"Doing things like talking about sex on television isn't what makes a woman sexy," he said, his strong hand drifting lower to the small of her back. "When a woman feels powerful, that's sexy. When a woman isn't afraid to be herself, that's incredible. It's as simple as that."

Kate felt her temperature rising, sexual desire riding through her. "You said yourself nothing's simple."

His hands slid down her back to curve against her bottom, cupping her, bringing her up against him, holding her secure. The need she felt was exhilarating and a little frightening.

"What I said," he corrected her, his eyes darkening, "was that there are no simple answers. There's plenty else that is simple and straightforward."

He leaned close then, and she knew he was going to kiss her. She wondered for one fleeting moment if this was why she had gone for the walk, not to get away, as she had told herself, but so she could return and find him here, to feel his hands on her, to taste the pleasure of his lips against her mouth.

She could feel the hard beat of his heart, felt the intensity of his desire. He wanted her, even if at some deeper level he held himself back.

She told herself to push him away, to latch on to the fluttering tails of sanity as it fled. Instead, her arms curled around his neck, unwilling to let him go.

"God," he breathed against her, making her feel alive. Desired and wanted.

Pulsing need shimmered through her veins with an intensity and boldness that made her heart trip. She felt consumed by his gaze, hot and unmistakably sensual, and when he widened his stance and tucked her close between his thighs, she relished the sound of his deep rumbling groan as he leaned down to kiss her.

Just a kiss, she reassured herself. Just a simple kiss.

He nipped at her lips, sucking gently and biting, until she opened to him. She shivered when he pressed her against the hard ridge of his erection.

"I want you," he whispered. "I want you in a way that I have never wanted a woman before."

And suddenly she realized that despite what he said, there was nothing simple about this.

FOURTEEN Jesse shuddered at the feel of Katie's softness pressing against his cock. He strained against his swim-suit, wanted nothing more than to slide hard and deep inside her.

Unable to do anything else, he kissed her again, brushing his lips back and forth, as he tried to rein in his desire. But when she kissed him back, clinging to him, innocently mimicking his movements, it was hard to think of anything but quenching the driving need he felt pulsing through him.

He understood in that moment, with Katie in his arms, the inevitability of the path they were on. He had tried to do the right thing and stay away from her. But the fight had been futile.

Pulling back, he framed her face with his hands, forcing her to meet his eyes. Katie, his Katie, had grown up to be Kate, a sensual woman who hid beneath serious reporter's questions and respectable business suits. Katie with plain hazel brown eyes that suddenly smoldered with a nearly erotic golden green, fringed by long lashes.

"I've fought it, but I can't any longer," he said to her. "We are going to make love, Kate."

He watched the heavy-lidded desire in her eyes burn away as understanding dawned. He could tell that his bold declaration made her nervous and thrilled her at the same time-the wildness fighting, as always, with the need to be responsible.

"We can't."

She tried to push away, but he held her firmly against him.

"Why?" he asked.

"We have a rule-"

"You tossed the rules out the night you asked me to make love to you."

Her eyes flickered and danced as she tried to come up with a response. "It was a moment of insanity, just as this is insanity. You were right earlier when you said I lost my mind. I am losing it, starting the moment I wore ankle weights on TV, then exploding full blown the other night when my head was spinning from a really bad date and .. . and . . . too much sugar."

He watched her lush mouth move, then gave in and leaned forward to taste her again. "You are sweet, but that has nothing to do with it and you know it. You can't deny what is happening between us any more than lean."

She inhaled, her head coming back ever so slightly, her eyes lighting with fire. "I've reconsidered my request from the other day," she said. "And I now completely and utterly deny that I want to ... well, you know."

"Have sex?"

"Whatever."

He lifted his hands to her hair, running them through the fullness of her curls, slowly stroking, the very tips of his fingers gliding along the sensitive flesh behind her ears. She sighed, her mouth parting, her lips naked of lipstick, wet and pink on their own. Then he took her hand and pressed it to the evidence of just how much he wanted her.

