Sweet as Sin
claim, but couldn’t stomach the thought of her with anyone else. He wasn’t the jealous type. His confusion pissed him off.
God, she looks good.
The pale green dress molded to curves he’d held last night and swished along legs he wanted wrapped around him, legs he’d dreamed of just hours ago. He’d awoken near evening, eager to seek her out. He saw her laugh up into the face of another man through the window and cold shot through him.
He should have pushed for more last night but doubted it would have gotten him anything but a raging hard-on and a cold shower. He knew Livvy’s type well. She dreamed of white
weddings and baby blankets. Those women, if tempted just enough, loved the forbidden nature of sex without strings. The kind he specialized in. It took more work than a bar pickup, but the pursuit was almost as much fun as the capture.
Livvy, with her sugary skin and her shuddering fight against her own longings, tempted him. Even better, she had a mind that entranced him. Some women were lookers, others were stimulating.
Livvy was both—a decadent offering. John never passed up an opportunity for a little indulgence.
John had tried to convince himself they were just friends. Livvy couldn’t be going out with someone else after responding to him the way she had last night. She wasn’t the cock-teasing kind to Inez Kelley
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string two men along at once. John never had and never would be on any woman’s leash.
But the hours had ticked by and he found
himself perched by the window, watching for the strange blue truck. Finally it pulled in front of her house and he nearly sighed with relief until the bastard touched her. It wasn’t the passionate clutches John had shared with her, but the man with a crewcut had put his hands intimately on her waist.
Fury laced John’s bones as he sat transfixed, watching them like a cranky old man. A quick peek at the clock showed they’d been talking on the front porch for nearly twenty minutes now.
Twenty minutes while his gut had spewed bitter anger into his throat.
“So what’s her name?”
Gina’s question was too light to not be prying.
“Olivia and back off, Gina.”
She giggled. “Hmm, methinks my brother has a girlfriend.”
“No. If she were mine, do you think I’d be letting
that
happen?” He jabbed a finger at the window. Gina peered out just as Crewcut pressed a soft kiss to Livvy’s mouth. A guttural growl formed in John’s throat and he caught it before it burst from his lips. His eyes saw her with Crewcut and his mind screamed
mine.
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Sweet as Sin
Gina laughed. “Johnny, if she isn’t yours, then why’d the pencil in your hand just snap like a twig?”
At two minutes until eight the next morning, Livvy flipped the deadbolt and turned the laminated sign from CLOSED to OPEN. The door flew out of her hand, the bells banging with a musical clank. John glared at her, his lips white around the edges.
“We have to talk.”
There were four seconds of
Oh my God, he’s
yummy
before irritation sprang like a jack-in-the-box. He couldn’t be gorgeous when she was pissy, it wasn’t allowed. She whirled on her heel and walked away. “I’m a little busy right now. We’re just opening and I have clients coming in to discuss a bat mitzvah cake.”
Anger turned his eyes almost cobalt and,
despite her agitation, she found them hypnotic.
“Livvy, I really think you’d prefer I say what I have to say in private.”
“Fine.” She stomped to the kitchen’s swinging door. “Pam, can you watch the front for a while? I have something to take care of in my office.”
Her office was small and cramped, the desk shoved against one wall while the remaining ones held metal shelves of supplies and specialty molds.
She flipped on the light and motioned him in with Inez Kelley
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a steady hand. He stalked past her, turned and waited for her to close the door.
The instant the latch caught, he roared.
“Explain to me what you were doing last night.”
She glared at him. “Last night? Let’s see, I was eating scampi, listening to jazz and having a grand time.”
He growled and stepped into her personal
space, towering over her like a drill sergeant. The urge to lean up and kiss him was almost too great to ignore. Nose inches from hers, brows nearly touching, his breath tickled her face. Livid vibrations poured from his body and bounced against hers. His irritation slid off her like water off a slanted roof. She felt no trepidation. An anger that had close roots to desire heated her blood. How dare he judge her actions when he was guilty of the same crime?
“Did he touch you?”
