All’s Fair in Love and Chocolate

by Amy Andrews

  Warm air puffed into her palm as he laughed. Dropping a kiss in the middle, he levered himself upright. “How can I resist such a direction?”

  He stood and Viv watched as he unfolded himself, his gaze finding hers as he idly undid the buttons on his shirt. A smile played on his mouth and she knew he was doing it deliberately slowly, enjoying himself. She was enjoying it too, caught on the delicious precipice between desire and fulfillment.

  Wanting to delay it and hurry it all at the same time.

  The last button ceded to Reuben’s will and he shrugged out of his shirt revealing a smooth, broad chest glowing golden in the firelight, his nipples mocha, the shift of his abdominal muscles mesmerizing. His shirt landed next to hers. Then he reached for the zipper of his fly, lowering it as far as it would go, the fabric either side flapping wide before he slid his thumbs into the waistband and pushed them down.

  They slid off his legs and he stepped out of them, raiding his back pocket for his wallet and the foil packet within before tossing wallet and trousers in the same place as his shirt. Then he was standing, looking down at her, in nothing but his Calvins and a condom. His erection—and what a beast it was—tested the stretching properties of his designer underwear and Viv panted a little at the thought that it would soon be testing her stretching properties.

  If she’d been a virgin she might have even been a little terrified.

  “If I’m losing these,” he said, his voice deep as pitch as he snapped the waistband of his underwear, “then you’re losing those.”

  He pointed to her remaining clothes and Viv did not have to be asked twice She was surprised they hadn’t already smoldered off her body!

  Aware of Reuben watching her every movement, Viv reached for the hem of her tank, arched her back and pulled it up, dragging it over her head and tossing it on their rapidly growing pile of clothes. Arching again, she reached behind and undid the catches on her bra, quickly removing it and throwing it on the floor also. “Now you.”

  Viv’s husky command was met with satisfyingly immediate action, Reuben peeling his underwear down his legs in one smooth move, his erection surging out in front of him like a divining rod as he kicked out of his briefs.

  “Come here.”

  Her voice had dropped to a whole other level of husky but he heard her fine and took the three paces in her direction, which put him at about her shoulder level, his rigid dick hovering over her body as if it had been ordered to stay by some kind of sexual sorcerer. It was hypnotizing, not that she was capable of looking at anything else despite the support package being pretty damn amazing.

  Reaching up, her fingers touched down on the taut flesh of his shaft, his dick bucking at the stimulus. He hissed in a harsh breath. “Fuuuck, Vivian.”

  She let her focus drift to Reuben, his face a twisted mask somewhere between pleasure and pain. “You really do have an amazing cock, you know?”

  He grunted as she wrapped her hand around his shaft and Viv reveled in the smoothness of flesh wrapped around the core of steel. Long and thick, perfectly veined, the spongy head engorged with the slight pucker of flesh on the underside all smoothed out. For something so utterly anatomical it was breathtakingly beautiful.

  She slid her hand from the root to the tip then back to the middle again, causing a deep, rumbly groan and his eyes to flutter closed. “Remind me one day to smother this in warm, runny chocolate and lick it all off.”

  Chocolate was about the only way she could think to improve this perfect specimen.

  He opened his eyes, his nostrils flaring. “Sounds sticky.”

  “Only if you leave some behind and trust me, I will make it my mission to lick off every single morsel.”

  “Christ.” He shook his head. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  She laughed. “Absolutely not.” And she squeezed the flesh and steel in her hand.

  “Okay, enough,” he growled, stepping out of reach as he tore into the condom. “I’m not sure how long I can hold out with your busy hand and your even busier mind.”

  Applying the condom with brisk efficiency, Reuben was ready to go in a few seconds and Viv held out her arms to him. He came to her then, planting a knee on the couch before settling himself between her thighs. She sucked in a breath as the thick blunt nudge of his head notched at her entrance. His torso aligned with hers, the flats of his forearms taking his weight as he stared down into her face.

