Free Just Between Friends (O'Rourke Family 4) by Julianna Morris Page A

to keep his distance when she was acting like a normal bride with satin sheets and candlelight on her mind?
    Especially when she kept putting it into his mind.
    With an effort, he focused on the moment when she’d gotten embarrassed and put her face on his chest. It had reminded him of when she was little, with all those sweet, shy butterfly ways that had captivated his younger self.
    “How does this taste?” Kate asked, appearing in front of him again.
    “What?”
    “This.” She popped a cucumber slice coated with salad dressing into his mouth and waited anxiously.
    It was a tasty herbal dressing and tasted fine, though he wasn’t a big salad eater. “That’s good. Did you make it?”
    “Yes.” Without warning Kate threw her arms around his neck and plastered herself against him. He tasted the same tangy herbal flavor in her kiss, and as much as he wanted to push her away, his body wouldn’t cooperate.
    The gold silk of her hair caught on his fingers as he cupped the back of her head, and the edges of his self-restraint eroded at the imprint of round breasts and slim hips.
    “Hey, you can celebrate your anniversary later,” said a nearby voice. An instant later something icy dropped between the back of his neck and collar.
    “Brat,” he yelped, jumping backward and glaring at his sister.
    “What happened?” Kate asked.
    “Shannon put ice down my back,” Dylan said, squirming as he tried to retrieve the offending cube.
    “I’ll get it.”
    As Kate pulled his shirt from his jeans he concentrated on Shannon, instead of the way his wife’s fingers spread across his skin, warming it.
    His wife?
    A sensation colder than ice went through his chest.
    Kate wasn’t his wife, not in the real sense of the word. The only reason he’d thought of her that way was because of how she’d just kissed him, and that was only for show. Girls like Katrina Douglas didn’t marry guys like him, not for real.
    “I’ll do that part,” he muttered when Kate began tucking his shirt back into his jeans. The damage she could do to his control was more than he wanted to risk.
    When Kate flitted off again he drew a breath of relief. The week had been so busy he hadn’t been able to do anything about his plans for enlarging the carriage house, but he’d start tonight. Once he could shower and get through the evenings without falling over her, it would be easier.
    “So, why did you come to Sunday dinner?” Kane asked quietly, startling him. “Naturally we’re thrilled to see you, but even if a one-week anniversary celebration seems silly to you, it probably means something to Kate. When you get married, your wife comes first.”
    Dylan’s jaw tightened. He was grown now and didn’t need lectures from his big brother. “Kate does come first.”
    “You got married a week ago, you didn’t go on a honeymoon, and you’re at the family dinner instead of spending one of your first free days together. That doesn’t sound like you’re putting her first.”
    Kane was in his all-knowing-big-brother mode, an impulse no doubt strengthened by his recent entry into fatherhood. Dylan could confess the truth of his marriage, he even wanted to reveal the truth, but he’d kept his own counsel for so long it was impossible to change.
    “We’ll celebrate tonight, but Katydid is anxious to getto know the family better,” he said. “It means a lot to her, becoming an O’Rourke. You know what her folks are like—I’ve met marble statues warmer than the Douglases.”
    “You can say that again. I just don’t want to see you two having trouble.”
    “It’s a little early for that. We just got married.”
    His brother gave him a speculative look, and Dylan met his gaze with a stolid one of his own. The only trouble he had with Kate was his nagging awareness of her. Their friendship would return to normal once the year was up and everything could go back to the way it used to be.
    He wanted normal.
    He wanted the days when she’d