Mary Taffs - Hot Fudge and Peppermint

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1-58749-021-8 Hot Fudge and Peppermint Mary Taffs 1/10/2001 Awe-Struck E-Books Amour
-Hot Fudge and Peppermint-
Book III of the Second Chances Trilogy
By Mary Taffs
Published by Awe-Struck E-Books
Copyright ©2000
ISBN: 1-58749-022-6
PROLOGUE
April
The boring old Nik would never have done this. She would have waited for Bill to call or come by. She
would have been afraid she'd shock him with her forwardness if she stopped by his dorm room with a
sundae, on a night when they'd both planned to study.
But that was the boring old Nik - the Nik who spent her evenings and nights studying. The new Nik
wasn't flashy and her face and figure weren't breath-taking, but she was having fun for once in her life.
Thanks to Bill. She might be a senior and him a freshman, but he was a master at seizing the moment. He
was a master at pleasing a woman in bed, too - and boring old Nik wasn't nearly as boring now that she
was the woman in his bed.
She hadn't discarded all vestiges of her old caution, though. Walking into his dorm and up the stairs to his
hall made nerves skitter in her stomach and her hand feel slimy on the cardboard ice cream dish. The
promise of his special-for-her smile was enough to steady her and propel her the last few feet to his door.
She calmed her breathing, then knocked.
No answer, but she heard sounds through the door. It was probably the radio, and it might be loud
enough that he hadn't heard the knock. She knocked again, louder this time.
And she waited. Finally, the door cracked open a couple of inches, and Bill demanded, "Geez guys, can't
you take a hint?" He wore only jeans, unbuttoned at the top, and his face went slack when he saw her.
"Nik."
She shoved the door open another two or three feet, and the smell hit her. The smell of sex. The room
was lost in shadows, but she knew there was a woman in Bill's bed.
She had the crazy idea that she ought to apologize for disturbing him - or say something completely civil
and thoroughly cutting like her brother's fiancée Julie would. But really, all she wanted was to disappear,
to magically transport back to her dorm room where she wouldn't have to pretend she wasn't
devastated.
She couldn't disappear, though, and she absolutely would not react like the old Nik. "I brought you a
treat, but I see you've got one of your own," she said, grabbing the waistband of his jeans and pulling it
open. She heard the metal zipper slide open. "Feel free to share this with her."
Quickly, she dumped the sundae in his pants.
CHAPTER ONE
October, Eight Years Later
"Wait up a second, Bill!" Scott hailed him from down the hall. Bill paused at the intersection of hallways
and waited for Scott to catch up. "You remember Nik Harding, don't you? She was in George's class at
the University, and she says you two knew each other, too."
The name grabbed at his insides, and he looked at the business-suited woman next to Scott. It really was
her. "Nik." He stopped and took control of his mouth. "Of course I do. Hi, Nik." His smile didn't feel
real.
"Hello," she said, without an accompanying smile.
Scott continued, seemingly oblivious to their awkwardness, "Nik's here today interviewing for the
customer support manager job. Seth's supposed to see her next, but he's tied up right now on a
conference call. I thought maybe you two'd like to do some catching up until he's ready."
He caught what looked like horror on Nik's face, but he replied, "That's a great idea, thanks. Come on,
Nik - my office is down this way."
As they walked away, Scott said, "Ellen will call when Seth's free."
"Right in here," he said, leading the way into his office and sitting behind his desk. "Have a seat, Nik. It's
great to see you again."
She perched on the chair closest to the door. "Look, we don't have to talk. Just go back to whatever you
were doing, and I'll look through this folder." She opened the folder of fluff pieces about
Adams-Worthington and its product, TechDoc.
"You don't want to read that crap," he said with a laugh. "Anyway, I always wished I'd had a chance to
talk to you again." He'd tried, too. He'd stopped by her room unannounced and lurked near the rooms
where she had classes. The few times he'd been in the right place at the right time, she'd acted like he
was invisible.
"Well, I never did." Her voice was flat, with a hint of steel he didn't remember from college days. She'd
been tough to get to know then, but under that she'd been soft, and sexy as hell.
"You're still pissed at me, aren't you?" All these years later? Wasn't that carrying a grudge a bit far?
Her mouth pursed in disgust. "Of course not. I simply have no interest in pretending to be friends with
you."
He hadn't gotten his reputation with women by backing off at the first sign of resistance. "Fine. We don't
have to be friends." He paused to give her a false sense of hope, then added, "I'd rather be your lover, in
any case."
