Free Michael's father by Dallas Schulze

there at all. She was both disappointed and relieved.
    Since she didn't know what to expect from him when she saw him again she was not averse to delaying the moment a while longer. Maybe by then, she'd have gotten her unruly reaction under control.
    As it happened, she didn't see Kel until he came in for dinner. She was sUding a pan of biscuits into the oven when she heard the kitchen door open. She didn't have to turn around to know who it was. Even if she hadn't heard the door open, she would have known he

    was in the room. She could feel it in the sudden sensitivity of her skin.
    WiUing her hand to steadiness, she set down the pot holder she'd been using and turned toward him. He stood just inside the door—big, dusty, overwhelmingly male. Her heart thumped and it occurred to her vaguely that there was a warning there. It was one thing to decide to have an affair with the man, something else altogether for just the sight of him to make her heart beat faster.
    He set his hat on the wooden hook beside the door and turned toward her. Their eyes met and Megan thought she saw a quick flare of awareness in his. Was he remembering the way she'd melted against him last night? The memory made her flush, and she hoped he'd attribute it to the fact that she'd just been leaning over a hot oven.
    His eyes raked over her, taking in the robin's egg blue T-shirt and jeans she wore, a practical white chef's apron wrapped around her waist. Not exactly a romantic outfit in which to greet your future lover, Megan thought. And she probably had flour on her face from making the biscuits. A touch of humor glimmered in her eyes. Kel was probably wondering what had made him want to kiss her the night before.
    Actually, Kel was on the point of closing the distance between them, dragging Megan into his arms and kissing her senseless, flour-speckled face and all. If Colleen hadn't chosen that moment to enter the kitchen, he might have done just that.
    With a quick greeting for his sister and an impersonal nod in Megan's direction, he went upstairs to

    shower before dinner. By the time he came down, he had himself well under control. Or so he thought until he walked into the dining room and saw Megan leaning across the table to straighten a fork on the side across from her. The scoop neckline of her T-shirt allowed him to see the upper swell of her breasts and hinted at the shadowy cleft between.
    Kel immediately wished he'd taken a colder shower than he had.
    He backed out of the room without her seeing him and didn't enter until he heard Gun's voice and knew he wouldn't be alone with Megan. The way he was feeling right now, he didn't quite trust himself not to give in to the urge to ignore the delicious scents wafting from the kitchen and have her for dinner instead of whatever she was cooking.
    Kel avoided looking at Megan any more than he had to during dinner. He was starting to resent this strange hold she seemed to have over him. He'd spent far more time thinking about her today than he'd had any business doing. He didn't like the way she haunted his thoughts.
    He was a man who prided himself on his self-control, and he resented Megan Roarke's ability to undermine that control. He wanted her—that much he was willing to admit. Hell, he could hardly deny it. Wanting her was all right but letting her dominate his thoughts the way she had been—that was going to have to stop.
    If he could stop it.
    The taunting voice inside his head only made Kel more determined to prove to himself that he was in

    control here, not his suddenly overactive libido. And if that meant keeping his distance from Megan, then so be it.
    By the end of her second week working on the Lazy B, Megan was starting to wonder if she'd hallucinated the scene in KeFs study the night he'd asked her to stay on for the summer. She hadn't been quite sure what to expect after the passionate kisses they'd shared but it certainly wasn't that everything would go on just as it had