Red Hot Candy (22 All-New Delicious Romance Books by Best-Selling Authors about Alpha Males, Billionaires, Cowboys, and More for Your Summer Reading) (Red Hot Boxed Sets)

by Dani Dundee

  “I’ve made you suffer through enough quickies. When I bumped this vacation up to first class, I promised myself I’d make everything better for you. Sex included.”

  Very sweet. Romantic, too. But she didn’t want hearts and flowers right now. She wanted him. From the feel of things behind his zipper, he wanted her, too.

  “You sure?”

  He nodded.

  Damn. She was good at breaking down Tony’s walls, but his nobility not so much. “Fine. We’ve waited this long, we can wait a little longer, I guess.”

  He tapped his finger against the tip of her nose and winked. “Good call. I overheard some people in the lobby talking about a restaurant with brunch and dancing just down the beach. You game?”

  “As long as there’s bacon and booty shaking, I’m definitely game. I bet you didn’t know I can hula.”

  Tony’s jaw tightened and lust flashed in his dark eyes. He reached for her hips with a groan, but she jumped away and hurried to the door.

  He wanted to wait? Well, then they’d wait.

  *

  “Stop pouting. It’s not as hot as when you’re pissed and brooding.” From across a tiny table outside the restaurant, in full view of the handful of Polynesian dancers, Nicole pointed a finger at Tony, who shifted glances between her and the show. The performers were stunning in their bright pink pā’ū and lavish, coordinating headpieces. But they were even more impeccable, more graceful, in the way they moved their beautiful bodies.

  “I’m not pouting—I’m just wondering when you’re gonna get up there and show me what you’ve got.” He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest, one eyebrow cocked.

  So smug. Sexy, too. “Maybe I’m saving my moves for later.”

  “Waiting is overrated. Show me now.”

  Him and the other hundred people watching. No thanks. “It’ll be sexier alone, I promise.”

  “What, you’re suddenly shy?” His head fell back and a low, rumbling laugh boomed from his chest. “Come on, Nic. I wanna see you up there, making all these other guys sweat. Better yet, I wanna watch you, knowing I’m the one taking you home.”

  “Ooh, getting in touch with your inner caveman again. So hot.” She teased and took a slow sip of her drink. She couldn’t pronounce its name, but she’d loved the big chunk of pineapple perched on top of the glass.

  “Stop being so stubborn.” He folded his fingers around hers, stroking his thumb over her knuckles as the ukulele players began another melodic song. “I’m just damn proud to be in the company of the most beautiful woman on the beach right now. You got a problem with that?”

  Oh, he was good. But she wasn’t stupid. There were tons of stunning women milling about, especially the dancers with their long, dark hair and flat, tanned midsections. Two traits she didn’t possess and probably never would.

  Only, right now Tony wasn’t looking at her like her soft belly mattered to him one bit. God, the things he could make her feel with just a glance.

  “Not a problem. And thank you.” She shifted her gaze to their entwined hands so he couldn’t see the heat that crept into her cheeks. “You’re too good to me. I mean, this whole scheme…it’s too much. I would’ve been happy with lunch at Navy Pier.”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” He lifted her hand to his mouth and teased his lips over the inside of her wrist. When her eyes found his again, he still looked at her like no one around them existed. “We should have done this months ago. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it sooner.”

  She laughed softly. “Please. I mean, we’ve only—”

  “Stop right there, city girl. I know you’re going to say and you’re wrong. I don’t give a damn if we’ve been together seven months or seven years. It feels the same to me right here.” He pressed her hand, fingers open, against his t-shirt. Right over his heart. “Call me arrogant, but I’m pretty sure it’s not any different for you.”

  It wasn’t. And that both terrified her and excited her at the same time. Guys like Tony were hard to find, and everything between them had happened so fast. They’d gone from friends to lovers to moving in together in just a few months. Now they lived like an old married couple, juggling work and household chores and parenting Brianna with everything they had. Was this too much, too soon? Would he wake up one day and think they’d jumped the gun?

