'And the damage a man-eating heiress might do to his fragile emotions, right?'
Lilly looked down at Roo, who'd come out from under the table. 'Help me, Roo. I'm scared of her.'
Molly laughed.
Lilly smiled then sobered. 'I'm sorry I misjudged you, Molly. I know you care about him, and I can't believe you'd deliberately hurt him.'
Molly suspected Lilly's opinion would change if she knew the circumstances behind their marriage. Only her promise to Kevin kept her from telling her the truth. 'In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm on your side. I think Kevin needs you in his life.'
'You'll never know how much that means to me.' She gazed toward the door. 'I'm going in for tea.'
'Are you sure? The guests will be all over you.'
'I'll manage.' She straightened her posture. 'I've had enough of hiding out. Your husband is going to have to deal with me one way or the other.'
'Good for you.'
By the time Molly reached the sitting room with a plate of cookies and another teapot, Lilly was chatting graciously with the guests who'd surrounded her. She had her heart in her eyes whenever she looked at Kevin, but he avoided looking back. It was almost as if he believed that any sign of affection toward her would somehow trap him.
Molly's childhood had taught her to beware of people who weren't emotionally open, and his guardedness depressed her. If she were smart, she'd rent a car and drive back to Chicago this very night.
An elderly woman from Ann Arbor who'd checked in earlier that day appeared at her elbow. 'I've heard you write children's books.'
'Not so much anymore,' she replied glumly, thinking about the revisions she still hadn't done and the August mortgage check she wouldn't be able to write.
'My sister and I have always wanted to write a children's book, but we've been so busy traveling that we never can seem to find the time.'
'There's more to writing a children's book than just finding the time,' Kevin said from behind her. 'It's not as easy as people seem to think.'
Molly was so startled she nearly dropped the cookie plate.
'Kids want a good story,' he said. 'They want to laugh or get scared or learn something without having it shoved down their throats. That's what Molly does in her books. For example, in
Later, when he appeared in the kitchen, she smiled at him.
'Thanks for defending my profession. I appreciate it.'
'People are idiots.' He nodded toward the baking supplies she was setting out for breakfast the next morning. 'You don't need to cook so much. I keep telling you I can order from the bakery in town.'
'I know. I enjoy it.'
His gaze drifted over her bare shoulders and lacy camisole top. He lingered there for so long she felt as if he were running his fingers over her skin. A silly fantasy, she realized, as he made a grab for the biscuit tin where she'd just deposited the leftover cookies. 'You seem to enjoy everything about this place. What happened to all those bad memories of summer camp?'
'This is how I always wanted a summer camp to be.'
'Boring and lots of old people?' He bit into a cookie. 'You've got strange taste.'
She wasn't going to argue with him about this. Instead, she asked the question she'd been postponing all afternoon. 'You haven't said anything about your interviews this morning.'
He scowled. 'They didn't go as well as I wanted. The first guy might have been a great chef once, but now he shows up drunk for interviews. And the woman I interviewed put so many restrictions on when she could work that she'd have been useless.'
Molly's spirits soared, only to sink as he went on.
'I've got one more candidate coming in tomorrow afternoon, though, and she was great on the phone. She didn't even mind a Sunday interview. I figure we can train her on Monday and leave here by Wednesday afternoon at the latest.'
'Hooray,' she said glumly.
'Don't tell me you're going to miss falling out of bed at five-thirty in the morning?'
Amy giggled in the hallway. 'Troy, don't!'
The newlyweds were getting ready to check in before they left. Every afternoon right after tea they raced back to their apartment, where Molly was fairly certain they jumped into bed and made very noisy love before they had to return to the B &B for the night.
'Lucky us,' Molly muttered. 'Now we can get lectured on our sexual inadequacies by both of them.'
'Like hell.' With no warning Kevin grabbed her, pushed her against the refrigerator, and crushed his mouth to hers.
She knew exactly what he was doing. And while this might be better than her hickey idea, it was a lot more dangerous.
His free hand caught her leg beneath the knee and raised it. She snaked it over his hip and curled her arms around him. His other hand dipped under her top and covered her breast. Just as if he had the right.
It was all for show. She told herself that as she parted her lips and let his tongue slip into her mouth. He felt as if he somehow belonged here, inside this one small part of her, and she wanted to kiss him forever.
The kitchen door thumped, reminding her they had witnesses. Which, of course, was the whole point. Kevin drew back a few inches, not even far enough for her lips to cool. His eyes never left her mouth, and he kept his hand on her breast.
'Go away.'
A gasp from Amy. The thud of the door. The sound of quickly retreating footsteps.
'I-I guess we showed them,' Molly breathed against his mouth.
'I guess,' he replied. And then he started kissing her all over again.
'Molly, I-Oh! Excuse me…'
Another quick thud of the door. More retreating footsteps, this time Lilly's.
Kevin muttered a dark curse. 'We're getting out of here.'
His voice held the same note of determination she'd heard in television interviews when he promised to dominate Green Bay. He released Molly's leg. His hand slipped more reluctantly from her breast.
She'd gotten herself right back where she wasn't supposed to be. 'I really don't think-'
'No more thinking, Molly. I'm your husband, damn it, and it's time you start acting like a wife.'
'Like a-What do you-'
But Kevin was fundamentally a man of action, and he'd done enough talking. Shackling her wrist, he hauled her to the back door.
She couldn't believe it. He was abducting her to have__
She knew from watching Oprah exactly what a woman was supposed to do in this situation. Scream at the top of her lungs, drop to the ground, and start kicking her assailant as hard as she could. Oprah's authority had explained that not only did this strategy have the advantage of surprise, but it used a woman's lower-body strength.
'No,' she whispered.
Kevin wasn't listening. He was dragging her across the garden and along the path that ran between the cottages and the lake. His long legs ate up the ground just as they did when he was trying to beat the final whistle. She would have stumbled if he didn't have such a tight grip on her.
The idea of dropping to the ground was interesting. Counterintuitive, but it did make sense. Women couldn't
