Resisting Molly (3 page)

Simmering waves rolled through me when he grinned. Oh my god, what was
that
? I had seen the man smile before, for pity’s sake. Now I had caught one flicker of interest from him—a flicker that I had probably
imagined
—and all of a sudden I was reacting like a love-struck schoolgirl?

“Got big plans for your day off?” he asked.

“I was going to pick up some groceries after lunch.” Which reminded me of my promise to myself to help out around the place. “If you’ll give me a list of anything you want I’ll pick it up while I’m out.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

I shrugged. “I’m going to be there anyway, so it’s just as easy to pick up your stuff while I’m getting mine.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll make a list after I shower.”

I was not going to think of him naked in the shower. I wasn’t, I wasn’t, I wasn’t. “I was thinking of cooking a couple of nights a week, too,” I squeaked, desperate to get my mind on another track. “I’m getting really tired of takeout and TV dinners.”

“You don’t have to cook for me.”

“I know, but it’s a waste of time trying to cook for one person. So, if you’ve got anything special you’d like just let me know, and if I don’t know how to make it I’ll find a recipe online. I enjoy trying new dishes.”

Green eyes narrowed, their color leaching away into gray as he pinned me with a measuring look. “This isn’t about that rent thing, is it?”

“Huh? No, of course not.”

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards a fraction. “Well in that case you won’t mind if I pay for the groceries, then. It’s only fair if you’re going to do all the shopping and cook too, right?”

With a sinking feeling I realized he had outmaneuvered me. I should have known better than to try to put anything over on him; he had twenty years’ experience dealing with Brynn, who was a lot more devious than I ever would be.

“Right,” I mumbled.

“Well that’s settled, then, and I’m off to shower.”

Vivid images of soap-slickened muscles and water droplets rolling down toasty, golden skin flooded my mind, and I groaned in despair. Despite my earlier fears I hadn’t caught the slightest hint of interest in his eyes during our conversation. That should have been a relief, but I found myself more worried than ever. The problem wasn’t him; it was me.

Fortunately for my sanity I started classes the following week and was out of the house more often. I had two years left to finish up my degree in early childhood development and I intended to be at the top of my class the whole way. Around the same time Dr. Sanders started a two week stint of working nights at the hospital to cover for another doctor on vacation, so for a while we hardly saw each other at all.

It gave me time to get used to calling him Jonathan in my head. Since it was just the two of us there and I wasn’t a little kid any longer he said it was silly to keep calling him Dr. Sanders. That didn’t help at all to make my sudden fixation on him go away, but I at least got to deal with him in small, manageable doses until I got more comfortable with the situation. I’ll admit that I hoped it would fade out on its own, that it would be like a bolt of lightning that would flare and just as quickly vanish, but no such luck. One look from those tempestuous green eyes and my heart kicked into overdrive while my knees turned to jelly.

Ordinarily I would have spilled my guts about something like that to Brynn, and it hurt not having her advice or her shoulder to cry on when I was at my most lost and frustrated. There was just no way, though. I couldn’t possibly go to her and tell her I was falling for her dad. She would freak and probably fail out of vet school and it would all be my fault. So I suffered in silence and did my best to pretend that everything was going great.

October rolled in and Jonathan switched back to his regular work schedule. It hardly mattered, though, because I was too thoroughly swamped with homework to see him much more than before. Out of pity for me he took over the grocery shopping, insisting that my school work was more important and he was perfectly capable of handling it until I was ready to tackle it again, and more than once I dragged home late to find takeout or a pizza waiting for me on the kitchen stove. And every time he did something sweet or considerate like that my heart skipped a little and I slid a bit further down that slippery slope towards the abyss.

I didn’t
want
to love him. He was Brynn’s father, for one thing, which made him as old as my dad. Not that the word
old
ever crossed my mind when I looked at him, but I could just imagine the squawking and gossiping around our small town. Heck, I knew there was a tongue or two already wagging because I was living with him, despite the fact that I’d already been living at his house half the time since I was in middle school. The difference was that now I was living there alone with him. There were undoubtedly women in town ready to start sewing scarlet ‘A’s on my clothes.

To top that he was a doctor—he had money and a nice house and a Mercedes convertible and he was sophisticated and
I was not my mother
. While those things didn’t matter to me, if I went after Jonathan that was exactly what everyone in town would think and whisper behind my back.
Just like her mother
. There was no way to avoid that so even if I wanted something to happen between us it couldn’t work. It was simply impossible.

So of course when he asked me out I didn’t hesitate for so much as a second.

It had been a grueling week for us both. My professors had teamed me with a bunch of slackers for two group projects so that I ended up doing the lion’s share of the work in both classes, while the hospital had dragged Jonathan out of bed three times for late-night emergency surgeries after car wrecks. He came in Friday afternoon, took one look at me sprawled on the couch staring blankly at the ceiling, and shook his head.

“Go get dressed. I’m taking you out to dinner.”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t have heard him right. “What?”

