Candy Store by Bella Andre Read Free Book Online Page A

felt when he was touching her.
    She tasted his lips, his tongue, his mouth. “Callie,” he groaned, her name sounding like worship, and all of Callie’s visions from the sleepless night before merged with their sweaty sex in the refrigerator and the tequila shots and her rubbing herself in the shower dreaming of Tobey.
    Her muscles clenched around his cock and she sobbed into his mouth, his tongue pumping in and out of her mouth in the same rhythm that he was thrusting into her.
    Callie clung to Tobey, her eyes clenched shut, never wanting to wake up from the best dream she had ever had.
    “Miss Callie?”
    A small voice from the hallway was calling out her name, but Callie was too busy throwing herself at Tobey, too intent on coming against Tobey, to hear.
    Tobey called out, “Callie will be out in a minute.” Her legs were shaky and she felt so helpless all of a sudden that she stood completely still while Tobey righted all of her clothes. Pushing her hair back from her face and tucking it behind her ears, he said,
    “That was wonderful, sweetheart.”
    Callie blushed, feeling suddenly sick at her out-of-control behavior and bent down to pick up Tobey’s jacket so that she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye. She handed 39

    Bella Andre
    it to him and Tobey quickly rearranged his own clothes then stepped back from the door to give Callie room to open it.
    Jonah, a ten–year-old whose mother owned a gift shop on the other end of Main, poked his woolen capped head into the storeroom. He beamed when he saw Callie.
    “My mom needs a box of truffles for her store and she sent me over here to see if you could give me some before we open. I sure am glad you’re here or else I’d have to ride my bike all the way down here again later.”
    Callie suddenly saw herself through the innocent eyes of a child and she couldn’t help but feel dirty. Forcing herself to ignore Tobey’s presence in the room, she walked through the doorway on shaky legs. Laughing, the sound obviously forced, she ruffled Jonah on the head. She kept her voice light and said, “Oh no, Jonah. I’d hate for you to have to ride your bike all the way down Main Street. Again.”
    Callie heard the trembling behind her teasing words and hated herself for it. She was sure that Tobey could hear it too. Why, she wondered, couldn’t she be calm, cool, and collected around him? Why did she have to be so pathetically attracted to him?
    On the way into the front of her shop, she grabbed her jacket from her office chair and put it back on, wishing she had stayed with her plan of keeping it on, no matter what. If she had known she was meeting with Tobey she would have worn her most chaste outfit, something from the back of closet that covered every square inch of skin from her chin to her ankles.
    Callie buttoned the one button at the waist and wondered how she could have ever possibly felt stern and business-like in the suit. Wearing this suit was, she now realized, as good as wearing a sign that said, “Fuck me, please. I like sex with men I don’t know.”
    What she wouldn’t give for a coat of armor now.
    She pulled a large chocolate box off of the shelf and handed it to Jonah. “Why don’t you pick out your favorites, honey?” she said, knowing that her hands would be shaking so hard she’d barely be able to get the truffles into the box.
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    Candy Store
    Jonah gave her a look of surprise, but quickly stripped off his mittens and got to work loading up mint and dark chocolate truffles into the box. Even as she chose a lollipop for Jonah from her stash of goodies below the cash register, Callie was far too aware of Tobey’s large, hot presence behind her. Everything about him radiated power and sex, all of the stuff she had always been a sucker for.
    And look what it had gotten her so far, she reminded herself harshly. She was alone and broke, with nothing but a failing candy store and a mutt to keep her company.
    “Miss Callie, I’m done