Reluctant Suspicion

by Finn, Scarlett

  Molly released a satisfied sigh when she saved and closed the last of her assignments. The afternoon had gotten quieter, so she had the chance to work until she was up to date. After shutting down the computer, she glanced around to see that there were more than a few glasses to collect, but that wouldn’t discourage her, five minutes work and it would be done. Walking out onto the main floor, she began to gather up the glasses, but she was surprised to see Vanessa arrive a few seconds later. Molly stopped and watched her barmaid shirk her jacket.

  ‘Hey,’ Vanessa said.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Molly asked. ‘You’re not working tonight.’

  ‘I am,’ Vanessa said, leaning over the bar to stow her jacket before she began to collect glasses.

  ‘Since when?’

  ‘Blake called me. I had hoped that he was calling for something else,’ she said with a flick of her eyebrows. ‘He said you had asked him to cover, but that he had something else going on tonight. I’m covering his shift for him tonight, and he’ll cover for me tomorrow afternoon.’

  Molly tried to steady her breathing as she began to seethe. ‘Excuse me,’ she said, and dumped the glasses she was holding onto the bar.

  Marching to the back, she didn’t have to go far to find Blake, on his knees in front of the cellar entrance, turning a key and opening the door. He closed the door and locked it.

  ‘All done,’ he said, when he noticed Molly. He pounced to his feet and stretched toward her, handing over the key.

  ‘You lied to Vanessa!’ she asserted, and snatched the key.

  ‘She’s here? Great,’ he said, and glanced at his watch. ‘Five thirty. Plenty of time.’

  ‘Plenty of time for what?’ Molly asked.

  ‘I’ll need to get home for a shower, but I’ll be back by seven.’

  ‘Seven,’ Molly said.

  ‘Yeah. Our date.’

  Molly growled. ‘You weren’t serious about that.’

  ‘I haven’t forgotten that you backed out on our other agreement,’ Blake said. ‘You can’t back out on this one too.’

  ‘Other agreement?’

  His dark stare grew sinister when he scanned her body from her feet to her chest. ‘I got that door open in ten seconds,’ he muttered, and swaggered toward her. ‘You didn’t pay up.’

  Molly folded her arms over her chest. ‘I was drunk!’

  ‘You had one glass of wine,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t drink very often.’

  ‘A deal is a deal, Sugar. I’m not one for going back on my word. I don’t expect others to, either.’

  ‘Do you think that you can come in here and take over? You drag me from the bar to attack me! You call Vanessa and rearrange everyone’s schedule! Now you’re standing there demanding to see me naked!’

  ‘You made the offer, Sugar,’ he grumbled, bringing himself within a hair’s breadth of her. ‘You agreed to the date… and don’t kid yourself that you weren’t gagging for it this afternoon.’

  ‘I was not!’

  Molly shoved her hands against his chest, meaning to push him away. But he got hold of her wrists and thrust her to the wall beside them. Her back hit the wall with a thud, and he was instantly flush against her again. Wriggling against the wall did nothing to free her, and he kept her wrists pinned by her face.

  ‘Don’t kid yourself, Sugar,’ he mumbled against her cheek.

  Molly squeezed her eyes closed and tensed her quivering form, willing her body not to betray her. ‘Blake,’ she snarled. ‘Let me go.’

  ‘I wouldn’t want to disappoint you,’ he whispered, the hot mist of his breath cascading over her jaw toward her neck. ‘You were mine this afternoon. For those few seconds at least, you wanted me to take over.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Molly said, and did all she could to burn her anger into him.

  ‘Women like you don’t go for men like me, unless you are seeking something.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  He touched his lips to her hair line. ‘Excitement.’

  ‘You don’t excite me,’ she growled, and tried to wrench her hands free again.

  His intense stare fell onto her and as much as she tried to maintain her anger, it was destroyed by the passion in his countenance. ‘No?’

  She shook her head, but her body went limp, until only his grasp on her wrists and his weight on hers held her upright. ‘Blake,’ she murmured.

