up to run a hand through her hair.

The flash of skin left him dazed and hard. And possessive. He didn't want anyone else to see Candy's skin but him.

That sweater was the same one she'd been wearing the day they met, and it made her face glow golden. She'd put some kind of shiny wet-looking stuff on her lips and he wanted to eat it off, one little nibble at a time.

After an embarrassing pause, he managed to say, "Hi. You look great."

Oh, now there was an original compliment.

"Thanks. Do you want to come in or did you have plans to go somewhere?" Candy tucked her hands behind her back and rocked on the balls of her feet in sexy little black boots.

"Actually, we should get going. I made dinner plans."

Alarm crossed her face. "I'm not dressed for dinner."

"Don't worry, this place is casual." And blissfully close. His place was only twenty minutes from Candy's.

"Oh, okay. Let me get my coat. Come on in." She turned and disappeared into her apartment. "Do I need the Chunk o' Chocolate file? Or do you have copies?"

Naive girl. She actually thought they were going to do work? He'd been called a lot of things over the years, but never stupid. Any man asinine enough to discuss how to market chocolate when he had Candy Appleton alone in his condo was… not Jared.

"I have copies." In his desk back at the office.

Jared stepped into her living room and was immediately assaulted by an excess of floral patterns. Jesus, Candy had a whole meadow growing in there, various rioting prints covering a sofa, a loveseat, and an overstuffed chair.

Violent red poppies danced across her curtains, and every table was littered with little things that he wouldn't even claim to know the name of. Things like little tiny wicker chairs with plants growing out of their seats, and wooden cats. The coffee table held a bowl full of lemons on it, and a round ball of orange fur that was probably a live cat was sleeping next to it.

He pictured those poppy curtains hanging in his apartment and shuddered. Not that he wanted Candy to live with him or anything. But love did not extend to ugly drapes.

The L word brought him up short. What the hell was he thinking? He did not love her. He was interested in her. He wanted to get to know her. He had great admiration for her brain and her breasts, but that had nothing whatsoever to do with love.

Did it?

Candy stuffed her arms into a very fluffy camel-colored coat, with huge quantities of white fur pluming around her face.

He didn't even know her.

She smiled. "I'm ready," she said in a breathless siren voice.

He did know she was trouble. But sometimes getting into trouble was so much fun.

"Is something wrong, Jared?"

"No, not at all. Why do you ask?"

She shrugged and the fur nearly swallowed her face. "You just look a little serious. I was worried that maybe you're embarrassed because we diddled around in Harold's office."

Diddled? He was pretty sure he'd just been insulted.

"Diddling is not what I would call it. And I'm not embarrassed. I don't get embarrassed. Especially not when I enjoyed being with you and would do it again in a heartbeat." He was conscious his voice was rising, but shit, he couldn't help it.

Diddled, for God's sake.

Candy reached out, put her warm little hand on his cheek, and stroked with her thumb. "I'd do it again too."

His anger vanished along with the last of his futile resistance. "Good," he said gruffly.

Candy was starting to figure out that Jared was a whole lot of masculine bluster. Beneath the cool stare and the cutting words he sometimes tossed off, he had feelings.

Twenty minutes later when she walked into his condo, she realized those feelings included being really doggone romantic.

He had recreated her idea of a perfect evening, right down to his own addition of a fire popping warmly in the fireplace.

Oh, Lord. If she hadn't been on the edge before, taking in the table set for two, the chilling wine, and the scented candles burning did her in for sure. It felt almost like she was falling in love with Jared.

Which was insane, since she was supposed to be using him just for the purpose of having some romping good sex. But the stupid man had gone and actually listened to what she had said when she'd been talking. She wasn't sure any man besides her stepfather had ever actually heard a single word she'd said outside of work-related topics.

Dean, her ex-husband, sure in the heck never had.

"Oh, Jared, you didn't have to go to so much trouble." But she was sure glad he had.

"It wasn't any trouble."

For a man who claimed not to get embarrassed, he was doing a pretty good imitation of just that.

It just made him all the more gorgeous.

