Candy Store (6 page)

“Go on, sweetheart,” Tobey urged her.

Callie opened her eyes and she looked into his, dark with passion. Passion for her.

It was her undoing.

She threw her head back and Tobey’s mouth found the wildly beating pulse in her neck. One hand found her clit, hard and throbbing and ready to explode, the other her 38

Candy Store

aching nipples. One touch, then two and she was gone, exploding against him, shoving her hips into his hands, against his hard cock again and again.

Somewhere in her fog she realized that his hand had dropped from her breast and that his pants had fallen to the floor and he had rolled a condom on. But all she cared about was the hot, stretching sensation at the opening of her vagina, that Tobey was about to plunge his thick penis into her.

All night long Callie had dreamt about Tobey fucking her again, about riding his shaft and crying out his name. She felt him slide into her, sure and fierce, and she found his lips again, wanting to show him how much she loved the way she felt when he was touching her.

She tasted his lips, his tongue, his mouth. “Callie,” he groaned, her name sounding like worship, and all of Callie’s visions from the sleepless night before merged with their sweaty sex in the refrigerator and the tequila shots and her rubbing herself in the shower dreaming of Tobey.

Her muscles clenched around his cock and she sobbed into his mouth, his tongue pumping in and out of her mouth in the same rhythm that he was thrusting into her.

Callie clung to Tobey, her eyes clenched shut, never wanting to wake up from the best dream she had ever had.

“Miss Callie?”

A small voice from the hallway was calling out her name, but Callie was too busy throwing herself at Tobey, too intent on coming against Tobey, to hear.

Tobey called out, “Callie will be out in a minute.” Her legs were shaky and she felt so helpless all of a sudden that she stood completely still while Tobey righted all of her clothes. Pushing her hair back from her face and tucking it behind her ears, he said,

“That was wonderful, sweetheart.”

Callie blushed, feeling suddenly sick at her out-of-control behavior and bent down to pick up Tobey’s jacket so that she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye. She handed 39

Bella Andre

it to him and Tobey quickly rearranged his own clothes then stepped back from the door to give Callie room to open it.

Jonah, a ten–year-old whose mother owned a gift shop on the other end of Main, poked his woolen capped head into the storeroom. He beamed when he saw Callie.

“My mom needs a box of truffles for her store and she sent me over here to see if you could give me some before we open. I sure am glad you’re here or else I’d have to ride my bike all the way down here again later.”

Callie suddenly saw herself through the innocent eyes of a child and she couldn’t help but feel dirty. Forcing herself to ignore Tobey’s presence in the room, she walked through the doorway on shaky legs. Laughing, the sound obviously forced, she ruffled Jonah on the head. She kept her voice light and said, “Oh no, Jonah. I’d hate for you to have to ride your bike all the way down Main Street. Again.”

Callie heard the trembling behind her teasing words and hated herself for it. She was sure that Tobey could hear it too. Why, she wondered, couldn’t she be calm, cool, and collected around him? Why did she have to be so pathetically
attracted
to him?

On the way into the front of her shop, she grabbed her jacket from her office chair and put it back on, wishing she had stayed with her plan of keeping it on, no matter what. If she had known she was meeting with Tobey she would have worn her most chaste outfit, something from the back of closet that covered every square inch of skin from her chin to her ankles.

Callie buttoned the one button at the waist and wondered how she could have ever possibly felt stern and business-like in the suit. Wearing this suit was, she now realized, as good as wearing a sign that said, “Fuck me, please. I like sex with men I don’t know.”

What she wouldn’t give for a coat of armor now.

She pulled a large chocolate box off of the shelf and handed it to Jonah. “Why don’t you pick out your favorites, honey?” she said, knowing that her hands would be shaking so hard she’d barely be able to get the truffles into the box.

40

Candy Store

Jonah gave her a look of surprise, but quickly stripped off his mittens and got to work loading up mint and dark chocolate truffles into the box. Even as she chose a lollipop for Jonah from her stash of goodies below the cash register, Callie was far too aware of Tobey’s large, hot presence behind her. Everything about him radiated power and sex, all of the stuff she had always been a sucker for.

