Hot Winter Nights (Heartbreaker Bay #6)(34)

“What?”

“I really don’t want to want you, but I do.” She stared at him contemplatively. “I mean what is that?”

He felt his lips curve. He could have said right back attcha, babe, but instead he said, “It’s because I’m irresistible.”

“Keep telling yourself that. And I’ll keep reminding myself that I’m not attracted to guys like you.”

“Guys like me?” he asked. “What does that mean?”

“Big. Badass. Doggedly aggressive . . .” She used her arm to swipe at the steamed-up passenger window. “Annoyingly high-sexualized chemistry,” she said to the glass.

He was glad she wasn’t looking at him right then because his triumphant smile would’ve made her mad. He really was trying not to be all in with her, and not just because of Joe and the job but because he hadn’t planned on being “all in” with anyone ever again. But she sat there looking so sexy and adorable at the same time in that costume, all pissy and grumpy because she wanted him. It would take a far better man than him to resist that.

“Very annoying,” she muttered to herself, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You didn’t feel all that annoyed a minute ago.”

“Hmph.”

Her bad ‘tude and reluctance to accept their attraction amused him. Which spoke volumes on his mental maturity. But he had to find the humor in this to keep everything—including her—compartmentalized.

And it wasn’t as if she was going to go all in with him either. She kept herself closed off to him in most ways, but ever since she’d slept in his bed, their physical chemistry refused to be ignored.

“This is all your fault,” she said. “You shouldn’t have kissed me again.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “It was you nearly getting caught that led to that kiss. And while we’re on that, you’re welcome for saving your very sexy, impulsive ass.”

“So you’re telling me that kiss was simply a diversion tactic?” she asked. “All the tongue, the hand on my ass, all of it just for the job?”

Their gazes locked. “That’s not what you asked,” he said.

“I’m asking now.”

There was the simple answer, which was that’s what he wanted the kiss to have been. A diversion tactic, nothing more. But the more complicated answer was that the kiss had only started out that way and had quickly proven to him that nothing was simple between the two of them. Not a single thing, including the emotions she stirred up from deep inside him, emotions he’d long ago buried.

Emotions he couldn’t afford. “The kiss started out a diversion,” he admitted. “But ended up something else entirely.” And every single word of that sentence was 100 percent true. He looked over at her, and in the ambient lighting of the car’s interior, waited for a response.

But fascinatingly enough, it was her turn to do a tap dance around the truth. “I was doing fine,” she said.

“Sure you were,” he said. “You were doing fine at getting caught. You know, I thought your brother was the most stubborn person I’ve ever met, but he’s got nothing on you.”

She shrugged, clearly taking that as a compliment. “I could’ve handled myself.”

“I have no doubt,” he said. “But you’re not an ‘I.’ You’re a ‘we.’ If any of us at Hunt had pulled that stunt tonight, Archer would have had our ass in a sling.” He opened his car door. “Let’s go get the rest of this over with.”

The village was lights out, locked down. Molly nodded to the now locked gate. “How long would it take you to break in?”

They both knew B&E was Joe’s specialty, but Lucas was no slouch. “Two minutes. Ish.”

“Move,” she said, nudging him aside. “I can do it in one.”

And she did. And though it should have annoyed the shit out of him, it had the opposite effect. Watching her work the lock on that gate in the promised sixty seconds dressed as an elf turned him on even more than the costume.

They walked quietly and quickly through the dark village to the trailer office. Also locked.

Molly looked up at him with hope and excitement and he gestured for her to have at it.

Again, she got them inside in less than a minute. She beamed up at him, eyes shining with adrenaline and pride, and he had no idea what came over him. He slid his hand around the nape of her neck, pulled her to him, and kissed her. It was unsatisfyingly short, but no less potent for it, and when he pulled away, he had a surge of male satisfaction at seeing her eyes now slightly dazed.

“What was that for?” she asked.

“I don’t know. You drive me crazy.”

She nodded. “I get that a lot.”

“I meant crazy in a really great way.”

She stared up at him, nibbling her bottom lip, appearing to be struck mute by this confession. She didn’t know what to make of him.

Which made two of them.

She turned from him and eyed the office. Typical rectangle shape, stuffed with a shabby couch, three seen-better-days desks, and a filing cabinet. “What do you think?” she asked.

What did he think? He wanted to sprawl the elf out on one of the desks and taste every inch of her. That’s what he thought.