“You don’t have to apologize.” Hunter turned his back to her and began to straighten some papers he’d been working with, deliberately placing them in neat piles around the desk. “You don’t answer to me. I’m only here for-”

“My father, I know,” she said, grinding her teeth, her frustration building. One minute Hunter was kissing her in the hall upstairs, the next he was as cool as the night air outside.

“Hunter-”

“Molly-” They spoke at the same time.

“You first,” he said.

She shook her head. “You.”

“Okay. I paid your father a visit today. He’s a great guy.” Hunter shoved his hands into his pockets. “I wouldn’t have picked anyone different for you. In fact…” His voice trailed off and she got the distinct impression he was embarrassed. “Never mind.”

“No, tell me.”

Hunter met her gaze. “He’s everything you could have hoped for and more. I’m happy for you,” he said in a rush of words.

Warmth surged through her, a tingling sensation, one part gratitude and an even bigger part attraction. She couldn’t deny it. When he was kind and considerate, and didn’t seem to be holding himself back, Hunter was one very special man. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?” he asked.

She blinked. “I honestly don’t remember. I’m too stunned by what you just said. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you cared about me,” she said in her best Scarlett O’Hara impersonation.

She was dead serious yet she didn’t want to scare him away. Better for him to think she was teasing him than for him to get nervous and retreat.

“Who says I don’t care?” He reached out and wrapped his finger around a strand of her hair.

Molly felt the gentle tug straight down to her toes and she licked her dry lips. She hadn’t meant for the gesture to be seductive but his eyes followed the movement, darkening with molten heat and desire. A surge of warmth prickled at her skin and she swayed toward him, giving him an open invitation. One she hoped he’d take her up on.

His big hand slid upward and she tipped her head back into his palm, her gaze never leaving his. Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for his lips to finally settle over hers. Her eyelids fluttered shut and she savored the feel of his mouth, the warm glide of his tongue over her lips and the delicious arousal thrumming through her veins.

She couldn’t help but notice how much more touchy-feely they’d become now, when his walls were supposedly higher and she had no idea where they stood. When he kissed her like this, she didn’t care.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, aligning their bodies flush against each other. His heat sucked her into a whirlpool of sensation and his scent ignited a flame of desire the likes of which she’d never felt before. She wanted him badly and the low moan that escaped the back of her throat ensured he knew it, too.

She tangled her fingers in the back of his hair at the same moment she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. “Well, this is a fine welcome-home greeting,” her father said in his “general” voice.

Hunter flew backward. Molly jumped away from him at the same time and they both turned guilty looks his way. But the general had a huge grin on his handsome face.

And then his presence registered in Molly’s mind. “You’re home. You’re home! Oh my God.” She ran and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tight. “I had no idea but I’m so relieved.”

“Same here,” he said.

She stepped back, her hand still inside his. “How? When?”

“Hunter freed me in time for dinner.”

Molly turned Hunter’s way. “You didn’t say anything.”

“Made the surprise that much sweeter, didn’t it?” Hunter asked.

Molly thought she fell back in love with him right then. If she’d ever fallen out. She doubted it.

She shot him a lingering glance before turning to her father. “Where were you when I came home?”

“Next door checking on Sonya and Seth.”

Molly nodded. “That’s good. And now that you’re home, you’re going to remain here,” she said in her most determined voice.

“I’m sorry to be the bucket of cold water, but bail is only a temporary solution,” Hunter pointed out.

Molly rolled her eyes. “Surely we can celebrate just for tonight.”

“You two certainly can. I have to bring myself up to speed, but I don’t want to put you out of your office,” Hunter said to the general. “As I told your mother, I can stay in a local motel.”

Molly’s heart skipped a beat. Although she’d fought the idea of him staying in the house at first, she’d quickly changed her mind. She hadn’t realized how much she counted on having Hunter right there until he’d offered to leave.

The general waved his hand, dismissing the offer. “Don’t worry about me. I can’t concentrate on work until this is over and there isn’t much I can do until I clear my name. Please make yourself at home.”

Molly forced herself not to show her elation. She didn’t even try to tell herself the reason was so she could be nearby to help Hunter with the case. She wanted him nearby for purely selfish reasons.

“We didn’t discuss money at the jail today but I need you to know something,” her father said, his serious gaze on Hunter’s. “I can’t afford to pay you much right now, but I will pay you back.”

Hunter shook his head. “I appreciate it, sir, but-”

“No buts. If you’re going to represent me, you’re going to be paid. I don’t take charity, so save the pro bono work for people who really need it. Once I can buy and sell real estate without this case hanging over my head, I’ll pay you for your services.”

A lump rose in Molly’s throat. She knew it wasn’t easy for her father to have this conversation with Hunter and she admired him for it.

“That works fine for me.” Hunter shook Frank’s hand.

She admired Hunter as well, not just for the way he’d handled her father and salvaged the general’s pride, but also for the plain fact that he’d shown up here at all. She’d needed his help and he’d come despite their past. Despite his own pride.

The two men had a lot in common. Including how deeply she cared for them both. She met Hunter’s gaze, hoping to convey her feelings in a glance.

He shifted his stare. “I have a lot of work to do if we’re going to make your freedom permanent,” Hunter said to the general.

