The Aristocrat and the Single Mom by Michelle Douglas Read Free Book Online Page A

matter. It’d kick in again when it needed to.
    She was lovely. Utterly lovely. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, lithe and strong. But it was more than how she looked. It was her essence, something innate to her, that drew him—the light in her eyes, the abandon with which she threw chips and turned cartwheels. He’d never seen the like in his life. Nobody had ever made him laugh so quickly and easily. Nobody had made him feel so accepted for who he was rather than what he was. Nobody had ever made him feel so alive.
    Staying in her house, taking her out to dinner, was probably folly.
    Of course it was folly.
    Kate chose that moment to turn and when she saw him her whole face lit up. It made him feel ten feet tall. It made him want to sweep her up in his arms and kiss her again.
    He didn’t. He said, ‘Did you have a good meeting with your accountant?’ instead.
    Boring. Predictable. Felice would take him to task over his lack of imagination.
    ‘Yes, thank you.’ Kate didn’t take him to task for boringness or predictability. She smiled as if she appreciated his interest.
    They stared at one another for a long moment. Simon’s mouth went dry with longing. Then Kate shook her head with a laugh, took his arm and led him back the way he’d come. ‘Now I’m guessing you have a hire car somewhere nearby?’
    ‘It’s just down the road a little way. Where’s your car?’ He tried to pull his mind back to practicalities, tried to steel himself against the light touch of her hand tucked into the crook of his arm. It fitted there so snugly he couldn’t resist pulling it in against his side more securely.
    ‘My car is stowed safely in the garage at home.’ She smiled up at him and her eyes danced. ‘I walk to work.’
    ‘Good.’ It meant he didn’t have to let go of her just yet. It meant he didn’t have to lose sight of her for even a few minutes.
    ‘Ooh, very nice,’ she said when he led her to the Mercedes E class he’d hired.
    He opened the passenger door with a flourish. ‘Your chariot, my lady.’
    He watched her settle back against the seat and run her hands appreciatively over the leather. Mind-boggling images scorched themselves on his brain. Images of her hands running over his body like that. Images of her naked against the pale creamy leather and—
    ‘Ooh, sat nav! Jesse is going to love this car.’
    Her words snapped him back. ‘Jesse?’
    She glanced up and her smile widened. ‘Jesse. My son.’
    He closed the door. Quick and sharp. Without realising he’d meant to.
    She had a child!
    He stumbled around the back of the car, his movements jerky and uncoordinated as if his body didn’t belong to him anymore, as if gravity had taken a tighter hold on him and was trying to pull him right down through the earth.
    He paused, resting his hands on his knees. A child? This lovely woman, with her wide smile and her blonde ponytail that bounced as she walked, had a child? A son?
    No! He wanted to shout the denial to the sky. He’d misheard. He had to have misheard.
    He forced himself upright, forced his legs forward until he stood by the driver’s door, then he forced himself inside the car. He prayed his face did not betray him. ‘You said you have a son?’
    ‘That’s right. He’s seven and, like all boys, loves gadgets.’ She rolled her eyes and gestured to the satellite navigation device. ‘Didn’t Felice tell you about him?’
    ‘No.’
    She turned in her seat to face him more fully. The spot between her eyes, just above her nose, crinkled. ‘Simon, what exactly did Felice tell you?’
    Next to nothing, or so it would seem. ‘Her notes were…brief,’ he admitted. Talking about Felice suddenly seemed a whole lot safer than discussing the fact that Kate had a child.
    ‘Simon?’
    He turned and met her gaze.
    ‘When did you arrive in Australia?’
    ‘This morning.’
    Her eyes widened. ‘This morning, but…Wow! You must be shattered.’
    That just about summed it up.
    ‘Well,