“What time is it?” she asked, not really wanting to know. She wasn’t ready for reality to roll over them quite yet.

He patted his bare hip, as if his cell phone was somehow attached to him, and she laughed. His dimples appeared as he pretended to frown at her and stalked closer, his eyes narrowing in a way that, along with his suppressed smile, Molly knew meant trouble. With a laughing shriek, she tried to scramble out of his path, but he grabbed her and tossed her over his shoulder.

“Careful!” She was almost laughing too hard to speak, even as she pinched his tight butt in retaliation. “You’re like eight feet tall. If you drop me on my head, there’s going to be some major damage, and you’re going to have to bring Sonny in yourself.”

“I’ve got you.” His voice was confident, and she believed him completely. He wouldn’t let her get hurt. “And it’s just after seven. Plenty of time for a shower…if we share. That would be the most efficient plan, and I know how much you like a good plan.”

Although she rolled her eyes at his transparent plot to get his hands on her again, she was still smiling. She wasn’t sure if she was going to stop anytime soon. “How can I say no to an efficient plan?”

“You can’t.” As he climbed the stairs, he gave a dramatic, evil-villain laugh, making her snort. “I know your weakness.”

Even as she pinched his bare backside again—or tried to, since there wasn’t any give to his buns of steel—she silently acknowledged that he was right. He did know her weaknesses, but she trusted him, both to have her back and with her tender, tentative heart.

* * *

After a shared shower that stretched so long the water ran cold, Molly got dressed in his bedroom. Sitting on the neatly made bed, she pulled on her socks. Now that she was clothed and didn’t have anything to do except look around the room and try to wrap her head around the fact that she’d just had sex with John Carmondy, she felt anxious and twitchy. Unable to sit still, she started toward the door as John emerged from the bathroom.

The sight of him, all huge and buff, his upper half bare, made her freeze in her tracks. She felt both justified in the decision to tumble into bed with him—well, onto the couch—and also even more nervous, because seeing him made what they’d just done all the more real. He gave her a slow, curling smile that instantly lit the smoldering fire in her belly, but she firmly stomped it down. That was what had gotten her into this situation in the first place.

He grew serious as he studied her. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” The denial was automatic, but it felt wrong. This was John, the guy who’d had her back over the past few nightmarish days, who’d protected her too many times to count, and whom she’d just slept with. She could tell him. “Just…this was fast.”