Page 13 of Rufus

Did Molly want Rufus to look for her mother and Ronan?

She wanted to know Ronan was safe, yes.

But her mother?

Sarah Harper had abandoned her and, for all intents and purposes, had never looked back nor cared if Molly lived or died once she was gone.

After so many years, Molly felt the same disinterest in knowing her mother’s fate.

* * *

Rufus saw the conflicting emotions in Molly’s changing expression, and he could easily guess the reason for it. To be abandoned by her own mother was heartbreaking enough, but to know that same mother had taken Molly’s brother with her but left her behind must be devastating.

So much so that Rufus had no idea how Molly usually appeared so cheerful as an adult.

“Look at me, Molly,” he prompted gruffly, waiting until she had raised those beautiful long-lashed blue eyes to look at him before lowering his head and slowly brushing his lips against hers.

He instantly felt that same surge of electricity through his body as he had at the shelter earlier when their gazes had caught and become locked.

That same flare of desire he felt was also evident in Molly’s eyes.

Rufus’s pleasure was intensified a hundred times with the feel of Molly’s soft lips beneath and responding to his.

“Come home with me.” He lifted his head to breathe huskily against her lips. “I promise you can leave anytime you want, but please come home with me when we leave here.” Rufus desperately needed privacy for when, or if, this attraction between them moved to the next level.

At the same time, he knew it was utter madness to allow himself to succumb to these feelings.

But it was an intensity of desire Rufus had never felt before. With any woman, including his wife.

He could deny it as much as he liked.

Could keep trying to deny Molly in the same way.

But it was becoming increasingly impossible for him to do that now he had seen that same desire reflected in her expressive blue eyes.

A desire the sudden regret in her expression said she was about to deny.

His chest felt heavy. “Molly?—”

“I’m about to take a tray of tea things in to Mr. and Mrs. Kingston. Would the two of you also like a drink?”

Rufus turned to find the receptionist from earlier standing behind them. The same receptionist Molly had told she was Mia’s sister and Rufus’s daughter. Their closeness right now was hardly that of a father and his daughter!

The teasing light in the woman’s eyes obviously agreed with him. “Tea?” she prompted again brightly.

“No. Thank you,” he refused woodenly, almost afraid to look at Molly and see her reaction to the two of them having been found in such a compromising position.

“Don’t look so worried, love.” The receptionist squeezed Molly’s arm as she passed her. “I already knew you weren’t Mrs. Kingston’s sister.”

“You did?”

She nodded. “It says on her notes that her only relatives are her husband and father. But you arrived with Mr. Wynter, so I had to assume he wouldn’t allow just anyone in to see his daughter and granddaughter.”

“You assumed correctly,” he confirmed.

He had no idea if the receptionist was one of the people who had read the articles in the newspaper two years ago about his reconciliation with his daughter, but it was a fair assumption to make that she had.

“Molly is a close friend of Mia’s, and my daughter asked me to bring her with me so she could visit with her and the baby,” he added.

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