"Yeah, I know I am." She looked at him. "I've figured out the key to selling anything to the people in this town."

He closed the bag and started on another. "What's the key?"

"Giving away samples," she answered, then turned her attention to washing the dishes. "They'll buy as long as they get a free sample." She shook her head, and the ends of her blunt red hair brushed her back. "I used to think my grandfather wasted money on giving away free coffee, but I've come to learn that he lures people into the store with free coffee. Once they're in here, chatting and drinking, they buy other things." She set the soapy bowl in the empty side of the sink. "I'm going to give samples of smoked cheddar next."

He finished with the third bag and started on the last. "You going to trick them into buying it?"

She laughed, and the soft, feminine sound from her lips seemed to slip between his ribs and take up space in his chest. "I'm going to change their way of thinking without them even knowing it." She looked over at him again, her brown eyes lit up and shining. "Soon, I'm going to have them all eating seared tuna and wasabi mashed potatoes."

"Right." Tonight she reminded him of the girl he'd met in the Duchin Lounge several months ago. Relaxed and warm.

"You don't think I can?" she asked, an edge of steely determination in her voice.

He wondered if he should warn the town that they better get used to Japanese horseradish. "I think you have your work cut out for you."

"That's true." She reached for two cupcake pans and stuck them in the water. "But I love a challenge. I figure all I have to do is join the Mountain Momma Crafters, then I'm in."

Rob set the last bag next to the cooling cupcakes, then he shoved a hip into the counter and listened to her while she chatted about turning Gospel into the gourmet eating capital of the Northwest. He watched her hands as she ran the wet washcloth over the pans. At the ends of her long fingers, her short nails were painted a light pink. She set the pan in the empty sink and turned on the water.

"I'll start them out slow," she continued as she opened a cabinet and stood on her tiptoes. "Get them hooked on focaccia bread then introduce them to flavored olive oils."

Rob pushed away from the counter and moved up close behind her. He lifted the bowl from her hands and placed it on the shelf. She looked up at him over her shoulder. Her hair brushed the front of his shirt, but he felt it in his groin. His hands grasped the edge of the bowl to keep from lowering them to her stomach and pulling her back against his chest. Her gaze stared into his, and it would be so easy to lower his mouth to hers.

"Thank you," she said and ducked beneath his arm before he could give in to his urge to kiss her. She moved to the cupcakes sitting on the counter and tested the temperature with her fingers.

He lowered his arms. "Are you going to give me one of those?"

"What?" She turned around and looked at him. "You want a cupcake?"

He nodded. "Why do you think I'm here?"

" My witty conversation?"

"That too."

"You're a bad liar," she said through a laugh. The warm pleasure of it settled in his chest and reminded him that he'd been lonely for a long time. Starved for soft laughter and feminine conversation. Starved for more than just sex. "I don't have any frosting."

"I don't care."

"Wait." She held up one finger, then disappeared into the walk-in refrigerator. She came back out shaking a can of whipped cream, and Rob couldn't help but notice that her breasts did interesting things to those dice on her shirt. "I used this in my cocoa this morning." She picked up a cupcake and squirted it with whipped cream. "The nice thing about working in a grocery store is that you never run out of anything." She handed it to him. "The downside is that you can get fat."

"You're not fat." Rob pulled off the paper and took a big bite.

"Not yet." She tipped her head back and shot whipped cream straight into her mouth. It was the most erotic thing he'd seen in a long time, which told him just how long it had been.

He took another bite, and he recalled the few occasions when he'd had the privilege of eating a whipped cream bikini. He wouldn't object to eating one off of Kate sometime. He finished off his cupcake in four more bites, then held out his hand. "Give me some of that." Instead of handing him the can, she placed a hand on his shoulder. She rose onto the balls of her feet, and her breast brushed his arm.

"Open up."

He didn't trust her. Not for a second. He stared into her gaze a few inches from his and slowly opened his mouth.

She shot cream between his lips and across his cheek.

"Oops, sorry." She dropped onto her heels.

Rob swallowed. "You did that on purpose."

"No, I swear it was an accident." She shook her head and tried to look contrite, but she ruined it when she burst out laughing.

He wiped his finger across his cheek, then licked it clean. "Accident my ass." He held out his hand. "Give it to me."