  His eyes brimmed with the same kind of crazy runaway lust she knew must also be brimming in hers.

  “You’re beautiful,” he murmured, his eyes roaming all over her face, lingering on her glasses.

  Viv knew she was busty and curvy and a lot of men liked that. Some men had even told her she was beautiful. She just hadn’t believed it. Not from them. Because, well…she didn’t really believe it either.

  Until now. Reuben Price made her feel beautiful.

  He lowered his head, pressing a light kiss to her mouth and then her nose and her cheeks and her eyelids. Then he moved lower to her chin, drifting kisses down her neck until he got to her breasts where he used his tongue and his teeth on her nipples teasing them to taut, wet peaks until she was crying out, her fingernails sinking into his shoulder blades as she shamelessly arched her back and begged him for more and then, just when Viv thought she might actually come from that alone, he was kissing her mouth again as he slid deep, deep inside her.

  “Reuben!” She gasped as she clung to his shoulder blades, little pinpricks of light exploding at the backs of her eyes as she absorbed the delicious shock of his entry. How could just that first act of penetration alone feel so damn…enough? “God. I want… I need… I can’t…”

  Viv honestly didn’t know what she needed or wanted or couldn’t. Her body was a giant nerve ending—excruciatingly exposed, deliciously raw. They could stay like this forever and it would still be better than it had been with anyone else and yet there was a hungry kind of restlessness building in her muscles, too.

  But Reuben knew. “I know,” he whispered, his voice low, his breath hot in her ear. “I know.”

  And then he hunched over her, gathering her close and stroked in and out with smooth, precise strokes that built layer on layer on layer pushing them both so, so high that when they reached the peak together, which they did, the fall was all the sweeter as they twisted and twirled through a rainbow of color and light and pleasure so intense all they could do was cling to each other until they landed out the other side, gasping and shaking and spent.

  “God.” Warm air puffed against her heated skin as Reuben collapsed on top of her breathing hard, his lips pressed to her neck. “We should collect the sweat on our bodies right now and put that in a block of chocolate and market it as an aphrodisiac. We’d be rich.”

  Viv smiled, her breathing also erratic, her heart beating like a gong in her chest, his beating in unison directly over top of hers. “What shall we call it?”

  “Something French.”

  She laughed then. “Why French?”

  “Because everything sounds more desirable in French, even sweaty chocolate.”

  “Well…I’ll email the CEO, see what she says.”

  They both laughed as he lifted up on his forearms again and eased off her. She protested a little as he slid from her body because she liked the feel of him both in her and on top of her but he shushed her with a kiss before ditching the condom and settling on his side between her and the back of the couch, his palm coming to rest flat between her breasts.

  “Your heart is pounding,” he observed lazily.

  Viv smiled as her eyes drifted shut. “I just had an orgasm that was the physical equivalent to running up to the summit of Copper Mountain only a lot more fun. My pulse is going to need some recovery time.”

  “Only Copper Mountain? I’m clearly setting my sights too low.” She could feel his mouth breaking into a smile as he dropped a kiss on her shoulder. “Next time I’ll try for Everest.”

  Everest. Good Lord. Ev
en in the hazy realm between consciousness and sleep in which Viv was drifting that sounded alarming. Reuben Price sure had grit. “I think I’m going to need to be more fit for that.” Her lungs had felt like they were bursting at the end of it all.

  “I’ll be your personal trainer. We’ll work up to it.”

  He nuzzled the side of her neck and Viv smiled at the dirty deliciousness of that particular promise. “Sounds like a plan,” she murmured.

  His sigh ruffled the fine hair near her ear. “This is cozy.”

  Yes. It was. And that was the last thing Viv thought as she slid into the folds of sleep.

  *

  Viv wasn’t sure how long she’d drifted off for but the next thing she knew was the feel of Reuben’s fingers trekking from the hollow of her throat straight down her body to her belly button and back. Her nipples were erect and there was a delicious pull down deep and low in her belly.

