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cook. I apologize.”

      “Kate’s cooking, anyway,” Mary muttered. She shook her head, laughing. “You horrible man,” she said again and started toward the hall. “I’ll get our purses, Kate, you can lock the back door after Jason.”

      “Yes, Mama,” Kate agreed.

      The silence in the room when she left it was deafening. Jason stared at her with all the barriers down. There was no teasing banter now to disguise the desire in his hard face.

      He moved toward her, tucking a hand under her soft chin to lift it. “Do you want my mouth as much as I want yours?” he asked under his breath.

      Her lips parted. “Oh, yes...!” she moaned.

      He bent and roughly opened her lips with his, teasing them in a silence that vibrated with tension. He lifted his mouth and brushed it lazily back and forth across hers, feeling the trembling start.

      He bit her lower lip softly. “Do that to me.”

      She did, and both his lean hands came up to frame her face, to hold it steady while his dark eyes blazed into hers for an instant.

      “Now let’s stop playing and do it for real,” he whispered gruffly, and bent with fierce purpose in his mouth.

      Her heart was going crazy when she felt that tentative searching, but before she had time to react to it, her mother’s footsteps echoed toward the kitchen door.

      “Oh, damn,” Kate whimpered under her breath. Jason stood erect on legs that felt weak and looked down at her with black frustration in a face like stone.

      “I wanted it, too,” he said quietly. “Tonight, I’ll give you that kiss, Kate. I’ll give it to you with interest...!”

      Mary walked in with Kate’s purse. “About six suit you, Jason?” she asked the taciturn man who was already at the back door, with his lean hand on the doorknob.

      “Six suits me fine,” he said, and grinned at them.

      “See you then,” Kate said lightly.

      Neither of them fooled Mary, who saw beneath the teasing tones to the intense tension she’d interrupted. “Don’t fall off your horse,” she told Jason.

      “Hold your breath,” he returned. “My God, a man can’t walk in the door around here without getting insulted.”

      “We only insult people we like,” Kate assured him. Her eyes traced his face lovingly. She was still shaking with hunger for the kiss she’d wanted so much.

      “Good thing I’m not on the bad side of you, then,” he chuckled. He winked at them and went out, leaving Kate to lock it behind him.

      “Jason’s a character,” Mary laughed, shaking her head.

      “He’s a nice man,” Kate agreed without looking at her mother, and she smiled. “Shall we go?”

      Nice, Mary thought as they left the house, was a word no sane woman would use when referring to Jason Donavan. She knew suddenly, and with almost tangible delight, that something was going on between Jason and Kate. Now if she could just help things along, she might not have to worry about Kate’s future after all.

      Kate, blissfully unaware of her mother’s plotting, was thinking dreamily of the evening ahead, already tasting Jason’s mouth on her own. She’d put the future out of her mind altogether. All she wanted now was as much of Jason’s company as she could get, and whatever feeling there was in him for her. She was in love with him, and because of that, she decided, she’d give him whatever he asked of her. Even if that meant eventually getting out of his life altogether.

       CHAPTER SIX

      ALL DAY AT work Kate felt like she was on top of the world. Early in the morning one of the regional salesmen came by and made some very flattering remarks about the first of her samples, and when that praise was echoed by Mr. Rogers, she could have walked on a cloud.

      But even more delicious than that was the memory of Jason’s hard face above hers, his eyes glittering with the need to kiss her. The anticipation made it worse, intensified the hunger. She thought about him and her heart skyrocketed, her knees going shaky. It was so new, and things were happening so quickly that it was all a little frightening. She knew that Jason would never hurt her. Or that even if he lost his head and seduced her, he’d make everything right. He’d take such excellent care of Kate that...she frowned...that she’d never be sure that he’d married her because he wanted to or because he’d had to.

      Her bubble began to burst. Jason didn’t want marriage. He’d said so often enough, and his lack of involvement with women proved it. Kate could get close to him, but until the past few days, that had been a friendly closeness, not an emotional or physical one. Perhaps she was knocking him off balance, just as his fierce kisses had done to her. Perhaps he was as helpless to resist what was happening between them as she was. That disturbed her. Kate loved Jason. But she didn’t want to trap him. And unless she was very careful, this physical chemistry was going to get out of hand and push them both into an unwanted situation. If that happened, she’d lose the only friend she had.

      But knowing how to handle this delicate balance was just as worrying. There was no one else she could go to for advice. She could talk to her mother, but not about sex. It was the one area that Mary was too reticent to discuss, and Kate was too shy to blurt it out and ask questions. The only other person she might have talked to would have been Jason. While he might not talk about breeding at the supper table, Kate knew instinctively that he’d tell her anything she wanted to know. Nothing was taboo for them to discuss.

      Kate had to leave Mary at the plant and go home first to start supper because everyone on the pants and shirt line had to stay to get out a cut that was already late for shipment.

      She made spaghetti because there wasn’t time to get the beans cooked. And while she worked, she thought about Jason and wondered how they were going to dodge Mary that night. Thinking about his kisses and the way they made her body throb was such delicious pleasure that she put too much coffee in the basket and had to start all over again.

      She made a green salad and defrosted sesame seed rolls to go with it all. There would still be time to change after she drove back to the plant to pick up her mother....

      A hard knock on the front door stopped Kate in midthought. She went to answer it with her hair tied loosely in back with a ribbon, her makeup worn off, her forehead beaded with sweat. And there stood Jason.

      He was immaculate in dark slacks that he wore with a white silk shirt, open necked, and a navy blue blazer. His creamy Stetson, the one that matched his horribly expensive dress boots, was sitting at a jaunty angle on his head. The look he was giving Kate could have scrambled eggs because it was so warm.

      “You even look sexy when you’re worn to a frazzle, cupcake,” he said quietly, but he looked more solemn than teasing when he said it. There were lines of strain in his dark face.

      “I thought you were coming at six,” she faltered, because Mama wasn’t home, supper wasn’t cooked, the house was empty, and she looked like a refugee from a cookoff.

      “Yes, but one of the men saw you drive home alone,” he returned, letting his dark eyes slide slowly down her body. “So I sent Red Barton to pick up Mary at five-thirty, and I came on over.”

      It was hard to breathe when he looked at her like that. “Did you?” she whispered shakily.

      He took off his hat and moved through the doorway, tossing the Stetson onto the sofa as Kate closed the door.

      He turned, his lean hands catching her gently by the arms to hold her just in front of him. “We’ve got to talk,” he said, his jaw going taut. “Things are getting out of hand too fast.”

      She understood at once. His eyes were already glittering with hunger, and his face was as hard as stone with it. Her lips parted on a

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