Free The Prospective Wife by Kim Lawrence Page A

report…I take it you did notice my heterosexual friend, Joe, was deeply smitten?’
    ‘Don’t be daft…’
    Actually, Joe fell in and out of love at regular intervals, so Matt wasn’t reading too much into it. The thought that maybe Joe wasn’t the only one a little smitten occurred, only to be speedily dismissed. If a bit of mild flirtation would make his convalescence any less tedious, where was the harm? The girl had made herself a legitimate target the moment she’d announced he left her cold…a blatant lie…and she’d only have herself to blame if he made her eat her words.
    Would she recognise Joe if she met him in the street? Kat was ashamed to acknowledge she couldn’t be sure. It was all Matt’s fault; he was the sort of man that tended to be the cynosure of attention without even trying. The Joes of this world, worthy and nice to a man, faded into insignificance; there was no justice. God, I’m so shallow!
    ‘And don’t blame poor Joe for your lecherous tendencies!’ she advised contemptuously. Riding high on a wave of moral superiority, she blithely ignored the jarring note of hypocrisy in her comment.
    After all, she reasoned, the circumstances were totally different. Matt had not been around scantily clad females for some time, so you couldn’t really take his interest personally, whereas she didn’t stare hungrily at just any man!
    A distracted dreamy expression flitted across her disapproving features… He had looked hungry… Recalling that hard male expression made her stomach muscles spasm painfully.
    ‘ Poor Joe?’ He clicked his tongue. ‘That doesn’t sound promising.’
    His laughter, low and effortlessly sexy, was a wake-up call for a dreamy Kat. When he’d looked at her like that he’d just been responding in the preconditioned male response to weigh up any female that came within ogling distance. It was no more complicated than the blinking reflex. Men were pretty primitive creatures when you came right down to it!
    Be realistic! Why would he —her eyes swept resentfully up the length of his long, lean, spectacular body—look at me?
    Kat had few illusions about her figure. The hour-glass shape might have excited admiration during an era less fixated by androgynous slenderness, but by today’s standards she knew she would be considered positively gross by the purist. She’d decided a long time ago she wasn’t about to punish and starve her body to sculpt it to fit in with some media-hyped ideal.
    ‘I feel sure that Joe would appreciate your efforts on his behalf, but shall we get back to what we’re actually here for?’ Matt conceded her point with a shrug. ‘Actually, I don’t think you can have been so bad a patient as you make out. It wasn’t luck that kept your muscle tone; you must have been pretty diligent about your exercises.’
    ‘I live to work my quadriceps,’ he agreed drily. ‘That’s why I opted for pool work this morning. Hydrotherapy has a slightly lower tedium quotient. You don’t have a problem with that, do you?’
    ‘Not at all; it’s a good idea. Though I’m not used to working in anything this…big.’ She finished lamely.
    It was pointless trying to explain to anyone who found it normal to have an Olympic-sized swimming pool that she found the opulence of her surroundings slightly intimidating.
    ‘You probably find it difficult to believe, but I used to be in pretty good shape.’
    Used to be! Was he serious? As far as Kat could tell, he still was—and then some!
    Broad, powerful shoulders, washboard flat belly and snaky slim hips attached to long, long legs. His skin tones were naturally dark, but they still seemed pale in contrast to the dark body hair sprinkled across his broad chest. Her eyes dropped compulsively to the thin arrow of dark hair that disappeared under the waistband of his swimming trunks and her wayward stomach did a treble flip.
    ‘I know you’re in a hurry, but it’s all about realistic goals.’
    Now that’s