Hell, she felt like she was in heat. Better yet, she felt like she was experiencing a hot flash whenever he put his hands on her. She couldn’t wait to get naked…and nasty…with Alejandro.
That bastard, she thought as she stepped from her car. Trust a man to mess up a perfectly good, precariously balanced relationship.
Everything had been great, at least as far as she was concerned. Theodora had been more than satisfied fine with her nightly fantasies filled with every inch of Alejandro’s hard, muscular body.
Now she had to consider reality. And to be perfectly honest, she didn’t much care for reality. In reality she lived for carbs, pastries, and cakes. In reality she was thirty-five, knocking on thirty-six. In reality she was a size fourteen with huge breasts and hips. In reality she had cellulite.
She jammed her key into her front door lock when she thought of that last fact. She doubted Alejandro wanted to see that.
The man was absolutely devastating with his shoulder length midnight hair, large slanted eyes, and kissable lips. Add to all of that his tall, muscular frame and he was a wet dream come true. Hell, she doubted he even knew what cellulite was.
She let forth a harsh giggle. He would probably run in fear the moment I got naked.
Not that she was getting naked for him. Hell no. That was not going to happen. They had already crossed the line with that inflaming kiss, necking in the back of the restaurant like a couple of teenagers.
But actually doing the nasty?
Oh Lord. She’d be so far over the line it would be as if she was in another state.
No, you’re definitely keeping your clothes on!
She stood in her darkened doorway thinking of the new problem that could only be titled Alejandro. There was no way she could go into Candy Drop Sweet Shoppe tomorrow and pretend tonight hadn’t happened. The bastard probably wouldn’t let her. All he had to do was say something sexy and dirty and she would combust immediately.
Goddamn hormones!
She ground her fist against one closed eye as she thought of the week’s schedule. She was closing every night this week with Alejandro. Tonight was only Wednesday. That meant she still had Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to go. She would never survive.
At least not without doing something she would still be regretting when they put her in the ground.
“Not much I can do about it,” she said with a resigned sigh. Then she let all thoughts of the night float out of her mind. It was a part of her nightly ritual. No matter what she didn’t bring work home. She hadn’t since she had opened the sweet shop. When she was still a financial analyst, work was the only thing she brought home.
Theodora strode through her front door and immediately felt all the insecurities and fear she had drain out of her body. The combination of coming home after an emotionally and physically draining day coupled with the cool darkness of the unlit house was like a balm for her soul.
She walked over to the small table that stood in the left corner of the room and pressed the play button on the answering machine. With half a mind, Theodora toed off her flats, picked them up from the floor and strode to her bedroom. She placed her shoes in the closet with her mind on the messages playing on the machine. Her sister had called just to say hello. Apparently she had not picked up her cellular phone when Ophelia had called. The second message was her accountant calling to confirm their meeting Friday. It was the third message that got her attention.
It was from her gynecologist.
Dr. Starr’s soft, monotone voice seemed to boom through the quiet house.
“Ms. Adams, Theodora. I just received the results of your tests today. I’ve been trying to call you, but you didn’t pick up your cell phone. But I have here in your file that I should leave any information having to do with these tests in a message in the event I cannot contact you personally. Well, Theodora, I’m happy to tell you that your eggs are still very healthy and very fertile. But, like we discussed, you have maybe five good years ahead of you. Following those couple of years, childbearing will become a difficult, if not impossible goal. And if you do conceive your increased age heightens the chance for developing issues during your gestation period. Please call me at my office as soon as possible. If so, we can start the process of selecting a sperm donor as soon as you are ready.”
Theodora sighed. A sperm donor. That was the part of the process that she kept tripping over. She wanted a child. Desperately.
She didn’t want to ever explain to her baby that his or her daddy came from a test tube.
She placed her hands over her face in frustration. “Lord, what happened to the days when one could easily find a man who was ready and willing to…” She trailed off as the image of Alejandro’s face popped into her mind. Theodora slowly lowered her hands.
Alejandro had tortured her enough over the past year. She’d been craving his touch for months now, thinking of him when she masturbated and dreaming of him as she slept.
And he had made it pretty clear that he wanted her.
Her mother had always warned Theodora about looking gift horses in the mouth and maybe just this once she wouldn’t.
She wasn’t going to question Alejandro’s motives anymore.
Maybe it was time for her to get her just desserts.
She had always wanted Alejandro. From the moment he’d walked into her store and asked for a job, she’d craved the feel of his lips against hers, the hard thrust of his cock sliding into her sheath, and if he accepted her proposal she could finally appease that hunger.
But his physical attributes weren’t the only things that attracted her to him. He was smart, sharp as a whip, and not afraid to let others know it.
He was always incredibly perceptive. He saw things others didn’t want to see.
Attractive, charming, and intelligent, Alejandro was the kind of man she dreamed about.
And if she could capture him for a few nights, Theodora would be able to have her cake and eat it too!
Chapter Three
Candy Man
Alejandro stared at Theodora for long seconds wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him. If so, it was a very cruel, dirty trick.
