Page 15 of Bound By Her Baby Revelation (Hot Winter Escapes)

His bitterness was insurmountable. He might have made his fortune and found his freedom, he might have had everything he’d ever wanted within his grasp, but none of that, obviously, had given him peace of mind.

He still seethed, and he would seethe for ever, because he would never find the answers to the questions he had probably asked himself over the years.

Why?

Why had he been given up?

Sitting back on her haunches amidst the chaos of clothes dragged from drawers and cupboards, Kaya lost herself in contemplation of what he must have spent his lifetime going through and what he would be going through now. For it would surely have been rammed in his face that, whatever thoughts he had nurtured about his mother, they had not revolved around her being a decent, middle class, well-off do-gooder. That wasn’t the stereotype of any woman who handed her baby up for adoption.

But did he imagine that he was alone in his bewilderment and hurt? Didn’t he realise that she, as well, had questions that would now never be answered? Couldn’t he see that she had been winded and knocked for six when she’d been told of his existence?

She didn’t notice the passing of time until she glanced at her mobile to realise that it had gone five-thirty and he had been out of the house forhours. On foot and in unfamiliar territory.

She uneasily debated what to do. She didn’t have his mobile number. How was she to contact him? Should she have tried to dissuade him from his crazy decision to walk into town? It was doable, she thought, chewing her lip, but was it doable when he didn’t have the foggiest idea where he was going?

The snow had completely stopped, which was a good thing, but there were still piles of it everywhere, great, white drifts pale against the darkness. Piles of treacherous snow lying in wait for an unwary stranger.

Had he even made it to the town in one piece or was he lying somewhere in a ditch, waiting for help to show up? It would be easy to get lost in a place like this, where the snowy fields in winter could become a bewildering maze, and the stretching white mountains a series of lethal ledges and drops.

The man might get under her skin until she wanted to scream but she would never forgive herself if he ended up injured, or worse, because she had driven him to the end of his tether, forcing him to escape on a dangerous walk in unknown terrain.

She flew downstairs, slung on all the warm layers she had earlier discarded and felt the sharp cold on her as she let herself out of the house and headed to her car.

She knew this drive to town and could have done it blindfolded, but she was still forced to creep along at a snail’s pace, because of the snow and because she was peering into the pools of darkness for an inert Leo at the side of the road.

The only up side to the tortuous trip was that there was no traffic at all. Only a lunatic would have been out in this part of the country on a night like this. As she edged towards the town, things picked up. Most of the shops were open. Lights glittered and there were people around, picking up groceries, stocking up on water just in case.

The town was a meandering network of charming streets that encircled a little park, now white and empty, and a church that was used throughout the year for all sorts of things. Retail parks and mega-stores still had to make it there and the atmosphere was of a place waiting for modern life to happen. But scratch the surface and, yes, there were Icafés with Wi-Fi, a gleaming shop that sold the most up-to-the minute ski equipment and boutiques where the rich and famous would not have felt uncomfortable.

And on the outskirts of the town, but within walking distance, were all sorts of houses, large and small, bordered with sloping front lawns that lazed under huge, sprawling trees. Settling snow would not have affected anyone living here.

Kaya found parking easily.

She hadn’t been here since she’d left to see her mother two months ago and now she looked and appreciated what she’d left behind—the laid-back bustle, the spectacle of the snow on the roofs of the shops which turned the picturesque town into a postcard. The old-fashioned street lights that hadn’t been changed in decades cast shadows across the pavements as groups walked by, soaking up the atmosphere and the beauty of thick snow.

She hit the first café at speed. She had no idea what she would do if she couldn’t find Leo. Her thoughts were tangled and panicked, and underscored with guilt when she spotted him through the broad planes of glass that opened to a brightly lit space inside.

The first place! Whilst she had been wracked with fears of him wandering in a lost daze in a confusing white landscape, he had gaily made his way to the first café he had come across and set up camp!

There he sat, larger than life and cool as a cucumber! He was sprawled back on one of the low sofas, surrounded by a bevy of men and women, all young and all beautiful and, in the case of the women—five of them, to be precise—all agog with open admiration at whatever he was saying.

Panic turned to rage with supersonic speed. She forced herself to breathe slowly and evenly. She neared the window and peered inside. Should she just do an about turn and walk away, leaving him to make his own merry way back to the house? After all, hadn’t he told her that he would be back when he was back? He hadn’t asked her to start her own one-woman search party for him! And, besides, in record time he had found himself a fan club. One of them would no doubt snap up the opportunity to deliver him back to the house in one piece. They all looked as though they wanted to gobble him up!

She was swinging away when their eyes met.

His dark eyes pinned her to the spot through the laughing group and Kaya froze. She watched, resigned, as he slowly stood up, while his circle of groupies leapt to its feet in an apparent attempt to detain him. She decided that it was a very unedifying sight.

His eyes never left her face, even when he was making a song and dance of ruefully taking his departure.

She should never have let guilt get the better of common sense. She should have remembered the way he had stormed out, immune to listening to anything she had had to say. Did he have any scruples when it came to saying exactly what he thought? No. He did as he pleased, and behaved exactly how he wanted to behave without the slightest need to obey common rules of courtesy and listen to her.

He wasn’t interested in the case she was making for the sake of the retreat Julie Anne had set up, and he didn’t see any reason why he had to pretend to show interest. He was the very epitome of the guy he claimed not to be—so rich that he could do as he pleased and then make pointless excuses for his bad behaviour.

The closer he got, the angrier she became and, by the time the glass door to the café swung open and he sauntered towards her, she was ready to combust.

CHAPTER FOUR

HEHADN’TEXPECTEDto see her. He’d left the house more wired than he’d ever been in his life.

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