She giggled. "Hunk rhymes too."

"We're talking about the ad, Candy, not me."

His deadpan expression made her laugh out loud. "Hunky and modest, huh?"

"I'm a pretty good catch, aren't I?" His serious expression cracked a little, his lip twitching up in a smile.

"I know you are. Didn't I ask why no one's caught you yet?"

"Maybe I've been waiting for the right woman to figure out how to catch me."

A fishing net? Handcuffs? With fantastic sex?

Candy wished she knew, because she was starting to think she'd like to snag Jared for herself.

"So say a woman wanted to catch you. What would be the best way to do that?" She tried to keep her voice light, but a quiver crept into it.

Jared put his fork down and gave her a searching look that made her want to squirm. He said, "I think by just being herself, and letting me be myself."

Then he shrugged. "It sounds like an after-school special, but it's true. I don't want games, I want a partner, a friend."

He raised his wineglass in mock salute, and his voice lightened. "Sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it?"

"No." Candy shook her head rapidly. "No, it doesn't. I… I was married once."

Jared's eyes bulged. "You were?"

"Yeah." She tried to smile, but couldn't quite force it. "Dean was my boyfriend in high school. It was never a good relationship, not even then. We broke up when I went to college, but when I came back home, he came on strong, said all the right things."

Yet to this day she couldn't imagine what she had been thinking when she had married him. "As soon as we were married, I knew it was a mistake, but I didn't want to admit that."

Jared was gripping his glass tightly. "What did he do to you?"

Startled, she said, "Nothing. I mean, he didn't abuse me or anything horrible like that. We just had nothing in common; we didn't talk. He was violently jealous of guys looking at me, and it just got worse. He had to control everything with our money, where I was going, what I was doing. He didn't want me wearing makeup or nice clothes."

No, Dean had never hit her, but he had made her life miserable, and had stripped her of her dignity. He had humiliated her in front of people she cared about. "He said it was my fault men looked at me, that I was a flirt, a tease."

"Jesus, Candy. How long were you with him?"

It wasn't pity in Jared's voice, just honest concern. It made her feel better about blurting out her past business to him.

"Three years." Years that she had accepted were gone and she couldn't get back.

"That's a long time to live like that."

"It is. But I got away as soon as I was ready, and thank goodness we never had any children together."

"Are you divorced then?"

His hand had snaked across the table and was holding hers, stroking with a light touch.

"Oh, heck yeah. He tried to fight it, but the judge was friends with my stepdad and he wasn't having any of Dean's crap. Judge Anderson pushed it through nice and fast, and I moved to Knoxville. But it still felt too close to Dean, so I picked up and came to Chicago. My roommate from college lives here."

She waited for the apology that was sure to come. The pity or even the recrimination. If Jared thought there was an ounce of truth to Dean's accusations of her being a dick-tease, she would either die from mortification or impale him with a salad fork.

He didn't do what she expected at all.

Instead, he squeezed her hand hard and said matter-of-factly, "Your ex sounds like a big pussy."

"Jared!" Good gravy, she couldn't believe he'd said that. She'd never heard him sound so brutal and angry before.

But then Dean inspired those feelings in her too.

"Well, he is." Jared was unrepentant. "Any real man would be proud to have you as his wife. He'd want you to dress up and look all sexy, so he could stroll into a room and let every guy there know that he had managed to marry a hot woman like you."

Candy flushed with pleasure.

"So I think your ex had issues about his manhood. That's the only explanation for treating you like that."

Candy had issues with Dean's manhood now too, since Jared had managed to make her moan squished up against a mahogany office desk. Dean had never inspired anything more than a pleasant sigh from her, and that was on his best days.

"He wanted to own you, didn't he?" Jared had pushed his chair back, but hadn't let go of her hand.

Candy's arm was stretched clear across the table, but she never even noticed the awkward position. Jared's words sliced something deep inside, touching a raw spot she hadn't known even existed anymore.

"What do you mean?" She thought she knew precisely what he meant.

"That your ex wanted a pretty wife on his arm, like a cool car or a great stereo system. Then when he had you, he worried about losing you to someone else who might want you."

Maybe she had suspected that all along, but she had never discussed it with anyone. To have Jared guess what might be the truth was a new humiliation. "Probably," she choked out.

Then she spoke in a rush. "Listen, Jared, I don't… I'm not… my ex wasn't right about the tease thing. I…"

Crud. Candy trailed off, mortified beyond words. She had sashayed into Harold's office and wiggled her rear in Jared's face. There was no reason for him to think anything other than that she was a flirt who got around.

"Come here." Jared patted his knee as if he were Santa and she were a naughty little girl who needed reassurance.

Common sense told her not to do it. But of course she did.

And Santa had never had thighs that muscular.

Nor had Santa ever asked her about her sex life. Jared did.

He asked baldly, "When was the last time you were with a man? Before today, that is."

She swallowed hard and studied the buttons on his shirt. "It was Dean. Three months before I left him two years ago."

"So you haven't slept with any man since your divorce?"

"No, I've dated, but just casually."

"Until today."

"Yes."

He frowned. "I screwed up then, Candy. I shouldn't have lost control like that."

His eyes dropped to her lips. A finger stroked her chin briefly. "You deserve better than that."

Candy was shocked that he could even think for one minute that it had been less than perfect. It had been wild, yes, and the opposite of what she had thought she wanted, but it had been the most erotic experience of her life.

So far. She was hoping they could expand on her portfolio here soon.

"Jared. It was just right. See, I had to know that I could let myself go like that. I was starting to think there was something wrong with me because every man I've dated since the divorce made me feel about as sexy as a fish carcass."

Jared's mouth fell open. "That's not very sexy."

She giggled. "No. But I wanted it to be different with you. And it was."

Jared's hands rested against the small of her back and he had managed to slip under her sweater to touch her skin. "So I made you feel sexy?"

"Oh, yes."

His lips brushed her neck. "Do I make you feel sexy now?"

"Yes."

"I can make you feel sexier."

Jared moved up her sides, causing a shiver to pass through her. "But what about Chunk o' Chocolate?"

Candy's eyes fell closed as Jared reached her breasts and slowly made his way around to the front to caress her nipples.

"Chocolate is a replacement for sex. You don't need it." His tongue teased her, slipping into her ear then back out.

She tried to laugh, but it sounded like a wheezing moan. It felt right sitting in his lap, his erection pressing against her and his hot breath pushing down her neck.

Jared murmured, "I'll never try to possess you. I'll never do anything you don't want. I'll listen."

Candy put her hands on Jared's shoulders and knew that she'd gone and done the stupid. She had fallen in love with Jared, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it now.