certainly wasn’t the time for the telephone to ring intrusively for the sixth time today.
‘I’ll go this time,’ Molly said determinedly, even as she stood up, having already sensed Gideon’s sudden tension as he sat beside her at the table. ‘At this time of night it’s sure to be a wrong number,’ she added, after a dismissive glance at her wristwatch.
‘I’ll come with you,’ Gideon put in abruptly, also standing up.
‘There’s no need,’ Molly assured him with a warning glare; someone was going to suspect something if the two of them kept jumping up like this every time the telephone rang.
Especially as she wasn’t really sure herself that there was any need for them to do so…
‘I need to make a call myself,’ he insisted firmly, following her from the room.
Molly turned to glare at him as she hurried to the kitchen to answer the telephone. ‘You do realise that everyone is going to start speculating about the way we keep disappearing off together like this,’ she snapped impatiently.
‘Let them,’ he came back harshly, lifting the receiver from the wall before Molly could even reach for it. ‘Hello? No, this isn’t Sam,’ he answered slowly, giving Molly a raised eyebrow at actually receiving a response this time. ‘Would you like me to—? Damn it,’ he rasped, holding the receiver away from his ear before slamming it back on the wall. ‘She rang off,’ he muttered impatiently.
‘She?’ Molly prompted frowningly.
‘She.’ Gideon nodded grimly.
Molly eyed him warily. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ she asked slowly, very much afraid that the temporary truce between them was about to come to an end.
‘Because Sam isn’t here for me to look at him like that,’ Gideon snapped, moving abruptly away from her to start pacing up and down the kitchen.
Molly watched him for several seconds, not at all sure she knew what was going on—she certainly had no idea what Gideon was thinking behind that grimly set mask.
She frowned. ‘Gideon—’
‘What does your brother think he’s playing at?’ Gideon bit out angrily, his eyes glittering deeply blue. ‘Isn’t a beautiful wife like Crys and a newborn son enough for him?’
‘Well, of course it’s… Gideon, what are you implying?’ Molly stiffened indignantly as she began to get an inkling of exactly what Gideon was saying.
He continued his pacing. ‘It’s the usual scenario, isn’t it? The mistress telephoning her lover over Christmas because he’s spending time with his family and she feels left out—’
‘Now, hold on just a minute,’ Molly exploded incredulously. He couldn’t really think that Sam…?
‘Do you have another explanation for the way this woman keeps ringing off when it obviously isn’t Sam answering her calls?’ Gideon paused in his pacing to challenge her scathingly.
She glared at him. ‘I don’t have any sort of explanation for the telephone calls, or any reason for a woman to keep hanging up like that. But the one thing I do know is that Sam does not have a mistress.’ She shook her head disgustedly. ‘Having seen how happy he and Crys are, I don’t know how you can even suggest such at thing. Unless you’re just looking for an excuse to cause trouble between them because of the way you feel about Crys,’ she added accusingly, her cheeks flushed with anger, her eyes glittering deeply brown.
Gideon became very still, every muscle and sinew of his body stiff with resentment. ‘And exactly what do you mean by that remark?’ His voice was dangerously quiet.
Molly raised her chin defiantly. ‘Anyone with eyes in their head can see that you’re in love with Crys yourself,’ she felt stung into accusing.
And then she wondered at her temerity. Had she really just voiced what had until this moment been only suspicions?
Yes, she had! But in her own defence it had only been because of the things he was saying about Sam.
How dare he say those things about Sam?
After Sam’s bad experience with his unbalanced ex-fiancée twelve years ago, he hadn’t so much as looked at another woman until he’d met Crys. And, okay, it hadn’t exactly been love at first sight between the two of them, she remembered with affection, but it was obvious to anyone that the two of them now loved each other very much, that neither of them had eyes for anyone else.
To anyone except Gideon, it would appear…
From the dangerous glitter in his eyes at the moment, she had a feeling that the only emotion he was feeling right now was murderous anger—towards her.
MOLLY eyed Gideon warily, unsure what was going to happen next—those ‘polite pills’ had most definitely worn off.
‘How dare you say something like that to me?’ Gideon demanded coldly.
‘How dare you say something like that about Sam to me?’ she returned heatedly, her hands clenched at her sides as she met his gaze unflinchingly.
He gave an impatient shake of his head. ‘Forget about that for the moment. Let’s concentrate on—’
‘No. Let’s not forget about it!’ Molly cut in determinedly. ‘Your accusations…your suspicions about Sam and some other woman are totally unfounded,’ she insisted firmly. ‘Just something nasty and trumped-up because—’
‘I would advise you not to repeat what you just said about my feelings towards Crys,’ Gideon put in softly, a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw.
Molly faced him unblinkingly. ‘Why not?’ she scorned. ‘Because, no matter what accusations you may make about other people, you are above such things? Or because it strikes a little too close to home? What—? Oh!’ She had time only to gasp before his mouth took fierce possession of hers.
And yet somehow it wasn’t a kiss of anger as before…
Gideon held her captive merely with his lips, plundering hers, and a light cupping of a hand on each of her cheeks. He held her face up to his, the kiss gentling after that first assault, sipping and tasting.
Heat coursed through her as she responded to those kisses, an aching need engulfing her. Her body curved into the hard length of his as if by instinct, and every hard contour told of his own rising desire.
His lips left hers to travel down the scented column of her throat, and the heat of his breath, the moist warmth of his lips against her skin ignited a fire wherever they touched.
She wanted this man.
Oh, how she wanted him!
His tongue probed the hollows at the base of her throat, dipping and tasting, and Molly shook with desire as she clung mindlessly to the width of his shoulders, the
