ear.
“Prove it to me.”
6
THIS WAS THE PROBLEM with wanting something as desperately as she wanted Caleb, Pandora mused. Once you got it, you had to figure out how the hell you were going to handle it.
“So what’s the plan?” Kathy asked from her perch in a chair by the glistening lights of the three-foot-high Christmas tree with its shimmering golden balls and little red bows. “Are you ready for tonight?”
Ready? Biting her lip, Pandora scanned the plethora of food spread over the counter of the tiny cottage she was renting. Walking distance from the store, she’d chosen it for its location. Asparagus and oysters, celery and ginseng and chocolate. A roast was marinating in red wine and mushroom caps were waiting to be stuffed. All the fixings for an aphrodisiac-rich dinner for two.
Completing the theme, she’d brought home a dozen red candles for passion and had frankincense incense waiting to light.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have him here,” she worried. “I mean, it’s like saying, ‘Hey, eat up fast. I’m horny and wanna do it.’”
“Well, it’s not like you could have him to dinner in the cafe. After all, you have a point to prove. And since it’s one of those naked kind of points, it’s better done in private, don’t you think?”
“Naked…” Pandora pressed her palm against her belly, trying to quiet the butterflies flinging themselves against the walls of her stomach as they attempted to escape. “What the hell was I thinking?”
“That Caleb Black would look mighty fine naked,” Kathy said with a wicked grin. Then her smile faded and she gave Pandora a searching look. “Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to go through with the evening if you don’t feel comfortable, you know. You can call it off, or just call it quits after dinner.”
A part of Pandora grabbed on to that exit option like a life-line. It was one thing to challenge Caleb face-to- face, when she was in the throes of sexual overload. But the idea of following through, here and now, once she’d had plenty of time to worry? That was something else entirely.
“I don’t want to call the evening off,” she decided. “I want this. I really do.”
Sorta. She wanted the fantasy of having mind-blowing sex with Caleb. The man was obviously a sexual god. He was gorgeous. He was mouthwateringly sexy. He had that bad-boy, done-it-all and gone-back-for-seconds vibe going on.
And her? The naughtiest thing on her sexual resume was wearing a see-through Santa nightie with black stiletto do-me boots.
“If you want him, and he wants you, then you’d be crazy to let nerves stop you. I mean, how many chances does a girl have for incredible sex?” Kathy challenged.
“Easy for you to say. You’ve already done one of the Black brothers,” Pandora retorted.
“Yes, I did,” Kathy said with a wicked smile, running her hand through the smooth curve of her hair. “Which is why I feel qualified to say do it, do it, do it.”
Pandora laughed. Living close to Kathy was her favorite benefit to being back in Black Oak. A girl needed her best friend when she was gathering up the nerve to get naked with a guy.
“Okay, let’s just say the night is great,” Pandora suggested, pacing over to the tree to rearrange the bows and balls on the crisp evergreen boughs. Can’t have the two gold balls next to each other, after all. It might ruin the ambience. “Say the sex is incredible. The best in my life. Maybe even one of his top ten. Multiple-orgasm, headboard-banging, seeing-stars incredible. Say it’s all that. What do I do then?”
After a long pause, Kathy got to her feet and headed for the tiny kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Pandora called after her.
“Getting a glass of ice water.”
“Seriously!”
“Seriously?” Kathy filled a cup with water from the pitcher in the fridge and gulped it down. “Seriously, then you’ll probably collapse in an exhausted, albeit very satisfied, heap.”
“But…” Pandora dropped onto the overstuffed chair, picking at the deep blue fabric with her fingernails. “But what if it’s so great I want more? How did you have the greatest sex of your life, then walk away?”
“It’s all about expectations,” Kathy said, setting her water aside and coming over to sit across from Pandora. She leaned forward, her pretty face serious. “You know going in that it’s special, that it’s just that once, and you ring every drop of pleasure from it possible. Like seeing Baryshnikov dance, or visiting Stonehenge or meeting Johnny Depp at Comic-Con last year. They were all amazing experiences, but you don’t expect to do them repeatedly, right?”
“What are the chances that sex with Caleb Black will be as good as Baryshnikov, Stonehenge and the amazing Johnny Depp all rolled into one experience?”
“I think the chances are pretty damn good.”
Pandora sank her head into the chair’s pillowed back and sighed. She thought so, too.
“Look, you deserve this. Every woman deserves this. One night of absolute pleasure, with no strings or worries or stress. Just wild and mindless sex, with no rules or expectations.”
“You think?”
“Don’t you?”
Pandora looked at the array of food covering the two short countertops. Her grandmother’s recipe book was there, too. Filled with recipes that had, so far, increased Moonspun Dreams’ coffers beyond her wildest dreams.
Despite her run-don’t-walk departure from all things associated with Black Oak and her mother, Pandora had been raised to believe certain things. And many of those tenets she still subscribed to wholeheartedly. Karma and the golden rule. Respecting nature and conserving resources. Prayer and faith. And as she’d told Caleb, she believed in what she did. In what the store offered.
Sure, she’d launched this aphrodisiac sideline as a desperate attempt to dig the store out of a financial pit. But obviously the aphrodisiacs worked. She saw proof five days a week between the hours of eleven and two, after all. All they required was a spark.
And even she had to admit, she’d definitely inspired a few sparks in Caleb.
“The bottom line is, do you want to do this?” Kathy prodded. “Or don’t you?”
A thousand arguments still running through her head, Pandora sighed. Yes, she wanted it. It being this night with Caleb. And more important, a chance to step out of the shadows and have a little excitement in her life. The kind she’d enjoy, not the kind that made her cringe.
Pandora bit her lip again, then squared her shoulders and headed for the kitchen to wash her hands.
“What are you doing?” Kathy asked.
“Getting dinner started.” She shot her friend a look of combined terror and excitement. “Who am I to deny myself the absolute pleasure I deserve?”
THREE HOURS LATER and that statement had become Pandora’s mantra.
“I deserve absolute pleasure,” she muttered to herself as she pulled a floaty black dress knitted of the softest cashmere over her shoulders and slipped the tiny mother-of-pearl buttons closed from cleavage to knee. The fabric molded gently over her breasts, showing just a hint of her red lace bra, and ended a few inches shy of her ankles, where she’d chosen to go barefoot except for a glistening ruby toe ring and gold anklet.
Not quite a see-through Santa nightie, she mused as she stared at her reflection, but it’d do. She fluffed her hair around her shoulders, added a smidge more mascara and took a deep breath.
“I do. I deserve absolute pleasure.” The reminder had turned into an affirmation about an hour ago, but like most law-of-attraction-type things, she knew it was basically useless without real belief behind the words.
So she’d fake it. A quick glance at the clock told her that Caleb was due in five minutes. Which meant that as appealing as hiding under the bed was, she’d better get the appetizers ready.
Pandora hurried from the room, checking to see that the fire was burning bright in the fireplace and that all the