  She turned her head and nuzzled into his throat. “Sorry, I must have fallen asleep.”

  “It’s fine,” he dismissed, his voice rich and deep. “We both did.” His fingers continued their sensuous journey, igniting little sparks wherever they trekked. “I like how the fire light plays on your body.”

  Viv turned her head from his throat to the other side, looking back at the fire just behind them on the opposite wall. It was mostly just coals now, glowing hot and bright with the occasional low flicker of a flame.

  “Did you mean what you said before? About me reminding you one day.”

  She turned back, her gaze meeting his, the glow from the fire turning his gray-green eyes to flinty jade. “To apply chocolate to certain parts of your anatomy?” She grinned at the pure wicked thought of it and even salivated a little. “I never lie about anything to do with chocolate, particularly not the places I’d like to put it on you.”

  He was smiling also but it faded after a beat or two and his hand returned to its position in the middle of her chest again. “So that means this is…more than just another one-night stand?”

  Ah. Okay. That’s where this was heading. “Yeah…if you want.”

  His smile returned warm and sexy. “Oh I want.” But the eagerness in his voice set off alarm bells.

  “Sorry,” she said quickly holding up her hand to indicate he should cool his jets. “I should clarify. I would like to keep doing this—” She pointed back and forth between the two of them, figuring he knew full well what the action meant. “For the duration of time I’m in Marietta. But I’m going to be gone in six months. Like gone gone. To Missouri gone. Not coming back gone. That’s what I do. I stay for six months then I move on to the next store. That’s my job. And I love my job.”

  He nodded, his smile getting bigger. “Yeah, I know.”

  Did he? Did he really? She needed to make sure he did. “So, just to be crystal clear, what I’m offering here is a short-term fling. Light and fun and no pressure. Very, very temporary. If you don’t think you can do that and happily wave me goodbye when the time comes then best just let me know now because I’ve been down this road before with someone and it was messy and distracting and I’m not doing it again.”

  He raised himself up on his elbow, a smile still tugging at his mouth despite the more serious set to his features. “Yes, Vivian.” He bugged his eyes. “I hear you. I get it. I’m only in Marietta for three months myself before I return to Bozeman.”

  That’s right, Viv had forgotten he was only here temporarily, too. He’d be out of here even before she was. Which made them perfect for each other.

  “And I’ve just come out of a long-term relationship. It’d be dumb with a capital D to get emotionally involved with another woman so soon. For me and her.”

  “Right. Who wants to be the woman to get over the woman?”

  “Exactly. That’s not fair to anyone. So, I’m not looking for anything permanent or serious either. Light and fun and temporary works for me. Really.”

  “Good. So, no falling in love.” Viv knew she was harping on but this was important. “Promise me you won’t fall in love with me.”

  “Oh God, okay, hang on.” He leaned over her, the weight of his torso pressing her into the couch as he groped on the floor for a moment and grabbed his shirt. Easing off her again he removed his badge, curling his fingers around it as he gripped it in his palm. “I do solemnly swear on my deputy badge that I, Reuben Connor Price, will not fall in love with you, Vivian—”

  “Catherine,” she supplied.

  He grinned. “Vivian Catherine Dawson.” Tossing the badge and the shirt back on the floor, he added, “Will that do?”

  “Thank you.” She stroked his scruffy cheek.

  He smiled and kissed her nose, settling down beside her again and for long moments there was nothing but the silence between them. “What happened with the guy?” he asked. “The one where it was messy and distracting?”

  Viv sighed. “He thought I’d change my mind and want to stick around after the six months. Even though I’d been very clear about that not being the case. He’d seemed fine with the arrangement until I left and he made a bit of a nuisance of himself for a little while afterward. It was my first store, too, so I’ve been very careful ever since.”

  “And you’ve never changed your mind? Never been tempted to stay?”

  “Nope.” Viv shook her head. She could put her hand on her heart and swear to that and if he hadn’t taken her seriously before, she hoped he’d get the message loud and clear now. “I love my job. I love the variety.”