  ‘I thought so,’ he exhaled against her neck before he pressed his lips against the sensitive spot behind her ear. ‘You make me wild, Mol.’

  ‘You’ve always been wild,’ Molly said. ‘I know it just by looking at you.’

  ‘Not like this,’ he whispered. His heavy head fell to her shoulder and he kissed her neck once more.

  His grip loosened, and she ignored the burning ache in them to slip them out of his grasp. The weight of his body on hers kept her static. His crouched form was curled around her, and Molly’s hands fell into his hair as he continued to nuzzle at her neck. Enjoying the feel of the strands flooding her fingers, she lost herself in the texture of his caress. Turning her face into it, she kissed his hair and arched herself toward him.

  ‘You bring it out in me too,’ she said. A smile twitched at his lips, which made her face glow.

  His heavy palm relaxed on her cheek to tip her head and give him proper access to push his lips up to hers. Molly was ready to be consumed by his usual fire, but this wasn’t a kiss of passion. His soft exploration of her mouth palpated her heart. This was a kiss of devotion. He kissed a gentle retreat and his forehead joined hers, making her heavy eyelids meet.

  ‘I’ll be outside at seven,’ he said, and she nodded against him. ‘Don’t keep me waiting.’ She shook her head. ‘Every second without you is torture.’

  Molly opened her eyes to his. ‘I’ll be ready,’ she murmured.

  ‘Good.’

  All too soon, his body ebbed from hers, but he kept her hand and brought it to his lips for another kiss. She smiled, realising that he was reluctant to break their stare. He maintained it even when he lifted his tools and opened the back exit door.

  ‘Go,’ she laughed.

  ‘Right,’ he said, kissing her hand again. Without any other choice, he freed her fingers, but his gaze remained on her until the door closed.

  With a laugh and a shake of her head, Molly couldn’t believe the position she was in, they were in. Blake was intimidating and commanding, he took advantage of her by taking control, he was everything in a man she thought she hated, but somehow he got to her.

  She grabbed the banister. ‘Damn, if he doesn’t make my knees weak,’ she muttered to herself as she grinned and ran up the stairs.

  Chapter Ten

  Blake glanced at the clock in his truck. It was a minute to seven. Pulling the truck to a halt on the street perpendicular to the front entrance of Ashton’s, where Molly’s residential access was located, he adjusted himself in his seat and prepared to wait. Tonight was crucial to the investigation, and he had to be on the ball. Information gathering was the goal; he had to probe Molly for her opinion of the murders.

  Doing his job was as much for her good as for his and the case’s. If he could prove that she wasn’t involved, then all of this would go away and they could be out of each other’s lives. He growled at himself. It wasn’t his job to exonerate people, that was a job for the lawyers. It was his job to weigh the evidence and arrest the guilty party.

  The residential door opened, drawing his focus, and when Molly stepped out, his heart stopped. It literally stopped in his chest. Her hair bounced in large soft curls, which cascaded across her naked shoulders. But it was the dress that transfixed him. Strapless and free flowing to her mid-thigh, it was ideal to showcase her figure. He knew there had to be a purse, jewellery and shoes, but it was her legs that he fixated on. Long, sculpted, and perfectly sun kissed. Already his jeans were too tight and she wasn’t even in the car yet.

  ‘You couldn’t have parked any
closer, huh?’ Molly hissed, as she slipped in beside him.

  ‘What?’ he mumbled, still unable to take his attention from her legs. Her sarcasm had been apparent, but it hadn’t sunk in.

  ‘I thought we were going to be discreet.’

  ‘Discreet? In that dress?’ he asked. Unable to resist any longer, Blake’s hand moved from the gear stick to her knee. His palm slid up her thigh, causing her laugh to assault his ears.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she laughed, and tensed her legs, bringing them together.

  ‘Imagining what it will feel like over my shoulder later,’ he grumbled.

  Her abrupt manoeuvre of pulling her knees against her door snapped him from his daze. He hadn’t really thought about what he was saying when it came out.

