Chocolate Kisses Read Online Free

layers. To her surprise, Ned
blocked her path. “You like chocolate better than vanilla?” he asked.
    “No,”
she lied.
    “But
you think complicated is better than virginal.”
    She
felt her cheeks grow warm. “I’m sorry I said that.”
    “I’m
not.” He skimmed his finger along the surface of the bowl once more. “This is
the most complicated chocolate I’ve ever tasted. Maybe that’s why I like it so
much.”
    “Well,
enjoy yourself,” she said, moving to step around him.
    Before
she could stop him, he poked his chocolate-covered finger into her mouth. Her
eyes widened with shock, but her tongue reflexively lapped the tangy sweetness
from his skin. His sensual grin caused her cheeks to grow hotter. A feverish
flush spread through her body.
    She
opened her mouth and backed away. “Mr. Wyatt—”
    “Uh-oh,”
he said, still grinning. “That’s an extremely vanilla reaction.”
    “I’d
just as soon keep things vanilla between us,” she said, trying to forget the
erotic sensation of his finger between her lips, trying to convince herself
she’d responded not to the smooth, hard texture of his fingertip but to the
chocolate blanketing it. “I don’t even know you.”
    “I
don’t know you, either,” he conceded, “but I think I’m beginning to understand
what a fantasy feast is all about.” He traced a writhing line through the
thickening vestiges of chocolate in the bowl. “Come on—share it with me.” He
extended his finger toward her.
    “Really,
Ned—”
    He
brushed his fingertip along the curve of her lower lip. Her muscles grew
suddenly, treacherously tense as he smoothed the warm, fluid chocolate across
her lip. Her breathing grew shallow, her hips taut as his gaze bore down on
her, his eyes glittering with green and gray and amber as he ran his finger
slowly over her mouth.
    She
sucked on her lower lip, removing the chocolate with her teeth and then her
tongue. His smile faded as he leaned toward her. He was going to kiss her, and
for a crazed moment she wanted him to.
    With
a small, helpless moan, she spun away. “You’d better leave,” she murmured.
    She
heard him exhale. He drummed his fingers against the counter. A faint laugh
escaped him. “I left my bike at Wyatt Hall.”
    She
didn’t dare to look at him. She knew that if she did she would once again
succumb to that aching expectation, that yearning for his kiss. “I’ll drive you
there.”
    “You’ve
got cakes in the oven.”
    “I’ll
drive you there when they’re done.”
    “You’re
the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
    That
got a guffaw from her. “If you want to sweet-talk me, you’re going to have to
do better than that.”
    “Would
my efforts be worth it?”
    Grinning,
she shook her head. “I have a lot of work to do. I didn’t invite you here so I
could listen to blarney.”
    “ Blarney? ”
he echoed, incredulous. ” Blarney? St. Patrick’s Day is next month,
sweetheart.”
    She
sidled past him and opened an oven door. “When your last name is Mulcahey,
you’re allowed to say ‘blarney’ whenever you want.”
    “Is
that a fact?”
    “On
the other hand,” she continued, testing one of the cake layers, “when your last
name is Wyatt, you’re not allowed to say ‘blarney’ at all.”
    “We
WASPs use a much cruder term,” he said. “Something to do with bovine digestive
systems.”
    “Your
word will do as well as mine. They both describe the line you just handed me.”
    “It
wasn’t a line,” he declared, cupping his hand over her shoulder and urging her
around to face him. “You’re a beautiful woman.”
    He
sounded much too sincere. And for a few mindless moments, she could believe
that he thought she was beautiful.
    “Do
you honestly want to keep things vanilla between us?” he asked, his voice low
and husky.
    No,
she wanted to cry out. No, she wanted to make things as complicated as
chocolate. But while she could allow herself a brief, reckless daydream, she