Jackie, with her long flowing blonde hair and Marilyn Monroe curves, looked up from the patient’s file that had her so absorbed. Her mouth dropped open and she whistled.
Candice smiled. She was starting to get used to that expression.
“Someone has something good to tell me,” Jackie said in a singsong voice.
Candice’s smile turned into a wide grin and she laughed. Actually laughed! How novel was that?
“Oh boy, do I ever.”
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Jackie got up from her desk and went over to the cozy area she used for her sessions.
Candice followed, sitting in one of the matching beige suede chairs opposite Jackie.
“So, spill it, sister. It’s got to be pretty darn good for you to come in here wearing that sexy dress.”
Candice blushed and her eyes bulged. “Sexy? Seriously?”
Jackie’s brows kicked up. “Hell, yes, lady. I nearly didn’t recognize you.”
Candice wasn’t sure she liked that description. Men tended to be more aggressive around sexy women. And she tended to freeze up and panic around aggressive men.
Maybe the yellow dress had been a bad idea after all.
Candice smoothed her dress down her thighs, willing it to grow another inch. “I hadn’t realized. I mean, I knew the dress was pretty, but—”
Jackie reached out and placed a warm, soft hand on her knee, her voice gentle. “Sexy is a good thing, Candice. And I’d say it’s about time you showed off that figure you work so hard to keep.”
Jackie was right. Candice just wasn’t used to the word “sexy” being associated with her. Learning to accept a compliment without analyzing it to death was one more step in the right direction.
“Thank you, I do feel good in this dress. It’s nice to look in the mirror and see me staring back and not some oversized stranger.”
“That’s my girl. Now, what’s brought on all these exciting changes? A man, maybe?”
Jackie grinned again, and she found herself grinning right back. That’s what she loved about her therapist. She was so easy to talk to, so candid and open. She didn’t pull her punches and she didn’t expect anyone else to, either. Candice knew she could tell Jackie anything, and she’d accept and understand. She supposed that was what made Jackie such a good doctor.
“Do you remember that dream I told you about? The one with the gorgeous dark-haired man? The one where he and I…make love?”
“Oh, yeah, I could never forget a dream like that. Positively yummy, girlfriend.”
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Candice chuckled. “Well, I sort of went out with that man.”
Jackie’s dumbfounded expression made it clear she thought she’d gone over the bend. “I hadn’t realized I’d been dreaming about my boss’s brother, Blade Vaughn. He caught me in a bad moment at Lacey’s gym Saturday and he sort of tracked me down.
Anyway, I ended up telling him all about my rape. He was so wonderful. He took me to his family’s house for a cookout, then we came back to my house and we…er, well, it was wonderful. Blade was wonderful. Only now he says he’s in love with me, and I got so scared that I—”
Jackie reached a hand out and patted her knee again. “Slow down a bit.”
Candice stopped, took a deep breath and explained everything. From the minute she’d lost it in the gym, to her kicking him out Sunday morning. Once Candice was through, she quieted and waited for Dr. Jackie’s reaction.
“First, good for you. I’m thrilled that you’ve finally taken my advice. Going out on a real date with a man is definitely a step in the right direction. You were ready, Candice, it was time.”
“Yes,” Candice agreed. “I hadn’t realized how ready I was until Blade took me to the cookout. I was having such a good time, and it made me a bit melancholy to think of all the fun I’d been missing out on.”
“But we don’t look back, remember? You did go to the cookout, and you did enjoy what came after, right?”
“Oh yes. Jackie, he was so exciting, so giving.” Her voice turned wistful thinking of how incredible Blade had been. “He treated me with such respect. He was so sweetly gentle, and yet so aggressive at the same time. I hadn’t known pleasure like that existed between a man and a woman.”
“Now that you do, what do you plan to do about it?”
She folded her hands in her lap and said, “This is where things get a bit complicated.
He told me he loves me and I’m scared, really scared.”
