An Eye for an Eye: Zach and Katie's Story (Redwood Falls) by Lynda Chance

she looked at him questioningly.
    Katie could see that he was examining her reactions and the look in his eyes became even more intense. He studied her as if she were an intriguing puzzle, one that he wanted to solve. She stared in alarmed curiosity as his eyes dropped to her breasts and heat tinged his cheekbones before he lifted his eyes to hers again and finally asked, "Are you sexually active, Katie?" His voice was a deep drawl, as calm as if they were discussing the weather, but the tic in his cheek told of his unconditional involvement in the answer she might give.
    Feeling the oxygen stick in her throat, anxiety slithered through Katie at the loaded question and with only a momentarily delayed reaction, she jumped up from the couch, feeling the jerk on her scalp before he let her hair go with a look of extreme reluctance. Her legs became tangled in her need to escape and she stumbled toward him. Without hesitation, he reached out from where he sat and steadied her, his hands going to her hips, in nothing less than a controlling caress. Her hands fell to his shoulders in a bid for stability, and his fingers ran up and down her waistline, as if to soothe her.
    It didn't soothe her, not a bit, and she pulled away from him and began backing to the door, keeping him in her line of sight for the moment.
    With a long drawn out sigh, he continued to sit while she turned and rushed to the door on trembling limbs.
    "I want to leave now," Katie demanded in a firm voice, but inside, she was quaking. Screw Josh and Hannah; they were on their own. Katie had stalled Zach as long as she could; she needed out of this apartment, now .
    Damn him and his question. She wasn't sexually active, she might not ever want to be sexually active again, and she knew if she ever did, it wouldn't be with someone like Zachary McIntyre, who scared the shit out of her with his intense masculinity.
    Her hand landed on the doorknob, but it wouldn't turn. "How do you unlock this door?" Distress banged loudly through her veins and she vaguely realized that hysteria wasn't far from the surface.
    Zach casually leaned back and locked his hands behind his head, as if he had all the time in the world and her nerves took another jolt. "It's on a remotely activated sensor. It won't open until I unlock it."
    Katie turned fully to face him, her eyebrows coming together in a scowl as she tried with everything inside of her not to be intimidated. "Unlock the door, Zach."
    "Do you have student loans, Katie?" His voice was deep, coming from across the room as he questioned her, the point he was trying to make unknown to her.
    "What? Why? Some. What does it matter? Oh my God . Are you afraid I'm going to try to get money from Hannah? Is that what this is all about?" Katie's anger mingled with her confusion and fear and ignited into a bristling ball of fury.
    Zach studied Katie and paused a moment before answering, wondering how he'd fucked up so badly already. He took a deep breath and tried to get a hold of the situation. His fucking intellect always took a hike whenever Katie Turner was around. "No, that's not it. I'm sure you wouldn't pull any crap like that. I thought that--." He stopped and studied her expression to see if she was catching on, but she wasn't. Did he even know what he was asking? "I can pay your loans off in return for . . . " Zach almost winced when he heard his own words. "Shit. Never mind." Fucking smooth, McIntyre . You run a multi-million dollar company and that's what almost came from your mouth? You're so fucking hard up for this chick that you're offering her money to what? Spend some time with you? Goddamnit, he wished he could back up five minutes and start all over.
    Katie was stunned that she was in this predicament. Suddenly she was locked in Zachary McIntyre's apartment, the sole object of his attention, when only an hour ago she'd been on campus minding her own business. And then his words penetrated the mist in her head and his meaning