Chapter 10

His kiss was firm and bold. No hesitation, no tentative whisper of his lips meeting hers. But then Sean wasn’t the kind of man who ever did anything he wasn’t committed to. And based on the skilled glide and draw of his mouth against hers, he had most definitely committed to this. The flick of his tongue at the seam of her lips had her gasping as a tingling heat shot straight through her to her center. She clutched at his shoulders, opening beneath the press of his mouth. Moaning at his tightening hold as his hands shifted, smoothing across her lower back and pulling her in close.

Wow. Closer to Sean was incredibly good. All those muscles she’d been valiantly trying to ignore were right there. Flush against her thighs, belly, and breasts and, yeah, they were every bit as amazing as they’d looked.

His tongue dipped past her lips, sweeping over hers in a wet velvet caress that had her humming against him, pushing to her toes for more. He bowed over her, kissing her harder, giving her what her body had been begging for. Her arms linked around his neck, holding tight. Their tongues were moving in time, one sliding over the other, stroking soft and firm, slipping from her mouth to his and back. It was so good, so right. So hot and sweet and—yes.

His hand moved over her bottom in a greedy press, continuing to the top of her thigh where his fingers splayed wide.

He groaned into her mouth. Groaned like somehow the feel of her leg in his grip was more than he could contain. And that so worked for her. She opened beneath the thrust of his tongue, burying her fingers in the thick strands of his hair and cocking her knee to give him more access to the back of her thigh.

Access he made ready use of, pulling her leg up along the outside of his. Running his hand to her ass and back, squeezing and gripping and groaning along the way. The kiss turned ravenous. Like blow-the-top-off-the-meter hot.

Another demanding thrust, and a spasm ripped through her center, wringing a needy cry from her.

“Fuck, Molly,” he growled, and the tortured sound of his voice was almost as good as when, in the next breath, he bowed over her again, catching her other leg and pulling her up.

“Yes!” she hissed, hooking her legs around his hips and then moaning at the feel of him, so hard, at the place where their bodies met. She couldn’t get enough of his mouth, of the way his hands felt like they were everywhere, of this man she’d ached for, panting for breath as he muttered her name again and again.

Her back met the rough bricks behind her, and she kissed Sean harder, gasping his name like a plea as he rocked into her, hitting that perfect spot again and again. Nothing had ever felt this good before, this right. So completely perfect while being not nearly enough.

Sean was growling something against that tender spot where her neck met her shoulder.

“Uh-huh,” she replied blindly, because she was good with whatever he was saying as long as it meant more. More of his wicked mouth and hot grasping hands. More of her name rumbling low against her ear. More of Sean’s arms around her, his breath in her hair, and—

“Oh shit!” A female voice giggled a second before the back door slammed closed with a clang.

Molly’s eyes snapped open, and those roving, needy hands that had been all over her froze where they were, the body they were attached to going as stiff as her own. A horn blared, and a few shouts sounded from a distance, the typical city night noise landing like reality slapping her in the face.

Her heart hadn’t stopped pounding, her body burned, and her breath came in ragged draws, but with every thunk of a car door, roar of an engine, and wail of a siren that passed, more of her ability to reason returned. Until she was aware with crystal clarity of just how far things had gone in the Dumpster-lined alley behind the bar where they’d been hanging out with friends.

Oh shit. What had they done?

Her legs unraveled from Sean’s waist. He helped her to her feet and then turned away before she’d even gotten a look at his eyes. A hint at how he was taking what had just happened.

The metal door to the bar opened again, and Jill popped her head out, offering a weak “Sorry” as she returned the broken slat of wood to where it had been propping the door open before.

Jill. The floor dropped out of her belly, and Molly spun back to Sean, who was still facing the other way and appeared to be adjusting his pants.

“Everything okay over there?” she asked with a nervous laugh.

Sean’s head dropped forward, and then he laughed too. Not the big, full laugh she loved to hear out of him, but a quiet, thoughtful laugh that hit all the right chords within her. This was going to be okay.

