The Best Man (16 page)

But she had too much to lose.

Giving in to her urge to stay with Luke made her weak, unable to take care of things on her own. She couldn’t let that happen. Not after Joel. Not ever again.

“Seriously, Luke,” she stared in his eyes as she spoke. “We shouldn’t have let this get out of hand.”

Luke’s eyes flickered. “But we were dirty and sweaty from working on that house. We needed a shower.”

“Together?” Kate struggled to frown. “No one said we had to take a bath at the same time.”

“It’s more fun—”

Kate wanted to cave in, join his banter and forget the world. The temptation made her angry with herself and him. She didn’t like feeling weak. “Get serious, Luke. You know this could ruin everything.”

“What? You can’t swing a hammer because you slept with me?” Luke tried to take her hand. “Or do you mean because we shared a mid-night snack of cold Chinese food?”

Kate huffed and pulled her hand away. “I mean because we slept together, and you know it.”

“Because of Joel?”

“What does he have to do with this?” Pulling the sheet up to her chin, Kate stuffed the pillow behind her back and leaned against the headboard. “Why mention him?”

“Because you were married—”

“Technically, we still are until his papers come through. But our
marriage
was over the instant I learned he’d left me stranded in a foreign country.” She blew at hair hanging down in her eyes and sighed. “But this isn’t about Joel. He means noting to me now. The fact that I have to work with him is inconvenient, nothing more.” She allowed her glance to travel the length of the sheet covering his naked body.

Mistake!
It didn’t matter if the sheets were seven-hundred and fifty thread count of fine Indian cotton. All that registered in her brain was the bulges revealed by the smooth cotton covering Luke from the waist down.

Her mouth watered. Memory of his body claiming hers turned her bones to putty. Had she lost her mind last night? Had she thought she could cross the line with Luke and survive unscathed?

Glancing at the hair on his arms made her temperature soar, never mind the secrets hidden by the sheet. Every muscle in her body twitched. She wanted to explore every inch of him again. She wanted to feel him pressed against her body and...

She swallowed.

“I’m thinking about work.” Her voice croaked past her dry throat. She avoided looking him in eye. He could draw her back in his arms with one glance. Clutching the sheet to her chest, she swung her feet over the side of the bed. “Where are my clothes?”

“Kate?”

“I-“ she cleared her throat, “I signed up to work all weekend for Habitat for Humanity.”

“Me too, but it’s early, yet.”

“I-I need a shower.”

“I was thinking about food.” Luke’s weight shifted on the bed.

Kate’s shoulders tensed.
Don’t look while he’s naked
.
She’d never turn away if she did
. She pulled the sheet tight, and managed to wrap it around her back. Then she heard the metal sound of a zipper, realized Luke had pulled on his jeans, and managed to breathe again. “W-where are my clothes?”

“You don’t remember?”

The laughter in his voice made Kate turn as she stepped away from the bed. She followed his laughing glance and saw her bra hanging from the top of the door. Heat rushed up her neck. She narrowed her eyes to slits and looked at him. “I’ll never live this down, will I?”

“I hope not,” Luke’s voice rumbled with laughter. “It was a night I never want to forget.”

***

“Come on, Kate! Loosen up! That’s three times you’ve smashed your thumb today.” Luke grabbed the offending thumb and examined the damage. He sighed and pulled on her arm until she looked at him. “Don’t take it so hard. I had a great time…I thought you did too.”

He knew he’d made a major blunder.

Sleeping with Kate was his dream come true, except he wanted all her nights, not just one. But the moment she opened her eyes this morning, she had retreated from him. He vowed he would take things slow. He even backed off from asking her out for this very reason.

Now, one day of working together to help others had weakened his resolve. He’d taken one look at Kate’s bleeding hand, and wanted to build a wall around her to protect her.

He needed to protect her from himself. She wasn’t ready for a relationship. But, what had he done? He’d rushed a very willing Kate right into his bed. Now they were both acting as if the other would attack without warning.

He tried to protect her…but he might have ruined everything. “We’re still friends, right?”

Kate blinked. It was perspiration in her eyes…had to be. These hardhats were hot. The sun was beating down on the newly applied roof, making the inside of the structure like an oven.
Oh yeah, it was just sweat.

But her gaze rested on the stubble on Luke’s chin, and the muscles in her belly tightened. This was not how she wanted to react to Luke…or was it? She cared about him. She had slept with him, hadn’t she? So why shouldn’t she respond to the sensual reaction to his nearness?

Because!

Getting emotionally involved defeated her goal, and made the new Kate as weak as the old Kate. She sighed. That was the issue. She had lost her identity in her relationship with Joel. She didn’t want to repeat that mistake again.

Luke was nothing like Joel, she knew that. But her reaction to him was more powerful than any emotion she had ever felt. If she’d lost track of who she was in her former relationship, how could she survive when her reaction to Luke was so strong?

She lifted her chin.

“We are…but just because I like sushi doesn’t mean I want to eat it often.” Kate swallowed and tried to keep her voice calm. This was harder than she expected. Her hand itched to touch the soft cotton t-shirt covering Luke’s chest.

Her body yearned to feel his arms hold her tight. Her lips starved for the touch of his mouth on hers. She hadn’t felt this way when her relationship with Joel, ended. Come to think about it, she hadn’t felt this hunger when she first met Joel. Luke had invaded her body and soul. She wanted…

Luke cleared his throat. “You’re saying we need to back away?”

She swallowed. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. Her lips were stiff. When words wouldn’t come, she risked looking into his eyes, and nodded.

Luke held her gaze for the longest time.

