“Good luck with that.”
“Thanks. I’m going to need it.”
After adding milk to both ceramic mugs, he set the silver foil-wrapped box on the counter with a flourish. “You may have the honors,” he said.
Daniel pressed his lips together to hide his amusement as he watched Carlie open the box with a reverence he’d have thought was only bestowed on royalty. The woman definitely loved her chocolate. After removing the lid, she leaned over the box and breathed deeply. Her eyes slid closed and a smoky “oooooh, my” whispered from between her parted lips. His amusement faded, replaced by a punch of lust that practically knocked him on his ass. Her eyes opened and she looked at the truffles as if she were gazing upon a cache of jewels.
“They all look so delicious,” she said in that same smoky voice, elevating his temperature another notch. With her gaze still riveted on his chocolates, she asked, “Which one do you want?”
The sexy, curly-haired one. He pressed his lips together before he actually said the words out loud. After clearing his throat, he glanced down at the truffles and after a brief perusal, pointed to one. “What flavor is that?” he asked.
She consulted the inside of the box top, which provided a pictorial guide. “Milk chocolate hazelnut. Yum.”
He pointed to another. “How about that one?”
“Ooooh. White chocolate raspberry.”
“And this one?” he asked, pointing to another.
“Hmmm…let’s see…cappuccino. Double yum.”
With his gaze riveted on her rapt expression, he just chose one at random. “I’ll take this one.”
After consulting the chart, she nodded her approval. “Double chocolate praline. Good choice. I think I’m going to go with the French vanilla.” After she picked up the glossy pale treat, she held it out and said, “To your generosity in sharing. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said lightly tapping his truffle to hers. She slowly lifted the chocolate to her lips, then took a small bite. He watched, fascinated, as her eyes drifted closed, and erotic, sensual sounds of pleasure started coming from her. Her head fell limply back, exposing the tempting length of her neck, and suddenly chocolate was no longer what he wanted to feast on.
“That. Is. Soooo. Unbelievably. Good.”
You’re. Making. Me. Soooo. Unbelievably. Hard. He would have shifted to relieve the strangulation in the front of his Levi’s, but he simply couldn’t move. He actually felt his eyes glaze over, probably from his retinas melting from the heat she generated. He stood perfectly still, transfixed, watching her turn the simple act of eating chocolate into a sexual fantasy. When her moans tapered off and she finally opened her eyes, he managed one husky word. “Wow.”
“Mmm. I’ll say.”
“Was that as good for you as it was for me?” he asked.
Her gaze fell to the forgotten truffle he still held between his fingers and her eyes widened. “But you haven’t even tasted it yet.”
“I was too busy watching you.” Setting his truffle back in the box, he rounded the snack bar, stopping in front of her. He felt as if steam pumped from his pores. “I’d rather taste yours.”
She blinked, then held up the remaining piece of her truffle. “Oh. Sure. I’m happy to-”
He cut off her words by covering her mouth with his.
The instant his lips touched hers, every thought drained from his head. He drew her off the stool, then into his arms, and she went willingly, twining her arms around his neck. She made that incredible moaning sound and parted her lips, inviting him to delve deeper, an offer he immediately accepted, his tongue exploring the delectable heat of her mouth while his hands roamed slowly down the curve of her back.
So good…God, she tasted so good. Sweet, warm and delicious. The erotic friction of her tongue tangling with his arrowed needles of fire through him. He shifted, leaning against the snack bar, then spread his legs and drew her into the V of his thighs. She pressed herself against him, incinerating him where he stood.
More…more…more. The word pounded through him, demanding, stripping another layer off his control, a situation that wasn’t helped at all by Carlie’s ardent response. He’d meant to kiss her slowly, lightly, but nothing about this kiss was slow or light. Instead it was a deep, intimate flash fire of heat and hunger and want. His hands tunneled through her silky hair, holding her head immobile while his mouth devoured hers.
He lost all sense of time, and when he finally raised his head, had no idea how long he’d kissed her, other than to know that it wasn’t long enough. He looked down at her and saw…
Fog.
Talk about having your eyes glaze over.
He blinked and realized his glasses had steamed over. Yeah, just like the rest of him. Before he could reach for the glasses, he felt her removing them. As she lifted them from his face, she came into view. With her eyes half closed, her cheeks flushed red, and her full lips moist and parted, she looked utterly gorgeous and completely aroused. After she set his glasses on the snack bar, she leaned back in the circle of his arms and whispered, “Wow.”
He was impressed she managed to utter a word. He sure as hell wasn’t able to. How was it that what was supposed to have been nothing more than a simple kiss felt so damn…complicated? He had to swallow twice and clear his throat just to locate his voice. “Yeah. Wow.” He still sounded as if he’d scraped his vocal chords with sandpaper.
“I fogged up your glasses.”
“I forgive you.”
She studied him for several seconds. “You look different without them.”
“So do you. You’re sort of…blurry.”
She leaned closer, until they were nearly nose to nose. “How’s that?”
“Oh, it’s you,” he teased. He bent his head and touched his lips to the side of her neck. “You taste delicious.”
“That was the chocolate.”
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes, and experienced that same rush of sensation he felt when he jumped off the high diving board. “No. It was you.”
“I’ve gotta tell you, that kiss made me forget all about my truffle, and that’s a sentence that has never before passed my lips.” Again she studied him for several seconds. “Probably I shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve wanted to do that for a while.”
“Relieve me of my truffles?”
She smiled. “Well, that, too. But I meant fog up your glasses.”
“Why shouldn’t you admit that?”
“According to all those rule books, I should act coy and mysterious. Unfortunately, that’s just not my style.”
“Doesn’t sound unfortunate to me. I prefer the brutal truth.” He tucked a stray cinnamon curl behind her ear. “And the brutal truth is I’d like to continue our conversation-”
“Conversation?” Mischief glimmered in her eyes and she nudged her pelvis against the hard ridge of his erection.
“Our evening together,” he corrected with a smile, “when you have more time. Are you free tomorrow night?”
“That depends. Are you offering more truffles?”
“That depends. Will you give me that massage?”
“I will if you will.”
“Seven o’clock?”
“Better make it eight. I have a load of studying to do.”
“Great. Looking forward to it.”
And that, he decided, was a sentence that belonged in the Guinness Book of World Records under the heading of “Hugest Understatement Ever Spoken.”
5
DANIEL THOUGHT ABOUT her the whole damn day.
He hadn’t felt this kind of anticipation about seeing a woman in a very long time. And never to this degree. The taste of her kiss, the feel of her pressed up against him…wanting to experience those sensations again made the day drag along at a snail’s pace. He found himself looking out his office window every few minutes hoping to catch a glimpse of her, a fact that annoyed him and made concentrating on his work nearly impossible.