AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dijon.”
“Whole grain or regular?”
She raised her brows. “The king of condiments! Regular is fine.”
“Go on.” He retrieved a jar from the refrigerator. “Dad kept you in chains and your brothers got away with everything.”
“Right. Of course, all that did was make me want to get away from my parents and do whatever I wasn’t supposed to.”
“The paradox of teenagers, the more you control them, the less control you have.” He put the mustard back. “Though if you don’t try to control them at all, the result is the same, which was the case with me.”
“I think when I have teenagers I’ll hire someone else to deal with them.”
“Oh, now there’s a good plan.” He put a sandwich down in 168
front of her, piled high with turkey, swiss cheese and romaine lettuce. “So you were wild, huh?”
She snorted. “Wild for me was telling them I was going over to Abigail’s to study and then not studying.”
“Whoa.” He shook his head over his sandwich. “You’re lucky you weren’t arrested.”
“I’ll say. You said you weren’t either.”
“I came close once. My father intervened. But it scared me into declaring an end to my rebel days.”
“How
old?”
“Seventeen.”
Candy imagined him at seventeen, coming into manhood, still struggling with his parents’ divorce, taking out his anger in self-destructive ways until his natural good sense took over from the testosterone. She could still glimpse the juvenile delinquent in him now and then. So different from being with Chuck. Exciting and dangerous in a sexy way that felt safe.
“I don’t think I ever really rebelled.”
“No time like the present.” He winked at her. “If what went on upstairs just now was any indication I’d say you have plenty of wild child in you.”
She giggled, torn between embarrassment and pleasure. “I don’t know.”
“Do you remember when you said you jumped out of that cake with nearly nothing on?”
“God, yes, that was so funny.”
“No, Candy.” He lowered his sandwich. “That was not funny. I am getting hard again. Like the first time you told me.”
She could only stare. She remembered telling him, but it hadn’t been sexy at all. “You jumped off the couch like I’d horrified you.”
“It was either jumping off the couch or jumping you. And I wasn’t quite at the point where I felt comfortable doing that.
Which we’ve already gone into.”
“Yes.” She squeezed her thighs together under the table.
The idea that he’d had to hold himself back from her was very sexy.
“Do you still have the outfit?”
“The pasties? Ugh, yes, I kept them somewhere, hidden well away. I think I brought them out one Valentine’s Day, but…” She shrugged. Chuck had been mortified. He wouldn’t even look at her in the outfit, said it was cheap and beneath her.
“But
what?”
“They didn’t have the intended effect.” She wasn’t going to set Chuck up for anyone else to tear down. “Another Valentine’s Day disaster.”
“You’ve had lots?”
“Well not lots, really. My ex wasn’t into the holiday. So we never did the roses-and-chocolates-and-fancy-dinner thing, which was always my girlhood fantasy. And disappointments always seemed to plague the day for family and friends, too.
What about you? What do you think of Valentine’s Day? Silly commercial manipulation or chance for all-out romance?” She waited, hating that his answer already mattered so much.
“I don’t think I was ever in a serious relationship on Valentine’s Day, so I acknowledged it but never went all out.” He frowned and crunched down on a chip. “I can’t say I’m against it on principle, but I have to feel love to celebrate it.”
“That makes sense.” She wished she hadn’t brought it up.
Valentine’s Day was four days away and now they were sort of involved. Would he want to celebrate it with her? She took a bite of sandwich, chewed self-consciously, aware he was studying her, wondering what he was thinking.