  “It’s absolutely the same. I love you more than anything. But don’t you wonder if maybe we fell into this rut too fast? That maybe we missed something along the way?”

  Tony’s eyes widened incredulously. “You think we’re in a rut?”

  Shit. “Maybe that’s not the right word. We’re just…comfortable. And busy.”

  “Yes, we are. Busy being responsible adults. It happens, usually to the best of us. I thought this was what you wanted.”

  “It is. I swear.” She turned his hand over and traced a finger along the scar he’d gotten trying to fix her grandmother’s window. “I love what we have. It’s just…things are so routine now, you know? I come home in the morning as you’re walking out the door and then I go back to work when you’re coming home. I get dinner going and you finish it. You give Bri a bath at night and I take her to Shannon’s during the day so I can sleep. We try to spend as much time together as we can on the weekends, but both of our jobs are so unpredictable that it’s impossible to plan anything. It’s not how relationships that are seven months old usually go. It’s like we skipped the honeymoon phase. You know, the fun part.”

  Tony held her gaze long enough for her pulse to kick into overdrive. Great. Now she’d pissed him off.

  “Are you saying we’re not a good time anymore? That you’re bored with us already?” He dropped his voice on the last sentence and the pulse in his jaw began to tick.

  “I’m not saying that at all. I just worry that one day you’ll regret having moved so fast into this stage. You can’t blame me. Things went pretty fast for you when you found out you were a father. I don’t want to rush you again.”

  Tony untangled his fingers from hers and dropped his hand to his lap.

  “You’re mad.” She shook her head and reached over, touching his arm. “Just because I’m worried about it doesn’t mean it’ll happen. You know how I am, always thinking about the what if.”

  “What ifs usually come to mind when you wish you’d done something differently with your life.” His words were a drawl, slow and meant to be heard just the same. “Sounds to me like you’ve already got those regrets, Nic. Maybe this lifestyle—shacking up with a small town guy like me…helping out with a kid that isn’t yours—isn’t what you wanted after all.”

  No. No, no, no. “That’s not how I feel about Brianna, and you know it.”

  He kicked back again, a wry, humorless smile on his face. Why was he acting so defensive? Turning this around on her? Tony didn’t fight like this. Ever.

  “I love Bri like she’s my own and maybe that’s part that scares me.” Even speaking those words made her heart beat faster. “I’d be lost without that little girl, Tony. Shattered. And you…my what ifs aren’t about me leaving you.”

  He tipped his head to the side and a soft smile replaced the sarcastic one. “I’ve never done something like this with anyone else, babe. Seven months in and waking up beside you still takes my breath away. There hasn’t been a single moment with us that’s felt predictable to me, and I’ll be damned if I ever take what we have for granted. I’ve done too much of that in this lifetime already and I’ve lost shit I care about because of it. I won’t lose you like that.”

  “I’d be devastated,” Nicole whispered, tears stinging in her eyes out of nowhere.

  “Then there’s only one thing to do.”

  She bit her lip. “What’s that?”

  “We do our best to make sure that pretty little head of yours never entertains a single what if about us. There isn’t a damn thing I wouldn’t give you, Nicole. Not a damn thing I wouldn’t do to make you happy.”

  “You do ma
ke me happy. So, so happy.”

  “But you’re still scared.”

  She nodded. “I just worry this won’t be enough for you someday.”

  “Babe…” He leaned forward and clasped both of her hands tightly. “I’ll never have enough of you. Even if we fucked five times a day, I’d still want you more. Nature of the beast, baby, and you’ve created one hell of a monster.”

  ***

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Dunn, but there’s a problem with your room.” Makaio, the concierge, stood in front of their hotel door with big eyes and a red face, despite his deep tan.

  “What kind of problem?” Tony asked. He and Nicole had only been gone for a couple hours. Housekeeping probably hadn’t even been around to make the beds yet.

  “It’s an…unusual problem, sir. We are working diligently to correct it and are prepared to relocate you and your beautiful wife to the best room we have available for your inconvenience.” The young man gave a shaky smile.

