Free Read Novels Online Home

Sweet Like Candy (Erotic Intentions Book 2) by Ella Fox (1)

Chapter One

It was the Friday before my nephew’s fourth birthday and I’d been recruited to run errands for my sister who was preparing for the party. I admit to being a little put-out about having to leave the office, drive out to my sister’s to get my nephew, only to then turn back to drive all the way back to a bakery located a mere two blocks from my office. My sister raved about their stuff, but I’d never ventured in even though she’d been bugging me about it for months. With my work schedule as extreme as it was, I didn’t have a lot of time to hit up bakeries.

I’d agreed to cut out of work and do the errand because Emmett, as my only nephew, was my special dude. I adored my nieces but Emmett and I shared a unique connection. Also, my sister would’ve given me a purple nurple if I hadn’t agreed to do her bidding and that shit hurt like hell.

Jamie might’ve been a married mother of three with a fourth on the way, but she would always be my much-loved bossy older sister. The two of us were best friends, our bond unbreakable after we lost our parents and our little brother Steven in a car accident. I’d been sixteen and Jamie was eighteen when it happened.

Jamie had fought for guardianship of me, never once wavering in her decision, not even when I begged her to leave me behind. It had killed me to watch my sister giving up her college scholarship in order to get a job waitressing to support us both. Our parents hadn’t been rich—far from it—so they hadn’t had life insurance or anything left behind to keep us going. The remaining car was repossessed and the lease on the townhome we rented hadn’t been something Jamie could afford to keep up with.

I’d gotten a job as a cashier at the local Walmart in order to help, but it hadn’t made much of a difference since I wasn’t allowed to work near as much as I needed to. My sister had been a machine, her one and only focus being my ability to get a college scholarship. Because of her focus and guidance I had. I was very aware I owed it all to her. It was a large part of the reason I worked like a fucking madman, always anxious to increase my bottom line. Just in case. I was extremely well off, but it never felt like enough. Even after Jamie married a man who was more than able to take care of her, I kept right on working like a fiend. Again, just in case. What if something happened to her husband and they needed something? I needed the stability money brought and at this point I accepted it and embraced it. Work was good. I had little to no social life but it didn’t bother me. My sister was the only one who never seemed to get the memo that I liked being alone.

As if she knew the direction of my thoughts she looked up at me and smiled. I knew she thought the smile was innocent but I wasn’t fooled by it.

“Guess what?” she asked cheerfully.

I knew my sister, which meant I had a very good idea of what was coming my way. I said nothing and waited for her to inform me of whatever her new fix-up plan for me was.

“Harrison’s friend Mike’s new secretary is coming tomorrow,” she announced while I belted Emmett into his car seat. “She’s adorable and super single.”

Ding, ding, ding. My sister was nothing if not reliable. I smirked and glanced back at her over my shoulder at her. “You realize you’re about as subtle as a wrecking crew, right?”

She shrugged. “I’m through trying to be subtle—I’m worried about you,” she replied sternly. “It’s insane to me that you don’t date. I don’t want you to end up alone, Ry.”

“I like being alone, JJ,” I reminded her.

“Come on, Ry, it’s been years,” she huffed. “You have to miss…”

Little ears were listening, so JJ spelled out the word S-E-X. I straightened up from belting Emmett in and set my arm on the hood of the car as I rolled my eyes at my sister.

“And yet I really don’t.”

I wasn’t lying, either. I didn’t miss it. Not at all.

“That’s just wrong,” she argued. “You’re twenty-eight but you act ninety. No red-blooded male just forgets about S-E-X.”

“I haven’t forgotten about it,” I answered. (actually, I thought maybe I had, for all intents and purposes, but I just didn’t care.

“It’s only been like…”

I trailed off, frowning as I tried to remember how long it had been. Yep. I actually had forgotten. My career was my life and I put it ahead of everything but my sister and her family. Otherwise, I lived to work and worked to live. There was no room for anything else.

“Four years,” JJ provided in exasperation.

I tapped my fingers against the roof of the car and shrugged. “It’s not right to date and give people an idea of things that are never going to happen. I’m never getting married or having kids and meaningless S-E-X isn’t enjoyable at all.”

