Free Courting the Enemy by Sherryl Woods Page A

to press a kiss to her neck, feel the shudder ripple through her.
    He wanted things he had no business wanting, he chided himself, turning away. Staying here might be a necessity tonight, but it was a bad idea. He’d honed his willpower over the years, resisted more than his share of temptation, but this…this was torment. Karen Hanson was the kind of woman made for loving—not just physically, though that was the strongest temptation at the moment—but through and through.
    Was that how Caleb had seen her, Grady wondered, as a woman who deserved a carefree world? Was that why he had struggled so hard to keep this ranch afloat, to give her a home? It was funny how the last week or so had taught him a thing or two about Caleb Hanson, when his goal had been getting to know the man’s wife. He found himself walking in the man’s shoes, understanding his stubborn determination in a way he never had before, even admiring it.
    “The hot chocolate’s ready,” Karen said, breaking into his thoughts. “You’d better get started on that popcorn, or the drinks will be cold before it’s done.”
    “I just need a couple of minutes,” Grady said. “Where’s your microwave?”
    She grinned at him. “I don’t have one. You’re going to have to pull this off the old-fashioned way.”
    His gaze narrowed at her amusement. “You don’t think I can do it?”
    “It will be interesting to see, won’t it?” she challenged him.
    He shook his head with exaggerated pity. “You’ve forgotten already about the bare-bones lifestyle my grandfather lives. I’m used to roughing it,” he said as he reached for a covered pan. He set it on the stove, turned on the heat, then dumped the contents of the bag into the pan and covered it. “Piece of cake. You’ll see.”
    Grady’s gaze clashed with hers and held. She didn’t seem to be impressed yet.
    Her gaze never wavered. Time fell away as he listened to the beating of his heart, and watched the flicker of some unreadable emotion in her eyes.
    “Smells like it’s burning,” she said cheerfully, breaking the mood and the eye contact after several minutes.
    He tore his gaze away, saw smoke billowing from the pan, and muttered a soft curse. He grabbed the pan off the stove and dumped it into the sink. He could hear the few last kernels popping even as he scowled at the offending pot. He’d been oblivious when they started to pop, oblivious to everything but Karen.
    Her low chuckle drew his gaze. He studied her for a second, and saw the twinkling satisfaction in her eyes.
    “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” he accused.
    “What?” she asked, all innocence.
    “Distracted me.”
    “Did I? How?”
    “You kept my attention so I wouldn’t notice what was happening on the stove.”
    “Why would I do that?”
    “To prove a point.”
    She grinned broadly. “Well, you have to admit, you were awfully sure of yourself.”
    “And you were willing to sacrifice the popcorn just to take me down a peg or two?”
    “It seemed like a fair trade to me,” she said without the least bit of remorse.
    Grady sighed. “I really, really like popcorn when I watch a movie.”
    “We don’t have to watch it,” she said. “The power could go any minute, anyway, and the generator doesn’t keep anything going except the furnace and the hot water heater.”
    He deliberately locked gazes with her, just as she’d done with him. “If we don’t watch the movie, what did you have in mind?”
    “We could go to bed,” she said with a perfectly straight face.
    A smile tugged at his lips. “Somehow I don’t think you mean the same thing by that as I would.”
    Her gaze faltered then. She swallowed hard. “No, I imagine I don’t.”
    “Then let’s watch the movie. It’s the safest thing that comes to mind at the moment.”
    They took their hot chocolate into the living room. Grady turned on the TV, popped the video into the player, then deliberately sat right smack in the middle of the