All around them hammers banged nails, saws whined against wood, and voices lifted in shouts of encouragement or instruction. But in their little oasis in the back corner of one of the rooms, time seemed suspended.

The muscles in Luke’s jaw bunched, showing his tension. His chest expanded, almost making her whimper with need. Then he nodded his dark head, making the bright yellow hardhat bob.

A sigh seeped past her lips and she wished with every fiber of her being that it could be the touch of Luke’s lips whispering against hers. Instead, she pulled her hand out of his grip…one finger at a time. “It’s better this way.”

***

And just like that, she found herself alone, again, facing Monday morning with dread that had nothing to do with sore hands and muscles due to helping build a house over the weekend.

Of course, all her sore muscles couldn’t be blamed on lifting lumber or hammering nails. The tenderness inside her body had nothing to do with helping build a house for a deserving family, and everything to do with her need to feel Luke’s body inside her, again.

It was too soon.

Kate knew that. Her brain accepted the fact that getting involved with anyone at this stage would be a mistake. But her heart wasn’t buying a word of her excuses.

Without thinking, she fell back on the training she’d learned at her mother’s knee. She dressed carefully for the office in black slacks and matching top under a bright yellow jacket.

One glance in the mirror told her she looked on top of the world. It was the second glance that revealed the dark circles under her eyes, and reminded she’d had two sleepless nights in a row. One night in Luke’s arms, and last night tossing and turning as she relived their long night of lovemaking.

But her appearance told the whole story. Shadows clouded her eyes. Her hair fought her skills with a brush and mousse, and clung to her head looking as limp as she felt.

But her mother’s training held strong. In no time, Kate was walking into the office, putting up a good front. “Morning, Laurel. Good weekend?”

“I guess,” Laurel said as she reached for a stack of messaged. “The Crisis Center called three times.”

“Thanks,” Kate turned away, reading the message as she went.
Oh, no!
One of the women she had been canceling at the shelter had gone home to her abusive husband. Kate’s insides churned.

She couldn’t let that happen. When she’d met with her client, the woman had broken ribs and a black eye. If she took her three kids back in that home environment, there was no telling if she would ever come back out alive.

Kate paused to put her briefcase on the desk. Her forehead wrinkled in a frown as she thought of the three young children and their mother. She had to save this family. This woman had everything to live for. Unlike most of the cases the Center encountered, this victim had a college degree. That meant she had the means…a chance to save her children.

Kate had tried to convince the woman she had the courage to make that move. She’d thought she was winning. The client was very protective of her children. Why…why would she go back, now?

Kate flipped open the latch on her briefcase and scrambled through the files until she found the case notes. One minute later, she had the woman’s home address and phone number.

Would a phone call work?

Kate had worked with this woman long enough to know she could crumble at any second. Look what happened over the week-end. Kate had left her alone while she donated time to Habitat For Humanity, and her client had caved in and gone home to an abusive husband.

She had to help. That meant more than making a phone call. Grabbing her handbag, Kate rushed out the door. “I’m going out. Catch my messages.”

An hour later, Luke stopped in front of Laurel’s desk. “Have you seen Kate?”

Laurel nodded without looking up from her typing. “She checked her messages, and rushed out.”

“Where?” Luke struggled to keep the panic out of his voice.

Laurel shrugged and dropped her hands off the keyboard. “I don’t know. But I would guess it had something to do with those messages from the Crisis Center.”

Luke swallowed past the boulder in his chest. “Do you remember—”

Laurel held up both hands in a defensive manner. “All I know is they called three times. I didn’t get details.”

Luke gritted his teeth at the coolness of the receptionist’s tone. The one time it mattered and she refused to snoop? Didn’t she realize Kate could be in danger? Nerves twisting in tension, now he wished he had sided with Joel. They could have vetoed Kate’s involvement with the Crisis Center. Violence was the reason most of the residents were there in the first place.

Thoughts of Kate getting mixed up in a domestic violence case filled his head, making him shudder. Anything could happen. Didn’t Kate realize when those women felt threatened, they would turn on an outsider to protect their abusive husbands?

Clutching at the hope that she was at the Center, Luke held on to his temper. “Put me through to the Center, now.” He barely got his office door closed before his phone rang.

“Luke Sterling, here.”

“Luke! Call the polic—”

Kate’s frantic whisper ceased as the call clicked off.

Luke swore under his breath as he stared at the phone. Had she disconnected, or dropped the phone? Maybe someone had taken the phone from her?

Recalling the tension in her low voice and rushed words, Luke grabbed the desk phone to dial.
Send the police. Where
!

He didn’t know Kate’s location. At the Center? And if she was there, why call him? Why not call for assistance from other employees?

She could be at the center, but he had a feeling she wasn’t. Where was she?

His heart raced knowing Kate might be in danger. He couldn’t lose her now. Not after she’d returned after eighteen long months. Why hadn’t he told her how much she meant to him? Why had he waited? If something happened to her now, he feelings wouldn’t matter.

He wanted to protect her, not have her chasing danger. That’s why he tried to keep her with the firm. But Kate had a mind of her own. She had goals. He understood that much.

She had faced near death, and now she wanted to make her life count. But at what risk? Why had he gone along with her plan? Because he cared for her. He wanted her to be happy and her goal was important to her.

He wanted her to achieve her heart’s desire. He loved her.

He loved her
.

Why was he so startled? Everything he’d done since Kate disappeared after that tsunami had pointed to his deep feelings for her. He had claimed it was friendship, and concern for a partner in the firm. But all along it had been more. He loved Kate.