Sweet as Candy (Close to Home Book 3)

by Karla Doyle

  A little tug had her back in his arms. “Let’s focus on what’s really important here. Tell me more about how I am getting lucky tonight.”

  “It starts with a kiss, like this…” Lips so soft they put satin to shame brushed his mouth. She slid her palm up his chest, to the back of his neck, urging him closer as she angled and opened for him.

  One kiss had him bullet hard. To hell with the gala. With everything, except for having her all to himself and out of that dress. “How does it end?” he asked, when she broke the kiss to catch her breath.

  “With a kiss like that, after doing everything we want with each other.”

  Damn, that sounded good. A hell of a lot better than good, it sounded amazing. Hearing her describe sex as “everything we want” turned him on as much as thinking about the act itself.

  She shook her head when he dipped down for another taste. “Just because you’re handsome, sexy, and I’m thinking about being naked with you later doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for the rest of the story.” She nodded toward the bar. “How about a drink to make it easier?”

  Alcohol wouldn’t take the edge off the story of his nasty ex. But for Candace, he’d pretend. “Let’s do it.” With her arm linked through his and her hand resting on his forearm, he led her to the bar.

  It wasn’t until the bartender asked for their drink orders that Jake realized he’d never seen her drink anything other than water, juice, and tea. There were a lot of things he didn’t know about her. And that was okay. Getting to know somebody took time. Unlike Anna, Candace wouldn’t lie to him. Wouldn’t give him the mushroom treatment, keeping him in the dark and feeding him shit.

  “White wine, please.”

  As the bartender set a glass in front of Candace, Jake dropped a folded five-dollar bill into the tip jar. “And a beer for me. Something pale, if you’ve got it.” He nodded when the bartender held up an Alexander Keith’s IPA for approval. “Perfect, thanks.”

  Drinks in hand, they moved away from the bar, coming to a mutual halt near a large marble fountain.

  “Want to make a wish?” he asked, offering a quarter from his pocket.

  “Sure.” She plucked the coin from his palm and tossed it into the water.

  Hopefully, she’d wished for something as naughty as the devilish smile curving her glossy, red lips. Because damn, those lips would look good wrapped around his dick. Would feel fucking amazing sliding all the way down, taking every last inch of him.

  Eyeing him over the rim of her wine glass, she took a leisurely sip, then licked a lingering drop from her upper lip. Intentionally torturing him? Solid maybe. “Want to know my wish?”

  “Always.”

  “To know all your stories.”

  “All of them?” he asked, and she nodded. “That could take years.”

  She stroked his face with her delicate hand and smiled at him. “I hope so.”

  Yeah, he was a goner. Anything she wanted, he’d give her. Including the shitty story he’d rather not tell. “I met Anna in the courthouse parking lot. She was having car trouble, as in, couldn’t figure out how to drive a stick shift.”

  “Then how did she drive it to the courthouse?”

  “She didn’t. It was her friend’s car. He’d been ordered to appear and she’d gone with him. He hadn’t expected to be remanded into custody at his hearing, but that’s what happened, leaving her with the job of getting his car home.” Only a few sentences into the beginning of the story and Jake could already feel his blood beginning to boil.

  “And did the handsome police officer step in and show the damsel in distress how to drive a car that has manual transmission?”

  He shook his head. “I called her a tow truck.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah.” Angry as the story itself made him, he couldn’t help grinning at Candace’s wide-eyed, slack-jawed reaction. “Then I gave her my number, in case she ever wanted to learn how to drive a stick.”

  “Ah, there’s the smooth,” she said, laughing. “How soon did she call?”

  “Same day.”

  “So far, it sounds like a meet-cute.”

  “I don’t know what that is.”

  “It’s when two strangers who will inevitably become romantically involved meet in a random, unlikely, and sometimes funny way.”

  “Yeah, well, it was random and unlikely. Since she turned out to be a full-blown liar, it misses the mark on funny.”

