Daringly Delicious Page 2

  “Damn, that’s a sweet deal!” Vinnie hadn’t been in Virginia long—only a few months following his uncle’s job offer—but it didn’t take him long to find the local hot spots. The popular Mexican restaurant chain, particularly the Oceanfront location, was always packed. For certain, their drivers would fight to work those shifts, and reap all the tips from weekend revelers. “How’d you swing that?”

  Dom shrugged modestly, but Vinnie knew well of his uncle’s business savvy. “The guys they have now, not so reliable. They’re ready for a change. Plus, it helped that they were impressed that Cal Briscoe is a regular client.”

  Vinnie laughed. The Dareville musician and his band had a large following in the area. A local appearance usually meant a capacity audience.

  “And with all the girls’ night out business they get, they’ll need some good-looking drivers to take them home, eh?” Dom winked.

  “Don’t tell Lola.”

  Dom scoffed, and Vinnie nodded. Lola might welcome the audience, or extra participants, for all they knew.

  “So,” Dom brought out a note pad. “Which shifts do you want? I’m guessing the later you work, the luckier you might get.”

  “Actually…” Vinnie toyed with the small box on his lap. “I think I got lucky today. I met the lady who’s gonna make the wedding cakes for Jake’s store.”

  Dom arched an eyebrow and smirked.

  “You know how you talk about meeting Aunt Ginny for the first time? How you knew right away she was the one? I think that happened to me with this girl.” Vinnie’s smile quickly fell. “But I was too struck dumb to say anything.”

  “Aw, hey.” Dom leaned back in his chair. Hinges squealed their protest, making Vinnie wince. “No need to feel down about it. You say she’s working for the Marburys’ store? Stands to reason your paths will cross again soon. By then I’m sure you’ll have the courage to speak up,” Dom said. “In the meantime, I’ll schedule you for their first wedding, how’s that sound?”

  “Don’t think I can wait a month,” Vinnie grumbled.

  “Well, you know she’s not going anywhere before then, and you might find you need a month to work up the nerve. Took me that long to say hello to your Aunt Ginny and keep it to two syllables.” Dom chuckled. “Lucky for me, I was too cute for her to resist.”

  Vinnie shook his head. His uncle carried himself so confidently, it seemed difficult to imagine him tongue-tied in front of a lady, especially given the way he wooed the various women of Dareville who came seeking his business.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Vinnie said, standing. “I gotta make a call. I’ll be in Robbie’s office for a bit, then I’ll be in the garage.” The one advantage to having a chauffeur who could also service vehicles—one less check for Dom to write. Vinnie imagined his uncle appreciated the extra work he put in at Big Apple, otherwise Vinnie wouldn’t have so much free rein about the place.

  Changing oil, however, could wait. As he left his uncle’s office he noticed Lola exiting toward the garage area, one of the younger drivers in tow. If she were smart, she set the phone system to have calls routed there while she helped test the shocks of whatever limo they would use for their buenos dias.

  He had half a mind to squeal on her, but Dom surprised him. “Do what you gotta do,” he said, “I’ll handle our little back seat driver.”

  Vinnie looked back, surprised by the look on his uncle’s face. “You sure?”

  Dom winked.

  * * * *

  Locking the door, Vinnie settled himself on Robbie’s chair and proped his feet on a clear spot on the desk. Opening the box revealed two perfect, petite truffles Lauren Marbury had given him. Tell me this isn’t the most delicious thing you’ve ever tasted, she’d challenged, and he had to be truthful. The dark chocolate raspberry confection he’d sampled at the store exploded in a rich, flavorful symphony that certainly spoiled him on store-bought snacks. His favorite peanut butter cup treat just wasn’t going to do it for him anymore.

  That was when Lauren gifted him with the peanut butter truffles. “One milk, one dark,” she’d said. “It’s all good.” He’d soon find out, he mused, noting the tan piping shaped like a peanut on each shell. If these were half as delicious as the other one…

  …and half as yummy as the woman who made them…

  He closed his eyes to conjure an image of the lovely Tish Richmond, reviewing every step of her shapely retreat from the store. He couldn’t help his full-blooded Sicilian nature—he liked his women thick, and had more than his fill of plastic Manhattan toothpicks over the years. When Uncle Dom offered him work in Dareville he hoped for a change in scenery—in more ways than one—and had been ready to give up when he went to Jake’s Organic to drop off the contracts for his uncle.

