And he wanted to be with Candace.

  He grabbed his car keys off his desk and hastened out of the office without a thought. He saw Jessica in the parking lot. Her eyes widened, even while her mouth slackened.

  “What?” he told her. “You’re not the only one with a date.” He got into his Jag.

  Her mouth formed an ‘O’. He knew why. Apart from Shawna, she’d never heard him mention any other woman in that kind of way.

  As he drove, he debated on whether or not he should call Candace to let her know he was coming, but in the end, he decided against it. He was just going to surprise her with a visit, that’s all. He wanted to see her, feast his eyes on her, and assure himself that she was still in his life despite the fact that he’d been a dick to her recently.

  Then, he would set about seducing her slowly.

  The thought surprised him but he realized that it was what he wanted to do. He wanted to romance her, love on her, worship her with his eyes, his hands, his lips.

  He’d never had the nerve to ask her out on a date before. He would do it now. He would take things slow, make her get used to having him around. He knew he had the charm and looks to knock the panties off any woman he wanted.

  But Candace?

  Candace was different. She would be able to tell if he was being less than genuine with her, so he was going to be the epitome of honesty, chivalry, love and affection. He was going to be, in a word, himself. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have a choice but to fall in love with him.

  It was the only outcome he was willing to consider.

  He almost tripped over his own feet when he entered her shop and saw her. There was never a doubt that Candace Parker was a beautiful woman, but today she was glowing. She was wearing a white sleeveless top tucked into a high-waist skirt that reached her knee. Her hair shone and there was a smile on her luscious lips.

  But then, he didn’t like that the smile was not for him. She was laughing at something that a male customer was saying as they stood over a display case together looking at what were probably well-decorated cakes. The guy was tall, the glossy magazine cover type that women seemed to like, and was smiling benignly, even though his eyes were somewhere around her boobs. Aric stood at the door watching them and wished he could go over and wrapped his arms around her protectively, while shoving the leering man against the displays.

  Her young shop assistant saw him and waved him over. Candace saw him then, as he walked up to the assistant’s station and took a seat. He noticed her smile lit up a bit. Their eyes held for a second and he felt his heart soar as he saw an answering desire flare up briefly in her eyes. But then, she smiled again, raised a finger to signify she would be with him in a minute and continued with the client.

  “Hi, Mr. Simmons,” Paula, the assistant, said. She was blushing a little.

  Aric smiled at her. He suspected the poor girl had a giant crush on him. “Hi, Paula! How are those evening classes going?” His eyes were still on Candace and the guy, though. Why were they taking so long and why was Candace smiling so much?

  Candace had told him that Paula was financing her schooling all by herself. The girl talked to him a bit about her classes while Aric eyed the man balefully and wished him away. When their meeting seemed to come to an end, his blood boiled as the man hugged Candace and kissed her on the cheek. Aric willed himself to remain calm and not yield to the urge to pummel the guy to a bloody pulp. He jumped up as soon as the man stepped out of the shop.

  “I thought he was never going to leave, the way he was ogling you,” he said as he strolled toward her.

  “He was, wasn’t he?” Candace laughed richly, the sound wafted to his ears, making him feel warm all over.

  “It doesn’t bother you?” he asked. He thought she would feel indignant at the man’s attitude.

  “Well, to be honest, at first, it did.” She shrugged her shoulders and turned around to go to her office which was a small room separated off to the corner of the shop with Plexiglas. “He’s been like that for the longest time…but he’s a great customer.” She sat at her desk and immediately began shuffling some of the papers and files on the polished surface, perhaps, trying to bring some order to the chaos. “I kept thinking he wanted to hit on me – until I discovered he was gay.”

  Aric paused on the way to placing his butt on the chair in front of Candace. “Really?” He felt relieved.

  “Oh yeah! Today, he was looking to order a cake for his boyfriend whose birthday is exactly a week from today.”

  “What a shame,” Aric said, even though he didn’t feel a bit disappointed. He didn’t want or need the competition.

  “As long as he is happy.” Candace shrugged.

  Her blouse slipped a bit off her shoulders and her smooth skin taunted his gaze. The blouse had a vertical cut in front and he could see a bit of her cleavage. He felt blood rush to his groin. He shifted in his chair.

  “So what brings you here today?” she asked. “I know you’ve been super busy these days.”

  Again, he felt guilty for using work as an excuse to hide from her – not that she knew though.

  “Yeah, things quieted down a bit today and I wanted to see you – and I’m glad I came; you look amazing.”

  Her eyes lit up again and he basked in the sight of them.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I had a meeting with the Mayor’s wife earlier today. She is hiring me for their dinner party.”

  He was glad to hear she was doing well. “Your folks must be proud of you.”

  “Absolutely,” she murmured. “Mom keeps telling me how dad never fails to mention that his daughter has the largest catering business in Chicago.”

  “They come here to see you often?” he asked because he knew she hadn’t been to New Orleans to see them since she left.

  “Yes, every Thanksgiving.”

