by Jill Shalvis
And he was willing to wait for that.
She opened her mouth, but Joe walked into the room and grabbed the file he’d left on the table, and whatever she’d been about to say, she kept to herself.
Joe glanced over at the two of them, narrowing his eyes at Molly. “Something’s different. You do your hair?”
She put a hand to her head and scowled at him. “No.”
Joe cocked his head. “New dress?”
“No!” She tossed up her hands. “I’m just feeling . . . good. Is that so out of the ordinary?”
“Yes,” both Lucas and Joe said at the same time.
She rolled her eyes and tried to walk by Joe, who stopped her and dipped down a little to stare into her face. His smile faded. “Who is he?”
“Excuse me?”
“You clearly . . .” He grimaced. “Got some. Who the hell is he?”
Molly gave him a shove. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“Did you vet him?” Joe asked.
Molly shook her head. “We are so not having this conversation.”
“You didn’t,” Joe said, sounding shocked. “Who the hell is he?”
Lucas stood up to try and save her from answering that one. “We’ve got to get going,” he said to Joe. “Meeting with our new clients this morning, right? Archer said they were expecting us this morning at their offices. I’ll drive while you read us the file.”
Joe didn’t budge or take his gaze off Molly. “You’re not on one of those dating apps again, are you? The guys you dated from there were all tools.”
Molly turned to the door. “The only tool in my life is you, Joe.”
“Oh, real mature,” her brother said but Molly had shut the door behind her.
Joe looked over at Lucas. “What’s her problem?”
“She was online dating?”
Joe shook his head. “Not anymore. I went in and changed her profile to make her seventy-five years old, using a picture of one of the Golden Girls. I edited it to say she likes slow rides on her motorized scooter and drinking Metamucil while watching the sunrise, since sleeping gave her indigestion. I’m pretty sure that fixed things.”
Lucas didn’t like the thought of Molly online dating any more than Joe did. But the truth was, he didn’t like the idea of her dating at all. He was just beginning coming to terms with that, the fact that he wanted to be her one and only.
Not that he was ready to admit it out loud to Molly, much less to her brother and his own partner. But mostly he didn’t like that Joe had taken her options away from her. No one should do that. “She can handle herself,” he said. “You know that, right?”
“I do, but . . .” Joe blew out a breath, looking torn. “She’s my baby sister. I’ve always looked out for her. It’s not an easy habit to break.”
“She’s smart and she’s strong, not to mention levelheaded. Give her a break, man. Trust her instead of playing stupid games with her online profiles.”
Joe gave that a moment’s thought. “Yes, you’re right. Forget the profiles. I could just figure out who she’s seeing and run them through our programs to check him out.”
“Bad idea,” Lucas said. “Real bad.”
“Why?”
“Because she’ll kill you if she finds out.” Although maybe she’d kill her brother before he could kill Lucas . . .
Joe blew out a breath. “Damn. You’re probably right. Why are you probably right?”
“Because I’m smarter than you.”
Joe gave him a playful shove. When Lucas hit the wall, Molly yelled at them from her desk down the hall. “Stop acting like you’re in the MMA! Last time you put a hole in my wall, Archer made you pay for the fix-it bill. Why can’t you just pummel each other instead?”
Lucas straightened and wrapped an arm around Joe’s neck to give him a hard noogie. “Tell her you’re sorry.”
“No.”
Lucas tightened his grip and Joe yelled, “Sorry!” Then he shoved free, glaring at him. “What’s your problem?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit,” Joe said. “You’ve been quiet, on another planet. And now, you allowed me to nearly put you through the wall. You’re . . . distracted.”
“I’m fine.”
Joe looked at him with an undercurrent of worry and Lucas sighed. “I am,” he said.
Joe wasn’t buying it, but at least he knew better than to push.
More than Lucas could say for himself. He was feeling more than a little uneasy for not telling Joe how he felt about Molly. But hell, he could barely explain it to himself. After Carrie died, he’d never have become involved with someone as vulnerable as Molly on any level, and he did not mean that as a commentary on her abilities. He meant emotionally vulnerable, which he actually considered a positive attribute. It was just that he himself had been so emotionally bankrupt for so long that he’d have steered clear in order not to hurt her. Maybe a few years ago, he might have slept with her once or twice, no regrets. More recently, he might’ve slept with her until she realized it was going nowhere and kicked him to the curb.
So what the hell did he think he was doing now?
He was taking a chance.
On purpose.
He was putting himself out there and it was fucking terrifying. He’d accepted that personal goals could change as life went on, but he was still cynical to the bone and wasn’t sure he believed people themselves could actually change. He’d been a lot of things. A punkass kid, a bored student, a brother, a son, a boyfriend, a fiancé, a DEA agent, an investigator. He’d been good at all but two.
He’d made a crappy boyfriend and an even worse fiancé.
But had he changed? He’d like to think so. And yet there was no telling for sure until he dove into a relationship with Molly with both feet, eyes wide open—something he wasn’t sure how to do, not to mention, he was completely unsure of how she felt about it.
