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."