Erin McCarthy - Bad Boys Online

"Hi, it's me. How are things going there?" She held her breath waiting for the answer.

"Well." Nora hesitated.

Halley's stomach did a hokey-pokey imitation, shaking and churning. "Tell me."

"Okay. We've had sixteen calls requesting nude catering jobs. Three callers wanted to know if you could serve penis-shaped hors d'oeuvres, one thought he could order a prostitute complete with her own Cupid sex toy, and you remember Mr. Benjamin, that sweet old man whose eightieth birthday we catered last month? He wants a refund since we didn't serve nude at his party." Nora took a deep breath. "And I caught three of our servers printing fifty copies of the home page with your picture on it."

"Oh, no!" Halley sagged against the counter. She was ruined. Completely and utterly ruined. She might as well pack up and go back to the trailer park she had grown up in.

As a total failure.

Nora said in bewilderment, "Who would have thought so many people in suburban Pittsburgh want naked catering?"

That was a question for philosophers and Jerry Springer.

"Evan says he can fix it, so just try and stay calm. You're doing great." Which was more than she could say for herself since she had the urge to collapse on the kitchen floor in a fit of the screaming meemies.

"I shredded the copies the servers printed, but there's nothing to stop them from making more. You might want to reprimand them, it was"

Halley quickly cut her off. "No, that's okay." She really had no interest in which of her male employees had found it necessary to put on paper fifty copies of her naked body.

Which was not her naked body at all. Geez, that was the worst part of the whole thing. They had given her one of those figures that looked as if it was three or four different bodies welded together. Huge breasts, hourglass waist, curvy behind, and chicken legs.

Naked Catering Barbie. Complete with tray.

Besides, she had a hard time visualizing calling three men into her office and telling them to stop printing out nudie shots of her on company time with expensive office supplies. It sort of shot her advantage as their intimidating boss.

"One last thing," Nora said, her tentative voice betraying the casual words.

"What?" Halley paced back and forth in Evan's kitchen, skirting his overflowing trash can. Whatever Nora had to say, it couldn't get any worse.

She was ready.

"The church charity group called."

Oh, no. This was going to be worse.

"And?"

"They're canceling us for their five-hundred-seat event."

What would Evan do if she suddenly starting screaming "bloody hell" at the top of her lungs?

That charity dinner was five hundred times nineteen ninety-five a plate, which meant she was out a hell of a lot of money.

"They didn't even want to talk to me?" Maybe if she threw in free wine…

Nora said, "I tried to talk them out of canceling, I told them it was a hack job, but they didn't care."

She squeezed her eyes closed. "That's okay."

Her life was over, but it wasn't Nora's fault. Nora was clearly upset and Halley didn't want her to feel she was to blame. The Three Commandos were the ones to blame, and they were smarmy illusive Internet surfers, hacking their way through decent hardworking people's lives.

"I'll call you later." She hung up and ran a mental list of all the events they had coming up during the busy August and September wedding season. If even a fourth of them canceled, she was going to suffer from excess inventory, an unnecessarily large staff, and decreased income.

On a shaky sigh, she let the tears break free and roll down her cheek.

"Holy crap, you're not going to believe this." Evan came strolling into the kitchen, a grin dancing across his face.

Halley turned to hide her tears, but the smile collapsing into concern showed her he had already seen them.

He stopped dead and said, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Stupid man. What did he think was wrong? That she'd missed the JCPenney white sale?

"I have perfume in my eye."

"Perfume? In your eye?" He was coming closer to her, frowning as if he was doing some serious thinking.

"Yes. Perfume. In my eye." She bent over the sink and pretended to be rubbing around in her eye, trying to swipe away any remaining signs of her wimpy breakdown. His hands landed on her upper arms as he came up behind her.

Touching was bad. It was very, very bad. Touching meant that he was close to her and that with one little shift back, she could be flush against him, her curves melding into his hardness, his breath rushing past her ear. She could press her backside along his pants and feel him swell with arousal.

Wait a minute. He wouldn't swell with arousal. He would be shocked and horrified at her unfriendly behavior, and she would lose the best friend she'd ever had.

"Let me see."

He was right there. On top of her, cutting off her air and sending her into full-fledged panic. If he would just call her sport or give her a noogie, she'd be fine, but this sweet soft concern was more than she could handle.

"I've got it." Her voice wobbled a little.

Those strong hands forced her to turn around. She blinked like a myopic deer caught in the headlights. Turning her head a little, she tried to lean back away from him, not wanting to smell him or feel him, so she wouldn't embarrass herself by begging for a kiss.

"You're crying," he murmured, his thumb reaching up and wiping the last wet streaks from her cheeks.

"No, it's watering because I have an eyelash in it."

"I thought you said it was perfume."

Was he writing this stuff down? Geez. She glared at him. "Evan, I'm fine."

Then he kissed her nose. A sweet gentle dusting.

A funny little sigh came out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry about your site, you don't deserve that."

His lips brushed across hers, a soft caress that made her feel warm and gooey.

"What are you doing?" she whispered as his arms came around her back and drew her up against his hard, very uncovered chest.

"Comforting you."

It was working. She was so comforted her bones seemed to have dissolved like Alka-Seltzer in water. His thumbs rubbed her waist, his hip pressed against hers, and his mouth came toward hers again.

Evan had kissed her before in the past, and she was sure this wasn't any different. Light brushes for hello and goodbye, a full-mouth kiss when she'd graduated from college. Hugs when her grandmother had died. It was no big deal at all… no different.

Except this time his tongue was in her mouth.

Yowsa, that felt good.

It had started out the same, but now it was sweeter, deeper. Wet. A kiss that required open mouths, gripping hands, and rapid breathing.

Slow and steady, he dipped and tasted her, and Halley clung to his chest, too stunned to do anything but lie across him like a limp noodle. This was the last thing in the universe she had expected Evan to do, and even though it felt so damn good, she hesitated.

Evan's hands were in her hair, and he tilted his head to gain better access to her. Halley wondered briefly if this was how he comforted all his friends. Then she reminded herself she was his only female friend, and she didn't really care why he was kissing her, just that he was.

Her mom always said don't look a gift horse in the mouth. She had never known what in the hell that really meant, but she thought in this case it gave her permission to make out with Evan.

So she threw her arms around him and kissed him back for all she was worth.

Their mouths slid and pressed together, tongues intertwining in wet passion as they moved from soft to deep to reckless. It was the fullest, most meaningful kiss she'd ever had in her twenty-eight years, and when Evan's hands cupped her behind, she moaned into his mouth. Oooh, that was nice.