No Bunny But You (Holiday Romance Series) (10 page)

The coolness of the spring evening air played over
her skin, more exposed with every loosened button.

Molly felt helpless against the fire raging inside of
her and the heat between them, but she knew she was making a
choice. She could have stopped this at any moment, halted his touch
just by telling him to stop. She didn’t want him to stop. Over and
over, she’d told herself that sex with Drake wasn’t a good idea.
She
loved
him; she didn’t just want to jump his bones. But
she’d struggled against this yearning for a long time now.

There’d been nights she cried herself to sleep over
the reality that
she’d
stopped dating him. Sure, they’d both
been kids then, but she and Drake weren’t in high school anymore.
They’d both had other lovers, both dealt with career changes and
setbacks, both learned a lot about being adults. For years now,
they talked and laughed and called one another when they were
down.

She loved him and she wanted to finally make love
with him. Maybe that wasn’t what this was to him, but she couldn’t
deny herself at this moment.

His bunny suit had a zipper running from neck to
navel. Molly tugged at the zipper pull, meeting his gaze as
steadily as he met hers. Down she tugged, until the suit was open
to his waist and she leaned forward, kissing him as she pulled at
the suit to free his shoulders.

Kissing her back, he pulled her blouse open to cup
both her breasts in his hands. She felt the burn of his touch
through her bra and she thrust her chest forward, silently urging
him on as she kissed his mouth, her hands stroking at his broad
shoulders as she tugged the suit off him.

Drake pulled away, bending to put his mouth on her
breast, still covered by her bra.

She stopped jerking at the bunny suit long enough to
shrug out of her shirt, the cool night air feeling good against her
heated skin. He pulled the straps of her bra down then, until the
cups followed and her breasts were bared to his avid gaze.

“Damn.” He breathed, looking at her breasts in the
dim light. Cupping her, he brushed his thumbs over her nipples,
rubbing back and forth as he lifted to kiss her again. Then, he
broke away from the kiss to bend and draw her into his mouth.

Molly arched her back toward him, crying out as he
suckled at her breast, his hands jerking her bra down. She felt him
reach around to the bra’s hooks, but she was too lost in the warm,
wetness of his mouth on her nipple to even help. In a moment, the
silky thing fell away.

Under the rabbit suit, Drake had worn an old t-shirt,
worn thin from years of washing. Now that she’d pushed the suit off
his upper body, she pulled at the t-shirt, hungering to touch his
skin.

All this time, they’d strained and stripped one
another in the gazebo, but Drake pulled back again to say, “Let’s
take this into the tent.”

She had a hard time making her brain follow what he’d
said—since all available cells were focused on the sensations
raging through her. Coming to some level of awareness of their
surroundinhgs, she murmured, “Oh, okay.”

To her surprise, when Drake stood, he scooped her up,
bare-breasted, and turned to carry her down the gazebo steps. As
friends, they’d played Chicken with other friends at pool parties
and he once carried her piggy-back over hot sand when they were at
the beach, but this, this was different.

She was an independent, fully-capable woman and there
was no burning sand underfoot, but she made no protest to his
cave-man moment. Clutching at his now-naked shoulders, she dropped
several kissed on the closest one. He tasted of man and she wanted
him badly.

Once inside the small tent, Drake dropped her to her
feet and kissed her long and hard. Pressing against him, Molly
kissed him back, reveling in his hands stroking her back and
kneading her breasts.

The inside of the tent that had been her headquarters
for the tea party wasn’t big, but there was a throw rug over the
grass and a cluttered work table to one side. When Drake lifted
from their kiss, he threw a glance at the table and then at the
carpeted grass beneath their feet.

“What’ll it be? Table or floor? Actually, I’m feeling
like I’d like to use both, one after the other, if you get what I
mean. You got a preference?”

Giving a choked laugh at his insinuation, Molly
pointed down and said, “Let’s start here.”

“You got it, sweetie.” He yanked his zipper the rest
of the way down and shed the bunny suit completely. She saw that
other than his t-shirt, he just wore boxer briefs under the suit
and her mouth went dry when he dropped those, too. His erection
jutted forward and she desperately hoped she had a random, stray
condom in her purse.

