Hard to Resist - By Kara Lennox Page 0,43

couldn’t stop kissing Ethan or holding his hand.

Why should they slow down, when it felt so good and wasn’t harming anyone?

It was all idyllic, and Kat tried not to question her good fortune too closely. Her life had never felt so normal.

Ethan still did a lot of things for her without being asked, such as changing the oil in her car, rotating her tires, replacing burned-out lightbulbs. He bought her presents, too. She was constantly discovering things she needed, things she’d lost in the fire but hadn’t immediately realized were missing.

They were just little things, and he seemed to get so much pleasure from surprising her. He was an unstoppable force, and she got tired of being the immovable object. So she stopped fighting his generosity. Virginia had counseled her to pick her battles, and that was exactly what she was doing.

She knew she wasn’t quite living by the StrongGirl tenets she’d developed, and she felt a little uneasy about it. Most of the girls in her program didn’t have people in their lives to take care of things for them. She was coming to depend on Ethan; she was finding it easier these days to let him do things for her.

And anytime she felt tempted to change the status quo, she quickly found herself thinking about how hurt he would be if he thought she didn’t fully appreciate the way he had bulldozed into her life and her heart. And she chickened out.

“You asleep?” Ethan whispered.

“No. Just very, very relaxed.”

He kissed the top of her head. “That’s the way it should be.”

It was late when the party broke up. Samantha woke briefly when she was transferred from the boat to the dock, but once she was in Ethan’s car, she fell asleep again. Kat had a hard time holding her own eyes open.

Ethan insisted on carrying Samantha up the stairs to the apartment, and Kat let him. Sam was really too big for Kat to tote around, but for Ethan it was nothing. The little girl didn’t stir as Ethan carried her into the bedroom and laid her down on the twin bed.

“It’s hot in here,” he said. “Why don’t you try out the air conditioner? Have you even turned it on yet?”

The weather had been unusually cool for May—until today. She flipped on the switch to the unit, set it at medium and waited. It started blowing cooler air almost immediately. Then she returned to the bedroom, where Ethan was pulling off Sam’s sneakers with one hand and scratching behind Bashira’s ears with the other. Her heart contracted as she watched how tender he was with Sam. A lot of men wouldn’t bother with a single mom or an orphan cat, but Ethan genuinely seemed to enjoy his time with Sam and Bashira.

She couldn’t help thinking about how fine it would be if he didn’t have to go back to his own house—if they all lived together, as a family. But then she stopped herself. It was way too soon to be thinking those thoughts. She would have to know Ethan a lot longer before she entertained any ideas of marriage.

“She’s definitely down for the count,” Ethan said, his words low as he came out of the bedroom. “Do you want to put her in pajamas or anything?”

“It’s okay. She can sleep in her shorts.”

They said their whispered good-nights at the door. Just as Ethan was about to leave, the whole apartment went dark.

“Uh-oh, looks like we’ve blown a fuse. Where’s your flashlight?”

Kat felt her way to the futon and reached under, finding the flashlight. She had one in every room, as part of her new home safety policy.

She went down to the garage with Ethan. It was probably a good idea to watch what he did so she could do it herself, if she had this problem again. He led her to an old-fashioned fuse box and opened it. With efficient movements he replaced the blown fuse, using one of the spares he kept on a shelf nearby.

She stepped outside and looked up. “Ta-dah! Let there be light.”

Then the lights went out again.

“However briefly.”

“Hmm.” Ethan scratched his chin. “Looks like the problem might be more serious than a fuse. And I’m on duty tomorrow. Why don’t you guys bunk with me until we can get the problem solved? I can work on it Monday first thing.”

“I don’t want to wake Samantha up,” she said. “We’ll be fine for a couple of nights. Soon as I open some