Adore Me Read online

  Table of Contents

  Excerpt

  Praise for Darcy Lundeen

  Adore Me

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Epilogue

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  “Do you know how long it’s been this way?” he asked.

  “After all the trouble I’ve had with my office computer, I decided to check my company site several times a day. As of four-thirty this afternoon, everything was fine, so it hasn’t been long.” Meredith sighed. Just long enough to turn her business into an X-rated paradise for horny consumers.

  “Message just came in for you,” Vlad said, and she stopped pacing and went back to the desk, silently praying it wasn’t like the twenty-seven other messages she’d received in the past fifty-two minutes.

  As she leaned over his shoulder, she tapped the message tab, stared at the screen, and couldn’t restrain herself when she read the thing. Angry, frustrated, and seriously at the end of her rope, she gave a growl and stabbed her finger at the message.

  “I just got another order, this one for two sets of edible underwear in chocolate mint and two sets in blueberry. That’s twenty-eight orders in less than an hour. I never did this good selling desserts.”

  Praise for Darcy Lundeen

  “FINDING YOU AGAIN is a great little romance with lots of hot sex, some angst about what their futures will hold, and lots of miscues that cause a few problems for them. Loved the book, and all the characters, along with the twist at the end that allows them to get back together.”

  ~Alberta, Manic Readers

  ~*~

  “There were times when I thought that I was going to mess myself I laughed so hard…Yes, I knew I would get a rekindle of a past love but it was so much more than I ever dreamed and all in a wonderfully delicious way.”

  ~Zara Yates, You Gotta Read Reviews

  ~*~

  “If you’re a fan of contemporary stories filled with heat and heart, grab yourself a copy of FINDING YOU AGAIN.”

  ~Nikki, Siren Book Reviews

  Adore Me

  by

  Darcy Lundeen

  A Candy Hearts Romance

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Adore Me

  COPYRIGHT © 2016 by Darcy Lundeen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by RJ Morris

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Champagne Rose Edition, 2016

  Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-0626-1

  A Candy Hearts Romance

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedication

  For B.R. and T.R.

  who both brought joy when they came into my life,

  but were taken away much too soon.

  Chapter One

  Meredith Crismis closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and smiled as the myriad odors wafting on the air invaded her nostrils, and her senses.

  The milky pureness of vanilla. The heady tang of lemon. The decadent smoothness of chocolate.

  Taking deep breaths in a warm kitchen was the only way to appreciate those luscious smells. And they were all hers. At least until customers came along to claim them.

  She opened her eyes again and looked around the room at the miracle her diligent study, hard work, and, yes, a dollop of good luck, too, had brought.

  And like those mouth-watering scents, it was also hers. The entire place. Lock, stock, humongous bank loans, and equally daunting monthly bills.

  Divine Desserts. The thing she’d wanted, longed for, dreamed of ever since she was in second grade and stood in the family kitchen with her mother while they sifted flour, rolled out dough, and whipped up bowls of sugary sweet cake or cupcake filling. Then they’d put everything together so they could enjoy a taste of their creations as a reward for the work they’d done.

  Now Divine Desserts was her reward and had been for the past six months since she first opened the business.

  Dana, her assistant and a pretty awesome baker in her own right, stood across the room, putting the finishing touches on Willa Pruitt’s chocolate-mousse-filled wedding cake with lemon fondant frosting. After that, they’d work on the four trays of cupcakes that sat on the kitchen counter, fresh from the oven and ready to be filled, frosted, and transformed into nine-year-old Tori Schmidt’s cupcake birthday cake. Then would come the assorted muffins for that office party this afternoon.

  Meredith smiled. They really had their work cut out for them today, and she wouldn’t want it any other way. The more happy customers they had, the better it was for business. The more business they had, the better it was for the bottom line…and for being able to pay off all the loans she’d taken.

  “I’ll be in my office for a while doing paperwork,” she told Dana. “Then I’ll come back and help you fill those cupcakes.”

  “Great.” Dana glanced over her shoulder. “You know me and chocolate-ganache filling. I have to be constantly watched when I’m around it so I don’t end up eating the whole thing.”

  Meredith couldn’t help laughing at that, it was so true. “God, we have so much in common. Be back soon.”

  She left the kitchen and walked down the hallway that led to her office.

  Leaving the door open, she went to her desk, turned on the computer, and stared at…nothing. The screen was blank.

  “Okay, come on, stop being a laggard,” she murmured as she brought her finger down on the mouse. “I know it’s almost the weekend, but—”

  She broke off and flinched when the machine emitted something that sounded like a bark. This was immediately followed by a burst of wild colors that pulsed across the screen, almost blinding her.

  “What the hell?” she yelped, turning away from the computer to protect her vision.

  A second later, the lights diminished to total darkness and the barking gave way to deadly silence.

  “God, no!” she whispered, staring at the screen. “Don’t do this to me. Please, baby, I need you to work. I really do.”

