Heart of Ice

It was a mistake. A horrible mistake. Because then he knew what she hadn’t admitted since he walked into the room. That, stripped to the waist, he bothered her.

The arrogant beast knew it, all right. He moved lazily until he was standing just behind her…so close that she felt him and smelled him and wanted nothing more out of life than to turn around and slide her hands all over that broad chest.

His hands caught her waist, making her jump, and eased her back against him so that she could feel the warm, hard muscles of his chest and stomach against her back. The caftan was paper-thin, and it was like standing naked in his arms.

She felt his fingers move to her hips, caressingly, and her hand trembled as it stirred the eggs to keep them from burning.

“Egan, don’t,” she whispered shakily.

His breath was warm and rough in her hair, because the top of her head only came to his chin. The fingers holding her hips contracted, and she felt the tips of them on her flat stomach like a brand.

“Put down that damned spoon and turn around,” he said in a tone she didn’t recognize.

She was shaking like a leaf, and God only knew what would have happened. But noisy footsteps sounded outside the kitchen door, and an equally noisy yawn followed it. Egan let go of her and moved away just as Ada walked in.

“There you are!” she said brightly, watching her best friend stir eggs. “I’m starved!”

“It’ll be on the table in two shakes,” Kati promised, hoping her voice didn’t sound as shaky as it felt. Damn Egan!

“I’d better get dressed,” Egan commented, winking at Ada as he went past her. “I think I bother somebody like this.”

Kati made an unforgivable comment under her breath as he left the room.

“At it again, I see,” Ada sighed wearily.

“He started it,” Kati said through her teeth. “I didn’t ask him to walk in here naked.”

“What?” Ada blinked.

Kati looked at her friend with a pained expression. “Oh, God, isn’t he beautiful?” she whispered with genuine feeling.

Ada chuckled gleefully. “Well, I always thought so, even if he is my brother. But isn’t that something of a strange admission for you to make?”

“It slipped out. Just forget it.” She dished up the eggs. “I think I’d better put something on too.”

“Don’t be long,” Ada cautioned. “The eggs will congeal.”

“I’ll hurry.”

She ran for her bedroom and closed the door just as Egan opened his. A minute’s grace! She got into her jeans, blue T-shirt and shoes, and barely stopped to run a brush through her hair. She hoped it would be a short week. She hadn’t expected Egan to have this kind of effect on her. In all the years she’d known him, he’d never even tried to make a pass at her. Now, in less than two days, he’d made more impact on her guarded emotions than any other man had in all her twenty-five years. She was going to have to get a hold on herself. She didn’t know what kind of game Egan had in mind, but she wasn’t playing.

He was wearing a brown velour pullover when she came back, one that emphasized his dark hair and complexion and the hard muscles she’d already seen.

“We left a little for you,” Egan commented as she sat down. He pushed aside his empty plate and poured himself another cup of coffee from the hotplate on the table.

“How kind of you,” she said pleasantly. She held up her cup and Egan filled it, studying her far too closely.

“What does your boyfriend do for a living?” he asked unexpectedly.

“Jack isn’t my boyfriend,” she said. “He’s a man I date. And he’s a political reporter for the New York Times.”

He leaned back in his chair while Ada bit her lower lip and looked apprehensive.

“Is he really?” Egan asked. “He doesn’t look like he gets much exercise. A little overweight, wouldn’t you say?”

She glared at him. “He works very hard.”

He only laughed, and sipped his coffee. “If I took him home with me, I could break him in one day.”

“You could break the devil in one day,” Kati said, exasperated. “What business is it of yours who I date?”

“Now, that’s a good question,” he replied. His eyes narrowed, and there was a smile she didn’t understand on his chiseled lips. “Maybe I feel sorry for the poor man. He does know what you do for a living, doesn’t he? Must be hell on him, having everything he does to you turn up in a book…”

“Egan.” Ada groaned, hiding her face in her hands.

“You overbearing, unspeakable, mean-tempered…” Kati began in a low tone. She threw her napkin down onto the table and stood up.

“You sure got up on the wrong side of the bed,” Egan commented. “Here I am a guest in your apartment—”

“I’d sooner invite a cobra to breakfast!” she burst out.

“You should have,” he murmured, glancing at the plate he’d just emptied. “He might have enjoyed burned eggs and half-raw bacon.”

She tried to speak, couldn’t, and just stormed out of the room.

She left the apartment before Ada could get out of the kitchen, and wandered around the streets shivering in her thin jacket for an hour before she gave up and went back. It was too cold for pride, anyway. All she’d accomplished was to let Egan see how unreasonably she reacted to his prodding. She’d just have to grit her teeth, for Ada’s sake.

Egan was nowhere in sight when she got back, and Ada looked apologetic and worn.

“I don’t understand him, I just don’t,” Ada groaned. “Oh, Kati, I’m sorry. If I’d realized how bad things were between you, I’d never have invited him.”

Kati was generous enough not to remind her friend that she’d tried to warn her. She sat down on the sofa with a hard sigh.

“I’ll manage. Where is he?” she added darkly.

“Gone to spend the day with some girlfriend of his,” Ada said absently. “He said he might not be back until late.”

Why that simple statement should make her feel murderous, Kati didn’t know. But something gnawed inside her at the thought of Egan with another woman.

“I wonder how much he had to bribe her?” she asked nastily.

“Shame on you,” Ada said.

But Kati didn’t apologize. And she didn’t dwell on her confused emotions, either. She wanted no complications in her life, especially with someone like Egan Winthrop.

She and Ada went shopping later in the day and ate out at a little Italian restaurant just down the street from their apartment. They watched television and eventually went to bed. And Egan didn’t come back. Not that night. Not until the next morning.

Kati was sitting on the living room floor with pages littering the area around her. They were galleys of her latest book, which had come that morning by special messenger, and she was going over them. Ada was at auditions for a new play, hoping to be home by lunch if she didn’t get held up at the theater during tryouts. That was a laugh. Most of the time, it took hours. Despite the appointments the hopefuls were given, something always went wrong. Ada had never gotten back when she thought she would, and Kati was dreading Egan’s arrival. She felt wild when she thought of his not coming in at all, and angry because she didn’t understand why. She didn’t even like the man, for God’s sake!