Walking back to her, he smoothed her flyaway hair and then helped her adjust her shirt and skirt. “Yeah, but just barely.” His eyes fixed on her mouth, and he brushed it with his thumb, softly and only once. “That was—”

“Not gross,” she supplied, still a little lost in the look he was giving her.

“No. Not at all.” Gently unhooking her fingers from where they’d found their way between the buttons of his shirt, he cleared his throat. “But what I was going to say was that it was definitely enough to satisfy the craving. Right?”

Umm. No. Not even a little bit. That craving she’d been bitching and moaning about prior to the kiss hadn’t been anything. Not compared to the inferno of need raging through her veins right then. But if it worked for Sean… “Sure. Right. You bet. Totally.”

Sean nodded, his smile looking strained. But then he wasn’t nodding, and he wasn’t smiling either. He’d somehow switched to shaking his head, and that frown on his face matched the darkness in his eyes. “Fuck. Your mouth, Molly,” he groaned, taking another step back. “I never should have gotten a taste of it.”

Relieved not to be the only one feeling a little mixed up over what had just happened, she sagged back into the wall where she’d just been pinned, then remembering it was a dank alley—and even though it didn’t stink or look gross, it probably was—she pushed back up and stepped away from it.

Sean waved a hand toward the wall. “Sorry about that.”

“I don’t think either of us was thinking totally clearly. I mean, I was touching it, and I didn’t even notice. If it hadn’t been for Jill, I would have let you—”

Sean’s hands came up in front of him like he was warding her off. “Jesus, don’t say it. Having that kiss in my head is bad enough. I don’t think I could handle you putting any more ideas in there.”

That was not what she’d been expecting.

He cleared his throat. “Seriously, Moll, you can’t look at me like that.”

She blinked, her brows furrowing. “What?”

“You’re doing that thing again with the eyes. You know, where I thought it was just a play, but it turned out to be real.”

That thing? She looked down at the broken concrete between their feet, because if she’d had any control over that thing she’d been doing with her eyes, none of this would be an issue at all. That thing had been the harbinger of this escalating nonplatonic situation.

“That kiss was probably a mistake.” She didn’t want it to be true, but the writing was on the wall.

“Sorry, Moll. But the whole taste-to-curb-the-craving thing? Not even close to working. We need to shut this down now.”

“Totally,” she agreed, wanting to mean it. Certain she would too, as soon as every nerve and sense stopped sizzling with a need for more of what Sean had just given her.

* * *

Sean was still half hard as they returned to the bar through the door they’d left. Jill was standing at the end of the hallway, hopping around, her grin stretching from ear to ear.

Molly headed over to her, hands patting the air in front of her in an effort to calm the other woman down, while Sean headed straight for the bar. To cool himself off, fast.

The bartender pushed a pint in front of him, and he downed half of it. What had he been thinking? Not that kissing Molly would be a good idea. Or that there was even a chance one kiss would be enough to take the edge off. Ha. He wasn’t an idiot. He’d been to high school and remembered well enough how every inch the girls had given him had only served to make him work harder for the mile. No way he’d thought it would be any different with Molly. But when she’d suggested it… Fuck. The opportunity was there, and he’d wanted to know what it would be like. So even knowing better, he’d gone along.

Turning so he was leaning back against the bar, he scanned the crowd for the white blond of her hair, thinking about its silky texture slipping through his fingers and falling around his face when he’d hoisted her up. And when her legs wrapped around him, those fucking amazing legs, clutching at his hips. Her skirt shoved up so he could feel her heat and—

Yeah, he’d messed up but good.

Molly was standing with the band, nodding her head to whatever the guy with the overeager smile was saying. She looked…well, shit, she looked normal. Not like she was going crazy thinking about the taste of him on her tongue. Not like he felt.

Maybe she was doing what he’d suggested and just shutting it down.