Jared was wearing casual black pants and a sky blue shirt, which made his blue eyes even lighter against his dark hair. He had a smooth, understated style, always looking good but never veering into the female world of primping.

He picked up a remote control and turned the stereo on. Jazz music started playing softly. Her legs threatened to give way. He'd even remembered the jazz.

When he held her chair out for her, she looked at the pasta sitting in a covered bowl ready to be served. If he had cooked food that was edible, she might just never want to leave. "Did you cook this?"

He snorted. "Hell, no. I don't cook. I ordered it from an Italian restaurant around the corner."

Then he sat down across from her. He sounded oddly eager when he said, "Do you cook?"

"Not unless you call PB and J sandwiches cooking."

"I can make omelets," he said.

She was impressed. Scrambled was the most she could manage. "I can boil hot dogs and heat up canned corn."

They both laughed while he poured the wine and served them pasta and bread. She took a steaming bite and silently thanked the unknown chef. Having spent a good portion of her lunch hour holed up in the ladies' room, she was now starving.

After a few bites, Candy said, "We're not going to get to any work on Chunk o' Chocolate, are we?"

Jared looked up from his plate. "We'll get to it." He grinned. "Sometime before it's due on Harold's desk."

She was afraid he would say that. Or really damn pleased was probably the more honest answer.

"Jared, we should at least try and work on it." Candy tried to sound firm, but she knew she was failing miserably.

He kept smiling. Geez, she loved his smile. He didn't ever look so relaxed at work, and she felt a giddy pleasure that she could bring that grin to his face.

"Alright, let's think up some slogans while we eat." Jared took a sip of his wine. "What rhymes with chunk?"

"Monk. Punk. Funk." She leaned back in her chair and nibbled on her bread. "So, how about a monk at a disco eating chocolate?"

He shot her a withering look.

She giggled. "Hunk rhymes too."

"We're talking about the ad, Candy, not me."

His deadpan expression made her laugh out loud. "Hunky and modest, huh?"

"I'm a pretty good catch, aren't I?" His serious expression cracked a little, his lip twitching up in a smile.

"I know you are. Didn't I ask why no one's caught you yet?"

"Maybe I've been waiting for the right woman to figure out how to catch me."

A fishing net? Handcuffs? With fantastic sex?

Candy wished she knew, because she was starting to think she'd like to snag Jared for herself.

"So say a woman wanted to catch you. What would be the best way to do that?" She tried to keep her voice light, but a quiver crept into it.

Jared put his fork down and gave her a searching look that made her want to squirm. He said, "I think by just being herself, and letting me be myself."

Then he shrugged. "It sounds like an after-school special, but it's true. I don't want games, I want a partner, a friend."

He raised his wineglass in mock salute, and his voice lightened. "Sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it?"

"No." Candy shook her head rapidly. "No, it doesn't. I… I was married once."

Jared's eyes bulged. "You were?"

"Yeah." She tried to smile, but couldn't quite force it. "Dean was my boyfriend in high school. It was never a good relationship, not even then. We broke up when I went to college, but when I came back home, he came on strong, said all the right things."

Yet to this day she couldn't imagine what she had been thinking when she had married him. "As soon as we were married, I knew it was a mistake, but I didn't want to admit that."

Jared was gripping his glass tightly. "What did he do to you?"

Startled, she said, "Nothing. I mean, he didn't abuse me or anything horrible like that. We just had nothing in common; we didn't talk. He was violently jealous of guys looking at me, and it just got worse. He had to control everything with our money, where I was going, what I was doing. He didn't want me wearing makeup or nice clothes."

No, Dean had never hit her, but he had made her life miserable, and had stripped her of her dignity. He had humiliated her in front of people she cared about. "He said it was my fault men looked at me, that I was a flirt, a tease."

"Jesus, Candy. How long were you with him?"

It wasn't pity in Jared's voice, just honest concern. It made her feel better about blurting out her past business to him.

"Three years." Years that she had accepted were gone and she couldn't get back.

"That's a long time to live like that."

"It is. But I got away as soon as I was ready, and thank goodness we never had any children together."

"Are you divorced then?"

His hand had snaked across the table and was holding hers, stroking with a light touch.