  His teeth sank deeply into the first truffle. The melting shell slid between his heated, pinched fingers just as the creamy peanut butter spread over his tongue and upper palate. He savored the salty tang, coupled with a hint of vanilla, and wondered what it would be like to delve his tongue into Miss Richmond’s sticky sweet core for a different taste sensation.

  Damn. Never before had eating candy made him hard. He palmed the growing bulge in his pants, unable to recall the last time a woman had excited him so. He ached with the fantasy of Tish Richmond, naked but for a skimpy apron, bending over a mixing bowl so that her ample bottom was raised toward his waiting cock. He wouldn’t be able to disappear inside her fast enough.

  Nimbly his fingers found the zipper of his fly and eased away the fabric so he could slip inside the flap of his briefs for his cock. The chocolate on his fingers provided suitable lubrication, and he wrapped himself with his fist, pumping up and down in short bursts.

  Yes, first he’d grab those swollen cheeks in both hands, kneading them as she might with pastry dough. Then he’d kneel low before her, split them wide after a generous kiss to the base of her spine, then tease her anus with his tongue, all the while trailing one hand underneath to finger her clit. After she came he’d go for the kill, and plunge his cock into her warm, wet depths.

  Right now, his cock felt close to release. With the truffle still in his other hand, he flicked at the dense gooey center, pretending to do the same to her pussy. His balls tightened and tingled below his grasp. Willing his orgasm forward, one-two-three last jerks on his rod set forth a stream of come he turned upward so as not to splatter Robbie’s desk.

  “Criminy,” he muttered, opening his eyes to inspect the damage. Brown and white stains clumped his t-shirt, but luckily he kept spares in his locker at work. It would mean having to pass Lola in a shirtless state and perhaps arouse her attention, but the thought didn’t bother him. Likely another driver had her distracted.

  The only thing that concerned Vinnie now was how to end up shirtless, and more, with Tish Richmond.

  Chapter Three

  “Hello?” The receptionist’s desk stood unoccupied, yet the faint strains of an oldies rock station wafted throughout the lobby. An open door behind the desk indicated a copy machine ran, given by the gentle whirring sound and sideways shadows cast on the wall within. Tish dipped her head for a closer look, but couldn’t see anybody.

  “Hello?” She tried a bolder greeting. “One moment, por favor,” called an accented, feminine voice. “Have a seat, I’ll be right out.”

  Tish obliged, setting her bag on a coffee table littered with expired magazines. She flipped idly through a People, feeling her self esteem drop with every picture of a sizetwo starlet in a barely there gown, when she heard a second voice snap from the copy room.

  They spoke rapidly in a foreign tongue, not Spanish. Tish knew enough from college to converse casually, and this was close. More shadows flickered, and the voices grew louder as two beautiful women who could have stepped out of the magazine Tish held came into view.

  The taller of the two, dressed conservatively in a melon colored pantsuit, as opposed to the other’s cut off jeans and a tank top, smiled graciously at Tish. She ended the ot
her girl’s chatter with a terse glance. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” she told Tish. “How may I help you today?”

  “Uh, hi.” Tish rose, taking the bag with her to the desk. Seeing the more casual of the pair eying her with some amusement unnerved her. Tish immediately felt thick and uncomfortable in her plus size jeans and kimono style top. “I am Tish Richmond with Tish’s Riches. Lauren Marbury suggested I come here today and talk to…”

  She plucked a sticky note from the bag. “Dominic Petrocelli.”

  “Mr. Petrocelli is out this morning, but maybe I can help. I’m Lupe. Lola, please!” She admonished the other woman, who now boldly leaned close to Tish to see into the bag.

  “What?” Lola snapped, sounding as though she were in the right with her snooping. “I just want to see.”

  “It’s okay. I wanted to drop these off for Mr. Petrocelli, and anybody else interested.” Tish brought out the boxes of assorted truffles, then handed Lupe her card. “Since I signed with Jake’s Organic yesterday to make their wedding cakes, Lauren suggested I come here as well to offer my services.”