  Unfortunately, the computer didn’t do requests so, gritting her teeth to keep from screaming, she checked the cable connections, but everything seemed fine. She began tapping keys, then punching keys, then begging keys to please, please, please access her client list, her schedule, her billing information, and everything else she needed to keep her business afloat.

  In answer, the machine barked at her again and flashed those same damn rainbow-colored lights before subsiding once more into stubborn silence and unrelieved blankness.

  “Work, dammit, work!”

  “Merry, what’s the matter? I heard you clear out in the kitchen.”

  Dana’s voice jolted her out of her snit, and Meredith turned to the doorway, where Dana stood, wearing an expression that clearly indicated she was certain the boss-lady had lost her mind.

  “Computer’s down.” Meredith gave the side of the ma
chine a frustrated smack.

  “Crap,” Dana moaned.

  Meredith nodded. “Exactly. I’ll work on it some more, but if it still doesn’t respond, I’ll have to get help.”

  “Okay, I’ll be back to see how it’s going as soon as I take those muffins out of the oven.”

  “Right,” Meredith murmured, turning back to the computer and giving it the evil eye.

  If one could fix a computer by slathering buttercream all over it, she’d have this baby up and running in a nanosecond. As it was, that required a skill set she’d never been able to master, and probably never would.

  She pressed a few more keys, whacked at the mouse a couple of times, checked the cable connections again, and finally gave up. No doubt about it. Low-tech Meredith Crismis had met her match in high-tech electronic circuitry. Again.

  “Any luck?” Dana asked a few minutes later when she stuck her head in the office and flashed a hopeful smile.

  Meredith sat back in her chair and just barely suppressed a groan. “If you rock blank screens that occasionally bark at you and shoot out a rainbow of god-awful neon colors that could easily blind you, then we’re the luckiest people in the world.”

  Dana’s smile dissolved. “That lucky, huh? Oh, jeez.”

  Oh, jeez. It was what Dana said whenever something was bad. Meredith didn’t use the phrase herself, but this time she couldn’t have agreed more. “Definitely Oh-jeez. So you know what that means.”

  Dana nodded. “Gotta get help.”

  “And fast,” Meredith added.

  “While you’re calling in high-tech reinforcements, I’ll whip up some of our usual high-caloric triple-rich hot chocolate reinforcements to soothe the pain,” Dana said and hightailed it back to the kitchen.

  “Make mine a double,” Meredith called as she pulled the cell phone from her pants pocket and speed-dialed her usual go-to emergency saviors. “Tech Savants?” she said when she heard the pickup at the other end. “Hello, this is—”

  “Meredith,” Cindy, the receptionist, interrupted in her bouncy voice. “Hi, how’s it going?”

  Meredith sighed, vaguely annoyed but not surprised. Of course the receptionist would recognize her voice. After all the times she’d called in the last few months begging for help, they should give her stock in the company, or at least a steep customer discount.

  “Not great,” she admitted.

  Cindy let out a knowing chuckle. “Bet you’ve got computer trouble, huh? What seems to be the problem this time?”

  Meredith winced at the phrase “this time,” but forced her embarrassment away and gamely ticked off the symptoms.

  “Got it,” Cindy said when she was through. “Your computer croaked. Do you want it checked remotely or should we send someone?”

  “Send someone. Maybe he can give me some tips so it won’t happen again.”

  “Right. I’ll get him to you ASAP.”

  “Thanks,” Meredith said. “Appreciate it.”

  She clicked off the cell and shook her head. Her computer croaked? Not the most technical description she’d ever heard. Of course, Cindy was a receptionist, not a computer expert. But the guy they’d send over would be an expert.

  Probably Randy. He was the one they normally sent to set things right.

  Thirty minutes later, the expert walked in the door. And he wasn’t Randy. He wasn’t short or bearded or slightly overweight, either. This tech geek was tall, thin, and clean-shaven, and he sported one of those little dimple-like indentations in his chin, the kind that always set her juices flowing.

  He came toward her as soon as he noticed her entering the reception area. She noticed him at the same time and flashed a grateful smile, positive he must be her tech savior. Not that she’d ever seen him before, but the case he carried and the hyper-casual jeans and short-sleeved T-shirt he wore were a dead giveaway. It was all similar to Randy’s usual working attire, but Randy never looked like that.

  She strode across the room to meet him, then just stood there, staring at him in speechless admiration for a minute before she realized he had announced his arrival and asked to see (in his words) “the comatose computer.”

  “Oh,” she said, struggling to regain her composure and behave like the professional businesswoman she was. “I’m sorry. I haven’t introduced myself. I’m the owner. Meredith Crismis.”

  A spark lit in his eyes…really nice deep, dark, chocolaty eyes, she noticed without wanting to…and suddenly Meredith knew just what was coming. Even if she didn’t use her nickname, her long-form name was still a perfect setup for that stale joke.