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Jackie’s face softened as she smiled. “Of course you’re scared; any woman would be. But you can’t let that fear take you over, Candice. You need to face it; it’s the only way you’ll get a crack at a real future.”
“I know, I know. But where do I go from here? I kicked him out. I told him I needed time to think things through. I just don’t want to rush into anything. I want to bring my whole self into this relationship, not half a woman. That wouldn’t be fair to Blade.”
Jackie laughed. “We all have baggage, sweetie. Even Blade has some. That’s just stuff. Stuff’s normal. The question now is are you willing to take a chance? To show him you aren’t made of glass?”
Candice did want Blade to see her as a strong woman. “Yes.”
“Then do something only a confident woman would do. Go to him. Show him how much you want him. Be the one in control of the pleasure this time.”
Candice loved the idea, but she was still blank. “I haven’t got a single stitch of experience in this area. Absolutely zilch. Got any hints for me?” She’d take any morsel she could get. Candice was already getting excited at the idea of showing Blade a sexier side.
Jackie shrugged. “Give him a private viewing.”
She blinked and then blinked again, as if by blinking she’d be able to make sense of what her therapist had just suggested. Thankfully, Jackie took pity on her and spelled it out.
“Give him a striptease.” The absolute horror must have shown on her face, because Jackie laughed and said, “You can do this, Candice. There’s a wanton little vixen in all of us, trust me.”
“Really?” Candice asked, not quite believing she, Candice Warner, could actually strip for a man and have it come off as sexy and enticing. She wasn’t shy about the idea, not after everything she and Blade had already shared. Candice simply didn’t think she was the sexy stripper type.
“You think I could pull that off?”
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Jackie rubbed her hands together. “All you need is the right music, a room with a lock on the door and him in a chair.”
As Jackie went on, explaining step-by-step how to strip for her man, Candice sat in fascinated silence, absorbing the gorgeous blonde’s obvious knowledge like a sponge.
Something in the way Jackie explained exactly what to do, right down to gyrating the hips, moving and swaying to the beat—heck, she even told her which compact disc to buy. Clearly, there was more to Dr. Jackie Lewis than met the eye.
At the end of their session together, which really felt more like friends discussing the best ways to seduce their men, Candice left, promising to call Jackie and let her know how it went. Candice was nervous, but not puke-your-guts-up nervous.
Blade was due for a treat and Candice was going to be the one to feed it to him. First she had a few stops to make. By the end of the workday, Blade was going to get a good long dose of the new and improved Candice Warner.
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He was useless. It was already four o’clock and all day he’d been snapping at his men and driving everyone up the wall. And the worst of it was, none of it was their fault.
Blade was driving himself crazy and everyone around him because he missed Candice.
Since he’d left her house Sunday morning, thoughts of her constantly plagued him.
How she looked naked and writhing beneath him. How she looked when she’d gone down on him in the shower, her face alight with sinful pleasure. He wanted her in a bad way, and nothing was going to fix his ache.
He’d been a good boy and stayed away. Hell, he hadn’t even called her, which had nearly killed him. But he wanted to respect her wishes, give her time to adjust to her newfound confidence, be a man of his word by not pushing her into anything she wasn’t ready for. She deserved that, his mind knew it, but his gonads weren’t so understanding.
Blade wanted Candice so bad he swore he could taste her in his mouth even now, her sweet juices flowing over his tongue like warm honey. He could hear her sighs of rapturous abandon as she came for him. Knowing he was the only man to ever give her that kind of pleasure, to ever hear those sweet moans afterwards, was a powerful feeling.
Once upon a time, the very idea of falling in love would have sent him stomping off in the opposite direction. He hadn’t wanted any woman to crawl under his skin. No woman would ever wield that sort of power over him. Still, when it had happened with Candice, Blade had recognized it for what it was and embraced the feeling like a long lost brother.