  ‘I agreed to go out. I didn’t agree to anything else,’ she said.

  Apprehension overwhelmed any anger that might have been in her tone, so Blake knew that he would have to work on relaxing her. After all, she had admitted that it had been a while for her. He shifted the car into gear and admitted to himself that it had been more than a while for him as well.

  ‘Where are we going?’ she asked.

  ‘Where do you want to go?’

  ‘You didn’t make reservations somewhere?’

  ‘I did. It’s a great little place, not very well known.’

  ‘Where’s that, then?’ she asked, and snapped open her little black satin bag.

  ‘It’s a surprise,’ he said.

  ‘We’re going to your place, aren’t we?’

  A smile crept to his lips. ‘How did you guess?’

  She retrieved a silk scarf from her bag, causing him to almost swerve the car off the road. She lifted her hair out of the way to tie the scarf around her neck, like a choker.

  ‘You don’t seem like the movies and restaurant type.’

  ‘Hmm?’ he asked, with his vision firmly on the road.

  ‘Movies, restaurant, you know, wooing a woman. It doesn’t seem like your style.’

  ‘Film, food, fuck, the three F’s,’ he said. ‘If it’s necessary, it’s my style.’

  ‘Necessary?’ Molly said. ‘Implying that you don’t think a film or food is necessary to woo me?’

  ‘Who said I wanted to?’ he asked.

  How could he doubt it now? They were on their way to his place, and Molly hadn’t objected. She had at least one scarf and possibly more in that bag. All of a sudden he understood Choker’s victims. In an epiphany, he lived their last moments. Molly in their bed, straddling their naked hips, teasing them with her mouth and her lush body. She’d grin down and loosen the scarf from her neck. The victims didn’t stand a chance.

  There was a chance that she would make an attempt on his life tonight, and he bit his tongue when he realised that didn’t stop him from wanting her. Death might actually be worth it for Molly Ashton.

  His thoughts evaporated when her hand slid onto his thigh. It wasn’t a dream, her elegant fingers were running closer to his inner thigh and upwards. Blake’s form ceased with tension when she shifted in her seat to come closer and rest her head on his shoulder to gently blow on his neck.

  ‘Are you saying that I don’t excite you?’ she breathed, letting her other hand curl around the back of his neck to toy with the strands at his nape.

  After Jason’s word to him today about falling for Molly, Blake had vowed to play it distant. He’d stormed into that bar and kissed her to keep things physical. He’d insisted on the date because now he just had to know. Pinning her to the wall in the hallway this afternoon had been another attempt to maintain the physical. If he made their time together all about passion, that would prevent anything remotely relating to feelings developing. But her open reaction had been unexpected.

  In the kitchen, when he manhandled her, he’d expected a slap in the face. He had expected her to chew him out for disrespecting her, for her to show tension or fear in relation to his advances. But she proved to him what she’d declared the previous night, she didn’t fear him. Blake wasn’t used to someone trusting him in the way that Molly did. Guys at the station, and criminals, were intimidated by him. Even one night stands didn’t like how domineering he could get. Molly didn’t just like it, she played to it.

  ‘Not here, Sugar,’ he said, forcing the words from his lips before he brought her palm to them, away from his leg. ‘Save it for indoors.’

  ‘Are we going back to your place just for sex?’ she asked, and removed her head from his shoulder.

  After lacing their fingers together, he held them in his lap. ‘I was planning for us to have dinner,’ he said. ‘Talk a little… But if you’re in the mood.’

  ‘Blake,’ she exhaled a laugh. ‘You really have no idea how to woo a lady do you?’

  ‘A lady,’ he said, and drew his eyes to her. ‘When I find one I’ll have to practise.’

  Molly gasped and nudged his arm. ‘Your chances of getting laid tonight just fell dramatically.’

  ‘Should I just take you home then?’ he teased.

  ‘This isn’t just about sex,’ Molly said.

  ‘No? What’s it about then?’

  ‘I have a debt to settle.’

