Free Heather Graham by Dante's Daughter Page A

expression and dark eyes. It seemed that he didn’t intend to refer to their strange, intimate circumstances earlier. Katie felt a constriction in her throat. She certainly wouldn’t make any reference to it either. She couldn’t anyway. She didn’t seem capable of speech. She nodded.
    “Ten o’clock?”
    She nodded again.
    As if satisfied with the end of the evening, he turned around and started down the hallway. Katie stood still, oddly entranced by the breadth of his shoulders, his thick, tousled dark brown hair, and his long strides. She was startled when he spun around suddenly.
    “For heaven’s sake, Katie, close the door. And lock it. You’re an absurdly trusting woman!”
    He stood impatiently, hands on his hips as he waited for her to obey. Katie felt an instant streak of belligerence—she’d been managing just fine on her own for years—but quickly smothered it.
    Why was she always so tempted to fight him? she asked herself with dismay. It was ridiculous. She needed an interview with him; he had agreed to do it. It wouldn’t hurt to close the damn door and lock it—she would do it eventually anyway.
    “Good night,” she said quietly. She closed the door and locked it, expecting him to come back any minute and check up on her. But he didn’t. Eventually, she walked away from the door and tiredly fell on the bed, an arm draped over her eyes.
    Oh, dear Lord, it had been a strange day! It felt as if a lifetime had passed … So many things, so many emotions …
    And the worst of it all was Kent Hart. She could still feel his eyes, his touch, his caress. And if she thought about it, she could feel the burning sensations all over again, the aching and the longing, the need for his touch to go on and on …
    Oh, Katie, stop it! she groaned to herself. He’s Kent Hart; I spent years hating him, and not too much has happened to change that! Oh, but yes, she argued, it has! He saved my life, I’ve seen him be kind, and his teammates are absurdly loyal to him.
    And he kissed me.
    Her fingers moved to her lips; she felt a trembling start up again. She rolled over, slamming a fist into her pillow. Oh, God! It was ridiculous! She had just gotten out of a relationship with a football jock!
    Relationship. Had it really been a relationship? She felt that she had exchanged more, experienced more, felt more with Kent Hart in one night … And maybe she had.
    What about him? It had really been nothing but anger and a surprising surge of desire. It hadn’t even meant that he liked her.
    Dante. Dante stood between them. A ghost, the man they had both loved. But that love had turned them against each other and refused to let them forgive …
    “Oh, hell!” Katie gasped aloud. Her voice was frighteningly like a sob again. Frightening … yes, it had been terribly frightening when he had touched her. Her response had been so instant, so intense, and it had left this yearning, this aching.
    “No, Katie,” she murmured aloud. And then the phone began to ring.
    She stared at it, not wanting to answer. Maybe it would stop. No, she thought with a sigh. It was Raff, and Raff never gave up.
    Katie wearily pulled herself up and answered the phone. “Hello?”
    “Katie? Raff here!” Katie listened to his cheerful greeting; she listened, too, as the touch of steel came into Raff’s voice. “Did you get it?”
    “I think so,” she replied carefully.
    “What?” Raff demanded. “What kind of an answer is that? Katie Hudson, this is Raff here. I know you could charm a baby into buying dentures—and the man owes you, remember? Now, did you get the interview or not?”
    “I’ve got something,” Katie muttered. She went on quickly before he could start at her again. “I’m seeing him tomorrow, Raff. I’ll have something.”
    “We need an in-depth article, Katie,” Raff said impatiently. He lowered his voice to a slightly crooning sound. “Katie, honey, I’m not the big cheese around here. The powers that be want a