That was enough."Well, how long, then?" Damon was looking impatient."I haven't said I'll even do it.""How long?""Six months. A year. I don't know." Kate shifted restlessly."Another marriage to someone he didn't approve might make my father think I was hopeless," she said, voicing the notion as it occurred to her, musing,considering the notion. It was the first comforting thought she'd had inseveral hours.

Damon looked at her closely.

"He didn't approve of your first marriage?"

"No." Her eyes met his defiantly.

"All the more reason, then. Sophia will have what she needs.

Stephanos's hands will be tied. And you and I will be protected from ourrespective parents' meddling in our lives. " Damon gave her a confidentbusinessman's smile.

"What have you got to lose?"

"Plenty, I'm sure," Kate said wryly.

"If it's money you're worried about--' " Money is not the issue. "

"What then? Not love again?" His tone gave the word a bitter twist.

Kate shrugged helplessly.

"I don't know. I--' " Look, Ms McKee, you can sit here and dither all nightand never be any more certain. The question is, who are you going to let runyour life? You or your father? "

"How about you or my father?" Kate suggested.

"I'm not trying to run it. I told you, this is business." Damon shot back his cuff and took a look at his watch. "And I have another business deal to make in a phone call to Hawaii in ten minutes. So what's it to be, Ms McKee?What I'm proposing is a one-year marriage.

Are you in or not? "

Are you in or not?

Far below in the Streets Kate could hear the wail of a siren, the blast of ataxi horn; far above there was the steady thrum of a jet engine. Right infront of her, Damon Alexakis's fingers beat an impatient tattoo on the top ofhis desk.

Will you marry me or not?

A myriad images collided in her mind: Sophia's exhausted face, the cherubicsmiles of Leda and Christina, her five-year-old twins, the smugly smilingface of Jeffrey Hardesty, the tired determination in her father's eyes, thenewly stencilled sign in the brownstone's window that said in elegant silvergothic "KID KARE, INC."

Her baby and Sophia's. Those were the images that stayed in her mind.

Sophia did need her, there was no doubt about that. And Kate was glad tohelp out. Perhaps she was even living vicariously. She would never have a child of her own now. KID KARE was her child.

Her business was all she had--she'd been no great success as either adaughter or a wife. If she lost it, she didn't know what she would do.

And Damon could see that she did lose it if he set his mind to it.

She hadn't a doubt in the world about that.

Her father wasn't going to take no for an answer any more than Damon's motherwould. He was almost seventy. Old enough to retire, he'd been pointing out.If only he had someone in the family he could trust. A reliable, hard-nosedbusinessman like himself. Someone like Jeffrey, for instance.

Or someone like Damon Alexakis.

The thought brought a smile to Kate's face. Wouldn't Jeffrey's smug smilevanish if he were faced with Damon Alexakis across a boardroom table?

And what would her father think of Damon? He was certainly more of a forceto be reckoned with than the smug, bland Jeffrey. In that way at least hewas a man cast in Eugene DeMo may stainless steel mould.

Even when the marriage ended in divorce, her father's opinion of her couldhardly be worse than it was already. Besides, he might not even live to seethat happen. He had a bad heart. He was always telling her that, too, in aneffort to prod her into suitable matrimony.

"You're amused?" Damon's voice cut into her reverie.

"Yes, I am."

He pushed away from the desk, standing up and frowning down at her.

"I take it then that you're declining?"

Kate thought about her father, about Jeffrey, about Sophia and Stephanos,

about babies, both human and business. She sat up straight and looked at him with guileless blue eyes.

"On the contrary, Mr Alexakis. I'm saying yes."He couldn't believe he'd done it. He sat in the stillness of his office andlistened to her footsteps recede down the hallway and thought he needed hishead examined.

Had he really just proposed marriage to a woman he didn't know? A woman he'd wanted to wipe off the face of the earth less than an hour ago?

Yes, he thought, and his mouth twisted into a grin as he thought it.

He had indeed. And it was perhaps a further sign of his mental befuddlement that it didn't seem farfetched.

What was a wife, anyway, but one more enc.u.mbrance, why not have one who was pert and willowy and had big blue eyes that snapped when she was angry?

Besides, Kate McKee was at least destined to be useful, helping out with the twins.

