No Bunny But You (Holiday Romance Series) (9 page)

As he walked across the garden, his mind flashed back
to that moment, her mouth moving beneath his in instantaneous
response. He’d surprised her, bracketing her in between the ladder
and himself, but she’d responded to his kiss like a wanton. All
day, he’d tried to remember that she was his friend and he
shouldn’t be thinking of her mouth and the sweet thrust of her
breasts against her work shirt—breasts he could still remember
fondling when they were teens.

And then he’d kissed her again. Pulled her into his
arms and bent his head to take her mouth like he was a wild man
claiming her.

He felt himself getting hard just thinking about it.
Damn, she kissed like a sinner, all hunger and need.

Drake had made out with a number of women since he
was a teen, sleeping with his share. That was just what a single
guy with a healthy sex drive did. He’d dated, even seriously with
several, but kissing Molly again had left him feeling like he was
going to explode. At their first kiss the other day when she was
upset about her cartoon guy showing up late for the kid’s birthday
party, he’d felt himself go from zero to hard in seconds.

You weren’t supposed to feel that way about a friend!
What the hell was the matter with him? Yes, she’d been more than a
friend for a while, but he thought he’d moved beyond those kinds of
feelings for Molly.

And then he’d kissed her by the ladder that day and
she’d shoved him away from her like he was a leper. From really,
really hot to colder than the arctic.

He didn’t need to put himself in this kind of
situation.

In a few minutes, his mini escorts led him up the
gazebo’s shallow steps and he sat at the table in a chair pulled
out for him by the bigger girl.

“Here, bunny.” She sat down in one next to him,
pulling a plain basket forward and beginning to look through
several containers of ribbon.

While he was distracted by the child next to him
checking out the basket decorations, a small blond boy climbed up
on his lap.

Drake looked out the bunny suit’s mesh eyes at the
six year-old who was making himself at home on his knee.

“Stephen, climb down this instant! The bunny doesn’t
need you in his lap.” One of the child handlers took the boy’s arm
and urged him to move.

To his own surprise—if you’d have told Drake two
hours ago that he’d encourage a kid to sit on his lap, he’d have
laughed—Drake put up one bunny-fur covered arm, patting the worker
in a reassuring way. He then looped his arm around the boy,
shifting him to more security on his bunny lap. Drake had no idea
what had come over him, but he could play an affable bunny, if that
were the role. The Easter Bunny was a kid thing and kids were
welcome.

He could understand actors who said they disappeared
into their roles. Suddenly, he wasn’t Drake. He was the Easter
Bunny. Not that he wanted to be a damned cartoon character ever
again. Lots of people were better with kids than him, but he’d
taken this on. Even if he had done it under duress.

“Oh, okay.” The handler smiled at him. “Thank the
nice Easter Bunny, Stephen. He said it’s okay for you to sit
there.”

The boy looked up. “Thank you, Bunny…now can you give
me a chocolate egg. I like them best.”

* * *

By the time the last Austin Women’s League member and
all the kids were gone, Molly felt ramped up. This was such a big,
damn deal for her. The tea party was just the start of the spring
League events leading up to the Easter Picnic. In addition to the
under-privileged kids and the children of League members, local
business people would be invited to several smaller events before
the big day.

If she’d been without an Easter Bunny, she didn’t
know what she would have done.

Turning to Drake, who still sat in a chair in the
gazebo, she had to grin at him.

“Is the last one gone now? Are we alone in this
place?” he asked plaintively. “Can I take off this damned bunny
head?”

As things wound down, he’d assumed less of a
bunny-posture, despite his still wearing the bunny head with
upstanding ears, and he sat now with one ankle resting on his other
knee, the huge bunny foot making her want to giggle.

“Yes, I think all the League members are gone now.
The kids left fifteen minutes ago.”

The light in the secluded, private garden was fading
and the sounds from the parking lot had died away. It was over.
She’d made it through her first League event without bursting into
flames.

He started to lift the bunny head off and she jumped
up to help, grasping the head at the sides and pulling. Bending
forward, Drake pulled back as she yanked the head off. When he was
finally free of it, she set the head aside and sat down in a chair
next to him in the gazebo.

