Caramel Kisses (3 page)

“It’s not what you can do for me, but what we want to do for you.”

“Okay, Earl, I’m not trying to be rude but I’m in the middle of something.”
Yeah, in the middle of creaming your fingers.
“You’ve got thirty seconds to get to the point then I’m going to have to go.
Deal?”

“Deal.
Let’s cut to it. Your sister,
Charli
, has entered you in our Set ‘
Em
Up, Knock ‘
Em
Down contest.”

“I’m sorry, Earl. I don’t bowl.”

The man laughed, really laughed.
Hard.
Like she was the biggest idiot in all of creation.

“Okay, Earl, you’re down to about ten seconds here, bud.”

“Your sister has basically set you up on a blind date. You are to meet your mystery man at a place of your choosing tomorrow morning at exactly eleven o’clock. And since your sister knows the person it’s perfectly safe.”

“Two seconds.”

“No problem,
Sydni
. Let us take down your information on where you want to meet this dream date and we’ll take care of the rest. You can even choose what he has to wear so you’ll recognize him. You two hit it
off,
we’ll send you to a five-star dining establishment and tell your story on the air. If not, we’ll pay you for your time.”

“And this was my sister’s idea?”

“Yep.
Miss
Charli
Cannes wrote to us when she heard about the contest and her letter as to why you should get the dream date was picked unanimously by our staff. Would you like to hear the letter? We can even get her on the phone if you like.”

“No. I believe you.”
Damn woman. Just wait, I’m
gonna
strangle her,
then
resurrect her just so I can kill her again.

“What was that, Ms. Cannes?”

“Uh.
Nothing.”

“So will you do it?”

“Yes. Okay. What do you need?”

Fine.
Anything to get the man off the phone.
She’d deal with
Charli
later.
Meddling girl.

After a few minutes spouting off the most outrageous clothing she could think of for her so-called dream date to wear,
Sydni
hung up the phone and scooted down in the covers.

The ice cream carton settled onto the nightstand with a soft
thunk
. The spoon clattered against the wood just before
Sydni’s
eyes slid closed. Her tongue was cool against her lips as it slid from one side of her mouth to the other while her mind conjured the delicious image of…Drew?
Again?
What the hell?

Why was she thinking about that Drew guy so much? She shouldn’t be filling her mind with pictures of the one man every single female in their whole company wished would push them up against the nearest solid object and fuck them into oblivion. God, the man couldn’t be more than thirty years old. But damn he was a fine specimen of a man. Hell, a simple look her way made her knees knock together. But Drew wasn’t interested in her. Why would he be when there were plenty of other women his age that made it more than clear they were
interested.
The man could get any piece of pussy he wanted. And learning he was a good friend of
Charli’s
just added to the list of why he was off limits.
Too young.
Too damn fine.
Sigh. Just the thought of his hands on her made her go red in the face. No, she shouldn’t…but then again, who’d know?

The second the thought formed in her head, a pair of gray eyes appeared behind her lids. Drew. A sexy smile lit up his face just for her. And in her fantasy, that face moved closer and closer to her own until he was close enough to kiss, but not quite. Instead, he dipped his head and nudged her chin up so he could inhale the fragrance of her skin. With nothing touching her but the tip of his nose, Drew explored the soft underside of her jaw before nuzzling his way toward the hollow behind her left earlobe.

Talented fingers touched her intimately, gently twisting a nipple before drawing it into his mouth, pulling deeply. Sucking hard, then laving the tip, round and round.

Breathing deeply,
Sydni
imagined Drew’s scent filling her nostrils. His tongue slid down the side of her neck and left a warm, wet path down to her collar bone. Her hips swiveled in a slow, deliberate circle as one hand closed around a swelling breast and the other slid between dewy labia. She wasn’t even surprised at how wet she was—it was becoming the norm with thoughts of Mr.
Caruth
, damn it.