What did she see in him? What did she expect of him? He supposed he needed to ask her, which he wasn’t looking forward to. As for what he wanted from her . . . he wanted to say it was her body’s unconditional acceptance for as long as he could get it. But he suspected he was looking for much more. His heart was asking for something his brain kept telling him he shouldn’t want.
A soul mate.
And . . . now he was sweating. But he’d already gone through the denial stage of this game with Molly, keeping his emotional distance. Even he knew when to grudgingly accept defeat. She mattered to him, more than anyone ever had.
Joe was staring at him, not looking overly thrilled. “You’d tell me if you weren’t okay, right? If something was wrong?”
“Sure,” Lucas lied. Because no way was he going to try to explain his feels to anyone but Molly. And even then, the thought was daunting. A part of him knew he’d eventually have to tell Joe too. He knew this.
He hated this.
The next few hours were passed meeting with their clients and then working on dreaded reports. Finally, starving, he went to the employee room.
One of Caleb’s assistants had just dropped off Thai takeout as a thank-you gift. Hunt Investigations did a lot of work for Caleb’s conglomerate, and was in fact on retainer. Last week, they’d discovered a subcontractor on one of Caleb’s new buildings was taking kickbacks. They’d provided the evidence needed to proceed in court.
Caleb was clearly feeling grateful.
And Lucas was feeling grateful for food. He’d gotten there just in time, too. The masses were huddled in close, piling Thai on their plates. By the time he got his own filled, the only seat left was right next to Molly. She looked up at him as he sat next to her. He smiled.
She didn’t.
Okay then. They’d shared orgasms, but they still weren’t quite friends. Good to know.
Archer strode in and proceeded to start the meeting without preamble, pointing at various members of the team when it was their turn to run through their current case. When Lucas was up, he opened his laptop a
nd froze. The open tab was on one of their special search programs and Molly’s name was still typed in. He smoothly and quickly shifted the screen aside and presented his current case to the room, not looking over at Molly.
Shortly thereafter, the meeting was adjourned and everyone filed out. Molly stood and turned to him, hands on hips. She didn’t speak. She didn’t have to; steam was coming out her ears.
“Okay,” he said. “I get that it looks bad, but I didn’t hit enter.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you?”
He stood and met her gaze straight-on. “Yes.” He waited for her reaction, but she wasn’t giving him much of anything. She was just looking at him, eyes intense as if trying to measure his ability for honesty.
Fair enough. “I found something on St. Nick,” he said quietly. “I’ve emailed you the file.”
“Did you?” she asked with a surprise that bothered him.
“Yeah. I did. Partners, remember? He’s got a lot of aliases to comb through.”
They were toe to toe now and the air in the conference room seemed to crackle around them. He didn’t know about her, but all he could think about was last night when they’d been this close and what they’d been doing to each other. Was she thinking about it too? How they’d stripped each other in the dark and spent the long hours of the night locked in erotic sensations. And she’d come through on the dirty talk too, big-time. At the memory, he smiled.
Her gaze dropped to his mouth and he knew, oh yeah, he damn well knew that she was thinking about it too. She wet her lips and gave a small little sigh that warmed him in places that had no business being warmed in a damn conference room at work. “Molly.”
She closed her eyes and tipped her face up, like she wanted him to kiss her—which he wanted more than his next breath. He put a hand on her hip and leaned in and . . .
Joe walked into the room.
Molly jumped back a few feet and whirled on her brother. “Why are you always sneaking up on me? Jeez, wear a damn bell, would you?”
Joe gave her an odd look and pointed to his cell phone still lying on the large conference table. “Forgot that.” He gave a half smile to his sister. “I know, I know, I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached to my neck, right?” His smile faded and he divided a glance between Lucas and Molly. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Molly said quickly.
Lucas shook his head. Nope, nothing wrong here, nothing to see . . .
Archer came back in to grab a doughnut out of the opened box. “Almost left dessert.” He stared at Lucas and then Molly. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Molly repeated.
Lucas pleaded the fifth.
Archer didn’t look any more convinced than Joe, which meant it was time to get the hell out of Dodge. Lucas grabbed his laptop and nodded to Joe. “Hand me a kiss.” Shit. Fuck. Damn. Hell. “I mean a doughnut.” God, he was so stupid. “Hand me a doughnut.”
Joe just stared at him as if one of them had lost their mind.
Not Archer. There was no bemusement in his gaze at all. Just a blank, deadpanned stare that probably would’ve had most people running for the hills.
Lucas wasn’t most people and he wasn’t easily intimidated or scared. But he could admit that his balls tightened slightly and not in a good way. Ignoring everyone but Molly, whom he sent a quick glance to and found her cheeks flushed, he grabbed a doughnut for himself, and then on second thought, took a second. Because this was definitely going to be a two doughnut sort of day. Then he turned his back—a risk with both Archer and Joe being excellent marksmen—and walked out of the room.
By the time Molly lifted her head from her laptop at the end of the day, most everyone else had left work. She’d switched over from Hunt work to the file Lucas had sent her. Back aching, she stood and stretched, giving her leg a moment to get under her. When she could straighten it all the way, she went around closing up for the night and found Lucas in his office on his laptop.