The question was torn from his throat. It excited her on a primal level. A primitive ache formed low in her belly and she tossed her curls and challenged, “What if he did? You don’t have a claim, remember?”
His eyes darkened and a shiver licked up her spine. “The hell I don’t. I was with you first.”
“Piss-poor claim, Murphy. I’m not the last cookie in the jar.”
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Sweet as Sin
He grabbed the collar of her blouse, wrenched the material to the side and his gaze landed on the bite mark he’d branded her with. Rather than scare her, the move energized her. He was jealous.
A zest of hunger flavored her mouth. Fierce need dampened her panties.
“You went to another man with my mark still on you. Why?”
The single word enraged her, inflamed her even as the closeness of his body called to her.
“Why not? Like you said, no promises, no
heartache. So I went out last night, big deal. And your mark? What am I, cattle? Back it up, cowboy.
I’m sure you weren’t hurting for company. Not with that little chippy I saw on your deck yesterday. Remember her? The one who was all smiles and laughs? The one you kept pulling closer and hugging? What happened, Murphy, didn’t she put out enough?”
“Chippy? What are you talking about? Do you mean my sister?”
“Your sister?” Funny how one word could
totally destroy a good mad. Livvy blanched. “You didn’t tell me you had a sister.”
“You never asked.” Rocking back on his heels, John stared at her. “Do you mean you went out with that jackass because you thought…?” He let the sentence hang as she bit her lip in shame. Face tight, his voice rumbled, low and controlled.
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“Gina is my sister. She came down to help me get settled in as a surprise. You can meet her in a few minutes. She went to the store and is supposed to pick me up here.”
Livvy sidled around him to her desk and leaned on the edge, one arm across her waist, one hand pressed to her mouth. Guilt swelled inside her.
She’d made a mistake and judged him too quickly.
Her eyes flew to his. “I’m so sorry. I jumped to conclusions.”
“Yeah, you did, and straight into another man’s arms.”
“It wasn’t like that.” Her protest was cut short as he stepped in front of her and caught her mouth.
Brutally, he took from her until she was gasping.
Her body burned beneath his touch. She buried her fingers in his hair and pulled him closer. John needed no coaxing. He pushed her back to lie flat on her desk, his hard body covering hers. Papers skidded to the floor and pens dropped like rain.
She didn’t care. She just wanted more of him.
His lips caressed hers, his whisper hoarse, rough and tattered. “I want to kiss the taste of him right out of your mouth. Make you forget about him. Did he kiss you like this?”
She nipped his chin and lied. “Yes.”
Warmed with a growl, his kiss burned her lips.
She angled her neck, giving him access to her throat. His tongue was hot and slick and he grazed 52
Sweet as Sin
her with sharp teeth. Gulping air, she twisted beneath him, desperate to feel more of his mouth, more of his fire, more of him. Fire skated along her flesh. His calloused hands cupped her swelling breasts.
“Did he touch you here?”
“Yes,” she lied in an agonized breath that turned to a cry of pleasure when he pinched her aching nipple. How large and hot his palms were.
Her back bowed and thrust her breasts into his hands. His tongue trailed down to her breastbone.
The V of her blouse stopped his path for only one second before his mouth closed on the throbbing peak. The sensation of his sucking through her clothes ratcheted up the desire to a burning level and she moaned his name.
She wrapped her legs around his hips and
arched into him. His groan reverberated in the room and he rose to feast on her lips. He shoved her skirt to her waist, cupping her ass. Raspy words slithered across her skin.
“Here? Did he touch you here?”
“Yes,” she lied again, anything to make him stop the ache he had created inside her. Harshly, he palmed her ass, rocking her against him. The whimper that escaped her was swallowed before it began as his lips caressed her jaw. Firmly, she ground herself into his zipper and he pushed between her legs.
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Thoughts fled and only feeling registered. He was as hard as she was wet. Livvy raked her fingers down his spine, gripped his hips and tried to bring him closer. She needed his touch, the feel of him against her. When his hand left her ass, a cry of loss racked through her until his fingers grazed her wet core through her panties.