"Oh, heck yeah. He tried to fight it, but the judge was friends with my stepdad and he wasn't having any of Dean's crap. Judge Anderson pushed it through nice and fast, and I moved to Knoxville. But it still felt too close to Dean, so I picked up and came to Chicago. My roommate from college lives here."

She waited for the apology that was sure to come. The pity or even the recrimination. If Jared thought there was an ounce of truth to Dean's accusations of her being a dick-tease, she would either die from mortification or impale him with a salad fork.

He didn't do what she expected at all.

Instead, he squeezed her hand hard and said matter-of-factly, "Your ex sounds like a big pussy."

"Jared!" Good gravy, she couldn't believe he'd said that. She'd never heard him sound so brutal and angry before.

But then Dean inspired those feelings in her too.

"Well, he is." Jared was unrepentant. "Any real man would be proud to have you as his wife. He'd want you to dress up and look all sexy, so he could stroll into a room and let every guy there know that he had managed to marry a hot woman like you."

Candy flushed with pleasure.

"So I think your ex had issues about his manhood. That's the only explanation for treating you like that."

Candy had issues with Dean's manhood now too, since Jared had managed to make her moan squished up against a mahogany office desk. Dean had never inspired anything more than a pleasant sigh from her, and that was on his best days.

"He wanted to own you, didn't he?" Jared had pushed his chair back, but hadn't let go of her hand.

Candy's arm was stretched clear across the table, but she never even noticed the awkward position. Jared's words sliced something deep inside, touching a raw spot she hadn't known even existed anymore.

"What do you mean?" She thought she knew precisely what he meant.

"That your ex wanted a pretty wife on his arm, like a cool car or a great stereo system. Then when he had you, he worried about losing you to someone else who might want you."

Maybe she had suspected that all along, but she had never discussed it with anyone. To have Jared guess what might be the truth was a new humiliation. "Probably," she choked out.

Then she spoke in a rush. "Listen, Jared, I don't… I'm not… my ex wasn't right about the tease thing. I…"

Crud. Candy trailed off, mortified beyond words. She had sashayed into Harold's office and wiggled her rear in Jared's face. There was no reason for him to think anything other than that she was a flirt who got around.

"Come here." Jared patted his knee as if he were Santa and she were a naughty little girl who needed reassurance.

Common sense told her not to do it. But of course she did.

And Santa had never had thighs that muscular.

Nor had Santa ever asked her about her sex life. Jared did.

He asked baldly, "When was the last time you were with a man? Before today, that is."

She swallowed hard and studied the buttons on his shirt. "It was Dean. Three months before I left him two years ago."

"So you haven't slept with any man since your divorce?"

"No, I've dated, but just casually."

"Until today."

"Yes."

He frowned. "I screwed up then, Candy. I shouldn't have lost control like that."

His eyes dropped to her lips. A finger stroked her chin briefly. "You deserve better than that."

Candy was shocked that he could even think for one minute that it had been less than perfect. It had been wild, yes, and the opposite of what she had thought she wanted, but it had been the most erotic experience of her life.

So far. She was hoping they could expand on her portfolio here soon.

"Jared. It was just right. See, I had to know that I could let myself go like that. I was starting to think there was something wrong with me because every man I've dated since the divorce made me feel about as sexy as a fish carcass."

Jared's mouth fell open. "That's not very sexy."

She giggled. "No. But I wanted it to be different with you. And it was."

Jared's hands rested against the small of her back and he had managed to slip under her sweater to touch her skin. "So I made you feel sexy?"

"Oh, yes."

His lips brushed her neck. "Do I make you feel sexy now?"

"Yes."

"I can make you feel sexier."

Jared moved up her sides, causing a shiver to pass through her. "But what about Chunk o' Chocolate?"

Candy's eyes fell closed as Jared reached her breasts and slowly made his way around to the front to caress her nipples.

"Chocolate is a replacement for sex. You don't need it." His tongue teased her, slipping into her ear then back out.

She tried to laugh, but it sounded like a wheezing moan. It felt right sitting in his lap, his erection pressing against her and his hot breath pushing down her neck.

Jared murmured, "I'll never try to possess you. I'll never do anything you don't want. I'll listen."