  She gave nothing away in the furtive glance she cast in his direction. It went to the road, but sneaked back around to him, and the smile that slipped to his mouth was entirely genuine. Her mischievous side was showing and it sent those pins to his legs again, the same ones he had felt crouching beside her in the kitchen when he saw that she was hurt. Weakness. Blake didn’t like weakness, not in himself; it wasn’t something he was used to.

  ‘How’s your side?’ he asked.

  ‘Stings a little,’ she said. ‘But it’s ok. Not as bad as yours. Look at that bruise.’

  When she reached for his forehead, he ducked away. ‘It’s fine!’

  ‘You are a big baby.’

  ‘Why, because I don’t want people poking at me?’

  ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, and drew both hands back to her lap.

  Her now stooped figure retreated from his. ‘I didn’t mean to snap,’ he said. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’

  But her attention remained averted, so he tried to take her hand. But in the second that his fingers touched hers, she folded her arms under her chest.

  ‘My chances are looking pretty slim right about now, aren’t they?’ he asked, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

  ‘Do you believe in God?’ she asked, ignoring his question.

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘God, do you believe in him?’

  ‘No,’ Blake said. ‘Do you?’

  ‘I’m agnostic.’

  ‘Why do you ask?’

  ‘I was just thinking about last night,’ she said.

  ‘You’re wondering if there is a master plan,’ Blake stated.

  ‘Not exactly, I just wonder if… if karma really does come back on those of us who do deserve it.’

  ‘You think you deserve some kind of punishment?’

  ‘Don’t we all?’ she asked. ‘I’m sure everyone has done things in their life that they are not proud of.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘But there are degrees to consider. Stealing chips from your friend’s plate while they are not watching is not in the same league as killing a person.’

  ‘No,’ Molly said. ‘But there are degrees in between too.’

  ‘What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?’

  ‘I’ve never cheated,’ she said. ‘But I’ve hurt people.’

  Blake steadied his breathing and kept his focus on the road. ‘Who?’

  ‘Depending on how you look at it… every man I’ve ever met,’ she sighed, and her gaze slipped from her window to her legs.

  ‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ Blake said.

  ‘I put up walls and push them away. It has to hurt them when I shut down and keep them at arm’s length. Eventually we fight and they ask questions… questions I can’t answer.’

  �
�Everyone is responsible for their own actions,’ Blake said. ‘But we can’t always see the results of those actions before we take them.’

  ‘No,’ Molly agreed. ‘It’s just that recently… every man who… the men… Oh, I don’t know.’

  ‘Tell me. Maybe this is the time for you to break the cycle, to let a man in.’

  A confession was the last thing that he had expected tonight, but he’d take it if it meant knowing the truth. His job would be made easier if they were inside and alone, rather than stuck in traffic. When she didn’t respond, he knew he had to push further.

  ‘I’ve hurt women before,’ he said. ‘I cheated on one of my first girlfriends. Macy. I couldn’t handle the guilt of it, so I told her and her heart broke, right there in front of me. Her beautiful body just crumpled, and I’d never felt like such a bastard.’

  ‘You strike me as the type to mess around left, right, and centre,’ Molly said.

  He hated how her words stung him. ‘I’m not one for screwing people around. If I felt the urge to be with a woman other than my girlfriend, then I think that would signal a greater problem in the relationship. I’d end it before I ever got around to cheating.’

  ‘Use them and lose them,’ Molly said.

  ‘No. Nothing could be further from the truth… It’s not just women, I’ve hurt my family, too. My parents were hugely disappointed in me for not taking over their business.’

  ‘Why didn’t you?’

  ‘I didn’t enjoy it. I thought there was more to the world, and I thought I could do more. Make a difference. I was young and stupid.’

  ‘You made a difference to me last night,’ she said.

  ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But I think our intentions are what define us. If we live our lives with the intention of being good people, then no one has the right to judge us.’

  ‘I haven’t been with a man since Harry.’

  Blake quelled his urge to gape. Two years! On his first night in Ashton’s, Belinda had said that Molly’s relationship with Harry ended two years ago.