Hot Winter Nights

by Jill Shalvis

  Archer and Joe shifted away with some various muttering. But not Lucas.

  She stared at him.

  He stared right back. “Are you working out?”

  She sighed. “Yes. I’m not exactly the faint of heart, delicate little snowflake you all seem to think I am.”

  He gave a low laugh that set butterflies to flight in her belly. “You’re a lot of things,” he said. “Most of them pretty fucking great, but being a faint of heart, delicate little snowflake isn’t one of them.”

  Molly let out a reluctant smile. “That might just be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” she admitted.

  “So what kind of workouts are you doing?”

  Because she was still looking at him, she could see it wasn’t concern or doubt prompting his question, but genuine curiosity. “I go to the gym on Van Ness Avenue,” she said. “I do some weights and take an assortment of classes when I can fit them in.”

  “Van Ness? Caleb owns a gym there.”

  “I know,” she said. “Sometimes I work out with him.”

  There was a beat of surprise from Lucas. “Caleb is a martial arts expert, and badass in his own right.”

  She smiled and shrugged. “He’s a good workout buddy.”

  Lucas’s gaze slid down her body to her right leg, as if trying to decide if she was yanking his chain or not. “He doesn’t baby me,” she said pointedly.

  Something changed in Lucas’s eyes at that, and if she didn’t know better, she’d say it was jealousy.

  “What does he do?” he asked, voice flat, eyes just a little bit . . . hot?

  “He works me out hard,” she said.

  There was that flash again. Good God, it was jealousy. This pleased her way too much. To hide her smug smile, she turned to her computer.

  “I wanted to let you know I’m free tonight,” he said to her back, still sounding slightly out of sorts.

  Aware that he couldn’t see her face, she let out a small victorious smile. “Sweet of you,” she said lightly. “But I’m not going to date you.”

  “You know that’s not what I meant.”

  Yes, she did. And maybe that’s why she was still playing this game, keeping up the ruse instead of letting Lucas know nothing had happened between them. Because deep down, she would have liked for that night to be real and he didn’t return the sentiment. Swiveling in her chair to face him, she affected a hurt expression. “So now that we’ve slept together, you’re done? You don’t want to see me anymore?”

  He grimaced and looked behind him to make sure they were alone, seeming to be at about a twelve on the one-to-ten stress scale. “Are you trying to get me killed?”

  She laughed and went back to her computer. Yeah, it was mean and she was going to have to let him off the hook and soon, but . . . not today.

  He came up behind her, leaning in until his mouth brushed her ear. “Paybacks are a bitch, Molly.”

  This gave her an entire body shiver that she ignored and forced herself to get to work. Or at least pretend to get to work. This lasted about three minutes before she caved and took a quick peek.

  Lucas was gone.

  But there was a steaming mug of coffee waiting for her.

  Well played.

  Chapter 7

  #Pivot

  At lunchtime, Molly’s friends came into the office. Elle, Sadie, Pru—whose husband, Finn, ran the downstairs pub—and Haley, the optometrist two doors down from Hunt Investigations. Elle was carrying a tote that smelled like heaven on earth and had Molly’s mouth watering.

  “You texted that you were too busy for lunch,” Elle said. “But as the manager of this entire building and the person who sleeps with your boss, I’m overriding him.” She smiled. “Or just riding him.”

  Sadie grimaced. “Have a care for those of us not getting any, would ya?”

  “We all know you could be getting whoever you want,” Pru told her. “You’re just too picky.”

  Sadie shrugged. “I don’t need a guy’s drama.”

  “Sorry, but women are just as dramatic,” said Haley, who should know since she dated women.

  “Okay, that’s probably true,” Sadie said. “But my point is, without a significant other, I don’t have to wear pants. Although, I do miss cuddling. Sometimes I just need to be kissed and spooned, you know? I deserve that, I’m a decent person, I recycle.”

