Page 6 of Bound By Her Baby Revelation (Hot Winter Escapes)

‘She was a generous person,’ Kaya said quietly. ‘She was kind and sympathetic.’

Leo looked at her in silence for such a long time that she had to resist the temptation to squirm.

He was here to claim his inheritance but what was he going to do with it?

She was gripped by a sudden urgency to find out. Julie Anne had spent her life building up the halfway house, a place for women with nowhere left to turn. Was he here to demolish that legacy?

The lawyers had told her, briefly and as a courtesy, that he had been given up for adoption. That had been shocking in itself, but there would have been reasons behind that, even though Kaya had no idea what those reasons might be and had thought would never find out. Actions always spoke louder than words and Julie Anne’s actions had been those of someone with a big heart and a generous spirit.

But now she could feel the tide shifting, and anxiety clawed through her, because this guy was hard as nails. Exhaustion was beginning to catch up with her.

‘You’re asking a lot of questions,’ she said coolly. It was hard to keep her eyes trained on him, because he made her feel uncomfortable, but she managed to maintain a level stare, not that he looked fazed by that.

‘I have a right to. You asked me how I got into this house...’

‘And now I know.’

Leo’s eyebrows shot up and Kaya tilted her chin at a belligerent angle.

‘You’re the son, aren’t you? You’re the son who’s come to get rid of all of this.’

CHAPTER TWO

KAYASURFACEDTHEfollowing morning, groggy and disoriented. For a few seconds, blinking in the darkness like an owl, she half-expected to glance to her left and see the landscape of pastoral Kiwi paradise through the bank of windows—rolling green fields undulating like gentle ocean waves, dotted with grazing sheep. Instead, what she saw was the steady fall of snow, fat, white flakes, and the dull, leaden skies of an unusually bleak Canadian winter.

And events of the night before came rushing back with the force of a freight train, barrelling into her at full pelt. The not-so-prodigal son had returned ahead of schedule, a hand grenade thrown through the window before she’d had time to batten down the hatches.

He’d been startled that she knew who he was and had wanted to pursue the conversation, but she had suddenly been overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the shock of finding Julie Anne’s son in the house. Overwhelmed by a future she hadn’t got round to making provisions for suddenly slamming into her with the ferocity of a freight train. As much as anything else, overwhelmed by sheer exhaustion, hours and hours without sleep and everything catching up with her in one fell swoop. She’d had to get away from his stifling presence and, in fairness, he hadn’t tried to stop her.

‘Morning’s as good a time to pick up this conversation,’ he had ground out, watching her with an expression she had found disturbing for lots of reasons, and on cue she had fled.

She sat up and closed her eyes for a moment.

What the heck was going to happen now?

While she’d been busy sorting her crazy thoughts out on the other side of the world, trying to come to terms with Julie Anne’s sudden death, the legacy of truths she had withheld and the secrets she had concealed, Kaya had spared little time for the practicalities of having to vacate a house.

The lawyers had told her that these things could take a very long time to conclude and somehow she had mentally translated that as ‘no need to rush...no need to start looking for somewhere else to live immediately...’

She was someone who had spent a lifetime being sensible and now it felt as though she was being punished for this one time when her common sense had temporarily deserted her. Her mind had been in a different place when she’d escaped to New Zealand, and the consequences of taking her eye off the ball had come home to roost. Now she felt exposed and vulnerable, two things she absolutely hated feeling.

She got dressed at speed, flinging on some jeans, a tee-shirt, a thick jumper and some winter socks. It was after ten in the morning although, as she yanked back the curtains, she thought anyone would be forgiven for thinking that it was still early because the skies were thick and dark with driving snow, and the placid spread of open land, stretching out to the majestic backdrop of mountains, was barely visible through the rapidly falling sheet of white.

She walked into the kitchen in under half an hour to find Leo already there, and she screeched to a halt in the doorway and felt her pulse speed up.

She’d somehow conveniently blanked out the sheer physicality of the man but she couldn’t blank it out now.

He turned to look at her and their eyes met and held, tangled in a tense stretching silence. In the cold, thin, unforgiving light pouring through the bay windows that gave onto the front lawns, he was as sinfully beautiful as she now remembered. Long, lean, muscular, and in black jeans and black polo-neck, he looked every inch...Every inch what?

Every inch some kind of tycoon. Was that what he was—a tycoon? Or had he already started spending his unexpected inheritance?

‘Slept well? Refreshed and ready to resume where we left off?’

Silence broken. Pulses racing all over the place, Kaya dragged her eyes away from the guy who had now unhurriedly turned to pour her a mug of coffee, making her feel like a stranger in her own home. Not that this was her home.

Kaya warily moved to one of the kitchen chairs. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched in thickening silence as he took his time with the coffee before bringing it to her and then sitting within touching distance. For a big man, he moved with an easy, stealthy grace that was compelling.

‘Two sugars—plenty of milk. No idea how you take your coffee, but I feel it better to make it sweet just in case your blood sugar levels have dropped after last night.

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