  It was exactly the type of life she’d craved when she’d been a kid growing up in Kearney, Nebraska, with a bunch of siblings and parents who, even if they had been able to afford it, rarely got the chance to take a break away from running their small, barely-turning-a-profit motel. But the people who stayed in the motel—they got to leave. They got to hand over their keys and go somewhere else. The next place.

  The where of it hadn’t mattered to Viv; she’d just envied them that freedom, that choice, and had been determined to emulate it—to keep on going down the road, wherever it led. And if that meant shutting herself off to people that was fine.

  “It’s not really suited to long-term relationships I know but, to be frank, there’s been nobody who’s made me think twice about my career.”

  No one in her present either. Definitely not.

  Ruben was fun and sexy and what he could do to her body was astonishing but it would be stupid of her to confuse great sex with anything else.

  And Viv was not stupid.

  Her career was busier than ever with a handful more rural stores to launch over the next few years. It was going to be a time of amazing growth for the company and she was proud to be part of the team. Missouri beckoned.

  Sure, some people might not have exactly considered Missouri a highlight of their career but it wouldn’t really matter where it was—it was the next place. She was living the life she’d dreamed about as a kid.

  “I suppose that makes me some kind of unfeeling bitch,” she said when he’d been quiet for longer than felt comfortable.

  “What?” He glanced down at her. “No, of course not. It makes you decisive. You know what you want and how to go after it. That’s a good thing.”

  His quick-fire response bolstered Viv’s life philosophy. She did know what she wanted and how to get it. And it was a good thing.

  “What about you?” she asked. “How come you’ve never settled down?”

  “I don’t know…” His voice was low as his fingers absently stroked down her arm. “I guess, like you, I haven’t met that special someone everyone talks about. I moved away from Montana for about eight years. Did my police training in Seattle and I’ve worked in Philadelphia and Chicago and Colorado. I’ve had a few short-term girlfriends over the years but I always knew I wanted to return to Montana so I guess I didn’t really allow myself to get too attached.”

  Yeah, Viv totally got that. “How long were you and Clem together?”

  “Thre
e years.”

  Three years? When he’d said a while she’d assumed he’d meant six months, maybe a year. “That’s a long time.” A long-ass time.

  “I guess…I’ve just known her all my life. We were in school together, in church together, our parents socialized together… And then not long after I got back, we were out at a party together one night in Bozeman and we ended up in bed together and that happened on and off for a few months before we decided to make it a permanent, monogamous kind of arrangement. Be each other’s plus-ones at events et cetera.”

  “You didn’t live together?”

  “No. I mean, we often slept at each other’s places if we’d been out somewhere. Or maybe I’d go to Marietta for the weekend if I wasn’t working or she might come to Bozeman. But she lives in Marietta because her librarian job is here and I live in Bozeman and neither of us ever suggested that we change that arrangement. It’s like I was saying…we weren’t that hot and heavy. We were never one of those couples. You know, the kind who can’t bear to be apart and who can’t stop touching each other when they are together.”

  Viv was super aware of his fingers tracing patterns on her arm. He hadn’t stopped touching her since he’d picked up her foot and started massaging.

  “Although—” His fingers swirled in a circular pattern from her arm to her breast, looping around her nipple before stroking toward her throat. “I am finding it hard to stop touching you so I do have some sympathy for them now.”

  Viv smiled as she snuggled into Reuben a little more, also sympathizing. She liked that he found it hard to stop touching her and the feeling was entirely mutual. Being with Reuben made it very difficult to keep her hands to herself.

  “You should definitely not stop touching me,” she said, as his finger changed direction, trekking to her other nipple, edging closer and closer with more light, teasing circles. “At least when we’re behind closed doors anyway.”

  He chuckled all low and warm, his breath tickling her ear, his fingers sliding down her chest to her stomach and lower to her belly button then lower still. Viv’s body ignited like a marshmallow on a stick that had reached flash point—from char to flambé in one second flat.