Brow rising in interest, Garrett stopped pretending to roll up his sleeves and now began to roll them down. ?
?Oh, well, then. So what are you doing here?”
Julian stared out at the placid lake, and then once again noticed how Garrett kept glancing at Kate on the docks. “You plan to give me advice, old man,” Julian dared, pointing at her. “And yet I don’t see you following your own. I know you want her, Garrett, I’m not blind. Why don’t you freaking do something?”
Garrett stiffened, his face harsh and pained. “The difference between you and me is that you’ve always known you deserve Molly. And I’ll never deserve Kate.”
Every muscle tense with longing, Julian thought of Molly as she’d been last night, how vulnerable she’d looked as she slept, how she’d shivered and how he’d watched her, covered her with a blanket while he’d wanted to cover her with his body instead. All night. All night he’d spent memorizing her face, wanting to pretend this little beauty had not hurt him like she had.
If you had a fan club you know damned well I’d be the president!
How adorable she’d looked, ranting at him. And he’d been an ass. Unreasonable and closed off to her, not even listening, letting his anger and that damned feeling of jealousy overcome him.
His heart began to race at the thought of losing her, really losing her, for life. No. Never. Because Molly was smarter than he was, and she would not cling to the one thing he’d done wrong in his life. She was better than that.
And he was getting her back. He had to, and this time it would be for life. His heart swelled as he thought of her. His little Moo, his Mo-Po, his Mopey, his Molls, his Picasso, his Molly. The one he’d always wanted, with all her paint-streaked skin, frilly skirt and sassy attitude that got her into trouble.
No, Molly had not betrayed him to Garrett intentionally, or out of preference for the other man. She’d been too innocent for her own damn good, which was why she’d always needed Julian in the first place. He’d be damned if his pride and anger and jealousy would keep her away from him now.
“You’re right,” he said, resolute. “I do deserve Molly, or at least I did.”
He started across the gravel path, suddenly wanting to get his favorite pair of Nikes and run like the wind to her home. But then, his Aston Martin was probably faster.
“I’ll just go and put some ice on this,” Garrett called after him sarcastically, rubbing his jaw.
“I have a better idea. Why don’t you let Kate do it,” Julian yelled in return, and began sprinting to his car, his heart galloping. He would tear her clothes off when he saw her. He would nibble, lick and kiss her until she couldn’t stand it and begged for him to stop. And then he’d stop, only to do it all over again.
* * *
His heart pounded as he drove, his mind homing in on one thing, just one thing.
He could barely feel the pain in his muscles now, the synapses in his brain all firing on one word, one thought, one girl.
Outside her place, he grabbed the key they hid in the planter, opened the front door and slammed it shut. He could hear his own footsteps echo as he charged down the hallway to her room.
Her door was open a crack, and he stopped. All of a sudden his system was ready to go haywire, and he wanted to do everything at once.
When he entered her room, he saw her lying facedown on her bed, as if she’d been crying or just tired or—God, he hoped she hadn’t been crying.
As he quietly backed out of the room, she sat upright with a start.
Then she saw him and leaped to her feet, her gaze throwing daggers at him. Gone were her earrings, her bangles and her smile. Despite her obvious anger, he was about to detonate with hunger and love for this passionate little redhead. He reversed course and advanced on her with slow purpose, like that night at the masquerade, with the single-minded determination of a man truly possessed. By love, by desire, by a woman. By his woman.
She continued to look fiercely at him. “Go back to fight with your brother, Julian,” she snapped.
Julian paused in the middle of the hall and spread out his arms in a gesture of pure innocence. “I’d much rather fight with you, Moo.”
“Well, I wouldn’t. I don’t plan to fight with you anymore.”
He smiled the smile he knew to be irresistible to her, his hands up in the air as if she’d trained a loaded gun on him. “All right, then. Let’s make up. What do you say?”
She opened her mouth to answer, then shut it.
At the first sign of her hesitation, Julian dropped his arms and started forward. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
She shook her head. “You don’t say you’re sorry, Julian John. You bring flowers and say, ‘Here are your flowers and look outside, there’s another truckful for you.’”
“Damn, you’re greedy, Moo. I’ll get you a whole flower shop as soon as I get my hands off you.”