“You know, you really saved me.” Molly knew he hadn’t
been thrilled about her desperate request that he pretend to be a
rabbit.

Drake ran his hands through his short hair, looking
glad to be free of the head. “Yes. And you now owe me in
perpetuity. Whatever I want. Whenever I want it. Your ass is
mine.”

“I wouldn’t say that exactly.” She forced herself to
laugh, giving his shoulder a shove. Just the thought of her ass
being his made her breathe more quickly.

After his kiss the other day, she had some idea what
he wanted from her and it wasn’t just her ass, although he probably
had some interest in that, too. Molly knew that by kissing him back
so passionately when he had tried to comfort her after the birthday
party, she’d tipped her hand. Her
interest
in his comforting
kiss had clearly started his engine.

And then that kiss by the ladder. Good grief! She’d
felt like she was going to lose it and start ripping his clothes
off right there. She’d had to shove him away before she went
totally crazy and stripped him.

The kisses were phenomenal and amazing and made her
melt into a hot puddle, but she wanted more than Drake’s
libido.

It came right down to that.

If he’d really been into her as a girl he wanted to
date, she’d have seen some sign of it all these years of them being
friends. They’d hung out together, played racquet ball every now
and then, saw the occasional movie and parted with no more than a
casual nod.

Somewhere along the way, she’d started thinking of
him differently, though, started noticing the fizzy sensation in
her stomach when he was around. She’d fallen in love with him, but
he hadn’t done the same with her, she knew.

Touching him at all now was risky, but her profound
gratitude for his rescue left her feeling all wobbly inside. She
had to try to reestablish a normal friendship and the
shoulder-shove was a classic friend-thing. Even as she made the
gesture, she was acutely aware of the muscle beneath the bunny
suit.

Taking off his bunny hands, Drake reached down to
pull off the costume’s big feet. “Whatever I want. Whenever I want.
You owe me. You were so desperate not to mess this tea party up
that these terms were implicit.”

“You’re nuts,” she scoffed, looking away from him as
he sat so comfortably in his folding chair. Now that he’d shed the
bunny hands and feet, he propped his elbows on his thighs. Even
dressed in a full body furry animal suit, he looked incredibly hot
and desirable.

Not every guy would have answered her desperate plea.
How could she not love him more for it?

“Seriously, I—I hope you know how grateful I am.”
Molly looked over at him. “I don’t know what I would have done if
you hadn’t agreed to do this for me.”

He returned her steady gaze. “No problem. I’m sure
you’d have done the same for me. Hell, you helped me with the blog
all that time. The least I could do was help you in your hour of
need.”

Molly looked at the floor of the gazebo. Friendship
was good. She should be happy with that—but she didn’t feel
satisfied or happy. Like an idiot, she wanted a whole lot more. And
it was so much more complicated because she was fairly certain
Drake would do the nasty with her.

He already had one sex buddy and she couldn’t join
the list of girls he called when he wanted to get his rocks off. It
would break her heart.

Molly took a deep breath and let it out in a
sigh.

“So….” Drake glanced up at her. “Can we talk about
the thing with the kiss here in the garden?”

She looked over at him, suddenly nervous. “What do
you mean?”

“The kiss,” he said patiently. “When I kissed you by
the ladder.”

She drew in another breath, suddenly unable to meet
his gaze. “What’s there to talk about?”

“Molly.” His voice was soft. “One minute you were
eating me alive and the next you shoved me away. Don’t you think
some kind of explanation is called for?”

Swallowing hard, she felt a prickling at the back of
her eyes. She knew she ought to tell him that she’d kissed him like
that—both after the birthday party and when they were building the
gazebo—because he kissed well or because she hadn’t gotten laid in
a while and she was horny. But she couldn’t lie.

This need for truthfulness was inconvenient.

“You,” he started to say, still in that soft voice,
“you set me on fire, girl. The way you kissed me. Wow. When you
shoved me away, I started thinking that maybe I’d offended you
somehow, that you were mad at me.”