Hunter deliberately avoided Molly’s damp stare. He’d wanted to see her expression when he freed her father but now that he had, he couldn’t handle the blatant adoration in her gaze. Not on top of that soul-rocking kiss. If her father hadn’t returned, he’d have taken her in this office, on the desk, the floor, standing against the wall. It wouldn’t have mattered as long as he was buried deep inside her body, finding the release he’d long been denied. The attraction was strong and consuming but he could deal with it.

Sex was easy. Nothing about Molly or his feelings for her ever had been.

He cleared his throat. “Okay then, there’s no time like the present to get started. So if you two would excuse me…” He gestured to the piles of papers on the desk, attorneys’ notes, copies of police files and evidence. Just the beginning as far as this case was concerned.

The general’s narrowed gaze darted back and forth between Hunter and Molly. Obviously the man didn’t know what to make of the clinch he’d interrupted or their distance now.

Molly ran her tongue over her lips.

Damn, Hunter hated when she did that, if only because he loved it so much. That small swipe of her tongue was such a turn-on.

“I’ve had a long day at the senior center. I really need to head on upstairs and relax,” Molly said.

“Face it like a man.” The macaw broke the tension with his high-pitched voice.

Molly laughed. Hunter didn’t blame her. The damn bird was funny.

“Now, that’s something I didn’t miss,” the general said.

The bird made something like a raspberry sound.

Hunter chuckled, then glanced at Molly.

“I’m out of here,” she said.

He had no idea if she’d read his withdrawal as embarrassment at being caught kissing by her father, or as the cowardly retreat it truly had been. Regardless, she obviously agreed it was time to return to their separate corners, he thought, relieved, and waited for her to head out the door.

Molly startled him by stopping directly in front of him. “Thank you for getting him out of jail,” she said loud enough for her father to hear. “And thank you for that kiss,” she whispered for Hunter’s ears only.

At the reminder of the kiss and the blatant promise of more in her passion-filled eyes, his throat grew dry and raw. She’d done the impossible, he realized.

She’d left him speechless, anticipating her next move.

At that moment, Hunter resolved to put his misgivings and worry about the future to rest. He’d grown up without knowing where he’d be living the next week. Surely he could handle a no-strings affair with Molly now.


***

FRANK SAT out back on a patio chair, looking at the moon and watching the various lights in the windows of the house. He appreciated the view and was grateful to be outside in fresh air and not the dank jail cell. Molly passed by the kitchen window and waved to him before returning to her task. She was up late baking a birthday cake for a friend of his mother’s who lived in the senior citizens’ center in town.

His gaze shifted to his office window where the light by his desk gleamed bright. Molly’s lawyer friend must be a night owl. Either that or being in the same house as Molly was keeping him awake and restless.

Only an idiot would miss the sexual tension flying between those two and only someone who’d never been hurt wouldn’t recognize the lengths to which they went to pretend nothing was wrong and there were no feelings between them. He ought to know. He played the same game.

With a groan, Frank rose from his seat and headed to the house next door. Using his key, he let himself inside. After Paul’s sudden murder, Sonya had given him a key for safekeeping. He shook his head, still unable to believe his friend was dead. Murdered.

And the fact that the police could finger him as the culprit was ludicrous, but he understood the evidence and he knew the score. Unless he or the lawyer came up with something solid, he was in deep trouble.

He shook the thought away. “Sonya?” he called softly.

“In here.” As promised, Sonya was waiting for him in the downstairs family room. She rose from the couch as he entered the room.

“Is Seth asleep?” he asked.

She nodded and flung herself toward him. “God, I’ve needed your arms around me.”

He pulled her tight, breathing in the fragrant smell of her hair and drawing strength from just holding her. “I know it’s been rough for both of you. I wish I’d been here in the days following the funeral.”

He’d been arrested one day after the burial and he’d had to console himself with visits and updates from his family ever since.

Keeping her hand in his, she led him to the couch and they sat down. “I wish you’d been here, too. It’s been hard. Seth is just devastated about his father. He goes to school, comes right home and won’t come out of his room. The only one he’ll talk to is Jessie.”

“At least he’s got someone. Do you want me to see if he’ll talk to me?” Frank had been like a second father to Seth for the boy’s entire life and he loved him like a son.

Sonya looked up, her eyes glistening. “Would you? You could come by tomorrow. You know Paul’s parents died years ago and Seth really doesn’t have anyone else. I think it’s hard for him to talk to me. He needs a man who understands.”

Frank nodded. “Does he think I had something to do with Paul’s death?” He voiced the question that had been haunting him. That those closest to him might believe what the police claimed to be true.

She shook her head. “No. That’s the only thing he’s said to me in days. That he knows for a fact you’d never hurt his father.”

He dragged in a deep breath. “But I wanted to. I could have lived with the embezzlement as long as he was punished, but from the minute I found out that he’d slapped you again I wanted to kill him.” The rage he’d felt built up inside him once more.

Rage at his best friend and rage at himself. He knew from their army days that Paul had a temper and dark side, but over the years Frank had convinced himself he’d never take his fury out on his own family. He should have insisted that Sonya leave Paul the first time he’d hit her, but after confronting Paul, he’d promised to keep his hands off his wife and kid. But the other man’s darker moods had become more frequent over the last year and instead of talking to Paul about it, Frank had closed his eyes to the truth. Delusion had let Frank sleep at night but it hadn’t helped the people he loved.