“Of course I am. My parents want to celebrate our engagement. I’m all for that. It’s just hard sometimes to forget the way they acted when Kelly and Matt got together. It was like they forgot all about me, and now that I’m marrying Mr. Famous Celebrity Lawyer, suddenly they’re all excited about me again. It feels sort of… I don’t know…”

“Hypocritical.”

“Yeah.”

“I hate the way they hurt you, baby. I never want you to feel that way again.”

“I love you for that. I really do, and for putting up with this party idea of theirs when I’m sure you have a few things you’d like to say to them.”

“I’d never do that to you. They probably know how we both feel, and this is their way of trying to bridge the gap.”

“Maybe. I thought they’d flip out when I told them I don’t want to get married in Bar Harbor, but they didn’t say a word.”

“They knew better. You might not see it, but you’ve changed a lot since you’ve been here. You’re much more assertive than you used to be.”

“I’ve had to become more assertive dealing with you,” she said dryly.

“Exactly, and that’s carried over into all areas of your life. No doubt they see it, too.”

“Thank you for that,” she said, propping her chin on his chest. “I needed to learn how to stand up for myself, and you showed me how.”

He gathered her long hair into a ponytail that he let slide through his fingers in silky waves. “Nah. You had it all along. I just helped you find it.”

She left a trail of kisses from his chest to his chin and moved along his jaw until her teeth found his earlobe. The painful clamp sent a jolt of heat all the way through him, which only made him harder. He loved playful, lighthearted Kara so much. It had taken him months to find her underneath the wounded veneer she’d hidden behind when he first knew her.

Over time, though, she’d begun to recover from the awful betrayal at the hands of her sister and ex-boyfriend. The showdown she’d had with Kelly earlier in the summer had gone a long way toward helping Kara put the past to bed once and for all.

“You’re awfully frisky this morning, my love,” Dan said as he arranged her on top of him, aligning his hardness with her heat. “Have I also succeeded in turning you into a morning person?”

She snorted with laughter. “That’s one thing I’ll never be.” As she came down on him, taking him into her tight heat, she said, “Consider this a very rare exception.”