why?”
Reed didn’t have a good answer for that. “What about your brothers?”
“What about them?”
Reed’s glance darted to Travis again, finding him absorbed in a conversation with two other men. “Do they know?”
“You mean, do they know…” she made a show of glancing surreptitiously around the dance floor then lowered her voice to a stage whisper “…about my wicked little ballroom-dancing secret?”
A surge of jealousy hit Reed at the thought of her other dance partners. Giving into impulse, he stepped through the patio door, spinning her outside, away from the crowd.
“Hey,” she protested.
But instead of stopping, he let their momentum carry them along the fieldstone wall. He came to a halt beside a square stone pillar, his forearm tightening across the small of her back, the darkness closing around them to give privacy.
She gasped in a breath, lips parting, eyes wide.
He gave her half a second to say no, then swooped in for a kiss. He came down harder than he’d intended, openmouthed, tongue invading, greedily savoring the sweet, moist heat of her mouth.
After a startled second, she tipped her head back, welcoming him, her tongue tangling with his. Her spine arched, and her hips pressed against the steel of his thighs. Her arms twined around his neck, and his free hand closed over her rear, the thin fabric of her dress all but disappearing in his imagination.
“Are you naked under this?” he rasped, kissing her neck, her shoulder, brushing a spaghetti strap out of the way to taste her tender skin.
“Are you naked under that?” she asked in return, tone teasing, her hands slipping beneath his jacket to wrap around him, branding him through the cotton of his shirt.
“Yes,” he hissed, then resumed the kiss that went on and on, pushing want and need into every fiber of his body. His world contracted to Katrina, her taste, her feel, her scent. His hands roamed, while his lips savored, and her lithe body imprinted itself on his skin.
A woman’s laughter penetrated his consciousness, as a group of people wandered onto the deck.
Reed forced himself to let go, fisted his hands and gritted his teeth, struggling hard to bring himself back under control.
When he found his voice, it was a mere rasp. “What are we doing?” What was he doing? What on earth had gotten into him?
Her hands were still braced on his chest, and her lips curved into a secret smile. “I believe it’s called kissing.”
It was so tempting to fall back into the moment. But he couldn’t allow it. This chemistry between them flew out of control the instant he let his guard down.
“What is the matter with me?” he ground out.
Why couldn’t he leave her alone? She was a family friend and a neighbor, soon to be an in-law. She wasn’t some temporary pickup in a honky-tonk.
She eased away, straightening the strap of her dress. “Are you saying ‘not here’?”
He wished it were that simple. “I’m saying not ever.”
Her smile faltered, and he immediately felt like a cad. Bad enough he’d accosted her. Now he’d insulted her. He hadn’t meant it the way it sounded. He raked a hand through his short hair, putting more space between them. “I’m sorry.”
She pressed her lips together. “No problem.” She made to move around him.
He reached out. “Katrina.”
But she brushed his hand away. “No need for an explanation.”
He snagged her wrist, stopping her. “It’s not that I don’t want—”
“You’re embarrassing me, Reed.” Her tone was brittle; her crackling blue gaze staring straight ahead.
He leaned down, lips close to her ear, attempting to make it better. “Listen to me.”
“No.” She tried to free her wrist.
“I want you, Katrina,” he confessed. “I want you very, very badly.”
“I can tell.”
He mustered his strength. “Give me a break. Your sister is marrying my brother.”
She pinned him with a glare. “Is this some archaic chivalry thing?”
“Yes.” For want of a better term, it was.
She leaned into him, the tip of her breast brushing his arm. “Well, you might want to get over that.”
“Katrina,” he warned on a growl.
“Because I want you, too, Reed. Very, very badly.”
His hand went lax at her frank admission. It gave her a moment to escape, and she took it.
Five
Katrina couldn’t believe the way she’d taunted Reed. She’d never said anything remotely that bold to a man.
She made beeline back to the Jacobs’ table, her emotions vacillating between rattled, embarrassed and just plain annoyed.
She was a grown woman. Where did he get off protecting her from herself? As though she wasn’t capable of