“Sorry about that.”
“I’m the one who wanted a kitten.”
“So, you were.”
Kane thought he could get lost in the rueful laughter in Beth’s eyes. He was getting in deeper than he’d expected, involving himself in the everyday doings of her life and loving every minute.
He cleared his throat. “You mentioned being a baseball fan, so I’m getting a private suite at the Mariners’ game on Sunday. That is, if you don’t have anything planned for the weekend.”
“A private suite?” Her nose wrinkled. “Don’t do that. I’m sure tickets are available in the upper deck, and there’s no such thing as a bad seat at Safeco Field.”
“But wouldn’t you rather go in style and miss the peanut shells and spilled soda?”
“I’d rather feel like I’m at the ballpark—peanut shells and everything—instead of being stuck in a room with a window.”
“It isn’t like that.”
“Close enough.” She softened her remark with a smile and carried the catnip to the kitchen.
Kane followed, shaking his head. There weren’t many women like Beth. The rest of his family was dying to meet her—they loved anyone willing to sass him, and Shannon had told them about the morning Beth had stormed into his office.
“By the way,” he said. “Sunday evening is O’Rourke family night. My mother wants us to come over after the game and have dinner with everyone.”
To his surprise, Beth looked alarmed. “She doesn’t think we’re really involved.”
“No,” he assured quickly. “I’d never let Mom get her hopes up for nothing. She’s pretty anxious for more grandchildren—she only has my youngest sister’s girls to spoil.”
Her face still worried, Beth spun around and turned on the water at the sink.
A deep groan came from the plumbing a split second before a jet of water shot toward the ceiling. She yelped and stumbled backward, staring at the faucet handle that had come off in her fingers.
“Oh…drat,” she muttered.
“Drat? Is that all you can…” Kane rolled his eyes and strode across the kitchen. “Grab a pot and direct that water into the sink while I shut it off.”
“That’s all right.” Beth dropped the broken handle and swatted wet hair from her face. “You don’t have to do anything. I can manage.”
He just grunted, dropped to the floor and opened the cupboard under the sink.
Beth glared, but grabbed her largest soup pot and pushed it over the fountain rising from her sink. She was drenched already, and Kane soon would be. Men could be so impossible. They thought they knew it all and could fix anything in the world.
Kane muttered to himself as he shifted cleaning supplies and the garbage pail out of the way.
“Really, I can take care of this,” Beth insisted. She hadn’t quite been able to contain the water with her pan and sprays still shot out of the sink, over both of them, along with the floor. At least the ceiling was being spared.
If not her sanity.
She looked down and saw Kane’s shirt pull across his broad shoulders, the drenched fabric clung, displaying a nice set of muscles. Not to mention the sight of his killer buns, framed by wet denim. Sensations, hot and uncontrolled, spun through her body and she groaned.
“Really, I can take care of it,” she said, trying not to sound desperate, even if that’s the way she felt.
“I don’t walk out on women needing my help,” he growled from the bowels of the cupboard.
“Don’t lay this on me being a woman. I don’t need your help.” It wasn’t strictly true—not at the moment—but that wasn’t the point. Besides, if the sink had broken when she was alone, she would have handled everything. Sometimes you didn’t have a choice except to take care of things.
And it was easier taking care of things without a man around who made you feel such confusing emotions.
“Damn, these knobs don’t want to move. When was the last time you turned the water off down here?”
“Never. There hasn’t been any need.”
“How long have you lived in this house?”
“Over four years.” For a moment Beth’s mind drifted back to the day when she’d decided she had to go on living, even though Curt was gone. She’d impulsively made an offer on the house and had moved in within the month.
“Oh, good,” Kane said, his voice muffled. “This one is turning a little.”
The pressure lessened, then slowly became a trickle, before stopping completely. Beth cautiously let go of the pan, then shook her head to dislodge a drop of water clinging to her chin. She glanced down again as Kane edged his way out of the cupboard, thoroughly doused by her kamikaze plumbing.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t suppose you brought a change of clothing?”