Her pulse leaped in her neck, her eyes widening, and after a second, he could see the primness that reigned inside her losing its battle. "I disagree," he stated. "I'm hard and hot and I want you. And I'm willing to bet that if I slipped my fingers inside those high-waist panties I can see outlined beneath your shorts-"

She gasped.

"-when I touched you, you'd be wet"-he gently nipped the corner of her mouth-"and hot"-he ran his tongue along to the opposite side-"and slick."

A soft sound escaped her throat as she opened to him, followed by a shuddering sigh when he slowly slid his tongue between her lips. She reacted instinctively, sliding her own against his. She tasted sugary and delicious, like a decadent sin.

The innocence in her touch stirred both a deep need to protect and a desire to conquer what he felt clear down to his groin. He hadn't lied when he said he wanted her as he had never wanted a woman before. No question it was the same sort of lust, but this time it was more intense, a driving need that, as hard as he had tried, he couldn't shake.

"That's it," he encouraged as her fingers cupped his erection for one fleeting moment. The second she did, her breath stuttered.

If there had ever been a moment when he could have pulled back from this insane path, it fled the second he felt her hand through the wet swim trunks.

Giving in, their mouths slanted together. He meant to start out gently, get her used to the sensual pleasure. But instantly their mouths came together in a way that was primal and all consuming. Her kiss was as hungry as his, as if neither of them could get enough. Her breath came in ragged little gasps as he pressed her back against the sturdy handrail, her thighs lacing with his as she circled his shoulders with her arms.

Sliding his palms down the curves of her body, he cupped her hips before skimming lower to her bottom. She moaned into his mouth as he drew her fully against him.

This time he moaned over her willing eagerness. He gently nipped her lower lip as she arched closer, his cock hard and pulsing against the small curve of her abdomen. Lifting her up with ease, he carried her into the house. He didn't stop until he came to the kitchen. Setting her down on the countertop, he moved closer to stand between her thighs.

The smell of honeysuckle and oleander followed them inside, mixing with the scent of Kate, innocent and sensual, wrapping around him, making him hot and tight and aware of what he really wanted to do ... bend her over the sink and slide into her.

He kissed her with a slow, heated passion, his palms just barely grazing over her, trailing down, his lips skimming to the pulse that throbbed in her neck. She gasped when his hands ran along the sides of her breasts, nothing separating his touch from her except her thin cotton top.

Desire pulsed through him like lightning, electric in a black sky, not civilized, not cautious. Her head fell back against a cabinet as his thumbs swept over her nipples beneath the thin material, bringing them to taut peaks, then circling before one hand drifted to the long line of buttons that ran down the center of her shirt. One by one they gave way as his fingers worked the tiny fastenings.

He stopped at the button just above her shorts, then peeled back the material, revealing her breasts. Jesse silently marveled at the beauty of her.

"I dream of you," he whispered. "You fill me with a need that wakes me at night. It's been hard as hell to stay in the cottage and not cross the yard and slip into your bed."

He saw an answering boldness rise through her. And when he caught her hands, pinning them behind her, then bent his head to taste, he could tell she forgot- propriety, responsibility, their past.

Her suppressed hunger surfaced and he sensed her careening flight toward satisfaction. She arched to him as he dipped his head again, capturing first one taut nipple, his teeth gently nipping, then the other.

It was hard to imagine how they had come to this point. After years of seeing her as sweet little Katie, a constant in his life, he found it difficult to reconcile how this would change his world. But he wasn't a man to deny something once he understood the inevitability of it. There was no question in his mind that he and Kate were on a heady sensual ride that wasn't going to stop until they reached some kind of conclusion. He accepted that now. And he would make sure she accepted it, too.

A flash of concern raced through him over the thought of where this would end. But he brushed it aside. They would find the sexual pleasure and satisfaction they both sought.

Suddenly, he released her. They came face to face, her eyes heavy-lidded with passion and growing confusion.

"If I don't stop now, I won't be able to," he said, reining his body in with fierce control.

Her skin was flushed, her lips slighted parted, and a satisfying disappointment flickered across her features.

"You liked that, didn't you, Kate?" he said with a grin.

Dazed, she could only touch her lips.

"There's so much more that I am going to show you."

