Dad In Demand

“Katie?”

“Yeah. Katie Malloy,” Sean told him through gritted teeth. “You know, the skinny redhead with the smart mouth that we’ve known since we were kids?”

“Ah…that Katie.”

At the smile spreading across his brother’s mouth, Sean had to check the urge to grab him by his designer shirtfront and wrap the fancy tie around his throat.

“I’m not sure if I’d call a handful of dates ‘hitting’ on her, but Katie and I have gone out together a few times. What about it?”

“You think just because you buy her a couple of meals that gives you the right to jump her bones?”

The smile on Michael’s lips died faster than a snap. “Who said I jumped her bones?” Michael demanded, fists ready. “All I did was kiss her a few times.”

Discovering that there had been more than one kiss did nothing to cool Sean’s already-hot temper. “So you admit it. You’ve been putting the moves on her.”

“I’m not admitting anything.” Eyes narrowed, Michael eased back into his seat. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I hardly think that sharing a few kisses-in which, I might add, Katie was a willing participant—constitutes my ‘putting the moves’ on her. At least not in my book, it doesn’t.”

Sean hadn’t wanted to believe it, that Katie really was involved with his brother. After she’d all but thrown him out last night, he’d spent most of it lying awake, chewing on what she’d told him. He’d decided to have it out with her first thing this morning. Only it had been after four when he’d finally dozed off, and by the time he’d awakened with a splitting headache, Katie had already left for work. To make matters worse, he’d had a full hour to let the steam build while he’d waited for Michael to arrive at the office. His brother’s confirmation that he and Katie did indeed have a more personal relationship left a bitter taste in his mouth. “What’s the matter? Aren’t there enough other women in this city for you to hit on without going after Katie?”

Michael clenched his jaw. “Listen, pal. Who I go out with is none of your business. You don’t see me giving you grief about the women who parade in and out of your apartment, do you?”

“None of those women is Katie.”

Fingers steepled, Michael gave him a considering look. “Is that the problem? Katie turn you down?”

Sean made a suggestion as to what his brother could do with himself.

“Hit a nerve, did I?” Michael taunted.

Sean swore and cast aspersions on the nature of his brother’s parentage.

“Before you go through your limited vocabulary, you might want to remember that the two of us are brothers—which means we share the same parents.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“So, you going to tell me why my going out with Katie has steam coming out of your ears? Or you want me to guess?”

“You know what you can do with your guesses,” Sean told him.

“Could it be that after all these years, you’ve developed a case of the hots for Katie yourself?”

“Katie and I are friends,” Sean snapped, clenching his hands into fists at his side. But the memory of the kiss they’d shared yesterday loomed before him. It was a fluke, Sean told himself, brought on by a bout of celibacy and the fact that Heather had been playing games with him, putting him off. He and Katie were just friends. “I’m angry because Katie’s.she’s practically family, and you putting the moves on her isn’t right.”

“Now that is dumb. Katie may seem like family because we’ve all known her a long time, but there’s no blood tie to prevent either of us from becoming involved if we want to.”

Involved. The word gnawed at him. “Just cut all the BS and tell me, are you serious about her?”

“Why? You worried about competition?”

Sean snorted. “You really are full of it, Bro. Believe me, if I were interested in Katie, you wouldn’t be any competition. I already told you, she and I are friends. That’s all.”

“Uh-huh.”

Michael’s smug expression only infuriated him more. “I don’t want to see her get hurt. All right?”

“And what makes you think I’m going to hurt her?”

“Because.because she’s not your type.”

“I don’t have a type,” Michael informed him. “And if I did, why not Katie? She’s an interesting woman, fun to be with, and she makes me laugh.”

Katie was all those things, but hearing Michael say it sent uneasiness clawing down his spine. “So, you saying you are serious about her?”

The lengthy silence caused a tight, funny feeling in Sean’s chest. “I thought about it,” Michael admitted. “And I suspect Katie did, too. But whatever it is that makes two people want to share their lives together, wasn’t there for us. Katie and I pretty much agreed we’d just stay friends.”