  “Certainly.” Lupe filed the card in a small box. “We offer various packages where people can order champagne or roses for their limo. Gourmet chocolate will go over big.”

  Tish bit her lip, tempted to laugh at the other woman’s zealous reaction to her offering. The Latina beauty snatched the top tier and made for a side door, babbling something before making her exit. Lupe let out an exhausted breath when the door slammed shut.

  “Please forgive my sister,” she pleaded with Tish. “Lola can be a bit, ah, oblivious at times. Usually on days ending in Y.”

  “She’s very pretty,” Tish said, a spontaneous remark.

  “So are you.”

  Lupe’s response caught Tish off guard. Her head turned away from the door Lola passed through to where Lupe had opened a box. “And this,” Lupe added, holding a half-eaten truffle, “is quite possibly the best piece of candy I’ve ever eaten.”

  “Thank you.” Tish noted the teeth indentations in the chocolate shell, and the concave curve left in the smooth, orange nougat. A perfect bite with perfect teeth, the candy pinched between elegantly painted nails. Thinner women ate sexier than she did, too. How could she stand a chance?

  Lupe popped the remainder in her mouth, licking a stray sugar speck from her lower lip. “And you made these yourself?”

  “Every last one. I ship them everywhere, you can order online. I’ll also have them at both of Jake’s Organics stores, too,” Tish said.

  “Really? You ship to Brazil?”

  Tish thought a moment, working out the postage in her head. “Well, I haven’t before, but I can. Just to warn you, though, holidays get busy so you should order early.” She paused, then, “That’s where you’re from? I know that wasn’t Spanish you were speaking earlier. So it was Portuguese?”

  Lupe nodded. “Lola and I are from Rio, but I also speak Spanish and a few other languages. Spanish is more in demand here, so I tend to speak it more often.”

  The other woman’s smile was friendly and easy. Tish relaxed, feeling more comfortable with this beautiful woman. How nice to be so confident—if only she could bottle some of Lupe’s exuberance and beauty for herself. “Too bad one of them isn’t French. I could use a translator for my website.”

  “Ah, mais oui,” Lupe exclaimed, and rattled off seamless, melodious French. “So why exactly do you need a French translation?”

  “Wow.” Tish laughed. “Well, in the last year I’ve been shipping a lot of truffles to Canada. Especially Quebec,” she corrected. “I figure why not make it easier for them and offer a page in French rather than force a language on them they don’t always use? It would also help to reach another market with another language.”

  “I understand completely,” Lupe said. “I remember learning how to write different languages. It reads so broken and confusing in the beginning.” She paused. “I could help you, if you like.”

  “Really? That would be great,” Tish said. “What do you charge for translation services?”

  Lupe folded her arms and tilted her head, as though sizing up the price. “Let’s see. For a few web pages, that should come to…a home cooked meal, and some good conversation.”

  Tish laughed. The overture seemed genuine, and inviting. Constant baking and marketing left her little time for socializing, and this might be a nice break in an otherwise busy routine. She pulled a second business card out of her pocket, this one with her home address. “How’s Saturday around six?” she posed. “My weekends are generally free.”

  Lupe held the card between her fingers , flexing the card stock. “Hard to believe, but that sounds good. I can get directions from the Internet. See you then.”

  Goodbyes exchanged, Tish headed back to her car, feeling a bit better about herself. Things seemed to be falling into the right places this week—new work contracts, strong online sales, and now a new friend. Definitely more than she had last week, yet still missing what she truly craved.

  With life on the upswing, she pondered, could love be far behind?

  * * * *

  “What the—?”

  Vinnie plucked the tiny white speakers from his ears, ignoring the tinny music hissing from his MP3 player. He could swear the chassis of the stretch limo above him had inched closer to his face. He wasn’t claustrophobic, as he ultimately ended up doing all the dirty maintenance jobs in the garage while the drivers spent their downtime fooling around. Like now, apparently. Yet, he didn’t like to be in a situation where he could be killed.

  Somebody had slipped into the limo without his knowing. Two bodies, he guessed from the groaning of the undercarriage and the moaning from within the cab.

