The Kiss Before Midnight Read online

  She wasn’t a child any more. Hadn’t she proved that, getting a new job two hundred miles away and moving to the capital, all on her own? So why did she always feel like one, the moment she stepped into this room?

  Even Tim treated her like the baby, still. Warning her off unsuitable men, when she could have been sleeping with anyone in London for the last six months. Okay, she hadn’t, but she could have done, and he would never have known.

  She sighed. But even that wasn’t as bad as Jake. So desperate to keep her firmly in ‘best friend’s sister’ territory that he couldn’t even admit that if they hadn’t been interrupted last year, things could have been… phenomenal. That was the only word for it.

  With a yawn, Molly forced herself to sit up, and rifle through her case for her pyjamas. Mum was right. She needed sleep if she wanted to be on form for tomorrow – and she did.

  After all, she only had eight days left to meet Jenna’s challenge and show Jake once and for all she wasn’t a child anymore.

  Chapter 7

  CHRISTMAS EVE

  Despite her best intentions, Molly slept poorly. It didn’t help that every time she shifted in her sleep, some part of her would knock up against the wall, or bang into the bedside table. How had she ever slept in a bed so narrow?

  And, of course, once she was awake it was impossible not to think about Jake, asleep just one floor above her. Was he asleep, though? Or was he tormented by thoughts of her, too?

  At least he had a proper bed. He and Tim had apparently tossed a coin weeks ago, to see who would get the double and who would have the sofa bed, and Jake had won three times in a row. Even Tim had given up then.

  As the illuminated numbers on the alarm clock clicked over to 5.35, the front door slammed and Molly jerked upright. Downstairs, she heard people shushing each other, as if that would make a difference now. Honestly. Never mind sleep – it clearly wasn’t happening anyway. It was Christmas Eve and it sounded like her dad and sister were home.

  Jumping out of bed, she padded out of her room towards the stairs, not switching on any lights in case anyone else had managed to sleep through Dory’s not-so-stealthy entrance. Besides, who needed light? She knew this house inside out and backwards. She could find her way around in the dark when blind drunk and half asleep, and still avoid the creaky floorboards on the stairs. God knew she’d had enough practise in her teenage years.

  Except… “Ooof.” Molly froze. There wasn’t usually a wall of warm muscle and flesh between her room and the stairs. As she crashed into it, strong arms wrapped around her waist to keep her upright.

  “Molly?” Jake’s warm whisper was somehow less of a question, more an incredulous complaint.

  She pulled back, just enough to look up at him, but his arms stayed exactly where they were. Molly really wasn’t objecting. Her breasts almost brushed against his chest, driving her crazy.

  “Morning,” she whispered back, although forming words in her suddenly dry mouth took a lot more effort than usual. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and, even with only the faint light of a streetlamp outside the landing window, she could still make out the lines of his face. Of course, it helped that they were standing mere millimetres apart. So close, she could feel the warmth of him through the thin fabric of her pyjamas. “Couldn’t sleep?”

  He shook his head. “I thought I heard your dad get home. Thought I’d go and welcome everyone.”

  “Same here.” She gave him a half smile, not even sure if he could see it. “Plus, you know, mince pies for breakfast.”

  “Yeah. Of course.”

  They should move. Dad and Dory and Lucas would be coming upstairs at any moment, and running into her and Jake having a moment on the landing probably wasn’t how any of them wanted to start their Christmas holiday. But how could she pull away, when she finally had Jake exactly where she wanted him?

  Molly licked her lips, and Jake made a tiny sound in the back of his throat that hit her straight in the libido. “Jake…”

  “Yeah. I know.” His jaw was so tight the words came out clipped. Taking a chance, Molly shifted the mere millimetres it took to press her body up against his, sighing in relief as she felt him against her. If she’d ever needed proof that he wanted this as badly as her, she had it, pushing against her stomach right now.

  Stretching up on tiptoes, she trailed her fingers up from his chest to his neck, pulling his lips down to meet hers. For a moment, she felt resistance in the muscles of his throat, but in the space of a heartbeat it was gone, and she was finally, finally kissing Jake Sommers again…

  Somewhere, a floorboard creaked.