Drake straightened in his chair. “Although I’m not
the bunny suit kind of guy—and I don’t want you to
ever
expect me to do this again—I was kind of relieved when you
called.”

Trying to keep her voice from shaking, she said, “I
know this wasn’t comfortable for you and I’m truly, truly grateful.
No, I don’t expect you to ever do this again.”

“And those kisses?” He lifted his eyebrows as he
looked at her. “Molly, I’ve never been kissed like that.”

The darkness descending around them left the gazebo
insides shadowy and somehow intimate.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry.”

She loved him and wanted him. Reaching out now would
be so easy, to pull him closer and apologize for shoving him
away….

“Sorry? Sorry you set my hair on fire?” He’d shifted
his chair toward hers.

“I didn’t mean to lead you on,” she said, as
low-voiced in her response as he’d been. He was so close, so warm
and she wanted him so much.

“It’s only leading me on if you didn’t mean it.”
Drake looked at her, his gaze questioning. “Did you mean it,
Molly?”

She threw her head back and wiped away a tear that
had leaked out of her eye. Her smile felt tight. “You’re a great
guy. A good friend, and I really, really appreciate your being my
bunny today.”

“None of that answers my question,” he pointed out
grimly. “Did you mean it when you kissed me like that? The first
part. Not when you shoved me away.”

“I guess…I meant both parts.” Molly looked up then.
“I-I kissed you back those times because I…. I really wanted
to.”

He tilted his head to catch her gaze. “And you shoved
me away?”

“Because,” she said in a whisper, “because I didn’t
want to. I didn’t want to stop…kissing you.”

“Molly.” His voice was low and thick as he reached
for her. “Don’t stop kissing me.”

Drake dropped to his knees then, right in front of
her chair. Reaching out, he grasped her and pulled her toward him,
legs splayed as he knelt between them. He reached up to hold her
face with both hands, his mouth on hers in gentle exploration. Only
gentle turned deep and hot and hungry so fast Molly could hardly
catch her breath.

He pulled her into his arms and angled his head to
kiss the socks off her. She felt the heat of his mouth, opening
over hers, his tongue warm against hers. There in the darkened
gazebo, he knelt between her legs and held her while his mouth
pillaged hers. It happened so quickly, she didn’t think about the
wisdom of kissing him again, the consequences of letting him hold
her. She wound her arms around his bunny-suit-covered body and let
her head fall back against his hand. He held her there tenderly,
his hand tenderly bracing her head, while he kissed the living
daylights out of her.

Molly sank into that kiss. She’d been startled by his
comforting kiss after the birthday party and she’d managed to
gather herself to wrench out of his embrace by the garden, but she
couldn’t resist this moment. Then, the daylight had helped her stay
sane, the possibility of discovery by some Women’s League member in
the garden giving her the strength to push him away.

But now the darkness fell around them and she felt
suspended in Drake, lost in the warmth of his lips on hers, his
strong arms holding her close. He held one hand bracketed behind
her head, steadying her for his kiss, and he caught her against his
body, his other arm snug against her back.

With him there, between her knees, pulling her close
and closer, she yielded to temptation and kissed him as hungrily as
she’d long dreamed of. This was Drake, the guy she’d fallen in love
with. Her friend and more. The man who’d come to her aid in this,
as well as, many other moments.

He pulled her so tightly against his body, that she
felt him against her crotch, against the most sensitive part of
her. Only their clothes kept them apart and Molly felt herself
begin to throb.

She kissed him hungrily, straining against his broad,
fur-covered chest. Drake loosened his arm around her, reaching up
caress her breast, his thumb finding and rocking over, her kerneled
nipple. Through her blouse and bra, Molly felt his touch as if the
ceiling had crashed in on her, moaning into his mouth. He cupped
her breast, caressing it and pressing his hand against the
roundness until she was burning everywhere.

Pulling back then, he began unbuttoning her shirt.
Molly’s eyes flew open and she met his gaze, dark and hooded. The
rasp of their breathing filled her ears and she could no more stop
what was happening than she could pull the gazebo in on them. She
wanted this. Hell, she’d dreamed about it in excruciating dreams
that left her aching for his touch.