brush in Maury’s old-fashioned soap mug. She eased off the towel, slathered his jaw with soapy foam and began expertly stroking a straight razor over his jaw. Dressed in another soft flowing, flower-print dress, she looked at home in the kitchen. “’Al-lo, Rose. You look so sleepy, ma chérie,” she said, her voice soft and musical. “Come, sit down. When Maury is shaved, we will eat. Come. Enjoy this beautiful morning. It will only be a moment before Stefan serves his famous Piperade omelet, from the South of France. We have the basket of fresh eggs from the Parsons and a few ingredients from your home, and voila`, my beautiful son’s omelet. I think we will soon have our own cows and mushrooms from the farm’s root cellar. Stefan and I were just passing by and I noticed Maury—looking so alone—in his beautiful rose garden.”
“I invited them in for breakfast. I was going to cook some bacon and eggs,” Maury murmured in nasal tones, because Yvette was holding his nose to shave beneath it. “I said I’d better shave first, and Yvette offered to give me an old-fashioned one with a straight razor. And sure enough I found mine in the medicine cabinet, still sharp as a knife. Couldn’t pass that offer up,” he said cheerfully.
Stefan turned slowly from the kitchen stove to look at Rose. She couldn’t move, pinned by his narrowed gaze, as it roamed her body. Yvette continued to talk while Rose tried to find reality and slow the racing of her heart. Stefan’s look said he wanted to carry her off to bed, to claim her. The stark desire written on his expression terrified Rose…because if his kiss of yesterday was any indication, she didn’t stand a chance to resist him.
“Be right back,” she said and turned, hurrying upstairs to dress in a short, summer shift. After one look in the mirror, she remembered Stefan’s expression as his gaze traced her legs. She quickly changed to jeans and a T-shirt. Instinctively she knew that Stefan was not a man to take a “just friends” attitude with her. He was too intense, and she had to protect herself. She would manage to be civil for their parents’ sake and that would be the end of Mr. Stefan Donatien, she decided firmly.
When she returned, Maury was watching Yvette in the laundry room, located just off the kitchen. Laughing gayly, she was filling the clothes washer, and Maury’s expression caused Rose to stand still and stare. He seemed younger, more intense, and if Rose didn’t know better— She shook her head. Her father couldn’t be flirting. She blinked. Yet he was and there was that hungry male look at Yvette’s hips as she bent over to fill the clothes dryer.
She looked up to see Stefan studying her. “You are worried,” he whispered simply, quietly. “She has a good heart and does not hurt.”
Then he bent to place his cheek beside hers for just that fraction of a heartbeat. “Do not worry, your father is safe. There is no need for you to protect him. It is only friendship she offers. She has never been truly involved with another man since my father, though she likes to dance and laugh and enjoy their company.”
Rose shivered, uncertain of herself, of her suddenly animated father, and of Stefan, who had just turned that slight little bit to brush his lips across hers. That light touch packed a jolt of electricity and she stepped back, frowning at him. She remembered all the times she’d reached for happiness, only to have it slap her in the face. She’d cling to the safety of approaching spinsterhood, no worrying about engagements, weddings or love that just wasn’t there. “I’m just a country girl and I will not be the dessert of the day,” she informed him.
But Stefan was wearing that same hungry expression she had seen on the face of her father. It was a look that said Stefan wasn’t likely to be dismissed easily.
Three
“I thought you would be here,” Stefan said as he walked onto the dock that evening. Rose was sitting in the johnboat, the rope still tied to the dock as she fished. Stefan noted that her line was in the exact place where he had caught the crappie she obviously did not want him to have. He knew the average size of crappie and his catch had been a prize. “If you are not careful, you will catch that small crappie I released last night.”
Dressed in cutoffs, a T-shirt and her ball cap, she ignored him as he sat on the dock. With her legs draped over the side of the boat and her bare feet in the water, she was lovely against the evening shadows. She slowly reeled the line, causing her lure to quiver beneath the water. A bullfrog bellowed, cutting coarsely across the gentle evening sounds. Rose continued to ignore Stefan, and he settled his dinner basket on the dock. “You spoke little at breakfast. You ate little.”
Rose breathed slowly and the setting sun stroked the rise and fall of her breasts. “Breakfast—that whatever you call it—was good. You were uninvited then and you are uninvited now.”
“That was quite by accident. My mother is impulsive and friendly. She also is very soft in her heart. She wanted to stop. When you know her better, you will understand. And your father did look lonely.”
Rose turned to look at him fully. “Well, he’s not lonely now. He’s at your place, painting walls with your mother. It took him an hour to get ready. He pressed a good cotton shirt and asked me how he looked. Dad hasn’t cared about his looks since I don’t know when. Tomorrow he’s coming to work for the first time in months. He said he needed to get back ‘in the flow.’ He hasn’t been ‘in the flow’ since my mother left.”
Stefan shrugged. His mother might appreciate the company and help, but companionship was her limit. His daughter was at the movies with her new girlfriend, swooning over the latest screen hero. It was good for Estelle to be with friends of her own age and for Louie to be far, far away. For the first time in ages, Stefan felt at peace. “This is good,” he said, meaning it as he inhaled the sweet evening air. “And I am not playing a game, by the way.”
“Hey, guy. You’re here for the summer as I understand, and you’re messing in my life. You’re temporary. I’m permanent. There’s a difference. What do you want from me?” Rose asked, her voice carrying huskily across the lake’s distance, her expression shadowed.
Stefan reached to grip the rope tethering her boat and gently pulled her closer until he could see those magnificent blue eyes and those wonderful freckles. He wrapped his hand around her ankle and stroked it with his thumb, enjoying the feel of her flesh. “I find you attractive and enchanting and magnificently delicious.”
“That’s quite the line,” she tossed back at him after a moment’s hesitation in which she was obviously picking her way to safety. She pulled her leg away from his touch.
Stefan smiled, pushing aside the way she could nettle him, dismissing his good intentions. “You just missed a nibble.”
She frowned at him and reeled in her line. Stefan appreciated the graceful cast into the crappie bed, the way her slender arms held power and confidence and beauty. He wished they were holding him tightly, that her skin was damp and soft and sweet against his own. The fading sunlight gleamed on her long, bare legs and he wished those, too, were wrapped around him. It was not easy to wait for her when his body had just awakened to his needs. “How long will it take for you to trust me?”
“You haven’t got that long. I know exactly what you want and then when you have it, you’ll move on. I don’t intend to be one of the local delicacies you choose to sample. And if you knew me better—which you aren’t going to—you’d know that I’m not delicate.”
“I would guess that Mike is the reason for your opinion. You said he came into town and left. The other two fiancés were lifelong friends. Since I am new here, I am to pay for Mike and his defection, is that it?” Despite his intention to gain her trust, his anger was simmering now. He was an honest, honorable man seeking a woman he found desirable. Rose pushed at the dock and her
