Bring the Heat Read online

  “I’m glad you’re doing this now,” she said, her gaze meeting his. “Sometimes your texts seemed sad.”

  He huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, well, I probably was sad.” He thought back to all the times he’d had to go to an opening of something no one cared about, to support his family’s investments, to constantly push and wheedle and stay on top. He was so glad it was over.

  “So yachts will make you happy?” Molly turned and met his eyes, her expression so engaged that it caught him in the chest. Had anyone ever been interested in what he had to say? He couldn’t remember a single person in his life who’d ever asked him what would make him happy.

  He shook his head, trying to keep things light. “No, building something of my own will. Being my own boss, not living off my name. All of that.”

  She smiled and then her hand landed on his shoulder, his spine stiffening as his body flared to life under her soft touch. “I’m excited for you. I always knew you’d do something great.”

  The regret in her voice, he heard, because it was the way he’d felt, too. He hadn’t wanted to break up after that last summer, had yachted far longer than his parents wanted him to, but there hadn’t been another choice. She hadn’t been able to pass up an amazing opportunity and his life hadn’t been his own, something he was currently trying to rectify. But it gave him hope that she regretted their breakup just as much as he did.

  “You, too,” he told her. “And I’m not too proud to admit that I should have followed you to Colorado, Molly. I regret it more than anything.” He left out that even now she was in danger of his parents finding out about her. Even if he was ready now to fight in a way he hadn’t been able to when he was younger. If they wanted to be together now, nothing would stand in their way.

  Molly’s shoulders raised. “I didn’t blame you for going back to New York. We never made promises to each other. I’d only planned on doing a summer of yachting and then finding a real job, but then you came along and...” She shrugged her shoulders again. “Things happened.”

  “So you’re saying I didn’t break your heart?” Oliver teased. His own had been in shreds, leaving him cursing his parents, his life, his name, the job he’d been forced to take, everything. And maybe out of spite he’d had shitty times with all the women they tried to set him up with. Until he’d announced that he was leaving the firm, him not being married was the biggest point of contention with his parents. The people who, under no circumstances, should still be married since they absolutely could not stand each other and hadn’t uttered a kind word to each other since Oliver was born.

  Nonetheless, the number of gorgeous and successful women they’d thrown in his path had been legion. But they’d all wanted the life his parents had and he could think of nothing worse. Not when he’d experienced how good life could be with someone he truly cared for.

  “Maybe cracked it,” Molly said, grinning, and he loved that he could make her smile. “But I’m an engineer. I just spackled the old girl up and she’s been as good as new.”

  Oliver regarded her. “Is that what you’re doing now? Spackling?” he asked. “Or have you suffered terminal damage?”

  Molly’s grin only faded a little and he was proud of her for being tough, but honest as well. “I guess we’ll see, right?”

  Oliver took a drink of his own beer, looking up as the first stars appeared in the fading blue sky before returning his attention to her. “You know, I’d like to kick this guy’s ass for doing that to you. I know you’re fine with it, but the fact that he’s just out there living and breathing like he’s not a jerk pisses me off.”

  Her shoulders shook again in laughter and he felt like a king. “I probably feel the same,” she said. “But breakups happen. No retaliation needed.”

  “He’s the one who fucked around, so it didn’t just happen, Molly,” Oliver insisted, needing to know she wasn’t screwed up about the facts. “He made it happen. If he had a problem with your relationship, he should have come to you like a man and told you.”

  “I know,” Molly said, “and not that it’s an excuse, but I honestly wasn’t around much to even have the conversation.”

  “Oh, so it was hard for him to keep his dick in his pants while his fiancée was working her ass off? Give me a break. That’s not the way partners operate. You pick up the slack when the other person is busy. It’s the bare basics of being a decent human being. You don’t go out and dip your wick into another warm body when you have one at home, and a smoking hot one at that.”

  Molly just stared at him and he hoped like hell he hadn’t overstepped. But then she said, “Definitely. I’m not arguing with you, Oliver.”

