Candy Store

expecting you at 10 a.m. Don’t be late. And don’t you dare let her down.”
    Intent on finding out everything he could about Callie’s Candies before 10 a.m., Derek stepped into his office and closed the door. Opening the thick file of information that Alice had assembled for him, he started reading.

    * * * * *

    Callie’s alarm went off at 7 a.m. and she burrowed down under the covers, trying to ignore it. She felt like hell today, which was no wonder, considering she'd barely slept all night. Her dog, Wolf, got up from his doggy bed on the floor and pushed his chin up on her pillow.
    Feeling the weight of his big, shaggy head hit the bed, she emerged from beneath the down duvet. “All right, I hear you. I’m turning it off.”
    Silence descended again and she was certain she heard Wolf sigh with relief.
    She sat up in bed and scratched Wolf’s head between his ears. Just like she knew he would, he got so relaxed that his head slid off the bed and he stretched out on the rug beside her bed to go back to sleep.
    The sheets scratched the tender skin of her breasts and Callie lightly ran her hands over them, a potent reminder of what she had done at James and Jane’s wedding only a day before.
    All night long, images of her coming in Derek’s mouth, of his teeth grazing her shoulder as he sucked salt from her, of him thrusting into her while she clawed at his shoulders, assailed her.
    How could she have behaved like that? She hadn’t even recognized herself in the woman she had become yesterday in his arms. All she wanted to do was put a closed sign on the door of her candy store and stay under the covers until the memories finally went away.
    Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. Not only did she have potential customers to sell candy to—not enough, of course, but the ones who came were loyal and she loved each and every one of them—but she had an important business meeting.
    Her accountant had set up an appointment for her with a renowned candy company consultant, Sweet something or other was the name of his company. He was going to be coming by her store at 10 a.m.
    No matter how she felt today, she couldn’t miss this meeting, or she’d really be screwed. Literally and figuratively.
    She dragged herself out of bed, almost stepping on one of Wolf’s big mutt paws. She bent over to drop a kiss on his muzzle in apology and then stepped into the shower. She turned it on full blast, praying that water could wash away some of her sins.
    Roughly soaping up her skin, she lathered up her arms, her legs, her stomach, trying to avoid the inside of her thighs until the last minute. She didn’t want to touch herself, had held off from touching herself all night, even though her every waking moment had been filled with arousing images of her and Derek at the bar and in the refrigerator.
    Her short dreams when she had fallen asleep had been even worse than that. After only a few minutes of sleep she woke up, drenched in sweat, the apex of her legs throbbing with need.
    But the need Derek unleashed in her was so great that her hands had a mind of their own. Before she knew it she was touching herself, rubbing herself, pretending that Derek’s tongue was on her again. She imagined him in the shower with her, her legs wrapped around his waist while he drove into her, his strong arms supporting her weight, his tongue in her mouth.
    The orgasm hit her like a city bus and nearly knocked her down. She didn't want the tremors to end, not wanting the fantasy of Derek being with her to be erased when she opened her eyes.
    When she'd shampooed her hair and dried off, working to push all erotic thoughts away, Callie dressed in the most severe outfit she owned, a light pink suit. And yet, underneath the jacket, she wore a silk camisole.
    She didn’t intend to take her jacket off for the meeting—the suit was more like armor than clothes in her mind—and the white silk looked the best of anything she owned peeking out from underneath her jacket. Callie usually wore jeans and a t-shirt that said Callie’s Candies on it, so today she felt business-like and stern in her suit.
    Wolf followed her out of the bedroom and she let him into her little fenced backyard to take care of his business.
    “I’ll come back at lunch,” she called to him and he turned his furry face to hers, wagging his tail as if he understood.
    Downtown Saratoga, home to the famous horse races, was only ten minutes from her cottage. It had snowed