  He nodded. He knew Ellen and Nate loved their only daughter and would support her no matter what. For a moment, and for the umpteenth time since they’d been apart until now, he let himself imagine what it would’ve been like if they’d gotten together back then. He would be a lot happier, he knew. He remembered his resolution on his way to her. There was no use crying over spilt milk.

  “I’d like to take you out tonight,” he said. “Somewhere nice, just you and me. We can get someone to watch the girls.”

  He could see the hesitation in her eyes. Since the night he mentioned the ‘M’ word, he hadn’t attempted another act of intimacy between them. She didn’t look like she wanted to go anywhere with him.

  “Please, Candace,” he said softly. “I miss my best friend.”

  A smile slowly crept up her lips as she tilted her head in the way he liked so much. “That would be nice, Aric, thank you.”

  Aric felt like pumping a fist in the air.

  “I can get Ky to take the girls; Kenny’s been dying to go there since she learned that Ky lives in a penthouse all by herself.”

  “Then it’s a date,” he said smiling into her eyes. He knew he looked like an idiot.

  She smiled, too. “It’s a date,” she said slowly.

  In all of his life, he’d never been as nervous and excited like the way he felt at this moment. It was going to be his first real date with Candace Parker.

  Chapter Six

  Her heart warmed over as she opened the door for him.

  Aric Simmons would always make her heart skip a beat, Candace sighed inwardly. Tonight, he was looking absolutely delicious in a pair of dark blue denims, a tweed jacket atop a white Tee and a pair of sneakers. A casual outfit, really, but the white shirt peaking beneath the tweed brought out the specks of brown in his eyes, and right now, she found that she couldn’t stop herself from drowning in their forest depths.

  “Wow!” he said as his gaze took her in.

  That is supposed to be my line.

  “You look stunning.” He leaned in, as if he wanted to catch a whiff of her scent, or kiss her.

  The way he was looking at her right now made her conscious, in a deliciously naughty way, that she’d allowed Kyra to persuade her into wearing the little black number she brought with her from Nice. The dress was form fitting and reached well past her knee but with a dangerous slit right down the middle of her left thigh. She had been skeptical about wearing the scandalous dress but if the look in Aric’s eyes was anything to go by, Kyra was right – it was the perfect come hither sign.

  The only thing was she wasn’t sure if she really wanted Aric to come hither. He didn’t know it, but she had been hurt when she came back from Paris those years ago. She wanted to profess her feelings for him, lay her heart bare at his feet, only to find out he was getting married. It had hurt doubly bad when he laughingly told her she was, of course, to be his best woman. She had been devastated beyond words. There it was – her final proof that Aric would never see her as a woman worthy of his romantic attention.

  The hurt was still as fresh as if it were only yesterday she’d been forced to come to the realization he could never be hers, and even though, like now, he kept saying things that made her insides leap like a damned frog, she had a hard time believing him.

  “Th-thank you,” she managed to stutter. “You look great, too.” In fact, he looked better than great; he looked yummylicious.

  “Not half as much as you do, Candy,” he murmured.

  She shivered. The way he rolled the hated diminutive on his tongue really made her think of candies. She saw his nose flare as he leaned into her. Her lips parted involuntarily and her eyes fluttered closed as he brushed a kiss against her forehead. He caressed her face and trailed his fingers down to her nape to touch the edges of her hair, which Kyra had styled in a low chignon, while letting a few strands hang down. His touch was doing inexplicable things to her insides. Her neck was slightly tilted up so she couldn’t help but see the fire in his eyes, which almost reduced her to ashes.

  There was no use denying their mutual attraction to each other; it was like a visible, living entity connecting them. She dragged in a breath to clear her head.

  “We should really get going.” Even to her ears, she sounded like she had a bad case of the flu.

  He leaned away with a small enigmatic smile on his face. She shivered when his fingers slowly withdrew from her skin.

  “Shall we?” He held out a hand to her.

  Instead of lifting hers to clasp his, she stared at it. She could well imagine his hands roving over her feverish skin, touching her in places she desperately wanted, needed to be touched. Briefly, she closed her eyes to hide the torture beneath.

  In another second, she placed her hand in his.

  “I will be the envy of every single man at the restaurant tonight,” he said very softly as he led the way to his car.

  To distract herself from the sight of his powerful hands grabbing the wheels, she asked him about his work as soon as he started the car. He began to tell her about Mr. Stone, the eccentric old man, who was to be the owner of the newest franchise. By default, once in the restaurant, they took turns filling the other in on their lives apart. Candace appreciated that they could still talk as friends even after all these years.

  She began to notice the tiniest things too – things she thought she had forgotten for good.

  It was amazing how Aric still punctuated the air with his fingers when he wanted to make a point. She liked that he still scrunched up his nose right before he chewed his food. Little things really, but she remembered them and she smiled over her salad.

  “I wish I could capture this moment forever; the smile on your face is priceless,” he said suddenly.

  If anything, her smile got even wider. “I was just thinking about how you haven’t changed that much.”

  He pointed at her with his fork. “And you have changed a lot– but only in the best of ways.”