But then she turned her head, her eyes finding his across the room. And he knew—he could see it in that look she couldn’t stop giving him—that she wasn’t any better off than he was.

Tossing back the rest of his beer, he pulled out his phone and texted her.

Sean: You’re making it worse.

A second later, Molly had her phone out, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. At least that was better. No matter how badly they screwed up, as long as he could see that smile, he knew somehow everything was going to be okay. The conversation with the guys from the band was still going on around her, but she seemed to have shifted to the fringe edge of the group.

Molly: Pot meet kettle. Fix your hair. You look…played with.

He turned, checking to see if there was a mirror behind the bar, but already another message was coming through. A picture of him, with his hair tangled in too many directions to count. Jesus.

Finger combing the mess, he raised a brow at her.

Molly: Marginally better.

But there was a glint of amusement in her eyes that said she was lying. More than that, the glint was tempting him to get closer. To forget about the “space” they were violating in spirit, if not action, and just—

A slim set of shoulders bumped into him, jerking his attention from Molly to the woman taking a quick step back from him, an apologetic look on her face.

“I’m so sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have worn these stupid heels.” She shook her head, sending a half-wild mop of corkscrew curls tumbling around her shoulders. “I didn’t spill your drink, did I? I’d be happy to buy you another.”

Sean was shaking his head, trying to be polite to the obviously embarrassed woman in front of him, while simultaneously trying and failing to keep his attention from skating past her to the far side of the bar.

“I’m fine”—he held up his empty glass—“and my beer was gone already.”

“So the only thing hurt is my pride?” she asked with a nice laugh and edged past him to the open stool at the bar. She sat and, pulling her feet up, sighed. “Oh my God, that’s almost better than sex.”

Wow.

But then her eyes bugged, as if she’d just realized what she’d said, before she squinted them shut again in what he would guess was deep embarrassment. Molly would love this. And she’d make this poor girl feel better too.

Sean glanced back across the bar, ready to wave her over, but this time, Molly wasn’t looking at him. Returning his attention to the woman, he caught sight of her shoes and coughed out a laugh. Because damn, they had to be five-inch heels. Intense.

“Now I get it. How do you balance with those skinny… Never mind. If I were you, I’d hold on to that seat all night and then pay the bartender to piggyback you out to a cab.”

Rotating her ankle this way and that, she nodded. “I wonder if I could upgrade to a princess hold instead of piggy for an extra twenty. You know, because with the dress and all.”

He laughed. “Worth a shot.”

Molly would definitely like this girl.

Smiling up at him, she held out her hand and introduced herself, then nodded to the bartender. “I’m going to order something incredibly strong from this guy.” Her head cocked to the side, and she peered up at him from beneath her lashes. “Can I get a drink for you too?”

He hadn’t really noticed it before, but she was a very good-looking woman. And that was most definitely interest in her eyes.

Which sort of put a damper on the easy exchange between them. Because—well, because of Molly.

But as soon as the thought rolled through his head, he stopped short. There wasn’t anything between him and Molly. Or at least there wasn’t supposed to be. They’d said they were going to shut this thing between them down, so they would.

A lot of women had passed through Sean’s life over the years. Women he’d had fun with but knew weren’t what he’d been looking for long term. With most, it had been easy to move on and let a few nights of fun be the end of it. But from time to time, there had been that one who’d been the kind of fun he hadn’t quite been ready to give up. Those had been the ones he’d needed to move past the quickest, cut off without a second glance, because he’d known there wouldn’t be a future with them, and it wouldn’t have been fair to either of them to let that natural connection grow when it would need to be severed later. And from as far back as he’d been thinking that way, the best way he’d known to get one woman out of his head had been to move on to another.

Jesus. He couldn’t imagine trying something like that with Molly. He wouldn’t want to. But even if he did…he had to wonder if it would even work with her.

Rapping his knuckles on the bar, he pushed off his seat and wished the woman in the next seat luck with the heels. And then he crossed the bar to join Molly and the guys from the band.