Page 54 of You Had Me at Chocolate

“No.” He grinned. “You’re right about ruby grapefruits being sweeter.”

Exasperated, she took another spoonful trying to guess while cataloging the fruit she knew was around Marietta this time of year. “I give in.”

“What?” He uncrossed his arms and pressed a hand to his chest feigning shock. “Don’t tell me the aficionado has been stumped?”

“Yeah, yeah, enough with the dramatics.” And the drawing of attention to his chest and how close his fingertips were to his left nipple. “Spill.”

He bugged his eyes at her. “It’s a clementine.”

She blinked. “What?” Clem had tasted the fruit once as a kid when she’d been on a school trip to California. “Since when do we get clementines around here?”

“Edwin got them in for me.”

Well, that was interesting information. “You requested clementines?”

His hand dropped from his chest. “How could I not?”

He was teasing. She knew that. But it made her heart do a funny little wobble behind her ribs anyway.

“Well then.” She smiled at him. “It’s definitely my favorite.”

“Mine, too.”

Their gazes met and they were smiling at each other again but there was an undercurrent that was hard to ignore. Clem was determined to give it her best shot, though.

Digging her spoon into the mousse again, she said, “These cups are cute. You like making these kinds of things, yeah?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “They’re not that hard once you know how and they’re attention grabbing. You can make them as elaborate as you want and eating chocolate off chocolate is kinda decadent, don’t you think?”

Clem didn’t say anything, too busy thinking about how decadent it would be to eat chocolate off his body. Lick it off those smooth pecs. That ridge that bisected his abdomen. And those flat, male nipples. Also parts a little… lower.

“You don’t agree?”

“Hmm?” She focused back in on his question. “Oh, sure. Yeah…”

One thick, dark male eyebrow raised in challenge. “But?”

“I was just…”

Clem breathed out an unsteady breath as a slew of erotic images rather unhelpfully scrolled like a movie reel through her dirty, dirty mind. She glanced down at the half cup of mousse still in her possession. Was clementine some kind of… aphrodisiac? Because her body was melting down with possibilities, her pulse a low, slow thump, flushing through neglected erogenous zones.

And if he’d let it drop, she could have pulled herself back from the temptations running wild through her head and thudding through her veins. But he didn’t.

“Just?” he prompted. And it was low and slow too, keeping tempo with the pulse of her body.

“I was just thinking.” Her voice sounded like fine-grade sandpaper as she dropped her eyes to her mousse. “About other things you could eat chocolate off.”

Clem was close enough and at just the right level, to catch the thick bob of his whiskery throat as her gaze rose again. Their eyes met and she could see desire warring with caution in those pale green depths. Her breath held as the battle played out and Clem hoped like hell it was desire because even though she knew she shouldn’t want him like this—that they were on two different paths right now—god help her, she did.

He cleared his throat. “Like what?”

Chapter Nine

A cool streak of relief blasted through the heat at Clem’s center. Whether it was wise or not she didn’t really care right now. Nor, apparently did he, as his gaze zeroed in on her mouth like he wanted to smear it in mousse and lick up every last, sticky trace.

Her pulse tripped as she dipped her index finger into the cold, sweet fluff. She was so damn aroused at the sensation and the passion burning in his eyes her nipples tightened. Scooping up a portion she raised it to her mouth, his eyes tracking the movement with fevered intensity. Neither of them said anything as she pressed it to her lips but, Jude’s breathing roughened as her lips closed around her finger.

Clem let it linger inside, hyperaware of him watching her, of his dilated pupils as her cheeks hollowed and her tongue swirled until it was all gone. Slowly her finger slid out with a wet kind of phfft that had Jude’s nostrils flaring.

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