I Wish You Were Mine (Oxford #2)(46)

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.”