It really wasn’t, and I was somewhat of an expert on it seeing as I’d never had sex with anyone I felt connected to. I’d lost my virginity my senior year in college to someone I’d dated for a short period of time. The feelings weren’t there and the sex was lackluster. Since then, I’d had a grand total of three partners. In my opinion there was almost nothing worse than being skin to skin with someone you didn’t have feelings for. I found it uncomfortable and, to be completely honest, a bit depressing.

JJ said my walls were built to high and I had to acknowledge that she wasn’t necessarily wrong. I knew a lot of it had to do with my frame of mind—mainly that I didn’t want children. The chance of finding someone who wanted the same things I did was about a million to one, so I kept my heart protected because it was easier. The worst thing would’ve been to develop feelings for someone who wanted a family. I had never once felt the desire to be a father and that was a big deal to me. I believed being a parent was something you should want with your whole heart. If you didn’t feel it, having children was downright cruel. I was a lot of things, but cruel wasn’t one of them.

“You’re too firm about that meaningless thing,” Jamie argued. “At least it would be human contact. Dating your fist isn’t normal.”

“I don’t date my fist,” I answered stiffly.

I didn’t, either. In fact, I hadn’t taken myself in hand for months, maybe even as long as a year. I knew my lack of sexual interest was due to my having a low sex drive. In my opinion, there were worse things in life than not banging my way through the town or jerking it incessantly.

“What’s that mean?” Emmett called out from the backseat. “Unca Ry dates his fist?”

I pursed my lips to keep from laughing out loud as my sister gaped at her son.

“Emmett!” She scolded. “That’s not what I said. Don’t listen to adult conversations.”

“Yeah it is. The door’s open, Mommy,” he pointed out with a giggle. “I has good ears.”

“Well, I mean… good Lord!” Jamie sputtered and glared at me before looking back to Emmett. “Your ears heard wrong, honey. That’s not what I said.”

“Sure, Mommy. Whatever you say,” Emmett said cheerfully. “Can me go get my bots cake now? Your talkin’ is boring.”

I wanted to high-five my nephew right then. If he hadn’t put the kibosh on it, my sister would’ve talked my ear off for an hour about potential fix-ups. Jamie was a machine where I was concerned. No matter what I said she maintained an opinion that it was an absolute abomination that I wasn’t out searching for someone to plant my seed in.

Emmett chattered the whole way to the bakery about his party and his friends at school, and I laughed a lot at his funny stories. I’d never have any of my own, but I adored my sister’s children. They were all amazing, hilarious and so damn smart.

I held onto Emmett’s hand as we walked from my car—a formerly pristine Mercedes that my nephew had just spilled red juice in—toward the bakery. I loved the kid like crazy but damn was I sad about that juice, especially since the car was only nine days old. Fortunately the interior was black, so the juice stain wouldn’t be obvious. I made a mental note to make an appointment to have the car detailed.

As we approached the store I looked through the window and everything just stopped, including my steps. All thoughts of juice and car cleaning appointments went right out the window.

There on the other side of the glass was a woman wiggling her sexy ass along to a beat as she wiped down the front of a display case. The rear view of her was the hottest thing I’d ever seen, so damn alluring my mouth started to water. I wondered if she was one of those girls who thought they were fat, and prayed that wasn’t the case because I fucking loved her curves on sight. As I continued watching her, I discounted the idea that she would be that type of woman, since she seemed quite comfortable in her body. I wanted her to wiggle that sexy as fuck ass in front of me for hours and what’s more, I wanted her to be doing it naked.

I had to force my eyes away from her rear before I started drooling all over the fucking sidewalk. I slowly lifted my eyes up her body, watching as her ponytail moved back and forth across her back while she cleaned. I had a tremendous urge to walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist, set my chin on her shoulder and ask her how her day had been. It was insane, considering I didn’t know her and had never so much as seen her face. As I got closer to the door I studied her hands, smiling when I saw no rings. It was ridiculous the amount of anxiety I felt even thinking that this woman I hadn’t even met might be involved with someone else.

“Is we goin’ in or what?” Emmett asked as he tugged at my hand.

I nodded, my eyes never leaving the vision in front of me.

“Oh yeah, buddy. We’re definitely going in,” I said as I surreptitiously adjusted myself in my pants.

The low sex drive I’d been so sure about? It was instantly a thing of the past. I was as aroused as I’d ever been and the only thing I could think about was marking my territory in the most sexual of ways. A part of me realized that shit was getting real and that I was absolutely out of my depth, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was her.

Making her mine was all that mattered.