“Oh,” she said in surprise, standing in his opened doorway. “I was just about to turn off all the lights on you. What are you still doing here? You came in at five this morning.”
“I could ask the same of you,” he said and rose, stretching as she just had, rolling his broad shoulders. His T-shirt rose a little, giving her a quick peek at some serious rock-hard abs. She had to force her eyes off him because she knew herself. Knew the danger signs. Her entire body softened when she got too close to him now, and she . . . tingled.
It was the memories of their nights together. She kept replaying the sound of his low timbered rough voice in her ear when he’d been over her, deep inside her, taking her to places she hadn’t been in far too long. And then the sound of his sexy triumphant laugh when he’d taken her over the edge for the second time.
And then a third.
If she was being honest, it was about more than just the physical intimacy they’d shared. It was the look in his eyes when he got concerned about her safety—and yet he still let her do what she wanted to do.
Yeah, there was no doubt. She was deep, deep in the danger zone with him. “I had a bunch of work piled up,” she said.
“And not all of it for Hunt Investigations,” he said.
She gave a single nod of agreement.
“Find anything?” he asked.
“I’m working on getting access to financial information on Nick and all his various aliases, along with his brother. And also the workings of the charities that the village supposedly supports. Did you know that there’s a handful of people who win bingo? A lot?”
“What’s a lot?” he asked.
“Just about weekly, near as I can tell. Almost as if they have a deal with the person in charge of bingo.”
He nodded. “So assuming that’s true and that Nick has people planted in bingo, the winners probably get to keep part of the winnings, but have to hand the rest back to him.”
“Bad Santa.”
“Very bad,” he agreed in that voice that never failed to rev her engines. Before she could do something stupid, she looked at the time. “Oops. Gotta go,” she said.
“Hold up.”
“No time,” she said and walked down the hallway, grabbing her purse and laptop. At the front door of the offices, she was halted when a long arm reached past her and held the door closed.
He was right behind her, as in so close she could feel the heat of him through her clothes, seeping into her back. She closed her eyes to take it in as he lowered his head and rubbed his jaw to hers.
“Molly,” he murmured, his mouth at the sweet spot beneath her ear, making her quiver on the inside. On the outside, she locked her knees.
“Hmm?” she managed, her body moving of its own accord, dammit, tipping her head to the side to give him more room in order to drive her crazy with his mouth now at her throat.
“Where are you running off to?” he asked. His breath was warm, the day-old stubble on his jaw prickling her skin in the very best way.
“Home,” she managed. “I’ve got to rest up for tomorrow night’s elf shift. Mrs. Berkowitz and Mrs. White heard rumors that something’s going down tomorrow night.” Dammit! Her eyes flashed open and she whirled to face him, poking her finger in his stupid hard chest. “Stop doing that!”
He lifted his hands, showing her that they weren’t on her in any way. “Doing what?”
“You know what!”
“Breathing?”
“Yes! Especially on my neck.”
“You liked it.”
Way too much . . .
Clearly able to read her mind, he smiled. “Are you going to invite your partner along tomorrow night?”
“No,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m just going to work a shift and you stick out in all your big, alpha, silent badassery. And plus, there’s no way you’d actually wear an elf costume, so . . .”
He’d gone brows up at the badassery comment. “I can’t wear an
elf costume,” he said. “No place to put my gun.”
She snorted and wriggled her butt against his “gun.”
He whipped her around to face him and pressed her up against the wall with six feet plus of solid muscle, and her eyes started to drift closed of their own doing. “That’s a pretty big gun,” she said breathlessly.
Laughing, he dropped his forehead to hers. “You’ve been ignoring me since the meeting. You okay?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”
His brown eyes met hers and held.
“Because of last night? Lucas, I think we both know exactly how okay I am after that.” She gave him a small smile. “Nothing’s changed.”
He ran his fingers along her jaw, letting them sink into her hair. “Good. But I’m going with you tomorrow night. Tomorrow night and always.”
“You’ll wear an elf costume?” she asked, teasingly hopeful.
A light of amusement came into his eyes. “In bed I’ll wear whatever you want me to. But out of bed, I’m staying dressed as is—including weapons.”
She ran her gaze over his leanly muscled body. “Exactly how many weapons are you packing anyway?”
A very wicked smile crossed his mouth. “Unless you’re prepared to search me and find out yourself, none of your business.”
This caused a rush of heat to go right through her, but she lifted her chin and gave him a light shove.
He let her have her space, but didn’t go far. “I’m still coming with,” he said.
“Because you think I need backup?”
“Because we’re partners. And if you’re free right now, I could actually use your help with something.”
“Like what?” she asked, eyes narrowed.
He smiled. “Suspicious much?”
“With you, yes.”
“Have I ever steered you wrong or left you hanging?”
“No,” she had to admit. He’d never done anything but be brutally honest, have her back on this case, and respect her abilities.
As for the leaving her hanging thing . . . he’d never left her hanging at all. In fact, he’d refused to leave her behind.
So she supposed it wouldn’t be fair to leave him behind now.
