“That bitch.” Molly put one of her hands on Fox’s cheek. “You don’t have anything to feel guilty about then.” When he would’ve argued, she pressed her fingers to his lips. “You do feel guilt—because you’re a good man with a huge heart.” A heart strong enough to have survived the rejection and neglect of his childhood. “But here’s the thing: you might be related by genetics, but she’s a stranger to you in every other way.”
Fox’s expression was intent. “You’re not going to tell me to make nice with my family, all that stuff?”
“Lauren isn’t your family. She’s toxic, and you can’t let her get to you.” Weaving her fingers into his hair, Molly said, “I’m your family. Noah, Abe, David, and Kit are your family.” She picked up his wrist, kissed the strange characters above his pulse point, which he’d finally confessed were from a made-up language he’d created as a lonely eight-year-old. “You told me this means loyalty. That’s what family is, whether of blood or of the heart.”
She kissed the characters again. “If Lauren has children later on, and you want to reach out to your nieces and nephews, I’ll go with you.” Molly wouldn’t blame the children for the sins of their mother. “But Lauren doesn’t deserve you.”
He settled more heavily against her, the green of his irises rich against the jet-black of his pupils. “There’s something else I haven’t told you.”
“I’ll spank you later. Now talk.”
It made him laugh, his shoulders shaking. “So fucking strict.” Thrusting a hand into her hair, he kissed her the pure Fox way, all tongue and sex.
She was close to melting when he sat up and brought her into his lap so they were face-to-face. “When I was eighteen,” he said, “I decided to give my mother another chance.”
Molly’s throat grew thick. She knew how much courage it must’ve taken for him to do that. Wrapping her arms around him, she held him as he spoke, but to her surprise, though she’d expected bleak pain, his tone was even, his eyes unshadowed.
“I walked up to her front door, knocked.” He ran his knuckles down her back. “The maid who answered said my mother was in the park with Zachary.”
“What?”
“Yeah, that was my reaction.” Still no anger, no hurt. “I walked over to the park, and there she was playing with a little boy who called her Mommy. She redid her life, Molly. Redid me.”
Molly had no words for the cruelty of it. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “Your mother has no idea of the incredible man her son grew into, a son she’ll never know, and that’s her loss, Fox, not yours.”
Fox kissed her throat, his lip ring brushing over her skin as he made his way back up to her mouth. “It was a kick to the guts then, and for a long time,” he said. “It stopped hurting the first day you smiled at me and I knew you adored me just as I am. My sweet and honest and fucking sexy Molly who means it when she tells me she loves me and who comes knocking if I brood.”
Lower lip quivering and eyes burning, Molly locked her legs around his hips, her hands on his shoulders. “I fall more in love with you each and every day,” she whispered. “I will hurt anyone who causes you pain.” If Lauren ever showed her face in front of Molly again, she’d better watch out.
Fox’s lips curved, one big hand spreading on her lower back, the other curling around her nape. “No one can, not when I’ve got my Molly-love armor.” Another kiss, his cock growing hard against her. “Enough of the bullshit. I want you.”
“I thought I wrung you dry?” she teased, letting the subject of his mother and sister go. Fox wasn’t the kind of man to worry things to death—what mattered was that he trusted her enough to tell her about something she had a feeling no one else knew. If he ever needed to talk about it again, he would.
Because she was his Molly.
“You did,” he now said, tipping her flat on the bed and straddling her body. “I’m a broken man.”
“Poor Foxie.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Someone wants to be in trouble.” Grabbing her wrists, he used his other hand to shake out a pillow from the case. She knew that case was going to be used to tie her wrists together before he shifted higher up her body and pinned her hands to the bed frame.
Excitement hot and dark under her skin, she looked down from his face as he knotted the fabric around her wrists… to realize his erection was within reach of her mouth. Since Molly Webster, good girl, was now Molly Webster, good girl with a naughty streak, she leaned up and sucked the blunt tip into her mouth.
“Christ!” Fox’s hands slammed into the bed frame, the entire bed shaking. “That was not in the plan,” he gritted out, one hand sliding down to cradle her head so she’d be in a better position to take more of him.
Unrepentant, she licked her tongue along the vein plump against her tongue. He thrust once, twice, each thrust shallow, before pulling out, his cock gleaming wet. “Your mouth should be illegal.” Shifting down, he spread her thighs wide and bent to give her a taste of her own medicine.
A single minute and Molly arched up off the bed and against his mouth, her skin glimmering with perspiration. He showed no mercy, holding her spread wide as he continued to lick and suck until she was whimpering. Only then did he release her throbbing clit to flick his tongue almost delicately around her entrance.
“So,” he said, lifting his head, “how should I punish you?” The lean dimple in his cheek invited her kiss, the ring in his lip her favorite plaything.
An ache in her heart, Molly didn’t want to continue the game all of a sudden. “Later,” she whispered, her breasts rising and falling in a choppy rhythm. “I need to feel you inside me.” Needed to hold him close. “I love you.”
Expression altering to raw tenderness, he rose above her and tugged the knot in the pillowcase open. “You are such a bad girl. That’s the second time you’ve messed with my plans.” He dipped his head. The taste on his tongue her own, an erotic intimacy between them, he put one hand on the inside of her thigh and pushed into her, slow and relentless.
It drew a sound of acute pleasure from within her throat, her fingers buried in his hair and her legs locked around his hips. Fox kissed her throughout the loving, his forearms braced on either side of her head, his tattoos familiar and unique.
“My Molly.” It was a guttural sound against her ear as he came in her arms.
When Molly got a message from Fox two days later to say he’d be out with Noah for a couple of hours, she didn’t think too much of it. If he wanted to go off and do manly stuff with Noah, she didn’t mind. Just like he didn’t mind if she spent an hour on the phone with Charlotte or went out with Thea when her sister flew in.
Now she decided to e-mail Charlotte before getting to work at the little desk Fox had found for her; it fit perfectly in one corner of the living area of the coach.
It turned out Charlotte was online, so they video-chatted. Her best friend’s life had become very interesting of late.
Molly ended the session with a smile on her face so wide it was probably blinding. “Go, T-Rex,” she said with a little fist bump before forcing herself to concentrate on her work. Her eye fell on the bowl of strawberries on the desk as she opened her laptop and her smile grew impossibly wider. Diamonds were one thing, but Fox had a way of remembering the small things she loved.
Eating a couple of the juicy strawberries, she knuckled down. The work did eventually engross her, and darkness had fallen by the time she looked up. She got up, stretched, then decided to see if anyone was up for dinner—Fox’s and Noah’s afternoon out had apparently been extended.
Not that she was surprised, given what the men got up to, and it wasn’t what people might expect. The last time Fox had disappeared—with David and Abe—they’d returned after drag racing around a special track built for speed. Gleeful as small boys, they’d been buzzed for hours.