Sinfully Sweet

scattered, splattered and fried. What the hell was wrong with him? Clearly he, too, suffered from caffeine deprivation for the mere sight of her to knock him sideways like that. And why the hell was he still standing out here? Sinfully Sweet had been his destination. He had every reason to go into that store. And if he just happened to strike up a conversation with her, well, that was only the neighborly thing to do, right?

And as much as he might not like it or want to, he was feeling downright neighborly.

Pulling in a bracing breath, he rolled his shoulders, then walked purposefully toward Sinfully Sweet’s glass door.

2

THE INSTANT CARLIE stepped inside Sinfully Sweet, her senses were inundated with chocolate, coaxing a moan of pleasure from her throat. Decadent treats beckoned from behind the counter and tempted from a colorful display of foil-wrapped hearts in the center of the store. She inhaled, filling her head with the luscious, mouth- watering aroma. She could almost hear the delectable sweets chanting, Taste me, taste me.

Oh boy, this upscale store was the last place a self-confessed chocoholic on a tight budget should be, but after seeing the newspaper ad announcing the grand opening and the intriguing Valentine’s Day promotion, she’d been unable to resist the temptation. She could resist a lot of things, but chocolate wasn’t one of them. Nor was the chance to win a fabulous Valentine’s dinner date at The Delaford’s five-star restaurant. One glimpse inside Sinfully Sweet let her know that her willpower not to overspend would be sorely tested.

Just think about the whopper tuition you still have to pay, her inner voice advised. And the freakishly expensive text books you need.

Right. As if she could forget. With another year to go before she earned her bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy, and the added burden of having to shoulder the house’s entire rent payment after her friend Missy had eloped two days before they were supposed to move in together, money was tight. Certainly tighter than she’d envisioned it being by the time she was twenty-eight, but as she’d discovered, life had a habit of throwing curve balls when you expected a nice, easy slider.

Still, she wouldn’t let anything keep her from finishing her degree, then securing the job she’d dreamed of-one where she’d help people who faced challenges helping themselves. Like her grandfather, whose stroke ten years ago had set her on the course she’d chosen for herself. And whose recovery continued to inspire her to this day.

At first she’d considered not moving into the house, but given that she would have lost two month’s rent and her security deposit, not to mention the fact that she desperately wanted a place with a yard for P.B. and J., she’d moved in, thinking she’d look for another roommate. But after enjoying a few weeks of just her and the puppies, she’d stopped looking and tightened her financial belt in other places to make up the difference.

Indulging in gourmet chocolates had been one of the luxuries she’d painfully axed. Good for her piggybank, but tragic as far as her taste buds were concerned.

But surely after two months of denying herself, of surviving on supermarket chocolate, she deserved a small treat. Right? Her gaze zeroed in on a display of imported truffles and her mouth watered. Oh, God, something from Belgium would be so fabulous…

Clasping her hands together, she closed her eyes and drew in another delicious breath, vaguely aware of the door opening and closing behind her, then the sound of approaching footsteps.

“Wow, it smells really good in here.”

Her eyes popped open as she instantly recognized the deep, husky voice coming from directly behind her, and with a quick intake of startled breath, she whirled around. Less than an arm’s length away stood Daniel Montgomery, her very attractive neighbor. Who looked very attractive indeed in a dark blue flannel shirt that did great things for his hazel eyes rimmed by his black rectangular-framed glasses and a pair of faded jeans that did great things for everything else. Her very attractive neighbor who had, since the minute she first saw him, the weirdest effect on her pulse. Who rendered her either tongue-tied or turned her into a blathering dolt. And who, except for the holes P.B. and J. kept digging in his yard, didn’t even know she existed. And even if he did, what difference did it make? He had a girlfriend. She’d seen them sharing a kiss on his front porch the day she moved in. Plus, he was moving.

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-