Seductive Reasoning (17 page)

Kate probably expected a real
dressing down from her mother after he finished, but Seth had quite the
opposite in mind. He focused on Mrs. Summers. “Sex roles are a natural
progression in human development. When a baby boy is born, family members tend
to play a bit more roughly with a boy.

“When a baby girl is born, they are
cuddled and handled with gentler care. As children grow and mature, their
families, the way they are treated, provide a kind of informal lesson in what
it means to be masculine or feminine. Agreed?”

“That has no relevance on whether
Kate should continue with this hobby of hers.”

Seth watched Kate glower at her
mother like an angry she-cat. How could Kate’s mother stand there and call her
dream, her success, a hobby? Seth would like nothing better than to see Kate lash
out, but he grabbed her hand instead and gave her fingers a light squeeze. He
shook his head almost imperceptibly. She swallowed and inhaled a deep breath as
he watched her bring her anger under control.

“Yes or no?” Seth asked before Mrs.
Summers could interrupt again.

“Yes.” Sharp rancor tinged her
voice.

“Good. Wouldn’t you also agree that
family members encourage boys to behave like boys and girls to behave like
girls? In other words, they teach them the proper conduct for their gender.”

“Dr. Fallon,” Mrs. Summers ground
out the words, “I don’t need a lesson in--”

“For instance,” Seth plowed on
ignoring her outburst, “if a girl expresses an interest in dolls or sewing, the
family encourages her. A boy would be discouraged from these pursuits. Correct?”

“Yes, but I don’t see--”

“Just answer the question.”

Mrs. Summers’s mouth pressed into a
firm line. Good, about time someone’s feathers were ruffled around here besides
Kate’s. Seth still held Kate’s hand and felt her fingers clutch his in a
bone-crushing grip. He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles in a soothing motion
until he felt her fingers relax.

“By the age of three most children
have developed a firm sexual identity. When they attend school, their
classmates further enforce these identities. When they enter adolescence and
adulthood, people learn what is expected of their own sex and the opposite sex
at work, at play and when they are with their own gender or with mixed genders.
Would you agree, Mrs. Summers?”

“Yes,” her voice was cold, exact.
Seth stole another glance at Kate and watched her try to fight the smile
teasing the corners of her mouth. He had a sudden and unwanted urge to plant a
big, fat kiss on her lips and coax that hint of a smile into a full-blown grin.

“Good,” Seth continued. “Since the
1960’s, sex roles have become more flexible. For instance, when a man shows
fear or sheds a tear, this is no longer considered unmanly. And a woman can be
more assertive, more competitive and still be completely feminine. Still very
much a woman. Such as your job for instance.”

“My job?”

“Yes. There was a time when women
weren’t allowed to become lawyers or doctors. These were professions considered
only appropriate for men.”

She exhaled a deep breath. “What’s
your point, Dr. Fallon?” Her voice rang with irritation.

Time to soothe the feathers he’d
ruffled.

Seth turned his head slightly and
skimmed his gaze over Kate’s face. Something settled inside him. The fear and
anxiety was gone from her eyes, and he relaxed. He also felt an overwhelming
sense of gratitude.

She trusted him. Why did that mean
so much to him? He smiled at her, then turned his attention back to Kate’s
mother.

“My point, Mrs. Summers, is that
Kate is very much like you.”

Elizabeth Summer’s face paled. She
lifted her chin and gaped at him as though he’d just kicked dirt on her
perfectly polished shoes. “I beg your pardon?”

“You look at the big picture, Mrs.
Summers, and ignore the fact that you and Kate are both in relentless pursuit
of your goals. You’re cut from the same cloth. It’s a known fact that people
who are alike tend to clash. So what if Kate has chosen to pursue a career in
lingerie design. This path may not be the one you would have selected, but it
is a respectable and appropriate profession for her. Lingerie is an item for
women.

