Chapter 21
MOLLY
Good news, these events were pretty outstanding. She’d definitely buy a second thrift store designer dress just so she could attend another. She had that much fun.
The food? Oh, heavens, the food.
Like a culinary masterpiece exploded on her tongue. Uh-huh, an exaggeration. Also, true.
Much to her surprise, she’d had a good time. Really. Not even a fake good time, but the genuine kind.
The not-guilty-in-the-slightest kind.
“I grabbed dessert while I was up.” Gavin slid an individual trifle of strawberry shortcake in front of her. They’d topped the layers of cream and cake and strawberry
with a chocolate dipped strawberry that seemed to be covered in edible gold dust.
She stared at the dessert. Then glanced to Gavin’s. He’d also snagged a strawberry shortcake version for himself, not the richly decadent chocolate, olive oil cake. That cake had a golden, chocolate-dipped strawberry on top, too.
“Why not chocolate?” she asked.
“Because it’s not the one you’d have picked,” Gavin said, sipping at his after-dinner coffee.
He was right. It’s the one she would’ve asked for if he’d asked, but if it was her picking and she wasn’t on display, then she would’ve gone for the trifle.
But chocolate cake made a better impression.
So, she really needed to ask… “How do you know that?”
“Molly.” He draped his arm across the back of her chair. “You always say you want the chocolate. But when you get things yourself, you pick the other option, whatever that is. Like the cheesecake at Rachel’s wedding.” He paused, obviously second guessing himself. “Unless you want the
chocolate. Do you want the chocolate? I can go back.”
She should get the chocolate just because it’s what made sense.
And yet? She was going to eat the hell out of this strawberry shortcake.
“This is perfect.” It really was.
The strawberry was one of the bigger, fancy kinds with an abundant stem that didn’t have a good way to eat it without getting sloppy.
If she were alone, she would nibble off the chocolate one teeny-tiny bite at a time, to best savor it. But chipmunk-style was definitely not appropriate for black tie.
So she went all in and put the berry in her mouth.
Unfortunately, or really fortunately, the chocolate was made with top-of-the-line milk and the taste was divine.
That’s the only reason she paused before biting and…
sucked the chocolate off the berry. Not sloppy sucked. Just this-is-really-good sucked.
She should’ve just nibbled it off chipmunk-style. That would’ve been way less of a whole thing. But now she was committed, and at least it was divine. So she chomped down to finish it.
The rest of the table was still gabbing and not paying any attention to her, so at least no one witnessed her enjoyment factor of a solid ten out of ten.
Except… Well, damn. She turned her head and, yup, Gavin had paused the bite of his strawberry because apparently he’d watched her tongue her own and he probably made some assumptions about her ability to be a date at this type of function ever again.
Her cheeks got so hot. Not good hot, either. This was the cayenne cinnamon kind of hot, the kind that no one really wanted. Even if you didn’t need to see a doctor after that kind of burn.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her mouth still a little full. “I didn’t mean…” She held up the black napkin to her mouth. “I’m so embarrassed.”
Gavin hadn’t moved a millimeter, his strawberry still paused mid-air. He set it down on the dessert plate under the trifle bowl. Then he cleared his throat, subtle.
“You really can’t take me anywhere, can you?” Molly went for silly like she did when she was on camera and had something she didn’t mean to happen derail her a little.
Gavin’s eyebrows drew together. He lifted his thumb to the side of her mouth and wiped at something there. Oh, God, it was probably chocolate.
He pulled his thumb back so she could see and, yup, there was a little dab of chocolate there.
That’s when things went sideways. Gavin did not wipe his thumb on the napkin. He didn’t even offer that bit of chocolate back to her.
No.
Gavin held his thumb to his lips and flicked his tongue out to the chocolate.
Her chocolate.
The chocolate that had just been at the seam of her lips was now at Gavin’s lips, and heat pooled in places that were definitely not her cheeks.
The intimate spot between her legs pulsed at one of the most erotic things that had ever happened to her.
It was probably not even meant to be erotic.
And how sad was that for the state of her love life?
She didn’t have a second to bring any sort of levity to the moment because Gavin leaned into her, right up to her space like he was going to test for more chocolate left behind on her mouth.
This time he was going straight to the source.
Dammit all, she wanted him to taste her. Wanted to smear chocolate everywhere.
Wished maybe she’d eaten sloppier, so he’d have more to work with.
He didn’t, though, he just moved further into her space so his lips were at her ear. The husky sounds of his breath tickled her earlobe.
“I’d take you everywhere,” he said, only for her to hear. “Just to watch you do that again.”
The heat was right back in her cheeks again. This whole back-and-forth thing was really hell on her circulatory system.
“And to be clear, this is definitely me coming on to you. If, for any reason, you question my commitment to this come on? Don’t.”
