“Bet I could change your mind,” he said, his voice low and gravelly as his eyes traveled over her body.

Her breath caught just a little. “Jackson—”

He sighed. “You’re overthinking it.”

“I can’t help it. I’m a thinker! And right now I keep thinking about everyone’s look of horror when they find out what we’ve done.”

“Don’t do that. What we did wasn’t wrong.”

“It wasn’t right either.”

“Bullshit,” he growled. He set his coffee cup on the nightstand, then pulled hers from her fingers and set it aside as well. He shifted closer, his hands sliding around her neck, his thumbs pushing her chin up so their eyes met.

“I won’t tell you that this isn’t challenging or that there’s not a huge bitchy elephant in the room whose name is Madison. I know you’re freaking out, and I get it, but Molls…”

His thumbs swept across her bottom lip, and her eyes fluttered shut.

“How about we just see where this goes?” he finished quietly.

She shook her head. “But Madison—”

“Is my ex-wife. Ex.”

Mollie pulled back, a little annoyed at his determination to pretend that it was all okay. “There are some people who are just off-limits, and friends’ and family members’ exes are among them. Isn’t that part of the guy code, as well as the girl code?”

Jackson blew out a long breath, picking up their coffee cups once more and handing hers back to her. She suspected they were both using the mugs as shields now, but she didn’t really care. She couldn’t think when he was touching her.

“I’m going to ask you something, and you have to promise not to freak out on me,” Jackson said.

“No deal,” she said, taking a sip of coffee and shaking her head. “I mean, can you see that working with any woman?”

“Fine. Freak all you want, but I’m asking anyway. Let’s say you had an ex-husband who was living with Madison. Do you think she’d hesitate before sleeping with him?”

Mollie opened her mouth, the image of a disheveled Shawn coming out of Madison’s hotel room flashing before her eyes.

Jackson’s gaze sharpened. “What?”

Mollie blew out her breath in annoyance. There were downsides to knowing each other so well. It was hard to keep secrets.

“I don’t know for sure, but I think Madison slept with one of my boyfriends. I mean, she denied it. But the circumstances were…damning.”

“That bitch,” Jackson muttered. “I’m sorry, babe.”

She gave a little smile. “I’m mostly over it. He was hardly the one. But I don’t think you understand. It was while you two were married.”

He gave her a bland look. “And?”

She frowned. “And you should be upset.”

Jackson snorted. “Honey, your sister cheated on me more times than I can possibly count.”

“Well, toward the end, sure, when you guys were basically living as strangers, but this was—”

“Not just the end, Mollie. The whole damn time. She didn’t even make it to our first anniversary.”

Mollie’s lips parted in surprise. “I can’t believe that. Maddie’s no saint, but she loved you early on. I know that.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Doesn’t mean she didn’t cheat.”

“How do you know?”

He looked down at his coffee cup. “I saw her with Tyler Medona.”

Mollie’s mouth was now gaping all the way open. “Your publicist? Your friend?”

He shrugged again, but Mollie knew he couldn’t possibly feel as indifferent as that. Tyler had been not only his publicist but also his friend. And Sandy Medona had been Madison’s best friend.

“You’re sure?”

Jackson’s hazel eyes lifted. “Came home early from practice and saw her giving him one of her mediocre BJs on the chaise longue by the pool.”

Mollie had entirely forgotten about her coffee. “Are you sure?”

“Sure that my wife’s mouth was wrapped around my best friend’s dick? Yeah. Pretty sure.”

“When?”

He lifted a shoulder. “A couple weeks before the rumors about me cheating started circulating.”

Mollie lifted her fingers to her lips as his implication sunk in. “You think she spread those rumors—”

“To beat me to the punch about her cheating? Yeah. I do.”

Mollie put her hands over her face. “I don’t understand. How did the sister I remember turn into the wife you remember?”

He set a hand briefly, comfortingly, against her arm. “You saw Madison through the lens of childhood.”

“Maybe,” she muttered. “But it doesn’t change the fact that she took care of me when she didn’t have to.”

To Jackson’s credit, he nodded in agreement. “She was a decent sister to you back then.”

Mollie lifted an eyebrow. “I take it by your addition of ‘back then’ that you don’t think she’s a good sister to me now?”

“I’m not here to poison your thoughts about your sister, Mollie. All I’m asking is that you separate your relationship with her from your relationship with me.”

“It’s not that simple,” she whispered.

“Make it that simple. I’m single. You’re single. And I refuse to feel ashamed or guilty for having sex with the woman I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. Let’s be adults about this, Molls. We keep on as we’ve always been; we just add sex to the mix. Really good sex.”