He punched the intercom. “Candy, can I see you a sec?”

He’d been pleasantly surprised to come in the day after he’d stayed at her place to find the rest of the coconut cream pie in the fridge in his office. The next day she brought chocolate cream pie for everyone. The day after that had been scones she claimed to make that morning. He swore they were still warm. He was pretty sure he’d put on a few pounds in the last week just from her baking. He’d increased his workouts but that was only going to help so much. He needed to muzzle his damn sweet tooth. The thing that really bothered him was that she had said she baked when she was nervous and judging from the parade of food she was bringing in she was about to jump out of her skin. Okay, the parade of food and the fact she wouldn’t look him in the eye. It shouldn’t bother him but it did, a lot.

Thank God she knocked before walking in, he needed the warning to brace himself. Every single damn day she seemed to have picked out a new outfit to make his blood run hot. None of them were trashy looking, just, they hugged her curves in all the right places, showed just enough skin that he had to remind himself she was off limits.

Today’s get up was no different. The skirt clung to her ass like a drunk on a bar stool but it still managed to be swishy around her knees. The blouse had a sort of soft frill around the neck but there was a little dip where it buttoned up the front. That spot lined up with her cleavage and seemed made to put a kiss there. The whole thing was capped off with these little tiny heels. Not black stilettos that were a bullhorn screaming sexy. These whispered, ‘for you, only for you’. The whole outfit would make a lesser man fall to his knees. Hell, he would if he could.

“Hi.” She gave him a quick glance and a little smile, then stared at the floor.

“I just wanted to find out how your week is going. Everybody treating you okay?”

“Oh, everybody has been great.” She looked up, her cheeks were pink, then looked at the floor again.

“I’ll bet, I may have to keep you on when Karen comes back just to keep the peace. You’re spoiling everybody.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I, guess it was just nice having people to share with.”

“Just that? I mean you said you bake when you’re nervous and well, you’ve brought in enough stuff to fill a bakery.”

“Oh, I bake when I’m happy too,” She stopped for a minute and smiled at him. “And sad, and angry and...”

He held up his hand. “I get it. I also am going to be a lot heavier when you leave if you keep this up.”

“Sorry?”

“Don’t be. It’s my fault I can’t keep away from the stuff.”

“I’ll try to cut back. Was there anything else? I wanted to get back to the filing. I decided to cross-reference the cases by date and type.”

He held up his hand again. “Seriously, I’m allergic to paperwork. Just do whatever you see fit. Sounds like a good idea though.”

“Do you care if I stay late. I’m not expecting overtime or anything but I’d like to finish while I’m on a roll.”

“Sure whatever works for you.”

He was surprised when he got back from lunch to find his refrigerator now held a bowl of fruit and a large jar of nuts in addition to the water he usually stashed there. He ate an apple with a smile as he went over surveillance photos. His staff weren’t the only ones getting used to being spoiled.

By the time he finished, the place was quiet. A glance at the computer told him it was later than he thought. He shut everything down and locked his office. He was headed down the hall when he saw Candy walking toward him, she had her arms full of empty boxes but he wasn’t really paying attention to her arms. Her legs in that skirt seriously put ideas in his head. Maybe because he was looking where he shouldn’t he saw the tip of her toe catch and she pitched forward. Without thinking he caught her. Boxes went flying. He ended up with a face full of most of what he’d been trying not to think about all day, along with handfuls of the rest of it. He wrapped his arms around her as an instinct and that was the story he’d stick to when she brought him up on harassment charges.

“Whoa, are you okay?”

She just kind of moaned no, and buried her face against his chest giving him a face full of curls that tickled his nose. He needed to check if she was hurt so he hauled her into his lap and started running his hands over her to find where the problem was.

“Oh God.” She had her eyes closed tight. He didn’t understand how she could have gotten more than bruised but what the hell did he know, maybe she’d twisted an ankle or something.

“Candy, tell me where you’re hurt? What can I do?”

