"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.