  “I’m sorry. You’re sharing this experience you’d rather not relive and I’m trying to make it lighter than it obviously was. I guess I’m nervous to hear about this other woman who had your heart.”

  “You have nothing to apologize for.” He clasped her hand where it hung between them. “And nothing to be nervous about.”

  “Okay,” she said, nodding. “And you don’t have to tell me anything else about the bitch who couldn’t even drive a stick shift.”

  Now it was his turn to laugh. And tell her the rest of the story. Get it out in the open, so they could file it under shitty topics not worth further discussion.

  “Here’s the short version. Anna called me. We started seeing each other. It turned into a serious relationship. A couple times, I suggested she move in with me, but she dodged the subject. I thought she’d be glad to offload the monthly rent payment since she practically lived with me anyway. I figured she wasn’t ready to make the full commitment, but that she’d get there eventually. Then, one day, all her stuff was gone from my apartment. There was no fight, no breakup, not even a note. She was just gone. Turns out, the friend she’d been with at the courthouse that day, the one she’d been visiting every week since, had been released from corrections. And he wasn’t just a friend, he was her fiancé.”

  Candace stared at him, mouth open, for what felt like an eternity.

  “Wondering how I could have been so stupid?”

  “No. You weren’t stupid, Jake.”

  He snorted. “I’m a cop. I’m trained to read people, to know when somebody’s lying. Anna fooled me from day one, right through to the shocking finale. I’d call that being stupid.”

  “I’d call it letting your guard down because you were personally invested in the woman, not investigating her.”

  “You’re being too kind.”

  “And you’re being too hard on yourself.”

  He grunted, then took a long pull from his beer. “Anyway. Now you know.”

  “I’m sorry you were hurt.”

  “Ancient history,” he said, squeezing her hand while bringing it to his lips so he could kiss her fingertips. “And I’m a hell of a lot better off now.”

  “So am I. In fact, I should send conniving bitch Anna a thank-you card for foolishly choosing another man instead of you.” Holding her wine glass off to one side, she moved in and gave him a taste of her soft lips, smiling as the kiss ended. “I do have one question though. Just one thing I’d like to know before we change the subject.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Did you ever teach her how to drive a stick shift?”

  The laugh that erupted from his gut drew the attention of everybody within a fifteen-foot radius. “I tried, but she couldn’t get the hang of it.”

  “Well. That should’ve been your first clue.”

  “True.” He clinked his bottle against her glass. “Now that I’ve found a woman who drives a stick as easily as she breathes, I’m golden.” His use of the sometimes-nickname she’d given him brought a big smile to her face. Damn, he loved making her smile. Seeing her happy, knowing he was part of that happiness, had become a daily necessity. An addiction that gave him a high that was out of this world. Because he—

  “Candace, what an excellent surprise.”

  If he didn’t know her so well, Jake wouldn’t have noticed the change in her smile. Though it hadn’t slipped, it was no longer genuine. Still beautiful, just fake. Like the one she wore at work.

  He glanced sideways as the source of the male voice entered his pe
ripheral vision. European. Super slick. A businessman, if Jake had to guess. One with money. The woman on his arm—wife, by the look of the rock on her ring finger—looked equally wealthy. Even with her gobs of bling and a glittery, black dress that probably cost more than Jake made in a week, she didn’t compare to Candace. No woman did.

  “So nice to see you,” the man said, bowing his head at Candace. “It’s been too long.”

  Candace released Jake’s hand to loop her arm beneath his. Then squeezed tight.

  Hint taken. He transferred his beer to the tucked hand and extended the free one toward the man. “Constable Jake Campbell.”

  “Vincenzo Balducci II.” The guy shook Jake’s hand as if it were a competition. A hint of challenge lingered in the man’s dark-eyed gaze after the handshake ended. “My wife, Loretta,” he said, gesturing to the woman at his side.

  Since the woman didn’t accept his outstretched hand, Jake dropped it and went with a nod. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Balducci.”