  At his side, Nicole sniffed. “If it’s something that can be fixed quickly, we’re happy to wait. Though, I’m not sure what kind of issue you could have found while we were out. Everything was fine when we left.”

  Makaio’s throat worked as he swallowed. “You left your patio door open, ma’am. Normally that’s not a problem, but today…”

  “Today what?” Tony urged the man on with a roll of his hand. This wasn’t an ordinary nap he had planned with Nicole, after all.

  “Today, one of the tourists lost a pet. A snake, actually. Someone outside the hotel saw it near your veranda. We assume it entered into your room.”

  “Holy shit.” Nicole jumped against Tony’s side, all but launching herself onto his back. “You’re joking, right? A snake? By my stuff? In my suitcase?”

  Tony choked back a laugh. “Don’t worry, babe. Your new bikini probably isn’t his style.”

  “Shut. Up.” Her fist connected with his bicep. Hard. “And how do you know it’s a he? What if it’s a she and she has little snake babies…in your boxers?”

  Yeah, that would pretty much suck. But it wasn’t going to happen.

  Makaio cleared his throat. “We have staff from the local animal sanctuary in your room right now, trying to locate the creature.”

  “Aren’t most exotic snakes pretty bi—ouch!” Tony reared back when little fingers pinched the underside of his arm.

  “Don’t say it. Just tell me this isn’t really happening.” Nicole pulled away from him and began backing down the hall. Her eyes never left the small sliver of space between the floor and the bottom of their door.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Dunn. I’ve already arranged for you and your husband to move into our luxury honeymoon suite. I think you’ll find the accommodations more than adequate.”

  Oh, they would. They would, indeed. “What about our stuff? Can we get that out of there somehow?”

  “Yes, sir, absolutely. I’ll have it delivered to your new room as soon as I can.”

  Tony gave a brief nod and glanced back at his woman, whose flushed, turned on face had gone pale. “It’ll be fine, Nic. Makaio will take care of everything.”

  She nodded and curled into his side as he led her to the front desk for their new key cards. “I hate snakes,” she murmured and shivered at the same time.

  He grinned to himself. Makaio deserved a big kiss, too.

  *

  “Damn, Mrs. Dunn. I kinda wish that snake would’ve shown up last night.”

  Ick. No matter how amazing this new suite was, with its own in-floor hot tub and breathtaking ocean view, nothing could make Nicole feel better about her personal belongings keeping company with God-only-knew what kind of slithery reptile.

  But Makaio confusing her for the missus? That was amusing.

  She threw herself back on the bed—a plush California king—and sighed. “I bet there wouldn’t have been snakes in Chicago.”

  Tony dropped down on top of her, bracing himself up with his hands planted on either side of her head. His hazy eyes lowered to half-mast as they locked on her mouth. “Probably not, but I kinda like his assumption that you belong to me.”

  Oaf. She pushed at his chest, but instead of lifting away, he used her moment of distraction to shift one of his big thighs between hers and tip his pelvis into hers. There was something about being beneath him like this, his weight pressing down in all the right places, reminding her that no matter what kind of crap they might have to deal with, here or at home, he was strong enough, man enough, to hold her hand through it all.

  “I think I found the snake,” she laughed, when he pressed his hard length into her softness and rotated his hips.

  “Uh huh. It’s a fucking Anaconda, too.” He lowered his mouth to her throat and before she could call him on his arrogance, his teeth sunk into the skin on her collarbone. Sweet Jesus.

  “You might want to keep it in your pants until our stuff arrives, big guy.”

  “Fuck that.” The next nip, on her earlobe this time, sent goosebumps racing across her bare skin. A wet warmth blossomed between her legs, too. “I’ve dreamed of making you come in Hawaii for weeks. Don’t deny me my fantasies, woman.”

  “Well, they do think we’re married, so…” She tugged at his t-shirt and, in seconds, he had them both down to their underwear. Kneeling between her legs, he lifted her hips with one hand while the other coasted down the middle of her stomach, stopping only when his palm covered her mound, right over the top of her panties.