Alejandro had wanted Theodora from the first moment he saw her. He hadn’t stopped aching for her once in all the three hundred and sixty-five days he’d been her employee. And now he was about to have her. But on her terms.
And he didn’t like her terms one bit.
“Alejandro? Do you understand what I’m asking you?”
“You want me to father your child?” he said slowly. The words were supposed to come out a statement, but because of his shock, they came out more like a question. He’d never been more surprised by a proposition in his life.
She shook her head up and down, her curly black and brown braids jumping with her movement. Suddenly, her hot chocolate eyes widened. “But not in the way you’re thinking. You would have no legal obligation to the child or me. You wouldn’t have to worry about child support.”
“Or my parental rights?”
He grimaced when he saw her eyes widen further. He hadn’t meant to growl the words at her, but for reasons he couldn’t explain it nicked at his consciousness that he wouldn’t even be able to claim the child.
His child.
Their child.
A child that would be a mixture of both their genes…and needs.
He suddenly wondered if he’d had Theodora wrong all along. Because she certainly had him confused with someone else if she thought he was about to sign some paper and walk away from his child.
“Or your parental rights,” she responded slowly.
“So pretty much I’m a sperm donor, except I get to deposit my sperm right in your bank.”
He heard her exhale and inhale. Alejandro knew his words were crude and coarse, but he needed to know exactly where he stood.
“Did you have to put it so harshly?” she said before striding from the small corner table.
He stared at her
mutinously.
“I’ll, of course, pay you for your services.”
Alejandro gritted his teeth as he felt the Alba anger flare in him at her words. He slowly lifted his gaze to hold hers as he clenched his fingers into fists. She knew she had said the wrong thing. The shock and regret was there in her face.
“Will you be paying me by the hour or by the orgasm?”
The question thundered through the room and even to his ears he sounded angry and bruised. And the truth was he was just that. He had fallen for those mournful eyes of hers and now he knew that to her he was just a man with good genes and a hard cock.
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I didn’t mean to imply that you were…”
“I would just like to know exactly what my duties are, boss.”
Her body tightened at his words. “Don’t you dare call me that! Not now, not while we’re having this conversation. I came to you as a woman. I would appreciate it if you saw me as a woman.”
“I would just like to know what the limits are. I wouldn’t want to find myself in a position I never should have put myself in.”
“What exactly are you talking about?” she said, confusion evident in the lines marking her face.
I’m talking about finding out that the woman I’ve been fantasizing about only wants me to provide the other half of the gene pool for her child, because I’m less anonymous than a vial of sperm.
“Forget it,” he said as he shrugged one large, muscular shoulder. He would take her offer, but on his terms.
Theodora turned on her heel and walked over to the kitchen sink and rinsed the remaining dirty dishes before unlatching the dishwasher and pulling the tray of clean plates out.
The sight of her bent over at the waist shot through his system like an alluring drug. His mind was instantly drawn back to the night before when he had placed his lips against hers.
The kiss had ignited him like nothing else had. After that kiss, Alejandro knew he had to have Theodora in his bed, in his life, by any means possible. Their second kiss, the one they had shared in the restaurant had confirmed his decision.
Her proposal changed nothing. He still wanted Theodora and he planned to have her.
The baby would just have to come before the marriage, because no matter what, Alejandro wanted to spend the rest of his life with Theodora.
“I have a few conditions,” he said. He saw her flinch at his words before turning to pull one of the plates from dishwasher. “Okay,” she said slowly before reaching up to put the plate away.
Alejandro stood, grasped the dish from her small fingers and calmly placed it on the shelf. “We have sex as often as I want until we’re both satisfied.”
This close to her, he couldn’t help but notice the shiver that went through Theodora's body. He stifled the groan that threatened to escape from his lips. Her body had moved in the most delicious way when she quaked. Her breasts gave a subtle bounce and her ass jiggled.
He heard her breath hitch and falter. Then as she stared down at the scuffed toes of his sneakers, she mumbled out the word, “Okay.”
One long, blunt finger pressed against her chin lifting her face until her gaze collided with his.
“As many times as we want until we’re both satisfied, even when you’re not ovulating?”
“Okay,” she said a little more steadily. Then she promptly turned her back on him and grabbed another sparkling plate from the dishwasher.
“Shouldn’t we sign something?”
She looked over her shoulder. “I had my attorney draw up contracts.”
By the way Theodora held herself, Alejandro knew she was already starting to reconsider her offer. He wasn’t about to let her change her mind. “Did you bring the contracts?”
She tilted her head in the direction of the deep-seated counters. “It’s in the bottom drawer.”
Alejandro strode across the room and retrieved the papers in questions. Theodora quietly handled the dishes behind him as he read through the contract. When he was satisfied he signed it and walked back to her. He held out the sheets.
She stepped from the dishwasher and swallowed thickly. Fingers shaking she took the contract. He understood the source of her nerves.
They had just agreed to create a life.