  He lifted her chin with his finger so she could see how serious he was when he said, “I just feel like you’re not hearing me. People don’t cheat because the person isn’t around. They cheat because they’re assholes. Would you have cheated on him if he was working hard trying to succeed at something amazing and wasn’t around to have sex with you all the time?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Exactly. Molly, he committed to marrying you. Marriage means you weather any storm that comes along—together. A month spent with my dick in my hand would be easy compared to not being with the woman I loved for the rest of my life.”

  Molly’s brow furrowed and he loved watching her brain work to figure out what he meant. “I know he’s an asshole, Oliver, I do,” she said, swallowing when he stepped closer, pulling her into his arms. “All I’m trying to say is that I’m not perfect, either. That doesn’t mean he should have cheated on me, but I’m only human as well.”

  He wanted to tell her she was perfect, but that would just scare the shit out of her so he kept his mouth shut.

  “I appreciate you saying that stuff,” she continued when he didn’t respond. Instead he was too occupied with the feel of her skin under his hand. So he did it, brushed his thumb across the slant of her jaw and watched her eyes bloom with awareness. Yeah, the heat between them was still there.

  “I don’t want you to appreciate it, I want you to believe it. You’re a fucking catch, Molly. Don’t let some jerk ever make you feel like you don’t deserve to be treated well because you have a job you love. That’s nonsense.”

  “Thank you,” she said, her voice quiet, the air between them charged and electric as their eyes stayed locked on each other. “That’s nice of you to say, Oliver. You’re a good friend.”

  “I’m not saying it to be nice, I’m saying it because it’s true. Not all guys cheat, Molly.”

  She nodded, but her expression grew uncertain. “After it happened I did kind of wonder if maybe there’d been something missing, you know? Like maybe I wasn’t satisfying him. I know probably every woman thinks that who’s been cheated on, so...” She stopped and shrugged. “But I know that’s bullshit, too. I won’t let him have that kind of power over me.”

  “Good. And as someone who has been with you, I can tell you with confidence that you’re the best I’ve ever had.”

  He heard her little inhale of breath and his dick went stiff. Christ, this was too damn soon. She needed some time first, to get over her ex, to be ready to date again. To, hell, he didn’t know—he just knew he felt like the asshole now because he couldn’t stop touching her. She was looking for reassurance because some douchebag had made her feel like she wasn’t Molly Madix, his walking wet dream, and he’d gone and doubled down on flirting with her. He was a different kind of bastard altogether.

  “That can’t be true,” she told him. “You’ve probably slept with, like, hundreds of women.”

  And there went a glass of ice water on his burgeoning erection.

  “Excuse me?” he asked, his thumb stilling on her chin, pressing into the skin there without his really meaning to.

  “Well,” she said, her eyes clouding with embarrassment as one of her hands gestured wildly to encompass his body, �
�look at you. Anyone would want to have sex with you.”

  “So what?” he pressed, cursing himself as his other arm went around her back, pulling her closer into him. “You think I just have sex with whoever wants me?”

  “No, of course not,” she told him, eyes apologetic and voice soft.

  “Did I ever make you feel like I was looking at other girls when we were together on the boat back then?”

  She shook her head.

  “You just think I’m a man-whore because of my pretty face, then, or did I do something else?”

  “No, I don’t think that, but you left me, too, you know,” Molly managed, but her breathing had turned heavy, and he knew he was affecting her just as she was doing to him. “Which leads me to believe that maybe you’re exaggerating about me being the best you’ve ever had.”

