Their Secret Baby by Kate Walker Read Free Book Online

The man who had poured her wine with a liberal hand, answered her questions about his life and his job easily and apparently openly. Who had laughed at her jokes, agreed with her opinions, complimented her flatteringly on her appearance.
    ‘What—what is it?’
    Slowly he turned, drawing in a deep breath as he did so, and pushing a hand roughly through his hair. But as he came to face her again she saw to her astonishment that he was smiling in a way that made a nonsense of her fears, pushed them totally aside, sending them right back to the dark, clouded corners of her brain from which she had foolishly let them creep.
    ‘It’s nothing,’ he responded lightly. ‘Nothing’s wrong. Quite the opposite. It’s just that I thought we would have company—your father and…the child. I never expected that we would be alone.’
    The relief was so great that she sagged back against the wall, unable to do anything but smile in her turn. She had been so sure that he was about to go. That somehow she had made some mistake that would drive him away, out into the darkness of the night, just when she had admitted to herself how much she wanted him to stay.
    ‘So you don’t mind?’
    ‘Why should I mind? Haven’t I spent days working towards this?’
    ‘You—you have?’
    ‘And you haven’t noticed.’
    He sounded exasperated, but she was relieved to see that his mouth still smiled, in contrast to the darkness of his eyes.
    ‘You—you want to be alone with me?’
    His smile grew wider, and he shook his head as if in exasperation at her disbelief.
    ‘You make it sound as if it is the last thing you expected. Of course I want to be alone with you.’
    ‘But why?’
    ‘Why?’
    It was accompanied by a scathing glance from those blue eyes. A glance that told her she could not possibly be so foolish, so appallingly naïve.
    ‘Do you really have to ask why? You know the answer to that. Why does a man want to be alone with a woman?’
    Now was her chance to say he’d got it wrong. That the arrogant assumptions he was making were totally mistaken. That she had invited him in only out of politeness, nothing more.
    But how could she tell him that when she knew that it would just not be true? And she would betray herself totally to him by saying so.
    ‘Why did you invite me in?’
    ‘For coffee?’ she ventured, knowing it had not been that at all.
    His laughter told her that he had caught the hint of teasing in her tone. Caught it and understood it, driving straight through the surface of her words to what she really meant underneath.
    ‘For coffee,’ he said softly, huskily, deep blue eyes burning into hers. ‘Well, if you insist, we’ll start with coffee. But I think we both know only too well that that’s not where it will end.’
    And with the memory of that kiss still burning on her lips, the sensations it had triggered off still tingling over every inch of her body, Caitlin didn’t even try to consider arguing with herself, let alone with him.

CHAPTER FOUR

    R HYS prowled restlessly about the small sitting room, looking for something—anything—that would give him some clue about his baby.
    He had come with Caitlin tonight in the full belief that the baby would be here, in the flat. That he would see her—his daughter—for the very first time. And the realisation that that was not going to happen had hit him like a blow to his head.
    For a few dangerous moments the roar of disappointment and frustration in his mind had been like an explosion inside his skull, knocking him off balance. So much off balance that he had nearly given himself away.
    He had almost let rip; almost shouted at her, yelling in his pain and frustration, making it plain that he wasn’t here for the reasons she had thought.
    Don’t call me Matthew! The words had been on the tip of his tongue and he had only managed to swallow them down with the most violent struggle, biting them off at the last minute.
    The baby wasn’t here. He