Snapping her eyes open wide, she locked on to his lusty gaze. She tasted his desire as strongly as her own. It had a unique flavor, like caramel just before it scorched. He swallowed once, his breath ragged.
“Here, Livvy, did he touch you here?”
She let her lip curl into a feral smile. “Yes.”
There was no gentleness as he pushed aside the fabric and plunged inside her. She cried out, not in pain, but in satisfaction. Her clit throbbed and ached as his strong fingers sluiced over it. A fizz of want knotted in her belly and she tensed against him. Frantically she pressed into his hand and clawed at his back. Too fast, too powerful, her senses reeled but he showed no mercy. Her body was his to command.
A split second before she exploded, he seized her mouth and drank in her warbled moan.
Release pounded through her body like an electric shock and she gripped his shoulders. He held her trembling thighs while she crested and during her gradual descent.
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Sweet as Sin
The knock at the door stilled them both.
Livvy’s heart pounded so fiercely she had to strain to hear Pam. “Livvy, the Bernsteins are here.”
She fisted her hand in his hair, searching for strength to speak. His kiss slid to her jaw and she clung to him. Forcing a swallow down her
parched throat, she modulated her voice. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
John buried his head in the crook of her neck.
He caught her hand as she reached below his waist.
“But you didn’t—”
“It’s okay, Livvy. I didn’t plan on this
happening. I don’t have anything with me and you need to go.”
“I feel selfish.” She stroked his hair.
“You feel incredible,” he murmured, kissing her palm.
Livvy’s bones quaked as he helped her to stand and she shimmied her skirt back over her hips.
John touched her cheek with a gentle finger and motioned over his shoulder with his head. “You go ahead. I need to stay in here and cool down a bit.”
“Murphy.”
He walked away and stood with his back to her.
Hands thrust into his pockets, facing a candy temperature chart, he blew out several deep, noisy breaths.
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“Murphy, about Leo—”
“Livvy, I meant what I said. I’m not looking for forever…but I didn’t like his hands on you.”
He turned and the fierce possessiveness on his face riveted her. Those harsh lines around his mouth stood out, daring her to defy him. “I can’t explain it and I don’t know why, but I can’t handle that. I need there to be no promises, no heartache and no other men.”
“No other women either, okay?”
John paused, then dipped his head with a snort.
“Sure, why the hell not? You and me, Liv, until whatever the hell this is burns out.”
Livvy grabbed her white chef’s coat off the chair and held it to her heaving chest, knees trembling. Licking her lips, she whisked away the last bit of his taste.
“Leo never touched me. I lied.”
He winked at her. “I know.”
Ben and Ruth Bernstein looked tired and drawn, both with deep shadows under their eyes. At a café table in the corner of the display room, Livvy put a heavy album of cake-design pictures in front of them before taking a chair for herself. She explained her pricing and categories while they watched their daughter with protective eyes.
In one of the stiff-backed waiting chairs, Ashley sat quietly, swinging one leg in boredom.
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Sweet as Sin
She only had one leg to swing. The other ended just above the knee and bore the bright scars of recent amputation.
“Ashley, don’t you want to come look at some of the designs?”
Livvy’s heart ached for the woman trying to draw her daughter into the discussion.
“I don’t care. Whatever you want. Like
always.” The depression in the young girl’s tone was palpable.
John came through the back and sank into one of the waiting chairs beside her. Ashley didn’t look in his direction but tucked her backpack and forearm crutches closer to her seat.
“Ashley, come look at this Barbie Princess cake. And here’s a really cute soccer one.”
The girl’s face hardened. “I haven’t played with Barbies in years, Mom, and I don’t play soccer anymore either.”
Ruth Bernstein’s eyes filled with tears. Livvy laid her hand on the sad woman’s arm and
squeezed. She didn’t know the story but the pain was obvious. Sniffling, Ruth hurried into the powder room while Ben slumped with a dejected air. Livvy’s eyes sought John’s and saw him staring at Ashley speculatively. He pulled her backpack out from beside the chair. His second book,
The Mystical Orb
, was poking out of the front pocket.