  He saw the uncertainty in her eyes and gentled his hand on her face, brushing his thumb over the baby-soft skin of her jaw. “Molly, you had a job offer of a lifetime, proven by the fact that you still love it, and I wasn’t going to stand in your way. If I could’ve gone to Colorado with you, I would have. You also didn’t ask, by the way. And anyway, my parents wanted me home and right now is the first time I’ve truly defied them in thirty years. My life wasn’t my own then, not really, anyway. If you hadn’t gotten that job, I’d planned to ask you to come to New York with me.” Gripping her closer to him, his thumb imprinted on her jaw as he made her meet his eyes when her gaze started to slide away. “But I remember everything about us together, Molly. Every fucking thing. And the number of nights, mornings and afternoons that I’ve fantasized about you with nothing but my own hand outnumbers the times I’ve been with other women, and that’s a fact.”

  Her whole body went still in his arms and what happened next was on her, because he’d been prepared to wait. Even with her soft body tight against his, he would have let her go so they could remain friends until she was ready for more, but she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down to her.

  His lips met her soft, plush mouth and he fell into a slow, searing burn. Molly had never been hesitant in bed and she wasn’t now, taking control of the kiss, her head slanting against his as her clever tongue found the seam of his lips. Groaning, both his hands came up to burrow into her hair, unsatisfying because it was pulled back in a ponytail, so he quickly tugged at the band and threw it to the floor, reveling in the mass of sandy-blond hair now cascading over his fingers and down to her breasts.

  She came up on her tiptoes then, her arms sliding behind his neck, and he gripped her hair as their tongues tangled, licking and sucking and rediscovering. A mouth had never tasted so damned good and he bent his knees, his arms coming around her as he picked her up and set her on top of the railing, coming to stand between her spread legs.

  Her breath sucked in at the contact, his hard length against the place he wanted to be most, and Oliver thanked the poor bastard who’d cheated on her because there was no way she was getting away from him now.

  Sliding his arm around her, he held her close even though she was perfectly balanced and wasn’t going to fall into the water, but he wanted more of her. He left her mouth, pressing kisses over her jaw and down her neck as her head fell to the side, giving him more access.

  “I wanted to be a gentleman and give you more time,” he murmured as he got closer to her ear, “but I guess I’m not the one in charge here.”

  “Time for what?” she asked, her voice thready and light as her eyes struggled to stay open.

  He pressed a long kiss to the cord of muscle in her neck, sucking there gently and then harder, not caring if he left a mark. “Time for you to heal,” he told her, tugging on a delicate earlobe, running a tongue over it at her whimper.

  Molly’s brown eyes fluttered open, needing a moment before they focused on him. “I don’t need you to be a gentleman, Oliver,” she told him. “I just want you to be you.”

  “Smart-ass,” he growled, sinking his teeth into her neck as his hand traveled up her abdomen to cup one of her breasts, his fingers finding the raised nipple through the thin cotton of her T-shirt.

  Her gasp was followed by her legs wrapping around his back and for a moment he thought he might be getting light-headed from pleasure. It’d been so long since she’d been in his arms. To know that she’d missed him when they’d broken up, he was fucking enraged over all the lost time.

  “And for the record, Molly,” he said, forcing her gaze to his again, “I stayed in yachting a year more than I’d intended so I could stay with you.”

  Molly’s eyes widened and he kissed the disbelief right off her mouth. He was done with the past, theirs and the one she had with her ex. They’d made the wrong decisions back then, but now was the time for better ones, so his hand drifted under her shirt, his eyes closing as he felt the velvet of her skin under his. Finding her nipple, he tugged gently, rolling the small point between his fingers until she was squirming against him enough that he experienced a second of alarm that she really would fall into the water.

  “Why were we so dumb?” she gasped, her body arching against him as her mouth slid along his jaw.

  “Young, stupid, afraid,” he got out, teasing the other nipple now. “Pick one, pick them all. It doesn’t fucking matter because look where we are now, Molly. It’s just us. No rules, no expectations, no exes, nothing but the two of us, the ocean and this boat.”

  “Did you invite me here with the intention of sleeping with me?” she asked, the journey her mouth was taking along his jawline slowing as she neared his ear.

  “No. I know breakups are hard,” he assured her, even though he’d definitely hoped it would happen. “And I never would be doing this if you were still in love with your ex.”

