Hard Candy Read online

  Penny laughed. “You know that has a completely different ring to it now that I’ve been living in Houston.”

  “Hey, we may not be the big city, but we do have a downtown. It’s just a little...smaller.”

  She snorted, before standing up with a stretch. “First dibs on the shower.”

  “I have more than one.”

  “Yeah, but I’m going to do my damndest to use up all the hot water. You know, with all the soap I plan on using to lather up my entire naked body.” She giggled at his groan.

  “That’s just mean. Seriously.”

  “You’ll live.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t remember this mean streak you seem to have now. You used to be so sweet.”

  “Well, if you’re a good boy, I might show you just how sweet I can be.” Penny picked up her suitcase from where Craig had left it the night before. Not sensing him behind her, she turned around.

  He’d stopped dead in the kitchen, a heated glint in his gaze as he stared back at her.

  “Down boy. We have to go downtown, remember?”

  “We have all morning,” he drawled.

  She couldn’t stop the blush that filled her cheeks at the tone of his voice. Man, he made her body ache with unfulfilled sexual yearning just by looking at her. Add in a drawl and she was a goner.

  The good news was that it looked like he was just as affected. Penny put down her suitcase and slipped off the robe he’d given her earlier, and let it drop to the floor behind her.

  “Penny.”

  “That’s my name. I’d rather hear you moan it, though.”

  Craig groaned. “Are you just teasing?”

  “I’d never do that to you. Promise.” She started forward with a gliding walk. A dish of candy caught her gaze as she entered the kitchen. It was something his parents had always done, but it gave her very naughty ideas now. She picked up a few of the small cinnamon candies.

  He stayed rooted in place, gaze intent on her every movement. Oh, such good behavior deserved to be rewarded. “You’re going to like this. I promise.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Not yet.” Penny grinned before dropping to her knees. She pressed a kiss to his belly and watched the muscles jump in reaction. She’d never been happier to see a guy in just cotton sleep pants. Especially since it was immediately apparent that Craig was happy to see her. She nuzzled against his rising dick with her cheek before glancing up to see him staring down at her.

  His hands were fisted at his sides, his knuckles white. She wondered what it would take to make him lose control.

  Penny slipped her hand up and toyed with the drawstring on his pants. It was a tight fit but she managed to pull his pants down just enough to let his cock out to play. She licked her lips. Gorgeous. And exactly what she wanted.

  “Oh, man. Pens. Please...”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to make you beg this time.”

  “This time?” Craig snorted.

  Penny laughed softly. “Behave, or I’m going to discover I have better things to do.”

  “I’ll be good.”

  “I’d rather you be bad.” She popped the candy into her mouth. Instantly, the burst of flavour filled her senses. This was going to be fun.

  Penny leaned forward and licked a single path up his shaft. She mouthed his glans, feeling the candy move around the head of his cock. Oh, he liked that. Craig’s hands grasped her shoulders, tightening and releasing. She knew as soon as he felt the first tingles from the cinnamon. He tensed, letting out a heartfelt moan.

  She licked around the head before sucking up the fluid leaking from the tip. “Mmm.”

  “Don’t stop,” Craig panted.

  Penny couldn’t hold out any longer. Her pussy ached. It was throbbing with unreleased need. She reached down with one hand and pushed her panties aside. Delving her fingers into her slit, she gave herself exactly what she wanted while she did her best to drive Craig nuts.

  Speaking of nuts… She moved her lips downward, sucking along his sac and tasting the salty flavor that was uniquely Craig. She loved doing this for him. Hearing his moans and cries. She wanted to be able to drive him crazy just like this over and over again. It was giving her indescribable pleasure to be able to give him something.

  “Penny, I’m close. Shit. I’m gonna…”

  She drew back and sucked the head of his cock into her mouth just in time to accept his pulsing seed. With a frantic twirl of her fingers, she reached her own orgasm, crying out around the dick in her mouth.

  Swallowing, she drew back when he started to move. She lifted a hand and wiped up the liquid dripping down her chin. “Oops. Missed a bit.”

  “Shit. You’re killing me.”

  She grinned. “You liked it.”

  “Hell, yes.”

  Penny stood up with Craig’s help and pressed a kiss to his lips.

  He folded his arms behind her back. “I’ll never pressure you, you know that? I want you to be happy, and I know you need to figure out what happened with your mom.”

  She sighed with relief, before pulling away. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

  Leaving him at his bedroom door, she continued on down the hall to the spare bathroom. Closing the door behind her she leaned back against it. Craig was right, she needed to figure out what happened to her mom, and she wanted to be able to find that closure soon. She wasn’t sure she could remain in the dark anymore and she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel completely at ease with Craig without it. This was a gnawing ache that constantly battered at her emotions.

