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

were still hugging him—even his back—and he could
see their faces which were all different colors; black and brown
and beige. There was even one really white kid with flaming red
hair. Their expressions were filled with earnest—he didn’t know
what else to call it—love. They seemed to love the bunny.
    “We need to let the Easter Bunny stand up.” Molly
appeared at his side, and she and the child-handlers removed
several kids that were still clinging to him like starfish to an
underwater rock. Hearing the chatter and the enthusiasm emanating
from them, Drake found himself smiling inside the damned bunny
head.
    Okay. Happy kids were nice to have around…not that
kids were always happy.
    “Let’s go over to the gazebo and make some baskets to
hold all the eggs you’ll get at the Easter Picnic.” Molly urged the
children toward the summer house that he guessed now held unadorned
Easter baskets, stacks of pastel-colored tulle, heaps of bright
green plastic pretend grass and stacks of spools of ribbon.
    At least that was what he saw stacked in the back of
Molly’s Beetle.
    Getting to his big bunny feet, he found a smaller
child and an older girl on either side of him. Forming some sort of
junior escort, the little girl took his furry paw in her hand, like
she was accustomed to having a big rabbit walk beside her. Drake
looked down into the mocha face she innocently lifted to him and
retrieved the paw from her long enough to brush it across her small
braid-covered head. She smiled sweetly as she again clutched his
paw.
    “This way to the gazebo.” Continuing to urge the
group of kids along, Molly seemed to be functioning as his voice,
since he couldn’t speak.
    Drake walked across the grass, the little girl still
holding one paw while the older girl held his other paw. They all
climbed the shallow steps to the gazebo that he and Molly had built
before their steamy kiss.
    As he walked across the garden, his mind flashed back
to that moment, her mouth moving beneath his in instantaneous
response. He’d surprised her, bracketing her in between the ladder
and himself, but she’d responded to his kiss like a wanton. All
day, he’d tried to remember that she was his friend and he
shouldn’t be thinking of her mouth and the sweet thrust of her
breasts against her work shirt—breasts he could still remember
fondling when they were teens.
    And then he’d kissed her again. Pulled her into his
arms and bent his head to take her mouth like he was a wild man
claiming her.
    He felt himself getting hard just thinking about it.
Damn, she kissed like a sinner, all hunger and need.
    Drake had made out with a number of women since he
was a teen, sleeping with his share. That was just what a single
guy with a healthy sex drive did. He’d dated, even seriously with
several, but kissing Molly again had left him feeling like he was
going to explode. At their first kiss the other day when she was
upset about her cartoon guy showing up late for the kid’s birthday
party, he’d felt himself go from zero to hard in seconds.
    You weren’t supposed to feel that way about a friend!
What the hell was the matter with him? Yes, she’d been more than a
friend for a while, but he thought he’d moved beyond those kinds of
feelings for Molly.
    And then he’d kissed her by the ladder that day and
she’d shoved him away from her like he was a leper. From really,
really hot to colder than the arctic.
    He didn’t need to put himself in this kind of
situation.
    In a few minutes, his mini escorts led him up the
gazebo’s shallow steps and he sat at the table in a chair pulled
out for him by the bigger girl.
    “Here, bunny.” She sat down in one next to him,
pulling a plain basket forward and beginning to look through
several containers of ribbon.
    While he was distracted by the child next to him
checking out the basket decorations, a small blond boy climbed up
on his lap.
    Drake looked out the bunny suit’s mesh eyes at the
six year-old