Then Candice had sent him home like a ratty mutt who wouldn’t go away. Still, he was not giving her up. Blade always got what he wanted. Eventually. And he wanted Candice. Forever. In his bed. In his life. He wanted babies with her, a white picket fence if it made her happy. Who cared, he just wanted her. And he was an impatient man. Blade didn’t much care to be left waiting, wallowing in his own misery, while she tried to figure 88
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out if she was capable enough to stand on her own two feet. Hell, he could have told her she was more than capable. Any idiot could see that Candice was a strong and intelligent woman. It wouldn’t have been easy to go through that trial relating the tale of what had happened all the while having to face not only a jury and a judge, but the bastard who’d raped her as well.
Still, she made him wait. Women! He’d never figure them out.
Just then, Blade heard a huge commotion coming from outside. Whistles? What the hell? They were on a worksite; his men knew better, damn it.
Blade got up from his desk and slammed open the door of the trailer that served as his onsite office. He was more than ready to bust a few heads. It was just the thing he needed to get his mind off Candice.
The sight that greeted him was not a welcome one. All his men were surrounding a petite woman. All he could see of her was a yellow sundress and a wild mane of brown hair. Now why did that hair seem so familiar? Then the yellow apparition turned around and Blade nearly exploded with equal amounts of rage and arousal.
Candice, looking sweet and sassy, surrounded by a motley crew of dirty workers, wasn’t panicking? What was that about? He was glad for her, but at the same time, he wanted to rip the faces off all the men staring at her as if she were their last meal.
He strode forward and yanked two men backward, giving Candice room to walk through them and toward him, where she goddamn well belonged.
“Randy, Jake, get the hell out of her way, will ya?”
The smile she graced him with made him feel ten feet tall, as if he could leap over tall buildings and race a few trains.
Jesus H, she was gorgeous. Her dress flirted around her thighs, and sexy amusement lit her eyes. He wanted to whisk her away, keep her all to himself. Other men didn’t have the right to breathe the same air as her.
“Blade.”
“
Candice
.” He felt needy, and that was never a good emotion for a man.
“Could we go somewhere to talk? Privately?”
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Oh, hell, he liked the sound of that—too much. Blade grabbed her hand and hauled her away while his men called out lewd suggestions. He watched Candice, judging her reaction to the men who had cornered her. She was blushing bright red, but she wasn’t panicked. Was she finally ready to accept him?
Shit, he hated this.
He couldn’t help feeling he was about to experience something truly spectacular only to have it slip away from him again. He didn’t want a repeat of yesterday morning, with her sending him away and him wishing he could have just one more minute with her. Just one more minute.
He never begged. Blade wasn’t the begging type. So long as he kept telling himself that, he’d be just fine. He could handle this. And she thought she was weak? Hell, she had him mentally on his knees already. Fuck!
Once inside the tiny trailer, Blade slammed the door shut and closed them in. With Candice there, inside his dusty, dingy mobile office, it made him uncomfortable, as if she was too good to be in such an ugly place. He was actually embarrassed to see papers scattered all over his desk, and old, stale coffee sitting in cups, and…shit, was that mold?
Okay, so he wasn’t a neat freak.
It wasn’t as if he’d invited her here. Come to that, what was she doing here anyway?
When he turned to her to ask that very question, the words stuck in his throat. Christ, it was like looking at pure sunshine—it hurt to look straight at it, but you couldn’t seem to help yourself. It was so beautiful that you were willing to risk permanent blindness to get a quick peek. Still, she must have had a good reason for coming to an all-male zone like a construction site.
Blade reached out and took hold of Candice’s chin, letting his thumb trace her glossy lower lip. The action forced her to stop fussing with her oversized purse and look at him.
“Why are you here, Candy girl?”
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more force in his next statement. “You must have had a good reason to brave that dirty male gauntlet outside, so out with it, babe.”
Candice’s gaze shifted to the door for a split second and then came back to land on him. “Does that door have a lock?”