“I suppose I’ll recognize it when I see it.” Kids were running around on the Common. He stopped for a moment to enjoy the sight, then returned to his mission. “The wind’s really started to kick up. I can hardly see the path.”

“It’s not that bad here.”

“Then maybe I’m going the wrong way.”

“You took the path behind Jacob’s Ladder, right?”

He tossed the rest of his sandwich into a trash container and stepped onto that exact path. “I think so.”

“You think so? Aren’t you paying attention?”

Definitely snappish.

“Just keep talking. Maybe I’ll be able to tell how close I’m getting by the reception.”

“Can you hear the creek?”

“Which creek is that again?”

“There’s only one!”

“I hope I can find it. I don’t even want to imagine how terrible it’d be if you had to spend the night in the woods by yourself.”

“I’m sure that won’t happen.”

“I hope not. Whatever you do, don’t start thinking about the Blair Witch.”

“The Blair Witch?”

He managed a choking noise, then a monster moan, and disconnected.

It didn’t take long for his phone to ring again.

“My ribs are aching from laughter,” she said dryly.

“Sorry. It was just a squirrel. But it was huge.”

“If you don’t play right, I’m going home.”

“Okay, but you’d better not be wearing anything more than shoes and a hair ribbon when I find you.”

“I don’t own a hair ribbon.”

“That’ll be one less thing for you to take off, then, won’t it?”

As it turned out, she was still dressed when he spotted her, but that didn’t last for long. They tumbled naked into the soft meadow grass, and as the rain began to fall, their laughter faded.

He drugged himself on her kisses, and as he entered her soft, welcoming body, he glimpsed something that felt almost … holy. But the illusion was too fragile to survive the primitive demand of his body.

The rain drummed on his back. Her strong fingers dug into his shoulders—demanding. The rain … this woman … Her pleasure spiraled beneath him, and he lost himself.

As one day slipped into the next, Molly behaved like a woman possessed. On Wednesday she lifted her skirt for Kevin in the office while the guests gathered for tea. That same night she escaped another of Phoebe’s arrangements for a private chat and met him in the woods behind the cottage. The following morning he dragged her into the pantry just as Troy was coming through the kitchen door, then had to cover her mouth because she started making too much noise. Later she hauled him into a deserted cottage, but as he lifted her onto the kitchen table, her muscles finally rebelled from the strain of so many awkward positions, and she winced.