  Everyone agreed that she was a good person and deserved a cuddle.

  “I bet you could download an app for that,” Haley said.

  “Yeah,” Sadie said. “But I make due with Amazon Prime.”

  Molly’s mouth was watering from the scent coming from the bag of food Elle had brought. “What’s for lunch?”

  Elle smiled. “You’ll love this. Aged organic milk tossed over seasoned tomato puree spread on baked whole wheat.”

  Molly blinked. “You mean pizza?”

  “Well, if you want to get technical,” Elle said and pulled out the pizza.

  “Oh my God,” Molly moaned, stuffing her face. “I missed breakfast.”

  “I don’t get it when people forget to eat,” Pru said. “How in the world does one forget to eat?”

  To be fair, Pru looked to be about twenty months pregnant and was hungry all the time. “Stress,” Molly said.

  Pru shook her head and refilled her plate with piece number three and four.

  Willa, who ran the courtyard pet shop, popped in with a bag of muffins from the coffee shop. They all promptly pounced on these like they were the secret of life.

  “What’s the occasion?” Elle asked Willa.

  She smiled. “Keane and I set a wedding date.”

  They all squealed in delight, as Willa and Keane had been engaged for what felt like forever.

  “What was the catalyst?” Elle asked.

  Willa smiled. “We’re redoing the kitchen and I want new stuff.”

  Elle smiled. “Look at you, thinking ahead. I’m so proud.”

  Sadie shook her head. “I think when you get married, you should have to give gifts to your guests. I mean you found lifelong love, right? That means I deserve a blender far more than you do.”

  Willa grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She took another muffin and sighed. “I wish everything was as easy as getting fat.”

  They all agreed on this very sage comment and then went back to their respective jobs. Molly’s afternoon flew by. She put out fires, answered phones, filed reports, and did background and security checks. At five o’clock, with most of the guys still gone on various jobs, she switched gears and pulled out her own personal laptop.

  Time for Project Bad Santa.

  Another look at the Christmas Village’s website didn’t yield any new information. But she did find ads on Facebook and Craigslist and a few other places advertising the village’s bingo, along with the claim that all profits went to charity. One of the ads noted that additional information for private parties was available upon special request. Hmm. She called the number listed. “I’m interested in a private party,” she said when a man answered.

  There was a beat of silence. “Bingo night?”

  She had no idea. “Yes. Who do I speak to?”

  “Me.”

  “Okay,” she said. “And you are?”

  “Doesn’t matter. What are you looking for?”

  Since she had absolutely zero idea, she hung up. And then researched the number. It was a cell phone registered to a Nicolas King. She wondered if she’d just found Crazy Nick. But when she searched that name, she hit a brick wall.

  The guy didn’t exist.

  “Well, that’s not suspicious at all,” she said and tried a different angle, searching Tommy Thumbs. His given name was Thomas Russolini. Once she had that, she hit pay dirt. As Lucas had told her, he was indeed presumed dead, but before that he’d been wanted in five different counties for fraud, money laundering, and embezzling.

  She leaned back. Think. What do you know? Well, she knew Santa and Tommy were brot
hers . . . On a hunch, she typed in what she imagined Tommy’s brother’s name might be: Nicolas Russolini.

  There was one Nicolas Russolini in San Francisco. The address listed was in Soma, a stone’s throw from the Christmas Village. “You and your brother have been very bad boys,” she murmured, smiling in triumph. “You’re officially on the naughty list.”

  “I’d go on the naughty list if it’d make you smile at me like that.”

  She jerked around and found Lucas propping up the doorjamb, arms crossed, watching her. “What are you doing here?”

  “We’ve got a date, remember?” he asked, voice low and sexy and . . . teasing.

  If he only knew. She turned back to her computer and saved everything she’d found, all while incredibly aware of the man watching her every move.

  “What did you find?” he asked.

  “Crazy Nick’s address. Maybe.”

