No leftovers.”
“Thank God.” She doctored her coffee and went back to the table. “Since it’s just me, I don’t cook much, which means there’s seldom anything left to store.”
Dare opened a few cabinets but didn’t find any snacks.
Apologetic, Molly said, “I’d offer you a cookie or something, but I have no idea what I have anymore.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll order in dinner and if necessary shop tomorrow.”
Stirring her coffee with a spoon, Molly avoided eye contact. “How long will we be here?”
“Not sure yet.” And he wasn’t going to get trapped into trying to decide right now, either. “You know, unless you can think of someone that you’ve had a conflict with lately, your reasoning is as good as anything I can come up with.”
“A conflict?”
Dare shrugged. “Maybe someone who you’re angry at, who you won’t forgive?”
Gazes locking, the same thought occurring to them both, they said in unison, “Adrian.”
Why the hell hadn’t he thought of that sooner? Would her ex have been dumb enough to trash her apartment? Could he have known that Molly was missing?
Could he have arranged her abduction?
Molly scoffed. “No way. I mean, I can’t believe it. Not Adrian. He isn’t the type to—”
A key sounded in the lock on the front door.
Stunned, they both stared in that direction.
Stumped, Molly asked, “Who—?”
“Quiet.” Grabbing her, Dare dragged her down to the floor and behind the kitchen wall, turning off the lights as he went.
Molly’s eyes widened when she noticed the gun already in his hand.
“This can’t be happening,” she whispered.
Dare pressed her back to the wall. “Stay. Put. And damn it, Molly, this time I mean it.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MOLLY SWALLOWED HARD as Dare slipped out of the room. Her heart thundered and her flushed skin felt too tight as she waited for a horrible conflict.
The door opened. Male chuckling. The rustle of people coming into the apartment. Female giggling and … smooching.
Her brows knit together. Something about that masculine laugh sounded familiar.
Dare would be so angry at her if she moved, but … she couldn’t stop herself.
She peeked around the corner just in time to see Adrian practically fall into the apartment with a very pretty woman. They were all over each other.
In her apartment.
Furious, Molly pushed up to her feet almost at the same time that Dare stepped out from behind the couch, the gun aimed at the two intruders.
Oblivious to the danger, Adrian shut the door one-handed, then groaned and grabbed the woman’s behind. Shadows enveloped them as they wrapped around each other, fondling, kissing, moving against the wall to grind a little, then stumbling free again.
Amplified by all she’d endured lately, rage boiled inside Molly, threatening to combust. But she stayed put.
She could see Dare’s confusion in his stance. He didn’t lower the gun, but he did flip on the light.
In an instant, the woman screeched and Adrian jerked around. They both went white.
“Let me guess,” Dare said. “Adrian?”
Her idiot ex-fiancé stammered and slumped back to the wall, using it for support. The woman clung to him, horrified, uncertain.
They both looked lit. Drunk or high. Maybe both.
Molly cleared her throat. “Dare?”
Without looking back at her, he said, “Yeah?”
“It’s safe enough for me, right?”
He didn’t answer right away. “Just a second.”
Adrian quailed in fear when Dare strode over to him. Dare held out his hand and said, “Keys.”
Adrian handed them over with shaking alacrity.
After pocketing them, Dare frisked Adrian by roughly running his hands over his back, seat, legs and arms. It was unnecessary, Molly was sure, but she didn’t stop Dare.
Finding nothing, Dare pushed her ex into a chair.
Molly stepped out of the kitchen. “What are you doing here, Adrian?”
Finally seeing her, Adrian shot to his feet. “Molly, thank God!”
Dare shoved him back in the chair so hard it almost overturned. “Sit.”
Alarmed, Adrian looked toward her for help, and seeing her calm and collected helped him to calm down, too. As his panic receded, his surroundings sank in, and he noticed the state of the apartment. “Good God, Molly. What did you do?”
Dare said to him, “Just shut up.” He turned to the woman, giving her a once-over.
Adrian’s latest conquest wore very little, just a scanty, very tight black dress that showed a yard of cleavage and mile-high legs in open-toed heels. Tumbled bleach-blond hair and painted lips gave her the look of a starlet wannabe.
Dare moved toward her.
And Molly snapped, “Dare!”
He hesitated but didn’t take his gaze off the woman. “What?”
Heat crawled up her neck. Talk about awkward.
But damn it, she didn’t care. Molly filled her lungs with righteous umbrage. “I do not want your hands on her.”
A heavy pause settled over the room. Dare slanted a fleeting look her way. “Because?”
Because … If he ran his hands over that overblown, on-display body, Molly would … Well, she didn’t know what she’d do. Her jaw hurt from all the teeth-clenching she’d done lately. “I wouldn’t like it.”
He glanced toward her, and Molly saw the faintest sign of humor in his expression. “What she’s wearing is so tight, I can’t see how she’d be hiding a weapon anyway.”
“Well … good.” God, she felt ridiculous.
Dare held out a hand to the woman. “Give me your purse.”
She handed it over.
Dare
