Hot Winter Nights

by Jill Shalvis

  He took a two-minute hot shower, grabbed fresh clothes and wished for caffeine. Since he’d yet to make it to a store, he was still going without. In the promised five minutes, he came back to the living room to find Molly thumbing through a stack of photos his mom had recently sent him.

  She flipped a pic in his direction, revealing his five-year-old self and his dad, both on skis, flashing toothy grins at the camera. The background was a formidable looking ski run.

  “Squaw Valley,” he said. “I’d just followed my dad down my first black diamond ski run. My aunt lives in the Sierras. We spent a lot of time in the mountains over the holidays. This year will be no different, though my dad’s teaching in England until January. He’s a college professor and he’s on loan to Oxford. But everyone else will be there.”

  “Sounds nice,” she said a little wistfully. “I’ve never been on skis.”

  “I’ll take you,” he said without thinking. And he meant it. He’d love to teach her how to ski.

  But she shook her head and gestured vaguely to her leg, making him feel like a first-class asshole for forgetting.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I wasn’t thinking.”

  She sent him a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Don’t worry about it, it’s easy to forget.”

  He cupped her face up to his. “Nothing about you is easy to forget,” he said. “I want you to remember that.”

  She stared up at him for a long, vibrating beat and then stepped free. “Time to go.”

  She had a bag of food in her backseat that smelled amazing and his stomach growled.

  Molly’s mouth tipped up slightly. “He might share. If you ask real nice.”

  He had no idea if she was kidding or not. Fifteen minutes later they pulled up to a duplex in Inner Sunset. “Joe’s place?” he asked.

  “Joe owns the building,” Molly said. “He bought it for me and dad. But I needed to have more independence than that, so I live where I live and they live here. Not together, though—they’d kill each other. My dad lives on one side and Joe on the other. You didn’t know?”

  Lucas glanced over at her. He and Joe were close as far as partners went, same for being friends, but they spent so much time together at work, as in almost all their time, they rarely saw each other off the job.

  Which was just as well at the moment since Lucas happened to be lusting after the guy’s sister. Not to mention getting naked with her, to a very mutually satisfying conclusion if he said so himself. “Joe’s pretty private.”

  “Yeah, where do you think I learned it from?” she said on a rough laugh.

  The neighborhood was blue collar and hardworking. Not all the homes had been shown any love, but this duplex most definitely had. New paint, grass trimmed and mowed, and flowers thriving in the flower pots on both sides of the duplex.

  Lucas started to get out of the car, but Molly put a hand on his arm. “Wait here.”

  He arched a brow. “Like you did at my mom’s house?”

  She grimaced. “Okay, so I was nosy and curious and you’re the same. I get it. But your mom and your sisters, they’re . . .”

  “We’ve already had this conversation,” he said. “They’re crazy. Nosy. Busybodies—”

  “—And wonderful. But this isn’t a joke to me,” she said. “It’s my life.”

  And she was actually letting him see some of that life, which she didn’t do as a rule. For anyone. Knowing how private she was, he felt . . . honored, and let his smile fade. “Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry. If you really want me to wait here, I will. But I’d really like to meet your dad.”

  She stared at him.

  He smiled charmingly.

  She didn’t return it, but he could tell she wanted to. “Okay,” she said, caving. “But only because I could use some help carrying the fifty-pound bag of dog food in the trunk.”

  Lucas didn’t ask questions, just got out of the car and went to the trunk, hoisting the huge bag of food onto a shoulder.

  She stared at him again.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Nothing. Except it’s annoying how easy that was for you to lift.”

  “Annoying aaaaannnnnd . . .” he asked in a teasing voice.

  “And irritating.”

  “I think you mean sexy, right?”

  She rolled her eyes and made him laugh. At least she wasn’t looking hollow and haunted anymore. They headed up the walkway to the right side of the duplex.

  The front door had a sign that read:

  WARNING: No Soliciting, No Trespassing

  I don’t like you

  I’m not voting for you

  I’m not buying from you

  I don’t need a vacuum

  I’m armed and not tired

  of hiding the bodies

  Lucas smiled.

