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“Oh, um, really? You’ve got pomegranate juice?”
“Nah, not really. But I do have cranberry juice and apple sour. What’s your poison?”
Molly glanced around. Most of the booths were full and every single person had a beer or shot glass in front of them. But, damn, she wanted a cosmo.
Her sigh ruffled the little napkin Juan had set in front of her. “I’ve got to build up some street cred here, Juan. I’d better have a Coors.”
Juan glanced up and down the bar, then leaned a little closer. “How about if I make you a lemon-drop martini and put it in a highball glass with ice? Think you could pull it off as a vodka tonic?”
Molly sat straighter and laughed. “Hell, yeah. Bring it on.” This night was gonna be all right after all.
While Juan turned his back on the bar to mix the secret drink, Molly strolled over to the jukebox to check out the selections. Apparently they hadn’t been updated since the eighties; all the selections were still classic country or guitar rock. She chose George Strait and made a beeline back to her drink.
When the door opened, she turned to say hi to Lori. The sight of Ben walking through the door froze her tongue to her front teeth. Oh, hell yeah, this night was gonna be all right.
He was looking down at the floor, but he shot a glance at her past his lashes. Warmth melted from the top her head to her toes. Her tongue relaxed.
“Hey, Ben,” she drawled. “What’re you doing here?”
He raised his face to her, wearing the policeman mask. “Just dropping by to check on things like I always do.”
“Hey, Chief!” Juan yelled from the other end of the bar. “What’re you doing here?”
Blood rushed to his cheeks, but one side of his mouth turned up. “I’ll have a bottle of Bud,” he answered.
Molly grinned, then she let her eyes drop and her smile faded. Ben wasn’t in uniform tonight. He was wearing his jeans and boots and an old brown coat, but besides that he wore a faded green T-shirt that clung to his chest. When he took off his hat and shrugged out of the coat, she felt like she was seeing him naked. Her sex actually tingled.
Oh, God, his shoulders really had gotten wider, his arms more solid. His hair was slightly damp and it clung to his nape. Molly bit back a groan, trying to fight the urge to walk over and run her tongue down the back of his neck.
She’d never even kissed the man, but right now she wanted to eat him up, swallow him whole, ditch Lori Love and this bar and drag him home with her for mindless, sweaty, dirty sex. He looked young and hot and delicious. And he was here. With her.
Molly grabbed her drink and drained half of it in four swallows.
“Maybe I should start making you another,” Juan guessed, and Molly confirmed his question with a hurry-up motion as Ben took the seat beside her.
She didn’t look at him. Her panties were already wet, her nipples hard, and she was sure if she met his eyes his police instincts would pick up on her horniness right away.
Yes, she wanted to do him, but there was a difference between seduction and taping a big sign to your forehead: You don’t have to bother with small talk, mister. Just take me in the broom closet and use me like the cheap ho I am. That kind of thing should really come later in a relationship.
“So, um…” Ben cleared his throat. “Did you have a nice day?”
“Yes.”
When he shifted, his knee brushed hers, making Molly jump.
“Sorry,” he offered and moved his leg a few inches away.
Molly slumped and sucked down the rest of her drink. A pleasant warmth soaked into her muscles and relieved some of her concerns. So she was horny? It wasn’t a crime even if she was thinking about molesting a policeman.
“You’re mad, aren’t you?” Ben said softly. “I didn’t mean to offend you today. Asking questions is my job.”
“It’s fine.”
Juan set the new drink down and Molly picked it up.
“I just can’t understand what you’re hiding and why. If you’d tell me…”
“Dream on, Chief.” Buoyed by the lemon drops, Molly turned on her bar stool and let her knees press against his hip. “My secret is the most interesting thing about me. Why, look! You can’t stay away! Don’t deny that you came here to see me. You’re not even on duty.”
“Maybe.” He arched a look down at her knees, bare except for the black tights she wore under her miniskirt. “Does this mean I’m forgiven?”
“Well, my legs have forgiven you, and isn’t that all that matters?”
His eyes warmed by slow degrees, and when he met her gaze, alcohol or not, Molly plummeted right back into heady lust.
“I won’t deny the importance of that,” he murmured. Then he took his sexy eyes off her and raised his empty bottle to signal for another.
The door opened behind them and Molly prayed it wasn’t Lori. Let there have been an accident…. No injuries! Just a slow-speed pileup in the gas station parking lot that will keep her busy for another hour. Ben’s resolve was weakening, Molly could see it, like he was stripping his clothes off right in front of—
“Long time no see!” Lori said from behind her.
Ben tipped his head and stood. “I’ll let you two catch up.”
“You don’t have to—” But he was already moving away. Molly watched him go with mournful eyes.
“Don’t tell me Miles actually got it right?”
“What?” Molly asked, distracted. What a gorgeous ass that man had, all tight muscle and—
“Are you and Ben hooking up? Didn’t you just move back to town—” Lori looked at her watch “—about seventy-two hours ago?”
“No.” Molly laughed as Lori perched her petite little behind on the seat Ben had vacated. “It’s been a full four days. Wait, how many hours is that? More than seventy-two?”
“I’ll have whatever she’s having,” Lori said quickly. Juan raised an eyebrow at Molly.
“It’s a lemon-drop martini,” she confessed in a whisper.
“Perfect.”
“And I’ve waited ten years to get in that man’s pants, so don’t begrudge me.”
“Only ten?” Lori asked, green eyes sparkling like polished jade.
