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“If the pjs fit, Grandpa.”

Matthew’s mouth dropped open.

“You know you’re gonna pay for that, right?” he said, rushing over and swooping Katherine up in his arms. Then he dropped her on the bed before pinning her down and burying his face in the crook of her neck. “Is this how you do it?” he asked, growling like a monster, the way she’d done with Libby.

“No, Matthew,” she begged in whispered hysterics just before he tickled her. “Please, Matthew, Please!”

“Say you’re sorry,” he taunted, grabbing her sensitive sides.

“You’ll wake the baby,” she said, trying to suppress another fit of uncontrollable giggles.

“No…you’llwake the baby,” he teased, unrelenting and clearly enjoying himself way too much. “Now, say you’re sorry.”

“I’m sorry,” Katherine giggled. “Please, Matthew, please stop.”

“That’s more like it.” He grinned, kissing her forehead before raising himself off the bed as her giggling and gasping for air subsided. “I’m gonna go brush my teeth. Then the bathroom’s all yours.”

Smiling, Katherine got up from the bed. Her sides ached, but her heart was full. Weeks ago, it would’ve been hard to imagine the same man that sat across from her in the church’s kitchen could be this fun.

While she waited for him to return, she picked up a pair of socks, a sweatshirt, and a T-shirt that missed the hamper. Then straightened out the blankets on the bed and fluffed the pillows. She was propping them against the headboard when he came back into the bedroom.

“Oh, Katie… you didn’t have to do that.”

“I know, but I wanted to.”

Matthew looked visibly touched. “Thank you.”

Although she wanted to reply with a simple “you’re welcome”, before she got the chance, Matthew pulled off his shirt and Katherine instantly forgot all words even resembling a polite response. Staring openly at the broad expanse of his shoulders, rounded chest, and flat stomach, she fought back a smile threatening to lift the corners of her lips.

He was beautiful, big and strong, and his skin smooth except for a patch of dark hair at the top of his herculean chest, along with an intriguing dark line of hair under his belly button that traveled straight down into the waistband of his jeans.

After tossing his T-shirt into the laundry hamper, Matthew turned to see Katherine standing completely still and utterly speechless, looking him over as building heat colored her flushed face.

“Is this okay?”

Katherine swallowed hard, nodding as her gaze lowered once more before the pink of her cheeks got even pinker. Smiling, Matthew seemed to enjoy the approval in her eyes and the bashful way she was checking him out.

“You need to tell me if this is too much too soon.”

“Mm-hmm.” Katherine nodded, unable to form a sentence. The urge to turn away and hide her face was strong. But not stronger than the need to keep looking him over, admiring the lines made by each muscle, getting lost in the thought of running a hand over each one.

“Maybe I should put on a shirt,” Matthew said, grabbing a white ribbed tank top from one of the dresser drawers and pulling it over his head, even though it did little to conceal the appealing lines of his body. Then, from another drawer, he pulled out a pair of plaid pajama pants. “You take this bathroom, and I’ll finish getting ready down the hall. There’re extra toothbrushes in the drawer. You’re welcome to any of the pink ones.”

“Pink ones?” she teased. “Were you planning on entertaining more?”

When Matthew advanced on Katherine, he pulled her up against him, buried his face in her neck, then growled low in the back of his throat, sending chills down her spine. “Do I need to toss you down on that bed again?” he teased as she tried to squirm away from him like prey, desperate to escape a predator.

“No.” She squirmed.

“You’re a bit of a tease yourself, aren’t you?”

“Sometimes,” Katherine laughed. “But no more than you.”

“Hmm, you might be right about that,” he said, leaving a trail of tiny kisses along her neck and ending at her lips. “Meet me back here in a few minutes?”

“Absolutely.”

Chapter 13