Luke discovered he rather liked holding Katie captive. It was the first moment since this entire debacle had begun that he truly felt like a newlywed. He sure as hell hadn’t felt like one while he’d been trying to sleep—alone—on that cramped sofa the night before. He decided he might as well take advantage of the moment and steal another kiss that Katie would otherwise deny him. No doubt he would pay for it later, but the way his pulse was bucking told him it would be worth the cost.
As he shifted her in his arms to lower her slowly to her feet, he made very sure that Katie slid down his body until every square inch of him blazed as if it had been touched by the summer sun.
When she would have made a dash for it, he cupped her cheeks in his hands and held her face perfectly still. Katie’s eyes widened as she watched him warily. Her lips parted, probably to form another vehement protest. But Luke swooped in to steal the words, sealing his mouth over hers, savoring the sweet taste.
Katie’s entire body tensed for the space of a heartbeat, but if there was one thing Luke knew it was the nuances of a kiss. From that first possessive claiming, his lips turned gentle, persuasive.
The coaxing worked. He knew the precise instant when Katie stopped fighting him and became an enthusiastic participant. Her skin heated. Her pulse skittered wildly. Her tongue tentatively sought out his.
From gentle persuasion, the kiss quickly escalated into a dark, moist, mysterious invitation that had his blood roaring through his veins. Suddenly he wanted Katie upstairs, in his bed, under him. He wanted it with a desperation that stunned him.
Staggered by this unexpected need to claim her, Luke forgot all about where they were and how the game had started. A single whoop of approval, echoed by a half dozen more, and punctuated by applause, snapped him back to an unfortunate reality. He and Katie were definitely not alone. From the dazed look in her eyes, she was no happier about that discovery than he was.
All too quickly, though, their true circumstances took the blush out of her cheeks and made her eyes blaze not with passion, but with fury. Luke knew with certainty that he would hear about this when they were alone. Worse, he suspected that would be just the beginning of what Katie had to say, none of it pleasant.
“Later,” he whispered in a determinedly seductive purr he hoped would remind her of the provocative intimacy they’d just shared.
“You’d better believe it,” she said tightly.
Katie might have been thinking about that bone-melting kiss, but Luke doubted it. Her tone was more in keeping with a deadly courtroom cross-examination.
Before he could try to defuse her temper, Peg swooped in to hug Katie, and Robby rushed up to hurl himself into Luke’s arms. Within seconds Robby was racing off with another boy about his own age. Luke stared after them with amusement. He realized with a start how rarely he’d seen his child playing with friends. It was yet another confirmation that coming back to Clover had been the right decision.
By the time Luke glanced around, Katie was surrounded by her friends, most of whom had barely a word to spare for him, though he’d known them all his life. He hadn’t thought it possible in a town where he’d grown up, but apparently six years away had made him an outsider. And if the scowl on Lucy Ryder’s face was an indication, at the moment she wished he’d stayed in Atlanta forever.
Maybe people just had long memories, he speculated. Maybe they remembered with absolute clarity that he and Katie had been best friends. Maybe they suspected how far things had gone before he’d walked out on her. And maybe they resented being left behind to deal with the aftermath of his lousy treatment of a woman they all adored.
Whatever it was, everyone welcomed Katie home as if she’d been off on a safari for months, rather than an abbreviated one-day honeymoon. Peg, in particular, surveyed her niece as if looking for signs that Luke had done anything, anything at all to make her miserable. Katie’s bright smile and glowing cheeks—the products of determination and makeup—apparently convinced her all was well.
Katie, whom he would have sworn didn’t have a shred of artifice in her, turned out to have superb acting skills. Not a single person in the room—with the possible exception of Lucy—would have guessed from her cheerful demeanor that their marriage was an unconsummated farce. Only he seemed to notice the tiny lines of strain around her mouth, the faint shadows under her eyes, the forced note of her laughter, the way she fiddled nervously with a strand of hair.
For three hours he accepted cursory congratulations on winning the prettiest woman in town, he endured less-than-subtle winks about the honeymoon, and took advice from half the women in town on how to keep his new bride happy and content. Hannah, Sophie and Emma had some very intriguing ideas for the future bliss of the woman who’d been their bridesmaid.
Through it all he kept his gaze pinned on Katie, wondering exactly when she would break, worrying whether be would be able to clear out the guests before it happened. He was still worried about that when Peg cornered him.
“I’m keeping Robby at my place a few more nights,” she informed him in a tone that invited no argument. Facing him defiantly, she added, “I’ve also arranged for the boarders to go to the hotel for the rest of the week. I can understand your feeling a need to be in Clover in case your brother decides to make good on his threat, but I will not allow you to spoil my niece’s honeymoon.”
Luke didn’t have the heart to tell her
