I Wish You Were Mine (Oxford #2)(10)

“Hello?”

“Good evening, Mr. Burke. I have a Ms. Mollie Carrington here to see you.”

Jackson frowned. Mollie? As in the same Mollie he’d just parted ways with fifteen minutes ago? The same Mollie who’d looked ready to puke when he’d casually asked her to be his roommate, practically shouted no, and then spent the rest of dinner rambling about infectious diseases? How did she even know where he lived?

“Sure, send her up,” he said.

“Very good, sir.”

Jackson rolled his eyes as he hung up, wondering just what sort of Christmas bonus would be required to get the guys downstairs to stop addressing him as sir.

There was a sharp knock at the door. The second he opened the door to his apartment, Mollie brushed past him and spun around with a glare. “You’re unbelievable.”

His eyebrows lifted in surprise. Whoa. This was a version of Mollie Carrington that he’d never seen before. He’d seen goofy Mollie, brainy Mollie, chatty Mollie, and thinking Mollie. And tonight he’d seen sexy Mollie. But this…this was angry Mollie, her blue eyes flashing heat. It was as sexy as it was confusing.

“Hold on. You’re the one barging in on me, and I’m unbelievable? Did you follow me here?”

She ignored his question as she crossed her arms. “You do not get to spend the past few months avoiding me, ignoring my calls and my emails, and then ask me to move in.”

He groaned and went back for his whisky. “We’re back to that? Look, it was a spontaneous gesture. I thought I was being nice. But you said no, and that’s that.” He held up the whisky to her, but she shook her head.

“I had to say no,” she said. “Obviously.”

He shrugged. “I get it. You don’t want to move in with a thirty-five-year-old bachelor. You said no. I said fine. We moved on. We’re cool.”

Mollie snorted. “Why do I find that hard to believe? Oh yeah, maybe because you quit responding to my emails once your perfect life got a little bit messy.”

His features registered pain followed by a quick flash of guilt before he resumed his glower. “Forgive me if I didn’t feel like spilling my guts to the woman whose sister was divorcing me.”

“Well, why the hell not? You always spilled your guts before.”

“And maybe I shouldn’t have,” he shot back. “Maybe if I’d made a little more effort to talk to my wife instead of her kid sister, my marriage would’ve had a chance.” Mollie’s head snapped back as if he’d struck her, and he felt an instant rush of regret. “Mollie…I’m sorry. That was beyond uncalled-for.”

“Yes. But is it true?” she whispered. “You know that I never—”

“My divorce isn’t your fault,” he said gruffly. “I’ve never thought that.”

She touched her fingertips lightly to her eyelids. “See, this is exactly why I had to say no. This whole thing with Madison makes it too complicated.”

“Madison’s in Texas,” he said.

Mollie dropped her hands and looked at him. “Doesn’t make this any less complicated.”

She was dead right. Jackson shrugged. “So keep on with your tarantula roommate and his cabbage.”

Mollie put her hands on her hips and scowled at him. “How long?”

“How long what?”

“When you suggested I move in, how long were you thinking?”

He closed his eyes. “Holy shit, Mollie, if I wanted to talk in circles with a woman, I’d have stayed married.”

When he opened his eyes, she was chewing her lip, looking adorably confused, although about what, he had no idea. He did not get women. He was more sure of that these days than ever.

“I don’t know,” he said wearily. “Until you find a new place? Look, swear to God, I was trying to do a friend a favor. I’ve got the space, you’ve got the need…” Yeah, stick with that, old man. Your motives are pure as snow, all right.

His eyes narrowed slightly as a thought struck him. “Mollie, is that why you went all Rain Man on me during dinner? Because you wanted to say yes but thought you shouldn’t?”

“Rain Man?”

He winced. “God, tell me you’ve seen it. I know I’m old, but it’s a classic.”

“I’ve seen Rain Man. I just don’t think I am Rain Man.”

“Molls, you rattled off like the fifty most common diseases I was likely to die from. You paused only when the server brought over our food, and then you proceeded to tell him the diseases he was likely to die from.”

She waved this away. “I tend to talk diseases when I’m nervous. That and animal mating habits, apparently.”

He gave her a little smile. “I know.”

And that right there was every reason she should move in, and every reason she shouldn’t. He knew her inside and out—knew what made her laugh, what made her babble. What he didn’t know was what made her moan. What made those bright blue eyes go hazy with desire. Having her within arm’s reach…

Jackson jerked his eyes away from her as he realized he’d been staring at her legs.

Mollie wandered away, seemingly unaware of his inner turmoil. And definitely unaware of his hardening cock.

“Whoa,” she breathed. “This place is amazing.”