Alejandro was both nervous and excited about the fact that they were tying themselves together for the term of the child’s existence.
A very long time.
He quietly stood beside Theodora as she signed the contract. “I’ll make sure you receive a copy of the contract.” He nodded his head in agreement. She went and placed the contract back in the drawer before returning to the dishes.
“When exactly do you want to start making the baby?”
Her soft, audible gasp floated through the air. Alejandro bent and caught the plate that had fallen from her limp fingers seconds before it would have shattered against the recently mopped linoleum floor. He thanked the reflexes honed from years of playing the quarterback in high school and college.
Alejandro reached across the top of Theodora’s head and placed the dish on the shelf. His body brushed against hers and he couldn’t help but take a deep breath and breathe in her scent, a mixture of sweet innocence and decadent sexuality. He immediately felt his hunger rise.
He grinned down at her. He felt her spine stiffen when his arms caressed hers. She seemed uncomfortable with his proximity and Alejandro knew why. He had seen it in her bottomless brown eyes countless times. Theodora was afraid of what she would do if he touched her.
She was afraid his touch would let the inner vixen she buried free.
“Theodora?” he said softly, his voice rich and husky with desire. He couldn’t wait to let that gorgeous woman free.
“I suppose we can start…we can start as soon as you’re ready,” she said so softly he wasn’t sure he’d actually heard the words. But he felt them. They went through his body like lightning.
“Then we’ll be starting now,” he growled down at her a second before wrapping his large palms around her waist and lifting her.
“Alejandro!” she shrieked as her fingernails dug into the tense muscles of his biceps.
He grinned down at her before laying her on the long rectangle island that stood to the corner of the back room.
“Alejandro, you’re not funny,” she said as she tried to wiggle out of his grasp.
“Good, because I’m not kidding,” he said before pushing at her shoulders until she fell back against the table. When he was satisfied he walked to the other side of the room.
Theodora stared up at the ceiling and blinked once, twice before popping back up. “Alejandro! Stop it!” she said in a voice that reminded him of his sixth grade teacher. He’d a thing for Ms. Roberts too.
“Don’t make me come over there,” Alejandro growled in a deep voice that made Theodora’s eyes widen with shock.
“Alejandro, we can’t do this, at least not here.”
“Down, Theodora,” he said in a voice so rough, he wondered why she didn’t run screaming in fear. He was so aroused he could already feel his cock lengthening and thickening against his thigh. He quickly rearranged himself with deft hands.
You, big boy, are going to have to wait, he thought to himself before turning to Theodora. She came first.
He grinned when he found that Theodora was indeed lying down. She was a born leader. She didn’t take advice or orders well, but there she was laid out for him like a sexual platter from the gods.
And he planned to take his time tasting every inch of her.
The soft squeal of his booted feet on the linoleum floor echoed through the silent room as he made his way to her. He saw her flinch when he placed the bowl he held down onto the table above her head. No doubt the sound of the contact vibrated through her system.
“Open your eyes, Theodora.”
“I don’t think I can,” she muttered.
“Theodora, open your eyes,” he said his voice
stern and unyielding.
He watched as she slowly opened her eyes and then her gaze collided with his. “I’d prefer not to see it. I’d prefer not to see it coming.”
“See what?” he said without really paying attention to what Theodora was saying. Alejandro’s long fingers were already unbuttoned the simple cotton blouse Theodora wore.
“I’d prefer not to see the disgust.”
Alejandro was one button away from having her topless when every molecule in his body stilled. He slowly lifted his head until his eyes met hers.
“What did you say?”
“I know you’re doing this as a favor so I would prefer to keep my eyes closed and can we turn off the lights?” she said in a ramble.
He grabbed her wrist in a tight grip and pulled her arm until her palm settled over him. “Does this feel like a favor?” he said through clenched teeth.
She jerked against him trying to pull her hand away. He tightened his grip and then with his other hand he molded her fingers until she was cupping him. He groaned at the feel of her touch.
“Answer me. Does this feel like a favor?”
“No,” she said her voice soft and unsure.
“What does it feel like, Theo?” he prodded.
“It feels like an erection.”
“Wrong,” he said. “It’s a hard-on. I’m hard for you. Just the thought of seeing you naked and my cock is so hard I’m ready to burst out of my jeans,” he growled as he moved her palm up and down his thick length.
He closed his eyes and savored the feeling of her fingers on him, even if his clothing hindered them.
“What does it feel like, Theo?”
“Hard cock,” she said softly.
“Good girl,” he said seconds before his mouth descended on hers. His lips pressed against hers. At first touch his taste buds exploded with the decadent flavor of Theodora’s lips. His tongue glided along the seam of her closed lips before flicking against it. Theodora moaned into his mouth and Alejandro took the chance to storm her parted gates. His tongue thrust past her lips to caress the inside of her mouth.
He nipped at the tender flesh of her bottom lip and groaned when he heard her answering moan. Theodora had so much passion in her. Alejandro could feel it washing over him in waves.
Sugar Mama Page 3