And look what it had gotten her so far, she reminded herself harshly. She was alone and broke, with nothing but a failing candy store and a mutt to keep her company.

“Miss Callie, I’m done now,” Jonah said, snapping her out of her self-pity. “Here,”

he said, putting a $20 bill in Callie’s hand.

She put the bill away in the cash register then handed the little boy his special treat.

“My favorite!” he exclaimed as he shoved the lollipop into the pocket of his down jacket. “Thanks, Miss Callie,” he added, getting on his tippy toes to give her a peck on the cheek before he ran out of the heated store into the cold and shot back down Main Street on his bike.

Callie’s heart swelled with love. What she wouldn’t give to have a child of her own.

But since that obviously wasn’t about to happen any time soon, she thought, at least she had her candy store and the joy of being with children every day.

“Cute kid,” Tobey said, walking around the front of her display counters to check out her displays.

Callie jumped. She had almost forgotten that Tobey was there, invading her sanctuary with his ungodly sexiness. And she had almost forgotten, yet again, that her beloved store was in danger.

And only The Candy King could save her.

Enough is enough
, she told herself firmly, her heart fluttering just because of Tobey’s intense presence in her store.
You need to focus on business, not pleasure
, she insisted, trying to get the wayward slut inside of her to obey her serious dictate
.

41

Bella Andre

“Do you always give away candy like that?” Tobey’s tone was light, but she sensed an edge behind his words

“Of course I do,” she replied. She hated that she felt like she needed to explain herself, but she said, “Kids love getting a little surprise.”

Tobey stopped his perusal of her storefront. “And you like to surprise them?” he asked, pinning her with his hot gaze.

Callie swallowed convulsively, but her mouth felt dry and her tongue refused to fit within the confines of her mouth. All she could do was nod.

The silence in Callie’s Candies was almost a live being. Callie wished she knew what happened to her when Tobey was near, that way she might have had a chance in hell at fighting it.

But when he finally said, “I like that about you, Callie. I like that a lot,” she knew she was irrevocably lost.

“Lock the door,” she said, then turned and walked back into her storeroom. She heard the lock click shut and undid the button on her jacket. Shrugging out of the pink wool, she threw it onto her desk.

She reached for the zipper on her skirt just as Tobey walked through the door. Still unable to look him in the eye, she let her skirt drop to the floor. Standing before Tobey in her see-through white silk camisole and white silk thong panties, she said, “One more time. And then we’ll take care of business.”

42

Candy Store

“Remind me again,” Callie said as she stamped her feet in the snow to stay warm.

“Why are we doing this?”

Tobey laughed and put the huge cooler he had been carrying into the snow on the edge of the rink. “Ice skaters love two things,” he said, taking a moment to admire how cute Callie looked in her form fitted pink down jacket and tight black ski pants. “Perfect ice, obviously, and, even more importantly, chocolate.”

Callie humphed and rubbed her mittened hands together. “If I weren’t so cold I might care.”

Tobey wanted to say, “I’ve got a surefire way to warm you up,” but he knew that given their business relationship, such obvious flirting was totally out of line. Even more than that, though, he wanted to suck that pouty lower lip of Callie’s into his mouth.

It really was too bad that after leaving Callie’s Candies on Monday, after their crazy, perfect sex on the steel kitchen island in the middle of her store’s back kitchen, Tobey felt he had to make the only decision possible under the circumstances—to back off until Callie’s Candies was back in the black and running smoothly. It was perfectly all right to fuck Callie’s brains out before they discussed business, but once the first professional word had been spoken, Tobey felt that not touching Callie was the right thing to do. Not, of course, that he would hesitate to rip all of her clothes off and keep her naked in his bed for a week once their business transaction had ended.

