LITMIR.BIZ

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the uncomfortable silence, hoping he’d relent.

      “Do you know anything about a balloon battle?” he finally asked.

      Katherine laughed in relief and nodded at his quizzical expression. “Yes.” She checked her watch. “Oops, we’d better hurry or we’ll be late. Wednesdays at two o’clock sharp, all the kids and some adults engage in a water-balloon battle.”

      Grateful for something to break the spell, she grabbed some bags of balloons from a drawer and led the way out of the office.

      “A game,” Al concluded.

      “Sort of.”

      “And what is the objective?”

      Katherine came to a stop on the wooden front porch of the rec building and looked at him. “You’ve never been in a water-balloon battle?” When he shook his head, she made a tsking sound. “The objective of a water-balloon battle is to get everyone wet and to laugh a lot.”

      “But who wins?”

      “No one.”

      “Then why?”

      “For fun,” she said, wondering why the concept seemed foreign to him. “Like making mud pies when you were three.”

      Alex looked at her blankly. Mud pies?

      “Seeing who can do the worst belly flopper off the side of the pool?”

      His German swimming instructor had allowed only perfect dives. He shook his head.

      Katherine was determined to find common ground. “Who can blow the biggest bubble-gum bubble?”

      Alex’s lips twitched at that. He could just imagine the appalled expression on his etiquette instructor’s face if the future ruler of Moreno had suggested a bubble-blowing contest. “Try again.”

      “Okay. Last one. Little boys are famous for this. Who can spit the farthest?”

      He laughed out loud. “You’re joking.”

      Katherine smiled, liking the rare sound of his deep chuckle. “No. And if you’ve never done any of those things, you’re either an alien or you were raised in a bubble.”

      He felt his grin fall, remembering the scandal that had rocked his childhood. “You could be right.”

      The turbulence in his dark eyes tugged at her. Al obviously knew how to have the adult brand of fun. He was an expert at everything from sailing and charming conversation to seducing a woman. But he seemed lost when it came to carefree, silly, childlike fun. It made her wonder what he’d missed. It made her care. She deliberately kept her tone light. “An extraterrestrial. The kids’ll love it. Well, get ready for a new experience.”

      About thirty kids, some of them over thirty years old, stood in the grassy area set aside for outside recreational games. They wore bathing suits and were screaming for blood.

      In between filling the balloons with water, Chad was inciting the crowd to all kinds of watery violence. When they saw Katherine with more balloons, they cheered. Katherine and Al filled the rest of the balloons while Chad divided the group into teams.

      “That should be enough,” Katherine said, and began to put the balloons into two separate piles. “If you don’t want to play, you’d better—”

      Splat.

      Alex jumped as the balloon burst against his back, cold water seeping into his shirt and pants. He looked over his shoulder at the culprit, a pigtailed little girl. He was so shocked, it must have shown on his face. Her eyes grew huge with fright, and she began to run away.

      “Stacy!” Katherine caught her and handed the little girl another balloon. Uncertain, Stacy looked from Katherine to Alex. Katherine gave her a nudge of encouragement, and little Stacy heaved the balloon smack into the side of his head.

      Alex took it like a man. With water dripping off his nose and eyelashes, he even managed a smile for the little feminine warrior. “This is fun?” he asked Katherine when Stacy ran off yelling in victory. “Am I supposed to thank you?”

      Katherine didn’t bother hiding her laughter. “Well, I bet you’re cooler now.”

      There was another splat. Katherine shrieked, snatched up a balloon from the rapidly depleting supply and threw it at her attacker.

      Catching the spirit of the event, he took a balloon, testing its weight in his hand. Katherine turned, laughing, then shaking her head when she saw the balloon in his hand.

      “No,” she said, backing away.

      “I owe you.” Going against every rule he’d ever learned about how to treat a woman, he threw it and scored a direct hit.

      “Al Sanders!” she yelled, clearly torn between laughter and indignation. “You’ll pay!”

      But the balloon she tossed back barely fazed him. He was too busy looking at Katherine. Her eyes were full of laughter. Her wet shirt stretched like a second skin across her breasts. Her nipples strained against the drenched cloth, begging for a man’s hands and mouth, he thought, and felt a corresponding thickness in his loins. Suddenly he understood the appeal of a water-balloon battle.

      Katherine sat on the beach at midnight wearing a flowing blue dress that dropped off one shoulder. She was waiting for something, somebody, as she dug her bare toes into the cool sand and lifted her head to the breeze.

      She closed her eyes until something soft brushed her cheek, and the scent of a rose reached her nostrils. She looked up, and he was there.

      He smiled and drew her to her feet. “Where have you been hiding?”

      Her heart sped up. “I haven’t been hiding. I’ve been waiting.”

      “For me,” he said with customary arrogance.

      “Maybe.”

      He pulled her close. “Who knows you like I do? Who knows what pleases you?”

      She felt a wave of uncertainty. “Sometimes I don’t even know me.”

      “Yes, you do.” He rubbed his thumb over her lower lip. “And what you don’t know, I’ll teach you.”

      She shivered at the intensity in his dark eyes. What if he tried and found her lacking?

      He must have read her mind. “Never.”

      Holding her gaze, he continued to rub her lip. Hesitantly, Katherine stroked his thumb with the tip of her tongue. He tasted warm and a little salty and male. Something dipped and swayed within her at the small intimacy.

      “Good,” he said. He glazed his thumb over the edge of her lower teeth, and she bit down gently. She saw the approval in his eyes and felt a rush of pleasure. She’d pleased him. Then she pleased herself and suckled. The heaviness in her abdomen surprised her.

      “You make it difficult to wait, Katherine,” he muttered in a strained voice. He pulled his hand away and brought hers to his mouth. “But turnabout is fair play, no?”

      He kissed the palm of her hand. Then he sucked a finger into his mouth. The sensation drew her nipples tight. Embarrassed, she wondered how to hide it.

      “There’s no need to hide your desire, chérie. It pleases me.” He gave her finger a playful nip and placed her hand on his shoulder. Then he touched one of her nipples.

      She gasped. The gentle caress stung. She was too needy, too soon. It made her feel weak and vulnerable.

      He seemed to understand. “How long have you been this way?”

      “Too long,” she breathed. “Much too long.”

      Anger flashed in his eyes, then passed. He pulled her into a comforting hug. She sighed against his white shirt. Beneath her cheek, she felt the beat of his heart, the hard, warm muscle of his chest.

      “I’m

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