“Give me a second,” she said, glancing up from his
erection as she was pulling at her skirt and kicking off her
shoes.

Looking at her with smoldering eyes, Drake’s gaze
raked her body as he said, “I’m good. God, you’re beautiful. I used
to notice how great you looked in your bikinis, but you look even
better naked.”

“Thanks.” She laughed shakily as she grabbed her
purse, trying to convince herself that sex without a condom was too
risky in this day and age. Damn, she hoped she had a leftover
condom in her purse. She hadn’t dated in a while, but as a single
woman, condom-carrying just got to be a habit.

Rifling hurriedly through the purse she fished out
from under the table, she breathed a sigh of relief when she found
a foil packet.

Drake then pulled her down to the carpet and began
nuzzling at her breasts as he stroked his hands over her naked
body. “So beautiful.”

Returning his caresses, Molly reveled in his touch on
her thigh and then he moved higher and she stopped thinking
altogether.

“God,” he cried out once when she stroked her palm
over his length before slipping the condom on. He felt hard and
good and she felt herself get wetter in anticipation.

“Come here.” His eyes dark, he paused.

She lay back on the carpet, pulling him with her.

When he pushed inside her, Molly thought she’d lose
it then. He thrust several times, pushing her closer and closer and
then he stopped, sucking again at her breast. She cried out and
when he then lifted her fanny, angling them together, she just held
on through the storm.

Moments later, she cried out and met his kiss as he
rode on, straining against her body until she again lost herself in
a red haze. She felt him grow even more full inside her and then
heard his hoarse cry before he slumped against her.

The silence was for a moment filled with the harsh
sound of their breathing.

Drake then lifted his head to look at her. “Okay,” he
said, his chest still rising and falling quickly. “Table now?”

* * * * * * *
* *

“I’m glad you could tear yourself away from roofing
or plumbing or whatever you’re trying to learn for your blog this
week.” Levi took a swallow of his drink.

“I’m writing on how to repair your toilet,” Drake
said with a self-mocking flourish before he lifted his glass in a
salute.

Behind him, the Texas bar with all its bottles and
glasses was lit up, leaving the rest of the room in relative
shadow.

“Good grief. I know people do that, but I leave it to
the plumbers.”

Drake nodded. “That would be my preference, too. So
you have a client here?”

“That’s why I’m in town.” His friend nodded. “Too bad
Aaron had to go with Emma on a couples’ retreat. He could have had
a drink with us. A couples retreat. That must be interesting.”

“Not his term for it. I think his exact words were
that it sucked.” Drake exchanged quick grins with his friend.

He rocked his glass between his palms, his thoughts
returning to the situation that had been circling in his brain.

In the two days since his and Molly’s explosive
sexual encounter in the small tent in the garden, they hadn’t
spoken.

He didn’t know what to say. Never having had a sexual
experience that stripped him so naked, he felt choked and….blank.
He didn’t know what to say. They’d been boyfriend and girlfriend a
long time ago and really great friends for all these years. He
hadn’t been able to keep from kissing her and claiming her and
sating himself in her.

Now he didn’t know what to say.

How could a man let his heart get so naked and still
expect it to go on beating? He’d loved Molly—really loved her—and
she’d left him for another guy. That might have happened years ago,
but he kept thinking about it, about how lost and lonely and…bereft
he’d felt.

And now he couldn’t call, couldn’t slip into the same
fuck buddy interaction with her that he’d had with Preslee and
other girls.

Molly was more, but he didn’t know what. He hadn’t
called because he didn’t know what to say.

And she hadn’t called him.

But that hadn’t stopped him from thinking about her.
The awkward after-sex scene had been even more strained with her
than with other women, which was weird. He’d never been that way
with her, so at a loss. He’d had casual sex with women before, of
course, but this hadn’t seemed casual.

No. Not casual with Molly.

For a moment, his thoughts returned to the softness
of her kiss, the scent of her skin as he nuzzled at her breast.

They’d parted in the parking lot outside the chilly
Austin Women’s League garden that evening, making strained small
talk before he gave her a quick peck on her lips and closed her car
door. It had felt surreal considering what they’d just done to one
another’s bodies.

