Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

The kiss they had shared at the hospital bore absolutely no resemblance to the way in which Rufus's firm lips now devoured Molly's.

Long-drawn-out kisses from lips that claimed and hands that restlessly caressed and aroused.

Both of them were breathing heavily by the time Rufus rested his forehead against hers. Molly could feel the evidence of his arousal pressing against her abdomen.

"I need to take a shower after being with the animals all day," Molly finally murmured huskily.

"Can I join you?"

Could Rufus join her in the shower?

Could he take off his clothes and reveal all of that hard and muscular body to her avid gaze? Most especially that hard length throbbing so insistently against her.

"We can warm the food up later," he encouraged.

Not that Molly needed much encouragement to accept Rufus taking a shower with her. Or doing anything with her, for that matter.

But if life had taught her anything, it was that she would pay a price for allowing herself any emotional closeness. No doubt in heartache when she was forced to leave London and everyone here she had come to care about, most especially Rufus, and start again elsewhere. She felt as if she had been running her whole life, and she couldn't see that changing anytime soon.

But here and now?

"Yes, you can join me," she accepted shyly.

* * *

Rufus felt as if his heart had stopped. Or as if he was having a heart attack. Which was more likely at his age. Statistics said that men aged over forty-five were more likely?—

Fuck statistics!

Besides, he wasn't forty-five for another six months.

Which meant his heart had to have stopped because he'd been completely thrown by Molly's acceptance of him joining her in the shower.

He knew that was because, after kissing Molly again, touching her, his need to make love to this woman completely was now off the charts. Being naked in the shower with her was certainly a good place to start assuaging that desire.

"If you've changed your mind?—"

"I will never change my mind about wanting to be with you," he stated gruffly.

Her lashes lowered. "You might."

Rufus put his hand beneath her chin and raised her face until she had no choice but to look at him. "I won't."

* * *

Molly really hoped that continued to be true. In the meantime, she wanted to be with this man as much as Rufus's obvious arousal told her he wanted her.

There was one thing she needed to share with him first. She knew from romance books she'd read in the past that men could react badly if they didn't know beforehand.

She forced herself to continue to meet Rufus's gaze. "How do you feel about virgins?"

"How do I…?" Rufus's hand dropped, and he took a step back, his expression stunned. "Are you saying that's what you are?"

"I'm saying I could be," she hedged.

His smile was rueful. "Darling, either you are or you aren't."

Her jaw clenched at the endearment. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had used one when speaking to her. If they ever had. "I am."

"At twenty-seven?"

"Yes."

"But you're so beautiful. Surely other men must have wanted you in the past?"

"And because everything I know about my mother indicates she didn't know who my father was, and then being brought up in an orphanage after she left, I never wanted any of those men back."

"But you do want to be with me?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I…like you."

"And you didn't…like any of those other men?"

"No."

"I obviously like you too. But we don't have to rush this," he reassured.

"But I want to rush it!" she protested. She really had no idea how long she would be able to continue staying here.

He was silent for several long seconds before nodding. "Okay."

Molly looked at him searchingly. "Okay, it's okay for me to want you and you still want me? Or okay, it's okay to be a virgin, but no, thank you?" She held her breath as she waited for him to answer.

* * *

Rufus had never been confronted with such a dilemma in his life before. He hadn't been Beth's first lover, and the few women he had been with since were all older than Molly and experienced. Deliberately so.

A woman's first time should be memorable.

Could he make it that for Molly?

More to the point, should he make it that for her?

He wanted her, but taking a woman's virginity was a big deal. A responsibility no man should take lightly.

"Never mind," she dismissed in a brittle voice as she stepped back. "Take the food with you. I've suddenly lost my appetite."

"Molly—"

"Don't," she snapped, looking almost feral as she glared at him with overbright eyes.

"I don't want you to ever look back on this moment and think I've taken advantage of you or the situation here?—"

Her scathing huff cut him off. "I'm a grown woman, and quite frankly, having you question the autonomy of my freedom to choose my own lover is fucking insulting."