Relief flooded through Sean. His heart made its way back down his throat. But when he glanced at Michael, saw his grin, temper pricked at him. “Why you son of a—” He bit off the rest. “Why didn’t you just say so to begin with?”

“Because it was a lot more fun watching you tie yourself up in knots over the idea of me being with Katie.”

“Go to hell,” Sean told him. “I’ve got work to do.” Whirling around, he stomped out of Michael’s office and headed for his own.

Ten minutes later Sean studied the information he had gathered on an investigation he was working that involved a child kidnapping. As he studied a picture of the mother and daughter, images of Katie sneaked into his thoughts. Katie telling him she wanted a baby, that she planned to get pregnant. Katie with her face flushed, her lips swollen, those whisky-colored eyes of hers filled with yearning and need. The kiss yesterday had been a fluke, Sean told himself again. He wanted, needed, desperately to believe that—for his sake and Katie’s.

The intercom buzzed. “Heather Harrison is on line three.”

He grabbed the phone, eager to chase these crazy thoughts about Katie from his mind. “Heather, darling,” he said, crooking the phone between his shoulder and ear. For the next few minutes he listened to the shapely blonde he’d lusted after for the past three months. But when he hung up the phone with a promise to get back to her later, it wasn’t the voluptuous blonde with the sexy blue eyes whose face kept stealing into his thoughts. It was a skinny redhead with vulnerable, whisky-colored eyes.

That same skinny redhead was still in his thoughts that evening when Sean heard the knock at his door. “Door’s open,” he called out from the back deck where he’d set up the grill for barbecuing. Once he’d called and apologized to Katie for overreacting the previous night, he’d spent the better part of the day trying to make sense out of his sudden and unwise attraction to her. He’d come to the same conclusion each time. The kiss and his reaction to Katie had been a fluke. Having her over for a belated birthday dinner would prove it to himself and to her.

So much for his fluke theory, Sean decided when he glanced up and spotted Katie standing in the doorway. His senses went on full alert, like a fox scenting prey. The “friends only” mantra he’d been practicing all afternoon bit the dust the moment he saw her. Wearing a pink top tied beneath her small breasts and white cutoffs, she was not dressed to inspire lust. But one look at those Rockette legs, with the tips of her toes painted the same shade of pink as her worrisome mouth, and he was in trouble. The fact that she was looking at him—as if she’d just as soon skip dinner and have him for dessert—had his blood pressure hiking up, right along with another part of his anatomy. How in the devil was he supposed to think of Katie as his pal when his blasted hormones kept ambushing him?

She walked over to him—no sauntering, no slow swaying of her hips to entice—just a graceful, fluid stride that was all the more enticing because it wasn’t meant to be.

“Hi.” As always, she gave him a quick smack on the lips in greeting as though she didn’t even remember that yesterday those same lips had rubbed against his, opened and tasted him like a welcoming lover. The friendly kiss was over in an instant, but it had been long enough for him to catch the scent of her perfume. Since when had the scent of honeysuckle become such an aphrodisiac?

“I wasn’t sure what you were serving, so I brought red and white,” she said, indicating the bottles of wine in her hands.

Sean wrapped his fists around the wine to keep himself from reaching for her. He checked out the labels. “Hey, these are both good. Your taste in wine is improving, Malloy.”

“Gee. You have such a way with compliments, Fitzpatrick. If a girl isn’t careful, you’ll just turn her head.”

Sean chuckled as he was meant to do, and the tension in him eased a notch. “We’re having steaks. So, I’ll open the red and let it breathe. Have a seat. I’ll be right back.”

“Need any help?”

“Are you kidding? You think I’d let you come near my kitchen again? It took me a week to rid the place of the stench of burned pasta.” At her scowl, he laughed. “Go ahead, kick your feet back and relax. I’ve got everything under control.”

And he did have everything under control, Sean told himself, as he poured more wine into their glasses. Claiming the chair opposite the old-fashioned porch swing where Katie sat, he congratulated himself. Everything had gone like clockwork—right down to the antique music box he’d given her as a gift.