Virgin's Passion Read online

  “His mouth?” she repeated, looking up at me with those gorgeous eyes.

  “Yeah. I had to keep Bob from punching it in. I’ll clean up toner ink all day, but keep the blood away from me.”

  She smiled as I guided her in the direction of the dining area where there were more people and lights. Once we were back in the restaurant, I looked to where the VP’s and supervisors were sitting and saw the deflated looks as Patty handed Candace her purse.

  “You’re in good hands, Candace.” She winked at me. “James will make sure you get home.”

  As we walked outside, I watched Candace take a couple deep breaths and pull the pins from her hair. It fell down her back like thick, black ink.

  “The fresh air feels good,” she sighed. “Thanks for getting me out of there.”

  “My pleasure.”

  “I can get a cab.”

  “On a Friday night? You might be standing out here until Potter decides to call it a night. My car is parked around the corner. Let me give you a ride home.”

  I could see the wheels turning in her head. She wanted to accept but was probably used to guys offering a ride home and then expecting something in return.

  “If it makes any difference, I’m too exhausted to turn on the charm. After I drop you off I plan on picking up some burritos and watching basketball in my underwear until I fall asleep in my recliner.”

  That made Candace laugh. “That’s a pleasant visual.”

  I grinned. “Great. I’ll take your blatant disregard for my feelings as a yes to my offer to drive you home. This way.” I waved her on and we slowly walked together around the corner.

  The department had given me a beater to fit my persona. It was a simple Nissan that got good gas mileage but was a wallflower, utterly forgettable.

  “Where do you live?” I asked as I pulled onto the road. I was hoping she’d tell me some far-off suburb that had backed-up traffic, making the trip at least an hour. But when she told me her address, I was shocked.

  “That’s kind of a rough neighborhood, isn’t it?”

  “Parts of it can get a little hairy.” She rolled the window down and let the cool breeze pull through her hair. “But I live in a nice place. Plus, I don’t really have a lot, so there isn’t much anyone would want to steal.”

  That was the understatement of the decade. With a body like hers, she had plenty to covet. I was suddenly hit with a sense of responsibility toward her.

  “Does your boyfriend live close by?”

  “Boy, you guys at ABF are so smooth.” She laughed.

  It wasn’t my best attempt at subtlety, admittedly, but she’d said you guys. “Who else asked you?”

  “Ruth. Before she gave me all the details about tonight. She wanted to know if he’d be joining me.”

  “Well, I hope he wasn’t there to see me abscond with his woman,” I replied, figuring I might as well keep openly digging.

  “I don’t have a boyfriend.” Candace glanced out the window. “You didn’t abscond with anything.”

  “I’m surprised.”

  “Why?” She looked back at me and her eyes narrowed with obvious suspicion.

  “Because you’re funny.”

  From the look on her face, Candace hadn’t expected me to say that. Her raised eyebrows informed me she was skeptical.

  “I get it.” I nodded, refocusing on the road even as I felt her eyes on me like a physical heat. “You’re used to guys noticing the obvious. Let’s not pull punches. It’s impossible not.”

  The heat grew uncomfortably intense, not necessarily in a pleasant way, and I went on quickly, “But I meant it. You figure, enough makeup and clothes and whatever and anyone can look good. Maybe not as good as you, but good. But to be sharp and funny and self-deprecating?” I shrugged. “You can’t buy that.”

  “Wow,” she said after a moment, as I felt the tension easing between us. Not the sexual one, mind you. My body wasn’t about to let that desire go, even if I wasn’t about to make her feel awkward about it. But the general comfort level improved drastically.

  “You just won major points,” Candace finally said. “Thanks.”

  I smiled. “Awesome. So how about I cash in some of those points right away and you tell me something about yourself?”

  “There isn’t much to talk about,” she answered. “I moved here a while ago. I’ve got no family to speak of. I like quiet evenings and a good book. It’s not a scintillating backstory.”