And now her clit needed some attention. Reaching into her nightstand drawer, her favorite toy fell comfortably into her hand. Anxious and ready for relief,
Sydni
ignored the feeling of emptiness in her womb. Spreading her slick and swollen flesh she aimed for her clit and flicked the switch.

“Aw, damn it,”
Sydni
grumped at herself. The batteries were dead.

A quiet gasp and a sexy masculine moan snapped her attention to the TV she’d forgotten was on. Her favorite vampire was laying some hot, hard, sweaty sex down on a female like he’d never have another chance. Afterward, he loved her so tenderly it brought tears to
Sydni’s
eyes even as her fingers slid over the planes of her tummy.

“Obviously this date couldn’t have come at a better time. Look at you, alone on a Friday night blubbering over a television show. You need to get laid, woman.
Seriously.”

Maybe the date with Mr. Unknown tomorrow morning would lead to a little bump and grind?
Sydni
snorted at herself, knowing she had every intention of meeting the man just long enough to blow him off.

Chapter Three

She must be nuts. What the hell was she doing here waiting for a total stranger?
Sydni
hated to admit she’d been so engrossed in her work, she’d completely forgotten about the weird phone call from the DJ at KWQQ until one of their
admins
had called with a reminder of her “appointment with destiny”. God, could you get any
more corny
? And when the radio chick rattled off what her mystery man would be wearing, at her request of course, all
Sydni
could do was shake her head knowing she’d been cruel.

She checked her watch with a huff and felt the muscles in her stomach tighten. It was almost
time
. And though she wanted to have an attitude about the whole set up,
Sydni
couldn’t manage to get mad at her sister. Sure,
Charli
had signed her up for the stupid radio station’s blind-date contest, but the woman hadn’t tied her hands and feet to make her come here to meet the man. Well too late now. If there was one thing she wouldn’t do, it was
stand
someone up. It was simply too rude. But she could get rid of the guy tactfully.
And quickly.

So here she sat at a stupid Starbucks instead of sleeping in, waiting for a man dressed in one of those stretchy workout shirts done in ghastly neon green, and a pair of black and white checkered golf pants. She shuddered at the ghastly image in her mind. Well, one thing was certain—any man with enough balls to walk into a busy Starbucks at a major intersection dressed like that must be as hard-up as she was.

Sydni
laughed at herself, then ratcheted back to a semi-hilarious giggle when two women at the table next to hers flashed sharp looks. She should have been embarrassed to burst out laughing in the middle of a coffee shop while she sat alone, but after the week she was having, who gave a good goddamn? The only thing on her mind was getting this over with so she could go home, curl up on the couch with her favorite faux fur
blankie
and get some work done. Perhaps while listening to a rerun of the season opener of her favorite vampire soap opera.

“And pretend not to be lonely. Damn it.” Oops. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

Syndi
snuck a peek at the two ladies who’d given her the stink eye seconds before. They were no longer eyeing her. Their attention was on someone across the room. When one of the ladies mouths edged open as if she were on the verge of drooling,
Sydni
had to see what the hell she was looking at. Was there a life sized piece of sculpted chocolate on display or something?

Sydni
turned to look and her own lips eased apart. Oh god, this was so not happening.

There across the room, walking confidently in her direction was a man. Correction, a
freakin
’ hot
studly
construction worker mountain-type man…in a neon green stretchy workout shirt, hideous checkered golf pants. And a familiar face.

Sydni
looked up at the ceiling and prayed. “God, just come and take me now, please. No? Well, how ‘bout opening the floor up and letting me drop through it? No on that one too? Damn.”

“Hi
Syd
.”

She was going to wake up anytime now, right? Right, damn it!

Then he spoke again. Sigh. Guess her prayers weren’t working today.

“I said, hello
Syd
.”

“Uh, hi, and
it’s
Sydni
.
Sid-nee.
Fancy seeing you here, Mr.
Caruth
.”

“It’s Drew, and yep, definitely fancy.”

