Free Heart of Ice by Diana Palmer Page B

remembering that Egan had said Ada didn’t know about it, which meant he kept it for only one reason. If he was willing to take Kati there, he must have taken other women too. In the cold light of morning, she was glad she’d had the sense to resist him. Egan only wanted her. Someday, with a little luck, there would be a man who’d love her.
    But if she was inclined to be cool and collected, Egan wasn’t. He watched her covetously when she joined them for breakfast. His silver eyes roamed over the pretty red vest and skirt she was wearing with a long-sleeved white blouse, and he smiled appreciatively.
    “Very Christmasy,” he murmured.
    She smiled as coolly as possible. “Thank you.”
    She allowed him to seat her, expecting Ada to plop down beside her as usual. But instead, Egan slid into Ada’s usual place, so close that his thigh touched hers when he moved.
    “I can help,” Kati volunteered quickly.
    “No,” Ada said as she dished up everything and carried it to the table. “Just sit. We’ll both have enough to do later.”
    So she sat, nervously, hating the close contact because she could feel Egan as well as smell the warm, manly fragrance of his body. He was dressed up, too, in a navy pinstripe suit that made him look suave and sophisticated. And all the time she picked at her bacon and eggs, he watched her. It was as if he were launching a campaign, with her as the objective. And it was getting off to a rousing start.
    Ada noticed the tension and smiled. Kati flushed at that smile, because she knew her friend’s mind so well.
    It didn’t help that Ada finished early and announced that she just had to have a shower before she dressed.
    “Afraid to be alone with me?” Egan teased gently when the door closed behind his sister.
    “Oh, yes,” she admitted, looking up with fascinated eyes.
    His own eyes seemed unusually kind and soft,and he smiled. “Why?” he asked. “Because of last night?”
    She lowered her eyes to his smooth chin, his chiseled mouth. She remembered the feel of it with startling clarity.
    “Don’t hide.” He tilted her face back up to his and studied it quietly. “I can wait. At least, until you’ve had time to break it off with Asher.”
    So that was what he thought! That was why he’d been so patient last night. He assumed that she was sleeping with Jack and had to end the affair before…
    She caught her breath. “But I can’t—”
    “Yes, you can,” he said. “Just tell him how it is. He doesn’t seem to be so unreasonable to me. In fact—” he laughed shortly “—he hardly touches you in public. A man who’s committed to a woman usually shows a little more warmth.”
    “I don’t like that kind of thing, around people,” she murmured.
    “Neither do I, for God’s sake,” he bit off. “But when people get involved, it happens sometimes. A look, a way of touching, a hand that can’t let go of another hand—there are signs. You and Asher don’t show them.”
    “He’s…very reserved,” she returned.
    “So are you. Even alone with me.” He leaned closer and brushed his mouth over hers like a breath. “Ada won’t be gone that long. And then we’ll be surrounded by people. And I won’t be able to do this to you….”
    His hand contracted behind her head, catching her hair, tangling in its fiery depths to press her mouth to his. As if passion were riding him hard, he bit at her closed lips and shocked them into parting. And then she was his. Totally his, as he explored the soft warmth of her mouth expertly, possessively.
    When he stopped, her hands were clenched in his thick hair, and she moaned when he lifted his mouth.
    “No more, baby,” he whispered huskily. “We don’t have the luxury of privacy, and I had a hard enough time sleeping last night as it was. A man can only stand so much.”
    Her eyes opened slowly and she looked up at him drowning in the silver of his eyes. “I didn’t mean to tease,” she whispered. “It wasn’t like