  Her words will still a little slurry, but my well-practice investigator’s sense told me she was holding something back. And why not, really? We were just coworkers. Not even really that. I was the janitor in the building she worked at. Geez, when I looked at it that way, it was quite discouraging. A woman like her wouldn’t want anything to do with a shlub who cleaned toilets.

  “What about you?” she asked. “I’ll bet you’ve got a wild past of breaking hearts and bar brawls.”

  I chuckled—but I couldn’t tell her the truth either.

  “You give me too much credit.” I wanted to be honest, except that I might jeopardize the past eighteen months of surveillance. And my job. “I’m pretty quiet. I visit my mom once a month.”

  That was the truth. Undercover or not, I always made time to stop and see her. “She lives in a retirement home. She has her own place, but they all meet for meals and go to the casinos and shop.”

  “Is she happy there?”

  “She is.” I nodded. “I wouldn’t let her stay there if she wasn’t.”

  Candace smiled. “More brownie points.”

  “She’s also an incurable gossip,” I informed her. “The only thing she likes more than reading is finding out other people’s business. I’m surprised people her age have so much going on, honestly.”

  “Just because the world thinks you’re one thing, that doesn’t make it so.”

  ‘That’s very true.”

  As much as I hated to admit it, I was falling for this woman. It wasn’t logical. As beautiful as she was, we’d spent next to not time together. And even if she did feel some kind of mutual attraction, what would our imaginary relationship even be like? We were both lying. I didn’t know what her story was, but mine involved having lived as James the Janitor for so long that I didn’t know what would happen when the case finally made its way through the courts, if it ever did. Who would I be after that?

  As we drove, she took my mind off those dark thoughts by telling me about her friend at the library, who turned out to be my friend Katy. What a small world. She and Zac had gotten married when I started this investigation. I saw no double dates in our future, however.

  “You’d like them if you met them,” Candace commented. “But Zac is the complete opposite of you.”

  That was an understatement.

  “What you mean?” I lied some more.

  “Well, you come across as a little more intellectual. I don’t mean he’s dumb. I just think you’re probably smarter than he is in certain situations. My apartment is the third one on the left. It has the round lamps.” She pointed.

  She made my night telling me I was smarter than Zac. I knew I was, but it was nice to see someone else notice.

  “Thanks again for bringing me home. I do appreciate it.”

  “What floor do you live on?” I asked. The building wasn’t the greatest, and I was hoping she lived on the top floor, for safety.

  “I have the garden apartment in back.” She pulled her keys from her purse. “Would you like to come in and see it?”

  She looked at me like she was searching for something.

  “I’d love to but …”

  “But?”

  “But it’s getting late.” I sounded like a complete idiot. But she was drunk, right? It was the gentlemanly thing to do. Right?

  “I suppose it is.” She looked down at her keys. Then, before I could change my mind she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. Her lips were like petals that had been warmed by the sun and I instinctively
touched it with my fingers, basking in the soft heat, so unlike the intense chemistry that still pulsed hot and heavy between us.

  Candace watched me, an unfamiliar shyness crossing her lovely face. “I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that—”

  “No,” I cut in. All my lies and worries about what could or couldn’t be fell by the wayside. I wasn’t about to let her think I wasn’t interested. Hell, no.

  I slipped my arm around her waist and pulled her to me, tipping her chin up and sinking into her full, soft lips. When her tongue immediately met mine, I groaned hungrily and pulled her closer yet. Her fingers roamed through my hair, tugging at the nape of my neck as she returned each passionate kiss.

  The idea of following her into her garden apartment crossed my mind. But then, like a bucket of ice water, I remembered why I was driving her home in the first place. She’d had too much to drink. I applied the brakes.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I’m sorry.” Again, I felt like an idiot. “I just don’t think we should rush anything. You had a little to drink tonight.”