  She just hoped it ended up being the good kind of closure, and not the kind that resulted in her viewing her father as a murderer. Stupid, it wasn’t as if she determined who she was by who her parents were, but this was huge.

  Still...She wanted to be with Craig. Especially after what happened in the hall. She’d never gotten so much pleasure just giving before. Whatever happened, she couldn’t string him along. She needed to figure out what she was going to do. Craig was a wonderful man, and he deserved to be treated like gold. Penny raised her hand and touched her lips. She wanted to do that again. She wanted to have sex with him. It’d been too long. Soon, she promised herself.

  An hour later they were on their way back into the core of Bandit Creek. Craig parked along Main Street beside Ellis Park and she surveyed the familiar sight. The park ran along a large part of Main Street and had the Sherriff’s office and Town Hall along one end and a variety of stores and buildings along each side until it hit the river. The post office, library, the bank, Ma’s Kitchen, The Candy Store. All the same places she’d been back and forth inside when she was younger. She thought the fancy restaurant at the end of Main might be new, but she couldn’t remember.

  They walked hand in hand up to the front bay windows of The Candy Store. Penny pressed her face against the window like she always used to.

  Craig snickered. “Come on, get inside before you embarrass me or something.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him before following him inside. “Now, this looks different.”

  “I bet.” Craig grinned with pride. “What do you think?”

  Two long counters ran perpendicular to the entranceway. One entire wall was the same as always, with old-fashioned jars stacked on shelves from floor to ceiling filled to overflowing with different types of candy. The other side of the store was obviously where Craig had his ice cream set up, and that was the most obvious change from when they were younger. Craig’s parents had never sold ice cream. Especially not the homemade flavors that Craig specialized in. Penny was practically drooling just standing inside the doorway.

  The familiar cutesy candy décor that she’d always loved made her smile now. Bright bubblegum colors clashed and complimented each other at the same time. It was like a candy bomb had exploded inside the store.

  “Come on, I want to show you everything.”

  She followed Craig down the centre aisle and through a door at the back of the
store. It led into a kitchen that she definitely wasn’t expecting. It was tight, but stainless steel appliances and gleaming counter tops filled every available space. She wasn’t sure what half of the equipment was but she recognized the two ovens, and the stove tops. Along with the ice cream machine.

  “What are you doing in here?”

  “Well, I’ve been experimenting with candy. I’ve got homemade chocolate that we’ve been mixing up and selling out front. I wasn’t sure what else I wanted to do so I figured when I took over a few years back I should outfit it the way I wanted it to be. It’s not going to waste, trust me. I have Rachel come in every morning to bake. She supplies Lucy and George next door at Ma’s Kitchen with homemade goodies. I’ve already told Mack to talk to her about treats for the brewery when he’s ready for it.”

  Penny shook her head. She couldn’t believe he had all of this going on here. She hadn’t realized how much of a big deal this was.

  “Oh, you have to see the best part.” Craig kept going back until he reached an office behind the kitchen. It was filled with boxes, in varying states of readiness. Some were full of candy, others were sitting empty. A small desk with a desktop completed the décor. “This is where I’ve been doing all the internet orders. I need to come up with a better plan, but so far it’s just been me doing it. I might have to hire someone to help out.”

  She couldn’t take her gaze off his happy face. This was what he was meant to do. He wasn’t going to leave this. Which meant she was even more confused, because she couldn’t see him moving to Houston to be with her, not with the store doing so well. Did she want to see what kind of future she could have with Craig? It was one of the reasons she was here, wasn’t it? For the first time, she realized being with Craig would mean leaving Houston and coming home to Bandit Creek.

  Suddenly, that didn’t seem so easy. She had worked for years to get to where she was in her career. What would she do here? What could she do?

  Sure, she didn’t exactly love her job, not the way Craig did, but that didn’t mean she was ready to just throw it away.

  And she was getting ahead of herself again. They were taking this week as a test of sorts. To see what happened between them. And to see what had happened so many years ago.

  “I love it,” she said. “You’ve really done a good job, here.”

  Craig beamed. “Thanks. It works for me, you know?”

  “Yeah, I do. Listen, you said you had some things to work on this morning so why don’t I go out front and you can get to it.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. I might grab some liquorice and go sit out in the park.”

  “Okay, just grab whatever you want. On the house.”

  Penny laughed. “Sure you want to just give me that kind of free reign?”

  “I trust you.”

  She laughed, before heading back through the kitchen and into the store itself. She grabbed a liquorice wand on the way out and set out to wander down the street. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She’d had these grand plans to come here and figure out what happened all those years ago and now that she was here she had absolutely no idea where to start. Maybe she should go to the Sherriff’s office, but she’d already talked to Adam Medicine Crow. What else could he possibly tell her?