Her body jerked to full-alert, and he was amused to see her breasts suddenly become well-defined under
her suit jacket. The covered-up look had been her style back then, too. It had made discovering the lush
body underneath that much sweeter. "They let you get away with saying things like that here?" she
demanded. "No wonder I haven't seen more women today."
"They don't have a clue what I say," he said, not completely truthfully. He'd gotten in trouble more than
once over suggestive comments to female employees. "Plus, I'm only telling the truth, Nikolia."
"Nik," she insisted, her teeth clenched. Her given name had embarrassed her when he'd known her
before, and apparently that much hadn't changed.
He smiled. "I like Nikolia. It's pretty - like you." That wasn't a line, despite the fact that her looks
wouldn't win her a second glance from most guys. He'd taken that second glance long ago.
"You can't think -" she started belligerently, but the phone stopped her mid-sentence.
He glanced at the display. "Hello, Ellen. Are you ready for me to bring Nik Harding down?"
"Yes, please," she said in that bitchy tone she used with those she considered her inferiors.
He hung up without responding. It wouldn't hurt her to treat him with half the respect she'd shown
George. His brother had been a jerk, and the fact that he was co-founder of the company shouldn't have
earned him special treatment.
He stood. "We'll continue this later, Nikolia."
He was looking forward to it already.
**
Nik knew the interview was drawing to an end. Mr. Worthington was telling her now that they expected
to make a decision on the job by the middle of next week. Quickly, before he started on the "thanks for
coming in" speech, she spoke up. "Mr. Worthington -"
He interrupted with a warm smile, "Seth, please."
She smiled back at him. "Seth, then. Before we finish, I need to explain about my health. I assure you that
I'm capable of handling this job, but I have a chronic illness that affects me all the time, to one degree or
another." That sounded rather dire, but she couldn't in good conscience make it sound minor. "I have
fibromyalgia."
Concern replaced his smile, but the warmth was still there. "Fibromyalgia is a difficult disease. One of my
wife's friends has it, and she's had quite a time."
"It is difficult, and one of the trickiest parts is that there are no definitive answers on what works or even
what causes it." She took a deep breath and began what she thought of as her sales pitch. "I was
diagnosed two and a half years ago, and one of my first decisions was that I wouldn't let the disease
control me any more than I absolutely had to. I read everything that's published on the subject, and I've
developed a very personal regimen of diet, exercise, and lifestyle modifications that works for me. It's a
continual balancing act, but I haven't missed any work due to illness for more than a year now."
"That's impressive," Seth replied. "Annabelle's friend has given up most of her outside activities, and she
recently had to hire full-time help around the house. I wonder if the same routine would work for her."
"Possibly, although it sometimes seems like there are more differences than similarities in how people with
fibro feel the disease and with what helps them." Because this was a job interview, and because she felt a
deep bond of sympathy with other fibro sufferers, she added, "But I'd be glad to talk to your wife's friend
and tell her what's worked for me, if she's interested."
He smiled. "Thank you, Nik. I'll tell Annabelle about your offer." He dismissed the subject with a slight
nod and said, "Now, about this job. I'm sure you realize that there's a reasonable amount of stress in any
management position, at least at certain times. Would that be an issue, as far as your health goes?"
She needed to carefully mix honesty with optimism here. "Stress can be a problem, I admit, but I've
found that if I'm careful to take a couple of breaks during the workday and not work too many extra
hours, I get along just fine. My career is extremely important to me, and I make the necessary tradeoffs in
my personal life to allow me to fulfill my work commitments."
That brought a concerned frown to Seth's face. "I appreciate your commitment, but as I always
emphasize to my managers, I want and expect them to have lives outside the office. In fact, I explicitly
discourage employees from making a habit of working more than forty-five hours a week. Barring
deadlines or unforeseen disasters, if anyone's job takes that much time to perform adequately,
something's wrong."
"That's an interesting philosophy," she said. "Most high- tech companies I'm familiar with are just the
opposite."
He nodded. "I know, and their employees burn out or wreck their home lives because of it. My personal
life has always been important to me, and when George and I started this company, we took the
opportunity to do things the right way. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I assure you that if we
offer you this position, we will be prepared to accept any limitations your health might impose on the
performance of your duties."
