Sweet Mischief’s Rollercoaster Romance

Chad kept pushing, "So, care to explain why you took that picture last night with my trench coat after your shower, pretending you were snuggled up with me, and then claimed you wanted to sleep with me?" "That was all staged. I just propped up the coat to look like you were there. Only a tiny bit of it was even visible," Molly clarified.

Chad realized there had been a misunderstanding. "Do you really think that explanation would fly back home? If I tell our folks that the hair on the pillow was actually mine; that I carelessly tossed my pajamas aside in the morning; that we shared a bed at noon; and that we just got intimate, who do you think they'd believe?"

Molly felt like kicking herself, realizing she'd played with fire and got burned.

"Say whatever you want, but I'm not marrying you," she declared, turning her head to give Chad a defiant yet beautiful profile, refusing to look at the man looming over her.

Chad was facing his first real obstacle. He gazed down at her, "So, you'd rather have Vivian marry me?"

"You wouldn't dare!" Molly turned back, her eyes flashing a warning.

Chad asked with a smile, "Then who's going to marry me?"

Taking a deep breath, Molly said, "Stay single for all I care."

Only then did she realize she felt as though a mountain was pressing down on her. "Chad, get off me. Don't make me report you for harassment."

"Do you have any proof?" Chad looked down at her, unfazed, a smirk playing on his lips.

Molly opened her mouth to retort, then realized her phone was out of reach and her hands were pinned down.

"Brother!" she shouted in anger, a cry that seemed to echo in Chad's heart.

He looked at Molly, her eyes red with fury, and could no longer hold her gaze.

Soon after, he rolled off her and lay beside her on the bed.

Molly quickly got up, burrowing into the covers.

Now too agitated to speak, she lay there, Chad resting at the foot of the bed. She glanced sideways at him, "What happened to your face?"

"Your dad did a number on me," Chad confessed.

"You had it coming," Molly retorted mercilessly. "If I was there, I'd slap you twice as hard."

Officer Chad fell silent.

the sound of running water filled the room. Later, she returned and dropped a cool, damp washcloth on Chad's face. "No ice, so this will have to do. Don't want you being the laughingstock at

allowed himself

of clothes he'd brought, rummaging through

him sharply in the leg, "Chad, you did this on

just grunted in acknowledgment as her

in frustration, threw the

sixteen years, and you've given me plenty of grief. Just consider this me

pain these

had been a thorn in his side for as long as she

I've been a pain for sixteen years, that doesn't mean I should throw my whole

silent, and Molly waited for a reply that

and he

quietly knelt on the bed, crept to the foot, and gently lifted the washcloth from Chad's face to

at a time like this?" she muttered,

the bed, returned to

man on the bed, hearing the water running, smiled

the water stopped, so did

side of Chad's swollen cheek. She sat on the bed,

her mom when she hesitated, "Yeah,

she had impulsively sent that kiss photo to provoke Vivian. Vivian, unpredictable as ever, had shown it to their parents. Was she trying to manipulate them into intervening in Molly and Chad's relationship? "Even a pig's brain wouldn't

going back to the Byrne household

turn to the

sneak away in the dead of night, she

"This is so annoying."

trapped in this hotel

to find scissors, she reached for Chad's pocket looking for a lighter to burn the robe's sash. But as her hand slipped into his pocket, Chad quickly grasped

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for a lighter."

around her waist, "I don't have

on the edge of the bed, "Then you