  Based on the formalities and Candace’s silence, not to mention the different worlds they obviously inhabited, the Balduccis didn’t seem to be her friends. She knew them, somehow, but there was a weird vibe in the air. One that had Jake’s fuckery meter pinging.

  “How is Macy?” Loretta asked, her attention on Candace. “Vincenzo Jr. mentioned she hadn’t been at school last week, and that the teacher told the class she’d been in the hospital.”

  “Yes, she spent several days there, but she’s home now and back to her normal self.” Talking about Macy brought the color back to Candace’s face. “You can tell little Vincenzo that Macy will be at school on Monday.”

  “I’ll do that. Thank goodness she’s okay. I can’t imagine how scary that must have been for you.”

  Candace nodded. “It was a stressful week.” She squeezed Jake’s arm purposefully while looking up at him. “Macy and I are very fortunate to have Jake to lean on.”

  “The good fortune is all mine.” Reading her mind, or maybe just wishing he could, Jake focused on the Balduccis again and dismissed the couple with a nod. “If you’ll excuse us,” he said, then led her away.

  With every step they took, her grip on his arm relaxed.

  He didn’t need to be in cop mode to know something was off. “I guess you know them from Macy’s school,” he said, as they walked.

  “Their son is in Macy’s kindergarten class.”

  “I knew it was a private school, but I didn’t realize it was so…”

  “Snooty?”

  He laughed and smiled at her. “I was going to say exclusive.”

  “Snooty.”

  “All right, or snooty.” He pulled out a chair for her at a dining table, then took the neighboring spot after she got her dress sorted and settled. “Just doesn’t seem like your kind of place.” He glanced across the room and found Vincenzo Balducci staring at them. Not that he blamed the guy for ogling Candace, but doing it for this long ventured into creep territory. Especially with his wife by his side. “Or like your kind of people.”

  “I ignore the parent population as much as possible. The school itself is wonderful, and it operates year-round, rather than the usual two months off in the summer. That calendar works much better for me, as a single parent who trusted no one, until recently.”

  “How recently?” Yeah, he was totally fishing. And not ashamed at all for doing so.

  “About a week, since you introduced me to Megan. Who did you think I was talking about?” She bit the inside of her cheek, but failed to keep her smile in check. When it broke free, she leaned out from her chair and kissed him. “Until you, Jake. You changed everything.”

  “So did you, sweets.”

  Still touching his face lightly, she eased back enough to meet his gaze. “How disappointed would you be if I suggested we skip the rest of the gala and do something else with our date night?”

  The fact that she even had to ask blew his mind. “On a scale of one to ten…zero. Though that might be a bit on the high side.” He rose, took her hand and helped her to her feet. “Where would you like to go? Steakhouse, Greek, Italian, that fine-dining place with the live jazz on King…”

  “I was thinking of someplace smaller and more intimate.”

  “A woman with a plan, I like it.” Hand on the small of her back, he guided her through the budding crowd. He nodded at some fellow officers along the way, breathing a sigh of relief as they pushed through the doors, into the warm, late-summer evening. The gala had been his idea, but he wasn’t sad to put it in the rearview. Too many people. Especially when he only wanted to be near one.

  “So, where are we headed?” he asked, threading their fingers together.

  “Your place.”

  “No restaurant first?” He must be crazy, offering up anything that’d delay getting her alone.

  “I love this gorgeous dress you got me, and the flowers,” she turned her wrist to admire the corsage, “but I’d rather spend tonight with just you.”

  “Best plan ever.”

  “I thought so.”

  No point in suggesting she wait at the curb while he retrieved the SUV, since she’d declined the reverse offer when they arrived. Instead, he tugged her closer, kissing her forehead when she leaned against his shoulder.

  They needed more time like this. Together, just the two of them. With his sister in the mix to babysit, they’d have plenty of opportunities. Tonight was just the beginning.

  Chapter 15

  Candace

  Tonight was just the beginning. Shame on her for thinking she’d be safe from recognition. She, of all people, knew better than to make societal assumptions. Yet she’d allowed herself to feel comfortable and carefree going to a policemen’s gala with Jake. Stupidly naïve was more accurate.