Her gaze started to clear over his arrogant announcement. He knew that was all it would take to set her passion in check. And if he hadn't, he wasn't sure he wouldn't have given in and picked her up and carried her to the guest cottage and made love to her then.

She opened her mouth to protest, but he pressed his forefinger to her lips. "I'm going to kiss you and stroke every inch of your naked body. I'm going to spread your thighs and taste your hot sweet center until you understand what being sexy really is. Then make no mistake about it. I am going to make love to you. Not tonight, because I know you're not ready yet. But we will make love, I promise you that."

To: Chloe Sinclair From: Katherine Bloom Subject: Memo

Dear Chloe:

I have read your parking memo and am in full agreement that each of us should be more considerate not to park carelessly, taking up more than one clearly marked spot. Rest assured, I will do my best to be a part of the solution to KTEX TV's parking problem.

Yours sincerely, Katherine C. Bloom News Anchor, KTEX TV West Texas

To: Katherine Bloom From: Chloe Sinclair Subject: What gives?

Kate, you've never in your life responded to one of my parking memos. While I appreciate your interest, I know you well enough. Something's up.

Your friend, Chloe Chloe Sinclair Station Manager Award-winning KTEXTV To: Chloe Sinclair From: Katherine Bloom Subject: Truth

Okay, the truth is, I turned on e-mail in hopes of having a note from Julia regarding the love products show. Surely she's not too upset since really, it was her idea to do it in the first place.

Plus, she is totally into all the sexy stuff. You'd think she'd be over the moon about it.

K.

To: Katherine Bloom From: Chloe Sinclair Subject: Hard to say I haven't heard from her, either. But maybe you should give her some time just in case. I've never seen her faint like that.

Chloe To: Chloe Sinclair From: Katherine Bloom Subject: Wow

She really fainted? I had hoped that I was just imagining things. And how can she turn into a prude so easily. Errrrr! How is it that I keep having to deal with these crazy things? First the audience reaction, then Jesse's surprise arrival, and now the thought of having sex?! I can't take it anymore!!!

Kate

To: Katherine Bloom From: Chloe Sinclair Subject: Explain please I hate to be the one to break it to you, but being sexy and being over the top are two different kettles of fish. And what is this about the sex? I thought you chickened out with Parker. Tell me you haven't been making nocturnal visits to the guest cottage.

To: Chloe Sinclair From: Katherine Bloom Subject: No!

No sex. I swear. And there will be no sex! And really, C, don't you dare breathe a word about this to Julia. Promise me! I never should have mentioned anything. I was half venting, half thinking that if I spelled it out, it wouldn't seem so bad. But it is bad. The truth is, I want to have sex with Jesse.

As to sexy vs. over the top, I know you're right. I can understand it if Julia never forgives me.

Kate

To: Katherine Bloom From: Julia Boudreaux Subject: Hanky panky What is this about you having sex? With Jesse? I must hear every detail. How far did you go? Was he as good as the newspapers make him out to be? And how about his body. Delicious? I expect a full report pronto.

xoxo, j p.s. I considered never speaking to you again, but I decided to reconsider when, drumroll please, yet again the ratings went crazy. Bigger than big! Who knew you had it in you to be wild and crazy? Brava! We will ignore all the crazed fan mail you're getting from prisoners who want to take private lessons.

To: Julia Boudreaux Chloe Sinclair From: Katherine Bloom Subject: Unforgiven Chloe, I cannot believe you told Julia!! Now I won't hear the end of it. For everyone's information, I DID NOT HAVE SEX!!!! And what is this about prison mail?!

Katherine Bloom, formerly known as a respectable news anchor and upstanding citizen, who is expected to play golf-golf- early this coming Sunday morning.

p.s. Speaking of prisons, thanks for the pardon, J.

To: Katherine Bloom Chloe Sinclair From: Julia Boudreaux Subject: You say tomato You might not have had a good old-fashioned fuck, sugar, but I can read between the lines. You'll be having one soon. As to golf, I guess you were right about finding yourself a big strapping man with a fine, strong putter and a great set of balls.

xoxo, Julia Scarlett Boudreaux p.s. That wasn't a faint you saw. I was laughing so hard I collapsed.

FIFTEEN.