Ken rubbed the black four-day-old whiskers with his thumb. “I thought I’d give it a try. What do you think?”

The thought of Ken in full beard gave her the shivers. It would be like black silk-making his sensuous smile even more enigmatic, joining the lush curls that partially hid his ears, highlighting eyes that were already far too expressive. An unbidden warmth spread through her at the tactile possibilities of a bearded Ken.

Ken looked at her expectantly, waiting for an answer. “Well?”

Chris took a deep breath. “It makes you look a little…ah…primitive.”

“Primitive?”

Chris toyed with her noodles. “You know…sort of…”

He was watching her closely, fork poised in midair, brows raised in question.

Chris rolled her eyes from side to side and flipped her hands palm up in a gesture of exasperation. “Well, hell. Sexy. If you must know, the damn thing makes you look incredibly sexy.”

“Incredibly sexy?” His eyes opened wide. The corners of his mouth curled up in candid delight. “Damn!”

Chris couldn’t keep herself from laughing. It had been an awkward admission for her to make, but he responded with such surprised happiness that she was glad she’d told him. She liked seeing him happy. And she was relieved to know that he hadn’t grown it because he knew it was sexy.

“The only other times I’ve grown a beard have been on camping and fishing trips, and my all-male companions would hardly tell me it was sexy.” He searched the salad bowl for errant chunks of broccoli. “I’ve always had to shave the darn thing off at the first sign of civilization.” He rested his cast on the table. “Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to make love behind a beard.” His voice grew low and seductive, rubbing erotically against her disintegrating composure. He held her gaze with provocative, teasing eyes.

Chris swallowed against a rising tide of desire and turmoil. Her breath was shallow between slightly parted lips.

“Have you ever made love to a man with a beard?” Ken asked, his voice velvety and suggestive.

“Uh…no,” she gasped. Her fork slid from her fingers and clattered onto her plate, causing her to jump in her seat.

Ken leaned back in his chair. A small frown drew his black brows together. “I’ve done it again. I’ve sent you into a state of total panic.” He pushed his plate aside and leaned forward, elbows on the table. “After you left this morning, I sat down and made up a plan…which I have now screwed up. I thought I’d be on my good behavior for the next two days. Make sure everything stayed platonic so we could get to know each other better.” The contrite tone left his voice, and his eyes sparkled with mischief. “And then by the weekend you’d see what a great guy I was and jump into my bed.”

Chris opened her eyes wide and wrinkled her nose. “That’s disgusting.”

“It’s not disgusting. It’s human nature. I’m a perfectly healthy, sexually average male…”

Chris opened her eyes even wider. Healthy, yes. Sexually average, never.

“…and my life has been crazy ever since I met you. For three days now I’ve walked around in a constant state of…ah…arousal. In the beginning, I didn’t know why I was so attracted to you. It was just one of those things that happens…like catching a cold. You don’t know how you got the damn thing, but it’s obvious you’re gonna be stuck with it until it runs its course. Now I find out that not only do you drive me crazy, but I like you. I like the way your face glows when you talk about Lucy. I like the way you wrinkle your nose and open your eyes wide, and that you laugh easily. I even like the way you get mad when you’re cornered. You’re a lot like me. We sputter and stomp and before you know it there’s no more anger. I like your bravery and your strength and the fact that you try to make the best of any situation.”

He paused and let his face relax into a satisfied smile. “And I love your macaroni and cheese.” He covered her hand with his, sending a thrill racing up her arm. “Honey, you have to understand that this is hard for me, too. I’ve never felt like this about a woman before. I’m not exactly sure how to handle it. Last time I can remember having this little control over myself was in seventh grade.”

“Seventh grade?”

“I was precocious,” he bragged. “And I thought I was in love with Mary Ann Malinowski.”

Chris rose and stacked the plates. “But now you know you weren’t in love?”

“I was in seventh-grade lust. And I was incredibly impressed with myself. The only permanent result of it all was a seventh-grade average that matched Mary Ann Malinowski’s IQ. I would have been better off if my average had matched her chest measurement.”

Chris was beginning to hate Mary Ann Malinowski. “That big, huh?”

“She was known as ‘the Wondergirl.’”

“Were there other girls after Mary Ann that you thought you were in love with?”

Ken carried the almost-empty casserole into the kitchen. He lounged against the sink and looked thoughtful. “There were girls that I found very attractive. There were girls that I regarded as very good friends.” He shook his head. “No. There’s been an unusually large gap between the great love affairs of my life.” He measured coffee into the coffee maker. “I used to think it was a matter of time. While I was in school I was always scrambling for grades. I was the first person in my family to get a college diploma. My father was determined to see me graduate, and I wouldn’t have disappointed him for anything.” Ken grinned. “But it was tough. I’m not exactly the brainy type. I studied until two in the morning, and I still couldn’t get the hang of French. I failed courses, and I made them up in summer school. I graduated five hundred sixty-seventh out of a class of six hundred and twelve.”

A college degree. That was something Chris hadn’t suspected. “A carpenter with a college degree?”

“After college, I got fired from fourteen jobs. I was not your ideal employee. I couldn’t stand sitting indoors at a desk. And I felt strangled in a tie. Finally, I said the hell with it all and started working as a carpenter. And here I am. I don’t do much carpentry work, anymore, but I’m still in construction.” He took the freshly brewed coffee and put it on a tray. “I used to think that all these years I’d been too busy to fall in love. Now I think that the right person just never came along.” He playfully tugged at an orange curl. “I’m busier than I’ve ever been, and I’m hopelessly in love with you.”

“You thought you were hopelessly in love with Mary Ann Malinowski.”

“True. But you don’t have the…attributes…she had,” he chuckled. “This time it must really be love.”

Chris sniffed indignantly. “There’s nothing wrong with my…attributes.”

He looked at her longingly. “You have beautiful attributes, but if I’m going to stick to my plan I’d rather not think about them.”

“Maybe your plan isn’t so bad.” Chris added two ceramic mugs to the coffee tray. She looked into his clear blue eyes and felt a warm rush of pleasure at the affection she saw there. She hated to admit it, but it was nice having Ken around. And it was nice having a man look at her like that. “I’d like to know you better.”

He leaned forward and kissed her very softly. He drew away with no attempt to deepen the kiss. His eyes prolonged the moment with a silent, visual caress that lingered on her lips.

Chris thought about the second part of his plan. The part about jumping into his bed, and she wondered how she would ever last until Saturday.

Ken sighed. “I’m not even going to attempt a guess at what that smile means.”

“Maybe we should take our coffee downstairs.”