But for the time being, the last thing Tobey wanted was for Callie to think that the success of her business was in any way linked to whether or not she put out. For the past fifteen years he had always been the consummate professional with his clients. He didn’t mix business with pleasure, although, truth be told, he had never been tempted 43

Bella Andre

to lick cocoa powder off one of his clients before. In any case, given that this was his very last job in the candy business before the world of accounting took him in, he felt an even greater motivation to do his very best.

Not to mention the fact that he had a very strong personal interest in his gorgeous, talented, oh-so-fuckable client.

So he was going to stick to his decision. Even if it killed him. And just looking at the way Callie’s ass rounded up at him as she bent over to unlatch the cooler, Tobey was pretty damn sure that keeping his hands off the delectable little candy maker was, indeed, going to destroy him.

But what a way to go.

After their “meeting” on Monday, Tobey had spent the week holed up in his office day and night, working up a plan of money-making action for her. After looking through her books, he saw that although she was doing fairly well in sales, she was in such a high-rent district that she’d have to either move to another town or double her daily sales.

Their conversation on this matter had been short and sweet.

Tobey: “Have you thought about moving to another location?”

Callie: “No.”

Tobey: “The rent is lower and you wouldn’t have to worry about losing your shop.”

Callie: “I grew up here and I’m staying here. Isn’t it your job to figure out a way to make that work?”

Tobey grinned. Just looking at Callie, all blonde and small and round and pink, her fiery, sharp mind wasn’t inherently obvious. But it was there. Along with her ravenous sensuality. He couldn’t wait to finish the job so that he could get another taste of her incredible lovemaking.

Plans for saving Callie’s Candies consumed him. He had already had a web site built for her at a reduced rate by his sister-in-law, who was one of the best in the 44

Candy Store

business, by promising her all the truffles she could eat for the next decade. He was planning on trying the same trade with a hot public relations firm. Next week, he was going to look into national distribution through the major gourmet food chain stores.

In any normal consultation situation, Tobey would have met with her again in person to run his ideas by her, but the sad truth was that he knew he wouldn’t be able to control himself around her. Callie had said, “I want to focus on making candy,” and so Tobey was able to justify his unorthodox behavior of making do with phone calls by telling himself that it was how she wanted things to be.

Somewhat wryly, he admitted that he might as well have met with Callie in person, considering that even though they had been apart for nearly a week he had been possessed by visions of her. Naked thighs and breasts spread across satin sheets. In the shower with soap suds dripping from her nipples.

Tobey shook the vision from his head and went to work unrolling the new banner that spelled out www.calliescandies.com. He hung it from the roof of the gazebo where he and Callie were setting up shop. The gazebo was situated on the far edge of the large outdoor ice skating rink in Saratoga, less than a mile from the world famous racetracks.

Based on his experience of taking his nieces and nephews skating over the years, Tobey knew that on Saturdays and Sundays in January, the rink was packed with kids of all ages and their parents. The perfect audience to spread the word about Callie’s incredible confections.

Tobey stepped back to make sure that the banner was straight. Callie stepped beside him and he swore she was searing him even through all of their layers of clothes, even though it was freezing outside.

“I’m still not sure about the web site,” Callie said. “Wouldn’t people rather come into the store?”

Feeling incredibly protective towards his luscious client, Tobey wanted to allay her fears. “You’ve got a great store, Callie. It’s warm and inviting and who can resist your little surprises?” he said with a small suggestive smile.

45

Bella Andre

Tobey saw the responsive spark in Callie’s eyes and caught himself just in time before he lost sight of business altogether.
Focus, buddy. Focus.

He cleared his throat. “But what about people who don’t live in Saratoga and can’t get to your store on a regular basis?”

Callie looked confused. “How would they even find out about my store in the first place?”

“You see all of these people out here today?” Tobey asked, gesturing to the growing crowd of skaters that were sliding across the ice. “People are willing to drive quite a distance to skate at such a great outdoor rink. Not to mention the fact that locals often have friends or relatives visiting them for the holidays from out of town.”