  Molly sighed and turned to him, pulling him aside, gesturing for him to set the big bag of dog food down. “Listen,” she said. “There’re a few things you really should know—”

  She was interrupted by the sound of a shotgun ratcheting.

  In one move, Lucas pushed her behind him and pulled his gun.

  “No,” Molly gasped, tugging loose and slipping between him and the front door to face him. “Stop. You’ll only make it worse. It’s just my dad. It’s sort of . . . his greeting. Dad,” she yelled, turning to the front door. “It’s me.”

  “You’re late,” came a cranky male voice.

  “I know.”

  “It’s dark.”

  “I know that too,” she said. “But work took a lot longer today than I thought it would. You should’ve turned on the holiday lights that Joe strung for you out here. You’d be able to see better.”

  “What’s the code?”

  Molly knocked four times on the door, paused, then added a fifth.

  Suddenly the outside of the house lit up with icicle lights in white, red, and green.

  “See?” Molly said through the door. “Festive, right?”

  “Stupid waste of electricity.”

  Molly sighed. “Let us in, Dad.”

  “Who’s the guy with the gun?”

  Molly craned her neck and glanced back at Lucas, her eyes going wide when she saw he was still holding his gun. She waved her hand at him, gesturing that he should put it away. It went against every fiber of his being, what with there being a gun trained on him, but he holstered it.

  “I brought . . . a coworker,” Molly told her dad.

  “Why?”

  Molly sighed. “Because he’s helping me work on something. He’s Joe’s partner, Lucas Knight. Dad, it’s cold. Let us in.”

  There came the sound of four locks being unlocked. And then a pause. And then one more bolt shifting.

  Molly waited until that last bolt clicked before opening the door and poking her head into the house. She looked around and then looked back at Lucas with an expression he couldn’t quite place. Not fear, but . . . unease.

  He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile and then she led him inside. The duplex was small but neat. The only holiday decorations in here were some garland on the mantel, and a two-foot tall live potted Christmas tree on the coffee table. Wood floors, no throw rugs, wide open spaces between the sparsely furnished living room.

  He got the reason for that when he caught sight of the man in a wheelchair in the doorway to the kitchen wearing an army T-shirt, black boxers, and a rifle across his thighs.

  “Dad,” Molly said, walking to him, then leaning in and kissing his jaw. “We talked about this. You’re supposed to wear pants during the day.”

  “It’s not day, it’s night,” he said, his gaze never leaving Lucas.

  A huge yellow Labrador retriever rose from his bed in the corner. He stretched and yawned.

  “Nice job on the watchdog thing, Buddy,” the man said.

  “Dad, Buddy’s your emotional support dog, not a watchdog.” Molly dropped to her knees and held out her arms, and the dog walked right into t
hem, snuggling in close for a hug and a few kisses. “How’s my good boy?” she asked softly, ruffling his fur. “How’s my very good boy?”

  Buddy burrowed in closer, a smile on his face.

  Lucas loved dogs and dogs loved him, but he’d never actually been jealous of one before.

  “Dad, this is Lucas,” Molly said. “Lucas, this is my dad, Alan. And this big guy here is Buddy. He also goes by No-no-no, Stop-It, Don’t-You-Dare-Do-It, or Get-Down.”

  Lucas nodded at Molly’s dad in greeting and held out his hand.

  The man looked at Lucas’s outstretched hand, then turned his wheelchair, giving him his back as he looked at Molly. “What’s for dinner?”

  Okay, then. Lucas crouched down before Buddy, who had a much more enthusiastic greeting for him. A big drooly kiss. When Lucas started petting him, the dog belly flopped at his feet for a belly rub. Yep, a real killer, this one.

  “Nothing’s for dinner unless you’re nice,” Molly told her dad.

  Her dad snorted, but he did turn back to face Lucas and thrust his hand out in a way that wasn’t overly friendly, but, hey, at least he hadn’t picked up the shotgun.