  He pushed off the wall and came over. Reaching out, he opened her laptop and leaned over her to read her screen.

  She stilled. He had a hand flat on her desk on either side of hers. If she turned her head, her mouth would brush against his inner biceps, a fact that did something quivery to her belly. And how was it that he’d been working since before the crack of dawn and he still smelled disarmingly delicious?

  Long before she could gather herself to push him away, he straightened and looked down at her. “What’s your plan?”

  “To go check out the village.”

  He nodded. “With me.”

  Here was the thing. She knew it was smart, and she really had no intention of going without him. But it rankled that he felt like he had to remind her, like maybe he believed she would be stupid enough to sneak off and go it alone.

  “Molly,” he said into her silence. “It’s my way on this, or I hand you over to Archer and Joe and let you all fight it out.”

  She refused to be intimidated. “We have a damn deal and I don’t go back on my word, so see that you don’t. You don’t tell them I’m on this case, and I don’t tell anyone we slept together.”

  A muscle in his jaw ticked, which was fascinating. She’d never seen it do that until the other night. Clearly she was on his last nerve.

  “We didn’t sleep together,” he finally said.

  She just smiled. “You keep telling yourself that.”

  He dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, I’d rather ’fess up than have you in danger.”

  “Okay,” she said agreeably. “So you’re going to tell them what happened the other night?”

  “Nothing happened.”

  “Uh-huh. And you’re willing to bet your balls on that?”

  He blew out a breath. “I really wish I knew what you have against my balls.”

  She had to laugh. “For the record, I was working here at my desk, waiting for you. So you can stand down, soldier.”

  He narrowed his eyes and searched hers as if looking for signs of deceit. “We’re doing this together,” she said and a thrum of adrenaline went through her at the thought of her first real case.

  At least she told herself that was what her excitement stemmed from.

  She stood and then sucked in a breath and shifted her weight to her good leg as her other did its usual frustrating thing where it sent nerve pain screaming up the IT band along the outside of her thigh from knee to hip.

  Lucas reached out to steady her; soon as she was good, he let go and backed up.

  She’d been prepared for him to hover and coddle, but she should’ve known better. Lucas wasn’t a hoverer or a coddler. In fact, unlike everyone else in her world, he never looked at her like he felt sorry for her, or peppered her with questions she didn’t want to answer.

  She liked that.

  He trusted her to know when and if she was okay, and she liked that too. Way too much. They’d shared a bed and for her, the sober one, it had felt shockingly intimate, especially given the fact that she hadn’t shared a bed with a man in . . . well, a damn long time. She was attracted to him, and he was attracted to her too, and . . . damn. She wanted what she hadn’t had the other night.

  “You’re staring at me funny,” he said.

  Probably because she was confused over how badly she wanted him. Okay, not so suddenly, but still, denial had been her friend and now that friend had deserted her. “No, I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are. You’re staring at me like . . .”

  She turned her back on him and grimaced to herself, knowing exactly how she’d been staring at him. “Like I’m annoyed by your presence?” she asked.

  “Like I’m dinner.”

  She closed her eyes. “Oh, please,” she said on a low laugh. “I’ve slept with you now. Trust me, I don’t need a repeat.”

  “So you keep saying.”

  His voice sounded right in her ear now. He’d moved, shifting close enough that his chest nearly brushed the entire length of her spine. She could feel the heat of him and nearly moaned. Nearly. But she caught herself. It was just that his body heat was soaking into her and she found herself wanting to back into him. He smelled amazing and he was still dressed from his job, and that was a shocking turn-on too. As was the sexy smirk she heard in his voice.

  Which didn’t make any sense. From the time she’d come into her sexuality as a teenager, complete with all the baggage of her kidnapping still hanging over her head, she’d only ever felt comfortable when she was the one doing the charming and chasing. She’d dated guys here and there, all very different from her brother and men like Lucas. They’d been . . . beta. Not pushovers, but nonthreatening. Nice and sweet. Emotionally available.