  Jake tore himself from her in a moment, and Molly stumbled back against the wall, her heart beating too fast for her to count, as the landing light flickered on.

  Across the hallway, Jake’s eyes were wild, wanting, and he was gripping onto the banister rail with white knuckled hands. His hair looked messier than Molly could ever remember it being. Had she just done that? Or was it just the result of a night spent tossing and turning?

  She needed to say something. To address what had happened between them, to ask what happened next. But there were already footsteps on the stairs, and it was too late.

  “Hey, guys.” Lucas blinked at them as he lowered his suitcase onto the top step, his eyes red and tired. “Sorry, did we wake you?”

  Molly shook her head, stumbling over words in her brain before they could even reach her lips.

  Fortunately, Jake had more composure than her. “I thought I heard something, but don’t worry. I’m an early riser.”

  “And I… couldn’t sleep.” Molly managed. “Are Dad and Dory downstairs?”

  Lucas nodded. “And already getting stuck into the mince pies. Me, I need a little sleep before I can face any more merriment. It’s been a long couple days. See you in a few hours? I’ve got something I need to talk to you about actually, but…”

  “Sleep first.” Molly smiled, and let Lucas pass to get to the guest room. “We’ll save you a mince pie. Probably.”

  As Lucas’s door shut behind him, Molly stared across at Jake again.

  “We’d better get downstairs,” he murmured.

  She wanted to object. Wanted to insist that they figured this out at last. But any moment now, she knew Dory might come up or Tim might emerge from the attic. It wasn’t the time or the place.

  “Okay. But… we’ll talk? Soon?”

  “Sure,” Jake said.

  Molly sighed. Maybe she’d believe him more if he wasn’t already halfway down the stairs, getting away from her as fast as possible.

  Looked like she still had some work to do. But she smiled as she followed him downstairs. At least she knew now that his body was willing. And clearly, things like this were going to keep happening until they got it out of their systems. Really, the only logical thing to do was sleep together and get it over with.

  All Molly needed to do now was appeal to Jake’s common sense. How hard could that be?

  -

  He was an idiot. Devoid of any sense at all. If he’d had the slightest smidgen of intelligence, he’d have ignored the sound of the front door in the early hours and stayed in bed, safely away from the temptations of Molly Mackenzie, until it was time to leave for his meeting.

  But he hadn’t. And so now he was sitting at the kitchen table with Molly, her sister and her father, all eating mince pies with cups of tea for breakfast – and he couldn’t get the scent of her, let alone the feel of her body against his, out of his head.

  She smelt like vanilla. He’d thought maybe it was just the mince pies or the mulled wine, the night before, but even in the early morning, with her auburn hair wild around her pale face, and wearing the most ridiculous robin pyjamas he’d ever seen, she still had that sweet, warm smell about her.

  Jake risked a glance at Molly across the table, laughing at something Dory had said. She leant forward for another mince pie and the neck of her red top gaped slightly, giving him a perfect glim
pse of creamy curves.

  Actually, he was quite fond of the pyjamas, if he was honest.

  Dory wiped pastry crumbs from her mouth. “Right. I’m going to go wake Tim up so we can get on with decorating this tree. If we’re lucky, we can get the whole thing done before Mum gets up – and before the jet lag catches up with me and I crash out.”

  Glen Mackenzie shook his head at his eldest daughter’s energy. “Well I, for one, am going to follow Lucas’s example and get some shut eye before all hell breaks loose later today.” Standing, he shook his head. “Christmas Eve. I swear, it’s more exhausting than the day itself.”

  “And we need you on form for mulled wine making, Dad,” Molly said, grinning. “You know that’s the only reason so many people stop by.”

  Glen smiled back. “Extra mince pies for you.” Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, he wrapped an arm round Dory’s shoulders as she headed for the door, stopping her. “It’s so good to have both my girls home again.”

  As Dory and Glen headed up the stairs, Jake tried very hard to look anywhere except at Molly. Something that proved rather more difficult when she stood, moving to perch herself on the edge of the kitchen table right beside him.