Candy put her hands on Jared's shoulders and knew that she'd gone and done the stupid. She had fallen in love with Jared, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it now.

Her brain, which she had been touting all these years as something to everyone who thought her a ditz, had decided to abandon her. Her body was betraying her by quivering like a Jell-O mold under Jared's touch, leaving her with the damp panty problem all over again.

Which left her heart on its own to tumble straight forward into idiocy.

It was her heart that was responsible for her blurting out, "I don't want this day to end."

Jared's mouth stilled at the corner of hers. "It doesn't have to. Spend the night with me."

It wasn't a good idea. It was a bad, you're going to wake up and be really damn sorry, idea, but Candy didn't give a rat's patootie.

She kissed him, savoring the taste of the wine on his lips. "I didn't bring my PJs."

Jared's eyebrows raised. "Candy, you do not need your PJs."

"They're cute," she teased him. "Pink with white kitties on them."

"You're cuter naked." His hands were on the bottom of her sweater, ready to shuck it off her.

She gripped his shirt. "You've never seen me naked. Not really."

"All the more reason to hurry." He tugged her sweater, yanking it up to her breasts. "Lift your arms."

Jared's voice was hard and urgent. Candy did as he requested and said, "Okay, but I get the top."

He stopped tugging on her sweater. "Top what? I don't have any bunk beds, sugar."

Candy's arms were still in the air, and the neck of her turtleneck sweater was inside out over her face. "On top of you."

She wiggled, red fuzz clinging to her lips and her eyelashes matting. "Now get this sweater off me. I can't breathe or see anything."

Jared pulled until her head popped through, her hair flattened into her eyes. She waved her arms around in the air. "My hands are still stuck."

But Jared was too busy unhooking her front-clasp bra to help her out. When his mouth closed around her nipple and drew her toward him, Candy found she didn't give a darn if she was tangled up in cable knit.

Flinging her sweater-trapped arms over his head, she arched her back and let him at them.

Chapter Seven

Jared sucked on Candy until she was squirming and calling his name. Her arms were still trapped behind his head, her cherry sweater rubbing against his neck, and it kept her from moving very far.

A hand on her back and one on her breast and she was stuck firmly in place, despite her wiggling around on his lap. He was enjoying her growing desperation. It was close to matching his.

Pulling back, he stared at her rosy nipple, shiny from his mouth and firm like a plump grape. He couldn't resist a little nip.

Candy jerked forward. Somehow she managed to yank her arms free and he felt the sweater trail down his back. She pushed her hair back off her face and slid her bra down off each shoulder and onto the floor.

Then she sat back, taking her nipples out of his reach, making an enticing picture as she arched her back topless. It took him two seconds of gazing at her naked breasts to beg, "Take your jeans off."

"I still get the top, remember?" she warned as she shimmied back and stood up.

Even if he had forgotten, his boner would have reminded him. He nodded. "Oh, hell, yeah, I remember."

She smiled and he just about came on the spot. If he had been falling for her before, he was gone now that he had heard about her shit-for-brains ex-husband.

He had liked her before. He had respected her. Now he admired her too. Despite her overt femininity, Candy was a strong woman.

The woman for him.

Candy undid the button on her jeans, then the zipper, with all the speed of an anemic turtle, a mischievous grin on her face.

"Hurry up," he said, no shame whatsoever. "Or I'm going to rip them off you."

"You would not." Her hand stopped moving altogether.

"Do you want to find out?"

She laughed. "No, not really."

Turning to the side, she pushed the jeans down over her hips, her hands gliding along the rounded curve of her ass. His mouth went dry.

She had on different panties than earlier. These were fire-engine red. Rip-them-off-me red.

To think when he'd stepped into Harold's office today he had thought he would be able to resist her. He'd never stood a chance.

Candy held on to his table while she kicked off her boots and stepped out of the jeans. She turned to him, wearing nothing but those satiny panties. Her tongue slipped out and moistened her lips.

Jesus. He was so goddamn lucky.

"Much better than girly cat pajamas," he managed to say.