Whoa, boy. She licked at her lips.
He growled. Deep in his throat. Not obvious for the others around the table, but clear enough for her to notice.
“I was trying to be polite about how I ate it,” she whispered back, quiet since he was still in her personal space bubble.
The scent of him mixed with his cologne and chocolate strawberries.
They could make all the innuendos they wanted about all the foods ever eaten, but the magic wasn’t in the banter.
The magic was in whatever this was between them—this sizzle of baking soda mixed with vinegar in one of Ollie’s science projects.
She wasn’t sure who was the baking soda and who was the vinegar, and honestly, it didn’t matter as long as the chemical reaction stayed the same between the two and continued fizzing like hell.
He brushed his hand against the little hairs at her neck, toying with the necklace like he had every right to do it.
God bless him, he did in that moment have every right to touch her anywhere.
“If that’s the way you eat it to be polite,” he said, “I want to see how you’d do it dirty.”
She sucked in an entire table full of air. Truly, it was amazing everyone else didn’t go right on ahead and pass out, given that she’d taken all the oxygen from the room with that inhale.
“You’re flirting with me.” She turned so her lips were near his. Not inappropriately so, but enough so the thread between them pulled tighter, tried to cinch them together.
He continued trailing his index finger along her bare shoulder.
“Yes,” he said.
“For real or for pretend?” she asked, the information incredibly pertinent to the direction of the conversation.
His mother was sitting at the table, after all. And Molly had promised to put on a good show for her. Even if that show was now the real thing for her.
Please be real. Please be real. Please be real.
“Can anyone else hear me?” he asked again, right next to her ear, so the words were only for her.
She gave a subtle headshake. “No. I don’t think so.”
“And does it feel real?” he asked, his fingertip still
trailing along her shoulder to the line of her necklace. He slipped it under the chain at the back of her neck and, yup, she had to adjust the way she was sitting. Push her thighs together to relieve a teensy bit of the pressure he’d built there.
She nodded because she couldn’t find words right then. “Then it’s real.” He said the words with his lips actually touching her earlobe. She held back the moan building inside her throat because…again…trying to be polite at the
black tie event.
“Gavin?” A deep male voice interrupted their interlude happening smack dab in the middle of the party.
Much to her dismay, Gavin pulled his fingertip from under the chain of her necklace, and moved back into his own personal space bubble. He greeted the man, but for the
life of her she only heard about half of the words, and the man’s name was not included in those that she caught.
Something about him working in the packaging department at Puffle Yum. Managing. He was a manager. Yes, she got that much from the conversation.
“This is my girlfriend, Molly.” Gavin slipped his hand in hers and lifted her knuckles to his mouth.
The touch was pleasant, but distant. Not like what they’d just had only seconds ago.
Their bubble of contentment deflated like a sad balloon out of helium.
The warmth and comfort inside her turned…tepid, as the outside world slid into their space.
“Gavin’s told me so much about you,” the guy said. Dammit, who was this man? She’d really picked the wrong words to miss, that was for sure.
“He has?” She gave Gavin a look she hoped came off as loving-girlfriend-surprise and not what-the-hell-did-you-tell-him?
“Perry’s my best friend,” Gavin said, low for Molly. “Thursday golf buddy. I’ve mentioned him.” He squeezed her hand and mouthed, “He knows.”
For the record, he’d never mentioned Perry to her. Not once.
Though, it hadn’t really had the opportunity to come up. They hadn’t done the whole melding of the friend groups outside of those they already had in common.
“Perry! Of course.” Molly pulled her hand from Gavin’s and booped herself on the forehead. “I was a little out of sorts just then. Strawberries do that to me.”
“Me too,” Gavin said, reaching for his coffee cup.
Coffee sounded like a good idea. Was it nine o’clock at night? Yes, yes, it was. But who needed sleep? Ollie wasn’t coming home until tomorrow, so she could stay up all night and speed clean their entire house.
It’d be great. Cleaner than it’d ever been before.
She reached for the coffee carafe, but the server got it before she could. He poured a long stream into her ivory coffee cup.
“Cream or sugar?” he asked.
“Both.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Thank you so much.”
Apparently at black tie gigs like this, you didn’t serve yourself drinks. Good to know.
Gavin’s hand found hers in her lap even as his conversation with Perry continued without her. He laced their fingers together under the table and… This was real. This wasn’t pretend. This wasn’t for his mother or for the others at the event.
This was for her.
His thumb rubbed delicious circles over her knuckles and she went about sipping her coffee with her other hand. Set it down and dove into her strawberry shortcake, more careful this time not to make a mess of herself.
The whole time, Gavin kept the connection between them and, dammit all, she appreciated it. Liked it.
She wanted more.