That initiated a sleepy rumble. Deciding to behave, she stayed snuggled up against him in silence, her bones lax and her sense of well-being incredible. No one had ever held her like this, ever made her feel so protected and anchored.
It was more than fifteen minutes later that he stirred again, his jaw moving as if in a yawn. Smoothing his hand in a slow circle on her back, he nuzzled his chin in her hair. "I like waking up with a soft, sexy librarian."
His sleep-roughened voice made her nerve endings vibrate. "I like waking up with you, too." Nuzzling him after the honest confession, she said, "What do you want to do today?"
"See some koala bears."
Molly laughed, thinking he was joking.
"No, I mean it." He tapped her playfully on her butt. "I've been to Australia so many times, but I've never seen a koala. It's fucking embarrassing."
Giggles bubbling in her blood, Molly wriggled out of his hold to get her phone from the bedside table. Propping herself against the headboard after tugging up the sheet to cover her breasts, a pillow at her back and Fox sprawled on his front by her side, she searched for places to see koalas. "There's a wildlife park about a forty-five-minute drive away," she said, skimming down the search results to tap on what looked like the best option. "It's open today and their website says you can get close to the animals."
Fox squeezed her thigh. "Come 'ere first."
Her body one big languid sigh, Molly leveled a mock scowl in his direction. "The park's only open until five, and it's already"--a quick glance at the clock--"almost a quarter till one. If I slide back into bed, we won't have much time there."
Fox wanted to tug her down, kiss that adorable scowl into his mouth, but she was right. If he had her under him, they wouldn't be leaving this room anytime soon, and he wanted a date with his Molly. "I'll take a rain check." Shoving off the sheet, he got out of bed. "Half an hour."
Twenty-five minutes and rapid fire showers later, the two of them having eaten a quick room-service breakfast despite the fact it was technically lunchtime, Fox pulled on jeans and a plain white T-shirt, then sat down on Molly's bed to finish lacing up his sneakers. In front of him, Molly was bent over, looking for something in her suitcase. He grinned. She had an incomprehensible woman thing about her ass, but he liked the view fine. Way better than fine.
Before he could give in to the urge to walk over and stroke the sweet curve of it, his phone rang. It was Noah, asking if he wanted to check out a music shop the guitarist had heard about.
"No, man," Fox said with a wink at Molly, "I'm going to go get my photo taken with a koala bear."
Lips twitching, Molly sat down beside him to do up her own sneakers. Wearing a casual but fitted pink shirt with fine white stripes and elbow-length sleeves teamed with jeans, the top three buttons of the shirt undone to reveal the white tank she wore underneath, she looked pretty and young and bitable. Her hair was in a ponytail, the tail fed through the back of one of his baseball caps, her creamy skin vulnerable to even the fall sun.
"Seriously?" Noah said into the phone. "I've never seen one either. Can I come?"
Fox thought about it. This was meant to be a date... but Noah rarely sounded excited about something as innocent as this, the world he lived in a dark place that often threatened to suck him under. Abe might appear the most dysfunctional of the four of them, but Noah was far more seriously fucked up. "Yeah," he said, "but you have to be ready in ten. Underground garage, level two."
Hanging up, he tugged on Molly's ponytail, delighted with her. "Noah's coming. He's never seen a real koala either."
"Ah, the debauched rock star life." Molly leaned in to kiss his dimple, and yeah, he grinned, loving the little things she did that told him what they had, it was special, was way more than sex.
"That was nice of Justin," she said afterward, "to take out a hire car in his name for you."
Fox snorted and pulled on his own cap, having asked the lawyer to do the favor yesterday, then drop off the keys. "Nice, my ass." Rising, they headed to the door. "I bribed him with the promise of a bottle of single-malt whiskey."
Once outside in the hallway, Fox waited for Molly to pull the door shut before taking her hand in his. Her eyes were startled when she looked up, but then her fingers curved shyly around his and it slammed all the air from his lungs. If he had his way, he'd walk through the hotel lobby with her hand in his so no one would make any mistake about who she was to him--but Molly wasn't in any way ready for the glare of the limelight.
