It seemed to her that that risk was far more dangerous than the prospect of losing her current boarders. She could find new boarders, if she had to. Ginger, Mr. O’Reilly and the others could find adequate accommodations elsewhere, if necessary. But she absolutely could not live with the consequences of making love with Luke knowing that he wasn’t in love with her, knowing that she was merely convenient, rather than the grand passion of his life as he was of hers.
If she was going to take charge of her life again, if she was going to protect herself and her boarders, then she had no choice. She had to remind Luke that this arrangement they had did not include his bullying tactics. Besides, if things worked out with Robby’s custody, for all she knew he would take off. The disruptions would have been pointless, because she would never enforce them on her own.
When she could delay it no longer, she turned to face him. “I don’t like what you’re doing around here,” she said bluntly, waving the sheet of canary yellow paper under his nose.
Luke stiffened. His hand fell away from her shoulder as if he’d been scalded. The faint teasing glint in his eyes faded as his expression immediately turned somber.
“I know I should have talked to you first,” he admitted. “But I know how you are. You would have tried to talk me out of those rules.”
“Damn right, I would have. The disruptions around here have gotten out of hand,” she said, perversely wishing she could tease his lips back into a smile. She barely resisted the temptation to try, to run the tip of her finger along the velvet skin of his lower lip to encourage it into an upward curve. Touching him right now would be a very bad idea. Very bad.
“Our deal put me in charge of the financial end of running the boarding house,” he reminded her.
“It put me in charge of dealing with the tenants,” she retorted. “As it is, Ginger’s terrified you’re going to evict her. Where would she get an idea like that?”
“I had a talk with her,” he admitted. “I thought she should understand that we’re running a business. I hope you didn’t undermine the message I was trying to get across.”
Katie scowled at him. “I’m sure that’s how you would see it. I told her we would never evict her.”
“She’s never paid one cent of rent,” Luke pointed out in that calm, reasonable way that made Katie want to grind her teeth. “I went back over the books for all the months she’s been here.”
“She’s seventeen years old. It’s more important that she stay off the streets of some big city and finish school. Besides, she helps me out around here.”
Luke shot her a look of total disbelief. “Doing what?”
Katie had to be quick on her feet to answer that one, especially since Ginger hadn’t even been around since she had gone to work at the diner. “She changes the beds, helps with the laundry, straightens up, vacuums, those kinds of things,” she said, blithely ignoring the fact that Ginger probably didn’t even have a clue where the cleaning supplies were kept.
“If she does all that, why do I see you changing sheets, doing tub after tub of laundry and shoving a vacuum around?”
Katie winced. “I said she helps. I didn’t say she did everything. If I paid her a wage, it would more than make up for what she would have to pay for the room. I’m coming out ahead on the deal.”
“Then let’s make her a part-time employee,” Luke countered. “That way she’ll have very specific responsibilities and she’ll be able to pay her own way.”
“What good does it do to give her money and have her give it right back to us? That’s just a bunch of paperwork.”
“It’ll teach her responsibility,” Luke insisted.
Katie tried to make him see reason. “She doesn’t need to feel responsible,” she said impatiently. “She needs to feel like she’s part of a family.”
That silenced him.
Taking advantage of that, Katie plunged on. “Now about Mr. O’Reilly. You talked to him, too, didn’t you? You didn’t just hand him that piece of paper.”
“We had a chat over coffee this morning, yes.”
“A chat? Is that what you call it when you declare that the kitchen is off-limits between meals?”
“But...”
Katie ignored him. “How much can an occasional midnight snack cost? Besides, it—”
“Let me guess,” Luke said resignedly. “It makes him feel like he’s part of a family.”
Katie beamed at him. Maybe he was catching on, after all. “Exactly,” she said, pleased.
He studied her intently. “Do you know what would make me feel like part of a family?”
There was something in his voice that set Katie’s senses on fire. Her gaze locked with his. The intensity burning between them made her tremble. “What?”
“Sharing your bed.”
She couldn’t seem to catch her breath. “Oh, no...” she began in a choked voice. The rest of the protest died on her lips when he pressed a silencing finger against them.
As if he sensed she was weakening, he coaxed, “I’m your husband. That’s where I belong. You wouldn’t want me to feel like an outsider in my own home, would you?”
“No, but...”
He lowered his head until his lips hovered over hers, so close his minty breath fanned her hot skin and his purely masculine scent surrounded her. Katie’s breath snagged in her throat. When his mouth finally settled on hers, the whole world tilted on its axis. Suddenly it was impossible to recall what they were arguing about, impossible to think of anything except the indescribable way she felt when Luke touched her.
“Not fair,” she murmured eventually. Her arms seemed to have twined themselves around his neck of their own