  “Dory will be back with Tim any moment,” he pointed out, wishing he could move his chair back without feeling like an utter coward.

  “Then we’d better talk quickly, hadn’t we?”

  Jake sighed. She always had been persistent. “Look, Moll—”

  “Don’t call me that,” she interrupted.

  “I’ve always called you that.”

  “You called me that when I was a kid.” She frowned. “In case it’s escaped your notice, I grew up.”

  “Trust me. It really, really hasn’t.” How could it, when he’d been pressed so damn close to every inch of her very grown up curves, had felt them against every part of him. And she had to be aware of exactly how his body had reacted to them, too.

  He wanted her. Jake was man enough to admit that. He wanted Molly Mackenzie in a way he hadn’t wanted anyone in a long time.

  But life was rarely as simple as just getting what you wanted. Even when it was being served up to you in robin themed pyjamas.

  “So. We kissed. Again.” Molly raised her eyebrows expectantly.

  “I noticed.”

  “Seems to keep happening.”

  “Twice in one year doesn’t really count as—”

  “Jake.” Her voice was mild but serious.

  Jake sighed. “Yeah. Okay. I know.”

  “So? What do you suggest we do about it?”

  Oh, he had plenty of suggestions. Most of them involved a bed, but to be honest, at this point he wasn’t really all that picky. Up against the wall of the landing, the back seat of his car, hell, he’d take her anywhere he could get her.

  Except… this was Tim’s baby sister. Glen Mackenzie’s little girl. And he couldn’t touch her.

  “Molly, we can’t. You know we can’t. It would tear up your whole family.” And almost certainly get him quickly and efficiently exiled from the only family he had.

  “Only if they found out,” Molly said with, he felt, rather undue optimism.

  At least she was admitting the basic problem, he supposed. “I heard what Tim said last night.”

  “Yeah, I figured.” With a sigh, she sank down off the table and onto the chair beside him. “And what I said too.”

  “I did.” It’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve heard all year. Her mocking laugh hadn’t faded one bit in his memory. “And you were right. It’s ridiculous.”

  “It didn’t feel ridiculous upstairs.” And wasn’t that just the hell of it? Molly inched her chair closer. “It felt right.”

  “But that doesn’t mean it is right.” Jake leant back in his chair, gaining a couple of inches between them as Molly sighed.

  “Do you really believe that?” she asked, and Jake bit back on the instinctive, immediate urge to say, no!

  “Deck the halls with boughs of holly!” Tim’s voice echoed through the darkened hallway, followed by Dory’s answering, “Shh!”

  “Fa la la la la, you two,” Tim added, leaning in the doorway to the kitchen. Did he look suspicious or just half asleep? Jake honestly couldn’t tell anymore. “Apparently we’ve got a tree to decorate. You coming?”

  “Of course!” Molly leapt to her feet and headed for the lounge, without even glancing back at Jake. Which should have been a good thing but somehow it wasn’t.

  “I’m gonna need coffee for this. You in? The tree thing, I mean.” Tim asked, halfway through a yawn, as if it were a natural thing that Jake be there, decorating the Mackenzie Christmas tree. As if he were just another one of the Mackenzie siblings.

  But he wasn’t, and he could never forget that.

  “Yeah.” He stood up, tried to give his best friend a convincing smile. “I’m in.”

  Chapter 8

  Dory had already pulled all the boxes of decorations out from behind the sofa where their mum had hidden them, and Molly squealed with excitement as she saw her favourite decoration sitting half unwrapped from its tissue paper, on the top of the first box. With gentle fingers she picked it up and let it spin, the delicate coloured glass beads glinting in the fairy lights.

  “Is that the one I bought Mum from that school trip to France?” Tim asked, appearing with a cup of coffee in hand. “Can’t believe that hasn’t been broken yet.”

  “No,” Dory said, peering at it. “Yours was green and gold. That’s the one Jake bought.”

  “What did I do now?” Just the sound of Jake’s voice from the doorway made Molly’s insides tighten. God, she was in trouble.