“The process of designing the
garments, finding a sub-contractor, arranging a marketing strategy, opening and
running a shop, are quite worthy pursuits for either gender. This not only
flexes Kate’s creative muscles, but expresses her intelligence, her sense of
humor and also celebrates the fact that she is a woman. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Mrs. Summers frowned and shrugged
her shoulders in a very elegant manner. “I suppose, but I still think--”

“Have you ever purchased something
from Kate’s shop?”

She tipped her sculpted nose in the
air. “Certainly not.”

“Why?”

“I don’t see that it’s any of your
business.”

He wanted to blast the woman for
being so narrow-minded, but he held his temper in check. Now was not the time
to blow a gasket when he had her in the palm of his hand. “It’s just that in
the past few days, I’ve seen many professional women such as yourself come into
Kate’s shop.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Really? Yesterday, two local news
anchors and a senator came in and made purchases.”

She laughed. “You’re kidding.”

“No, I’m not. They obviously know
something you don’t, Mrs. Summers.”

She threw him a cultured,
indifferent look, one that a person of noble birth might bestow upon a servant.
“And what might that be, pray tell?”

“That there is more to a woman’s
life than just business. The elements that make her a woman should be explored
and celebrated along with her intelligence and her professional drive.”

“Well, maybe, but I--”

Seth reached over and lifted a
low-backed pink satin short nightgown with matching kimono style wrap from a
rack. “Good. Then you won’t object to trying this on.”

Kate yanked on his arm and leaned
forward until he felt her breath flow over his neck. A shimmer raced down his
spine. She smelled incredible. “What are you doing?” her tone barely audible
against his ear.

Seth swiveled his head and stared
into Kate’s worried eyes. “Making a point.”

“If you don’t mind, I need to get
back to the office.”

Seth pushed the garment into Mrs.
Summers’s hands. “The dressing rooms are in the back of the store.”

She tossed the garment over a rack
of clothing, but not before Seth watched her test the silkiness of the fabric
against her fingers. “I really have to be going.” She nodded at Kate and
glanced once more at the gown she’d idly flung away. An expression of
uncertainty shadowed her face before she headed for the door.

Chapter
Nine

Kate closed and locked the door of
the shop as soon as the last customer departed. Her feet and legs hurt; tension
bunched the muscles of her back into knots, but she couldn’t keep the smile
from her lips. She’d wanted to leap into Seth’s arms and plant a wet kiss on
his sexy mouth for the way he had stood up for her with her mother.

She shook her head. Over the last
few days, Kate had become shameless in her quest to seduce Seth. She was doing
it for the money, for the opportunity to take her designs to the national
level. Wasn’t she? Deep in her heart, she knew the answer. Her original goal of
seducing Seth to win the prize money wasn’t turning out as well as she thought.
Not because she still didn’t want to seduce him, but because the national
backing she’d wanted so badly didn’t mean as much now.

Kate had decided in the beginning
that she would let nothing stand in her way. But something had. Seth. Seth
stood in her way. He not only stood in her way, but her own emotions, her own
deep-seeded need to be accepted for who she was stood in her way as well. She’d
let herself go and hoped she hadn’t been too open and intimidated Seth. Perhaps
that was the only reason he had responded to her. Intimidation and not real
desire?

Had her unconventional views and
blatant efforts to get him to take her to bed threatened him somehow as a man?
Was that the only reason he had responded to her?

Seth was so adorably meticulous, so
unaware of his overwhelming looks, that he made her want to muss his hair,
loosen his clothes and jump his bones. Not necessarily in that order. She was
drawn to him in a way she had never been drawn to a man. He touched her heart.
What he had done today touched her in a way that made her afraid. He shook her
from the safety net she kept around herself.

The safety net of her sexuality.

She didn’t want Seth to want her
for how she looked. She needed him to want her because she was Kate. But she
really hadn’t shown him the real Kate. She’d held back because she was afraid
he might not like what he found inside.

Like the others.

Like her own family.

Today had been a revelation for
her. The way Seth acted made her feel that it would be safe to love him. That
scared her. She’d had men in her past do the same, and then when she allowed
herself to care, they dumped her. She was no expert at seduction of the body or
the heart. Had she overdone it already?