She smiled. Two steps and she was in front of him. He wrapped his arm around her back and closed the remaining inches between them. Running his mouth along her salty skin, he sucked lightly just below her rib cage.

"Good enough to eat," he murmured.

Candy climbed onto his lap, straddling him. "You're overdressed for the part."

"So are you."

"I'm only wearing panties."

"That's too much."

He was distracted by the tantalizing view of her flushed breasts directly in front of his mouth. Forgetting about stripping off her panties for now, he focused on the obvious.

With his tongue.

Back and forth, over and around, slicking her nipple, nibbling and pulling on the taut skin. She smelled like spring, fresh and alive, and he held on to the small of her back, keeping her close to him.

Candy tried to move away from him. "No, stop. I can't take it."

Jared moved to her other breast and gave it the same extended treatment. "Yes, you can. You can take it all."

"I can't." Her ass rubbed against his thighs and she tried to rock up on his cock with the front of her panties.

He shifted out of the way of her touch, his finger working the other nipple he didn't have his mouth around.

Candy moaned. "Jared, I don't want to come yet. You're going to make me come."

That was the plan.

She went up on her knees, hitting his bare arm with her inner thighs as she struggled to get her breasts away from him. Jared felt the cool dampness of her desire on his skin.

That got him to pull back and look down into his lap. The middle of her red satin panties was dark with moisture, and the stain was spreading.

Man, she was sexy.

He brought his thumb over her mound, tracing the damp spot on her panties. "You're a little wet, aren't you?"

She wiggled around as if she could somehow shift his finger inside her panties. "I'm really wet."

He laughed softly, but Candy didn't. She reached out and ripped his shirt apart, sending buttons in three directions. He was so shocked he hit his back against the bars of the wooden chair he was sitting on. He stared at her in a horny stupor.

"I've always wanted to try that," she said, shoving his sleeves down his arms to puddle at his wrists.

"You did it like an old pro."

Candy didn't answer, just ran her fingers across his bare chest, scraping her nails. Her eyes were trained on him.

"You're such a hottie," she said finally, her searching hands moving up to his shoulders to stroke and caress.

Jared had never been called a hottie before. Coming from anyone else, he would have taken serious exception. From Candy, it pleased the hell out of him.

He couldn't wait another damn minute. He wanted to taste her again. Grabbing the back of her head, he pulled her forward until their lips met in a wild grinding kiss, full of slippery lips and pushy tongues.

Hands in her panties, he squeezed her firm ass, dipping his thumbs to brush on the underside of each cheek.

Candy pinched his nipples, driving him nuts, while she moved up and down on him, the movements as raw and lacking in finesse as their continued kiss.

Jared rocked the chair back, wanting Candy to slide forward in his lap. She did, her breasts landing against his chest as she squeezed her thighs around his legs.

It felt as if he were winging through time and space, rocking with passion, caught somewhere between reality and ecstasy.

He pulled her lip into his mouth to suck hard. And a minute later he really was sailing through the air.

Candy jerked at the jolt that kicked her in the gut when Jared tugged on her lip. She threw her arms forward and wound up knocking Jared's knees with her calves.

Mouths still wrapped around each other, Candy heard him make a startled sound before they both went over with an obnoxious crash as the chair slammed into the floor.

Candy blinked and caught her breath as she landed hard on Jared. He was flat on his back, staring up at her as if he had no idea what had just happened.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded. "You?"

His hand returned to fondling her bottom, so she knew he wasn't injured. "I'm great. Better than great."

"Good."

He touched her chin, guiding her down to him for a kiss. It was a soft gesture, tender, and Candy gave up trying to pretend that she wasn't head over heels for Jared. He was still serious, strong, and sexy as hell, but he also looked almost sweet.

The kiss was sweet as well, but it shifted quickly. It expanded, quickened, Jared's whiskers rubbing her chin raw. She didn't care, she just wanted to feel him, taste him. Her breasts were brushing against his chest, making her ache for more.

Before she could beg for that, Jared said, "Let me get my pants off. Then you can take the top."

"Condom?" she said as she detached herself from his lap. She sat on the floor as he rolled off the chair and got rid of his pants.

"Got it." Jared pulled a whole box out of his pants pocket.