He winced. "I didn't mean it to be?—"

"Get out." She turned away to collect her bag, only to turn back again when she realized Rufus hadn't moved an inch. "I asked you to leave." Her nostrils flared.

If anyone should be leaving, it wasn't Rufus. Yes, it was Mia's business, but he and Darius were silent investors in the shelter, and as such, Rufus had a perfect right to be here.

But maybe not to be in a situation where he was considering making love to one of his daughter's employees.

Molly looked so fucking beautiful, with that raven-dark hair and pale complexion. Her height of a few inches over five feet meant she was at least fourteen inches shorter than Rufus, and yet, in this moment Molly looked almost regal in her disdain for what she obviously considered his cowardice in being unwilling to explore whatever this was between them.

She was right.

Because Rufus had a deep-rooted reluctance to open himself up to the possibility of being hurt again as he had when Beth and Emily were taken from him all those years ago. In Molly's case, he believed that hurt would come when she simply up and left one day without so much as saying goodbye, as her history showed she had done many times in the past.

But for all she was now glaring at him so fiercely, there was also an innate vulnerability to Molly. A fragility beneath the outer confidence she chose to present to the world.

Giving Rufus the insight into the reason she always ran: if she was the one to leave, then she couldn't be abandoned again.

Perfectly understandable behavior with her background.

So, it was up to Rufus now whether he wanted to put himself and his emotions on the line. Which he knew he would have to do if he wanted to be with Molly.

"I don't have any condoms with me," he told her huskily.

She drew in a sharp breath at his obviously unexpected reply before she snorted dismissively. "Then it's as well you aren't going to be needing one this evening after all, isn't it? Not with me, at least."

He chose to ignore the implication he was going to leave here and go to another woman, because he knew she was deliberately trying to antagonize him with her scorn. "Are you on birth control?"

She snorted. "Why would I have needed to be on birth control when I've just told you I haven't ever been with anyone in a sexual way?"

And her derision. "You wouldn't," he accepted. "Which is why I intend to drive you out of your mind with only orgasms this evening. I'll make sure to bring a condom next time."

"Next time…?" she repeated.

"Next time," he confirmed, knowing one night with this woman would never be enough.

"I— You— I don't?—"

Rufus grinned at her inability to form a complete sentence.

He sobered. "I never, at any time, said I didn't want you, Molly. I just want you to be sure. You've now told me, as an autonomous woman more than capable of making your own choices, that you are," he repeated her own words back at her. "So, we're going upstairs, getting in the shower together, and I'm going to start orgasming the hell out of you."

* * *

Wow, when Rufus decided he was going to do something, he certainly went all in!

Verbally, at least.

Looking at Rufus's face, taking in his single raised eyebrow over those challenging green eyes, Molly was absolutely certain he would follow through on the promise to give her so many orgasms she passed out from the pleasure.

Just thinking about it made her panties wet and her nipples hard.

She held out her hand. "Then I suggest you come upstairs with me."

His much larger hand and longer fingers closed firmly about hers. "I've only been waiting for the invitation to do so."

Molly had no idea what she was doing.

For years, she had been afraid of doing anything that might remind her of what she had realized in adulthood must have been her mother's promiscuous behavior. Molly had once asked her mother who her father was, only to be told that Sarah had absolutely no idea, that she had been involved with several men at the time of Molly's conception.

Molly had never been sure whether Sarah was telling the truth, because there had never seemed to be a shortage of money to pay for her mother's alcohol, cigarettes, and the designer clothes she liked to buy, and which had filled the long wall of wardrobes in her bedroom. Had, because Molly had discovered those clothes were all gone when she returned home from school that day and then never seen her mother again.

As an adult, Molly had wondered if her mother had demanded maintenance from all the men she had been involved with at the time of Molly's conception. Without them knowing about each other, of course. As none of them had shown the slightest interest in being present in Molly's life, Sarah's subterfuge would never have been discovered.

It would certainly explain why, when Sarah had never worked a day in her life, she'd always had so much money to spend.

Whatever her mother's machinations might have been, Molly had never wanted to be like her. In any way.

Which meant that not only was she still a virgin, but she had absolutely no sexual experience whatsoever.