Not this time.

No fireworks, no heat barreling through her veins, nothing except the short, dry, chaste kiss.

Matt immediately pulled back and frowned at her. “What was that for?”

“Yes, Katie. Do tell.”

Katie jerked around. Bryan! What? Was her good karma on vacation?

Bryan lifted a mocking eyebrow, darn him, and sent her a knowing smile.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Me?”

“Yes, you!”

“Matt asked me to drive him home.” Bryan’s eyes sparkled, his mouth quivered suspiciously. “Unless of course, you’re going to do it.”

“No!” Matt said quickly, too quickly, then sent Katie an apologetic but terrified glance.

Katie could only sigh. Bryan’s eyes were still on her, she could feel them, but she’d streak naked through the hospital before she’d look at him again.

“Hope I didn’t interrupt anything,” he said lightly, turning her, forcing her to face him.

Oh, yes, given that smug expression, he knew exactly what he’d interrupted, and she’d never live it down.

His cocky, wicked grin only reinforced the knowledge.

6

WELL, AT LEAST she had Tic and Toc, her cats. They’d never abandon her. They’d never look at her with soft reproach as Matt had, wondering why she was trying to ruin his life.

Darn him for giving her a complex anyway. All she’d wanted was one little kiss; it wouldn’t have hurt him to cooperate.

Much.

“Meow.”

Katie let out a long, shaky breath. “Well, I didn’t mean to hurt him,” she told the cat. “But really, now that I think about it, that concussion was his own fault. If he would’ve just stayed still, we wouldn’t have fallen.”

She sat on her porch, both cats heavy in her lap as she watched the sunset and sighed. “I’m still Christmas cursed, apparently. Big surprise there.”

“I’ve heard you say that twice now.”

She nearly dumped Tic and Toc to the floor at the unexpected sound of his voice.

Bryan stood below the bottom step.

In the growing dark, she couldn’t see his expression clearly, and told herself it wasn’t necessary. She didn’t care. More than that, he didn’t care. “We have to stop meeting like this,” she muttered, trying to soothe the two orange tabbies as they both lifted their heads and stared with reproach at this newcomer.

Bryan stepped onto the porch and sent her his trademark crooked grin, the one that did funny things to her stomach in spite of the fact that she’d refused to acknowledge those things.

And not for the first time, she acknowledged somewhere deep down that Bryan was acting far more “mature” than she. Darn him.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he said. “I looked up your address in the computer.”

“I mind.”

His lips curved, but he said nothing to that, simply sat on the bench right next to her. “So. What’s this about a Christmas curse?”

“It means I have yet to successfully manage a smooth holiday season.”

“Ever?”

She didn’t, couldn’t, answer. Not when their thighs brushed, their arms touched, and his face, when he turned it toward her, was completely void of the laughter she’d been silently groaning over ever since he caught her trying to kiss Matt.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all that,” he said, reading her mind with horrifying ease.

“Which? Nearly killing our vice president, or having him now be afraid of me?”

“That you didn’t believe me the first time.”

“Oh. That.”

“Yeah.” He nudged her shoulder with his. “That. Katie, is it so hard to believe? That you and I could have shared a kiss?”

“It wasn’t just a kiss.”

“No,” he agreed with a rueful laugh. “It sure wasn’t. And if I hadn’t had that ridiculous costume on, if we hadn’t been surrounded by dressed up, drunken fools, if…” His eyes gleamed with heat. “Well. Maybe it was for the best.”

She was certain somehow his statement should make her feel better. It didn’t.

“So…are you going to admit it?”

“Admit what?”

He let out a short laugh and shook his head. “You can’t fool me, you know. I’m the master of avoidance techniques.”

“You don’t avoid anything. You jump into every single day with your eyes wide-open, one-hundred-percent ready for anything and everything. Don’t tell me you know anything about avoidance techniques.”

“Ah, but the adventure and excitement of my job, that has nothing to do with what I’m talking about.”

“And what are you talking about?”

“Heart stuff. Emotion stuff. That’s what I’m the master of avoidance at.”

She stared at him, and he stared right back, his eyes clear and open and honest.