So he satisfied himself with holding her hand until they stepped out of the elevator and headed to the black SUV Justin had hired. Unlocking it, he nodded for Molly to get into the front passenger seat. She shook her head. "Noah's much taller than I am. He'll have more legroom in front."
"Push your seat forward." Fox looked at the space behind her once she did. "He'll be fine. Bastard's the one horning in on our date," he said with a grin as Noah exited the elevator... with Abe and David behind him.
"Well, fuck." Fox groaned. "Damn it to hell, guys! How are we supposed to be anonymous if we go en masse?" Two of them could've skated under the radar if they were careful, but no way would that work with all four members of the band together.
"Hey, you don't own the koala bears." Abe folded his arms over a dark gray shirt with short sleeves, muscles bulging under the rich mahogany of his skin. His head was bare, his hair cut close to his skull and an intricate pattern razored in on one side--that pattern was dyed a vivid purple with jagged slashes of white and orange.
"You're about as inconspicuous as David's goddamn T-shirt." Fox scowled at his other bandmate's screaming tee. "Jesus. It looks like someone threw up a rainbow on you. You'll scare the koala bears away before we get near them."
David gave him the finger. "It was for charity." A wink at Molly from his uninjured eye, the other one ringed by a deep blue-black bruise. "Also, koalas aren't bears, you genius, they're marsupials."
"Shut your trap, Rainbow Boy." Fox pointed a finger at Noah. "Explain."
Shoulders rising under the black of his sleeveless sweatshirt, the hood flipped up to conceal his hair, Noah spread his hands. "What was I going to do? They saw me sneaking out."
Fox thought of these men as his brothers, but they'd just ruined his one chance to be with Molly like a normal guy on a date with his girl. Before he could snarl at them, Molly stepped forward. "I have an idea," she said with the smile that had hit him like a roundhouse punch that first night and showed no sign of decreasing in potency. "I'll be your assistant." She hefted the little multi-zip travel bag she'd slung across her body. "I'll buy all the drinks, tickets, etcetera, and everyone will see what they expect to see."
"She's smart," Abe said to Fox. "You should try not to fuck it up with her."
Fox narrowed his eyes. "Just for that, you get to sit in the back. All three of you. Molly gets the front passenger seat."
Much whining and complaining later, the three men somehow folded themselves into the back of the SUV. Then it began. The one-liners, the zingers back and forth, the insults, the jokes. Molly laughed until she protested that her stomach hurt, and Fox had to forgive the others then, didn't he?
"Christ," Abe groaned when Fox brought the car to a stop at the wildlife park. "I think my joints are permanently frozen in place." Stepping out, he began to stretch his heavily muscled body.
Fox turned to Molly after they got out, held out his credit card. When her lips parted, he dropped his tone. "Don't argue with me. I might've agreed to let you play assistant, but you're not paying for anything today."
Those clear brown eyes, so beautifully expressive, told him the instant she decided to listen. "Does it have a PIN code so you don't have to sign for it?"
"Yeah." He gave it to her, eyes on her lips. One day soon, he was going to have the right to kiss her anytime he pleased, in daylight and in darkness. "You look so pretty, Molly. Like sunshine."
Her blood alight in joy, Molly began to walk toward the ticket booth, a
ware of Fox falling in behind her with the other men.
It was a fun, lighthearted afternoon.
The men had more privacy than they'd expected--the park was spread out, and with the majority of the clientele being families, even when people recognized them, they only requested an autograph and a photo, then let the band be. Molly took many of those photos, and each time she did, she marveled at the men's patience. Clearly, this was an unusual day, an unusual circumstance, but they were in a great mood and didn't turn anyone down.
She could understand, however, why Abe had punched out a reporter during his divorce, and why Noah had once infamously smashed a photographer's camera. It must get wearing to be constantly under scrutiny, never able to let down your guard.
"We have to remember most people aren't out to tear us to pieces," Fox said when she shared her thoughts with him. "Fans like this," he continued, "they don't have a hidden agenda. No comparison to the tabloid reporters who want to make money off our backs by manufacturing gossip."
