When Mollie woke up, she was entirely focused on the most basic of human needs.

Coffee.

She opened one eye. Then the other. Sniffed, just to be sure. Yep, definitely coffee.

Mollie rolled onto her back, wondering why she felt so deliciously loose and . . . She bolted upright in bed and glanced down.

Naked. She was naked.

Last night came back in a rush of images and sighs and . . .

Mollie flopped back on the bed, throwing her arms over her head, burrowing her face in the crook of her elbow.

She’d slept with Jackson Burke. She’d slept with her ex-brother-in-law, and the sex had been positively epic.

Which normally would be worth celebrating. Hell, normally it would be worth repeating.

But Mollie felt a stab of regret, hot and low in her stomach. How could she ever face her sister again? Hell, how could she face Jackson?

“Well, that’s a pretty view.”

Her eyes flew open. Jackson. Very slowly she lowered her arms to tug the sheet upward, heart pounding as she wondered how they were going to play this.

She sat up, tucking the sheet under her armpits, as Jackson walked into the room. He looked far better than any man had a right to, considering he was wearing a basic white tee and blue checked pajama pants, but that could be because her mind was addled by the two coffee cups in his hands. Mind-blowing sex, plus coffee in bed the next morning? The man was a keeper.

Well, your sister certainly thought so.

Mollie’s arm jerked just as she was about to take the coffee from his hand, and he lifted an eyebrow. “You okay?”

“Yeah, of course!” she said brightly, wrapping two hands around the mug.

She took a sip and sighed. Caffeine. Then she glanced up at him. “Actually, no,” she blurted out. “Everything is not okay.”

He sat on the bed beside her, giving Mollie a steady look over the rim of his own coffee cup as he took a sip.

She bit her lip and stalled. “Are you okay?”

He gave a slight smile. “After last night, it’s hard not to be a hell of a lot better than okay.”

“Right. Because of the sex.”

She glanced down at her cup again, watching the steam rise, because it was easier than making eye contact.

“Mollie. Jesus. Just spit out whatever’s got you all muddled.”

“I don’t even know where to start,” she said with a little groan. “It’s complicated on so many levels. I slept with one of my best friends. Complicated. I slept with my roommate. Complicated. I slept with my sister’s ex-husband . . . is there even a word for that?”

She glanced up on that last one as her voice went all shrill.

“All true,” he said quietly. “But maybe we start by focusing on the parts that aren’t complicated. Did you enjoy it?”

She looked away.

“Mollie.”

“Yes, of course I enjoyed it,” she said, meeting his eyes once again. “You know I did.”

His eyes seemed to darken. “Do you want it to happen again?”

“It’s not that simple—”

“So make it that simple, Mollie. Either you want to do it again or you don’t.”

She took a sip of coffee. “I wouldn’t mind.”

His eyebrows lifted. “If that’s the most enthusiasm I’m getting, I want a do-over. See, in my fantasies, this conversation involves you begging me to do you again.”

Mollie giggled. “Do me?”

“Is that not what the kids are saying these days?”

Mollie burst out laughing, some of the tension easing.

“How about ‘shag’? ‘Coitus’?”

She punched his shoulder. “Say the word ‘coitus’ again, and I pretty much guarantee you’ll never get any. Ever. From anyone.”

“Bet I could change your mind,” he said, his voice low and gravelly as his eyes traveled over her body.

Her breath caught just a little. “Jackson—”

He sighed. “You’re overthinking it.”

“I can’t help it. I’m a thinker! And right now I keep thinking about everyone’s look of horror when they find out what we’ve done.”

“Don’t do that. What we did wasn’t wrong.”

“It wasn’t right either.”

“Bullshit,” he growled. He set his coffee cup on the nightstand, then pulled hers from her fingers and set it aside as well. He shifted closer, his hands sliding around her neck, his thumbs pushing her chin up so their eyes met.

“I won’t tell you that this isn’t challenging or that there’s not a huge bitchy elephant in the room whose name is Madison. I know you’re freaking out, and I get it, but Molls . . .”

His thumbs swept across her bottom lip, and her eyes fluttered shut.

“How about we just see where this goes?” he finished quietly.

She shook her head. “But Madison—”

“Is my ex-wife. Ex.”

Mollie pulled back, a little annoyed at his determination to pretend that it was all okay. “There are some people who are just off-limits, and friends’ and family members’ exes are among them. Isn’t that part of the guy code, as well as the girl code?”

Jackson blew out a long breath, picking up their coffee cups once more and handing hers back to her. She suspected they were both using the mugs as shields now, but she didn’t really care. She couldn’t think when he was touching her.

