It felt comfortable and right in the cozy kitchen. In her fluffy bathrobe and slippers, Katie was innocently seductive, expressive with her hands and eyes as she talked about her job, her son, her ambitions and her family.

“So it’s all rather complicated,” she admitted as she poured the last cup of coffee. “All those years I’d grown up with and tolerated my half-brothers, never dreaming that I’d end up with not one, but two half-sisters.” She grinned, showing off the sexy overlap of her teeth. “Kind of weird, when you think about it. How about you? Any siblings?” She munched on a bite of toast.

“Nope.” He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

“So where are your parents?”

He felt his eyebrows quirk and drained his cup. “My mom took off with some other guy when I was two and my old man was killed in Vietnam when I wasn’t much older.”

He noticed the color drain from her face. “I was kicked around between a couple of aunts and pretty much raised myself.”

“I—I’m sorry.”

“Nothin’ to be sorry about.” He saw the pain in her eyes and refused to let her pity him. “Trust me, it was harder on them than it was on me. I was in and out of juvenile homes for a while until I met my wife.”

“Your . . . wife?” she repeated, stunned.

“Ex-wife.” He shoved his chair back. “I’ve been divorced for years.”

“Oh.” She forced a smile that didn’t seem genuine and tiny lines deepened between her eyebrows.

“It’s over, Katie. Been over a long time.” Why he felt compelled to explain, he didn’t understand. “We didn’t have any kids together and the last I heard, Celia had divorced her second husband and was on her way to marrying a third—not that I care. I don’t even know where she’s living now.”

She seemed troubled and he felt something tug at his heart. Katie Kinkaid, for all her tough-as-nails-investigative-reporter inclinations, was soft inside, couldn’t stand to see anyone hurt.

He went to her chair, reached under her arms and drew her to her feet. “Thanks for breakfast,” he said, bending down so that the tip of his nose brushed hers.

“Thanks . . . Thanks for staying here last night.” Katie could scarcely breathe. His hands, big and possessive, held her on either side of her rib cage. One corner of his mouth lifted into that smile she found so damnably sexy.

“My pleasure, Ms. Kinkaid.”

“Mine, as well.” Cocking her head to the side she looked up at him, heard a deep, heartfelt groan develop from somewhere around his lungs, then gasped as he pulled her roughly to him and pressed hard, insistent lips against hers.