They reached the koalas a few minutes later, and Molly watched as all four of the big, hardcore rockers fell in love with the shy animals. She took more photos, this time with her personal camera and those belonging to the men. Her favorite was of the four of them, arms around one another in front of a eucalyptus tree on which sat two koalas nonchalantly snacking on the leaves.
Fox was at one end, Noah on the other. They had their faces turned toward each other, laughing at something that had both David and Abe grinning.
"Hey!" Fox called out when Molly would've put away the cameras. "Our lovely assistant needs to be in this shot."
"I'll do it if you like," said the middle-aged woman next to Molly who'd stood by indulgently while her teenage son and daughter snapped pictures of the group.
"Thank you." Molly stepped into the space Abe and David had made for her between their bodies and was immediately enclosed in a heated wall of male flesh. Laughing as David whispered the word "memo" to her, she caught Fox's dimpled grin, and then the camera clicked.
The resulting photo, Molly thought when she looked at it, would live forever on her bookshelf.
A number of the amateur shots from the park were already online by the time they took their seats in the Chinese restaurant they'd ducked into for dinner, several of the photos part of an article that had made the front page of a local news website.
"It says," David read out for the other men after Molly pulled it up on her phone, "we were 'refreshingly devoid of bodyguards and shepherded only by a cheerful local guide.'"
"And"--Noah's golden hair glittered under the restaurant lights as he scrolled through several other sites on his own phone--"Molly's face isn't in any of the shots posted online."
Relieved, Molly was able to enjoy the delicious dishes served by waitstaff too harried to worry about who was famous and who was not. Sitting sandwiched between Fox and David, she felt very much a part of the group as they talked and hassled one another in the way only good friends can do. Fox kept his hand on her thigh throughout the meal, and it wasn't sexual. No, it felt as if he was touching her because she was his.
Such a dangerous thought. Such a wonderful thought.
Chapter 20
Returning home the next afternoon was a harsh reality check after the fantasy of the weekend, a fantasy that had lasted to the final minute she'd spent with Fox.
She'd woken beside him for the second day in a row, snuggled and warm, then hot and gasping, could still feel the blunt power of him inside her as she got into the shuttle for the ride to her apartment. Their morning loving had been slow, achingly tender, but he'd taken her again against the door just before she'd left for the airport, and that time it had been hard, rough, deep.
Her fingers brushed her emerald-green cardigan, over the mark he'd left on the upper curve of her right breast. "I'll be back as soon as possible," he'd all but growled, pinning her to the door with his strength, her legs around his hips and the thickness of his cock buried to the hilt inside her. "Think of me."
As if she could do anything else.
Her apartment felt lonely and too quiet when she walked back into it, Fox's scent missing from the air. He hadn't been happy about the separation, but Justin had asked David to stick around while he sorted out some unexpected issues resulting from the bar fight. Fox, Noah, and Abe had decided to stay behind in support until David was cleared to leave the country.
Stomach knotted and ribcage crushing her lungs at the strange emptiness of her surroundings, she checked her answering machine just to hear the sound of another voice. Nothing, as she'd expected. Everyone close to her had her cell number, and it was the cell that rang twenty minutes later.
"Hey!" Charlotte's voice was ebullient in welcome. "I was wondering if you were back. Want to have dinner together? I need to hear everything."
"Come over." Molly didn't want to be alone. "I feel like staying in. We can get takeout."
"No, I'll bring my special pasta sauce and we'll have spaghetti."
It was so good to have Charlotte there, to sigh with her over Molly's memories of the amazing live show, smile at the photos from the wildlife park. But for the first time since their friendship began all those years ago, Molly didn't tell her best friend everything. Especially not about how the night of the concert had ended--in angry passion and a terrifying tenderness that had smashed her defenses. Her vulnerable, scarred heart was now brutally exposed.
At work the next morning, she smiled when her colleagues asked her how her long weekend had gone but didn't elaborate beyond a few words. Nothing could come close to describing the intensity of the past few days. She'd never been as happy, as angry, as scared, or as pleasured.