He rubbed his hands together, pleased with himself. It was a great solution.

It would spike his mother's guns, take care of Sophia's problem, infuriate Stephanos, and incidentally help out the determined Ms McKee.

Best of all, in a year, she would be gone.

What more could he ask?

"Damon!" Sophia beamed the moment he appeared in the doorway of the

living-room.

"How lovely! What a surprise!"

She moved to get up from the couch, but he waved her back down, crossing the

room^ and kissing her

cheek. He glanced around for any sign of Kate and thechildren, but Sophia was alone. She was round and smiling, and Damonthought, albeit grudgingly, that she looked better than he'd seen her inseveral months.

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired. The baby is kicking me day and night. The twins were easier thanthis one. But I'd certainly be worse if it weren't for Kate."Sophia's gaze went fondly to the hallway which led to the children's room where Damon supposed she was."So, what did you think of her when you met her yesterday? Isn't she a dear?""A dear," he echoed, allowing a hint of approval to creep into his voice. He had to give the impression of being intrigued, smitten almost, without seeming besotted.

"And very attractive as well."

Sophia's eyes widened.

"Kate? Attractive?" She looked at Damon closely."I suppose you're right. She's not striking really. Not tall. Nocheekbones to speak of. But there is a sort of warm wholesomeness abouther." She gave her brother a shrewd look.

"Not precisely your type, I wouldn't have said."

Damon tried to look hurt.

"Am I so predictable, then?"

"So far. You've always gone for the showgirl sort- the love 'em and leave

'em ladies."

He grinned rakishly.

"The ones who aren't really ladies, you mean."

Sophia laughed.

"Just so." She yawned and stretched and set her book aside.

"So, what are you doing here, Damon, at five o'clock in the afternoon.

Surely you didn't come because of a fascination with Kate.""Can't a brother visit his sister without having an ulterior motive?""Some brothers can. Not you."Damon sighed."How devastating to be so transparent. I came to take my nieces for a carriage ride in

Central Park. I promised them, if you'll recall, the lasttime I was here.""At Christmas time.""I've been busy.""You are here to see Kate, aren't you?" She gave him an a.s.sessing look."She can come, too.""You're not to trifle with my mother's helper, Damon," Sophia warned."I need her."Tell that to Stephanos, Damon thought grimly. "Don't worry, Sophie."He turned and headed towards the hallway."I'll have the kids back by supper.""And Kate?"He grinned."Only if I have to.""It's not my evening off.""Sophie says you can have it.""I don't want it!"

Damon tossed a pair of lightweight jackets at his nieces.

"Yes, you do. Stop arguing. How's anybody going to believe you're the least bit eager to see me if you won't agree to dinner after we dump the kiddies?"

"I'm not eager," Kate protested. She'd been having second thoughts eversince she'd agreed to his preposterous scheme. She'd planned all day long tocall him up and tell him she'd changed her mind. But Sophia hadn't given hera moment to breathe.

Now here he was, bursting into the den, commandeering her as if he owned her,barking orders at the twins, herding them along to do his bidding. She stopped in the doorway.

"Move," Damon said. He nudged Kate through the door, then turned back to hisnieces.

"Hurry up, you two." "Yes, Uncle Damon. We're coming. Uncle Damon," they said, scrambling intotheir jackets and tumbling after him. The girls were as awe struck as everyone else in the presence of their uncle. If he'd told them to jump out of the window, Kate thought, they'd have asked which one.

"I don't think--' she began, but Damon cut her off.

"You don't have to think. Just smile at Sophia and tell her you'll see her later. There's a good girl." His hand was against her back and his fingers were practically pinching her as he steered her through the room.

Sophia watched them curiously, a smile on her face. "It's so nice of you to keep your promises, Damon," she said.

"But then, you always do. Eventually."

"I do my best."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather I stayed and helped you, Sophia?"

Kate asked a little desperately.

"No, no, dear. That's quite all right. I was telling Damon that the baby has been active this afternoon, but he seems to have settled down at last. I think I'll nap a bit until Stephanos comes home." She gave Kate a little waggle of her fingers.

"You have a good time."

"We will." Damon ushered them all out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

"This is crazy," Kate hissed at him as the girls bounded ahead and pressed the b.u.t.ton for the lift.