Unexpected Gift(30)
“Really. I just want to pay for the electricity, groceries, and whatever else since you are buying.”
“Really?” I sound like I don’t know any other words.
She gives me a half smirk, half nervous smile as she pulls at the hem of her shirt, showing the curve of the top of her breasts. “Really.”
“You’re an interesting woman, Molly Lowell. I thought you’d fight me on this. I thought we would be arguing for weeks and living in a hotel, doing laundry in the bathtub or something.”
She deadpans me. “Like a fancy doctor such as yourself would ever do laundry in a tub. You’d have a laundry service.”
I glance down, a little embarrassed.
Her eyes sear into me, scanning me, looking for the truth. “You already have a laundry service!”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I’ll deny everything. I will admit nothing.
She takes a step closer to me, and my body recognizes hers. I have to fight my instincts to remove the space between us and feel her skin on mine. There is some type of charge or energy between us. It might be anger, annoyance, sexual tension, hell… I don’t know at this point. She confuses me more than any other woman I have ever met.
The sick part? I fucking like it. I like the guessing and the wonder. It’s a new experience for me.
“You pay people to do your laundry.”
Okay, I cave. “I’m a surgeon. Some surgeries take fifteen freaking hours. I don’t have time to wash clothes. So, yeah. I send it out. Sue me.”
“Now, there’s an idea. I’d be able to buy all the firewood I wanted.”
A loud, embarrassing bark of laughter leaves my mouth. “You’re such a jerk.”
“Takes one to know one.” She steps closer, sending my nerves into a frenzy.
The smell of her perfume wafts toward me when the wind blows. She smells like summer, a combination of coconut and orange. My cock plumps from the scent. No one has ever had that effect on me before. This is the closest she has been. And I take in all her features. She has freckles on her nose and the tops of her cheeks. Not many. Just a light dusting, but they really come out when the sun graces her skin. Her lashes are longer than I thought, the shadows from them brush her cheek every time she blinks.
Her skin has no imperfections, no blemishes. She has no makeup on, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman so beautiful before. How have I not noticed her?
You did. I just don’t ever want to.
And crossing that line will betray Brandon’s trust. But it is hard to keep that thought when her breath smells minty. My eyes won’t leave her lips and the craving to taste her keeps getting worse. They have a perfect cupid’s bow. The bottom lip holds a little more pout than the top, and my tongue wants to trace it, lavish it with attention.
I’ve never heard of her having a boyfriend before or dating. I wonder how much experience she has. Has she been with another man? How many? Does it matter? No, but the thought of her with someone else besides me, pisses me off.
Why? I know when I imagine another man’s lips on hers, I want to destroy something. Posie must feel the shift in emotions because she starts to wail. She needs to be fed and changed anyway. It’s a good interruption because another second, and I might start something that will have turned into a bad idea. Molly would have ended up hating me more than she initially does.
“Can I hold her? I miss her.”
“Of course, you can, you never have to ask.” I pick up chunky monkey out of the sling and give her a kiss before handing her over.
“I know it has only been a week, but it looks like she has gotten bigger.”
“Really? With as much puke as I’ve had in my hair over the last few days, I would argue that.”
Posie settles a bit when she recognizes Molly, staring at her like she hung the damn moon. “Hey, baby girl. Look at you. You’re getting so big. You look just like your mommy today.”
“I told her that, too,” I say, a little surprised.
She starts walking toward the cars, and I tell myself not to look at her ass. I really do, but it is engraved in my DNA to look. I let my eyes wander for a few seconds, appreciating her curves, her structure. She has the perfect shape to hold onto…
“So, what are we going to do?”
Her question yanks me out of the thoughts I shouldn’t be having. “Hmm?”
“The houses.”
“Right.” Because what else is there to ask about? “You like this house, right?”
“I do.”
“Good, because I bought it this morning, with another realtor.”
She blinks at me as if she didn’t hear what I say. “You did, what?”
“I know, I shouldn’t have, but I figured if it really didn’t work out, I could sell it. It was too perfect to pass up and tomorrow it might not have been here. So, I took a leap of faith.”
“You bought us a house!” she shouts.
“I did.” I take a chance and step forward, wanting to kiss to celebrate our happiness and success. We are taking a step forward, trying to move past the pain we share. The only thing we share.
“Thank you. I think…I really think we can do this, Caden. We can set aside our differences and make this work for Posie.”
Like a bucket of ice water, her words snap me back to reality. The reality where her, and I only tolerate each other because of everyone else around us, and now that only includes Posie. But I guess that is still enough for Molly to not to want to let go of those differences that I am fighting to hold onto.