The Chocolate Seduction. Carrie Alexander

Pretty much.”

      “Forget it.” Sabrina waved her arms like an umpire. “I’m outta here.” But she didn’t leave.

      “What’s the alternative, Sabrina? Not only will you lose the bet and the ring, but you’ll go back to falling into one brief relationship after another. It’s your pattern.” Mackenzie put on her I’m-saying-this-for-your-own-good expression. There were times it was hard to believe she was the younger sister. “You see a guy, you fall in lust, you think he’s The One and a month later you’re on the phone to me complaining that he’s around all the time and you can’t breathe. Sound familiar?”

      “Yeah.” Sabrina put her elbows on the table. “So?”

      “The same thing will happen with Kit if you can’t control your craving.”

      “I thought you said he’d go for the slow seduction.”

      “That doesn’t mean he can resist if you go nuts one night and corner him in the kitchen to act out some crazy apron-stripping fantasy. He is a man, after all. It’s up to you to say no.”

      Sabrina peered between her arms, head in hands. “I was never any good at that.”

      “That’s why you turn to chocolate. Remember, I’ve seen the research. The chemicals that chocolate produces in your body are similar to the pleasurable effect you get from making love. Endorphins are released. Seratonin and caffeine and phenyethylamine—something like that. They’re natural opiates.” Mackenzie smiled. “To be fair, some scientists say you’d have to eat chocolate by the pound to truly be affected, but…whatever. I’m sure it would help a little.”

      Sabrina dropped her hands. She was skeptical. “So every time I get an urge to suck on Kit’s tongue I should pop a Hershey’s Kiss instead?”

      “Right. What could it hurt?”

      “My dental bill. And pretty soon I wouldn’t be able to fit into Dominique’s dresses.”

      “Pooh. You could stand to put on a few pounds.”

      Sabrina ate, but her metabolism was high and she burned the calories off, unlike Mackenzie, who was prone to curling up on the couch with a good book and a bag of butterscotch candies.

      “Are you game?” Mackenzie prompted.

      Sabrina shrugged. She had nothing to lose. “I suppose. But you’re going in for that haircut as soon as I can wangle another appointment with Costas.”

      Mackenzie didn’t hesitate. “I will, I promise.”

      “Do I really have to hold out for the entire year?” Assuming Kit was interested…

      “That would be ideal. Of course, I could be generous and give you some leeway if he proposes before that—” Mackenzie stopped and laughed at her sister’s horrified expression. “But I know that’s asking too much. If the threat of losing grandmother’s ring isn’t enough of a deterrence, could you at least pledge not to jump in bed with Kit until there’s a real, honest, emotional connection between you two? Get to know him as a friend first. You might be surprised how different making love with a friend will feel.”

      “Well, you always went on and on about what a good friend Jason was, but I don’t remember you ever saying he gave you hot sweaty jungle love.”

      “Our love life was satisfactory.”

      Sabrina grimaced, staring at Mackenzie until she blushed. Anyone having merely satisfactory sex might as well gorge on chocolate instead, and they both knew it.

      “Don’t worry,” Mackenzie said, deflecting the attention. “You and Kit have a different dynamic entirely.”

      “Whatever it is will probably burn out before we get to the bedroom when I put this chocolate plan of yours into action,” Sabrina complained.

      Mackenzie stood and slipped her handbag off the back of the chair. “Then it was never meant to be.”

      “Meant to be?” Sabrina didn’t believe in soul mates and destiny. She believed in having fun while you could because who knew what tomorrow would bring. “Now you’re sounding like Mom and Dad, with all their explanations for why their divorce didn’t stick. But what do you want to bet they’re arguing when they get off the cruise ship?” For their second honeymoon, Charlie and Nicole had booked passage on a lengthy transatlantic cruise. They were due back in another week.

      “You’ll see,” Mackenzie said with blithe assurance. “By the time our parents’ second first-year anniversary rolls around, all of us will know if we’ve been successful at changing our lives.”

      “A year is a long, long time.”

      Mackenzie squeezed Sabrina’s shoulder. “Not when the rewards are worth the wait.”

      2

      KIT WAS TRYING to convince himself that it wasn’t necessary for him to find out firsthand if Sabrina Bliss lived up to her name. Some things were better left to the imagination. This was one of them.

      This…bliss.

      So why had he volunteered to help her move?

      She hadn’t asked for help. A couple of guys from the kitchen got the idea when she was recently telling them about finally finding an apartment after a month-long search. They’d roped Kit into the deal, and he’d been curious enough to agree. Sabrina came into the kitchen every day and watched him work, sitting silently on a stool, out of the way but very much on his mind. Usually he got into a zone when he cooked. The clamor of the busy restaurant kitchen faded away while he concentrated on molding chocolate tulip cups or icing a multilayered bombe. But Sabrina wasn’t an unobtrusive type of woman. She shot his concentration to bits.

      Kit and Parker and Vijay piled out of their cab in Chelsea, telling the driver to wait. Sabrina had been staying with her sister while she searched for an apartment. Mackenzie Bliss had a ground-floor flat in a gently aged brownstone with ivy crawling up the lintel. The street door was open. Kit checked the mailboxes in the vestibule and rang the bell for 1A.

      The door opened as far as the security chain allowed. “Why, good morning,” Mackenzie said through the two-inch gap between the door and jamb. Kit nodded. Parker gave her a broad smile. She shut the door, and the chain made a chunking sound when she slipped it free. The men crowded toward her as soon as she opened the door again. She stepped back, holding on to the lapels of her terry cloth robe. “Uh, hi, Kit. What’s going on?”

      “This is Parker…” A roly-poly sous chef with a deceptively cherubic face. “And Vijay…” A handsome young Indian who had a deft touch with sauces. “And we’re here to help Sabrina move.”

      Mackenzie was clearly surprised, but she recovered to exchange handshakes with the other men. Kit admired her aplomb. Except for minor facial similarities, she was the opposite of her sister—shorter and rounder, softer and kinder, where Sabrina was sharp angles and bright eyes and frequently outspoken. Except around him. With him, she was quiet, observant, a little nervous. Her watchful eyes made him too aware of himself.

      “Sabrina’s not expecting you, is she?” Mackenzie let them in. They filed into a short, narrow hallway alongside two shoe boxes, a backpack, a suitcase and a rolled-up futon without a frame, not much thicker than a pallet. They were too early. The moving preparations had barely begun.

      “It’s a random act of kindness,” Vijay explained. “Sabrina said to me she was moving this morning, so I came to be of assistance.”

      “Isn’t that nice?” Mackenzie had a funny smile on her face as she led them into the living room. “Sabrina? Your movers have arrived.”

      Sabrina entered, daubing a towel on her damp hair. She wore loose batik drawstring pants and a brief tank top that tented over her small, high breasts. Kit dropped his gaze to her bare feet, long and bony, then back up, drawn by the irresistible