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Garrett put his forehead in his hand for a moment, then sighed and ran a big, tanned hand down his face in pure frustration. “Look, Katie.”
“Look, Garrett, you need to stop this now.”
“Stop what?”
They stared once more, and the atmosphere in the room continued feeling heavy and odd. Kate’s nerves could barely handle it.
“I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to work,” she finally said.
His eyes remained almost predatory in their intensity. Finally he raised one sleek black eyebrow. “My plot to save the world, to keep Kate in Texas, won’t work, even if I put in some good hours of doctoring time?”
“It won’t work.”
“So you didn’t mean it the night of my birthday when you said that we would talk about it later?”
“We’d both been drinking. Whatever we said that night was the alcohol talking.”
“All right, so today the strep is talking. When is Kate going to talk to me?”
“I’m talking to you now.”
His eyebrows fell low over his eyes. His shirt stretched over his square shoulders as he sat back, his muscled arms still crossed over his chest. “Then tell me if you’re leaving because of a man. First. And second, you’re going to tell me who.”
“Ha. This is my house. I run it. So I say who has firsts and seconds here, not you.”
She bent to put on some socks. A rivulet of water slid along her toned legs, and when she straightened, she saw his eyes had darkened even more. He continued to stare at her legs for a wildly erotic moment.
Her pulse jumped at the thought of him touching her—of him even wanting to touch her—and her hands trembled as she bent her head and slowly wrapped the discarded towel around her wet hair.
When she straightened, Garrett’s expression had turned bleak as a funeral, and he pushed to his feet, stalking over like a pissed-off predator. “What do you need so you can get back in the damned bed, Kate?”
“I don’t want to get into bed. I’ve been there all day. My fever is dropping and I’m sweating. I feel hot.”
“Then put something on, would you!” He signaled at her long legs, and a wash of feminine awareness swept through her when his eyes raked her up and down as if he couldn’t help himself.
She laughed nervously and glanced away so that he wouldn’t notice his effect on her; then she hopped into a comfortable pair of white cotton shorts she used for yoga sometimes.
Garrett seemed completely disturbed and grumpy...but more than that, he seemed alert. Did this mean she’d finally gotten past one of Garrett’s walls?
She almost laughed. She’d always tried many subtle ways to get his male attention. Who woul
d have thought she just needed to do a little striptease?
It’s too late, Kate. You don’t want him anymore. You want a new start—without him.
Turning in sudden annoyance, she shoved at his chest so he stepped out of her personal space. “Just go home, Garrett. You don’t have to do this. Aren’t you working on that big deal all your brothers are talking about?”
He looked agitated and started pacing around, scowling down at the carpet. “There’s nothing I can do about it today. We’re ironing out the details.”
“Well, go iron them out somewhere else.”
“On the bed, Freckles! Unless you like your soup cold!”
With a complaining sound, Kate plopped down on the bed and crossed her legs under her body. He expelled a breath, as if finally appeased; he was just so handsome her heart ached. She propped her head back on the headboard as he brought back the tray, and she quietly studied him as he fed her.
Garrett Gage was one of the least emotionally accessible men Kate had ever met, and to see him do something so honestly sweet for her triggered a wealth of unreasonable emotions in her chest.
She didn’t want to feel giddy and protected and cared for. But she did. She felt safe. And fiercely achy for so much more. His dark espresso eyes wouldn’t stop watching her mouth as he guided the spoon inside, and out, and it made every time she wrapped her lips around the spoon unbearably...intimate.
