Page 12 of Bound By Her Baby Revelation (Hot Winter Escapes)

Her eyes drifted to the flex of muscle just about discernible under the layers and she was riveted when he shrugged off the waterproof jacket and shoved up the sleeves of his dark jumper.

‘Hot work,’ he said without looking at her. ‘Or maybe I’m just not used to a bit of honest manual labour.’

He glanced at her with amusement.

She was flushed, her cheeks pink, her mouth half-parted, as though he’d caught her on the verge of saying something.

‘How long did you think you’d have here before I came on the scene?’ he asked. Her eyes flew to his and widened.

‘A couple of months,’ Kaya admitted, looking away. ‘If I thought you’d show up as soon as you did, I wouldn’t have taken all that time out in New Zealand. I would have returned earlier so that I could sort myself out.’

‘I don’t plan on hanging on to any of this,’ Leo said shortly. ‘But I won’t chuck you out without at least some notice.’

Kaya thought of the halfway house and the vulnerable girls who walked through those doors with nothing much aside from some hope for temporary respite. For many, it was a last resort. She was honour-bound to protect those girls. She had formed links with many of them over the years, just as Julie Anne had.

There was no place for emotions when it came to trying to save the place. She needed to get him on side. They needed to call a truce and, in fairness, she was the one who couldn’t relax.

She hadn’t noticed a car when she had arrived the evening before but, as they made inroads into the snow, she saw that he had indeed driven. There was a shiny, black, solid four-wheel drive parked at the side of the house alongside her old, reliable car which had survived many a heavy-duty winter.

‘What do you do?’ she asked.

‘What do I do about what?’

‘In life. I mean, what’s your job?’

Leo followed her eyes, saw her clock his car and wondered whether he’d been mistaken when he’d spotted a look of something on her face, something fleeting that told him that the spectacle of something so obviously expensive didn’t impress her. She was contemptuous of it.

‘I own things.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means I built a life for myself without help from anyone.’ He stuck the shovel into the snow and rubbed his gloved hands together. ‘It means I pulled myself up by my boot straps and sorted my life out without the guiding hand of the friend you’re so intent on defending. I buried my head in books, studied until I knew more than anyone else and battled against prejudice to make it to the top.

‘I took risks without the benefit of any cushions lying around to break a fall. I gambled for high stakes and, every time I threw the dice, I knew that life could go one way or the other. All I had was faith in my own intelligence, instinct and knowledge of every market I decided to play. Now, I own the world. I have the freedom to do whatever I want and all of that was acquired without help.’

‘I can’t blame you for being bitter.’

‘That’s very generous of you.’

He shook his head and half-laughed at himself, because he wasn’t given to self-pitying diatribes, but at least it should sound an alarm bell against any more forays into sermons about Julie Anne and the properties he really couldn’t care less about.

‘I think we’ve done enough to warrant a cup of coffee,’ he said, moving to get his jacket but not bothering to put it on. ‘Snow’s stopped, at any rate. Augurs well for life returning to normal.’

‘You’re not the only one who’s had it hard,’ Kaya said, keeping up with him but only just as they headed to the front door. She could feel her good intentions slipping through her fingers. How did she get through to someone who was so intransigent?

Watching him as he strode into the house and slung his jacket over one of the coat hooks by the front door brought home to her his ownership of this and of everything else that came with it.

‘Did I ever say that I was?’

He glanced over his shoulder but he was back in control, a small, amused smile curving his mouth and not a trace of bitterness in evidence. He held her gaze for a few seconds, head tilted thoughtfully to one side.

‘What have you got against rich guys?’

This came from nowhere and Kaya’s mouth fell open as she stared at him.

‘What are you talking about?’ She began stripping off, because it was baking in the house, heating full-blast. She yanked off the woolly hat and shook her hair free, not looking at him as her waterproof joined his on the coat hook by the door and her boots got dumped underneath.

‘I saw the way you looked at my car, Kaya. Same way I’ve caught you looking at me. So what’s the problem here—is it just me? Is it me because I’m rich? Or is it rich guys in general? Can’t be that you have a thing against money because...’ he looked around him as he began strolling towards the kitchen ‘...this place and everything else that came as part of the package deal all point to a woman who had more than enough to keep going.’

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