Megan rinsed a pan and placed it on a towel beside the sink. With meticulous care, Justin dried it and stored it in the cabinet. She glanced up at him and smiled.
"I wonder if you're the first man to do dishes in this cabin."
A wry smile twisted his lips. "What would make you think that?"
She shrugged, wiping off the counter with the dishrag. "Well, the traditional roles of men and women have changed in the last generation. Just think. Women did the cooking and cleaning and men worked out of the home."
He studied a spot on the plate and wiped at it with the towel. "Uh-huh, and there weren't so many juvenile delinquents then either."
"So you hold the women responsible?"
He looked up and grinned. "Of course not. I hold men to blame. If they hadn't gone off playing those silly war games, Rosie the riveter would have stayed at home barefoot and pregnant the way women belong."
"What?" She pounded him on the arm. "That's disgusting! And you don't believe a word of it, either."
He laughed and dropped the towel across her shoulder. "No. It wasn't a silly war."
She squeezed the moisture from the dishrag and hung it on the faucet. Grabbing the towel, she dried her hands as she tipped her head to the side and winked at him. "It sounds like sour grapes to me. You're ashamed because now it's the women who whip the men in line."
He snorted. "No wisp of a woman is going to whip me into line."
Was he actually little miffed? She laughed, gripping both ends of the towel and twirling it until it resembled a rope. Taking a few running steps toward the living room, she turned and flipped it at him. The tip of the towel snapped sharply only inches from his shoulder and she gasped at her accuracy. "No?"
He moved swiftly, ducking down and grabbing her ankle. Before she had time to respond he dumped her on the floor and dived to pin her down.
"You think that's funny, do you?" He panted, grinning as he clamped a hand over each of her wrists. "Now, who's in command?"
As hard as she was laughing, squirming away would have been impossible, even if she had possessed the strength - and it was obvious she didn't. Between convulsive giggles, she panted out a weak defense.
"Brute force. That's all you men know."
He shook his head, his dark eyes mocking hers.
"Oh, no. There are other methods of persuasion."
"Like what?"
"Like this." He leaned over and kissed her lips in an ardent way.