“I don’t suppose I did,” he returned affably. “Let’s get some of this water cleaned up.”
They swilled water from the floor with her mop and a pile of bath towels. She was throwing a load of her formerly clean towels into the washing machine when she heard some electronic beeps and turned around to see Kane press a button on his cell phone, then put it to his ear.
“O’Rourke here. Get Miles on the phone,” he ordered. “Miles? This is Kane. I want you to get one of our facilities maintenance men over to 551 Jacobson South.”
Beth instantly waved her hand to get his attention and shook her head. “No.”
He was obviously not listening. “I want the best man with plumbing. Make sure he brings the correct fixtures and pipes to repair a kitchen sink.” Kane looked into her old sink and frowned. “And a new sink.”
“Now, wait just a minute,” Beth exploded. “You aren’t doing any such thing.”
Kane hunched his shoulder away, more intent on his conversation with “Miles” than hearing her objections.
“Yeah,” he said into the phone. “The entire unit needs to be replaced, including the shutoff valves. Someone else can bring the sink to speed things up.” He was silent for a moment. “I don’t know, just a new double sink—something a woman would like. A good one.”
Beth put her hands on her hips and glared. She wasn’t big enough to take the phone away from him, so she’d just have to wait until he disconnected…and let him have it.
“Yes, I’ll meet him here.” Kane pushed another button on his phone and dropped it onto the table, which was probably the only truly dry place in the kitchen.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
He unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and rolled the sleeves up his arm. “Getting a plumber to help. We have a maintenance staff at the Crockett Mill.”
“Absolutely not. Call and tell them not to come.”
He looked at her in astonishment. “I’ll do no such thing, Beth. Your plumbing must date back to the Depression. It has to be repaired. I can do part of the work, but I’m no expert and it needs to be done right.”
Beth let out a long-suffering, patient sigh. “I know it’s old, and I’ll take care of it. I can handle my own problems.”
“Of course you can, but I can get someone here faster. It takes forever to get a plumber for this kind of work. Believe me, I know.”
She tapped her fingers on her thighs and gave him a narrow look. “Reality check, Kane. Most of us non-billionaire types manage to get through the catastrophes of life fairly well. We even manage to survive without running water in our kitchens for a day or two. I’m doing the repairs myself.”
“Do you have experience running pipes under the house and replacing cast-iron porcelain sinks?” he asked. “Those things weigh almost two hundred pounds. You talk tough, but there’s no way you can lift one by yourself.”
“Maybe not.” She pushed her damp hair back in exasperation. “But I’m not replacing the sink or any of that other stuff. I’ll just get a book on fixing the doohickey thing that broke.”
“The doohick…” Kane’s eyes widened. “Honey, everything needs to be replaced,
it’s falling apart.”
“You aren’t listening,” Beth practically shrieked. She drew a calming breath. “Ordinary people do things on a budget. And if that means fixing just one part of the sink at a time, then so be it.”
“But you—”
The doorbell rang, cutting him off. “If that’s your plumber,” she said over her shoulder. “He can just leave.”
Kane shook his head, unable to understand why women were so contrary. And Beth in particular. Big deal. So he’d asked one of his employees to come over and work on her kitchen. He did the same thing for his mother and sisters when the occasion arose, and they didn’t object.
The exaggeration made him sigh.
Okay, so they did object, but he didn’t understand his family’s protests, any more than he understood why Beth minded so much. There was a problem, so he was taking care of it. And it wasn’t as if he was giving her a diamond necklace, it was just some plumbing. Nothing special about a damn sink.
“Hi, Nick,” he heard Beth say in the other room. “Mmm, look at Katie, sound asleep. She’s such an angel.”
“Just like her mother,” a deep voice rumbled.
Katie?
