Page 14 of Bound By Her Baby Revelation (Hot Winter Escapes)

‘Is there someone lurking in the background?’ She pulled the tail of the tiger and felt a rush of forbidden excitement, a stirring in her blood that was heady. ‘I’m only saying what you said to me. Is there a girlfriend waiting for you in Manhattan? Maybe not tied to the kitchen sink because, like you told me, you’re no dinosaur...’

‘No, as a matter of fact!’

Leo raked his fingers through his hair and sat back to stare at her with an expression of outrage underscored with grudging admiration.

‘You’re a rich guy who plays the field because he can.’

‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this!’

Kaya wanted to tell him that his very reaction was proof positive of everything she had just said. He was the rich guy who pulled strings and never thought that he had to answer to anyone.

‘I’m honest with the women I choose to go out with.’ Leo slanted her a darkly brooding look from under his lashes, and Kaya shivered in automatic response to a stretching tension that felt oddly sensual. She knew that this was her inexperience coming to the surface again, undermining her composure and throwing her off-balance. Her one serious relationship, which had fizzled out over a year ago into a something and nothing kind of friendship, had definitely not prepared her for this assault on her emotions. Thoughtful, sensitive and considerate, whilst lovely on paper, had ended up being frustrating in reality and certainly hadn’t come close to what this stranger evoked in her, which felt wild and reckless.

‘What does that mean?’ Her voice was low and breathy.

‘It means I don’t play games with them—with anyone. I don’t string them along, and I wouldn’t dream of using any woman. I’m sorry your formative years were spent witnessing your mother’s mistakes but, whoever those guys were, they were nothing like me. Believe it or not, I pride myself on being a man of honour!’

‘But not a man who’s willing to listen to what other people have to say!’

‘Meaning?’

‘You’ve written off Julie Anne. You don’t even want to know what she looked like, never mind what she was all about. You probably wouldn’t care to know that she hoped to turn part of this house into select accommodation for girls from the halfway house when there’s overspill. There’s acres of land attached to this house. She was going to invest in some horses, something that could provide therapeutic enjoyment for girls who might feel that life is hopeless as they come to terms with pregnancies they’re not equipped to handle. Surely you can see that maybe, just maybe, your mother was trying to atone for what she did?’

‘Not this again!’ He vaulted upright and moved to stand directly in front of her before leaning down, hands splayed on the arms of the chair on which she sat, his expression angry and impatient as he stared at her. He was so close that she could see the flecks of gold in his dark eyes and could breathe in the scent of him, musky and masculine.

‘I haven’t come here to rescue anything or anyone,’ he snarled through gritted teeth. ‘I’m going to sell the lot and return to Manhattan where I live, and the sooner the better. So all those bleeding-heart stories about your saintly friend? The very same saintly friend who dumped me thirty-two years ago? Not going to work. Atonement doesn’t make up for crimes committed! Atonement is just a pointless, self-serving afterthought!’

He straightened but there was a sudden urgent restlessness in him that made the atmosphere between them electric. Kaya couldn’t peel her eyes away from him. She couldfeelhis energy, feel his impatience and ferocious disapproval of the way she had pushed back against him, but she refused to be cowed.

She stubbornly met his angry dark eyes until he rasped, ‘I have to get out of here.’

‘And go where?’

‘You said there’s Internet in the town somewhere. I need to work.’

‘Are you going todrivein?’

‘I’ll walk. I damn well need the exercise.’

He spun round on his heels and jerkily prowled to the window to look through at the fields at the back of the house.

Tension radiated from his body in waves. She’d made no headway at all. All that rage and anger at a past he couldn’t change would always stand in the way of him seeing beyond it to the good his mother had done.

By harping on, she had probably done the opposite of what she had intended, and she could feel defeat settle on her shoulders. There didn’t seem anything left to say, so she was silent when he eventually turned to look at her.

‘I’ll be back when I’m back,’ he told curtly. ‘We’ll discuss formal arrangements then—set a date for when you think you’ll be able to vacate the property. If needs be, I can instruct my people to assist in finding you somewhere to live.’

‘I’ll manage,’ Kaya said tautly. ‘I’ll make sure to start packing my things while you’re gone.’

Their eyes clashed and she was the first to look away.

She didn’t move but she heard the sound of his footsteps in the hall and then the slam of the front door.

She would start clearing her stuff. The snow had stopped and the sooner she cleared off, the better.

It was a while before Kaya peeped over the parapet. Her head was raging with helpless, fist-clenching, teeth-grinding frustration as she attacked her bedroom, sorting things into piles and discovering that there was a hell of a lot more stored in nooks and crannies than she’d expected.

That damn man was impossible!

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