The Petrelli Heir by Kim Lawrence Read Free Book Online

aftershocks that still made her shake.
    At least no one had seen them; that was something. The thought was barely formed before a frantically barking dog ran out into the street. Izzy immediately recognised it as the shop owner’s excitable terrier.
    Afraid that the noise might bring someone out of the shop to investigate, she snapped a desperate, ‘Hush, Bella,’ which the dog ignored as she ran barking towards the village shop where she continued to bark as she danced around the feet of the figure standing in the doorway.
    Izzy’s heart sank to her knees as she registered the familiar figure of Emma, her eyes round with shock and her mouth open.
    ‘Izzy!’ she said as though she expected to be contradicted, her glance moving repeatedly back and forth between Izzy and the tall figure beside her.
    ‘This isn’t what it looks like, Emma.’ Except it was, it was exactly what it looked like, and this time she didn’t have trauma or alcohol to blame. It had been all her. Biting her lip, she turned to Roman, her blue gaze willing him to back her up. ‘Tell her,’ she snapped.
    ‘I don’t know what it looked like. I only know what it felt like—rather good. You haven’t lost your touch,
cara
.’
    In one sentence he had managed not only to confirm Emma’s suspicions, but also leave the impression that this wasn’t the first time they’d kissed.
    Her eyes narrowed with dislike, and to rub salt in the wound he looked utterly cool, except for the dark bands of colour that drew attention to the slashing angle of his sculpted cheekbones.
    Emma shook her head as though she were just waking up. ‘Wow, you and …’ She inhaled and suddenlygrinned, approval beaming all over her face. ‘I said you needed some fun but I never …’ She looked at Roman and shook her head again, framing a silent Wow! behind her hand as she looked at her sister.
    ‘Emma, no, I—’
    ‘It’s fine, Izzy, totally cool. The man obviously prefers brunettes. Carry on, pretend I was never here.’ Throwing a quick cheeky grin over her shoulder, she set off down the hill as fast as her incredibly high spiky heels would take her.
    ‘Emma!’ Acting on an instinct that told her she had to stop Emma and explain to her that she couldn’t tell anyone what she had seen, Izzy hit the ground running, but she had barely covered a yard before she was physically hauled back.
    Slapping at the restraining hand on her shoulder, she spun around furiously. ‘What do you think you are doing?’ she snapped.
    He released his grip on her arm but took both her hands in his, pulling her around to face him. ‘What are you doing?’ he countered, struggling to drag his eyes above the level of her heaving bosom.
    ‘I’ve got to stop her before she tells someone that she saw us.’
    Under his olive-toned skin the fine muscles along his jaw quivered and clenched. ‘You have a baby so I’m thinking people might have guessed you’ve been kissed before,’ he drawled.
    ‘I’m sure you thrive on notoriety, but I’ll still be living here tomorrow.’
    ‘Why do you assume I thrive on notoriety?’ Roman worked very hard to protect his privacy.
    She shook her head stubbornly. ‘You’re a billionaire p-playboy.’
    The term made Roman’s firm lips twitch with amusement. ‘Playboy?’
    ‘All right, maybe not a playboy,’ she admitted. Did she even know what a playboy was? ‘But you are a billionaire.’
    Roman blinked. He had been referred to as such before but never so accusingly. ‘Which means I don’t value my privacy …?’ The furrow between his dark brows deepened as he tacked on an abrupt questioning, ‘And why?’
    She looked at him blankly. ‘What do you mean why?
    Why what?’
    ‘Why will you be here tomorrow? Didn’t you live in London? Why have you buried yourself out here in the middle of nowhere?’ Unless she had followed the father of her child?
    ‘You can’t bring up a child in a flat …’
Why am I defending my life decisions to