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.

in a huff, and stomped off towards the bathroom. Soon, 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

himself

clothes he'd brought, rummaging through it only to find her own

sharply in the leg,

man just grunted in acknowledgment as

frustration, threw the clothes

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

if I've only been a pain these sixteen years," Molly

had been a thorn in his side for

sixteen years, that doesn't mean I should throw my

Molly waited for a

and he didn't

knelt on the bed, crept to the foot, and gently lifted

can you sleep at a time like this?"

bed, returned to

on the bed, hearing the water

water stopped,

of Chad's swollen cheek. She sat on

call her mom when she hesitated, "Yeah, how am I going to explain

to their parents. Was she trying to manipulate them into intervening in Molly and Chad's relationship? "Even a

was no going back

turn to the Cedillo family for

away in the dead of night, she realized she

"This is so annoying."

in this hotel

burn the robe's sash.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for a lighter."

sash tied around

on the edge of the bed, "Then you have to