  Shit. Vinnie dug in his heels and pushed with his feet until his rolling platform shot him clean out from under the elongated sedan. Thick droplets of oil stained his white tshirt, but he paid them no mind. If one of the people he suspected was in the limo rockin’, Vinnie imagined she’d want him shirtless and knockin’, to either watch in awe or join in on the fun.

  I don’t think so. On either count. Standing, Vinnie lurched forward and ripped open the passenger side door. The site of Lola—naked, lying on the bench seat with her head toward him, knees spread-eagled—came as no surprise. Cupping her breasts with both hands, she squeezed and pinched the mounds while her neck arched upward. Vinnie watched her oblivious ecstasy flit across her features and flutter her closed eyelids. She mewed and keened while a young driver for Dom named Pete scrunched in the far corner, his face buried in her pussy.

  Pete licked her furiously, almost haphazardly by Vinnie’s judgment. The poor boy’s tongue seemed to twirl like a pinwheel, hitting everything but the sweet spot. Still, Vinnie had no desire to shove the kid aside and demonstrate how it should be done.

  Lola opened her eyes, shooting him a smoldering look. She wanted company.

  “Let me put that luscious cock of yours in my mouth,” she purred.

  Vinnie chuckled. She’d never seen it, never would.

  Pete must have thought he had been addressed. His mouth detached from her pussy with an audible smack, and Pete began kissing his way up her writhing body. When something dark and round tumbled to the cab floor, Vinnie took notice.

  “Watch it!” Wasn’t it enough these two were soiling the seats with their cream, they had to add candy to the mix? “We’re using this car tonight. Don’t mess it up any more.”

  That’s when he noticed the floral pattern on the half eaten truffle, how similar it looked to the candy that had driven him wild yesterday.

  He scooped up the chocolate. The half moon rolled in his palm as he brought it to Lola’s face. “Where did you get this?” he demanded. He still had a candy left. The girl had better not have been snooping around in his stuff.

  “Vinnie,” Lola whined.

  “Where?” Vinnie took on a forceful tone that visibly rattled Lola.

  “Some fat chick was here trying to sell
them to us. Like she was a fucking Girl Scout, I don’t know.”

  He might have admonished Lola for her dismissive attitude toward Tish, but Vinnie was at the door to the main office, ignoring the wheedling call of his name.

  “Get dressed and get out!” he barked at them over his shoulder.

  In the office, he saw only his cousin’s wife, enjoying a similar treat. A glance out the window revealed no cars in the parking lot he didn’t recognize. He’d missed her.

  “Shit!”

  He turned to see Lupe’s shocked reaction, and felt a hint of heated embarrassment rise to his cheeks. “Eh, lo siento,” he apologized haltingly. He needed to explain his behavior. “Lola said a woman stopped by to deliver some truffles. Did she make them?”

  “Yes. She runs her own business.”

  Damn. “I was kind of hoping to talk to her.”

  Lupe smiled. “You wanted to order some?”

  Vinnie just shrugged, knowing Lupe was smart enough to catch the deeper meaning of it.

  “I see.” Lupe remained behind her desk, studying him with amusement. “You like her, then?”

  Vinnie grinned. “Well, I like her bonbons,” he said as Lupe giggled. “I just wanted her to know that, is all.”

  Lupe fingered a business card and looked up with a smile. “Okay. If she comes back, I’ll let her know.”

  “Gracias.” Vinnie bowed slightly and, as though not sure where to go, barged back into the garage, hoping Lola and Pete had dressed.

  “De nada.”

  Chapter Four

  “You didn’t have to bring anything for supper,” Tish told Lupe on seeing the box in the Brazilian beauty’s hands. “I have everything we need in the kitchen.”

  Tish escorted her to the compact living room, where her active computer setup awaited them. Lupe set the elongated cardboard box on the sofa. “Actually,” she was saying, “this is for me. I remembered what you said yesterday about your looks. You didn’t sound so sure of yourself.”

  “Believe me, I am definitely sure of how I look. I just don’t like it that much.” Tish wanted to wither and blow away like ash off a cigarette. She’d forgotten all about that exchange at the limousine office, and decided to try for a light, devil may care response. “Anyway, sometimes I just ramble about things. It doesn’t always represent how I feel all the time.”