No Bunny But You (Holiday Romance Series) by Carol Rose Page A

of them being
friends. They’d hung out together, played racquet ball every now
and then, saw the occasional movie and parted with no more than a
casual nod.
    Somewhere along the way, she’d started thinking of
him differently, though, started noticing the fizzy sensation in
her stomach when he was around. She’d fallen in love with him, but
he hadn’t done the same with her, she knew.
    Touching him at all now was risky, but her profound
gratitude for his rescue left her feeling all wobbly inside. She
had to try to reestablish a normal friendship and the
shoulder-shove was a classic friend-thing. Even as she made the
gesture, she was acutely aware of the muscle beneath the bunny
suit.
    Taking off his bunny hands, Drake reached down to
pull off the costume’s big feet. “Whatever I want. Whenever I want.
You owe me. You were so desperate not to mess this tea party up
that these terms were implicit.”
    “You’re nuts,” she scoffed, looking away from him as
he sat so comfortably in his folding chair. Now that he’d shed the
bunny hands and feet, he propped his elbows on his thighs. Even
dressed in a full body furry animal suit, he looked incredibly hot
and desirable.
    Not every guy would have answered her desperate plea.
How could she not love him more for it?
    “Seriously, I—I hope you know how grateful I am.”
Molly looked over at him. “I don’t know what I would have done if
you hadn’t agreed to do this for me.”
    He returned her steady gaze. “No problem. I’m sure
you’d have done the same for me. Hell, you helped me with the blog
all that time. The least I could do was help you in your hour of
need.”
    Molly looked at the floor of the gazebo. Friendship
was good. She should be happy with that—but she didn’t feel
satisfied or happy. Like an idiot, she wanted a whole lot more. And
it was so much more complicated because she was fairly certain
Drake would do the nasty with her.
    He already had one sex buddy and she couldn’t join
the list of girls he called when he wanted to get his rocks off. It
would break her heart.
    Molly took a deep breath and let it out in a
sigh.
    “So….” Drake glanced up at her. “Can we talk about
the thing with the kiss here in the garden?”
    She looked over at him, suddenly nervous. “What do
you mean?”
    “The kiss,” he said patiently. “When I kissed you by
the ladder.”
    She drew in another breath, suddenly unable to meet
his gaze. “What’s there to talk about?”
    “Molly.” His voice was soft. “One minute you were
eating me alive and the next you shoved me away. Don’t you think
some kind of explanation is called for?”
    Swallowing hard, she felt a prickling at the back of
her eyes. She knew she ought to tell him that she’d kissed him like
that—both after the birthday party and when they were building the
gazebo—because he kissed well or because she hadn’t gotten laid in
a while and she was horny. But she couldn’t lie.
    This need for truthfulness was inconvenient.
    “You,” he started to say, still in that soft voice,
“you set me on fire, girl. The way you kissed me. Wow. When you
shoved me away, I started thinking that maybe I’d offended you
somehow, that you were mad at me.”
    Drake straightened in his chair. “Although I’m not
the bunny suit kind of guy—and I don’t want you to ever expect me to do this again—I was kind of relieved when you
called.”
    Trying to keep her voice from shaking, she said, “I
know this wasn’t comfortable for you and I’m truly, truly grateful.
No, I don’t expect you to ever do this again.”
    “And those kisses?” He lifted his eyebrows as he
looked at her. “Molly, I’ve never been kissed like that.”
    The darkness descending around them left the gazebo
insides shadowy and somehow intimate.
    “I know, I know. I’m sorry.”
    She loved him and wanted him. Reaching out now would
be so easy, to pull him closer and apologize for shoving him
away….
    “Sorry? Sorry you set