Shane retied Katie’s top, his hands brushing against her back as he worked. “There. All decent again.”

“There’s a lot to be said for indecency.”

“Yes, there is. We’ll discuss that topic further later.”

“Is it later yet?”

Laughing, he said, “I wish.”

They walked out of the water holding hands. When they reached the sheet he’d spread over the sand, he grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her shoulders.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For?”

“For taking me swimming and making it so fun that I forgot to be scared.”

“You’re welcome. Nothing to be scared of. Think about how many times you swam here without incident. What happened the other day was scary for both of us, but we can’t let it ruin something we love to do.”

“You’re right, but thank you just the same.”

“It was fun for me, too.”

He piggybacked her to the stairs, where he put her down and then let her go ahead of him. “What a view,” he whispered from behind her.

“Stop.”

“You stop.”

“What am I doing?” Katie asked, genuinely baffled.

“You’re being hot and sexy when we have somewhere to be.”

“How am I being hot and sexy, as you put it?”

“Um, you’re breathing?”

Katie was still laughing at his ridiculous statement when she reached the porch, where Laura was nursing a glass of ice water while Adele enjoyed a glass of wine at a table overlooking the beach. Katie wondered how much they’d seen and was doubly glad now that she’d put an end to the naked touching.

Laura smiled at them. “Hey, kids. Have a nice swim?”

“Yeah,” Shane said. “It was great.”

“Looked like fun from here,” Adele said with a wink.

“I told you people were watching,” Katie said to laughter from the two women.

Shane took hold of her hand. “We’d love to stay and chat, but we’ve got somewhere to be.”

“I’ll see you there,” Laura said. “We were invited, too.”

“Great,” Shane said, leading Katie inside.

“That was mortifying,” Katie muttered when they were in the kitchen, which bustled now as Stephanie’s staff prepared for the dinner rush.

“I bet if you asked them both, they’d say they’re delighted to see us together. I know Laura is, because she told me so.”

“My grandmother is, too.”

“So there you have it.”

“Just because they’re happy to see us together doesn’t mean they want to watch us frolicking in the surf.”

“Is that what we did? Frolic?”

“You know what I mean.”

Laughing, he said, “They saw us having fun, Katie. No need to be embarrassed.”

“So you’re into PDA, then?”

“At times. Depends on the circumstances. What about you?”

“As that was my first instance of PDA, the jury is still out.”

“Keep me posted. I have a vested interest.”

“Ha-ha. Very funny.”

“I’m serious.” He left her with a kiss at her door. “Hurry up. I don’t want to be late to your mother’s. Got to make a good impression.”

“As if. She’s already in love with you.”

“As nice as that is, she’s not the one I’m trying to impress.”

He was gone to his room before his words registered. Katie fumbled with her key and stepped into her dark room, standing there for a full minute, thinking about what he had said. Anticipation made her skin prickle and her nipples tighten. In a few minutes, she’d get to be with him again, and she was more than ready.

In the shower, she spent extra time with her razor until every inch of her was smooth. She towel-dried her hair and combed it out, applied lip gloss and mascara, chose underwear with special care and put on a red halter dress. As she tied the dress behind her neck, she had a vision of Shane untying it later.

Whatever her mother had planned for dinner, Katie hoped it didn’t take too long to eat.

---

Shane rushed through his shower but took the time to shave. As much as Katie had liked the feel of his whiskers against her face earlier, he planned to kiss her all over later and didn’t want to give her whisker burn.

As he relived the pleasure of kissing Katie, he realized Courtney hadn’t crossed his mind all day. Apparently he’d found that off-switch he’d been looking for, and her name was Katie. All his thoughts were of her since the amazing night they’d spent together. In many ways, she was Courtney’s total opposite.

Whereas Courtney was confident and ballsy, Katie was tentative and cautious. Shane had once been attracted to confident and ballsy, but now he found himself drawn to tentative and cautious. What he liked about Katie was that she knew herself. She made no excuses for how she’d chosen to live her life or why she’d made the choices she had. She owned them, and he respected that.

Her innate sweetness was also a huge draw. While Courtney had been a nice person with lots of friends and a healthy social life, sweet wasn’t a word anyone would’ve used to describe her. Funny and loud and quick to laugh, Courtney had been fun to be around, but she’d also had a hair-trigger temper. He knew now that had been because of the drugs, but at the time, he’d worked overtime to keep the peace.

Hindsight was a bitch, he decided as he ran a towel over his face. When he’d still been in love with her, he would’ve said there was no one else in the world for him. But now that sweet Katie had come into his life, he had reason to question those beliefs.

Did he want to fall in love again? Did he dare risk his hard-won sanity by handing over his heart, and with it the power to hurt him, to another woman? What was the alternative? Being alone for the rest of his life? Never having children of his own? What about what she wanted? She’d waited so long to even date. Would she decide she wanted to play the field before she settled on one guy for the rest of her life?

No matter the answers to those questions, hard as he tried, he couldn’t picture Katie hurting him the way Courtney had. She was softer and kinder than Courtney, for one thing. If she had to let him down, he was fairly confident she’d let him down easily. It was strange to think that before the ordeal with Courtney, he wouldn’t have been quite so attracted to Katie’s sweetness. Now he craved it.

He’d had more than enough of the drama that had been such a big part of his relationship with Courtney. When he’d still been dazzled with her, he’d found the drama exciting. With the wisdom that came from age and experience, he could see there was a lot to be said for tranquility.

During the darkness that’d followed his split with Courtney, he’d also had far too much time to wonder if he’d ever feel physically attracted to another woman the way he had with her. That was another question that had been resolved to his extreme satisfaction in the last few days.

