When he didn't stop, she took a step back. "What are you doing, Jesse?"

"I wish to hell I knew."

He pulled his belt from his shorts with a single jerk, the leather snapping in the hot summer night.

"Ah, I'd say you're ... undressing?"

"Good eye."

"Meaning?"

"You all but said that I withhold everything but money, and I don't appreciate it."

"Now, Jesse, when I said that, I wasn't trying to be hurtful. Not at all."

He tossed the belt aside, his eyes brooding like a storm. Sexual awareness rippled through her. She hated how her breath rumbled low in her chest, just as she hated the way she felt the same unsettling tightness she had felt five years ago when she had walked in on him while he was getting dressed for Suzanne and Derek's wedding.

Her mind drifted back to that day years earlier. Jesse had just gotten out of the shower at his house. Her own home was filled to overflowing with bridesmaids and wedding people putting on the ceremony in the backyard.

Not realizing Jesse had returned, she walked into his bedroom to get away, only to find him just out of the shower. She must have made a sound because he turned. He stood before her, naked and amazing, his sex thick and large, hanging in a soft fullness between his thighs that made her mouth go dry.

"Oh," she had whispered.

She had been twenty-two, just out of college, and settling into who she wanted to be. There was that young Kate who had been adventuresome, battling with the newer Kate who had spent too many years taking care of her wildly passionate mother. Jesse made her forget them both.

"You're beautiful," she had added.

He watched her. And when she boldly looked at his soft fullness, he grew hard. He muttered a curse, and started to turn away. But good sense fled. She took the steps that separated them in the tiny bedroom, then she touched his back. She saw the way his body tensed, saw the flexing muscles that ran along his spine, disappearing into his slim hips, so white against his tan.

"Kiss me," she had whispered.

She had never wanted anything so badly. Just when she thought he'd tell her to get the hell out of there so he could get dressed, he turned.

"Katie," he said with a mix of jaw-ticking restraint and incredible kindness. "You're innocent-"

"I don't want to be." Conviction rushed through her in equal measures to desire.

He almost reached out like he had so many times before, as a friend, as the boy who kept her safe. But then his expression changed, his nostrils flaring, and he dropped his hand. "You might not want to be, but I want that for you. Some guy is going to come along and sweep you off your feet. You deserve that."

"I want you, Jesse. You know that."

"You deserve better."

That was what she had never understood-why he thought she deserved better than him. And why he never believed her when she told him how great he was.

That night, when she stepped even closer and whispered, "I deserve you" he groaned one last time before something inside him let loose and he pulled her to him.

Their bodies came together, her palms flattening against his skin. His lips came down on hers, teasing and tasting with an expertise that should have given her pause. He showed her passion with his body, as if he had been waiting for this moment.

The sensation was heaven. She ran her hands up his torso, then down along his spine as he kissed her, feeling his groan shudder through his body.

He clutched her to him like he sought something more from her than just the kiss as he buried his face in her hair. "God, Katie," he choked.

She could feel his tight control slip a notch, felt the way he nearly trembled when he kissed her again, this time running his tongue along her mouth. When she opened to him, he tasted her deeply, suddenly savagely, as if his control had broken completely. He lined her face with his strong hands, tilting her to him so that he could kiss her temple and eyes, across her neck to the shell of her ear.

When she felt his palm slide underneath her shirt, drifting higher until he grazed her breast, every nerve ending came alive. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on as he coaxed her, she meeting his demands as he brought her body to life, making her want more.

"Katie," he breathed. Then he swore an oath and tugged her T-shirt over her head.

She felt air hit her skin at the same moment he dipped his head and opened his mouth over her breast. Her head swam as his hands slid low, cupping her hips, pressing her against his need.

"God, you're beautiful," he whispered reverently. "Beautiful and pure."

Then all of a sudden he froze. After a second, he tore himself away. One minute she felt the hardness of him against her, his hands and mouth exploring her intimately, then the next he set her aside with a feral groan.

