When You Dare - Lori Foster [143]
“Are you hungry?” Big as he was, Dare probably needed to refuel often.
“Getting there.” He looked around the area and spotted a bakery a few doors down. “How does a bagel sound?”
“Not as good as a few donuts.”
Grinning, he conceded that and together they picked out a bag of mixed donuts with large coffees. “Anything else?” Dare asked her.
Thinking of the long ride ahead, she said, “I’ll take a juice, too.” And at the last minute she snagged kettle chips and added them to the purchases.
When Dare made a point of not saying anything, she elbowed him. “It’s awful, I know. But I eat when I’m stressed.”
As he paid the cashier, he said, “I don’t want you to be stressed.”
“Tough.” She hooked her arm through his, and they headed back for the SUV. “I know I’m safe with you, Dare, I really do. It’s just that I hate the necessity for you to have to protect me.”
“Molly—”
Knowing he didn’t understand, she cut him off. “I wish I was just safe, without any qualifiers, you know? Like I used to be.”
“I understand.” He opened her door and then handed her their goodies. “It’s unfortunate, but now you know that no one is ever truly secure. There are dangers out there, always, and sometimes you can’t avoid them. It’s a hell of a lesson.” He kissed her and then shut the door.
Is that how Dare felt? Is that how he’d always felt? Did he live his life forever on guard against peril? What a terrible way to live, always waiting for something to happen.
When he got behind the wheel, she said, “Dare?” And when he looked at her, she stretched over the console so that she could initiate the kiss this time. Smiling, she told him, “I like this kissing business, too.”
He didn’t smile back. Instead, he put one big hand around her neck and drew her forward for a deeper, firmer kiss that left her coiled with need.
While Molly tried to regroup, he reached around her to fasten her seat belt, then prepped his coffee and put it in the cup holder.
Molly licked her lips. “Wow.”
“Yeah.” Since she didn’t do it herself, he fixed her coffee, too. “We have some powerful chemistry going on between us.” He put the SUV in gear. “Now, how about a donut?”
He really could rattle her thoughts. She put a donut in a napkin and started to hand it to him. “You really don’t think my dad is the one behind this?”
Though she’d asked that totally out of context, Dare knew exactly what she meant. “I think we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions at all.”
That nonanswer had her withholding the donut before he could get it. “Dare?”
The grin flickered before he grew serious again. “I’m leaning away from him as the instigator.” He took the donut. “By tonight, I should be able to give you a more definitive answer. How’s that?”
She supposed it would have to do. And if he had a straight answer tonight, if he discovered the one who’d orchestrated it all…then what?
Molly took one more look in the mirror, but didn’t see anyone.
“He’s still there,” Dare told her. “But he’s not going to be a problem. Relax, eat your donut and trust me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
FEW PEOPLE WERE inside the restaurant when they got there. Dare had chosen it because he knew the owners, it had decent home-cooked food and it was right off the highway.
He spotted Trace and Alani, already inside and seated at a back, more private, table. With just a look from Dare, Trace understood that he’d set this up for a reason well beyond socializing.
Dare and Molly headed toward them.
As usual, Dare made note of how Molly was different from other women. At five feet six inches, Alani was close to the same height as Molly, but Alani had a more willowy build. With her long pale hair and golden eyes, she always looked a little ethereal to Dare. Like a whimsical creature of the night. Those who knew Alani always treated her gently, which was one reason the kidnapping had devastated Trace so badly.
Dare knew that Alani was beautiful, but for him, he saw her as a little sister, without a single ounce of sexual magnetism.
Molly, on the other hand, was so intrinsically sexy