  “Mmm, this is one of my favorite sights in the world. You all flushed and turned on, just waiting for me to get rid of the last barriers between us and show you how fucking real this is.”

  He was a sight to behold himself, all that hard, rippling muscles and smooth, golden skin. His arms were her favorite, though, so thick and powerful. Works of art, really, that she could admire for hours on end and never tire of. Then again, feeling them wrapped around her, feeling his hands on her body…there was nothing better in the world.

  “Touch me,” she whispered. “Show me.”

  “Show you what, baby?” He traced a fingertip along the center of her cleft, just barely grazing her clit through the lace. “What do you want me to make you feel?”

  She held her breath as desire snapped along her nerves, heightening her awareness. She’d do anything for this man. Anything.

  “I need to know that the groove we’re in isn’t monotony. That it’s love and trust and comfort instead. And that you’ll let me have it forever.”

  His eyelids fluttered ever so slightly, but hers didn’t. She let him see all of her emotion, because he was it for her. All in. No looking back.

  “I love you,” he murmured, finally tugging her panties down her hips. “So what if we moved fast? We’ve had something special from the very beginning. Why should it be different now?”

  He was right and she was foolish for thinking he’d be scared off. For worrying that he’d get sick of their old, married routine. They hadn’t fallen into a rut—they’d fallen into each other…mind, body, and soul. There was no deeper trust to be found.

  “I know you’re scared…” he began, but she shook her head as he shoved his boxer briefs down his legs, letting his heavy erection rest against the inside of her thigh.

  “It’s only because I want this with you always. I want to be enough for you, even if all I can give you sometimes is a kiss as we pass each other in the hallway. I don’t need sex every day, Tony. I don’t need weekend getaways, either. I just need you.” She pulled him down to her and he took her mouth in a slow, burning kiss that spread like fire along her skin. His lips tasted hers and she sipped in return, getting drunk on the sweet caress of his tongue.

  Suddenly, he stiffened and dropped his forehead against her shoulder. “Shit.”

  “What?” she murmured, eyes closed, pulling him back for another taste. But he held himself away.

  “Our protection is in the other hotel room.”

  “
Oh.” She bit her lip and snapped her eyes open. “It’s okay. We can wait.” She was on the pill, but since Brianna was born, Tony didn’t take chances. Even with her.

  He pressed his face into the crook of her neck and she felt the frustration harden his entire body. For five long seconds, he did nothing but breathe her in. Then his lips brushed over ear again, sending another wave of pleasure to her core. Nudging her leg higher, he made room to play.

  “You’re wet,” he rasped, teasing his fingers and then his cock through her folds. Every bump of his soft skin against her clit triggered mini lightning bolts zipping along her nerves. “I bet I’d slide in full and deep in one thrust.”

  Oh, he wanted to talk dirty, did he?

  “You don’t need to butter me up to make me come, handsome. I’ve hovered on the edge since we woke up this morning.”

  “I’m not sweet talking, sugar.” He lifted enough to look down at her and the trust in his eyes rocked her world right off its axis.

  “You want to be with me like that?” she whispered, her lips trembling.

  He nodded. “I know you’re safe right now, but if something goes haywire and we get knocked up instead…” A promising smile curved at his mouth. “You’re already a great mother to my daughter, Nic. But maybe you’d like a blonde baby, too.”

  The tears simmering in her eyes rolled over, spilling down her cheeks only to have him kiss them away.

  “Is that a yes?” he whispered against her lips and she barely nodded before he slipped inside and…oh God. He filled her to the hilt in one slow and steady push. A bet she’d willingly lose over and over again.

  “That’s…wow.” How did one properly appreciate the sensation of being completely taken?

  “You’re telling me?” He ground out, carefully withdrawing and then gliding back in again with a soft grunt. “Fucking hell, you feel good.”

  “Do it again,” she begged, levering up to watch him disappear inside her over and over again. “Oh, Tony…God.” Her fingers found her clit and, glancing between his tight, strained face and where he’d made them one, it took only seconds for her orgasm to take hold.