She shook her head and held the can behind her back.

"You don't think I can get that out of your hands?"

"No."

Of course she didn't. She was stubborn and competitive, and the thought of wrestling with her turned him on more than a whipped cream bikini. "You wanna bet?"

"What do I get if I win?"

"You won't."

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't be so sure about that."

He humored her. "What do you want?"

"You have to tell everyone how much you love jalapeno jelly."

Jalapeno jelly? What the hell?

"What do you want if you win?" she asked.

He smiled. A deliberate, carnal curve of his lips. He knew exactly what he wanted. "I get to lick whipped cream off your nipples." Whipped cream wasn't sex. It was dessert.

Her mouth fell open and her eyes got huge. Then the corners of her mouth curved up, and she spun on her heels and ran through the back room and out into the store. Rob followed close behind and nearly tripped on a Tasmanian Devil slipper in the doorway. His gaze scanned the dark store, and he caught a flash of white T-shirt just as she dashed between aisles three and four. •

"Your white shirt is giving you away." He stepped into the aisle. She stood at the end, a barely discern-able outline in the darkness. If it hadn't been for her shirt and the white can in her hand, he might not have noticed her at all. "Maybe you should take it off right now."

She laughed, a low, throaty caress within the variegated shadows. "Yeah, right."

He walked toward her, and she took a few steps backward. "It'll save me the trouble of taking it off of you."

"I don't want to save you trouble." She moved behind a bin of fruit. The weak light in the corner of the produce slashed across her mouth and shoulder and lit up the dice on her T-shirt. He watched her lips move when she added, "I want to cause you as much trouble as possible."

"Oh, you do." His hands grasped the edge of the bin, and he thought of picking up an orange and nailing her with it. Stunning her for a few fortuitous seconds while he made his move. "You've caused me all kinds of trouble since the night we met." He picked up an orange, but instead of beaning her with it, he pitched it at a cardboard Keebler Elf display and knocked over bags of cookies.

"What was that?" she asked and turned her attention toward the sound. Then before she knew what hit her, Rob was on her, wrapping his arms around her waist, just beneath her breasts and slamming her back into his chest. "Rob!" she shrieked and laughed at the same time. He grabbed the can and tossed it on a pile of fruit. "No fair. You cheated."

"Fuck fair." He breathed in deeply the scent of her hair and said into the top of her head, "I never play fair. Fair is for whiners and weenies." He slid one hand to her belly and bunched her T-shirt in his fist. The sound of his breathing and hers filled his ears. Standing within the dark corner of the store with Kate in his arms, the rest of the world and its problems faded. "I've pictured you here," he said as he slid his other hand up and filled his palm with her soft breast. "In one of my fantasies. You let me eat strawberries off you." Through her shirt, he felt her hard nipple against his palm. His lungs squeezed, and the pit of his belly got tight. His dick got so hard that he had to lock his knees. "Then you rode me like a rodeo queen."

She turned her head and looked up at him. "Where?"

"Checkout counter."

"Perverted." Her lips softly kissed his jaw. "That's where I bag groceries for little old women. I like it."

"Then we had sex a second time in the back on the table where your grandfather cuts meat."

"Am I on top again?" She kissed beneath his chin.

"No. I'm driving that time."

"Stainless steel is chilly."

"Not when we're on it." He lowered his head, and the instant his lips touched hers, the raw, naked edge of desire sliced right through to the primal place in his being that screamed for him to go for it and fuck everything else. To rip off her clothes and touch her everywhere at once. To throw her down and crawl on top.

She inhaled, sucking his breath from him, and he was lost. Lust thumped through his body and grasped his testicles in a fiery squeeze. Her mouth opened and she kissed him. A sweet, liquid warmth that tasted like whipped cream and sex. Their slick tongues touched, and he gave in to the overwhelming urge to touch her everywhere at once. He slid his palms over her breasts, her belly and thighs. He slipped his hand between her legs, feeling her on the outside of her clothes. The heat of her body warmed the seam of her jeans, and he pressed his finger tight against her. He pushed his erection into her behind and felt the deep, primal response that he'd resisted for far too long. It rose up and urged him to devour her. To eat her up and rip out the throat of anyone who tried to stop him.