Free Kate's Vow (Vows) by Sherryl Woods Page A

managed to put between them the other night went up in flames. The innuendo sent a shiver straight down her spine. Kate wasn’t sure which startled her more, the fact that he’d said it or her own immediate and unmistakably sensual response.
    He glanced at her car, and his eyes lit up with an excitement that almost matched Davey’s for the house. “Obviously one thing at which you excel is your taste in cars. This is a beauty.”
    He touched the finish with a certain reverence. Kate found herself envying the sleek metal bumper. He leaned down and peered inside.
    “What’s it do?”
    Kate assumed he was referring to speed. “On our freeways?” she said dryly.
    “Yeah. You have a point.” With obvious reluctance he turned away from the car. “Davey, have you got all your things?” he asked.
    For the next few minutes, they were busy unloading the car and settling the two guests into their rooms.
    “If you’re hungry, I have dinner set to go,” Kate said as the long, empty evening stretched ahead of them. She wanted to cram those hours with activity so that lingering glances could be kept to a minimum, so that these little thrills of pleasure that shot through her at having the two of them there wouldn’t escalate into something more. There had to be some way to keep the weekend from ending with her yearning for things that could never be.
    “Can we wait?” Davey begged. “I want to see the ocean. Please.”
    David shook his head. “You’d think you’d never seen the Pacific before.”
    “It’s been a long time, Dad. A really long time. It was before…” His voice trailed off and his father’s face went still.
    Kate leapt into the sudden silence. “I think a walk on the beach would be the perfect way to work up an appetite. Let’s go before it gets too dark.”
    With Davey running on ahead of them, Kate fell into step beside David. He’d shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. The sea gulls circled lazily overhead and a fine mist blew into their faces as they strolled by outrageously expensive homes crammed on the edge of a cliff. Most clung to just enough land to qualify as a homesite, with massive pilings shoring up the bulk of the house. Kate shivered as she considered what was bound to happen one of these days when a violent storm struck.
    “Cold?” he asked, misjudging the cause of her trembling.
    “No. I was just thinking of what a bad storm would do to this property. Actually, I like chilly nights like this,” she confessed. “It’s so miserably hot in the city this time of year that I find this thoroughly refreshing. Some nights there’s enough briskness in the air to justify a fire. That’s always seemed really decadent to me somehow.”
    He studied her intently. “You love it out here, don’t you?”
    She nodded. “You sound as if that surprises you.”
    He shrugged. “I would have thought the rhythm of the city suited you more.”
    She laughed. “I love that, too. I guess I’m just greedy. I want it all. I want days that are so crowded with work I can’t even find time to breathe, and then I want leisurely, do-nothing days that require nothing more than plunking into a chaise longue with a good book and a view of the ocean.”
    “Be honest,” he said. “When was the last time you really had a relaxing, do-nothing day?”
    Kate searched her memory. She couldn’t think of one, at least not recently.
    “Stumped you, didn’t I?” David said.
    His laughter caught on the wind. He seemed delighted by the discovery that she apparently never followed the exact advice she was giving him.
    “I don’t have a son around who needs my attention,” Kate reminded him.
    “Is that the only reason for time off? What about just restoring your own energy, pampering yourself?”
    “No time,” she admitted.
    “Then perhaps this weekend will turn out to be a lesson for both of us,” he said, his expression softening. “Now tell me what else you would do, if you really took a