Sweet Like Candy Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Epilogue

  Sweet Like Candy

  An Erotic Intentions Novella

  Ella Fox

  Sweet Like Candy

  by

  Ella Fox

  © 2018

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information and retrieval system without express written permission from the Author/Publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 2018 by Ella Fox (originally published as Evie Harrison in 2016)

  Cover Design: Perfect Pear Creative Covers

  Editing: Gemma Rowlands

  Created with Vellum

  Author Note

  Erotic Intentions are short, sweet, insta-love books that are meant to steam up your reading device and melt your heart. No drama, no angst— just lust, love and some smoking hot sex.

  Please note that Sweet Like Candy was previously published under the pen name Evie Harrison in 2016.

  Contents

  Author Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

  Sin’s Temptation Excerpt

  About the Author

  Also by Ella Fox

  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 did
n’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.

  Chapter Two

  I was starving and exhausted, which was to be expected after almost a dozen hours at work with only three hurried bathroom breaks and one slice of pizza I’d eaten hours before. I was counting down the seconds until I could lock the door and leave for the night. Less than thirty minutes separated me from turning the closed sign to face out and I couldn’t wait.

  I worked at Sweet Like Candy, a bakery and candy emporium. The shop was one of my happy places, which meant work was a joy and not a burden. My schedule normally allowed for an hour-long lunch break and all the delicious treats I could eat, but not that day. This was due to it being a Friday, and one where we’d had a ton of orders to fill. The shop had been slammed with non-stop customers picking up orders, calling in with requests and, of course, there were also deliveries.

  We’d normally have been just as busy but the day had gone completely off the rails the moment both our delivery crew members called out with food poisoning. Never had I been so glad to have skipped out on the all-you-can-eat wing night at the pub they went to after work on Thursdays. Having the delivery guys out meant that my boss, Gina, had to drive the van to deliver the most elaborate wedding cake of the day since it was her creation. This also meant she had to take two shop assistants with her, due to the weight and size of the cake. One of us always went with the event cakes in case there was on-site work that needed to be done. Things got worse when the afternoon manager, Mac, called out with food poisoning, too. By that point I’d been cursing the stupid pub in my head a million times over.

  With Gina doing delivery duty and Mac out, I was left manning the store on our busiest day of the week with only two high school girls to help at the counter and our elderly secretary manning the phones. The day had been long and stressful, but I still found the joy in it. I was lucky to be starting a weeklong vacation after one more day of work, which meant I had something to look forward to. Although I’d resisted when Gina ordered me to take time off, I found myself more excited for it than I’d originally anticipated. I’d even gone ahead and booked myself an entire day at the spa.

  Since it was the end of the day and there had only been one order left for pick up, I’d let the rest of the staff go home at five o’clock. I hummed along with the song on the radio as I finished cleaning the inside of the display cases before working my way around the counter to wipe the exterior. Toni Basil’s Mickey began playing over the speaker as I sprayed the glass. The song gave me a little extra pep in my step and I found myself bobbing along to the beat as I wiped away the handprints that had been left throughout the day. I was shaking my rear end as I worked a particular sticky set of handprints when the chime sounded announcing a customer.

  “Just one second,” I called over my shoulder. “I’m almost finished.”

  After one last good swipe of the glass, I turned to face the customer with a smile. “Welcome to Sweet Like…”

  My sentence trailed off when I came face-to-face with a man who I was drawn to in the most elemental of ways. He was tall, maybe six foot two or so. He had a short beard and dulce de leche colored hair. When I looked into his eyes, I found they were focused on me intently. His lips moved as he mouthed the word wow. He was wearing a pair of navy blue dress pants and a white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Never had a set of forearms looked more attractive. We stared at each other for countless seconds before the sound of a little boy talking broke it up.

  I’d been so caught up in staring at the man that I hadn’t realized he had a little boy with him. Looking down, I saw a blonde haired child with a giant smile and two perfect dimples holding the man’s hand. My shoulders sagged with disappointment as my cheeks flushed. I was unreasonably devastated that the man was clearly married, with a young child. If
only I’d met him before, I thought.

  “You’re here for the robot cake, right?” I asked with forced enthusiasm.

  The man’s eyes never left me as he nodded. “Uh… yeah. Right… robots.”

  He seemed dazed, but his voice was sexy and deep. Something about it set off butterflies inside of me. It was like I’d been waiting to hear it my whole life. I mentally chided myself for thinking such thoughts about a married man with a child. Forcing myself into action, I turned and walked behind the counter. I’d gotten the cake out before I started cleaning, which meant it was right next to the register.

  The little boy lit up when I lifted the lid to show him the cake. He tugged at his father’s pant leg and shouted, “Up! Up! Pick up!”

  I grinned at his enthusiasm. The cake was quite something, decorated with robots and gears, it was a little boy’s paradise. I had worked for hours to get the fondant figures to look just so, and I was proud of the cake. Right at the top it read Happy Birthday Emmett.

  I smiled across the counter at the sweet little boy who was on his father’s hip as he clapped excitedly. “Look! Thems is my ‘bots!”

  The man was staring at me like there was going to be a test later. He blinked down at his son, almost like he’d forgotten he was even there.

  “That’s right, Emmett. Those are your robots, just like you wanted and they’re awesome,” he said. “You think I can eat the blue one after you blow out the candles tomorrow?”

  The boy’s brow furrowed in concentration. “How many ‘bots is there?”

  The man looked back down at the cake. “There’s yellow, blue, green, gray, and white,” he noted. “When I point to the robot, you count.”