Candy Store

Regret.

Embarrassment.

He refused to let her do it and tried to capture her mouth in a kiss, but she turned her head to the side and his lips just grazed her cheek. She wriggled her butt cheeks back into the shelves behind her and pushed at his chest. He fell out of her and she moved quickly, reaching for her bra and her dress. She threw them over her head and slipped her feet into her shoes and Tobey, figuring he’d have a better chance of reasoning with her if he had some clothes on too, quickly dressed back into his now-wrinkled, slightly milky tuxedo.

“Callie,” he said. His voice was low and warm and he felt like he was trying to coax a frightened cat to drink from his bowl of milk. But he didn’t get the chance to say anything else.

Loud voices sounded from the hall just as Callie put her hand on the doorknob. She turned to him. “Stay in here until everyone is gone. I’ll distract them.” Tobey frowned, then nodded. He didn’t want to embarrass Callie by giving away his presence, but at the same time, he couldn’t let her get away.

“Wait for me,” he said, but she was already out the door and gone.

Sitting down on am upside-down milk crate, Tobey rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palms. Her scent was everywhere on him.

“She’s not going to get away,” he promised himself as he looked around at the mess they’d made in the commercial refrigerator with a smile. “Who knew a refrigerator could be so damn hot?”

Chapter Three

The next morning, Tobey’s smile could have lit up a small theatre. He planned to check in at his office, have his assistant clear his schedule, and then he was going to track down Callie Moore.

Sweet, delectable Callie Moore.

Tobey walked past the large, colorful Sweet Returns: Candy Company Consultant sign and into his office building in downtown Albany, New York. Alice, his assistant, looked as if she had already been hard at work for several hours. He was certain that she had been writing up invoices, balancing their accounts, keeping everything running so smoothly that all he ever had to do was think about the best ways to sell candy, even though it was just past eight in the morning.

“The king has finally arrived,” she said, her mouth tight as she glanced towards the clock. Alice had managed his office since the day he’d hung out his shingle fifteen years ago and often treated him like he was no more than an unruly son who needed a ruler taken to his backside every once and again to stay on the straight and narrow. “And not a minute too soon. You need to read through several things before you meet with your new client.”

Tobey sat down in a chair, guilt momentarily weighing him down. How was he ever going to let Alice go? When he closed up his candy consulting business and joined his older brother, Ed, in the accounting firm next month, he knew Alice was going to be heartbroken. Not to mention the fact that she was going to disapprove of his choice.

The smile reappeared on his face. Alice loved to disapprove of whatever it was he did. Getting her all riled up was part of the fun of working with her.

Promising himself that he’d sit down and have a talk with Alice soon, he pushed it from his mind. “I need you to clear my calendar for the day.” And hopefully for the next month or so, Tobey thought.

He was already envisioning a trip to the Hawaiian Islands with Callie wearing nothing but a string bikini on a hot, sandy beach. He and Callie would explore their desire endlessly. Long days in the sun, followed by perfect nights under the stars. With Callie. Adorable, sensuous Callie.

Cutting into his fantasy, Alice said, “No can do. You have an important consultation today.” Her voice was full of censure. Tobey wondered if she had used x-ray powers to guess his most intimate thoughts.

He was firm. “Cancel it.”

Alice shook her head. “I can’t and I won’t. The woman I spoke to sounds sweeter than sweet, truly in love with making candy, and, most importantly, desperately in need of your help.”

Tobey frowned at Alice, then got up out of the leather chair and stalked to her desk.

“Fine,” he said reaching his hand out for the packet of client information. “I’ll go.” He grabbed the file without looking at it, impatient and displeased that he wasn’t going to be able to go see Callie right away. Who cared about selling candy when what waited for him was so much better than any saltwater taffy, sour ball, or chocolate bar could ever be?

“Who’s the client?”

Alice surprised him with a smile. “Callie’s Candies.” Tobey nearly dropped the folder. “Did you just say Callie’s Candies?” A curious glint in her eyes, Alice nodded. “That’s right. My sister lives in Saratoga with that horse-crazy husband of hers and last time I went out to visit her, we dropped into Callie’s Candies. Best damn truffles I ever had.”

“I know,” Tobey said, remembering the rapturous faces of the wedding guests as they ate Callie’s truffles. They had the same look that was currently drawn across Alice’s face.

“I’ve never seen you get so excited about candy before,” he said, teasing his assistant.

“There are a lot of things you haven’t seen,” she snapped at him as if he were a little boy who wouldn’t know up from down without her help. Returning to an all-business demeanor she said, “She’s expecting you at 10 a.m. Don’t be late. And don’t you dare let her down.”

Intent on finding out everything he could about Callie’s Candies before 10 a.m., Tobey stepped into his office and closed the door. Opening the thick file of information that Alice had assembled for him, he started reading.

* * * * *

Callie’s alarm went off at 7 a.m. and she burrowed down under the covers, trying to ignore it. She felt like hell today, which was no wonder, considering she hadn’t slept more than fifteen minutes all night. Her dog, Wolf, got up from his big doggy bed on the floor and pushed his chin up on her pillow.

Feeling the weight of his big, shaggy head hit the bed, she emerged from beneath the down duvet. “All right, I hear you. I’m turning it off,” she said. Silence descended again and Callie was certain she heard Wolf sigh with relief.

She sat up in bed, pulling the sheets up with her, and scratched Wolf’s head between his ears. Just like she knew he would, he got so relaxed that his head slid off the bed and he stretched out on the rug beside her bed to go back to sleep.

The sheets scratched the tender skin of her breasts and Callie lightly ran her hands over them. Still sore and aching, they were a potent reminder of what she had done at James and Jane’s wedding only a day before. All night long, images of her coming in Tobey’s mouth, of his teeth grazing her shoulder as he sucked salt from her, of her thrusting into him, fucking him, desperate for him, assailed her. How could she have behaved like that? She hadn’t even recognized herself in the woman she had become yesterday in his arms. Now all she wanted to do was put a closed sign on the door of her candy store and take a sleeping pill that would knock her out ‘til tomorrow. She wanted to drown out her stupidity with sleep. Maybe if she slept long enough, it would all go away.