When Fox had messaged her last night to say he was out with the guys to celebrate Abe's birthday but that he missed her, she could've taken the chance to protect herself, backed away. Instead, she'd drawn in a trembling breath and told him what was in her heart: I miss you, too.
The resulting exchange of sweet, sexy messages had left her with a goofy smile on her face, especially when he ended with: Abe just called me pussy-whipped. I told him he was a jealous fucker and he agreed. He wants a Molly now, too.
The joy continued to hum in her blood this morning, even though she hadn't heard from Fox again. Conscious of the time difference and not wanting to add pressure in case there was a real problem with the David situation, she decided to wait till early afternoon to check in. As it was, she barely had time to glance at her phone all morning.
Clearing her e-mails when she had a half hour to spare at last, she flicked over to the website of the country's biggest newspaper, her plan to scan the day's news before knuckling down to write up an after-school program they'd decided on at the midmorning meeting. The big headline was about a politician who had an interesting way of getting herself into the media for someone who professed not to value self-aggrandizement and work only for the people.
Rolling her eyes, she skimmed over the rest of the page, then clicked across to another news site more irreverent in tone. It often had at least one article that made her smile. Glancing at the updated feature links on one side of the page as she began to flip open her handwritten notes from the meeting, she was about to close the browser when her eye caught on the third link in the list: Fox Partying it up with Mystery Redhead in Sydney!
Her blood went cold, then hot, then cold again. Feeling as if she were watching someone else, she clicked on the link. It brought up a full-color image of a shirtless Fox with his arm around a stunning, voluptuous redhead who had her hand on his chest, the eyes she'd turned to the camera screaming her claim on him.
Molly attempted to read the text but her vision was blurred, her heart thundering in her ears. Swiveling in her chair to stare out the window behind her, she tried to breathe through the agonizing pain in her chest. It was hard. A long, gut-wrenching minute later, she forced herself to turn back to the screen and read her way through the article. According to the reporter, "super
star rocker Fox" had met the woman at a private party hosted by the hottest club in Sydney.
A source at the hotel confirmed they'd last been seen heading into his room, his mouth "devouring" hers.
Numb, Molly closed the page and got to work typing up the proposed program. Her fingers moved on autopilot, as did her body when it came time to move on to other duties. She was grateful the library continued to be hectic as the hours passed. So long as she didn't have time to think, she was fine. The only person who would've immediately guessed something was wrong was Charlotte, and her best friend had flown down to the capital this morning with T-Rex for a big meeting.
Fox messaged her around three p.m. David's in the clear. Be home tomorrow. xx
Where the xx and the use of the word "home" would have made her melt last night, today it seemed a mockery. Numb still and not knowing what to do, she ignored the message. Around four came another: In area with bad cell coverage. Talk to you when I return to the hotel.
Molly had no intention of talking to him. When she finally made it home, having opted to stay late to help a colleague with a project, she took off her clothes and stepped into the searing heat of the shower... only to collapse into a shattered ball on the floor. The block of ice within her chest bled a shivering chill through her veins and tears wracked her body, her throat lined with broken glass. It hurt, but nothing hurt as bad as knowing Fox had slept with another woman.
"Stupid, stupid, Molly," she castigated herself, continuing to shiver under the white-hot spray. She'd known who he was from the start, and still she'd allowed herself to fall for his promises, to trust the rock star who'd just driven a knife through her heart.
Five hours later, she stumbled out of bed and walked to the living room to see the message light blinking on her machine. She'd turned it on before crawling under the blankets after her shower, having also switched off the ringer on the phone. Her cell phone, too, was off. Staring at the machine as if it might grow fangs, she reached out and pressed the Play button.
Thea's smiling voice cut through the silence. Fox, Molly thought on a wave of blinding fury, likely had other priorities. She allowed the embers within her to simmer as she listened to Thea's message. Better to be angry than to return to the heartbroken mess she'd been earlier. And if the anger was only a paper-thin crust covering devastating pain, it was enough to keep her going, keep her functional.