  With no direction in mind, Penny started to walk down Main Street. She walked past the library and peered through the windows of the Grey Rose restaurant before finally spotting the Powderhorn Saloon. It was early, but she figured it might be open. Worth a shot anyway.

  Crossing the street, she pushed open the doors and stood in the doorway of the old place. It had been built in 1912, right after the flood wiped out the old Bandit Creek. Penny figured people always seemed to gravitate to a saloon, no matter what the year. However popular it was, the saloon didn’t look like it had ever been updated. Grit covered the floors, and the dusty charm of the place brought back good memories of when she was younger.

  She wasn’t sure what she was doing here, but she wouldn’t find anything she wanted at the Powderhorn. That was for sure. With a sigh, she stepped back outside and stood in front of the saloon. What was she supposed to do?

  “Aftnoon, Cherry.”

  Penny whirled at the voice.

  Speaking of memories, there was a living one right there. Jack was walking -- actually, stumbling -- toward her. He passed her without another comment and continued down the street. She wasn’t sure where he was going, but he had a brown paper bag in his hand that she’d bet ten dollars had a bottle of JD in it.

  Jack was an interesting fellow. He had that ageless kind of face that made you play guessing games about how old he was. He’d been ancient since she’d been in diapers, that was all she knew about it. But, there was something about Jack…Hold on, had he called her Cherry? Had he meant Cerise?

  “Jack! Hey, Jack.” Penny jogged toward the man, stopping a little distance away from him. Geez, he reeked. Jack had that particular eau de bum that made her want to walk away.

  He kept walking, ignoring her.

  “Jack? I don’t know if you remember me? Penny Anderson. I used to live here a while back. Moved away with my dad right after my mom died. Cerise Anderson? Do you remember her?”

  “Cemtry.”

  “Sorry, what was that?”

  “Come out to play,” he mumbled. “Cemtry girl.”

  Right, that made sense. What the hell? What was she doing, coming to Jack of all people for a clue? Something made her stand still, though. She’d heard rumors about Jack her whole life.

  “Jack, can you help me? It’s about my mom.”

  Jack took a swig from his bottle before letting out a belch that just about seared her nose hairs. Lovely.

  “I don’t know where to start. Looking for information about what might have happened to her. To Cerise Anderson.”

  “Cemtry lane.”

  “Cemetery Lane? Is that...Are you saying I should go there?” God, she felt stupid.

  “Cemtry. Cherry girl. Go to lake.” Jack belched again before stumbling off away from her.

  Extremely helpful, Jack was. Penny sighed. Well, she had nothing else to go on. Might as well follow through on the drunken ramblings of the town bum. What else did she have to lose?

  Chapter 5

  She’d gone back to The Candy Store to tell Craig she was heading to the cemetery—she’d needed him to drive her back to his house so she could pick up her rental car—and now she stood here feeling like a complete idiot. Her mom was here, but she didn’t want to go down and cry over her tombstone. She was going to force herself, though. God, she hated cemeteries. Walking down the manicured rows, she looked around. There was an even mix of modern and older headstones, which made her think of her mom. They’d come down here when Penny was growing up, to pay their respects to their family buried here.

  In a way, it was nice, that Cerise was buried here beside her family that she used to come and visit. Taking a much longer route than she’d originally intended, Penny walked around and stopped at each of the headstones she’d used to visit back then. The cemetery was pretty well tended. A few headstones had flowers propped up against them, some silk and some real.

  At the end of her meandering path, Penny finally reached the place where her mom was buried.

  Penny crouched down. “Hey, Mom. I feel stupid, and I don’t know what to say to you. I wish you could tell me what really happened all those years ago. Did you drown in the lake? Did someone… Did someone hurt you? What am I doing here? Why am I doing this? I loved Dad, and I don’t like thinking these things about him. What kind of person does that make me that I’d even think he might be responsible for what happened to you?”

  Blinking away tears, she placed a bracing hand on her mother’s tombstone.

  “You’d be horrified, wouldn’t you? If I suspected him of doing something like that to you. Family was so important to us, to you. But, if that was true, then why’d you cheat on him, Mom? Why would you hurt him lik
e that? You hurt him and then you just disappeared.”

  She sighed. That wasn’t fair. Her mother hadn’t disappeared, she’d died. But, how?

  “What would you tell me if you had the chance? I’m trying here, Mom. Help me out. Please?” Penny slid down to sit on the ground. She crossed her legs and looked out over the cemetery.

  “I visited your family. Yours and Dad’s, both. The ones we always used to come to. I know how important family was to both of you. I’m sorry Dad isn’t buried here. He asked to be cremated, but I don’t know what to do with his ashes. Stupid, huh? They’re just sitting at my house. Aunt Gertie didn’t want them.”