Nik didn't dare take his words at face value, but still she relaxed a little. Maybe she'd actually be judged
on her professional abilities this time, unlike last summer when she applied for a support manager job at
her current company. Everyone at DesignTek had been careful to say the right things about her health,
but she didn't make it past the first round of interviews. Considering the lesser qualifications of the
candidate who was hired, she was certain fibro had played a large role in the decision-making.
In any case, given that Bill was a manager here, she wasn't completely certain that a job at
Adams-Worthington was quite as ideal for her as she'd hoped. She was no longer the naïve girl she'd
been when Bill had broken her heart, but she couldn't be sure the years had made her any more able to
resist his all-too-evident charm.
**
Seeing a former lover wasn't exactly unheard-of for Bill. He had plenty of them, and a not-insignificant
number worked at A-W. But there was something different about seeing Nik again.
It had been years longer since he'd seen her, for one thing. Freshman year in college was - what, eight
years ago? He'd been eighteen and just set free from a hellish childhood. He'd loved everything about his
new life, especially all the available women.
In retrospect, he could see that Nik had been the wrong type of woman for him. She'd been too serious,
too focused on the long-term. He'd been interested in long-term goals only to the extent necessary.
Learning computer science was important because it would lead him to a well-paid and secure career,
but he didn't spend the hundreds of extra hours on it that Nik did. There were too many fun things to do
in life - and too many beautiful women to do them with - to study more than necessary.
Eight years might have passed, but it was clear they'd both stayed basically the same. She was a
serious-minded woman and he was a fun-loving man. So the line about preferring to be her lover instead
of her friend was just that - a line. He didn't care if he was either.
He was a healthy male, and when he met an attractive woman - or met her again, as in this case - she
stirred a few fantasies.
Plain and simple.
**
The following Thursday after work, Nik sat in her combination office/gym and stared at the phone. Seth
had offered her the customer support manager job on Tuesday, and she'd promised to call today with her
answer.
The answer had to be yes. She'd worked too hard for too many years to refuse the chance to become a
manager, and a company like Adams-Worthington would be a great place to work.
Other than Bill, that is. She'd been a fool over him one too many times already, and she couldn't afford
being a fool ever again. She'd been honest with Seth about how she handled stress - job-related stress,
that is. Emotional stress was different, and much harder to manage.
She'd had a taste of how much harder, right after she was diagnosed. She and Allen had still been
engaged then, and she'd demanded that the doctor figure out what was wrong with her so she could get
back to planning the future with him. The diagnosis was a huge shock. She was young, she had her whole
life in front of her. How could he tell her she'd always have this rotten disease?
Instead of helping her deal with the blow, Allen retreated completely. She didn't hear from him for a
week and a half. He finally came here to the house where she spent most of each day limply sprawled on
the sofa, and broke up with her. He sympathized with her illness, but he wanted an active life with several
children, and Nik would never be able to fit into that life.
He was right, but that didn't make his rejection any less traumatic. In less than two weeks, she'd lost
everything that mattered to her.
She got sicker. Days passed in a blur of pain, and nights were never-ending. She couldn't sleep, and if
somehow she fell asleep, she felt more exhausted than ever when she woke up. The simplest tasks
became more than she could do. A shower left her weak and dizzy the rest of the day. She ate whatever
she happened to have on hand, whenever she got hungry enough to venture all the way to the kitchen.
Neal almost certainly saved her life. Her little brother was nearly six years younger, and he'd finished art
school that spring. He moved into the house and took care of her for the next several months. He cooked
nutritious meals and made sure she took the medicine the doctor had given her to try. When she felt a
little better, he helped her begin to exercise and to learn how to avoid getting in such a bad state again.
Avoiding relationships with the wrong kind of people was one of her basic tenets. She didn't have the
time or energy to waste on negativity or game-playing, and Bill was a game-player. He'd liked his
big-man-on-campus image all those years ago, and he still had the same swagger and self-assurance. His
good looks were intact, too - the blond hair that belonged in an ad for hair color, the face that might
belong to a very naughty angel, and the body that matched. She could laugh now at him saying he'd
rather be her lover than her friend - as long as a woman was breathing, he'd think that.
Suddenly, she realized that she didn't have to worry about Bill. He couldn't force her into something she
didn't want, and she certainly didn't want to be one of his women again. Their jobs were in different parts
of the company and that nice Scott Richards was Bill's boss. She suspected Scott was the one she'd
work with most often. And bottom line, she could guarantee that Bill would leave her completely alone
by the simple expedient of telling him about her illness.
She did a few minutes of deep breathing to relax her muscles, then called Seth to accept the job.
