Page 75 of Candy

“I know that I scare him. I’m glad that he has you right now.”

“Just right now?” I asked him as I stood to face him.

“You know what I mean, Candy.”

I put my arms around his neck. “Maybe, but you might have to remind me later.”

He kissed me once, then pulled back, glancing around uncomfortably. It was then that I saw a picture on the other side of the room and jerked his arm toward the door. “Let’s go back outside.” As I left the room, I looked at the group picture on the far table taken at Laney and Evan’s wedding. The one on the private island where Cara and Bryan had joined us.

A few minutes after we were outside, I excused myself to use the restroom, moved the picture to under a magazine, and then made sure there were no other pictures of Cara and Bryan before I went back to join Mike.

Later that night, we returned to my house and put Harley in the bath. He was having so much fun that he didn’t even mind that I slipped out of the bathroom and left him alone with Mike.

Before bed, we read two books, and then within minutes, he was fast asleep. I had dug around earlier and found a night light, so I made sure to plug it in before I left so he could see if he woke up later.

I found Mike in the kitchen pouring me a glass of wine. “Well, thank you for that.” I took a long gulp from the glass before I sat down and glanced at him.

The moment our eyes locked, we moved toward one another. We were like magnets that couldn’t stay away from one another; in a matter of seconds, our clothes were being yanked off. We didn’t even get out of the room; we just dropped to the kitchen floor, and before I knew it, I was straddling Mike’s hips and riding him hard.

After we finished, we collected our clothes and moved to my bedroom, where we made love again, but it was much slower this time.

We ended up in the shower, and Mike took me up against the wall from behind, and the cold tile on my front drastically differed from his hot, slick body behind mine. He pulled my hair to the side, latching his mouth roughly to my neck, and my breath hitched.

I had never been into rough sex before, but I loved it with him. Mike was opening my eyes to something new, and I was happily willing to try anything he wanted me to. His hand grasped my neck, and while it was tight, it wasn’t painful. It did heighten my sexual desire, and I immediately began to orgasm.

Afterward, we cleaned up, then I fell into bed, physically spent from the two hours of hot passionate sex.

Mike let me curl against him, and I drifted off to sleep.

A few hours later, I was again woken up by a little face in front of me, and I lifted the covers for him to climb under. Carmen would probably tell me that wasn’t a smart thing to do, but who is thinking that way in the middle of the night. The only thing I wanted was to go back to sleep.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

MICHAEL

When I got to the tavern, I put aside thoughts of girlfriends and kids as best as possible and threw myself into the ledgers. I hadn’t done them in a few days, so I needed to catch up. I had promised Laney that I would have them for her to look at soon. Plus, Howard would want to know how things were going.

I was almost done when David stuck his head into the office. “You got a minute?”

“I do. What’s up?”

“Are you really going to buy this place?”

“I am, and I will have two partners, although one is more for the money than anything else.”

For a few minutes, we talked about what I was going to do to the place, and he seemed excited about the expansion of the kitchen. “I’d like your input on that when we get to it. Laney has an architect that will come in and sit down with us. Tell us what is possible and what is not within our budget.”

“Sounds great.” He paused. “With it enlarging, will there be a chance to expand the staff?”

“Yep, we will do that too. I know you have been covering most of the shifts and working your ass off, but I want your help to find another chef or two and at least a couple more helpers. We are going to almost double our seating.”

“Double?” I nodded. “Wow.”

“Laney had some great ideas. I’m glad that Candy brought the proposition to her.”

“Speaking of Candy, what’s going on with that? I never pegged you for a straitlaced woman.”

I hiked a brow. “She’s not as straitlaced as you might think.”

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