Kate's Vow (Vows) by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online

taunt. “Another time,” she said, plunking the paper on the table beside him and practically bolting for the door.
    Surprised somehow by the skittish response, David followed at a more leisurely pace. “I’ll hold you to that.”
    Outside, striding across a lawn already damp with dew, she slowed down just long enough to remind him, “I expect your response to our requests within the next few days.”
    “You’ll have it tomorrow,” he said, then, probably as much to his own amazement as to hers, he added impulsively, “Over dinner.”
    She halted in her tracks. Her gaze narrowed suspiciously. “With my client?”
    David found himself grinning at discovering yet another flaw in that suit of armor she wore. Kate Newton might have the upper hand in a courtroom, but here, on his turf both literally and figuratively, he could clearly rattle her. He realized it delighted him in some indefinable way.
    “If you insist,” he said, making it an unmistakable taunt.
    Clearly refusing to be daunted, she squared her shoulders. “I do, Mr. Winthrop. I most definitely do.”
    “Then, by all means, Ms. Newton. We will have our chaperon along.”
    He heard her indignant intake of breath as, chuckling, he turned and went back into the house. For some reason he felt better than he had in ages.

Chapter Four
    N ormally Kate spent her weeknights at her Century City apartment, only blocks from her office. The location saved transportation time, which was especially critical given the kind of jam-packed schedule she maintained. But after leaving David Winthrop, she was thoroughly wide-awake, far too wired to sleep.
    Surely someone with her analytical capabilities could figure out why. It wasn’t just the disturbing conversation they’d had before she’d left the house, she decided finally. It was the way she’d felt when she’d awakened to find him studying her so intently. There had been a cozy intimacy, a sweet tenderness to that moment that had struck a responsive chord somewhere deep inside her. Combine that with the way she’d felt when she’d kissed Davey good-night and she could be heading for emotional disaster.
    In an attempt to derail herself from that track and to rid herself of that disconcerting sensation, she found herself driving the entire winding length of Sunset Boulevard, emerging finally on Pacific Coast Highway. She turned toward Malibu.
    But as she drove along the dark coastal road, nearly deserted at this hour, she couldn’t seem to shake the somewhat astonishing reaction she seemed to be having to David Winthrop and to his son. Was she suddenly going through some sort of mid-life crisis? True, her emotions had been topsy-turvy for weeks now, but this sudden maternal yearning and this unexpected awakening of her senses were so entirely out of character she had no idea what to make of them.
    She knew all about marriages, the bad ones, anyway. By the time she met most couples, they were engaged in bitter acrimony, all positive aspects of their love wiped out by pain and anger.
    By contrast, she’d always considered her own parents’ marriage idyllic. Only recently had she discovered it had been more a marriage of convenience. She had been stunned by the revelation that while her father had adored her mother, her mother had secretly harbored a lifelong love for another man, Brandon Halloran. Worse, from Kate’s perspective, her father had known about it, had accepted the bargain, willing to play second best to a memory.
    All of that had only served to confirm her jaded view that even the best marriages represented nothing but a series of bad compromises. So, with every last illusion destroyed, why was she suddenly experiencing these faint stirrings of need to get involved in a relationship that could only lead to emptiness and pain?
    Maybe it was a simple matter of lust, she consoled herself. She was a healthy, active woman whose hormones had been ignored for too long. Perhaps they were simply reminding