  The exact opposite of Lucas.

  But the truth was, no one had ever really invested in her, and she wasn’t sure Lucas was the investing type either. In fact, she was fairly positive he wasn’t, but it still felt a little bit like he was chasing her and she wasn’t at all certain what to do with that.

  “Tell me about our night,” he said. “You know you want to.”

  “Actually, it was over so fast, I can’t really remember.”

  He gave a low, rather triumphant laugh and turned her to face him. “You haven’t yet once managed to look me in the eyes and tell me how bad I was. Here’s your chance, Molly. Give it to me.”

  See, that was the thing. She did want to give it to him, quite badly. Naked . . . Gah. She really hadn’t seen this coming, but she deserved fun like anyone else, right? She looked at his mouth, desperately wanting it on hers. And then her body somehow mistook the fantasy for reality because she went up on tiptoes and . . . kissed him. Just a soft brush of her lips across his, gently and a little hesitant, but it was most definitely a kiss.

  He froze, and she didn’t know if it was horror or shock. Maybe both. To find out, she pulled back slightly and stared at him.

  His eyes were closed, but they opened now, the deep brown holding hers prisoner as she held her breath. Beneath the hand she’d set on his chest she could feel his heart steady and sure. And maybe a little too fast.

  “Molly,” he breathed and shifted so that his forehead rested against hers. Sliding his hands into her hair, his fingertips against her scalp, he held her in place. “Do that again,” he demanded, his voice soft steel.

  Letting out a breath of relief, she leaned back in, but he beat her to it, closing the distance, his mouth taking hers in another heart-stopping kiss that released something wild in her, something she’d kept locked deep inside. But suddenly she couldn’t get close enough to him or enough skin contact.

  But he pulled back, one hand still cupping the back of her neck, the other under her long sweater, so low on her spine that he had a palm full of her ass as he stared down at her with a look she couldn’t quite read.

  “What?” she whispered.

  He gave a single, slow shake of his head. “We didn’t sleep together.”

  She blinked. “How do you know?”

  “Because I could never have forgotten this.”

 
Chapter 8

  #SharingIsCaring

  Lucas had never been so sure of anything in his life as he stared down into Molly’s slightly dazed face, waiting for her response, his heart still thundering in his chest.

  Because holy shit. That kiss.

  If it’d been anyone else, he’d have had them both naked and halfway to satisfaction by now. But it wasn’t just anyone else, it was Molly. Joe’s threats had been pretty effective, but sleeping with his good friend’s baby sister wasn’t the mental holdup. Neither was her being a coworker. Or the fact that she was someone he instinctively knew he couldn’t have just once and walk away—which was his current MO these days. Yeah, all of those things added up to a Hands-Off situation, but the truth was none of it was stopping him.

  What did was that she thought he was on her side. That he was helping her because she’d asked-slash-blackmailed, when the truth was he was helping her because it was literally his job to do so. But even more importantly, he was helping her because he was worried about her being out there on her own, when even he and the guys were never on their own. They always worked as a team, that was the only way to do this job.

  But Molly wouldn’t care about any of that. She’d care only that he was—as she’d see it—babysitting her, and that he hadn’t told her about it up front. It’d piss her off in a large way and he fully understood that, but he still couldn’t tell her or she’d get herself yanked off this case. Lucas figured he at least owed it to her to see it through.

  Given how complicated it all was, he wouldn’t further complicate that with . . . emotions.

  So he really needed to not muddy the waters. He needed to not want her as badly as he did. And most of all, he needed to keep his hands and mouth and other various body parts off of her.

  Which he knew would be the hardest job he’d ever have. “You lied to me,” he said.

  She started to pull away, but he held on, bending his knees to catch her gaze. “Why? Why did you let me think we’d slept together?”

  She closed her eyes.

  “Talk to me, Molly.”

  “Talking’s not my strong suit.”