**
Bill waited until just before lunchtime to go to Nik's office. Not that he was planning to invite her to lunch.
He'd simply found that was a good time to catch a lot of people alone in their offices.
He was eager to validate his theory of why Nik had been on his mind so much since her interview. The
way he figured it, he virtually always was the dumper in a relationship, not the dumpee. He tired quickly
of women, and once a woman had worn out her welcome with him, he avoided her like the plague.
But Nik didn't fit into that category. He'd been a long way from tired of her when she caught him with
that nothing who was mad at her boyfriend. He'd been sorry to lose her, and his attempts to win her back
had been as unprecedented as they were unsuccessful.
It only made sense that he'd feel like he had something to prove with her now. He wouldn't mind having
her be the one left out in the cold this time, either.
But really. The whole thing was pointless, like digging up any other random piece of ancient history and
getting all fixated on it. Life now was way too good to bother with any of that crap.
So, his whole point in barging into Nik's office this morning was to demonstrate that to himself. Nik was
an attractive woman, one he'd be perfectly happy to go out with, if she was interested. It appeared so far
that she wasn't, which was fine.
There were - what? Maybe half a dozen candidates here at A-W he hadn't gotten around to dating yet.
In addition, there was the apparently-limitless supply of women he met at the athletic club and local bars.
His life wouldn't come to a crashing halt if Nikolia Harding didn't join the queue.
His fine intentions lasted until she raised her head and nailed him to her partially-open office door with her
eyes.
CHAPTER TWO
Nik had known this would happen. Bill had been persistent back in school, and he'd assume that the
same tactics would work this time. They wouldn't, and she'd make it crystal clear. "Are you here about
work?"
She probably only imagined his momentary hesitation, because before she was sure it had happened, he
was lounging in her guest chair with a lazy smile. "Not today. I just thought I'd stop by to see how
everything's going - it being your first day and all."
"Everything's fine, and I'm on my way out the door for lunch." She stood and picked up her purse. "You'll
have to excuse me."
She swept past him and out the door.
**
The bitch! She was doing that I'm-too-good-for-you number on him, and he didn't take that from anyone
anymore. He just bet she was laughing now, all full of herself for being rude to him.
Well, let her laugh. She wouldn't be so damn snooty if she didn't still have the hots for him. Conveniently,
he had the hots for her, too, and he could push her a whole lot longer and harder than she could resist.
And for damn sure, he'd be the one to end things this time.
**
Nik didn't see Bill again on Monday, nor all day Tuesday or Wednesday. She knew she hadn't seen the
last of him, but she tried to pretend that she had. Still, by the end of work Wednesday, her muscles were
even tighter than usual, and she knew her after-work workout was particularly critical tonight.
She started with gentle stretching exercises on the special raised exercise platform Neal had built for her.
It occupied about a third of the small bedroom she'd converted into an office/gym, and was covered with
padded exercise mats. She'd hated giving up all that floor space, but she couldn't always get down onto
the floor and back up again. Since she needed to do plenty of stretching every day, especially when she
was having a flare and unable to do much else, the platform was needed.
She wondered again if a spa tub of some nature was worth the investment. Hot jets of water directed at
the muscles that hurt sounded absolutely scrumptious, but the few times she'd tried it at a hotel or health
club, it hadn't seemed to help. Besides, she didn't have room for even a tub-size spa, to say nothing of
the larger kind, which would be easier for her to use.
After her muscles were warmed up, she got onto her exercise bike and pedaled away for fifteen minutes
straight. That took care of her aerobic needs, plus strengthening and further limbering up the muscles in
the lower half of her body. Those were the muscles that ached the most in bed at night.
All she had left was her upper body work followed by more stretching as she cooled down. Then, finally,
she could rest for twenty minutes before heating a bowl of soup and making a small salad. One thing she
could say with confidence about her exercise routine - it made her pathetically boring dinner seem nearly
as desirable as surf-and-turf with a loaded baked potato and several glasses of full-bodied red wine.
Well, not really, but the days when she could thoughtlessly indulge her taste buds were over, and she'd
come to terms with that reality.
The doorbell rang while she was toweling off before getting onto the mat again. She knew that ignoring
the bell would result in her wondering all evening about who had been at the door and why, so she
answered it.
Better that she'd spent the evening wondering. Bill was at the door, and he shoved his way inside and
pinned her to the wall by the coat closet with his body. "Get away from me!"
