He asked himself what he’d done to cause such an abrupt change in her manner toward him, then decided that he’d gotten too close with his questions. This was her way of paying him back for digging into history and emotions that she preferred to keep hidden behind her brilliant smile He watched broodingly as she brushed her almost dry bangs back from her face in what he assumed was an unconsciously sexy gesture and widened those deceptively innocent blue eyes at him. “What’s the matter, Derek? Something wrong with your steak?”
“No, it’s fine,” he answered shortly, glaring down at the expensive piece of meat that had lost its taste for him.
“Of course. You’re very good with a grill. But then, you’re very good at everything you do, aren’t you, Derek? It must be nice to be so capable.”
She made the word sound like a curse, Derek fumed, looking resentfully at her. He could feel himself going on the defensive, and he didn’t like it. “I never claimed to be perfect, Summer.”
“Didn’t you?” Without giving him a chance to respond to her murmured question, she turned her head and looked slowly around the lovely lawn of his home. “Such a beautiful place. Did you have Joanne in mind when you bought this house?” she inquired blandly.
“Of course not,” he answered impatiently, feeling his face grow hard with his rising anger. He breathed deeply, telling himself that she was using one of his sister’s tricks of getting him mad so that he would do or say something she could pounce on to mock him further. “I bought the house because I like it and it’s a good investment,” he added in a determinedly even tone.
“Still, it looks like a family home. You must have had marriage in mind when you purchased it. If Joanne doesn’t quite meet your requirements, perhaps Connie and I could find you someone else. I personally know several cultured, refined ladies that I would be happy to introduce you to. Of course, you’d better tell me what was wrong with Joanne so I’ll know what to avoid when I set you up with someone.”
Derek very deliberately set his napkin on the table beside his plate. “Drop it, Summer.”
She eyed the set of his jaw. “It’s not that I don’t think you’re capable of finding your own perfect mate,” she assured him briskly. “I’m just trying to offer advice.”
Enough was enough. Derek decided it was definitely time for him to regain control of this situation.
She hadn’t seen him move. One minute he was sitting across the table glaring at her and the next he was standing beside her chair, having hauled her to her feet, holding her there with a biting grip on her upper arms. “Is this what it takes to shut you up?” he demanded gruffly, moments before his mouth covered hers.
The gasp that couldn’t escape her lips lodged in her throat. Summer stood motionless in Derek’s arms, too surprised to struggle against the angry embrace.
Actually, the bruisingly punishing kiss wasn’t bad. Feeling his tongue thrusting inside to dominate her mouth, she responded tentatively, telling herself that it was only wise to humor an outraged male until he recovered his self-control. After all, it was her fault, sort of. And the only reason she allowed her arms to slide up and around his neck was that the sooner he was mollified, the sooner the kiss would end.
For all she knew, it could have been hours before Derek slowly lifted his mouth from hers. Sometime during the kiss the earth seemed to have tilted on its axis or something, leaving everything looking decidedly different to Summer’s dazed, unfocused eyes. Even Derek’s glasses looked crooked, which couldn’t be the result of unrestrained passion—could it?
She thought she saw his fingers shaking a little when he reached up to straighten the dark frames but told herself that that, too, must be the result of her be-musement from the unexpectedly hypnotic kiss. “Uh, Derek—” she began tentatively, only to have him step away from her and cut her off with a sharp statement.
“Forget it, Summer.”
She frowned. “What?”
“I know you find me vastly amusing and that you have thoroughly enjoyed your game of Derek-baiting during our meal, but it’s going to stop right here. I’m not going to be the latest toy for your amusement.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The hell you don’t,” he returned roughly. “You told me at the party the other night that I wasn’t your type and that you had no intention of becoming involved with someone like me, so all I can assume is that you’ve decided to entertain yourself with me. Am I that much of a novelty to you, Summer? Do you plan to laugh with Connie about how you seduced her straitlaced brother?”
“Hey!” she exclaimed abruptly. “Who kissed whom? I wasn’t the one who initiated that little interlude.”
“Do you deny that you provoked it?” he demanded.
Had she provoked it? Well, yes, she supposed she had, she admitted to herself, looking away from him for a moment. She’d been irresistibly tempted to try to shake that cool composure of his, but she’d impudently expected him to yell or kick something—preferably not her. “I suppose I did provoke you,” she muttered. “I wanted to make you mad, but I never expected you to demonstrate your anger in quite that way.”
Derek looked taken aback when she shot a quick look at him through her lashes. “You wanted to make me angry?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I was teaching you an object lesson,” she told him, defiantly lifting her chin.
Derek cleared his throat and pulled at the neckline of his light blue T-shirt as if he were wearing a tie that had been knotted too tightly. “What kind of an object lesson?” he asked, forming the words with exaggerated care.
“I was trying to show you how infuriating it is for someone to interfere with your life. Who you date and why is none of my business, and you were quite correct to be annoyed by my nosy questions and comments—just as Connie has a right to be angry when you ask if she’s ‘sleeping with anything in pants,’as you put it. And just as I was irritated when you asked all those questions about my past and my job history, then looked so stuffy and disapproving when I answered you.”
Derek leaned against the railing of the cedar deck, a thoughtful frown darkening his face. The view of the Golden Gate Bridge and its San Francisco skyline backdrop behind him was breathtakingly beautiful. But he was oblivious to the glory of his surroundings as he stared at the woman who faced him from a few feet away, her vivid blue eyes returning his look without blinking. “I think you made your point,” he conceded after a time.