  Lucas shook the proffered hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said, which garnered another snort.

  “Dad,” Molly said.

  “Fine. And I suppose he gets points for not running scared like the last one.”

  “Not fair,” Molly said. “When I brought Tim over, you were on the porch cleaning your shotgun. You kept lifting it up to check the site and posturing. I’d have run too.”

  “Tim was a pansy-ass.”

  Lucas wanted to know who the hell Tim was, but Molly moved to the kitchen and started to pull out the food she’d brought. “You take your meds today?” she called out.

  Her dad shrugged and she stopped what she was doing to go hands on hips for a beat before turning to a drawer and opening it. “Where’s your weekly pill box?”

  “Bathroom.”

  “Go get it.”

  Her dad rolled out of the room.

  Molly looked at Lucas. “Thanks for not freaking out.”

  “Who’s Tim?” he asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “No one.”

  “He was her pansy-ass boyfriend,” her dad said, wheeling back into the room. Lucas was happy to see he’d put his gun away. “She eventually got smart and dumped him.”

  “Not true,” Molly said, her back to the both of them as she set the table. “He got smart and dumped me.”

  Lucas slid his gaze to Alan, who had the good grace to look abashed, but he recovered quickly. “Any man who isn’t man enough to look his woman’s father in the eyes isn’t man enough to miss.”

  “Well, much as I’d like to blame it on your childish behavior,” Molly said, still not facing them. “He dumped me because of me, not you.”

  There was remembered pain in her voice and her body language was off, as if maybe she was ashamed. Lucas started toward her, but her dad put out a hand to stop him. “That just makes him a fucker on top of being a pansy-ass,” he said to Molly’s back. “Want me to end him for you?”

  She laughed. “Dad, it was years ago now, you know that.”

  Her dad relaxed when she laughed. “Well, the offer still stands,” he said. “You just let me know. And same goes for this one too,” he said with a chin jerk in Lucas’s direction.

  “I told you, he’s just a coworker.”

  Her dad looked Lucas right in the eyes. “Gonna call bullshit on that one, sweetheart.”

  Molly ignored them both, sitting down at the table to dig in. “I’m hungry enough to eat all of this on my own, so I’d get to it if I were you.”

  That got her dad’s attention. He pulled up to the table and dropped his phone in Molly’s lap before starting to load up a plate for himself. “The thing’s broken,” he said. “It says I’m out of memory.”

  “How is that even possible?” Molly picked up the phone and began to thumb through it. “Ah. Found the problem.”

  “Knew you would.” Her dad glanced at Lucas. “She’s the smartest person in our whole family.”

  Lucas smiled. The guy was badass and as tough as they came, but he clearly had a soft spot for his daughter.

  And as it turned out, so did Lucas.

  Molly held up the phone, opened to photos. “You’ve got like thirteen thousand pics of Buddy in here.”

  “He likes having his picture taken.”

  “Dad, you don’t need thirteen thousand pics of your dog. Delete all but a few hundred.”

  Her dad grumbled and slid Buddy a few scraps under the table.

  Molly sighed. “And you’re not supposed to feed him like that either.”

  “What, he likes takeout. Hey, can Buddy travel? Like on a plane?”

  “Why?” Molly asked suspiciously. “You hate airplanes, and as far as I know you’ve not been on one since you got home from your last tour of duty.”

  Her dad shrugged. “It’s too cold here right now. I was thinking of going somewhere warm.”

  “Like?”

  “Like a deserted island.”

  “But then who would you yell at?” Molly asked.

  Her dad barked out a low laugh. “Good point. How about just a regular island then, with unlimited dogs and pizza. Come on, name something better than that. I’ll wait.”

  Molly shook her head, but her eyes were soft and her mouth was curved. She clearly loved him very much, a feeling that was just as clearly mutual. She didn’t appear to mind taking care of him either, which Lucas knew she’d been doing for a very long time, back to when she should have had someone taking care of her.