  She laughed. “Oh, really? How so?” She lifted her glass against her lips and took a sip of water.

  “For one, you got even sexier,” he said promptly. “Your fine derriere, madam, caused a small commotion at the entrance when you took off your coat.” His fake French accent was awful.

  She placed the glass back on the table. “No, it did not!” she exclaimed.

  “Believe me, it did,” he said solemnly.

  She struggled not to laugh.

  “See the couple over there, 11 o’clock?”

  Candace turned a bit to look.

  “They were behind us when we got here and the guy was busy ogling you from behind. His date caught him and hit him with her purse.”

  As if the woman figured out they were talking about them, she looked their way. She glared at Candace before turning to her partner and speaking rapidly to him.

  Candace knew whatever was said was none of her business. She also knew she was not responsible for the man’s actions. She turned back to Aric with a shrug. “I didn’t notice.”

  “Well, I did an amazing job of getting your full attention, so how could you see it?” He winked.

  She rolled her eyes at him. “You are still as smug as ever.”

  “At least, that had not changed,” he said, referring to her eye-rolling.

  They laughed.

  She remembered so many instances when he had said the most ridiculous things and she had rolled her eyes at him.

  “I really missed you, Candy.” He reached over and covered his hand over hers on the table. She wasn’t a tiny woman, but his hand completely swallowed hers.

  “Me, too,” she confessed and place her other hand above his.

  “I was a fool not to have told you how I felt.”

  She agreed with him inwardly but said softly, “It’s all passed and gone now, isn’t it?”

  She wished he had though; it would have saved them both a lot of heartache.

  Throughout the rest of the meal, they smiled at each other and found an excuse to touch one another. With their eyes and their fingers, they told each other what they most wanted to do. His eyes caressed her skin and followed her movement as she chewed. She felt his lips on hers as they shared a glass of wine and ignored the extra glass that the waiter placed on the table. Candace knew Aric was as aware of their actions as much as she was. By the time the meal was over, her whole body was engulfed in desire. It was all she could do not to drag him to her and peel off his sexy lips with hers.

  It was the most natural thing that he drove straight to his home when they left the restaurant. They held hands over the gearbox the entire ride while he adeptly drove with one hand.

  Though she had never been to his house, she only dimly registered the magnificence of the exterior of the building as he came around to open the door for her. His eyes barely left hers as they made their way inside the house.

  She grabbed his shirt as soon as he shut the door to the living room.

  “Damn it, Candy, I want to do it right this time,” he murmured as her lips came down covered his.

  What the hell is he saying?

  At the moment, she was beyond caring about anything other than dousing the fire fast consuming her. She felt so hot, so hungry for Aric that she thought she was surely going to be toast soon. She found his jacket buttons and her hands flew over them. Aric tried to pull away again, but she wouldn’t let him, but plastered her body against his. He groaned and cursed when he rested on the soft pillow of her breasts. Feverishly, she grabbed his head and pulled it down to her to have better access to his lips. His jacket joined hers on the floor and his shirt followed in record time.

  His skin was as warm as hers. His was, however, flushed and she delighted in knowing she was responsible for it. Her fingers tightened against his back as he caught her lower lip in his teeth.

  “You temptress,” he whispered, before claiming her lips, yet again. Before she knew it, he was lifting her effortlessly in his arms. She was no light weight but he carried her easily, not for a moment breaking the kiss. As he gently dropped her into the bed, she dug her nails into his naked back and wrapped her legs around his waist.

  “You are killing me,” he groaned.

  “Good,” she whispered into his mouth before pushing him into the bed and climbing on top of him.

  “Temptress,” he repeated right before his hand crept beneath her dress.

  His touch made her shiver.

  “Tempter,” she returned and dived for his zip, causing the hand on her thighs to go still.

  Good.

  Beneath his jeans, she felt his rigid length and she almost wept her release right then.

  She remembered how he’d felt in her hand all those years ago; how it felt to have him push into her while she screamed his name. She wanted him again. She wanted him right now.

  His zipper gave way to her frantic tugs and she pulled him out, sighing at the firmness of his dick. She unconsciously smacked her lips together and touched a finger to his rigid tip causing his shaft to go even harder in her hand. He shook like a leaf in a raging thunderstorm in her hands.

  “Shit, Candy!” he muttered. “The things you do to me.”

  She smiled wickedly as she looked right into his eyes even as she slowly inched her way down his body, making sure her skin grazed on his. The junction between his chest and her dress was filled with electricity; the air around them fairly cackled with it. She slid down and put the tip of him in her mouth.

  “Arrrrrrggghhhhh…Candy…you’re killing me…”

  She opened her mouth wider to take more of him in.

  With one hand, he grabbed a fistful of her hair, which had already loosened completely from their lovemaking, while his other hand made slow, circular motions, massaging her scalp. The simple movements set her body ablaze.

  Suddenly, she was flipped unto her back.

  His hand pushed up her dress, revealing skin as it climbed higher. Each trail of his hand left her burning stronger and stronger. She hissed as his hand stopped just above her center.