Kane poked his head into the living room and saw a man standing inside the front door, holding a golden-haired child asleep on his shoulder. Obviously this wasn’t the plumber.
“You’re soaking wet, what happened?” the man asked.
“Slight disaster with the kitchen sink. But I think we’ve saved the house from floating off the foundation.”
“We?”
“Uh…yeah. I’ve got company.” She sounded embarrassed and uneasy and Kane wondered if this “Nick” would assume more was going on with her “company” than plumbing repairs.
“Hello,” Kane said, once again bitten by jealousy. He stepped inside the room and crossed his arms over his chest.
Perhaps it was just the surge of adrenaline he’d gotten from dealing with the broken water pipe, but he wanted to boot the other man out of Beth’s house and tell him never to come back. Especially with the way she looked right now, the coolness of her wet shirt turning her nipples into tight knots. It didn’t matter that Nick didn’t seem the least bit interested in her chest.
Beth shifted from one foot to the other. “Nick Carleton, this is Kane O’Rourke.”
Nick nodded. “Do you need some help?” he asked. “I’ve got my tools in the Blazer.”
Beth smiled. “That would be great, if you’re not too—”
“We don’t need any help,” Kane said, cutting her off.
She planted her hands on her hips again and gave him a fierce look. “Kane.”
“Beth,” he mimicked right back. “Why are you willing to accept Nick’s help, and not mine?”
“Nick is a friend.”
“And what am I?” he growled, annoyed. “I thought we settled that nonsense.”
“I’m happy to help,” Nick said hastily. “Besides, Beth takes care of Katie whenever we need, and she’s my wife’s business partner—and does more than her fair share, too. Especially with Emily being pregnant.”
Distracted, Beth looked back at Nick. “How is Emily? She said she was having Braxton-Hicks contractions last night, but that I shouldn’t come into the store unless she called.”
Nick grinned so broadly that Kane knew, beyond a doubt, he was a one-woman man. Beth’s relationship with Nick was that of a friend, nothing else.
“She’s great,” Nick said. “But I’m going crazy and the doctor says we’re more than a week away. I kept hanging around the shop until she kicked me out—says I’m fussing too much.”
“Don’t forget I’m baby-sitting when the time comes.”
“I won’t forget.” Nick glanced at Kane. “About the plumbing, I’ve done our entire house, so it’s no big deal.”
Kane shook his head. He wanted to be the one to take care of Beth’s plumbing. His sisters would say he was just being stubborn and macho, but that’s the way it was.
“I’ve got it under control.”
Nick shrugged. “If that’s what you want.”
“You’re both the limit,” Beth snapped. “ I have it under control, you just showed up at the wrong moment. Both of you can leave.” She pointed to the door.
“Just like my wife. That’s why they get along so well.” Nick shared a commiserating smile with Kane and obeyed.
Kane didn’t have any intention of following him.
“You, too,” Beth said, tapping her foot.
“Nope. I don’t have anything else to do, so I might as well keep busy with your sink.”
Beth made a frustrated sound. “Men. You think you rule the universe.”
Kane grinned. He loved that contrary expression of Beth’s, which was a good thing since he saw it often enough. Her thick, long hair kept dripping water onto her shirt, keeping it damp. He was a crumb, but he also loved seeing that, as well. The pink, surprisingly large aureoles of her nipples were evident as they poked forward, pressing into the thin cotton shirt.
“Do you have something I could wear?” he asked huskily, needing to focus on something besides the things she did to him without half trying. “Some stretchy sweats, or something?”
Beth lifted her chin. “I don’t care how stretchy they might be—if you fit into my clothing I’ll shoot myself. Actually that isn’t true, I’ll shoot you.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled into a smile. “Is that so?”
“Yes. But if you want to wrap up in a blanket, I can throw your stuff into the dryer.”
“That’s all right, I’ll manage.” Kane shook his head; he didn’t want to be clutching a blanket around his naked self when one of his employees arrived. Almost as if in summons to his thought, he saw a truck pull into Beth’s driveway with the O’Rourke Industries logo on the side.