  She met his eyes then. “I think I fell out of love with him before I found out about the cheating.”

  “Sounds like that was a good decision,” Oliver said, not at all interested, when his dick was nestled into her soft center, in talking about her ex.

  “That’s why I feel so guilty, because the first thing I thought after I caught them was relief. Then of course, anger and heartbreak and the rest. I realized after I left that I hadn’t been sleeping with him for such a long time because I hadn’t wanted to. I’d already fallen out of love with him.” Oliver slid a thumb over her bottom lip, pulling at the kiss-swollen puff, inserting his thumb into her mouth and hissing when she touched her tongue to it.

  “So what I’m hearing, Molly, is that you don’t want me to wait to fuck you.”

  Her eyes closed at the words and he knew she was struggling against the same onslaught of lust that he was.

  Then she shook her head, her straight white teeth sinking into his thumb, sucking it into her mouth, her cheeks hollowing out.

  “Fuck, Molly,” he growled, his hips grinding against her. “Be very sure this is what you want right now because if we go any further it’s going to be so damn hard to stop. And if we do this tonight, you better be prepared to keep it going for as long as we’re on this boat because once you’re in my bed, you’re not going any-fucking-where.”

  Their eyes locked; her brown gaze was so warm and hazy with desire and he loved nothing more than being the one to do that to her. Efficient and brilliant Molly lay exposed and bare by his mouth. Fucking incredible.

  Finally, she nodded, her tongue flicking over the pad of his thumb.

  “I need the words, Molly,” he told her, thrusting against her again because he couldn’t help himself.

  “Yes, Oliver,” she gasped, and he removed his hand and replaced it with his mouth.

  Permission granted, Oliver didn’t waste any time. He seized her mouth in a kiss designed to take them both under. Years had passed since he’d kissed Molly and she might feel different or taste different, time might have softened some of her edges, but his body certainly hadn’t forgotten how it felt to have her in his
arms, the thrill, the excitement and the need to possess.

  From someone who hadn’t wanted to commit to more than a night at a time with a woman, it was a revelation.

  They were on open water right now but close enough to the dock that they could see the people on the two or three boats anchored in the water near them, meaning that they could see the two of them as well. Even so, Oliver tugged at Molly’s shirt, pulling it over her head and throwing it to the teak of the deck. He stared at her, exposed in the fading sunlight, and thought how he’d been waiting for someone to move him, and Molly with her breasts, full and round in a simple pale blue bra, was apparently what he’d been waiting for. Showers of hunger rained on him as he cupped one in his hand, squeezing, weighing, reacquainting himself to the shape of her.

  “Take it off,” he told her, wanting her to make the decision on her own because all the other boats on the water would be able to see her if she did.

  She met his eyes and he stepped away from her to tear off his own shirt in one quick motion, dropping it to the floor beside him.

  Eyes still locked, he saw her gaze shift to the other boats, to the decks full of people. Chest rising and falling, his eyes fell down to where her hands unhooked the front clasp of her bra, and he thanked some glorious deity for whatever he’d done to deserve this moment, this amazing unveiling of her breasts. She shrugged off the sheer garment, and he tossed that, too, behind him on the floor.

  “Anything left on the floor of a deck is a safety hazard,” she reminded him with a sly grin.

  He reached out, wrapping an arm around her again, securing her against him as he took her breast in his hand. Her stomach moved as she sharply inhaled, making him smile. Brushing a thumb lightly over her soft pink nipple, he watched as the skin grew tighter. “You like being watched, Molly?” he asked as the music from another boat drifted over to them.

  When she didn’t answer, he leaned down and took her other nipple into his mouth and her whimper of pleasure was music to his ears, his dick responding immediately. Tugging on the unbelievably soft skin of her nipple, he felt her harden in his mouth the rougher his treatment. Teeth grazed her and she jerked against him. He responded in kind, driving her mad as he treated both nipples to the same torture.