He shook his head. "Not right now, Nikolia." His arms were resting against the wall on either side of her
body, but neither touched her. His body didn't touch hers in front, either, but she felt his body heat, as
well as something like static electricity. His face - his mouth - was only an inch from hers.
She jerked suddenly to her right, hoping to break through the imprisonment of his arms by going the
opposite direction from what he'd expect. She broke through easily - so easily, in fact, that she crashed
into the garage door with no chance to reach for the doorknob first.
He seemed to take his time gathering her into his arms, but in no time, there she was, pressed tight against
his body from chest to knees. His kiss was unhurried, starting with a barely-there brush of his lips across
her temple, and visiting her forehead, the corner of an eye, and an earlobe before reaching her mouth.
The kiss became serious then, deep and probing, and his hands were on her body as though they'd been
made for each other.
And then, gradually, he released her, helping her to lean back against the wall where she'd been a minute
- or a lifetime - ago. She stared at him, wondering what had happened.
He smiled tightly. "You said to get away from you."
"I -" She shook her head. Could she say she'd changed her mind?
"You don't mean it, Nikolia. I know that. You want me every bit as much as I want you." His eyes
glittered and the ice she saw there made her shiver. "But I want to hear those words right from those
luscious lips of yours, and I'm going to wait until I do." He reached behind him for the door and stepped
back through the doorway. "Feel free to say the words any old time, Nikolia. I guarantee it'll be worth it,
to both of us."
He pulled the door closed and disappeared from view.
**
Geez! Bill hadn't been this turned on by a kiss since - well, since never. Nik was sexier than she'd been
back at school. More woman, less self-conscious adolescent. That leotard didn't hurt matters any, either,
despite being damp with sweat.
Leotards were a wonderful invention. They showed off a woman's body, pluses as well as minuses, and
the simple fact that a woman wore one usually meant she cared about her body. Since he cared about
women's bodies, too, it gave them at least one thing in common.
He shook his head and concentrated on fitting his car key into the ignition. Thinking about leotards wasn't
going to help him resist the urge to walk right back into Nik's house and take her up on her still-unspoken
need. That would be the quickest way to get her to admit how much she wanted him. He could play her
need against her, and force her to tell him what they both knew was true before he let her off the hook.
But she was different than most women he dated. Her brain was the part that controlled her, and it
needed to be in agreement with her body before he took her to bed.
Resolutely, he started the car and drove away. He'd stop by the athletic club and see about sweating
away the visions of him and Nik.
And if that didn't work, Jade would be there, happy as always to join him for a nonstop night of purely
recreational sex.
**
"Isn't Adams-Worthington the company that guy you knew at school started?" Neal asked over coffee
on Saturday morning.
"Yeah, George Adams. But he died several years ago. Mr. Worthington - Seth - runs the place, and he's
real nice." Nik chattered on, hoping the flow of information would distract him before he remembered
that Bill and George were brothers. "George was married to Seth's daughter, and they had a little girl
shortly before he died. Francine's dead now, too, but Rachel - the little girl - is being raised by Scott, the
head of development. He and Francine were engaged, and he seems real nice, too." The whole setup
sounded more like a soap opera than real life, but she'd been assured it was all true.
Neal smirked, and she knew he remembered. "Any news about Bill?" Neal had practically worshipped
Bill, those few months when she and Bill had been friends and then lovers. Their house was almost on
campus, so she'd taken him there many times.
"He works at A-W, in development," she admitted.
His smirk broadened. "That's nice. You two must be busy getting reacquainted."
She should play along with him, she knew. He was simply teasing her, reminding her as only a brother
could that once in her life, she'd been spontaneous and fun-loving. But Bill was no joking matter. She'd
struggled too much against temptation these last few nights, so her voice was harsher than she intended
when she said, "Bill's not like you remember him. He's an unprincipled jerk, and he spends his time going
from woman to woman, taking and never giving."
Neal's eyebrows soared. "You've been checking up on him?"
She blew her breath out in disgust. "I didn't need to. All week, the other women at A-W have been
whispering warnings to me. They say Seth's spoken to him half a dozen times about what's appropriate
behavior for the workplace, but he still pushes it right to the edge. And personally - well, they say he's
like a light switch. One day, he just can't get enough of a woman, and the next, he can't even be bothered
to call."
She shouldn't have wasted her breath explaining. Neal was sitting there, struggling not to laugh, and
totally misunderstanding the situation. "It didn't occur to you that maybe you were talking to someone
with an ax to grind?"
