“That’s cutting it damned close. You have a friend there?”
“Yes, Paula Kurczak, and she knows about the baby. Paula has a little girl and she still has her baby things.”
“Don’t you know that babies don’t always arrive on the exact scheduled date?” He was fighting to bank his exasperation with her. He should stop grilling her, but he was shocked at her lack of preparation for the baby.
She smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners, a dimple appearing in her cheek, her white teeth flashing, and he felt as if all the warmth of the room had drawn itself into her smile. In spite of her ill-fitting clothes and garish makeup, she looked adorable, and he could understand why the ex-husband wanted her back.
“I’ll be all right. And my baby will be all right.”
“Have you had an ultrasound? Do you know whether you’re having a boy or a girl?”
“Yes and no. I did have an ultrasound and everything was fine, but I told them I wanted to be surprised, so I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl.”
He stared at her in consternation. One week until her due date. “When this storm stops, if you won’t go to the police, I’ll drive you to Tulsa and put you on the plane to California.”
“That would be nice of you,” she said in a subdued voice.
“Do you want to call your friend in California?”
“Paula knows I’ll be there some time this week. I told her I would call from the airport when I land.”
He wondered whether there really was a friend in California, yet there was no big reason to lie to him. He barely knew the woman. He shouldn’t care. One week until her delivery date. That revelation gave him more jitters than the thugs had. Babies had their own schedules.
“Want a refill of hot chocolate? There’s more on the stove,” he said, trying to defuse the moment and calm his own nerves.
“Yes, that tasted good.”
She followed him into the kitchen, clearing the table while he heated the milk, pouring it into the cups and then returning to the fire. With a graceful crossing of her long legs, Katherine sank to the floor with him and placed her cup on the coffee table.
“What about your car?” he asked. “It’s still parked in Stillwater.”
“That was a rental car. I paid cash and I only owe them for today. I can mail them the money. I have fake identification, so they can’t trace it easily. I called the car agency from a pay phone in a restaurant and told them where to find the car.”
He nodded. “Where did you meet Sloan?”
“I was a senior in high school. He was a star player on the Louisiana State basketball team and I was dazzled by him when we started dating. We were married a year later, when I was a freshman in college. I’m twenty-three now.”
Another surprise, Colin thought, deciding it was the makeup and the severe hairstyle and owlish glasses that made her look older. He started to reach up to remove her glasses, remembered her fear and paused, his hand in the air.
“May I?” he asked and she nodded, looking wary and uncertain. He noticed her quick intake of breath as his fingers brushed her temple and he removed the glasses. He put them on and looked through plain glass.
“I was trying to disguise myself. It’s difficult to hide, when you’re a five-foot-nine woman.”
Colin placed the glasses on the table. “If you married when you were a freshman, you stayed with him a while.”
Her face flushed and she rubbed her fingers along the edge of the table. “It’s hard to break away, and at first I thought things might change.”
“That wasn’t any of my business. Sorry.”
“I don’t mind your asking anything. Sloan was so spectacular, a star athlete, successful, popular, handsome, wealthy, powerful. Too often he made me feel as if I were the one who was at fault or inadequate,” she said quietly.
“Do you have any proof of his abuse, if he takes you back to court?”
She shook her head. “No. He bribed and paid off people, and if he didn’t his father did.”
“There ought to be someone he couldn’t get to,” Colin said, feeling a growing anger for a man he had never met. “I can check into it if you’d like.”
“No!” Her eyes were filled with unmistakable fright. “Please, don’t do that. Sloan can be relentless. I don’t want anyone hurt because of me and it would just enrage him even more if he learned someone was checking on him.”
“I am not afraid of Sloan Manchester,” Colin said quietly, not making an effort to hide his anger.
“Please promise me you won’t start asking questions in Louisiana.”
He knew he was worrying her, so he nodded. “I promise. I not only won’t hit you, Katherine, I will never knowingly hurt you.”
Her eyes widened with surprise, a feeling that mirrored his own at himself. The words were out without thought and his statement suggested more than he intended. His promise implied a relationship, something he had no intention of developing with her.
“You know what I mean,” he said offhandedly, trying to make light of his promise.
She gave him a half smile, her lips curving, a warmth returning to her features, which made his breath catch. His gaze went over her and he forgot about her past and Sloan Manchester. He felt drawn to her, wanting to know her better, wishing he could keep her safe and wondering again at his reaction. What did she really look like without the makeup and with her hair down? His curiosity was rampant as he studied her.
“Can I take down your hair?” he asked, feeling absurd, yet not wanting to frighten her. He suspected the last time he had asked a female a question like that he had been ten years old.
Her eyes seemed to widen as she stared at him and nodded. He reached out carefully with one hand to extract pins, going slowly and trying to avoid even the slightest pull of her hair, as he thought a man could get lost forever in the cool green of her eyes.
As Colin Whitefeather stretched out his hand, Katherine’s heart beat with fright and she willed herself to sit still, thinking the first moment he made a move other than to take down her hair, she would put more distance between them. And suppose he wanted her? This afternoon she had placed herself at his mercy and tonight she might have to pay the consequences, because she couldn’t run in this storm.
Katherine felt his fingers brush her head, tug so gently on her hair, stirring strange tingles that she was unaccustomed to feeling. Long ago Sloan had killed all physical yearnings toward him. Sex was a dreaded event and she loathed Sloan’s touch. Once she started dating Sloan, there had never been another man in her life and she was unaccustomed to anyone wanting to touch her hair.
Her heart thudded with fear and her mouth felt dry while she watched Colin, staring into unfathomable dark eyes that gave no hint as to what he was thinking. His gaze shifted to her hair again as he pulled away another pin and placed it carefully on the table. He was slow and deliberate, barely touching her, not moving an inch closer, and gradually her racing heart slowed to a normal beat.
She began to calm, studying him, realizing his eyes were thickly lashed, his features almost too rugged to be called handsome. His skin was dark, a faint scar visible along his jaw now that she sat close to him and really looked at him.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked quietly.
“I wanted to see