“You need to get out of here for a while. I don’t think you’ve been out for fun one single time since you moved in here, and you’ve hardly had time to come up for air in the last two weeks. So I’m taking you to dinner—somewhere
nice
.”

A swarm of butterflies flash mobbed my stomach and turned it into an impromptu mosh pit. Heck, my stomach was doing flip-flops that would have qualified it as an Olympic gymnast, and I sat up so fast I got lightheaded.

“We’re going out?” I squeaked.

“Yes,” Jonathan said patiently, but his eyes sparkled with amusement. “I’ll give you half an hour to get dressed, then I’m coming up after you to carry you off whether you’re ready or not.”

I leaped off the couch and flew up the stairs without touching more than one out of every three steps, but once I got into my room and closed the door I gave myself a good shake. I was crazy—this was
so
not a date. He was just taking his daughter’s friend out to a friendly dinner that was absolutely in no way, shape, or form any kind of date. Casual, that’s all it was.

But was that all I wanted it to be?

Startled by the thought I froze with my back against the door while my mind mulled that one over. The memory of the look on Jonathan’s face the night he had come home from College Station still haunted me, and a part of me wanted very much to have him look at me that way again. More, I wanted him to do something about it. I had secretly wanted him to do something for weeks, no matter how much I denied it to myself, and the more time I spent around him the worse it got.

How do you tell your best friend’s father that you’ll do anything, be anything he ever dreamed of in a woman, if for one moment he’ll just stop seeing you as a child?

I stared doubtfully at my reflection. Could I do it? Could I make him look at me that way again? That last time I had been half-naked when he saw me, and my body certainly no longer resembled the little girl I had been. Was that the key? Dress so that he couldn’t pretend, couldn’t help but acknowledge that I had become a woman? I began tearing frantically through my closet, refusing to consider the ramifications if I happened to succeed.

“Molly! Five minutes!”

The lavender sundress set off the cornflower blue of my eyes to perfection. It also hit me mid-thigh and revealed lots and lots of tanned skin. If he was going to notice me in anything, that dress ought to do the trick. Since Jonathan was tall I opted for a pair of silvery high heels that made my legs look longer, and matched them with some chunky enameled bracelets. All I had left to do was figure out what to do with my hair.

Five minutes wasn’t time for anything fancy. I almost went with a ponytail, but I was afraid it would make me look about fifteen and looking younger was the absolute last thing I wanted. Despite summer’s lingering heat I decided to wear it down and quickly brushed it out until the dark golden strands rippled in gleaming waves with the edges curling up along my collarbones.

“Mol-
ly
!”

I grabbed my purse and started to dash out, then remembered I was wearing heels. Dashing down the stairs in those would likely end with a trip to the emergency room rather than a restaurant, so I held myself back to a sedate walk and glided down instead of sprinting. I spotted Jonathan looking up impatiently—would he notice me? Really notice?

He had enough control of himself that I almost didn’t catch it, but his eyes gave him away. His gaze started at my toes and swept up and I saw his eyes widen, glimpsed the sudden heat of predatory desire flash across his face. It vanished almost as quickly as I caught it, but it was there. It was definitely there. If I’d had the slightest bit of sense I would have been terrified, but instead I felt ten feet tall and ready to take on the world. I gave him a sassy smile as I stepped off the stairs and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

For an instant he didn’t react, but then he gave me a slow, deliberately wicked grin that made every nerve in my body quiver at attention. “Anything worth having is worth waiting for.”

Oh my god. He was
flirting
! And I didn’t want him to stop. “Hm. Maybe I should have kept you waiting a little longer, then.”

“Not unless you wanted me to carry you downstairs over my shoulder.”

“That sounds kind of dangerous.” Though not nearly as dangerous as the mental image of him carrying me over his shoulder to his bedroom. I suddenly felt like a mouse trapped by a very hungry cat, and somehow I knew that if he had come upstairs after me that was exactly how it would have played out. I shivered a little, even though it wasn’t at all cold.

“Very dangerous for both of us, so just as well you came down when you did. Shall we go?”

I watched him under the cover of my eyelashes as he drove us to the restaurant. In that fitted blue and gray check shirt with the collar open and a pair of navy trousers I figured women would be swooning the instant he walked in the door. Heck, I wasn’t sure I’d make it that long—my heart was already going
pitter-pat
before we even left the driveway, and every time those dark eyes glanced in my direction the heat puddling in my center threatened to leak out onto my panties. How could Jonathan get me hotter with just a look than any other guy had ever managed using his whole body?

“Wait,” Jonathan ordered as he pulled into the parking lot and turned off the engine, and to my surprise he came around and opened the car door for me.

When I stepped out he cupped my elbow with his fingers and guided me inside. I don’t think he even realized he was doing it, but my entire arm tingled from the feathery touch of his hand on my skin and I wasn’t sure whether I should melt in ecstasy or have a panic attack. He already had a table waiting for us though, so as he pulled out a chair for me I figured I’d be polite and save the panic attack for later.