Love Beyond Reason(11)

"Mary," interrupted Katherine quickly. She didn't want him to say that the baby looked like Peter.

He glanced at her over the baby's head. "That's what I was about to say. Of course, I never saw Mary, only pictures, but Allison has her coloring. Are her eyes blue? She's so lazy, she hasn't opened them for me yet."

Katherine laughed. "She's a good sleeper. And her eyes are blue. I hope they don't change color."

He turned to leave, but Katherine halted him. "Wait. She may spit up on your coat. Let me put this over your shoulder."

She picked up an absorbent pad and placed it over his shoulder, patting it into place. The close contact with his tall frame made her heart begin to pound. She stepped back quickly, but not before he noticed her reaction.

To cover her embarrassment, she busied herself with gathering up other supplies for the baby and switching out lights as they made their way out of the apartment.

Happy greeted them at the back door of her house and Jace relinquished Allison to her eager arms. She barely took the time to compliment them on how nice they looked before she began gurgling to Allison.

Crossing the lawn under the pecan trees, Jace suggested that they take her car. "I'm sorry, but the jeep is rather unsuitable for a date."

"No, we can take my car." She handed him the keys, and he clasped her elbow as he helped her into the passenger side. Her arm tingled long after his touch. The compact car barely accommodated his height, but somehow he managed to wedge himself behind the steering wheel, muttering deprecations and curses when he bumped first his head then his knee.

Planning the dinner-dance had consumed much of Katherine's time since her employment in the public relations office. Now it all seemed so inconsequential. All of her senses were absorbed by Jason Manning.

She made polite introductions; she ate dinner; she applauded the speaker; she conversed when she was required to. But everything paled against her awareness of the man beside her. Even among strangers he behaved with courtly manners and easy charm, totally confident of himself.

An awkward moment came when Katherine introduced Jace to her boss, Ronald Welsh. The two men eyed each other warily, and their immediate reciprocal hostility made Katherine uneasy.

"Mr. Welsh." Jace extended his hand.

Ronald Welsh shook Jace's hand, but there was no warmth in his expressionless gray eyes as he murmured a greeting.

"Katherine, you look lovely this evening," he said, dismissing Jace and turning his full attention to Katherine. He reached out and stroked her arm. Instinctively she shrank away from him. Recently he had made similar moves in the office, and they never failed to make her uncomfortable. She didn't want him touching her. Unwarranted and unnecessary familiarity had always disturbed her. She reflected on the kiss this afternoon and pushed the thought aside. That hadn't been the same thing at all!

"Thank you, Ronald." He had insisted she call him by his first name, but she didn't like doing so. It altered their relationship in a manner that she felt was injurious to a professional rapport.

"Would you dance with me, Katherine?" Before she could answer, Ronald Welsh had scooped her into a bearlike embrace and hustled her away. There was little she could do but go along with him. After all, he was her boss, and she couldn't afford to offend him.

Ronald's thinning hair was heavily oiled in order to keep the sparse strands in place over the balding spots. The hair oil's perfume was overpowering.

"This is nice, isn't it?" he asked, drawing her closer to his short, thick body.

"Yes, very," she said. He seemed intent on holding her suffocatingly close and pressing her into his paunch.

She suffered through that dance and several others before Jace came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. He didn't issue a verbal invitation to dance. Instead one strong arm slid around her waist while the other captured her hand.

Jace pulled her close to him and led her into a slow, effortless dance. He didn't speak. She couldn't have. The sensations that were emanating from the pit of her stomach and spreading over her body reached her vocal cords, constricted them, and rendered them useless.

The hand that held her to him with fingers spread out wide on her back was like a brand that scorched her skin. Through the sheer fabric of her dress she could feel hard, muscular thighs pressing against her own. The warm breath that fanned her temple was soft and aromatic.

She was too close to him to look up into his face, but she could see the black curls that brushed his collar, and she had a compelling desire to slide her hand toward those curls and caress their black silkiness with her fingertips.

The music stopped and yet he didn't release her. He maintained a possessive hold on her arm and steered her to one of the French doors that led out onto a terrace.

* * *



Chapter 3

?^?

The campus was dark. Only the banquet hall where the faculty dance was being held was lit. Katherine followed Jace's lead, never pausing to examine why she did so without any hesitation.

They crossed the brick terrace and a narrow strip of manicured lawn to a low wall that surrounded a rose garden. Before she could protest, he grasped her around the waist and swung her up to the top of the wall and sat her down. "Your feet hurt."

Could he read her mind? "How did you know? Was I limping? These are new shoes and they are killing me," she confessed.