  “I guess you’re right.” She smoothed her blouse—my eyes followed her hands jealously—and pulled back. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

  “No. That isn’t it at all. You made me feel, uh, very comfortable. Maybe we could try this again some other day?

  “Maybe.” She tucked her purse underneath her arm and climbed out of the car, her face still flushed from our kiss, but also obviously from embarrassment. Before I could say anything else she walked away, straight into her building.

  I sat there in my car, gritting my teeth at the sad look I’d caught in her eyes. “Nice, James. Smooth moves, buddy. So smooth you just ice-skated into the side of a tree.”

  I drove home in misery.

  Once I got home I made a can of soup, checked my email, and braced myself for the phone call I didn’t want to make.

  “Hey, James. The chief said you were going to call.” Rodriguez’s voice sounded like Darth Vader on the phone but he was just a thin, sinewy geek in real life. Actually, I shouldn’t say that. He had a good reputation and it wasn’t that I didn’t like the man. I just hated having a babysitter.

  It didn’t take long for me to get him up to speed.

  “That’s it,” I concluded. “I anticipate there being a break within the next few weeks. The audits are coming up, as well as that new legislation I know these guys are definitely not looking forward to.

  “I’ll pick up the files tomorrow,” he informed me.

  “I’ll bring them in a gym bag. Usual place?”

  “Yeah. Good night, James.” He hung up, leaving me in my cold, empty apartment, mulling over the girl I’d hurt tonight and the career I was desperately trying to keep from going down in flames.

  Rodriguez was outside surveillance. He had a camera with him at all times and had caught half the staff at ABF on film already. For that, I was thankful. There was already proof of the upper management lunching with judges, lawyers, alderman, union leaders. Nothing wrong with that on the surface but dig a little deeper and you find where the money was exchanged, the cases that were dropped or thrown, the people who suddenly didn’t want to talk or even remain in the city.

  Normally, I’d update my notes for the day, based on all my observations—funny how people never thought twice about saying stuff in front of a guy with a push broom—but I couldn’t get my mind off Candace. If I thought hard enough, I could feel her lips and tongue against mine.

  Finally, at about eleven-thirty, I fell asleep.

  I dreamt that I was at work, cleaning up toner, when Candace walked in. She took me by the hand and led me into the main conference room at the end of the hallway of the second floor.

  The view was beautiful from eighty stories up. The conference table faced the wall of windows that looked out at a gray sky.

  Candace shut the door behind me and we were alone. She didn’t speak, but pressed herself against me, pulling me close. We stood there kissing for what felt like forever, and then I took hold of her hips. She didn’t shy away. Instead, without concern for anyone seeing us, she pulled up her skirt and wrapped her right leg tightly around me.

  I slipped my hand down her thigh. She wore tight garter belt with no panties. Before I could say anything, she leaned back onto the conference table and unbuttoned her blouse. Those incredibly perfect breasts were confined in a lacy bra that hooked in the front.

  I wasted no time.

  Before I knew it, my own pants were around my ankles and Candace was spread out beautifully on the conference table letting me fuck her, begging me to slow down, to make it last, to never stop. I grabbed hold of her tits with one hand while I held her hip tightly with the other and did exactly what she asked.

  I teased her pert nipples and watched as her cheeks became red. Slowly, I inched my hand down to that special spot between her legs. She leaned back onto the table, stretching her arms over her head and pushing her breasts up to me as I found that tiny button that would send her over the moon. I wanted to see that. I wanted to watch her as she lost control, giving in to the furious demands of her hot, hungry, perfect body.

  Just as I was about there, her eyes opened and flashed angrily at me as a loud, annoying buzzer went off.

  My eyes snapped open and I was alone, in my apartment. It was five o’clock. I threw the alarm clock off the nightstand.