He loved kissing Katie and touching her and making love with her and wanted to do it again as soon as possible. After he’d applied a dab of cologne and dressed in shorts and a clean polo shirt he unearthed from a pile of laundry he’d yet to put away, he stopped short at the realization that he should’ve gotten something for Sarah. Since he’d been invited as Katie’s date and not as Sarah’s friend, he should bring flowers or wine or something.

It had been such a long time since he’d done the dinner-with-the-parents thing for the first time that he’d forgotten the rules. Courtney’s parents and sister had loved him. They’d loved his father and Laura and made them a part of their family. Her parents had been as surprised as Shane to learn she was addicted to pain meds, and they’d been devastated by her decision to divorce him.

For a year or so after it all blew up, her parents had remained in close touch with him, their concern for him rivaling only his own father’s. After a while, though, he’d stopped returning their calls, because it was too damned painful to be reminded of what he’d lost every time he talked to them.

Again, Shane had to ask himself why he was thinking about this shit when he had a beautiful, sweet, sexy, funny woman waiting for him to take her to dinner. It was because he was terrified of history repeating itself, and every minute he spent with Katie increased the stakes. And because he’d like to think he’d learned a few things from the nightmare he’d been through. He sat on his bed and ran his fingers through his damp hair. He was still sitting on the bed when a soft knock sounded at his door. He got up to answer it.

“Hey,” he said to Katie, who looked gorgeous in a sexy red dress that left her shoulders bare.

“Did I really get ready faster than you?” Her smile faded when she took a closer look at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Come in.” Shane stepped aside to admit her and then closed the door. “Could we talk for a minute?” He hated that he had to do this, but what choice did he have?

“Of course. Are you all right?”

He sat on the bed and gestured for her to join him. “I’m better than all right for the first time in a really long time. And it’s because of you.”

“That’s nice of you to say. So why do you seem upset?”

He took hold of her hand and brought it to his lips, meeting her gaze. “I like you, Katie. I really like you. I like hanging out with you and everything else.”

“I like hanging out with you, too. Were you worried that I didn’t?”

“I wasn’t worried about that so much as…”

“Just say whatever it is. Get it off your chest.”

He looked into her eyes and saw nothing but interest and compassion and that underlying layer of sweetness that made everything so much easier with her. “After what happened with my wife, I was a wreck. It was as bad as it gets. I survived it, for the most part, but I don’t think I’d survive it a second time. So I guess what I’m saying is if this is just a fling, a get-the-first-time-out-of-the-way-and-move-on thing, which is perfectly all right if that’s what it is for you, I’d like to know that sooner rather than later.”

Katie stared at him, and for a moment he wasn’t sure if she was shocked or pissed or what. Had he just screwed it all up?

“It’s much more than that to me, Shane. I would never use you that way. First of all, that’s not who I am, and second of all, with your sister married to my brother, there’s much more at stake here than what’s happening between us. I’ve known that from the beginning.”

“I didn’t mean to insult you. That’s the last thing I’d ever want to do. I’ve learned the hard way that I have to look out for myself in these situations, and the more time I spend with you, the more time I want to spend with you. If you aren’t on the same page, I’d rather know now. That’s all I was trying to say. Sorry if I made a mess of it.”

“We’re on the same page. I can’t promise this is it for me forever—”

“I’m not asking for that.” He softened his words with a smile. “Not yet anyway.”

She returned his smile. “I was excited to see you tonight. Why do you think I went downstairs to get lemonade right after five? Because you told me you’d get home around five. I was hoping to see you the second you got home.”

“You were? Really?”

“Yes! Why do you seem so surprised to hear that?”

“Are you laughing at me?”

“I’m laughing with you.”

He scowled playfully. “Except I’m not laughing.”

“Shane… Look at me.”

He did as she asked. “I really, really like you, too, or I never would’ve done what I did last night or what I’m going to do again tonight if you’re willing.”

His snort of laughter made her smile. “If I’m willing?”

“Well, I don’t want to get cocky or anything.”

He took hold of her hand and placed it over his erection, drawing a gasp of surprise from her at his bold move. “Safe to get cocky.”

They shared a laugh that turned into a kiss as a huge weight lifted off his chest. It was safe to relax and let it happen with her. She knew what he’d been through and understood what he needed.

“Feel better?” she asked.

“Yeah, except now I’ve got a whole other problem. Seems to crop up a lot when you’re around.”

She glanced at the unmistakable bulge in his shorts.

“Don’t look at it. That doesn’t help.”

She bit her lip as she glanced over his shoulder at the bedside clock. “We have half an hour before we need to be there.”

“Katie…”

“What? I was just pointing out that we do, in fact, have some time.”

“No, we don’t. I have to stop and get something for your mom and we’d have to shower again and… God, what the hell am I saying? Take your clothes off. Hurry. We don’t have much time.”

Katie fell on the bed laughing, but she didn’t take off her dress. “I didn’t expect you to take me so seriously.”

“If you’re you and you’re offering sex, I’m taking you seriously.”

“I’m sure my mom has gone to a lot of trouble for tonight. I don’t want to be late, and if you talk me out of my clothes, we’ll be late.”

“You’re right about that.” He leaned in to kiss her. “Do I get a rain check for later?”

“Absolutely.”

Shane got up and then offered her a hand, drawing her into his arms when she was standing. “Thanks for letting me talk it out.”

“Thanks for trusting me enough to tell me what’s on your mind.”

“I’m trusting you with a lot more than what’s on my mind. I hope you know that.”

“I do, Shane. And that works both ways.”

“Good,” he said, kissing her again. “Now, what should I get for your mom?”