Kate's Vow (Vows) by Sherryl Woods Page B

David was anything but a man of real character, albeit one who’d lost sight of his priorities for a brief time.
    None of that explained her own behavior. She had wanted him to kiss her, had practically set the stage and invited him to, with her taunting remarks. She never did things like that. Never!
    Davey looked from Kate, who was sweeping scrambled eggs from one side of her plate to the other without lifting so much as a forkful to her mouth, to his father, who was crumbling a piece of toast in a similarly distracted manner.
    “You guys are acting weird,” Davey declared.
    He was right on target. Kate glanced up, found her gaze clashing with David’s, and forced her attention to his son. “That’s because we’re both in a state of shock after the way you stole every piece of property we’d accumulated last night,” she improvised, rather well she thought.
    “Stole it!” he exclaimed indignantly. “I bought it. Can I help it if you managed to go bankrupt trying to stay out of jail and paying off rental charges every time you landed on my property?”
    “Your overdeveloped property,” Kate retorted. She shot David a conspiratorial glance. “Next time, I say we demand zoning laws.”
    “Rigid zoning laws,” David agreed. “And I personally intend to check those dice today to see if you tampered with them. Nobody should have the run of luck you had.”
    Davey’s eyes danced with impish laughter. “You had luck, too, Dad.”
    “Oh, really?”
    “Yeah, rotten luck.”
    His father glowered at him, but with obvious underlying affection. “Just for that, you’re on kitchen duty. Kate and I are going for a walk on the beach. You can come join us when these dishes are done.”
    “But I have a dishwasher,” Kate protested, though Davey didn’t seem to regard being relegated to doing the chore as any sort of punishment.
    “And Davey can load it,” David countered. He held out his hand. “Let’s go.”
    Kate regarded that outstretched hand as if it represented more danger than a crate of TNT. The last time she’d allowed even such an innocent touch, she’d found herself in an embrace that had taken her breath away. To avert a repeat performance, she grabbed up her dishes and put them on the counter, as close as she could get them to the dishwasher without undermining David’s order. She caught the unmistakable gleam of understanding in his eyes as she tried to sashay out the door with no hint of the turmoil she was in.
    Outside, with the morning fog still hanging over the ocean, she jammed her hands in her pockets and set off at a brisk pace. She reminded herself sternly that she was a woman who took on powerful men in court all the time without the least trepidation. She reminded herself that David Winthrop was no more powerful, no more threatening than any one of those adversaries.
    And then he put his hand on her shoulder and proved her wrong. She felt a jolt of electricity that went clear to her toes. Some dangers obviously had nothing to do with intelligence, courtrooms or adversarial relationships. Some dangers, it seemed, came from within. This man had an innate ability to shake her up with the simplest gesture, the slightest contact. Apparently ignoring those reactions wasn’t going to make them go away.
    “I’m curious about something,” she said eventually.
    “Oh?”
    “Why did you kiss me last night?”
    “Surely a woman as bright as you are can figure that one out,” he said, amusement written all over his face. He didn’t seem nearly as distressed by what had happened as she did.
    “Never assume anything,” she shot right back, the comment as much an explanation for her behavior as it was a challenge to him.
    “Why does any man kiss a woman?” he asked with a great display of patience. “Because he finds her attractive.”
    Attraction, she thought. An inexplicable chemistry. She could deal with that. She was attracted to him, too. That didn’t mean they had to
do
anything