Molly looked up, a mischievous smile on her lips as we burst in to laughter. My girl thinks she’s a comedian. The thought sobered me immediately. Molly was my girl, at least for a little while, but I needed to remind myself that it was only temporary. At the end of the tour, I’d go home and Molly would go wherever the wind took her.

“It was funny. I believed her for a minute,” Noah spoke over the laughter. Leaning closer to me, he rolled his eyes. “I’d keep that ‘my girl’ shit to a minimum, though, bub. Unless you want everyone to know.”

I jerked my head up, glancing around the table. I hadn’t meant to say the words out loud, especially where anyone could have heard us. Fuck. No one seemed to have heard it, though, and if they had, they didn’t think anything of it.

Except Nate. He had a smile on his face, and nodded at something Liam—the ‘Bama Boys master of string—was saying, but his eyes were narrowed in my direction. The scrutiny made me uncomfortable.

I was about to ask him what his fucking problem was when Lee’s laugh caught my attention. She’d leaned toward Molly and the two were red-faced, whispering, and giggling like teenagers. When Lia started to wipe tears from her eyes, I glanced back at her husband. I recognized the look on his face immediately. It was one I’d seen on his face a million times before. Hell, I’d worn it more times than I could count. It said what words couldn’t convey, a feeling that ran so much deeper than love.

The overwhelming rush of jealousy, the longing for someone I couldn’t have, the same feelings that I got whenever I witnessed Nate look at Lia that way, never came.

Instead, every time I looked up, it was Molly I searched out. It was her smile I wanted to see. I tried to tell myself not to read too much into it, that it was just a physical attraction. I was horny as hell and after last night, my body ached for hers. My dick got hard at just the thought of getting her alone.

I knew deep down, though, that the reasons I kept staring, waiting for her eyes to meet mine and offer me even a hint of her smile, had absolutely nothing to do with getting laid. I cared about this woman. More than I should have cared about anyone this early in the game. And it scared the shit out of me.

I listened to my friends laugh through the meal, joining in when I absolutely had to, but spent the rest of the time lost in my thoughts. I hadn’t had a girlfriend since the divorce. Hell, I hadn’t had a repeat partner since Jules.

The chicks from the bar were just a means to an end, a mindless release of pent up frustration so I didn’t have to use my hand. It had disgusted Courtney. My roommate warned me once that sooner or later I was going to find a woman I wanted a future with, but that karma would kick my ass. Looking at Mols now, the thought that she might not want more taunted me.

We were more than a quick lay in the backroom. We had history, even if it was just as friends. Being on the road, living with each other for months at a time, allowed us to get to know each other in a way most people don’t understand. I would protect her at all costs, and not just because it was my job.

I’d been impressed with Mols and her kiss-my-ass attitude since the day I met her. She’d always been larger than life—she constantly had something exciting going on in her world, even if it was the unwanted attention of the paparazzi. When I’d first met her, she’d been no more than a crazy kid singing in bars for tip money, but there had been no doubt in my mind that she’d be a household name one day. She was that special.

Molly had always been sexy as fuck. Shit, that was part of her marketing campaign. The bad girl that every man wanted but none of us could have. Better than that, she was the woman who cleaned up nice so we could bring her home to Momma. The best of both worlds: a lady in the streets who looked like she’d be a freak in the sheets.

I’d noticed, of course. I’d have to be five feet under not to—and even then I’d probably spot a body like hers. I’d just never thought about her that way because, in my mind at least, I had been taken. I was definitely not taken now. At least, not by anyone other than Molly.

When I turned the SUV onto the camp road a few hours later, I was painfully sober. Molly didn’t like to drink the night before a concert, and I’d only had a beer with dinner because if she wasn’t drinking, I wasn’t either.

We were in the minority, though. We were too old to be the sloppy drunks we once had been, but our friends were definitely feeling good when we dropped them off at their cabins. Nate had definitely over-imbibed and I had to help Lee haul him to their room.

The walk back to our cottage was quiet as Molly led the way, using her phone as a flashlight. She held it next to her hip, so that we could both see where we were going, but I was too busy staring at her ass to watch the ground. By the time she climbed the steps in front of me, I had a raging hard on.

I walked straight to the bed, dropping in the middle and reclining back onto my hands, watching as she kicked off her shoes and took out her earrings. “Take off your clothes, Molly.”

The demand surprised her, making her jerk her head toward me. By the way she looked at me, I knew she was wondering if she’d heard me correctly. I straightened a little, leveling her with my eyes before I repeated my request slowly. “Take. Off. Your. Clothes.”

Her hands fell to her sides as she took a deep breath. Hesitating only a microsecond, she lifted her tee shirt over her head and let it drop to the floor next to her. A pop of a button, followed by the sound of a zipper, and a wiggle of her hips, and her jeans fell to join it.

The two-piece bathing suit she wore was as conservative as they come, but she’d teased me with little glimpses of her body all day. Now I wanted to see it all.

Crossing the small room, she stopped in front of me, close enough to touch. Before I could say a word, she moved her hand to the back of her neck and tugged. The baggy, tank-like top slid down her body, and before I could appreciate the work of art she was, she’d pulled the strings on her bikini bottom and stood in front of me bare.

“They’re off.” She smirked at me, raising a single brow. “What are you going to do with me now?”

Fuck me. The view I’d gotten last night, and the little peeks I’d snuck all day, were nothing compared to the full picture. Color and metal decorated her body and I mentally challenged myself to count each and every one of her tattoos and piercings. With my tongue.

My cock strained against my fly, begging to be released. I thought about telling her to get on her knees, commanding her to suck my dick. Even Molly had limits, though, and I had to wonder how far she’d let me take this act. I was half surprised she’d played along so far.

Before I could decide my next move, Molly took control. Her hands moved out and shoved my shoulders, making me fall back onto the bed, and she climbed on top of me. Staring down at me, she bit her bottom lip seductively and moved her hips against me.

She leaned down, running the tip of her nose over mine before moving her mouth next to my ear. “Tell me what you want, Mike. I just might give it to you.” Her teeth closed on my earlobe before she pushed herself back up and continued her lap dance.

My hands moved to her hips as I jerked my own upward, showing her how hard I already was. Her wetness coated my jeans, reminding me how fucking responsive she was and how amazing she tasted. I moaned at the memory, causing her lips to curl in a confident smirk. The brat thought she was in control, but she had no fucking clue.

Curling my fingertips into her flesh, I lifted her and pulled her up as I slid down the bed. For a second, panic filtered over her face, but as her knees came to rest next to my ears, uncertainty replaced it. I didn’t give her a second to think about it before my lips closed around her clit and I sucked.