She opened her mouth, and he leaned forward, placing his hand over her lips before she could speak. “Let’s enjoy each other. If that’s dirty foreplay in the kitchen, we do it. Hot sex in the shower, definitely. My bed, your bed, all the beds…”

She laughed and pushed his hand away. “Is there any part of the plan that doesn’t involve sex?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Because all the other stuff between us? That’s still there. You’ve always had my back, Mollie. And I’ve had yours. Adding sex to the mix won’t change that.”

She wanted to say yes. She so desperately wanted to take what he was offering, to finally, finally live her life for her, to do what she wanted to do, not what Madison wanted her to do.

Jackson slid a hand behind her head, his thumb resting on her cheekbone. “I want you, Mollie. If you don’t want me, tell me, and I’ll back off.”

Don’t do this to me.

His eyebrows lifted. “This is the part where you tell me you want me. Maybe mention how well endowed I am.”

“Jackson—”

He made a scolding noise and leaned forward again, but she put a hand over his mouth. “Ground rule: no kissing until I’ve had a chance to brush my teeth.”

Jackson’s grin was slow and happy. “And then you’ll come back to bed?”

Mollie couldn’t help but smile in response, even as her heart was screaming, Danger!

“Yeah. And then I’ll come back to bed.”

Chapter 19

Early Monday morning, Jackson strolled into the Oxford offices with two Starbucks cups in hand. One was his usual double espresso; the other was an Americano.

He stopped by the reception desk and set the Americano in front of a surprised-looking brunette.

Joanna Barry was Oxford’s receptionist and office manager. She was one of those women who looked twenty-two—hell, she probably was twenty-two—but had the composure of a sixty-year-old librarian. She took absolutely zero shit from anyone, which was a damn useful skill in an office of womanizers. As far as he could tell, the woman had never so much as flirted with a single one of the guys, and yet she was universally adored. It was impressive.

“What’s this?” Jo asked, giving the cup a skeptical look.

Jackson shrugged. “An Americano. For you.”

Her cat-shaped brown eyes narrowed. “Where’d it come from?” Jo peered around him as though looking for Cole or Lincoln or one of the other guys who regularly brought her coffee.

Jackson waited until her suspicious gaze returned to his and then gave her a wide grin.

Jo’s eyes narrowed further. “Are you smiling right now?”

He reached out and nudged the coffee toward her. “Come on. You know the other guys won’t be in for hours. You think I don’t notice that you and I are always the first ones here on Mondays?”

“Well, you, me, and Cassidy,” she pointed out, picking up the cup and giving it a skeptical glance. “You really got this for me?”

“Thought it might be fun to join the competition to be your favorite. I’ve stayed out of the fray until now, because let’s face it, it’s not even a fair fight. But do me a favor—take a picture of Cole and Lincoln’s faces when they roll their asses in here and see that I’ve beaten them to the punch.”

She shook her head. “You know you guys are going to kill me with caffeine, right?”

He shrugged and reached out to take the cup from her, but she batted his hand away. “I’ll choke it down.”

“Enjoy, darling.”

“First a smile, then a ‘darling’? What is going on with you right now, Burke?”

“Just wanted to join your fan club.”

“Uh-uh,” she said, giving him a studying look. “I’m thinking you’ve recently joined another woman’s fan club.”

Jo’s comment immediately made him think of Mollie, which in turn made him smile.

The receptionist gave a knowing chuckle. “Oh, man, Burke. You’re in trouble.”

“Hell, you think I don’t know that?” he grumbled good-naturedly.

He was in trouble. He and Mollie had spent the weekend together. In bed, mostly. But there’d been other stuff too. Bingeing on Breaking Bad episodes. Gorging on delivery food. They’d even gone to the gym together, and it had felt surprisingly…normal. Hell, everything about the weekend had felt normal.

Which he supposed, made sense. He and Mollie had always been comfortable around each other.

But the sex part…that had felt right too. More than right. It had felt fucking fantastic. They hadn’t been able to get enough of each other. If anyone had told him just a month ago that he’d be having the best sex of his life with Mollie Carrington…

Jo shook her head and smirked. “Must have been some weekend. Shouldn’t you be buying her coffee?”

He’d already brought Mollie coffee. Of course, she’d been fresh out of the shower and warm, damp, and naked, which meant the coffee was cold by the time she’d gotten to it, but still…

“You said Cassidy’s around?” Jackson asked, jerking his brain away from the memory of naked Mollie before his stirring cock turned into a full-blown erection.

“In his office,” Jo said, attention already back on her computer.

Jackson started to head that way, but Jo’s voice stopped him. “Hey, Jackson.” He turned, and she lifted her cup. “Thanks.”