“Sorry?” His blue eyes sparkled. “I’m not one bit sorry that my wife has the body of a goddess.” He planted a smacking kiss between her breasts before he closed her robe and tied the sash with regretful finality. “You’ve probably made it damned hard for me to keep my mind on my business today, but I’ll make such a sacrifice any day.” He sighed theatrically and chucked her under the chin before he left.
Chapter Eight
The following Saturday morning Jace asked Katherine if she wanted to drive out to the drilling site with him.
“I’ve put the crew on overtime. I’d like to run out there and check on things. It shouldn’t take long. Would you like to go?”
The past week had been a welcomed relief from Katherine’s normal early morning routine. Getting Allison bathed, dressed, fed, and carried to Happy’s house before leaving for work was a dreaded task. Katherine had enjoyed these unexpected mornings off.
She managed to keep busy, rearranging closets and drawers, making room for the new resident in her house. Toward the end of the week she ran out of projects and was growing restless. Having worked most of her life, idleness was far more tiring to her than labor.
“Yes, I’d like that,” she said in response to Jace’s invitation. “I’ve never been near an oil derrick before.” Listening to him talk about his work had broadened her vocabulary.
“Well, I’ve been getting a lot of flack from the crew,” he complained. “They think you’re a figment of my imagination. They’re not going to believe that I do indeed have a wife and baby daughter until I present you to them. Of course, Jim Cooper has been singing your praises to the sky, but no one puts much stock in that besotted kid.”
She glanced at him in irritation, but it pleased her to know that he had mentioned her to the men he worked with. Why it pleased her, she didn’t stop to examine. A warm sensation surrounded her heart as she looked at him across the breakfast table—a breakfast he had insisted on cooking.
She asked with feigned nonchalance, “What did you tell them about me?”
“Let’s see. If I recall”—he drawled and squinted his eyes in deep concentration—“I told them that you had hair the color of honey with sunlight shining through it. Your eyes, I described as deep forest pools with overhead trees reflected in them. I told them that your body was beyond description, except to say that your bosom was of unbelievable proportions. Of course, you never wear any underwear even under the tight T-shirts and supertight jeans you prefer.”
“Jace! You couldn’t—” she cried before she caught the mischievous glint in his eyes. When he burst out laughing at her chagrin, she couldn’t help but join in. Allison gazed at them both in bored condescension.
“I’m afraid if that’s how you described me, they’ll be sorely disappointed.”
His black brows hooded his eyes as he said softly, “No. They won’t be disappointed.”
Her heart did a somersault. Not since the morning when he had kissed her in the bathroom had he made any overt advances. She knew by now that aggression wasn’t his style. He conquered with subtlety. All week his kisses had amounted to no more than affectionate pecks on the cheek or forehead. She found it disconcerting that somehow his restraint made her long for his touch.
One evening he had asked her to join him on the sofa to watch the late news on television. She settled herself at the opposite end of the sofa, but he said, “Un-uh,” and drew her closer to him. He was leaning back comfortably in the other corner, propped up on cushions.
She tucked bare feet under her light robe and in minutes realized that she had allowed herself to relax against him. She felt his steady breathing as his hard chest supported her back.
She started when he began stroking her upper arm with the hand that had been resting on the back of the sofa. She glanced at him quickly, but he was seemingly preoccupied with the newscast.
His motion was slow and hypnotic, tickling the inside of her arm with sensuous strokes. The strong tapering fingers imperceptively moved closer to her breast. She could feel their movements on the soft curve without his actually touching it. The fabric of her robe stirred against his knuckles, so close was he to touching her. But he did not.
Her nipple became erect with longing and there was a heavy warmth in the lower part of her body. By the end of the broadcast, she was tempted to capture his hand and press it to her. His fingers finally stilled and Katherine held her breath. Now he’ll touch me, she thought.
To her intense disappointment he patted her arm in a filial fashion and eased her up. “I guess I’d better get to bed,” he said.
That night her body had tingled with unsatisfied sensations as she tossed restlessly on her narrow bed. Had he invited her onto the new king-size bed, she would have accepted gladly. Was this then his particular form of cruelty?
Peter had charmed Mary into loving him and then tortured her with physical and verbal abuse. Was Jace’s method different only in that he tortured with a silken touch? Was he planning to make her care for him, only to torment her with rejection?
She resolved not to care. Falling in love with Jace Manning would be a slow kind of death, for she knew that he didn’t love her. He wanted her physically. His constraint hadn’t dissolved his desire. It was evident in his kindling blue eyes that she often caught staring at her.
But his reasons for marrying her had been explicitly enumerated. He was compensating for Peter’s treatment of Mary. He was fulfilling a responsibility he felt for Allison. He had even said that he didn’t want to get marri
ed, and, that by doing so, he was sacrificing his freedom.
As Jace had predicted, his lawyer friend, Mark, sent them a newspaper clipping announcing their marriage. With uncanny clairvoyance Jace had been correct about his parents’ reversal. The article quoted them as saying that Jace and Katherine had developed a deep attachment soon after they met (when was that to have been?), and, as Jace’s parents, they were thrilled that he had married sweet Mary’s sister.
Katherine had been furious when she read it. Jace only shrugged and tossed the clipping in the wastepaper basket. Maybe he wasn’t as contemptuous of his parents as he pretended. Did he have an affinity for them that he concealed when it was expedient to do so? Like when convincing someone it would be to her advantage to marry him?
Now, as Katherine looked at his beguiling smile across the table, she warned herself again to be careful with her emotions.
“I’ll get Allison dressed, and we can go whenever you like,” she said.