Mail-order Bridegroom Part 78

at the icy spray. She turned it down and turned on the hot, adjusting the temperature, putting the plug into the bottom of the tub.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?"

"Running you a bath."

"I want a shower." A cold one, he thought desperately.

But Kate ignored him, opening the taps full force so that warm vapour from the water soon fogged the mirror and began to fill the room.

Then she turned to him and waited.

"I'll wash your back."

"Swell," he grumbled. But he got into the tub and sank down into the water,

wishing that it didn't feel so good, wishing that she'd just go away."You'll enjoy it," she promised."That's what I'm afraid of," he muttered.Kate c.o.c.ked her head."Why?" Her blue eyes were wide and curious.Damon'sjaw tightened."Never mind.""Are you afraid you're falling for me?" Did she sound as if she hoped he was? Like h.e.l.l. She didn't

give a d.a.m.n as long as she got her pa.s.sion, herclimaxes, all the s.e.x she'd missed since her hot- blooded husband had died.He snorted and was surprised to see a flicker of hurt in her eyes.Did she care?He didn't know what to say. He handed her a washcloth."Since you're here, maybe you should make yourself useful," he said gruffly.The hurt, if that was indeed what it had been, vanished. She took the cloth.

"Whatever you say."

He shouldn't have encouraged her, though G.o.d knew she needed no encouragement. She was all too happy to run her hands over him, to soap his shoulders and his back, to let the washcloth drift slowly back and forth across his chest, then move lower still.

"Kate," he muttered through clenched teeth.

"Mm hm?" She was sitting beside the tub on the floor, smiling at him, hergaze slumbrous and enticing as she moved the washcloth over him."You're going to get it if you keep that up."Her smile widened as she touched him."I'm not keeping it up Damon.You are. "He surged up out of the water, reaching for her at the same time."Damon!" She scrambled out of his way, then grabbed a towel and came back towards him.

"You should have let me finish washing you."

He lifted a brow.

"Was that what you were doing?"

She blushed. It made her look young and innocent. But she wasn't, d.a.m.n it.

He knew that."Did you do it to Bryce?" he demanded before he could help himself.She flinched, then looked away."This has nothing to do with Bryce!"The h.e.l.l it didn't. Everything he did with her in bed had to do with Bryce.

It was like having a ghost there

with them. He scowled and grabbed the towel from her, drying himself off.

"It doesn't, Damon," she insisted.

"Really."

He wiped his face, looking at her over the top of the towel. She was looking at him with a sort of urgent sincerity that made him begin to believe her.

"It doesn't?"

"No." She turned away then somewhat hastily and went out of the bathroom,shutting the door behind her.Didn't it? Damon asked himself, staring at the door between them.Didn't it?Then did it have to do with him?And if it did?He felt a combination of panic and confusion. He felt lost and hopeful. He finished drying off, then toweled his hair as well, before opening the door.

The light was off, but in the glow from the bathroom light he could see that she was in bed, lying on her side, facing away from him. He shut off the light and crossed the room to stand next to the bed on the side away from

her. For a long moment he debated going into the living-room and tryinganother night on the set teeHe couldn't.He pulled back the sheet and slipped into bed beside her. Touched her arm."Kate?"She didn't move, but he heard her swallow.With his hand he stroked her bare flesh and felt again the quickening of his desire. He edged closer. "Kate? Come to me. Please." He turned her, unresisting in his arms and drew her close, kissed her cheeks, her shoulders, her lips.

"I want you."

And Kate stifled her worries and her fears and her better judgement because, heaven help her, she wanted him, too.

She wanted him.

Oh, yes. And that would have been bad enough, but there was more. She beganto realise it when they were back in New York, back to his work and hers, tothe pursuit of their daily lives.

She loved him.

She wasn't sure exactly when it began, when the un interest turned tointerest, when the interest turned to liking, when the liking turned to love.She only began to realise gradually that it had.

Her feelings had begun, she supposed, even before they left that last nighton the island, when she and Damon and all his family had been in the bighouse. Pandora had been playing the piano and Daphne the guitar. They'dbeen singing everything from Greek folk tunes to Lennon and McCartneyfavourites and when she'd returned from the kitchen with a cup of tea forDamon's mother, he, had reached out and snagged her hand, pulling her downinto his lap, where he held her close in his arms.

And Kate had let him. She'd come willingly, and she'd realised as she did sothat she wasn't doing it to show his family that she loved him, she wasn'tdoing it out of some need to perpetuate a fiction, she was doing it becauseit was where she wanted to be.

Just as she wanted to be a part of the Alexakis tribe. That had become increasingly apparent to her, too. They were the family she'd never had thelaughing, squabbling siblings she'd longed for, the fussing mother she'dmissed, the husband who made her feel warm and cherished and beloved.

Maybe he was only doing it because he was acting. She couldn't tell any more. Sometimes she thought so. Sometimes she thought he was beginning tocare for her as much as she was learning to care for him.