  Enzo’s presence had dealt her one heck of a wake-up call. Thank God he’d been with his wife. Thank God Candace had a legitimate reason for being acquainted with a hotel-chain mogul. Thank God Enzo’s desire for self-preservation was greater than his desire for her.

  But most of all, thank God she’d hadn’t come face-to-face with any clients who were cops. Did she have any? She’d like to think not, but again with the don’t-make-societal-assumptions thing. The majority of guys who paid for her services didn’t share incriminating details of their identities or lives. Enzo certainly hadn’t divulged his true identity during his visits to Lucky’s.

  For all she knew, she’d had an off-duty cop as a customer. Maybe more than one. Men who could be Jake’s associates or superiors. Or worse, his friends. The thought curdled her stomach to the point of nausea.

  Quitting her job wouldn’t solve the issue of former clients. The only way to be sure she didn’t have any future awkward run-ins would be avoidance on a scale as grand as the gala she’d never attend again. Since every man in the tri-cities could potentially be an ex-customer, she needed to avoid them all. Indefinitely.

  Added to Monday’s to-do list: find a new place to live. One beyond the likely scope of Lucky’s clientele. Then find a new job. A school for Macy. Childcare for the overlapping hours. And then, explain it all to Jake.

  He’d understand her decision to move out of the area. He’d support and help her, of that she had no doubt.

  She also had no doubt they’d spend less time together. Or that they would figure it out, together.

  “Something on your mind, sweets?” Jake asked, as they reached his SUV. “You look a million miles away.”

  More like fifty, or possibly one hundred, but they didn’t need to talk about their future, longish-distance relationship right now. They needed a carefree night to enjoy each other, fully, and that’s what they were going to have. Starting now.

  “I was thinking about us.” Ignoring the door he’d opened for her, she unbuttoned his suit jacket and slid her hands inside to circle his waist. “And about making the most of tonight.”

  “I like the sound of that.” Palm spanning her ass, he drew her closer, tight enough for her
to feel the hard ridge of his cock press against her abdomen. The smile curving his mouth wasn’t the sexy, I-want-to-devour-you type she’d expected. When he relinquished his hold on her ass to tip her face upward for a gentle kiss, she really had to wonder what was up. Aside from his cock. That was definitely still in the “up” position.

  “Don’t stop,” she said, after the soft brushing of lips ended.

  “Just keeping it sweet for a minute, before I hightail it to my apartment, peel you out of that dress and make you come so hard, you forget the word ‘sweet’ exists.”

  “You’re setting the bar pretty high, since ‘sweet’ happens to be one of my favorite words.” Thanks largely to him and the nickname he’d given her.

  “Don’t worry, your full vocabulary will return after the orgasm buzz wears off.”

  “With a promise like that, I just have one question…” Easing out of his embrace, she leaned backward against his SUV and gave him her I-want-to-devour-you smile. Because she did want to. She really and truly did. “How fast can you get us to your place?”

  Candace

  Knowing he’d been thoroughly trained in high-speed driving techniques was the only thing that’d prevented Candace from hyperventilating during their express trek across the city.

  The drive should’ve taken about twenty minutes. They’d made it in twelve.

  “Wow, that was some impressive driving.” With deliberate effort, she released her white-knuckled grip on the edge of her seat after he brought the time-jumping machine to a complete stop in his apartment building’s parking lot. “Please don’t impress me that way again unless one of our lives depends on it.”

  “Deal.” He grinned, then leaned across, cupped her face and kissed her. Quite thoroughly.

  “Mmm,” she said, savoring the lingering taste of his Jake-ness after he eased back to his side of the car. “Please do impress me that way every time you possibly can.”

  “Planning on it, sweets.” He glanced at her hand as she reached for the door handle. “Don’t even think about opening your door. I’ll do it. Taking care of you is my job.”