“I’m going to ask you something, and you have to promise not to freak out on me,” Jackson said.

“No deal,” she said, taking a sip of coffee and shaking her head. “I mean, can you see that working with any woman?”

“Fine. Freak all you want, but I’m asking anyway. Let’s say you had an ex-husband who was living with Madison. Do you think she’d hesitate before sleeping with him?”

Mollie opened her mouth, the image of a disheveled Shawn coming out of Madison’s hotel room flashing before her eyes.

Jackson’s gaze sharpened. “What?”

Mollie blew out her breath in annoyance. There were downsides to knowing each other so well. It was hard to keep secrets.

“I don’t know for sure, but I think Madison slept with one of my boyfriends. I mean, she denied it. But the circumstances were . . . damning.”

“That bitch,” Jackson muttered. “I’m sorry, babe.”

She gave a little smile. “I’m mostly over it. He was hardly the one. But I don’t think you understand. It was while you two were married.”

He gave her a bland look. “And?”

She frowned. “And you should be upset.”

Jackson snorted. “Honey, your sister cheated on me more times than I can possibly count.”

“Well, toward the end, sure, when you guys were basically living as strangers, but this was—”

“Not just the end, Mollie. The whole damn time. She didn’t even make it to our first anniversary.”

Mollie’s lips parted in surprise. “I can’t believe that. Maddie’s no saint, but she loved you early on. I know that.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Doesn’t mean she didn’t cheat.”

“How do you know?”

He looked down at his coffee cup. “I saw her with Tyler Medona.”

Mollie’s mouth was now gaping all the way open. “Your publicist? Your friend?”

He shrugged again, but Mollie knew he couldn’t possibly feel as indifferent as that. Tyler had been not only his publicist but also his friend. And Sandy Medona had been Madison’s best friend.

“You’re sure?”

Jackson’s hazel eyes lifted. “Came home early from practice and saw her giving him one of her mediocre BJs on the chaise longue by the pool.”

Mollie had entirely forgotten about her coffee. “Are you sure?”

“Sure that my wife’s mouth was wrapped around my best friend’s dick? Yeah. Pretty sure.”

“When?”

He lifted a shoulder. “A couple weeks before the rumors about me cheating started circulating.”

Mollie lifted her fingers to her lips as his implication sunk in. “You think she spread those rumors—”

“To beat me to the punch about her cheating? Yeah. I do.”

Mollie put her hands over her face. “I don’t understand. How did the sister I remember turn into the wife you remember?”

He set a hand briefly, comfortingly, against her arm. “You saw Madison through the lens of childhood.”

“Maybe,” she muttered. “But it doesn’t change the fact that she took care of me when she didn’t have to.”

To Jackson’s credit, he nodded in agreement. “She was a decent sister to you back then.”

Mollie lifted an eyebrow. “I take it by your addition of ‘back then’ that you don’t think she’s a good sister to me now?”

“I’m not here to poison your thoughts about your sister, Mollie. All I’m asking is that you separate your relationship with her from your relationship with me.”

“It’s not that simple,” she whispered.

“Make it that simple. I’m single. You’re single. And I refuse to feel ashamed or guilty for having sex with the woman I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. Let’s be adults about this, Molls. We keep on as we’ve always been; we just add sex to the mix. Really good sex.”

She opened her mouth, and he leaned forward, placing his hand over her lips before she could speak. “Let’s enjoy each other. If that’s dirty foreplay in the kitchen, we do it. Hot sex in the shower, definitely. My bed, your bed, all the beds . . .”

She laughed and pushed his hand away. “Is there any part of the plan that doesn’t involve sex?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Because all the other stuff between us? That’s still there. You’ve always had my back, Mollie. And I’ve had yours. Adding sex to the mix won’t change that.”

She wanted to say yes. She so desperately wanted to take what he was offering, to finally, finally live her life for her, to do what she wanted to do, not what Madison wanted her to do.

Jackson slid a hand behind her head, his thumb resting on her cheekbone. “I want you, Mollie. If you don’t want me, tell me, and I’ll back off.”

Don’t do this to me.

His eyebrows lifted. “This is the part where you tell me you want me. Maybe mention how well endowed I am.”

“Jackson—”

He made a scolding noise and leaned forward again, but she put a hand over his mouth. “Ground rule: no kissing until I’ve had a chance to brush my teeth.”

Jackson’s grin was slow and happy. “And then you’ll come back to bed?”

Mollie couldn’t help but smile in response, even as her heart was screaming, Danger!

“Yeah. And then I’ll come back to bed.”