“So,” Drake now took another drink from the glass in
front of him, focusing on Levi, “everything okay with the new
wife?”

“Sure. She’s terrific. Of course, she makes me crazy
sometimes. Pisses me off and then makes me laugh.” Despite his
having been an agent for a decade, Levi still looked like a lawyer
in his well-cut, dark suit, except he was rocking back in his chair
like the frat boy he once was.

“Tell me something.” Turning the glass on the table
in front of him, Drake hesitated. He knew it was a girl-question,
but he found himself wondering about this a lot. He looked up at
his friend. “How did you know that you wanted to marry Holly?
You’ve had a lot of girlfriends before. Various women in your life
at different times. You live in Hollywood. You’ve dated. What made
her different?”

Levi glanced at him, taking a moment before
responding. “Yeah, that is a girl-question for you to ask, but I
don’t mind answering. I guess I didn’t have much question about it.
Holly and I just fit. It was…different. She’s beautiful and sexy
and smart and I couldn’t imagine just going on with my life without
her.”

“Hmmm.” Staring down at his glass, Drake asked
himself if that was how he felt about Molly. He sure as hell felt
something
. The last week and a half had turned their
friendship upside down. Nothing was the same…and yet she was
Molly
. His Molly. He didn’t know what the crap was going on.
Nothing between them seemed casual or relaxed anymore. He thought
about her laugh and the way she made fun of him and her kiss…..
God, that kiss.

He sure as hell couldn’t imagine her not being in his
life.

“Why do you ask? I mean, you’re not exactly a
touchy-feely kind of guy.” Levi lifted his brows as he looked at
Drake.

Several possible answers raced through Drake’s head,
all swiftly discarded. He put his drink to his mouth—not that he
wanted another swallow—but he suddenly needed a barrier. “I, uh,
have this good friend and he’s known this girl—woman, really—since
they dated briefly in high school….”

He stopped, not sure how to proceed.

“Is this you and Molly? The girl you hung out with
all the time in college? You dated her in high school, right?”

“Yeah, we did, but no. This isn’t about us.” Drake
lied quickly. “Anyway, this friend of mine is talking on and on
about his problem. He said he’s always liked this girl, but she was
his friend—you know, like a buddy.”

“Like you and Molly.”

Drake set his glass on the table.

“Okay, like us, but no. Anyway,” he struggled to find
the right words, “anyway, this friend of my friend’s is really hot.
I mean, really, really hot, but she’s his friend.”

Seeing Levi’s mouth open, he jumped in. “Yes, like
Molly’s hot and she’s my friend. Anyway, he’s really into her, but
he doesn’t want to lose her as a friend. What do you think he
should do?”

Levi settled his chair back on all four legs. “I say
he should bang her.”

“What? No!” Startled, Drake tried to explain. “It’s
not like that. If this guy just wants to get laid, he has plenty of
other choices. He’s not a bad-looking guy. He’s always been able to
get girls.”

“Okay, what’s it like?”

Rolling the bottom of his glass against the table,
Drake took a breath and said, “My friend likes this woman. She’s
been his friend, his go-to person. It’s not like having sex with
some random women in a bar.”

“Again, okay.”

Still rolling his glass back and forth, he met Levi’s
gaze. “My friend is wondering if…maybe this is more than sex. If he
really loves….you know, likes this woman.”

Levi grinned across the table at him. “Maybe he
does.”

“But she’s his friend. I mean they’ve known each
other a long time. What it—what if things don’t work out?” Drake
stopped, not sure how to put his disturbed feelings into words. “If
they have sex…if he starts, you know, dating her…then he may lose
his friend. What if they break up? That could end the friendship,
but he’s into her in a big way.”

Not responding right away, his friend spoke after a
few minutes. “Sounds serious.”

Drake looked up. “It may be. It may be serious.”

“Then your friend ought to give it a chance.” Levi’s
smile seemed almost gentle, like he knew they were talking about
Drake’s dilemma. “I was the last guy to recommend getting all
torqued up over a woman…until I was myself. Maybe your friend
should go for it.”