Sweet as Candy - Karla Doyle Page 0,67
his chest, to the back of his neck, urging him closer as she angled and opened for him.
One kiss had him bullet hard. To hell with the gala. With everything, except for having her all to himself and out of that dress. “How does it end?” he asked, when she broke the kiss to catch her breath.
“With a kiss like that, after doing everything we want with each other.”
Damn, that sounded good. A hell of a lot better than good, it sounded amazing. Hearing her describe sex as “everything we want” turned him on as much as thinking about the act itself.
She shook her head when he dipped down for another taste. “Just because you’re handsome, sexy, and I’m thinking about being naked with you later doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for the rest of the story.” She nodded toward the bar. “How about a drink to make it easier?”
Alcohol wouldn’t take the edge off the story of his nasty ex. But for Candace, he’d pretend. “Let’s do it.” With her arm linked through his and her hand resting on his forearm, he led her to the bar.
It wasn’t until the bartender asked for their drink orders that Jake realized he’d never seen her drink anything other than water, juice, and tea. There were a lot of things he didn’t know about her. And that was okay. Getting to know somebody took time. Unlike Anna, Candace wouldn’t lie to him. Wouldn’t give him the mushroom treatment, keeping him in the dark and feeding him shit.
“White wine, please.”
As the bartender set a glass in front of Candace, Jake dropped a folded five-dollar bill into the tip jar. “And a beer for me. Something pale, if you’ve got it.” He nodded when the bartender held up an Alexander Keith’s IPA for approval. “Perfect, thanks.”
Drinks in hand, they moved away from the bar, coming to a mutual halt near a large marble fountain.
“Want to make a wish?” he asked, offering a quarter from his pocket.
“Sure.” She plucked the coin from his palm and tossed it into the water.
Hopefully, she’d wished for something as naughty as the devilish smile curving her glossy, red lips. Because damn, those lips would look good wrapped around his dick. Would feel fucking amazing sliding all the way down, taking every last inch of him.
Eyeing him over the rim of her wine glass, she took a leisurely sip, then licked a lingering drop from her upper lip. Intentionally torturing him? Solid maybe. “Want to know my wish?”
“Always.”
“To know all your stories.”
“All of them?” he asked, and she nodded. “That could take years.”
She stroked his face with her delicate hand and smiled at him. “I hope so.”
Yeah, he was a goner. Anything she wanted, he’d give her. Including the shitty story he’d rather not tell. “I met Anna in the courthouse parking lot. She was having car trouble, as in, couldn’t figure out how to drive a stick shift.”
“Then how did she drive it to the courthouse?”
“She didn’t. It was her friend’s car. He’d been ordered to appear and she’d gone with him. He hadn’t expected to be remanded into custody at his hearing, but that’s what happened, leaving her with the job of getting his car home.” Only a few sentences into the beginning of the story and Jake could already feel his blood beginning to boil.
“And did the handsome police officer step in and show the damsel in distress how to drive a car that has manual transmission?”
He shook his head. “I called her a tow truck.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.” Angry as the story itself made him, he couldn’t help grinning at Candace’s wide-eyed, slack-jawed reaction. “Then I gave her my number, in case she ever wanted to learn how to drive a stick.”
“Ah, there’s the smooth,” she said, laughing. “How soon did she call?”
“Same day.”
“So far, it sounds like a meet-cute.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s when two strangers who will inevitably become romantically involved meet in a random, unlikely, and sometimes funny way.”
“Yeah, well, it was random and unlikely. Since she turned out to be a full-blown liar, it misses the mark on funny.”
“I’m sorry. You’re sharing this experience you’d rather not relive and I’m trying to make it lighter than it obviously was. I guess I’m nervous to hear about this other woman who had your heart.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.” He clasped her hand where it hung between them. “And nothing to be nervous about.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding. “And you don’t have to tell me