“Why?” she whispered. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because maybe I’m a big fake,” he whispered back. Slowly, as if he were afraid to frighten her off, he lifted a hand. His fingers brushed her cheek in a soft, barely there caress. “When it comes right down to it, I’ve never taken the biggest risk of all. I’ve never opened my heart all the way to a woman.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Was that her voice, all whispery and light? Good Lord, she sounded as if she were having an attack of the vapors. But then he shifted a little closer and those long fingers cupped her jaw, and she became much more seriously breathing challenged. Her pulse raced. Her heart pounded. Her palms went clammy.

Wait, she was having an attack of the vapors!

“You’re breathing funny,” he said.

Well, so was he. “I thought you loved your carefree lifestyle,” she said softly.

“I do. I’m just saying…hell.” A self-deprecating laugh escaped him. “I have no idea what I’m saying.”

“I’ve seen customers fall all over themselves to get your attention,” Katie said. “I’ve seen half the staff-the female half, that is-do the same thing. And I certainly haven’t seen you running away. In fact, I’ve personally witnessed you opening up one of your planes to at least a dozen different dates.”

“I said I’ve never opened my heart. Not my planes, or…anything else.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Why?”

“Why? Because I have enough women in my life with my family. Because I never felt the need for another nosy, bossy-”

“Hey! We’re not all like that.”

“Then maybe I haven’t met the right woman.”

Oh, she didn’t want to know this, she definitely didn’t, because something within her softened, melted. Warmed.

Darn it. Darn him.

Her insides were going all molten on her, dissolving with each light stroke of his roughened fingers. “Bryan-”

Now those fingers spread wide, as if he needed to touch more of her, and his thumb slid slowly, languidly, over her sensitive lower lip until it quivered open.

His gaze darkened, his mouth opened, too.

“Bryan-”

“Mmm. Love how you say my name. Say it again.”

She nearly did, but then realized her eyes were half closed, her body was straining toward his, and she was one touch away from doing what she’d sworn never to do. She could never become attracted to him.

Too late, claimed a little voice, far too late.

She not-so-kindly ignored her little voice, because after all, Bryan Morgan was not a forever kind of guy, no matter what he said. She straightened away from him, clicked her mouth closed and glared at him.

So did Tic.

Toc leaped gracefully from her lap and stalked off, clearly bored.

Bryan just waited patiently.

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?” he asked innocently.

Making me forget why I don’t want you. “Stop waiting for me to tell you what you want to hear.”

“Which is?”

“That I kissed you.”

He laughed softly, sexily, and her stomach tightened again. Oh, Lord, she thought frantically. It’s true. No more fooling herself, because that’s really what she’d been doing.

She’d known the truth all along. It was him, no matter how much she wanted to believe otherwise. Worse, she was helplessly attracted to this leanly muscled, sleek, sleepy-eyed, sensual man in front of her.

And she’d kissed him.

“Come on, truth now,” he said huskily. “You know it wasn’t Matt in the Santa costume.”

She could only stare at him.

“Let me prove it,” he said softly. “I can, you know.” His eyes seconded the motion. His mouth curved invitingly, and Katie actually shifted slightly, instinctively moving closer.

“Right here, right now.” His gaze was on her mouth. “Let me lay all these doubts to rest for once and for all.”

Heat pooled in all the places in her body she’d ignored for so long.

“Katie?” His fingers toyed with her hair. Their mouths were only a fraction apart, but he wasn’t moving any closer, he was going to make her ask for it.

Her body was already begging.

“Come on,” he whispered, his heavy-lidded eyes dark and sleepy and filled with promises.

So many promises.

But promises weren’t good for her, she’d had one too many broken in her past, too many from the likes of a man like this, a man who had no intention of ever settling down.

There. That was the bottom line. She needed to remember that.

Saving herself from making a huge mistake, she jerked back, and in the process startled her cat.

Tic straightened from her lap, meowed softly, then leaped from her legs to Bryan’s.

Whether or not the heavy cat missed on purpose-with her claws out-landing directly in the juncture between Bryan’s thighs, and the intriguing bulge there, Katie couldn’t be sure.

But she had to admit, it was quite a conversation stopper.

“That’s two,” Bryan said in a choked voice.