What would happen after they made
love? Would she really win the bet? Would Seth turn and walk away? Would she be
left behind again?

Kate sighed. Who was she kidding?
They were both after the money. She needed to remember that and not let it
cloud the issues. He had given her no reason to believe he might stick around
if they consummated their relationship. He’d made it perfectly clear that he
would go back to his life and leave her to her own.

Seth had stood up for her today,
and she needed to know why. Disbelief still made her giddy. Why had he done that?
He could have easily agreed with her mother. Why hadn’t he? That would have
been the perfect time for him to drive his point home. He could have used her
mother’s opinion and her status in the community against her. He could have
made a major leap in proving his point that a person’s mind and intelligence
were most important. After all, her mother had said almost the same thing--that
she thought Kate’s business was some sort of hobby, something she thought Kate
should have outgrown years ago.

She rolled her head to relieve the
clawing tension, when she felt Seth’s masculine fingers knead the back of her
neck.

“Are you okay?”

The feel of his skin permeated into
her neck, easing the stress of the day. “I’m fine.”

She stepped away from him, away
from the distraction of his touch. Kate reached for the cord on the blinds that
hung over the windows. She closed them almost completely, until the slivers of
the sun’s dying rays trickled through and painted golden bars on the floor.

“You don’t sound fine.”

A trembling filled her chest. A
deep need. A need for Seth to touch her, but she forced it down. This need
would have to wait. There was something she needed to say. She swallowed and
turned to face him. “I want to thank you for what you did today.” She wanted to
thank him with more than words. She wanted to take her measure of him, by
pleasuring them both. But Seth would appreciate another kind of thanks.
Tonight, no matter how much she wanted to, she would keep her hands and her
lips to herself.

“What did I do that you need to
thank me for?”

Kate smiled and looked at him. He
looked so handsome in the afternoon light. Desire nearly overwhelmed her, but
she held it in check. His eyes glowed with sensuality and caring. Did Seth
really care about her? “My mother. You stood up for me. Thank you.”

He smiled slightly. His gaze held
hers; he licked his lips and adjusted the glasses on his nose. Her heart
tumbled in her chest. Seth’s gestures had become familiar to her. Familiar in a
way that made her uncomfortable. She didn’t want to feel that familiarity.

“Your mother is an interesting
woman. Even though I still intend to win the bet, I’m sorry that she hasn’t
given you the support you deserve.”

The sound of his voice wafted over
her skin, stroked the yearning inside her then settled around her heart. “You
really mean that, don’t you?”

“I always say what I mean.”

“What about your family? Have they
always supported you?”

He smiled. “Yes, no matter what.
They were proud when I graduated from college, when I got the job at the
university, and they even cheered when I appeared on the talk show.”

Kate felt a stab of pain around her
heart, a brief but intense feeling of disappointment and regret. Disappointment
that she had yet to live up to her parents’ expectations, and regret that she
had never experienced the joy of total parental support. How would she be able
to keep her heart from falling for Seth while keeping her head straight on her
shoulders? How would she keep her mind focused on the goal she’d been working
toward for far too long? She had never wanted a man as much as she wanted Seth,
and she feared she might not live up to the expectations she had set for
herself in and out of the bedroom.

Kate stared at Seth. He was the
first man who had truly listened to her ideas. He was the only person besides
Aunt Pandora who had ever encouraged her or stood up for her in the wake of her
parent’s objections. “You’re lucky to have such a supportive family. I’ve been
fighting a long time to prove to them that my business is viable. When I found
out about the talk show, I knew that would be a big opportunity for me. I
wanted them to be proud.”

Seth tilted his head and peered at
her. “Maybe they’re more proud than you think.”

“What do you mean?”

“Gut instinct. I think her
attitude’s changing.”

She couldn’t help it. Hope bloomed
in her heart even though she’d felt that hope before when her mother had
relaxed her rigid stance long enough to say she thought the shop looked
adequate in design and color to entice shoppers. That one positive comment from
her mother had given Kate encouragement that had lasted for months. “Do you
really think so?”