“You didn’t have to say it. I could tell what you were thinking.”
“You’re making me sound like a conceited jerk.”
“No. Just another man with an overdeveloped sense of responsibility that makes you think you have to decide what’s best on my behalf.”
“You’re comparing me to your brother again?” he asked in disbelief. “Now?”
“My brother. My father. My uncles, cousins and friends. Everyone seems to think I need to be protected from myself.”
It always annoyed him when she compared him to anyone else, especially her brother. He leaned closer, his face very near to hers when he growled, “I am not trying to be your brother.”
She ran her hands up his chest to encircle his neck. “I’m delighted to hear that.”
“Behave yourself.”
“Why?”
“Well…because.”
She toyed with the hair at his nape. “We’ve already established that I’m not expecting anything long-term, and that I’m fully capable of protecting myself from the emotional consequences of being with you. We’ve admitted that we’re attracted to each other. So why should we have to pretend otherwise?”
He looked at her with a skepticism that might have annoyed her had she not known he was fighting his own desires in a misguided attempt to look after her. “But—”
Taking matters into her own hands, she tugged at his head, pulling his mouth closer to hers. She spoke against his lips when she said, “Sometimes you talk too much.”
It was such an incongruous accusation for him, a man notorious for his terseness, that he was startled into a laugh. Enchanted as always by the rare sound, she muffled it with a kiss. And then he took over, in his usual manner.
Just this once, she thought as she closed her eyes and crow
ded more closely against him, she would let him get away with it.
Maybe if it hadn’t been so long since he had been with a woman. Or maybe if he hadn’t been alone with Molly so much in the past few days, allowing him to fall so completely under her spell. Or maybe if she weren’t so sweetly, enthusiastically responsive to his every touch…
No. Kyle couldn’t find any excuse for his lack of willpower when it came to Molly Walker. There was just something about her that was special. Something he couldn’t resist, no matter how hard he had tried.
It might have been a bit easier if Molly had tried, too. Instead, she had smiled at him and laughed with him and kissed him as if he were the most exciting man she had ever met—a heady experience for him. And then, when he had tried one final time to be noble and self-disciplined, she had convinced him that there was no need for him to deny himself on her behalf.
She had made him feel almost embarrassed about thinking he had needed to protect her from doing something foolish—like falling in love with him. She had assured him that she neither expected—nor even seemed to want—more from him than a pleasant, fleeting encounter.
He didn’t know why that bugged him, he thought as he kissed her yet again. He should be relieved that she was open to some no-strings fun. She was, as he had repeatedly pointed out to her, a competent adult, old enough to know what she wanted. And she was giving him every indication that she wanted him—at least for now.
So what was holding him back? With a muffled groan, he lifted his mouth from hers. Without the kiss to distract him, he was able to focus on other things—like the way her body was plastered against his. How soft her smallish, but perfectly formed, breasts felt against his chest. The way her thighs cradled him so intimately.
The bulky brace on her right ankle didn’t stop her from twining her long legs around him in a way that incited all sorts of heated fantasies. Her hand was inside his sweatshirt, her palm pressed against his back. He was aware that he still needed to gain some weight, and he imagined she could feel the scars that marred his skin, but she didn’t seem to notice any imperfections. She looked at him as though she’d like to dip him in chocolate and swallow him in one gulp….
He groaned again. “Let’s eat lunch.”
She looked down at their bodies, her attention lingering pointedly on his hand, which was cupped rather intimately around her hip. “Now?”
He hastily moved his hand to a more innocuous position. “Yeah. The food’s getting cold. If we don’t eat soon, it’ll be ruined.”
She sighed. “Are you getting all noble again?”
“I’m not trying to protect you from yourself, if that’s what you’re asking. I’ve learned my lesson about that.”
“So why are we stopping just when things were get ting…particularly interesting?”
He wasn’t prepared to examine the reasons too closely, himself. He said simply, “I’m hungry.”