The Heir From Nowhere by Trish Morey Read Free Book Online Page B

almost pretty, in a sad, neglected kind of way. Or maybe she had been pretty once, but it had prematurely slipped away under a baking western suburbs sun and the constant battle to survive. But he’d be damned if he was going to let her merely survive for the next six months.
    ‘I think we both know you’re going to need my help with this baby.’
    He was looking straight ahead, changing lanes in preparation for the turn he knew was coming up soon but still he was aware of the exact moment her eyes fell on him. Somehow he could feel their cool blue gaze washing over his skin.
    ‘I know. I’m sorry. You’re right.’
    The simple declaration was the first surprise. The fact that she didn’t argue the second. But it was the apology that surprised him even more, especially given the way he’d assumed the worst of her from the start.
    ‘I want this child,’ he said, his voice lacking the heatthat had been the hallmark of their earlier meeting but threaded with a steel-plated determination that surprised even him as he ground out the words. ‘And I will not see you go without while you do this.’
    In his peripheral vision he picked up her quaking nod. But it was more the sigh of acceptance he sensed that told him what she thought before she spoke. ‘I’m so glad you want this baby.’
    He half wondered why it was so important to her. But then, he didn’t understand why this baby and what happened to it was so important to him. Once upon a time he’d been happy that Carla had never managed to conceive, resigned never to having children of his own because he was so angry with her and what she’d done to herself, so angry that she could have left a child motherless by virtue of her own self-destructive actions.
    So why did he feel so strongly about it now?
    Other than it was his child. It existed. It belonged with him.
    And the woman alongside him was making that possible.
    God, but he’d been hard on her. But he’d had to find out. Had to test her. ‘I’ll speak to my lawyers. There has to be some kind of precedent for this kind of thing. They’ll work something out.’
    He heard her breathe in. Wondered if she was going to argue again. Then she huffed out a wary, ‘Thank you. Maybe that would be helpful.’ Some new quality in her voice alerted him and, curious, he glanced her way. The frown was gone, from what he could see, her lip liberated from her teeth and, if he wasn’t mistaken, there was almost the hint of a smile at her mouth.
    He turned his eyes back to the road though his attention stayed firmly with what he’d witnessed. It was thefirst time he’d seen her face come anywhere near a smile. He wasn’t entirely sure she knew how to. And while the business part of his brain told him it was only because he was insisting she take his money, his gut was not so convinced.
    Whatever the reason, the expression took years off her.
    He glanced again, not sure if he’d imagined it, and, as if sensing his gaze, she looked around and for one solitary moment as their eyes jagged and caught it was still there on her lips, until she blinked, her eyes filling with confusion as the smile slid away.
    ‘Oh,’ she said, jumping when she saw where they were, ‘you have to turn right at the next intersection,’ even though he was already in the slip lane indicating for the turn.
    What was happening to her? Angie pushed back in her seat and took a deep breath, suddenly too warm despite the air-conditioned interior. It was because of his eyes, she realised.
    Because for the first time he’d looked at her as if she wasn’t something he might find on the bottom of his shoe. He’d looked at her as if he was actually seeing her—the person—and it had thrown her, that was all. Coming on top of learning that he definitely wanted this child, of course it would throw her.
    ‘Where exactly do you live?’ he asked as the turning lights went green.
    She gave him the address, expecting him to ask her for directions,