  “Meredith Christmas?” he finally said. The corners of his mouth twitched as if he could barely control his amusement. “You mean, like Merry Chris—”

  “Don’t say it,” she cut in, pointing a warning finger at him. “I’ve been hearing that same lame joke since kindergarten, and the name isn’t spelled the way the holiday is. It’s C-r-i-s-m-i-s, and it’s a perfectly legitimate name. They even have a church marriage record of it from Norfolk, England, that goes back several centuries.”

  He shrugged. “Sorry, couldn’t help it. I guess most people can’t. But if you think that’s bad, try growing up as Vladimir Wiznitsky. As soon as the other kids found out about Prince Vlad, the Impaler, my school years became a living hell.”

  Meredith blinked. “Prince Vlad, the—” Then it came to her. “You mean Dracula?”

  “The same.”

  She nodded. All right, not a great fate, but she’d still trade Wiznitsky for Crismis any day, especially since her first name wasn’t Vladimir.

  “Maybe you could use your middle name,” she said.

  “My middle name is my mom’s maiden name. It’s Hungarian. Bela. If I used it, that would make me Bela Wiznitsky.”

  “Oh. Not a whole lot better.”

  “Tell me about it. Then instead of thinking I was a bloodsucker, they’d mistake me for a girl.”

  Meredith gave him a quick onceover. No chance of that. The man definitely didn’t look like he should be called Bela. Not with his broad shoulders and those massive biceps. “All right, I concede defeat. Your problem’s worse than mine.”

  He grinned at her. “Let’s just call it a tie.”

  She grinned back. “Okay, a tie, it is.” Her eyes, and her libido, focused on his chin dimple just a moment too long. She finally realized what she was doing and forced them away as a silent warning echoed in her mind—Do not hyperventilate at the sight of a man’s chin. “Umm, maybe I should show you the computer now.”

  He nodded. “Maybe you should.”

  “Right this way. In my office.”

  He followed her, and when they reached the office, Meredith stepped aside so he could get to work. “By the way, where’s Randy? They usually send him to fix our computer.”

  “Strep throat,” he said.

  “Oh, sorry to hear it.”

  “So was he. He had tickets to a concert Friday night. Now he can’t go.” He put his case on her desk and pulled the computer around.

  Meredith settled herself in one of the visitors’ chairs located behind him and subsided into silence so he could concentrate. Also so she could watch his perfect butt as he leaned over the machine and periodically shifted his body this way or that.

  The last time she’d had a boyfriend with a backside like that was…Well, actually, she’d never had a boyfriend with a backside like that. In fact, the last permanent man in her life lasted a full four months before he decided to ditch his law career and join the circus so he could finally fulfill his fondest childhood dream. Not that she cared. At this point in her life, men weren’t important. Her company was. Which meant she needed her computer. And she needed it now.

  “So what’s wrong?” he asked. “I mean besides the fact your computer obviously had a nervous breakdown.”

  “Besides that, nothing’s wrong. It’s perfectly fine, except that first the screen is blank, then it barks at me and flashes colored sparks, then it goes
blank again until its next barking fit. In other words, it refuses to work and is taking the future of my company into the toilet with it.”

  He smiled at her over his shoulder. “Can’t let that happen, can we?”

  “Sure hope not,” her mouth said automatically while her mind continued to fixate on something else entirely.

  Him.

  Nice lips. Great eyes too. And that butt was just about perfect. She blinked and quickly forced away the thought. Stupid. Unnecessary. And completely inappropriate. But, oh, that firm, lean butt.

  “Virus,” he said, turning to her.

  Meredith blinked as she tried to break her concentration on his butt and pick up the thread of their conversation. “Randy’s strep?”

  He grinned. “You really are tech-challenged, aren’t you? I’m talking about a computer virus.”

  “Oh, sorry. Obviously we’re on different wavelengths.”

  “Obviously.” He went back to work.

  A few minutes later, his voice rang out, telling Meredith that success was at hand. “Oookay. Got it. From what I can make out, this isn’t a vicious virus, more a nuisance one that can drive you slowly batty. So you’re lucky there.”

  Meredith stared at his downturned head.

  Going slowly batty was good, or at least better than a fast trip to the asylum? She doubted it, but since he seemed pleased with the situation, she’d take his word for it. At least the machine hadn’t barked at him. That was a hopeful sign. It must mean he had a way with computers. Either that, or he was sneaking the thing dog biscuits as a means of sucking up to it and making it behave.

  Sighing, she reached over to the desk to retrieve her half-finished mug of hot chocolate. “Do you think you can fix it?”

  “Sure, but it might take time.”

  “I’ve got time.” She lifted the mug to her mouth to polish off the last rapidly cooling remnants of her drink. Actually, she didn’t have time, but her future was in that damn computer, so she’d have to put up with a delay.

  “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.” She pushed to her feet and headed for the door. “Just follow the sugary smells and you won’t have any trouble finding it.”