“Help has arrived,” he murmured.
Beth’s gaze narrowed. “You can just tell ‘help’ to leave.”
“Nope.” He straightened and glanced around the room; it was neat and clean—no carelessly discarded clothing to cover Beth’s chest. “But you need to change,” he said.
“Why?” she asked. “I’m no wetter than you are.”
“It doesn’t matter as much for me.” He motioned to her T-shirt.
Beth looked down and gasped. Of all days, why couldn’t she have worn a bra this morning? She didn’t really need one, but it would have concealed more.
“Don’t worry,” he murmured. “I’m enjoying the show, and Nick is probably so besotted with his wife he wouldn’t see a Playboy Bunny streaking naked through his bedroom.”
“I don’t have anything to show,” she growled back.
“Hey, I like what I see.” His voice deepened, along with the color in his eyes. “And it reminds me of how good you feel.” He reached out and brushed the back of his hand over a jutting nipple. “We could always tell the plumber to leave and spend the rest of the day…remembering.”
Beth’s heart jammed itself into her throat.
With his other hand he cupped the back of her neck and drew her closer. The warmth of his body was undefeated by their drenching and it penetrated the chill surrounding her. She even felt it advancing on the protective wall around her heart.
No. She couldn’t feel that way again, couldn’t take the pain when it fell apart. Yet something about Kane was so seductive…the gentleness in his touch, the understanding in his blue eyes. The expression that said he’d been through it, too, the pain and loss, and that he knew how hard it was to trust in life again.
He tugged ever so carefully on her sensitive nipple and heat streaked through her veins. She opened her mouth, but her moan was lost between his lips as they pressed down.
It wasn’t fair.
A man shouldn’t have so much power. He shouldn’t be able to seduce a woman with laughter and tender looks.
He shouldn’t be able to seduce her at all.
The sound of a truck door slamming and a loud clank
ing intruded, shattering the moment. Beth reluctantly drew back, her body less anxious than her heart and mind to abandon the warmth Kane offered.
“Get something dry on,” Kane muttered, his voice barely recognizable. He looked every bit as stunned as she felt. But that couldn’t be true.
The doorbell rang and she stumbled to her bedroom, leaving him to answer the door. At the moment independence didn’t seem as important as regaining her sanity.
She’d been tempted, oh so tempted.
By the time she’d changed into dry clothing, the two men were in the kitchen, deep in discussion about the antiquated state of her plumbing. “You’re right, it needs the full job,” the other man agreed.
“I’m taking care of it myself,” she announced, her independence reasserting itself.
“She’s being difficult,” Kane complained. But a smile played on his mouth and he winked at the other man.
Beth wanted to kick him—he was enjoying himself entirely too much. Worse, he’d recovered his equilibrium far too quickly, acting as if they’d never kissed at all. Men were rats.
“I am not being difficult,” she said.
He cocked his head. “See what I mean? She has this stubborn idea about not accepting anyone’s help.”
“I accepted Nick’s offer to help, then you sent him away.” Beth’s glare should have sizzled Kane to his toes, but he figured having four sisters had made him immune.
The plumber smiled kindly. “I’m happy to help. You probably don’t remember, but your fiancé, Curtis Martin, he saved my sister’s husband from a house fire a few years back. So you can take me off the clock, Mr. O’Rourke—this is on the house.”
“I…that’s nice of you, but it isn’t necessary,” Beth said.
The peculiar expression in her face made Kane’s stomach twist. “Let’s talk,” he said, catching her arm and pulling her into the backyard.
“What is it?”
Awkwardly he stroked his hands down her arms. He wanted to comfort her, and he wanted her to forget she’d ever been in love with another man. Funny, he’d never been the possessive type before, and Beth wasn’t even close to being his, no matter what his gut instincts told him.
A Date With a Billionaire Page 11