Love Beyond Reason(21)

He reseated himself beside her and answered huskily, "Yes?"

Timidly she reached out and slipped her hand into the opening of his shirt. She moved her fingers over the crisp hairs and smoothed the warm muscles. "Thank you again for what you did."

He groaned and leaned over her again. This time his mouth took hers with unleashed passion. His hand went under the covers and settled on her waist. She was aware of his every move through the thin cotton of her nightgown. His hand smoothed over her hip and then cased to her stomach. He pressed his fingers flat, covering her entire abdomen.

A current of pleasure mixed with fear knifed through her as his palm rested on the triangle between her thighs. The seconds ticked by in rhythm to Katherine's accelerated heartbeat. He didn't move except to continue his ardent kiss. Then slowly, almost imperceptibly, his hand began making small concentric circles over her. His fingers caressed lower and deeper until—

"Jace!" It was a cry of alarm, and he removed his hand immediately. He cupped her face between his hands.

"I won't bother you tonight. I promised myself I would- n't. And I will never hurt you." He kissed her gently with closed lips and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

* * *

The next morning Katherine wrapped a robe around herself and changed a fussy, hungry Allison before venturing into the other rooms.

Jace was at the kitchen sink, humming as he squeezed orange juice into a pitcher. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the room. "Good morning, ladies," he said, glancing over his shoulder.

"Good morning. Did you get any sleep?" Katherine noticed several charts and graphs spread out on the living room floor.

"A few catnaps." He wiped his hands on a towel as he faced her. He dropped his bantering tone and asked, "How do you feel?"

She smiled at him and said firmly, "I'm fine, Jace. Really. It seems like a bad dream now in the light of day."

"Good. I'm glad." He stroked her cheek briefly then said, "You feed the princess and I'll fix us some eggs."

"All right," Katherine agreed. Just then the telephone rang and she reached to answer it. "Hello."

She handed the instrument to Jace with a puzzled look on her face. How had anyone known he was here? "Long distance and person-to-person for you," she said.

He didn't meet her eyes as he said brusquely into the receiver, "Jace Manning. Yeah, Mark. Oh, damn! Well, I thought they might ... I don't know. Is everything all set? What's his name again? Okay, what time? No, but I'll find it. Hell, I forgot about the holiday. No. No. I thought they might try a trick like this. I will... Yeah. If there's anything else I should know, call me. You, too. When it's done, I'll call you. You can tell them. Yeah, it'll hit the fan, all right. Good-bye and thanks, Mark."

He hung up the wall phone and stared at it for long moments before he turned around to meet Katherine's wide, green, questioning eyes.

"How long will it take you to get ready to drive to Dallas?"

"Dallas?" she asked. "Why would I be going to Dallas?"

"For a wedding. We're getting married today."

* * *



Chapter 5

?^?

"Have you lost your mind?"

Katherine choked on her question as she stared at Jace in incredulity. He met her shocked stare with a level one of his own.

"Probably," he said grimly, "but our options don't leave us much choice."

"Our options? What are you talking about?" Allison was growing more fretful each second. Katherine shifted the baby to her other shoulder and absently bounced her up and down. All her attention was focused on the man who, in a week's time, had assumed control of her life.

"Katherine." His calm voice was infuriating. "Why don't you get Allison's bottle and feed her while we talk."

Katherine shot him a deadly look, but she turned and picked up the bottle of milk he had had the foresight to take out of the refrigerator an hour earlier. She sat down in one of the bentwood chairs at the kitchen table and positioned Allison under her breast in the crook of her left arm. She would satisfy the infant's momentary fussiness with the bottle and feed her cereal and fruit later. Right now she couldn't risk being distracted.

With as much poise as she could muster, she asked, "Okay, who was that calling you on my telephone? I want to know now what you meant when you said that you and I were getting married. Mind you, there's not the slightest chance in hell that we are, I'm just curious as to how you arrived at such an absurd idea." Katherine felt that under the circumstances, her pronouncement was a masterpiece.

Jace grinned at her while he poured a cup of coffee and said, "Please watch your language in front of the baby, Katherine. How do you take your coffee?" He found that intensely humorous and laughed out loud, startling Allison who glanced at him over the bottle she was sucking at.

"Here I've just proposed marriage to a woman, and I don't even know how she drinks her coffee, or even if she does." He raised an arched brow in query.

"A drop of milk please," said Katherine. When was he going to get to the subject at hand?

He prepared her coffee and set it in front of her on the table. He refilled his own mug and straddled another chair, folding his arms over the curved back.