  Chapter Seven

  Candace

  “Good morning, young lady.” Patty waved as I walked in the lobby. “Did you have a nice weekend?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t dare bring up how Friday had ended with James. I’d practically thrown myself at him, and he had turned me down. The shame of really wanting a guy for the first time and doing it all wrong, so he wasn’t interested, when my previous job had been all about getting men interested … wow. I so didn’t want to think about that. I’d replayed it long enough throughout the weekend, when my books and garden hadn’t remotely held my interest as I imagined what might have been a different outcome.

  “It was pretty uneventful. How about yours?”

  “You know me, Candace. I have a beautiful day every day. But, you did miss all the excitement on Friday.”

  I looked around, then leaned against the reception desk. “Do tell.”

  According to Patty, the alcohol really began to pour after I left.

  “Ruth was very upset to see you leave with James.”

  “What?” I was shocked. “I saw her flirting with that hot bartender.”

  Patty rolled her eyes. “Ruth flirts with anything that’s male and moves. But she’s really into James. He’s not the right guy for her at all. I’ve told her that. Everyone has told her that. She doesn’t listen. But when she saw him escort you out of the bar, things went south.”

  I shook my head in disbelief.

  “She started a drinking game that involved shots and kissing and other things you can fill in the blanks for yourself.”

  I laughed but wrinkled my face in disgust.

  “Keep quiet and watch how people behave today,” Patty advised, “and you’ll be able to see who kissed who.”

  “Yikes. I don’t know if I want to. I might need to put blinders on so I just see my computer and nothing else. Don’t you go blind seeing that kind of stuff?”

  “If only God were that merciful,” Patty joked.

  “Well, I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open and my mouth shut.” I was about to start toward my cubicle when Patty beckoned me once more.

  “Wait, that isn’t the best part.”

  I looked over my shoulder again and leaned closer to Patty to hear.

  “Potter left with Melody.”

  My gut flipped. Suddenly I felt a huge dose of guilt for participating in idle gossip. I should have just said good morning and gone to my desk. Now I was in too deep. I didn’t want to hear anything about Potter. And yet … a little knowledge might come in handy.

  “Melo
dy? Is she the supervisor in the accounting department? He’s the VP of finance. I guess that makes sense.”

  “Potter has a couple of ladies he bounces between. That was a gross pun, and not at all intended.” Patty frowned.

  “He has a family. I saw the pictures on his desk,” I pointed out.

  “You’d be surprised at how attractive that Pillsbury Doughboy becomes after a couple shots. But not to a woman with experience like me. He’d never try and bark up my tree.”

  I smiled. “You’re too much woman, Patty. Even I can tell that.”

  Patty chuckled. “You just watch, though. The memos about what happened last night will start circulating shortly.”

  “Are you kidding? Memos?” I smoothed my skirt and shook my head. “I think I better get to my desk. I’ll wait for the press releases.”

  As I walked to my cubicle, I suddenly felt better about what had transpired between James and I. It was hardly gossip worthy. But as soon as I turned the corner, Ruth was in my face, smiling with frightening cheerfulness.

  “Did you have fun on Friday?” she asked.

  “Yes. Up until I did that shot. I’m not a real drinker.” I tried to walk past her, but she wouldn’t let me.

  “You left with James.”

  That was a factual statement.

  “He gave me a side so I didn’t have to spring for a cab,” I said matter-of-factly.

  Ruth nodded but I got the impression she didn’t believe me. It was funny how people could so easily fall into a seedy mindset but found accepting an innocent ride home was like agreeing Elvis was still alive.

  “You were supposed to leave with Larry,” she accused. “He said he was driving you home.”

  “What?” This was an interesting factoid.

  “That’s what he said. He said you asked him to drive you home,” Ruth informed me.

  “That’s news to me. No, I didn’t. I didn’t need anyone to drive me home, to be honest. A cab is cheap. Who told you that?”

  Ruth was suddenly my buddy, all friendly smiles and simpering. “It’s just what I heard. It’s no big deal. I just heard that from some people.”