Candy fought the urge to lick her lips. That was a lot of condoms. Maybe Jared had more in mind than just tonight.

He righted the chair and sat back in it, the condom already rolled on. "Come have a seat."

Still on the floor, Candy bent her knees up and slid her panties down, leaving them carelessly where they fell. She stood up and stopped in front of Jared, placing her hands on his shoulders to brace herself.

Closing her eyes halfway, she moved her legs on either side of the chair. Then let out a startled cry when Jared's finger found its way inside her.

"Just making sure you're still ready."

"I'm ready." She meant to move back out his reach, but somehow her body rocked the wrong way. Forward. Onto his ringer.

He gave a soft laugh. "If you like one so much, you'll like two even better."

Another finger slid alongside the first, fitting her snugly as he went deep inside her. When his other hand reached out and stroked her clitoris, Candy cried out.

"Of course, if you like this, you'll like the real thing even better."

She nodded. He withdrew his fingers.

Candy used her hand to guide him, then sank down onto the length of Jared, biting her lip as she did. Pausing a moment, she swallowed hard, enjoying the curse that flew out of Jared's mouth.

But when she tried to ride him, she discovered a problem. "I can't move on you like this. There's nothing to push off of."

Her feet were trapped behind his knees.

But Jared nibbled on her shoulder. "No problem. I can move."

His first thrust was slow and gentle, but within seconds, he had dissolved into hard, urgent movements, which left her gasping. Each thrust sent her up into the air and she clung to him, pinching his skin and digging in with her nails.

The angle sent him deep into her, robbing her of her breath. Her nipples hit his chest, and the light brush of his hard ab muscles against her clitoris was a cruel tease.

Jared stopped without warning.

"What?" she moaned, trying again in vain to pull herself up and down on him.

He didn't say anything, just stood up with her still on him in an impressive muscular move. He rocked once into her, then lowered her to her feet.

"Standing up?" she asked with a grin, waiting for him to start moving again. She wasn't tall enough to work this angle either.

He didn't grin back. His eyes were dark, searching. "Actually I want you to turn around. Will you let me do that?"

She saw what he was doing. Jared was asking her to trust him. To understand that he wasn't like her ex. She knew that already and she wanted him to know she trusted him with everything. Even her heart.

Candy pulled back until he was no longer inside her. "Yes, I'll let you do that."

Then she turned around and splayed her hands on the dining room table, bending over a little.

"You're incredible," Jared murmured before easing himself into her vagina from behind.

He wasn't so bad either. Candy closed her eyes as he went in and out, thrusting harder. She pushed her hips back to meet him and felt her orgasm building up inside her. She was tight and on the edge already when his finger snaked around and rubbed her clitoris.

"Jared."

His answer was a push so hard and deep that she lost her grip on the table and stumbled forward. Her hand landed in a plateful of pasta, now cold. It stayed there while she cried out her orgasm, shuddering and arching her back.

"Candy." Jared removed his finger from her as he came, holding on to her hips and pulsing into her.

His orgasm blended with the final waves of hers, and she closed her eyes to feel him. All of him, filling her from deep inside.

Candy squeezed her inner muscles and was rewarded with another shudder from Jared before he leaned heavily against her back. His weight felt good, solid, steady.

Her racing heart quieted down and she pried her eyes open. Dragging a breath in, she looked in front of her and giggled.

"What?" His breath tickled her hot skin under her shoulder blade.

She held her right hand up. "I fell in the dinner."

"Whoops." Then he leaned over and pulled her fingers into his mouth, running each finger up and down thoroughly.

A burst of fresh desire hit her between the thighs. She was fully aware that Jared had hardened again inside her.

"Mmm. Tastes good."

Then he pulled out of her and dropped her hand.

"Tease," she said as she leaned on the table and watched him remove the condom. She had no interest in moving right now, even if it meant her behind was in the air. She felt too good to move.

"You won't be calling me a tease in a minute when I get another condom on."

"What do you need another condom for? I thought we might do some work on Chunk o' Chocolate."

"Screw Chunk o' Chocolate," he said over his shoulder as he went down the hall to the bathroom. "The only thing I'm going to do with chocolate is melt it and lick it off your body."

