“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” she whispered back, holding out her hand so he could pour some into her palm.
“Because you keep making noises in your throat and looking at me.” He trained his eyes straight ahead as he spoke.
“I don’t want to like you,” she whispered so only he could hear.
This declaration was not a surprise to him. He lived in a business world where many people didn’t want to like him. Most of them succeeded. That was absolutely fine.
“Okay,” he said, conceding that he wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
“Okay?” She sounded appalled.
He turned so he could see her. “It’s fine. You don’t have to like me.”
She scowled—adorable little lines forming between her eyebrows. “You’re making it hard.”
“How so?” He shouldn’t have—hereallyshouldn’t have—but he leaned closer to her, letting the floral scent of all things Molly invade his senses.
“You bought me candy.” She held up the offending box of chocolate-coated raisins. “And you shared yours.”
“You just said before the movie started you wanted me to be nice.” He lifted his hands in surrender. “Now you want me to be a dick?”
She nodded, again the curls bobbing and begging to be touched. “Yeah, it’d make things easier.”
“Molly?” He said her name with a sigh.
“What?”
“I’m trying to be a good example for my kids.” This was true. He wanted them to grow up to be upstanding men who treated others well—since they were going to be the ones selecting his retirement home someday.
She huffed, did the throat noise thing again, and held out her hand for more Duds.
He shared, but swore to all hell, if he lived to be a hundred he would never understand women and the way their brains got from one point to another.
He leaned into her space, ignoring the pull of her so he wouldn’t be tempted to stick around too long where he shouldn’t. “I’m not going to be an asshole just so you feel better about your opinion of me.”
“It’s like you’re totally unwilling to try.” She nibbled at the coating of the candy in that way he’d discovered she liked to do. But this time her heart obviously wasn’t in it. She gave up and threw the whole thing into her mouth, eating it like a normal person, then she crossed her arms.
This, unfortunately, lifted her breasts up, up, up higher toward his line of sight.
Nice guys did not look down. He was trying very hard to be a nice guy, so he refrained. “Molly?”
Damn, his voice sounded scratchy. Not smooth at all.
“Hmmm?” The sound came from deep in her throat.
The intense desire to reach for her in the dark, to touch her, to lift the armrest, and to fall into the space between them became a craving.
But…he didn’t have to move further into her space, because she leaned into him.
His breath caught, and someone pushed the pause button on life.
There were only inches of nothing but air between them. Her lips parted like she was either going to kiss the hell out of him or go after him with a verbal attack.
Honestly, he didn’t know which he would’ve preferred. But if she kissed him, she’d taste like caramel and chocolate and Molly, and he thought he could be really into that flavor combination.
The questions in her eyes echoed throughout him because, honestly, he didn’t know what the hell was happening between them.
So, he did the one thing he absolutely shouldn’t do. The two of them basically alone in a dark theater… He tweaked her on the nose like she was one of the boys, and he was being silly and hiding it from her.