His breathing was deep and labored, and his eyes narrowed as he grabbed her shirt and pulled it over her head, then tugged her arms through the holes as if she were a child. "You've got to leave," he said. Nothing more.

"But-"

"Damn it, Katie, get the hell out of here."

That day she had been upset and mortified when she raced out of Jesse's room and had run straight into Derek.

"Kate? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she answered, tears spilling over, before she hurried out of the house.

Two hours later she'd been crushed when Jesse showed up at the wedding with not one date, but two. Both of the women glowed with the same kind of passion and fire her mother cast out. Kate had felt betrayed when he hadn't even said hello-then devastated when after angry words with Derek, Jesse had taken his dates and left.

Kate swallowed now, all these years later, when Jesse took a step toward her in the guesthouse. She took a step back, bumping into a small table. The memory of him always did battle with the man he had become. Sinful, but still incredible. Wild, but she couldn't deny that he had stepped up to his responsibilities to his son. As always, he was a mix that was hard to understand.

He kicked off his boat shoes one by one. Her heart surged and her pulse rushed through her veins.

She cleared her throat. "I realize that you're to be commended for taking care of Travis. But I hope

you'll give him more than simply a place to stay. He is dying for a scrap of your attention. He deserves that from you."

"I'm going to send him to golf school."

"I'm talking about giving him some of your time."

He inhaled sharply, raking his hands through his hair. "You might look sexy as hell in those workout clothes-"

This time she inhaled sharply.

"-but you're still a pain in the ass," he added with a mix of irritation and bemusement.

"I'm only trying to point out what's right," she managed to say. "Is it so bad to have high expectations?"

She could tell he took pity on her when he smiled. "No, little Katie, it isn't. But I didn't come back here

to be parented by you, or to be a parent. I'm going to take care of Travis while his mother gets settled.

But that's it. So don't try to make this trip something that it isn't."

"Then what is this trip about?"

He didn't answer. His gaze drifted to her lips as he took the last step that separated them, bringing them close enough that if he wanted to, he could touch her. His shirt was gone, only his shorts separating him from the way he looked that day when she had walked into his bedroom.

Despite every warning, heat raced through her, centering at her core, hot enough that she felt the need to press her legs together against the thought of what she wanted him to do to her. Touch her. Kiss her.

Finish what they had started five years ago.

She would have closed her eyes as she sucked in a breath of anticipation if his burning gaze hadn't been

locked with hers.

But she didn't think she could take it if he touched her again, then left. It had taken her five long years to hammer her life into an order that didn't revolve around the hope that one day they would end up together.

"Listen," she blurted. "Whatever the reason is that you came back, it's time we spelled out in plain English what the deal is while you're staying here."

"The deal?"

With effort, she planted her hands on her hips and did her best to look authoritative and commanding.

"No sex. There isn't going to be any sex between us."

"Interesting. Why's that?" One dark brow rose in challenge, his lips tilting in an aggravating tease.

"You don't agree?"

"Actually, I do, but I'm still curious why you have to make a rule about it."

"Well, for starters"-she raised her chin-"you're leaving."

He conceded with a nod. "True."

She could have done with a little less straightforward bluntness. "For another, I'm not your type."

"I don't have a type."

She couldn't help snorting in disbelief. "Though more important, you have a son to think about."

This really made him grin. "I can't have sex and have a son?" he teased.

She rolled her eyes. "Someone should have had that birds and bees talk with you."

He laughed out loud, then reached for her, awareness and desire leaping through her like a flame.

Those traitorous thoughts she always had when Jesse was near fought to the surface. Kissing. This man.

And maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be so bad to give in to a little fling.

She nearly scoffed out loud. Giving in? A little fling? Like those women he brought to the wedding?

Like her mother.

The thought cut through the desire licking through her body.

"No sex!"

He hesitated, though for only a half second before his smile turned wicked and he grabbed something

off the table behind her. Too late she realized he must have been going for a towel the whole time.

"Can't take a shower without this," he stated.

Embarrassment flashed through her, wiping out every bit of desire. She should have been relieved, and