  “Bought this bauble.” She turned to hold up the delicately wrought wire framed bauble, each strand of it strung with red and white glass beads that left the perfect circle swirling with colour as it turned in the light. “Although how either of you got them home without bending or breaking them amazes me.”

  Tim, Molly knew, had bought Mum hers purely in the hope that she’d forget how much trouble he was in for getting caught smoking on that trip. He’d been fifteen, and not really the most thoughtful of boys, so he hadn’t brought anything for the rest of them.

  Molly had been ten, and cross that she didn’t get a present, so Jake had given her his bauble – presumably bought for his own mother for the same reasons. She could still remember the way her heart beat faster when he’d placed the box in her hands, silver tissue paper poking out of the top.

  Maybe she’d been wrong, when she told Jenna she’d never thought of Jake that way until after last New Year’s Eve. Perhaps he’d never seemed like a real possibility, but the moment he’d handed her that box… her little pre-teen heart had definitely fluttered.

  She half expected Jake to come closer, to look at it with her, for them to share a moment with the memory. But instead, he just nodded over his cup of coffee and stayed firmly in the doorway – practically outside. “So I did.”

  Molly turned to face the tree so the others didn’t catch her scowl, and hung the bauble front and centre. “There. I declare the great Mackenzie early morning tree decorating session open.”

  “Then let’s get to it.” Dory appeared at her side with decorations hanging from each of her fingers, and Molly raced back to the box to choose her own.

  It was always the same, every year – a competition to see who could find the best, most prized decorations and give them pride of place. Dory, Molly could see, already had the tiny wooden nativity scene, and the pompom robin, and Tim was rooting around in the boxes already. Which meant she’d have to be quick if she wanted to find the jingling Santa or the sequin Christmas tree – and not get stuck with the job lot of glass icicles Mum had bought a few years ago.

  Molly paused, her hand already inside the box, as she spotted Jake still leaning against the doorway. “I thought you were helping.”

  “You three seem to have it all under control,” Jake said, one eyebrow lifted.

&n
bsp; But that wasn’t the point, Molly wanted to say. He wasn’t holding back because they didn’t need him. He was staying out of it because he felt he didn’t belong. And that was stupid.

  Especially if he thought he didn’t deserve to be part of the family because he’d been feeling her up on the landing less than an hour ago.

  Pulling out the next decoration, Molly unwrapped the tissue paper to find another of her absolute favourites. This one, a glittering silver star, had been brought back from a family holiday donkeys years ago and, to be honest, was starting to look a little worse for wear. But it wouldn’t be Christmas without it.

  Standing up, she handed it to Jake, who stared at it with confusion.

  “You’re supposed to put it on the tree,” Molly said, helpfully.

  “Where does it go?” Jake asked.

  Molly shrugged. “Wherever you want it to. It’s your tree too, remember.”

  His gaze met hers at that, and the longing there touched her even deeper than the wanting had earlier. Being part of her family mattered to him – so much that he was willing to deny everything that was between them to make sure he still had a place here by the end of the holidays.

  Was it unfair of her to ask him to risk that, just for one night with her? Almost certainly.

  But as Molly watched Jake hang the silver star, hidden slightly on one side of the tree, she couldn’t help but feel it was an inevitability. If Jake wanted to belong here, they had to move past the insane attraction that was driving them both crazy, one way or another.

  And Molly could only think of one way.

  Jake tried not to watch as Molly stretched up to place the angel on the top of the tree, but given the way her top rode up providing him with a glimpse of her smooth white skin above her pyjama clad bottom, he couldn’t help himself. Besides, he’d just hung countless glass icicles all over the damn tree. Didn’t he deserve some sort of reward?

  Feeling eyes on his back, he glanced round and found Tim watching him. Damn. Caught. Jake looked down at his watch in a feeble attempt to pretend he hadn’t just been caught ogling his best friend’s baby sister. Still only just eight thirty. He had hours until he could legitimately get away to his meeting, and a horrible feeling that tree decorating wasn’t the end of the family activities he’d be expected to take part in today.