The Mistress's Child by Sharon Kendrick Read Free Book Online Page A

they'd better go to the pub.
    'I'll just have to ring my mother and tell her I'm going to be a little late.'
    He raised his eyebrows, surprised. 'You live with your mother?'
    Lisi smiled at his expression. How little of her he knew! 'Yes, I do.'
    'Unusual, at your age.'
    'I suppose so—but we get on very well.' No need to tell him that on her salary there was no way she could afford a place of her own, even if she had wanted to.
    They went to the pub and settled down with their wine, but away from the usual professional boundaries which defined their relationship, Lisi found herself gulping hers down more quickly than usual.
    He saw her empty glass and one elegant eyebrow was elevated. 'Another?'
    'Please.' She nodded automatically, her eyes drinking in his tall, lean frame as he went up to buy her another drink.
    She told him little anecdotes about village life, and when he smiled that slow, sexy smile she felt as though she had won first prize in a competition.
    'You must let me buy you a drink now!' she offered, wishing that the evening could just go on and on.
    He shook his dark, ruffled head. 'I'm fine. Really.'
    'No, honestly—I insist! Just the one.' She smiled up at him. 'Equal rights for women, and all that!'
    He laughed, thinking, Why not? 'Okay, Lisi,' he said gently. 'Just the one.'
    In the cosy warmth of the bar, Lisi chatted away, and Philip was thinking that maybe it was getting just a little too cosy. He glanced at his watch. 'I guess it's about time

we made a move,' he said, when he noticed that her cheeks had gone very pink and that she kept blinking her beautiful aquamarine eyes. 'Are you okay?' he frowned.
    She nodded, even though the room was beginning to blur a little. 'I'm fine,' she gulped. But with a quick a glance at her watch she realised she'd drunk in record quick time. 'I'm just a bit whoozy. I guess I'm not used to drinking.'
    'Have you eaten?' he demanded.
    'No.'
    His mouth tightened. A great influence he was turning out to be. And now she had acquired a deathly kind of pallor. He couldn't possibly send her home to her mother if she was half-cut, could he?
    'Come on,' he said decisively, standing up and holding out his hand to her. 'You need something to soak up that alcohol.'
    She clutched onto his hand gratefully and allowed him to lead her out of the pub. Outside the fresh air hit her like a sledgehammer, and she swayed against him and giggled.
    Philip shot her a swift, assessing look. She needed food and then he needed out. What he did not need was some beautiful young woman brushing the delectable curves of her body so close to his.
    But by the time they reached his hotel, Lisi had gone very pale indeed and Philip realised that he was trapped. He couldn't send her home like this, but neither could he see her managing to sit through a meal in a stuffy restaurant.
    'You need to lie down,' he said grimly.
    It sounded like heaven. 'Oh, yes, please,' she murmured indistinctly.
    'Wait here while I get my keys,' he told her shortly, relieved to see that the foyer was completely empty, apart from the receptionist. And receptionists were trained to turn a blind eye, weren't they?

           
    Lisi followed him up the stairs and walked with exaggerated care. She wasn't drunk, she told herself. Just feeling no pain!
    Grimly, he pushed open the door, wondering just how he had managed to get himself into a situation which could look to the outside world as though he were intent on seduction. While nothing could be further than the truth. But he averted his eyes as she flopped down onto the bed like a puppet which had just had its strings cut.
    'Kick your shoes off,' he growled.
    The alcohol had loosened her inhibitions, and she giggled again as she obeyed his terse command, sneaking a look at him from between her slitted eyes and thinking how utterly gorgeous he looked. She wriggled and stretched her arms above her head with a blissful sigh.
    The sight of her lying with such abandon on