In a heartbeat her blood was rushing through her veins, her bones began to melt and she sagged against him, only to be released quickly. She nearly lost her balance and glanced up to find his eyes a smoky blue. “I gotta go,” he said.

“Y-yes.”

With another quick kiss to her cheek, he turned and walked through the back door. Katie was left with her heart pounding wildly, her thoughts tumbling disconcertingly and a new hunger burning deep in the most womanly part of her. She dropped into her chair and held her head in her hands as she realized that she was starting to fall in love with a man she barely knew.

“Don’t,” she warned herself, and Blue gave out a bark of agreement.

But she feared it was already too late. Much too late.

* * *

A few days later Luke stared at a copy of Josh Kinkaid’s birth certificate. Luke smoothed the official paper open on the scarred maple table that had come with his apartment in the carriage house. The name of Josh’s father was missing, but the birth date was perfect. With a little math, Luke figured Katie had gotten pregnant about a month to six weeks before Dave Sorenson had left Bittersweet.

It wasn’t proof positive, of course; she could have had another lover, but Luke had the painful sensation that he knew for certain that Josh Kinkaid was Ralph Sorenson’s only grandchild. His jaw tightened and he wondered where the feeling of satisfaction he’d anticipated in figuring out this mystery was. He was about to earn the money he’d been promised, about to give an elderly man a ray of hope before he died, about to betray a woman he thought he could all too easily fall in love with.

At that thought, he started. He wasn’t falling in love! Hell, at best what he felt for Katie Kinkaid was lust. And what did it matter if he let Sorenson know the truth? The man had a right to meet his grandkid, didn’t he? Of course he did. Luke kicked out his chair, grabbed his hat from a peg near the door and walked outside to the landing where the sultry evening air was so thick it seemed to weigh against his skin.

Somewhere over the mountains, thunder rumbled and he thought about his livestock at the ranch. He’d better check on the horses and cattle, than return to town.

To Katie.