hers. The kiss was intense and powerful. A punishment, because she saw too much of him. Saw too clearly what he didn’t want anyone to see. But there was no hiding from Molly.
Holy hell. When had she slipped past his guard? When had that happened?
Her fingernails dug into his side and she bit his tongue lightly, returning the fervor of the embrace.
He pulled his head back, looked down into her eyes and wished he hadn’t. The intensity in her gaze made him realize that she already cared more than was wise.
He wished for a minute that he was a different person. The kind who could see this health thing as a chance to change directions, but he wasn’t that man. He’d given his soul to NASA a long time ago and he realized that Molly was okay with that. She knew who he was and she expected him to break her heart.
That should be enough to make him leave the bathroom en suite right now. Get dressed, head to Houston and never come back. That kind of unconditional acceptance would have scared him before—it still sort of did—but what Molly couldn’t know was that he felt an equal draw to her. So instead he put his hands on that tiny waist of hers and lifted her off her feet.
He put her down in the deep tub that was filled with bubbles and smelled like summer. Like a summer that wouldn’t end but was flying by. It had been just over six weeks since he’d first arrived at the ranch; in six more weeks this would be over. He got in, too, and sat down, the water rising to his chest and sloshing over the sides as he cradled her in his arms. She kissed his arm lightly. He wanted her, wanted the sunshine of Molly and not just the vastness he’d always used to define who he was.
She shifted more, but he held her where she was. He wanted this time with her to last forever. This moment when everything was still possible. She was curled against him and, when she moved her legs, he felt her thigh brush his cock and his blood started to feel as if it were flowing more heavily in his veins.
In response, she turned around to straddle him. She watched him with those serious eyes of hers. And he realized that, though she’d said she was lost six weeks ago, she wasn’t anymore.
She had found her peace in the land around them. While he’d been running and planning, she’d found her strength.
She put her hands on his shoulders and twined her legs around his body, locking her ankles behind him.
“This is better. I can see you,” she said.
“How is that better?” he asked.
“I want to know what’s going on with you. I want to see your face when I move against you. I need to know that I affect you the same way you affect me.”
With that, she took the loofah sponge from the pretty porcelain bath tray and submerged it. Bringing it up, she rubbed it over his chest, then from shoulder to shoulder and down his sternum.
She followed the line of hair on his chest until it disappeared under the water. Somehow the loofah got lost. Instead, he felt her fingers on his abdomen and then lower, rubbing his cock until it was hard and he wanted something other than her hands on him.
His hands were restlessly moving up and down her body. Caressing that scar on the inside of her thigh and then moving higher. He loved the way her hips felt as he used both hands to squeeze her and move her on his lap. The tip of his cock brushed against her center, but he took his time, not entering her yet. Finding the loofah floating near him, he picked it up and rubbed it over her shoulders and then down to her nipples, abrading both of them until they were erect. He carefully washed the soapy water off her breasts and then took the tip of one of them between his teeth, lightly biting down on it before sucking it more deeply into his mouth. Her hand on his cock tightened in response.
This was the one place where there was no confusion. When he had her in his arms, nothing seemed complicated. This was all he wanted. She was all he wanted.
He grasped one of her buttocks in his hand as he continued to suck on her nipple, feathering his finger along the crack and feeling her arch against him. Then she put her hands in his hair as she sank lower, rubbing against the shaft of his cock.
She reached between them, adjusting him until he was poised at her entrance. Then she put her hands on his face, forcing his head back, and brought her mouth down hard on his as she shifted and slowly took him into her body. She rocked forward, sinking down until he was deep inside her.
She continued to move her mouth over his and he felt like he did just before the rocket blasted off. Like he was going to explode if she didn’t move.
He gripped her butt in both hands as he drew his hips back and then pulled her back down again. They rocked together, both reaching for climax. The water sloshed around them, her wet hair stuck to his neck and their mouths fused together. He drove himself higher and higher inside of her. She rode him harder and faster until he felt her nails dig into his shoulders and she ripped her mouth from his to cry out his name.
Her cries made something tighten inside of him and everything in his body jerked as he started to come. He thrust into her harder and deeper until he emptied himself. As she collapsed against his chest and he held her to him, he knew he could no longer hide the truth from himself. Molly Tanner had changed him.
THIS TIME WHEN the water got cold, Molly got out of the tub before Jason. He followed her a moment later, wrapping a towel around his lean hips. He gave her a kiss and left the room, but she stayed in there for a long time getting dressed and thinking about Houston.
Maybe she shouldn’t have volunteered to go with him, but she’d heard the loneliness in his voice. He was used to being alone, had told her that he liked it, but this was one instance when she knew he wouldn’t want to be.
She took her small Nike duffle bag from the back of her closet and tossed some clothes into it before going downstairs to find Rina.
She was sitting on the back porch drinking a glass of iced tea and talking on the phone. She hung up when she saw Molly.
“What’s up, sunshine?”
“I’m going to Houston with Jason,” she said. “Just for a few days.”
“Well...is there something else you want to tell me?”
She looked over at Rina. She was the closest thing that Molly had to an aunt and she knew all of Molly’s secrets. “We’ve slept together. I...I care for him.”
“Obviously. What’s up?”
“I’m not sure what I’m doing. He is going to do everything he can to go back to space. There is no woman alive who can compete with that.”
“Don’t compete,” Rina said. “Why do you have to? You wouldn’t leave the ranch to permanently go to Houston, would you?”
“No. I can handle a few days, but my home is here.”
Rina sat up, pushing her sunglasses up onto her head. “I imagine it’s the same for him.”
“I don’t know how to do this. In my head...well, I always thought if I fell for a guy, he’d be the type to raise cattle and kids. Not leave the planet for more than a year at a time.”
Molly sat down next to Rina on the lounge chair and her friend hugged her. “The heart isn’t like that. You might think you want one thing, but you really want something else.”
“Why does it have to be that way?”
Rina shrugged. “Girl, you know I’m single and have the worst taste in men. You’ve seen me crying over a guy or trying to drink his memory away more than once.”
“I have,” Molly said. “But I always figured I was smarter than you.”
Rina lightly punched her arm. “Watch it.”
“I just hoped... Should I stay home?”