by Carol Rose
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?”
* * * * * * * * *
CHAPTER SIX
“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.”
Clearing his suddenly thick throat, Drake said, “It could be a big mistake though. What if they don’t get together? Then the guy’s lost the girl he’s hot for and his best friend is gone forever.”
“It could go down that way, but more often, people are staying friends after breaking up. She might be okay with going back to being friends.”
Drake looked at his friend, potential scenarios flashing though his head. He couldn’t deal with seeing Molly, knowing some other guy was kissing her sweet, pink nipples and thrusting into her hot, tight body. “What if this woman stomps on him?”
Again, he thought. What if she dumped him again? “Kicks his heart into the goal posts. Then he’s lost a friend and a vital organ.”
Levi laughed. “Yes, that would be bad.”
Drawing in a deep breath, Drake envisioned himself being dumped by Molly and her going off with another guy. “I think he should just call it a day on the romance angle. You know, if he kissed the girl or maybe more, he could say they should just go on being friends. Nothing more.”
“He could do that.”
“Sex with her could be a big mistake.” Draining the last of his drink, he sat the glass on the table and tried not to think that he may have already screwed things up by screwing Molly.
* * *
“I slept with Drake,” Molly said miserably, squatting next to the raised vegetable bed Abby was weeding.
Abby glanced around at the others working in the Austin area community garden, straggled out over the acre set aside for the various plantings.
Keeping her voice low, she exclaimed, “Wow. Finally! Great.”
Leaning closer, she lowered her voice even more. “I mean, it was great, right? You didn’t hate it?”
“It was fantastic.” Molly knew she sounded as mournful as if her grandmother had died.
Going back to tilling the dirt in front of her and pulling out loosened weeds between rows of tiny green seedlings, she glanced over. “Ummm. Okay. Not sounding happy about this.”
Perched on the edge of the raised bed, Molly looked at the clump of various neighbors—all weeding different vegetable beds—without really seeing them. “Abby, this is bad!”
Her friend glanced up. “How exactly? I mean, was it bad?”
“No, it was great. Really great! But it’s bad because he’s still relying on my help for the home improvement blog. At least a little. I’m still helping him to learn some things and, oh, I threatened to tell his boss about our arrangement, and he’s been my best friend for the last six years. All that. This isn’t simple. How do I know he even likes me that way? I mean, maybe he had sex with me just to keep me helping him. It could have been that, right? Maybe he’s not into me that way, at all.”
She glanced at her watch and over at Molly as she began to gather up her gardening tools. “I’ve got to go pretty quickly here, but you said you guys had good sex. Great sex. Guys can’t fake this. At least I’ve never known one that did. But Drake clearly was having a great time. That would be an indication that he likes you that way.”
“Don’t be too sure of that.” She gave Abby a deadpan look. “Won’t men pretty much jump any woman who’s willing? I mean, I’d have to have bad breath and a visible sexually-transmitted disease before he’d turn me down.”
“Not true. Drake’s never been that desperate. He’s too good-looking and he’s never had to work that hard to get women. Come on walk with me to the faucet.” Abby and she tramped across the plot of land. “Haven’t you always said that he’s more sexually fastidious than most guys you know? He’s not the kind who whips it out for just anyone. Other than the sex buddies, I mean. You did say he has had a couple, but he doesn’t even see them that often. Do you think you’re just another sex buddy? Did he say that?”
Molly smiled at her word choice, but felt the need to point out. “He’s never hidden the fact that he has women he just has sex with sometimes. No strings. But, no, he didn’t actually say we were bed buddies.”
Abby turned on the faucet and then said to her friend. “He got a little crazy after college, but heck, most of us do. Did he say anything before you guys got it on?”
“No.” Molly was miserably aware of having failed the smart modern girl requirement of finding out what a guy wanted, exactly, before ripping his clothes off. “He—he and I kissed and everything started like a flash fire. We didn’t talk much, if you get my drift.”
“Drift gotten,” her friend said with a grin.
“What about afterwards?”
Shaking her head, Molly said, “Afterward was just bad. We didn’t know what to say to one another. We walked to the parking lot and both drove away. I haven’t talked with him since and it’s been several days. To be honest, Abby, I don’t know what to say.”
They slowly walked toward Abby’s car.
“Tell him you liked it a lot? Say you’d like to do it again real soon and, oh, by the way, what does he think this is? I think those would be good things to start with.”
Molly turned her head to look at her friend. “I’m afraid, Abby. You know how I feel about Drake. What if I was just an itch h
e wanted to scratch? What if he’s just stringing me along so I’ll keep feeding him material for his blog? His life is so messed up right now—and I’m in the middle of this crazy Easter Picnic job—that this…thing between us doesn’t make sense, at all.”
They stopped when they reached the asphalt.
“Look.” Her friend put an encouraging hand on her arm. “You need to talk with Drake. He might not give a crap about the blog anymore. You don’t know. After all, he hasn’t contacted you, asking for more help, has he? Maybe he’s finding his feet.”
“I hope so,” she said, trying not to sound as miserable as she felt.
* * *
“Okay,” Mike Tanner threw his arm over Drake’s shoulder as they walked from the make-up trailer to the set where the five-minute spot for House Today was being set up, “this is great. You’re a great-looking guy and you’ll do well at this. Just imagine you’re talking to a friend.”
Drake didn’t know how to break it to him that his friends didn’t normally come to him with questions on how to fix a toilet-or do any home repair. He was better with word tenses and definitions. Hell, his kitchen faucet had been dripping for months and he hadn’t even considered fixing it himself. He kept thinking Molly would bring her tools over when she came to hang out one time and they’d make the repair together.
Not that he and Molly had been hanging out after they had sex.
Great sex, really.
He missed her. When he’d called to tell her about the video shoot today, the conversation had been awkward. After he’d asked how she’d been doing, he hadn’t known what to say.
A million thoughts had crowded his head. He’d raced through them all, discarding each as stupid. So, he’d just blurted out that he was shooting his first video spot for House Today and then he’d hung up, feeling like a fool.
Nervous as hell about this, he just wished she were here, even though he didn’t know why. Having had phenomenal sex had made everything weird between them.
Walking down a long hall with Mike, they went into a studio set up to look like a regular house interior.