Chapter 79

“What else is there?” Katherine replied. “I can’t force you to stay.”

“You could make me… If you wanted to,” he said.

She didn’t reply. Tilting her head up to his, she stared back at him and he felt an unwilling twinge of admiration for the way she was handling herself now. A twinge of admiration, yes — and something else, something he didn’t even want to put a name to. Something that had him suddenly moving to close the space between them.

The bath was at her back and Katherine had nowhere to go. He smiled inwardly. So when he put out his hand and looped his fingers behind her neck, she could only stand there and let him look down at her with what she was sure was a mixture of amusement and derision in his eyes.

“How about this?” he suggested, “You could do this.” His voice was rougher than before, and, before she could anticipate what he was about to do, he’d bent towards her and covered her mouth with his.

Katherine didn’t know how she stopped her le