“Kiss me,” she whispered, her face still buried against his shoulder. Did he hear her right or was his mind making up things he only wished she’d say?

He peeled her away from him. “What did you say?”

“Oh God! Never mind, I should...” She was half laying on top of him on her back. The angle was awkward so she couldn’t really get her feet under her.

“Candy, I just want to be sure I heard you correctly. How’s about I say what I think I heard and you can just nod if I’m right.” At least now she wasn’t fighting to get away.

“Did you just ask me to,” he swallowed hard and sucked in a breath, “to kiss you?” Her hands were over her face now, but she very clearly nodded her head yes. Well Christmas was coming early this year. “I can’t do that unless you move your hands doll.” She peeked through her fingers, with a little more encouragement she finally dropped her hands and he slid one arm behind her shoulders and sat her up so she could run if she wanted to. He really hoped she wouldn’t. His hand found some soft curls at the nape of her neck and as he played with them her eyes closed and she kind of melted for him. Goddamn, that was more addictive than anything he’d ever done. He leaned forward and just touched his lips to hers, barely a touch, way less than he wanted.

She growled or moaned, or made some kind of animal noise at him, then took his face in her hands and kissed him hard. Okay, so no more holding back then. He pushed her hands off and wrapped his other arm around her before licking at her lips to coax them open.

It didn’t take much coaxing. Her mouth was the softest thing he’d ever felt. Her tongue darted into his mouth and he almost nipped her in his surprise. She was all blunt force and no finesse. So this wasn’t something she’d done very much or recently.

She tasted of something sweet, milky caramel and woman. If her baking roused his sweet tooth, this, kissing the woman herself lit a bomb under it. He started to smile even while they were still going at it. Finally, they both pulled away panting, hell, he had spots in his vision.

“Well, hello to you too.” He finally spit out. His fingers took on a life of their own and stroked her cheek, caught a curl and twirled it so it wrapped around them. He never wanted to stop touching her. Thank God she laughed because he was stumped for anything close to conversation. He wanted to find some vacant horizontal surface and, nah, she wasn’t that kind of girl.

Whatever he said was going to sound stupid so he went with simple words. “You done here? We could, um, get dinner or something.” He was still trying to suck in enough air to deal with the way she’d set his blood on fire and he suspected he would be as long as he held her. He couldn’t help himself and started kissing her neck. Her little gasps and sighs urging him on. He wanted to touch her, not just light her up, though if he got any harder he was gonna embarrass himself. No, he wanted to run his hands over her, make her sigh, draw out the pleasure for both of them. He’d never in his life left a woman hanging but this was something different, and more than a little scary.

“We can just go back to my place,” she finally said. He almost dropped her in his surprise. She blushed hot when she realized what she’d said. “I meant for dinner! I could just make us something. Oh God...” She ducked behind her hands again and moaned. He couldn’t help the evil grin. She wasn’t thinking about food when she first spoke.

“Let me take you out, babe. We can have dessert at your place.” The evil grin got wider and she got even redder.

“Fine.” She managed to stand up on wobbly legs and he felt a perverse sense of accomplishment that he’d done that to her. He suddenly had no idea what to do with his hands now that they weren’t full of her. “I’ll get my stuff. Wait, what are we going to do about the cars?”

“I’m not a letting a lady drive on a date so you can leave your car here and get it on Monday or we can drop it off at your house and then go from there.”

“We could take two cars.”

“If you were going out with anyone else I’d say that was the safe thing to do.”

“But not with you?”

“Nah, I’m a big ol’ pussy cat. Besides I’m the guy, other people call when they need protecting.” She was shaking her head but she was still smiling.

And he was the world’s worst liar. Right now he felt like a tiger scenting an available female. He used the time she spent getting her stuff together to get himself back under control. He’d hold it together through dinner but then, well, there were a few parts of that book she gave him he wanted to try out. He’d be the one petting her before the night was through.