Read Online Candy Crush by Tami Lund - Free Book Online Page B

You’re lucky I didn’t
climb into the shower with you. I don’t exactly function at full
capacity at seven in the morning.” He sounded grumpy. Not a morning
person, apparently.
    “Sorry. I thought I’d be done before you
woke up. Here, it’s all yours.” She stepped aside, and with one
last assessing look, he walked past her into the bathroom and
closed the door behind him.
    Half an hour later, she was waiting in the
kitchen when he walked into the room. His hair was still wet and he
wore a charcoal grey suit with a paler grey shirt and dark grey
tie. He looked positively delicious, Gabriella thought, and then
she decided maybe she was just hungry. She snagged a banana off the
counter and peeled it and took a bite, ignoring the fact that she’d
just picked the most phallic fruit she could have thought to
eat.
    “Morning,” he said as he poured coffee into
a travel mug.
    “Good morning. I thought I’d walk to work
with you this morning, if that’s okay.”
    ***
    She wore the same sweatshirt and jeans she’d
worn yesterday and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She
reminded Brandon of an all-American cheerleader. Which was only
mildly better than the sexy temptress he thought she was when she’d
emerged from the bathroom wearing a practically see-through white
tank top and pink pajama bottoms.
    He never realized pajamas could be so sexy
before. He needed to get her into his bed before he self-imploded,
and he had no idea how he was going to do it, since he’d promised
not to make moves on her.
    “Sure,” Brandon said, and he pulled a travel
coffee mug out of the cupboard for her. A few minutes later, they
were walking to work, with Butter padding along in front of
them.
    “Do you walk to work, even in winter?”
Gabriella asked.
    “Depends. Sometimes I have meetings out of
the downtown area, so I have to drive. Like tomorrow, for instance.
I have a meeting down in the Detroit area. I’ll be gone all day.
Don’t forget to cancel with Jared,” he reminded her, and she
saluted him with her coffee mug.
    “And sometimes,” he added, “It gets too cold
here to be outside for more than a few minutes.” He watched her
face and laughed at the horrified look.
    “You are pulling my leg, right?”
    “Nope,” he said, and then he laughed. “It
doesn’t happen very often, so you can relax. Although the Farmer’s
Almanac says this winter is supposed to be cold with lots of snow.
We’ve had a few mild winters, so we’re due.”
    “Great,” she grumbled. “I had to pick the
year you’re due for a hard winter. I should’ve left last year.”
    Brandon laughed. They stepped onto Main
Street, and Brandon walked her to the door of the candy store. “We
keep coffee on all day in my office, so feel free to come over for
a refill.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Do you want to have lunch again?”
    “Sure,” Gabriella said.
    ***
    She found this new, charming, non-sexually
exploiting Brandon somewhat disarming. As nice as he was, she
almost missed the sexual innuendos and teasing. Apparently she was
glutton for punishment.
    She let herself into the candy store and
decided today she would work on putting together a list of
suppliers and start making contact. She had very little capitol
left, so she hoped the cost to initially fill her shelves would not
be too astronomical. Maybe she should visit a local bank and see
about a line of credit. Brandon probably had some relative or
another who worked at the bank and could help her. It did not
escape her notice that she had already fallen into the comfortable
habit of assuming his family would be willing to help.
    She headed back to the storage room. She
used a box to prop the door open, so she would see if anyone came
into the store, and she set about inventorying the wasted overstock
in the back room.
    Mid-morning, just about the time she felt
she had waited a reasonable length of time before heading across
the street to get a coffee refill, a woman walked in the