There was an idea. Candy wondered where the nearest store was that carried those flavored massage oils the online counseling had recommended.

As she pondered the delights of licking chocolate off Jared, she finally looked around the condo. During their short-lived dinner, she hadn't looked anywhere but at him. Now she could see it was a nice place.

He decorated the way he dressed. Simple, classic. With a touch of rugged. Most of his furniture was in burgundy, and his dining room table was a rich mahogany, while the walls were stark white.

"You like that position, don't you?" he asked as he came back, strutting a bit like a rooster in her opinion.

"What do you mean?" She forced her uncooperative muscles to move, and finally stood up.

"You spent half the day in Harold's office bent over just like that. Only you were wearing clothes then."

"I was starting to wonder if you had even noticed I was shaking my tail at you," she said, stretching her arms over her head. "I kept dangling bait, and you wouldn't take it."

"Is that what you were doing?" His hands landed on her breasts and massaged. "But why were you baiting me?"

"I thought if you and I… well, that I would enjoy it. And I have."

"Then enjoy it again."

Before she could even moan out a yes, Jared had picked her up in his arms and tossed her a little to get a better grip.

"Oh! Well, aren't you the man."

His left hand was under her bottom and his right wrapped around her back, holding her without strain. Lord, she knew she wasn't that light, but he made it look effortless.

"Your man," he said, and rubbed his nose along the side of her face.

The words were spoken lightly, but Candy heard something there that was not her imagination. It was there in Jared's eyes, and in the soft touch of his nose and lips along her cheek.

He sounded as intrigued as she was by their new relationship.

The bedroom wasn't far. Jared laid her down in the middle of the big bed and laced his fingers with hers.

"This time let's take turns being on top. Who should go first?"

Candy thought about getting a good grip on the sheet and really working Jared. She didn't bother to mask her enthusiasm for the idea. "Me."

A second later she thought to add, "Please."

Jared laughed. He rolled over onto his back and reached for her. "Since you asked so nice."

Chapter Eight

They were lying in bed a couple of hours later, Candy safely tucked in the crook of Jared's arm. He stared at the ceiling, yawning in contentment.

"Do you think this is what Harold had in mind?"

Candy stirred a little. "I really don't think so. But you know, we should go back and finish the counseling. Otherwise Harold might find us out."

Jared wasn't exactly shaking in his boots. "So what? As long as we get Chunk o's ad done, then why would he care?"

"It will take five minutes. We'll do it on your PC here at home."

Five minutes? Please. Once they started answering those questions, they'd wind up right back in bed again. "Let's just look at Internet porn instead," he joked.

"Jared!"

She sat up and gave him a stern look. "And by the way, I bared my soul to you about my ex-husband."

"You bared a lot of things." His hand drifted to her behind.

"I'm serious. I told you everything, and you didn't tell me anything. When was the last time you were with a woman?"

He hated these kinds of questions. They were designed purely to get men in trouble with women. Next she'd be asking him if she looked fat.

"Why does it matter? I'm with you now."

The tight press of her lips together showed him that wasn't the answer she had wanted. "I still want to know."

"You were my first time. I was a virgin." He started to grin, then stopped when her face flushed pink. And not from embarrassment.

"See, Candy, this is why I told you I just tell women what they want to hear. Everything I say is wrong." Annoyed, he pulled away from her and put his hands under his head.

"Just tell me what you want me to say and I'll say it."

"What you say is not wrong. I'm sorry." She tried to snuggle back into his arms. "I'm just jealous, that's all."

Jealous was good. As long as it was the mild, healthy kind, not the intense, bunny-boiling kind of jealousy.

"You've got nothing to be jealous of. Most of my relationships have been casual." He relaxed again, enjoying the press of Candy's breasts against his side.

"And Jessie was a mistake. I never should have gotten involved with a coworker, and getting hot and heavy in the office was downright stupid."

The minute the words were out, he realized something about that didn't sound quite right. Candy thought so too, since she stiffened against him.

Before he could babble some kind of apology/explanation, Candy spoke. "You had sex with a coworker in the office?"

