Janelle Denison - Sinfully Sweet

Figures. First time in three years she had a straight guy for a neighbor, one who was actually cute, not to mention intelligent, and patient-as proven by his run-ins with P.B. and J.-and who wasn’t a whacko. And he was taken. Although from what she could see, all the good ones were taken. It seemed that lately the only sort of men she attracted were jerks who thought that “massage therapist” was another name for Woman Who Wants to be Groped and Leered At.

Daniel Montgomery had certainly never leered at her. Or so much as looked at her with anything other than exasperation and mild annoyance. Not that she could blame him, what with the mess the puppies made in his yard. And not that she was complaining about the lack of a leer. Heck, no. She hated to be leered at.

But still, the guy could have at least looked . You know, in an admiring, complimentary sort of way.

Sort of like he was…doing right now?

Her heart performed a jiggly little dance and she blinked. Surely the sunlight streaming through the window had obscured her vision. She blinked again and ridiculous disappointment flooded her. Yup, the sun had indeed played tricks on her because that wasn’t an admiring look at all. No, it was more like confusion. Like he’d never seen her before. The sun must have messed with his vision, too.

His befuddled expression prompted her to say, “Hi, Daniel. It’s, uh, me. Carlie.” Uh, oh. Tongue-tied time .

He seemed to snap out of whatever dazed state he’d fallen into-probably a result of the chocolate sensory overload-and nodded. “I know. Hi, Carlie.”

Just the way he said her name, in that soft, raspy way, hiked up her temperature a few degrees. His nod had sent his black-rimmed glasses slipping down his nose and he pushed them back up with a practiced gesture while Carlie pressed her lips together to suppress the feminine sigh that rose to her lips. Darn it, there was absolutely no logical explanation why she should be so turned on by those nerdy glasses of his, but for some mystifying reason she found them incredibly erotic. One look at him, and all she could think about was planting a kiss on him that would steam up his lenses but good.

Which was really inexplicable as Daniel Montgomery was soooo totally not her type. She liked jocks, and while it appeared that Daniel was in good shape, he had “computer geek” written all over him. From what she could tell, he spent most of his time in his house, no doubt sitting in front of his PC since he’d once mentioned some sort of home-based computer business. Probably got his jollies counting gigabytes or pixels or whatever the heck they were. Oddly, none of that hadn’t stopped her crazy attraction to him. Maybe she was suffering from some freakish hormone imbalance, ’cause, really, give her an athletic, outdoorsy kind of guy any day.

Not that she’d had much luck lately with athletic, outdoorsy sorts, but hey, she’d find Mr. Right eventually. Someday. Probably. Maybe she’d even meet him by winning Sinfully Sweet’s Valentine’s Day contest. Which she should really go check out instead of staring at Daniel. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. And really, he could always stop staring at her in that very distracting way and get the conversational ball rolling here.

He cleared his throat. “So…how’re P.B. and J.?”

“You mean my dogs?” She swallowed a groan and barely refrained from smacking herself on the forehead. Oh, brilliant reply . But damn it, he shouldn’t be asking her these complicated questions right after he’d knocked her silly with his unexpected appearance.

His lips quirked. “Well, why don’t we start with them and then move on to all the other P.B. and J.’s we know?”

That hint of a smile drew her attention to his mouth. His incredibly tempting, beautiful mouth. She didn’t know if there was such a thing as a male mouth model, but if there was, Daniel would reach superstar status. His well-formed lips somehow managed to look soft and firm at the same time. Like something that both angels and the devil himself had fashioned purely to see if a heavenly/wicked ideal could be achieved-and they’d met with spectacular success. Like the chocolate, his mouth seemed to beckon her with the same seductive chant: Taste me, taste me .

She jerked her gaze back up to his, then licked her own lips in an effort to get them working since they’d apparently forgotten how to form words. “The puppies…they’re, um, fine. Great. Safely secured inside my house.”

He wiped his brow with an exaggerated gesture. “Whew. My backyard just breathed a sigh of relief.”

Then he smiled, a sort of lopsided grin that in spite of not being perfectly symmetrical was somehow utterly…perfect. A smile that creased a pair of sexy dimples in his cheeks that her fingers-and lips-positively itched to explore.

Everything female in her stood up at attention and quivered.

“What brings you to Sinfully Sweet?” he asked.

She leaned a bit closer-certainly not to get a whiff of him-but to confide in a conspiratorial whisper, “I’m afraid I have a weakness for chocolate.” She leaned back and suppressed an oooooh of pleasure. He smelled great. Clean. Fresh. Masculine. Delicious.

“A weakness for chocolate, huh? Doesn’t everyone?”

She laughed, proud that she managed to sound so cool when she felt like she stood over a barbeque spit. “You, too?”

“Fraid so.” Something that looked decidedly heated and hungry and, well, admiring, flickered in his gaze. “Among other things.”

Whoa. If she didn’t know better, she’d say her sexy, nerdy neighbor whose smile had damn near stopped her heart was flirting with her. She instantly discarded the annoyingly pulse-quickening thought. The last thing she needed was any more useless Daniel-induced fantasies running naked through her mind.

Er, make that just running through her mind.

Right. Because naked was not a word she should even be thinking while Daniel was around. Of course not. Why, with the guy sitting in front of a computer screen all day, he probably looked all soft and squishy naked.

Although…

Her eyeballs stole a surreptitious glance down his form. His rolled back shirt sleeves revealed some very nice forearms. And his chest looked strong, his shoulders wide and sturdy. And the way he filled out those jeans, well, there didn’t appear to be anything soft or squishy about that .

Before she could ponder further on the fascinating fade patterns on his Levi’s, she looked up and met his gaze-a gaze filled with an expression that made it clear he knew he’d just been majorly ogled.

Embarrassment erupted hot tingles under her skin, and she pressed her lips together to keep from blurting out something that would cause the medical examiner to list “Died of Acute Mortification” on her death certificate. Something like I wasn’t really ogling you. I was just trying to picture you naked.

Silence swelled between them for several long seconds, with Carlie cursing the ridiculous effect this man had on her. No one had ever thrown her into this tongue-tied/babbling state before, and damn it, she didn’t like it. When a soft feminine voice behind her said, “Good morning,” she gratefully jerked her gaze away from Daniel and turned, feeling as if she’d been thrown a lifeline to keep from drowning in the Pool of Humiliation.

A petite, attractive woman who appeared to be in her early fifties, wearing a white apron with Sinfully Sweet embroidered across the top, smiled at them.

“Welcome to Sinfully Sweet,” the woman said, her brown-eyed gaze filled with warmth and what appeared to be lively speculation as it bounced between her and Daniel. “I’m Ellie Fairbanks, the owner, and I’m delighted you’ve come for the grand opening. May I help you?”