  When they’d finished eating, Lucas helped Molly clean up and then she grabbed her purse. “It’s getting late and it’s a work night.”

  “Uh-huh. Thought he wasn’t your boyfriend,” her father said, eyes back on Lucas in a way that said he wished he still had his rifle.

  “He’s not,” Molly said. “We’re working a job together—which you can’t tell Joe about.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I asked real nice.”

  Her dad narrowed his gaze.

  “If you tell,” Molly told him, “I’ll stop bringing you those Cuban cigars you’re not supposed to have.”

  “You were never even here,” Alan said.

  She hugged and kissed him goodbye. “You’re my favorite,” she whispered.

  “And you’re mine,” Alan whispered back so easily that Lucas knew it was part of their routine.

  Molly laughed, lightening the moment. “You say the same to Joe, right?”

  Her dad just smiled.

  When they were on the road again, Molly glanced over at Lucas. “You’re quiet. You okay?”

  He was lost in thought. And guilt. He hated that he was with her on the pretense of the job because Archer and Joe had asked him to be. Because the truth was, he was in regardless, and now there was a new element too. He wanted her to solve this case and prove herself to her boss and brother so they’d let her be who she was meant to be. She was smart and fun and sexy and easy to talk to, and he enjoyed the hell out of her.

  And when that had sneaked up on him, he had no clue.

  Half an hour later, they were back at the Pacific Pier Building. “Come up,” he said and she looked across the console at him, silent. Contemplating.

  To sway the vote in his favor, he leaned in, palmed the back of her head and kissed her.

  When she pulled back, she was looking dazed and breathless. He was no better. “Come up,” he said again.

  “Maybe.” She pointed at him. “But no overthinking things.”

  “Molly,” he said on a rough laugh. “When I’ve got you in my arms, I can’t think at all.”

  She stared at him some more. “And no lights.”

  He hesitated at that and she pulled back. “I mean it,” she said.

  He reached out and wove his fingers through hers. “How about you give me ten minutes to show you how amazingly
beautiful I think you are, and if you still want the lights out—”

  “I still want the lights out.”

  “Okay,” he said easily. “By Braille it is.”

  “And one more thing. No talking.”

  “How about dirty talk?” he asked. “That doesn’t count, right?”

  She surprised him by laughing and lightened his heart.

  “Dirty talk is allowed,” she decided, and right then and there, he fell in love.

  Chapter 15

  #ImFine

  The next morning, Lucas woke up alone. Not a surprise. Molly didn’t seem fond of morning-afters.

  Something they shared.

  She’d been in a meeting with Archer when he arrived at the office. At his desk, he eyed the wallet sitting next to his laptop. He’d done a thorough search of the ID in the wallet. Santa’s given name was Nick Russolini but he was going by Nicolas King—which they already knew. The only things in the wallet had been sixty bucks’ cash, a driver’s license, and a Domino’s pizza card.

  No signed confession that he was stealing from old ladies.

  But digging deeper, Lucas discovered the guy had enough identities to give even the FBI a run for its money. Shaking his head, he brought up a new search screen, planning on running the aliases all together to see if there was any crossover. But his fingers did something he’d avoided doing for a long time now. He typed in Molly Malone instead.

  If he hit the enter key, he knew he’d get a crash course in all things Molly. He wanted to know more than what she was willing to tell him, such as what had happened to her, for one.

  His mind flashed back to last night, lying in his bed holding a sleeping Molly, her body sated and still against his. He’d been able to feel the soft heat of her breast against his chest, the gentle touch of her hand on the stubble of his cheek . . . There weren’t a lot of things he cherished more than the memory of being with her like that, and how she’d touched him, body and soul.

  He was still staring at her name on the screen, his finger hovering over enter when she walked by his office and met his gaze, her own both warm and extremely wary, which tugged at his heart. She wasn’t okay with this, not yet, not even close.

  Holding her gaze, he knew. He would never hit enter. Whatever she’d faced, she’d tell him when she was good and ready.