The Wedding In White. Diana Palmer

just wants to have a little fun occasionally,” she said sarcastically.

      “You certainly don’t fall into that category,” he agreed. “I’ve got two brothers and a sister to take care of here. There isn’t room for a wife.”

      “Okay. Just forget that I proposed.”

      His fingers trailed gently across her soft, swollen mouth. “Besides the responsibilities, I’m not ready to settle down. Not for years yet.”

      “I’m sure they’ll take back the engagement ring if I ask them nicely.”

      He blinked. “Are we having the same conversation?”

      “I only bought you a cheap engagement ring, anyway,” she continued outrageously. “It probably wouldn’t have fit, so don’t worry about it.”

      He started laughing. He couldn’t help it. She really was a pain in the neck. “Damn it, Natalie!” He hugged her close and hard, an affectionate hug with bare overtones of unsatisfied lust.

      She hugged him back with a long sigh, and her eyes closed. “I think it’s like baby ducks,” she murmured absently.

      “What is?”

      “Imprinting. They follow the first moving thing they see when they hatch, assuming it’s their mother. Maybe it’s like that with men and women. You were the first man I was ever barely intimate with, so I’ve imprinted on you.”

      His heart jumped wildly and his arms tightened around her. “The world is full of men who want to get married and have kids.”

      “And I’ll find one someday,” she finished for him. “Have it your own way. But if you really want me to find someone else to fixate on, I have to tell you that dragging me into dark corners and pulling my dress half off isn’t the way to go about it.”

      He was really laughing now, so hard that he had to let her go. “I give up,” he said helplessly.

      “It’s too late now,” she returned, going to fetch her purse from the floor. “You’ve said you don’t want the ring.”

      “Let’s go inside while there’s still time,” he replied as he moved toward the door.

      “Not yet,” she said quickly. She moved into a patch of light and looked into her compact mirror, taking time to replace her lipstick and fix her hair.

      He watched her calmly, his gaze narrow and intense.

      She put the compact in her evening bag and moved toward him. “You’d better do some quick repairs of your own,” she murmured after she examined his face. “That shade of lipstick definitely doesn’t suit you.”

      He gave her a glare, but he pulled out his handkerchief and let her remove the stains from his cheek and neck. Fortunately, the lipstick had missed his white collar or there wouldn’t be any disguising it.

      “Next time, don’t put on six layers of it before you come over here,” he advised coolly.

      “Next time, keep your hands in your pockets.”

      He chuckled dryly. “Fat chance, with your dress showing off your breasts like that.”

      She unfastened her lacy shawl and draped it across her bodice and over her shoulder. She gave him a haughty glance and waited for him to open the front door.

      “The next dress I buy will have a mandarin neckline, you can bet on that,” she told him under her breath.

      “Make sure it doesn’t have buttons, then,” he whispered outrageously as he stood aside to let her pass.

      “Lecher,” she whispered.

      “Temptress,” he whispered back.

      She walked past him and into the living room before he could think up any more smart remarks to throw at her. She looked calm, but inside, she was rippling with tiny fears and remnants of pleasure from his touch. It occurred to her that, over the years, she’d been more intimate with him than any other man she’d ever known, but he’d never kissed her.

      Thinking about that didn’t help her situation, so she smiled warmly at Bob and Charles as they rose to their feet, and then at Vivian and the tall, blond man who stood up from his seat on the sofa beside her.

      “Natalie, this is Whit,” Vivian introduced them. Her blue eyes looked at the blond man with total possession. Whit, in turn, looked at Natalie as if he’d just discovered oil.

      Oh, boy, Natalie thought miserably as she registered the gleam in Whit’s blue eyes when they shook hands. He held hers for just a few seconds too long, and she grimaced. Here was a complication she hadn’t counted on.