Now what were the odds that her recently acquainted lawyer would be the guy the radio station—correction,
Charli
, damn it—had set her up with? Why the hell hadn’t she figured it out sooner?
Duh!
And who would have thought the designer suits he wore in court hid such a fantabulous physique?
Sydni’d
thought he was only broad shouldered, but boy had she missed the mark by at least a football field.

The ugly shirt he wore left very little to the imagination, for goodness sake. Short sleeved, it showed off perfectly tanned, ropey muscled forearms and biceps sparingly dusted with black down. The shirt was stretched so tightly across his chest every can in the six
pack
was visible and his
pecs
were deliberately formed mounds of muscle. The whole lot tapered down to a trim waist and…

Nope. No way. I will
not
look down any further.

Okay, that declaration lasted all of half a second.

And down her gaze strayed right to a…hey, what was up with that? No overly impressive bulge? No huge package? Maybe he’d shrunk up his dick from lifting all those weights? Gazing a bit lower, disappointment was certainly wiped out of her mind at the man’s legs. His trousers fit perfectly, not too tight in the hips and thighs, but were cinched in at the waist. Since her sister was a lawyer-turned-tailor,
Sydni
could tell a living-room-alteration job on a pair of off-the-shelf pants at first glance. But Drew’s black hideous checkered duds looked tailored, as if the only way to get a good fit was if he bought a size or two larger just to get his thighs into them,
then
have the waist adjusted. Athletes whose sports required a lot of leg strength usually had this issue because they’re thighs were so large. And Drew looked like he fit that bill to the tee.

Amazing.
Mr. GQ Lawyer stood there looking as deliciously sinful as her mama’s rum
poundcake
. And he’d seen her rougher than rough after a night locked in the
hooskow
? Oh god, how embarrassing.

Sheer horror snaked through each limb and it must have made its way to her face.

“What’s
wrong.
You look like you’ve just seen Hannibal
Lecter
.”

“Uh, what?
Oh sorry.
Nothing.
I was just thinking about what I must have looked to you the other day.”

“You mean when we walked out of the courtroom?”

“Yep.
That’s the time. Look, coming here was a mistake. I must have been out of my mind meeting a total stranger here.”

“Not a total stranger,
Sydni
.”

“Well, still. Why don’t we just call it a day? Besides, I don’t date guys I work with.”

“But we don’t actually work together, do we, beautiful?”

Beautiful?
When was the last time she’d been called beautiful by someone who appeared to mean it? Sigh. That
so
wasn’t the point.

She rose and stuck out her hand wondering if she really wanted him to shake it or not. Surely if he touched her she’d fall on the floor in a dead faint from lack of oxygen because lord knew she’d stopped breathing the second the images of what she’d imagined him doing to her flashed in her head.

He wrapped warm fingers around hers and eased her toward him. Leaning close, he whispered for her ears only, thank god.

“Well, I did a pretty good job getting your charges dropped, not to mention I wore this ugly ass outfit just for you. At least have lunch with me?”

His words ended on a friendly chuckle, but
Sydni
hadn’t missed the confidence—and determination?—in them.

Arrogant bastard.
Damn gorgeous, tall and
yummily
put together arrogant bastard. And he had a point, damn it. “So, how’d you get my charges dropped? I didn’t know you did criminal law.” Hell, she hadn’t actually meant to ask him that, especially not out loud. The last thing she needed was for the man to start gloating or for the folks at the next table to think she was some kind of two-bit crack ho’ with a neon green-shirted pimp.

“Actually, my specialty is contract law.”

“What?!
What were you doing negotiating my release? What if things had gotten screwed up?”

“It was a simple misdemeanor,
Sydni
. Any lawyer worth his salt could have gotten you off, even if his area of expertise was salt mining treaties. It was obvious you were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Besides,
Charli
wouldn’t have trusted me with your situation if I didn’t know what I was doing. She and I both trained in law, remember?”