Page 17 of Strangers She Knows

Kellen was amused. “Are you in love, Max?”

“No, dear, I only love you. But when I look at her, I remember why I love all women so very, very much.”

Kellen laughed, low and warm. “That’s one of the reasons you are so personable, Max Di Luca. You love women. You even like them.”

“What’s not to like?”

“Trust me. I was in the military. There are a lot of men who don’t like women, who consider them no more than cattle. Who make a woman want to come out punching.”

“How many of those guys did you take down?”

“Never enough. One falls, three more take his place.” Kellen wasn’t bitter, but man, it did grow old.

“Dylan and Jamie—don’t they love each other?” Rae’s voice quavered. Her pal, Maverick, had this year lived through the horrors of her parents’ acrimonious divorce, and Rae had been scarred by the duties she had assumed as best friend.

“I don’t know. Maybe they did once, but it’s a love that’s dissipated in the sunshine and solitude of Isla Paraíso. With only each other to talk to, their differences have rubbed each other raw. I don’t know how much longer that troubled marriage can go on.” Max shrugged, a man amazed at the vagaries of human nature. “But then, I was saying that three years ago.”

Rae stood stock still in the lawn. “I want married people to love each other!”

Kellen took advantage of the moment to put her arm around Max’s waist. “We love each other, Rae. Does that help?”

“Yes. I suppose so.” Rae didn’t sound so much sulky as uncertain. “But if their love wasn’t forever, will yours be?”

7

Manlike, Max got a panicked expression, so Kellen answered, “I think so. I served in the military, a tough environment, for six years. I learned what I want from life. Your father’s been in charge of two different Di Luca wineries and our Yearning Sands Resort. He’s seen a lot, he’s got experience in lots of human relationships. Plus, he raised you by himself, with Grandma’s help, for six years, and being a single parent is no easy deal. We’re both smart and competent. Plus, we have that special bond that drew us together in the first place.”

“What’s that?” Rae asked.

“I don’t know what it is for him, but for me, it was knowing from the first moment that he’s a strong man who would lay down his life for love and family. He’s the kind of guy a woman would be a fool not to love.”

Max hooted and started for the house again, towing Kellen with his arm around her shoulder. “Then there have been a lot of foolish women.”

“Daddy, that’s not true. I think you’re so involved with Mommy, you don’t notice how the women watch you.”

Kellen smirked at Rae, at her smart, observant kid.

Max, being Max, didn’t believe them, and chuckled.

For an intelligent man with a great deal of understanding about himself, he was an idiot. Which was fine with Kellen. She didn’t need him to know how many women were willing to fling themselves at his feet.

“You don’t touch each other very often,” Rae muttered.

Kellen and Max froze midstep.

It was true. They didn’t touch often. At the time of their wedding, they had been groping (ha) toward sexual familiarity. Then Kellen fell into a coma and went into surgery, and all their needs had been brushed aside. Touching each other had become something forbidden, a torture of desire, a thing to be avoided.

Max turned them to face Rae, and Kellen figured he was going to hand Rae some acceptable excuse the child could swallow about obvious affection being ill-mannered.

But he said, “That’s true. I don’t touch Mommy nearly enough. Why don’t I fix that right now?” Before Kellen could react, he bent her over his arm like a silent movie star and, while her head was whirling, he kissed her.

Um, with their mouths open. His was open because he was making all the moves. Hers was open because she was gaping like a fish.

Rae screamed with laughter and delight.

Max lifted his head and stared into Kellen’s face. “Close your eyes,” he said, and moved in again.

The kiss became less a comedy and more… Just more. Slow and sweet. Then slow and hot. When Max lifted his head again, Kellen had to blink the faint sheen of tears from her eyes. Not that she was crying, just that the heat had been so intense her body had to act like a sprinkler system to cool her off.

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