SNOWED IN WITH THE BILLIONAIRE by Caroline Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

back, catching him squarely in the middle of his chest, and he grabbed it and chuckled, and for a second the years seemed to melt away.
    And then he turned, picking up a knife, and the moment was gone.
    * * *
    It was no hardship to watch him while he cooked.
    She studied every nuance of his body, tracking the changes brought about in nine years. He’d only been twenty-one then, nearly twenty-two. Now, he was thirty-one, and a man in his prime.
    Not that he’d been anything other than a man then, there’d been no doubt about that, but now his shoulders under the soft cotton shirt seemed broader, more solidly muscled, and he seemed a little taller. The skilfully cut trousers hugged the same neat hips, though, and hinted at the taut muscles of his legs. She’d always loved his legs, and every time he shifted, her body tightened in response.
    And while she watched, greedily drinking in every movement of the frame she’d once known so well, he peeled and chopped and sliced, mashed and seasoned, deglazed the frying pan with a sizzle of the lovely red, stirred in a hefty dollop of port and redcurrant sauce and then arranged it all with mathematical precision on perfectly warmed plates.
    ‘Voilà!’
    He set the plates down on the places she’d laid, and she smiled. ‘Very pretty.’
    ‘We aim to please. Dig in.’
    She dug, her mouth watering, and it was every bit as good as it looked and smelled.
    ‘Oh, wow,’ she mumbled, and he gave a wry huff of laughter.
    ‘See? No faith in me. You never have had.’
    Georgie shook her head. ‘I’ve always had faith in you. I always knew you’d be a success, and you are.’
    Even if she hadn’t been able to live with him any more.
    He shrugged. There was success, and then there was happiness. That still eluded him, chased out by a restless, fretful search for his identity, his fundamental self, and it had cost him Georgia and everything that went with her. Everything she’d then had with another man—and he really didn’t want to think about that. He changed the subject. Sort of.
    ‘Josh seems a nice little kid. I didn’t know you’d had a child.’
    She met his eyes, her fork suspended in mid-air. ‘Why would you unless you were keeping tabs on me?’
    A smile touched his eyes. ‘Touché,’ he murmured softly, and the smile faded. ‘I was sorry to hear about your husband. That must have been tough for you.’
    Tough? He didn’t know the half of it. ‘It was,’ she said quietly.
    ‘What happened?’
    She put her fork down. ‘He had a heart attack. He was at work and I had a call to say he’d collapsed and died at his desk.’
    He winced. ‘Ouch. Wasn’t he a bit young for that?’
    ‘Thirty-nine. And we’d just moved and extended the mortgage, so things are a bit tight.’
    ‘What about the life insurance? Surely that covered the mortgage?’
    Her mouth twisted slightly. ‘He’d cancelled it three months before.’
    That shocked him. ‘Cancelled it? Why would he cancel it?’
    ‘Cash flow, I presume. Property wasn’t selling, and because he’d cancelled the insurance of course they won’t pay out, so I’m having to work full-time to pay the mortgage. And it’s still not selling, so I can’t shift the house, and I’m stuck.’
    He rammed a hand through his hair. ‘Oh, George. That’s tough. I’m sorry.’
    ‘Yeah, me, too, but there’s nothing I can do. I just have to get on with it.’
    He frowned, slowly turning his wine glass round and round by the stem with his thumb and forefinger. ‘So what do you do with Josh while you’re at work?’
    ‘I have him with me. I work at home—mostly at night. He goes to nursery three mornings a week to give me a straight stretch of time, and it just about works.’
    He topped up her glass and leaned back against the chair, his eyes searching her face. ‘So what do you do?’
    She smiled. ‘I’m a virtual PA. My boss is very understanding, and we get by, but I won’t pretend it’s easy.’
    ‘No,