“Okay, more like twelve. I can’t take it anymore. Something’s gonna fall off if I don’t use it soon.”
“Oh, no, you can’t have my sympathy on that, Molly. I’ve lived in this town my whole life and most of the eligible men think I’m gay. You got to go to Denver to spread your wings. And legs.”
Molly nearly spit her drink out as she collapsed in laughter. Juan was blushing, so he must have overheard, but surely he’d heard worse than that before.
When she recovered, Molly looked over her old friend’s tiny waist and narrow hips, then up to the big curls she wore in a chin-length bob. “Why does everyone think you’re gay?”
Lori held her drink with just her thumb and pinky and raised the other three fingers above the rim. “One,” she said and ticked it off, “I never put out in high school. Two, I refused to give Jess Germaine a blow job in his backseat when I finally did start dating. Three, I fix cars. Lesbian, all the way.”
“Well, I’ll try not to drop my keys near you, then.”
“Oh, I’ll be on you like white on rice, sista.”
They both roared with laughter at that, drawing looks from the other patrons. “Sorry,” Molly called. “Nothing to see here.” The men turned back to their beers, all except Ben, who sat at the other end of the bar, watching them like a movie. He aimed a disapproving glance at her drink, so Molly ordered another.
“I noticed you painted all the Love’s Garage trucks lavender.”
“Aren’t they pretty?”
“And your dad doesn’t mind? How is he, by the way?”
“He died a few months ago, Moll.”
“Oh! Oh, shit! I’m so sorry, Lori. No one told me.”
“It’s okay. You’ve been gone a long time.”
“I just…Last I heard he was doing better. Oh, Lori, I’m sorry.”
“No, it was time. He was ready—I could see it in his eyes.”
Molly nodded. “So you own the garage now?”
“Yep, the garage, the tow truck, the snowplows, all the land. And the glory, of course.”
There was a definite edge to her friend’s voice. “That’s great,” Molly said carefully. “But…I thought you were only going to put off school for a couple of years.”
“Yeah, so did I.”
“Didn’t you get an internship in Europe or something?”
Lori smiled, but there was no mistaking the sadness in her eyes. “Responsibility’s a bitch sometimes, you know?” She shook her head, setting her curls rocking. “Enough about that. Let’s talk about Ben. Did you two have a thing going before? I thought you were dating Ricky Nowell.”
“Yeah, I—Jeez, he doesn’t still live here, does he?”
“No, why?”
“Because I’ve told dozens of people how small his dick was, so that would be totally awkward.”
Lori snorted citrus vodka up her nose and spent a full thirty seconds coughing and wiping her eyes. Everyone was staring again.
And it only got worse after that.
BEN NODDED AT THE giggling pair of tipsy women. “I think I’d better offer you ladies a ride home,” he said as if he were just polite and not a police officer.
Molly waved him away. “Oh, I walked.”
“Then I definitely insist.”
“What, you think you’d find me ass-up in a snowbank tomorrow morning?”
“Not enough snow yet,” Ben answered and steered her out the door. To her credit, she managed to walk without weaving.
Lori followed behind, giggling. “I’m only two lots down, Ben. I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll feel better if I drive you.”
“Yeah,” Molly added. “And it’ll give everyone something to talk about if we all leave together. Lori’s totally hot for me, Ben. She’s on me like…something. And we might let you watch if you ask real nice.”
Jesus. Not the image or the gossip he needed.
“Deal,” Ben said. “Let’s go to my place.” That shut her mouth quick. Lori collapsed against his back, shaking with laughter, and he couldn’t help but smile. “All right, ladies. Let’s see if we can get you home before you embarrass yourselves.” That only sent them into another fit of laughter. “Nobody’s gonna throw up, right?”
“I only had three drinks!” Molly protested, but when Ben stopped to open the passenger door of his truck, he shot her a quelling look.
“All right, four, but that was over two full hours.”
“So you’re just naturally hilarious?”
“Yes! Didn’t you know that?”
He had, actually, and he’d also known she was cute as hell before she’d shown up in her black boots and tights and tiny black miniskirt. Then there was the snug pink turtleneck. Pink, pink, pink. It was his new favorite color.
“Lori, you need help?”
“I’ve got it,” she called as she crawled into the backseat. Ben didn’t bother asking her to buckle. She really was only about a hundred feet from home.
Molly started to climb up, pulling herself in slow motion, so what could he do but wrap his hands around her waist to hoist her in? The sweater was thin, her skin hot beneath, and Ben had an almost irresistible urge to follow her up, stretch her out on the wide front seat and cover her up with his body.
Then again, all the computer equipment in the middle might put a damper on things. Not exactly satin sheets and feather pillows.
“Ben?” she breathed, as if she wouldn’t mind having a keyboard pressed into her back at all.
“Mmm?”
Her eyes were wide in the dark, her face turned up to his. She licked her lips, calling all his attention to her mouth, his favorite shade of his new favorite color…and then she collapsed into laughter.
Right. The drunk-off-her-ass part had escaped his mind for a moment.
“Let’s go, Chief,” Lori called from the back, reminding him there was also a friend-in-the-backseat part of the evening. Then there was the possible-illegal-sex-trade complication.
“Okay,” he breathed and stepped far out of the way before he shut the door on Molly and her many shades of pink. He’d only had two beers tonight; he was fine to drive, but apparently not fine to press his hand into the hot curve of her waist.
Ben tried to convince himself he wasn’t half-hard in the middle of Main Street as he rounded the truck and slid in behind the seat.