"Just forget it - the point is that I'm not going to be renewing anything with that jerk." She changed
subjects to the one thing guaranteed to be of interest to Neal. "How's your painting going?"
He laughed and shook his head. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing - but the answer is good.
You know how I've been trying to capture that above-the-clouds feeling up at the log house?"
She nodded. He lived with an older art patron named Marian in a log house on top of a small mountain
nearby. The valleys below sometimes filled with clouds, and from the mountaintop, they looked like vast
fields of freshly-fallen snow. "You've gotten it to come out right?"
He waggled his hand in a so-so gesture. "Not yet, but I'm getting there. Marian's sure she can sell the one
I'm doing now, even though I can already tell it's not quite right."
She sucked in a breath so fast she coughed. "Sell it? That's great! It'll be your first one, won't it?"
He shrugged and nodded and tried to appear nonchalant, all at the same time. "Yeah. Of course, it might
not turn out like she thinks it will, or maybe none of her friends'll want it, but if one of them did, that'd be
cool."
She smiled and put her hand on his muscular forearm. "I'm proud of you, little brother."
He suddenly craned his neck to look out her kitchen window, then laughed. "You've got a visitor, big
sister. Someone who apparently doesn't feel the same as you do about renewing old acquaintances."
Her heart did an unwelcome leap and took off into panic. How on earth could she deal with Bill while
Neal was here, egging him on?
**
Bill was disgusted with himself. It was way too soon to visit Nik again - she'd get the idea he was
desperate. She'd be right, too - damn it.
She answered the door right away, and surprisingly stepped back to let him in. "Since you're here, come
and say hi to Neal."
Not exactly "I've been thinking of you night and day," but he'd take it. He followed her through the
kitchen to the dining room. If he hadn't been warned, he wouldn't have recognized the good-looking guy
at the table as the gawky teenager he'd known years ago. "Hey, Neal. How're ya doing?"
Neal stood and offered his hand. Geez, he'd grown another several inches. "Can't complain, Bill. How
about you?"
"Fine." Well, wasn't this a lovely turn of events? Neal was probably a fine guy, but Bill hadn't come to see
him. He glanced over at Nik, hoping for an inspiration. Instead, he saw her edging back toward the
kitchen, and he bet the kitchen wasn't her final destination. He stepped in her way and said, "Isn't this
something? The three of us meeting here, all these years later? Does your dad still teach at the
University?"
Neal answered. "No, he's at the U of O now. Nathan's at the University, though. His family even lives in
our old house."
"Is that so? I never really knew Nathan." He knew enough to know that he was a pain, as well as their
father's favorite. He'd been finishing his graduate studies when Bill knew Nik.
"Not a big loss, if you ask me," Neal said. Before Nik had a chance to react, he rolled his eyes and
added, "Okay, maybe that's not a nice thing to say, but isn't it true? He's just like Dad, except for all the
good parts of Dad."
Nik snorted, but instead of answering Neal, she glared at him. He threw up his hands and said, "Okay,
okay. I'm sorry. I'll go get started on the yard work." With half a dozen long strides, he went through the
garage door and closed it behind him.
And Bill was alone with Nik.
**
Nik should have known Neal would abandon her, the very second he could. He hadn't believed anything
she'd said about Bill, and obviously thought that if he left them alone together, they'd be back in each
other's arms in nothing flat.
"I must admit I was hoping you'd be wearing that leotard again today, Nikolia." Bill's voice was soft and
insinuated itself right into her brain. "But this is fine, too. It makes me imagine what's underneath."
She was wearing a caftan, and nothing underneath. She often wore next-to-nothing at home, since
clothes sometimes pressed against body parts tender with fibro, making her frantic. She squirmed
mentally and started toward the garage. "I'd better go see if Neal needs anything."
He stopped her by wrapping his hand around her wrist. "Neal went outside to give us some privacy.
Let's take advantage of his thoughtfulness." He pulled her around to face him and nudged her back
against the refrigerator.
摘要：

1-58749-021-8HotFudgeandPeppermintMaryTaffs1/10/2001Awe-StruckE-BooksAmour -HotFudgeandPeppermint- BookIIIoftheSecondChancesTrilogyByMaryTaffsPublishedbyAwe-StruckE-BooksCopyright©2000ISBN:1-58749-022-6PROLOGUEAprilTheboringoldNikwouldneverhavedonethis.ShewouldhavewaitedforBilltocallorcomeby.Shewoul...

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