The warm bed had suddenly turned Alaskan cold. "No, no, we didn't have sex."

"Sort-of sex?"

"Yes. No! It was just some kissing and you know… groping and stuff." Holy hell, he was making this worse.

She jerked away from him and sat up. "So do you limit yourself to just one office fling per job, or should I look forward to watching you screw your way through Stratford Marketing?"

There was no way to answer that question without finding his nuts jammed in a meat grinder.

But he gave it a shot, wishing he were wearing a protective cup. "I don't have office affairs. It was a five-minute mistake with Jessie, and I don't consider you a fling anyway."

She gasped. "Oh!"

Tears rose in her eyes as she gathered the sheet around her, jumped off the bed, and prepared to flee. Oh my stars. She didn't even rate as a fling, that's how little she meant to Jared.

Trying to rationalize her way out of a broken heart, she told herself that she'd gotten what she had wanted. A night of passion that had proved there was nothing wrong with her. She was just as capable of multiple orgasms as the next girl.

But somehow that didn't make her feel any better.

Jared said, "Where are you going? I'm trying to tell you how I feel."

"I don't care." She jerked back as he stepped in front of her, blocking the bedroom door.

He was big, imposing. Naked.

"You're not going anywhere until you hear what I have to say."

"I do not want to hear you describe to me what a great one-night stand I was. Thanks, but no thanks." She'd crawl between his legs to get out if she had to.

Astonishment crossed his face. "Is that what you think I'm going to say?"

Brushing tears away, she struggled for composure. If he sent her bawling, she'd never forgive him. "Well, you just told me I don't qualify as a fling, so I guess that makes me a one-night stand."

His jaw snapped shut. He reached for her. Candy sidestepped away from his touch.

"Oh, babe. That's not what I meant. I meant you're more than a fling. You're important to me. You're my future. I… I think I could fall in love with you."

Good gravy. Why didn't he just say so in the first place?

Candy said, "Oh."

Followed by a sniffly, "Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I want us to be together if that's what you want."

This time when he reached for her, she let him wrap his arms around her and squeeze. She laid her head on his chest and sighed. "That's what I want, because I think I could fall in love with you too."

"I've never cared about a woman the way I care about you. I'll try not to screw this up, Candy."

She looked up into his sincere dark eyes. "I don't think we'll screw this up. We'll just take it slow."

"And if there's ever a problem, we can always go back for more online intimacy counseling." She gave him a grin.

Jared had a vision of Candy spread across the desk in his home office, while he counseled her intimately. He dropped back and tugged her hand.

"I think we should go do it now. Proactive counseling, before there's a problem." All it took was a little yank with one finger and her sheet plunged to the carpet.

"Oh, you think so?"

"I do." He nodded down the hall. "The computer's right this way. It will help us to get to know each other really well."

There were still a few spots on her he hadn't explored with his tongue.

Candy smiled, that full, open-mouth smile that he loved so much. "I want to know everything about you. We only got to question eleven before."

He tried to look sincere. "Babe, you can ask me anything, or touch anything that you'd like."

She laughed. "How generous of you."

He had her moving down the hall with him. Almost there. "I hope you weren't planning on going to bed early tonight."

"No. Why?"

He paused in the doorway of his home office, glad he had furnished it with a wide couch. "Because we're not leaving this room until all the questions have been answered to my satisfaction."

Her eyes went wide with lust. "If I answer the questions slowly and thoroughly, will you give me a certificate of completion when we're done?"

He'd give her more than that.

As he leaned forward to kiss her, he said, "Oh, yeah. Signed and notarized."

A sassy grin crossed her face as she put her fingers on his lips to stop him from kissing her. "Do I have to do all the videos and romance tips too?"

He pictured Candy covered in chocolate sauce while he licked it off her inner thighs. "I insist that you do all the extras, yes."

She dropped her fingers down to his leg and licked his lower lip. "So what are we waiting for?"

Hell if he knew.

Jared scooped her up again while she shrieked in surprise. His arms full of warm and willing woman, he kicked open the door to his office and moved inside.

Now he was going to show her that sex, love, and romance were best when done all at the same time.

Naked.