Family Man

relaxed in Maureen's face. “Thank you, Luke,” she said softly.
    Hayden appeared stunned, but he started to smile slowly. “Didn't know you appreciated my work, Luke.”
    “It's a relatively new interest of mine,” Luke admitted.

    Luke pulled Katy into his arms as soon as he had closed the hotel suite door.
    “I thought I'd never get you alone,” he muttered as he covered her mouth with his own. The sense of urgency that was driving his emotions tonight had created an aching hunger in him that only Katy could assuage.
    Katy parted her lips for him without protest. Her arms went around his neck, and she leaned into him.
    The wispy silk of her yellow and turquoise dress was as thin and insubstantial as it looked. Touching her through the gossamer stuff was almost the same as touching her without anything at all in the way.
    Almost, but not quite.
    Luke stripped the dawn-colored dress from her and dropped it onto the floor. Katy's eyes were clear and warm and welcoming as he carried her to the bed.
    He wanted to take his time with her, but his need was overpowering. He left a trail of discarded clothing on the rug, his own as well as Katy's. She made a soft little sound when he put her down on the white sheets, and then she reached for him.
    His hands were shaking with need a few minutes later when he parted her thighs and lowered himself over her. He entered her slowly, pushing carefully against the natural resistance of her tight passage. When he was safely inside he drove deep, seeking release and reassurance and the comfort of knowing she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
    Katy closed around him, hot and wet and clinging. He felt the dampness of his own sweat on his shoulders and the exciting bite of her nails as she clutched at him.
    When her small, sharp little teeth bit into the muscle of his shoulder all the questions that had made the day a maelstrom of uncertainty for Luke vanished. His body surged toward climax. He heard Katy call his name, and he shuddered. And then he was lost in the free-falling dive that would tear him apart and put him back together once more, a whole man.
    How could he have thought for one single minute that Katy had been plotting vengeance? he wondered.

    “So why have you been in such a rotten mood for the past couple of days?” Katy asked conversationally.
    Luke lounged against the pillows. Katy was lying on her stomach, her arms folded on top of his bare chest. One of her legs was bent at the knee and she was swinging it idly back and forth above the rumpled bed.
    “I have not been in a rotten mood for two days.” Luke threaded his fingers through her hair.
    “Yes, you have.” She grinned. “Even by Gilchrist standards.”
    He gave her a playful swat on her nude rear. “I resent that. You can't judge my moods by Gilchrist standards. You have to judge them by my own personal standards. And you don't know me well enough yet to make judgments like that.”
    “You're evading the issue.” She plucked at his curling chest hair.
    “Ouch.” He grabbed her tormenting fingers. “Whatever my mood has been, I can assure you I am feeling terrific at the moment. Or at least I was until you started torturing me.”
    She eyed him narrowly. “Are you sure you're no longer in a foul mood?”
    “Positive. Look, I'm smiling.”
    “Gilchrists can smile even when they—”
    Luke closed her mouth with his fingers. “Don't say it.” He took his hand away.
    “Okay. If you're sure your mood has vastly improved since yesterday,” she murmured slowly, “I've got a question for you.”
    “What's that?”
    “What did you really think about the locations the real estate agent showed us yesterday afternoon?” Katy asked eagerly.
    Luke considered the terrible possibility that Pesto Presto was ultimately going to be more important in Katy's life than he was, and some of his good mood started to fade.
    “They all sucked,” he said.
    Katy grabbed a pillow and began bashing him with it. Luke laughed until he felt his body growing hard again, and then the laughter turned to passion, and he was lost once more in the sweet heaven of Katy's warmth.

CHAPTER

EIGHTEEN
    T wo days later Luke responded to the knock on the cottage door, a cup of coffee in one hand, his mind on some figures he had been crunching on his computer. He knew by the way Zeke flicked his ears that whoever was on the other side of the door was a friend. That limited the possibilities to two: Katy and her