And every night now when she crossed the days off the calendar, she did it with less conviction, with more anguish, and she knew she no longer looked forward to the end of their year together.

She wasn't sure how Damon felt. He didn't bury himself in his work the minute they got back to New York. He came home early some nights, picking her up at Sophia's to take her out to dinner. Now and then he suggested taking the girls with them to give Sophia and Stephanos a break. And those nights were wonderful, too. They gave Kate an even greater sense of what Damon would be like as a father. He would be great.

Most nights, however, he brought her straight home. Sometimes he encouraged Mrs Vincent to take the evening off and he helped Kate cook dinner.

Afterwards, as they did the washing-up, he asked her how her day went, listened to her problems, shared some of his own, then he took her to bed and loved her with a pa.s.sion and a thoroughness that Kate had at first been unable to believe existed, and now knew she couldn't live without.

Thanksgiving became a wonderful memory. Christmas was right around the corner. They were, in spite of their beginning, in spite of their intent, making a marriage together.

And as the holiday approached, Kate smiled every day. She blossomed under Damon's watchful eye.

Most of all, she hoped.

CHAPTER NINE.

'are you sure you'll be all right if I go to East Hampton tomorrow for theweekend? " Kate asked her sisrer-in-law, who was sitting placidly on thesofa next to the window overlooking Central Park. She wanted Sophia to say no.

Sophia gave an airy wave.

"Of course. I'll be fine. Mama is surprisingly helpful, really. Damon isn't going to be happy, though."

Kate hoped she was right. Damon didn't know about her proposed trip to EastHampton. He'd still been at a late-night board meeting when it had come up,and when he had got home there had been far more interesting things to occupythem!

Anyway, she'd hoped that a quick glance through her files would find her thereplacement nanny she needed and she wouldn't have to go at all.

No such luck. And the Barlowes, early and valued clients, deserved a perfectstand-in for their beloved Charlotte who'd broken her leg on a skiiingholiday. No, the only thing for it was to go out there and see to thingsherself, then find the right woman to fill in.

Unless Damon said no. She hoped that he would object. She hoped he wouldtell her in no uncertain terms that she wasn't going anywhere five daysbefore Christmas, that she belonged at home with him.

But for the time being, "It's my job," she reminded Sophia.

"I don't understand why you persist in doing it. Good heavens, it isn't asif Damon can't afford to support you!"

"I need to do it. For me." Which was as close as she dared come to explaining that there might be a time when Damon would no longer besupporting her.

Their marriage was working out far better than she'd ever dared hope, but sofar she'd never ventured a word about extending it, making it permanent, andDamon hadn't either. She had fallen in love, but she didn't know that hehad. He liked her, he liked the s.e.x they shared.

Beyond that. . Kate hoped. She dreamed. She was afraid to ask.

Maybe when she told him she had to leave, he would say something.

Maybe he would give her some hint about how he felt.

"You're going to miss the Christmas party!" Sophia remembered suddenly. She looked at Kate, stricken.

Kate had already realised that. The Alexakis Enterprises Christmas party hadbeen the topic of much conversation recently. Though Greeks traditionallycelebrated Christmas at the feast of Epiphany in January, the Alexakises had,ever since Aristotle had begun the main US branch many years ago, taken thisopportunity to share the joys of the season with all the people with whomthey did business. Kate remembered Damon saying his father had never met aholiday he hadn't had a use for. She smiled.

But, as much as it had begun as a purely business event, it had grown tobecome a family occasion, too. And this year was to be the first they'd allattended in five years.

Recently one sister or another had been missing each year. Once Damon's mother hadn't been able to come. Three years ago Damon himself had had anunavoidable conflict and had been unable to make it. But even though theymight not always get there, they always tried.

It had to do with being there for one another, being a part of the family.

Sophia had explained it to her. So had Helena. And Pandora.

And Daphne.That was perhaps why, Kate thought, her proposed trip to East Hampton mightprompt him to share some indication of how he felt. Would he care if shemissed the party? Did he really want her to be part of his family? Or wa.s.she no more than a playmate who happened to be his wife?

"Damon won't let you miss it," Sophia said positively now.

Kate gave a little shrug and tried not to let Sophia see how she felt.

"You'll see," Sophia promised.

Kate didn't because, ultimately, she didn't see Damon.

He called when she had gone to take the girls skating at Wollman Rink.

"He said he's flying to Montreal," Sophia told her disgustedly when she and

the girls returned.

"Some crisis or other. It was Stephanos's account actually, but Damon didn't

think Stephanps should go right now. Because of the baby being almost due,"she added apologetically."I understand," Kate said. She did. And she shouldn't be disappointed. She wasn't a child, after all. She was an adult. She should know by now she hadto make her own decisions. And anyway, Damon wasn't letting their marriagestop him going places. "Did he say when he'd be back?"

Sophia shook her head.

"Like everything else, it depends."

Kate managed a wan smile, knowing how true that was. There were a thousand

vagaries connected with exports and imports. Weather.