Read a Sample Chapter
Their Secret Baby
By Kate Walker Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.
Copyright © 2004 Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.
All right reserved. ISBN: 0-373-12432-5
Chapter One
RHYS MORGAN swung his car off the main road and pressed his foot down on the accelerator as even the powerful engine slowed on the steep slope before it.
"This is the road to a hotel?" he muttered impatiently to himself, steering the sleek vehicle carefully around the wicked bends with hands that were clenched so tightly around the wheel the knuckles showed white. "It's more likely to put people off."
But nothing would deter him. Not now.
Not when the end of his search was finally in sight. When the prospect of coming face to face with the woman he had finally tracked down seemed only seconds away. When he could finally learn from her the whereabouts of the one thing on which his thoughts had centred to the exclusion of everything else.
His daughter.
He had neglected his work, his business, his friends - his life for the past three months, because of this. He had travelled for miles, taking in at least three countries and God knew how many towns. And all because of one small person who he had never known existed until months after her birth.
The child he had thought would never be born. The child he'd thought his estranged wife would have been determined to destroy, because she had always said pregnancy would ruin both her figure andher lifestyle.
But just three months ago he had learned that something very different had happened.
The steep drive flattened out suddenly to a wide gravel-covered parking space, at the end of which stood the small, family-run hotel he had come to find.
Set high above the valley, it stood square and solid against the driving rain, with the wild hills and the deep expanse of Lake Windermere spread out below it.
"At last!"
Rhys steered the car into a roughly marked parking space and pulled on the brakes, sitting back with a deep sigh. Staring through the sheeting rain with his sapphire-blue eyes narrowed, he pushed both hands through the sleek blackness of his hair and frowned in thoughtful concentration.
He was here.
And it was time to consider his next move.
Time to decide exactly how he was going to play things when he finally came face to face with his wife's cousin. Caitlin Richardson. The woman who now had custody of the daughter he had never known he had.
Caitlin Richardson put the phone down and sighed wearily, pushing one hand through the dark fall of her hair. She grimaced as she felt how rough and uneven the ends had become. She hadn't had time to have a decent haircut in weeks.
She hadn't had time for anything.
Caring for a six-month-old baby didn't leave much time for leisure or relaxation - or looking after yourself for that matter. Not when it was combined with trying to hold down a full-time job and earn enough money to feed them both as well.
And she was tired. Worn out. Fleur had been sleeping badly for the last couple of weeks - a combination of teething and the change in her routine - and as a result Caitlin herself hadn't had a full night's rest in as long as she could remember.
Certainly not since the news had come through about Amelie and Josh.
"No!"
It was a low, drawn-out moan. She rubbed the back of her hand over eyes shadowed with the darkness of misery as memories she wished she could erase surfaced to hit her in the face, making her close her eyes against the pain.
"I don't want to remember."
"I'm sorry?"
It was a stranger's voice. A voice she had never heard before, and it broke into her thoughts in a rush, startling her and jolting her eyes wide open.
"I - I was talking to myself."
It was difficult to collect her thoughts. Almost impossible when she found herself staring into eyes as brilliant and stunning a blue as these.
And to have been caught talking to herself! Talking to herself about things she didn't even want to think about privately, let alone bring out into the open in front of a total stranger! It was not in the least bit surprising that all coherent thought had fled her mind.
Fortunately, years of training and a determined professionalism snapped into place, giving her at least something to say.
"Can I help you?"
She hoped her smile was convincing. Hoped that she at least looked welcoming, if he was a guest.
Was he a guest? He didn't look the sort of person who normally came to the Linford. Casual family groups, or retired couples who were having a weekend away, were more the sort of clientele who favoured this far from five-star hotel, especially in a cold, damp spring like this one.
This man looked too affluent for them. For all that he was so casually dressed, in tight-fitting black jeans and an oatmeal-coloured sweater, his clothes had a style and a quality to them that spoke of money, and plenty of it.
"I have a reservation ..."
So he was a guest. Somehow she managed to swallow down the exclamation of surprise that almost escaped her and reached for the computer keyboard.
"In what name?"
"Delaney - Matthew Delaney."
Had he moved forward? He suddenly seemed too close for comfort. She felt the tiny hairs on her skin prickle and lift in apprehension, for no good reason that she could think of.
"Delaney ..."
Her vision blurred as she hunted for the name on the screen. She had never been so intensely aware of another human being in her life.
Those eyes really were stunning. Deep, deep blue, like the sky at the end of a long, hot summer day, just before night. He too needed a haircut and the fall of his dark hair over his high forehead was a sensual temptation in itself. Her fingers itched to brush it back, to feel the warmth of his skin under their tips.
"Delaney ..." she tried again, more forceful this time, concentrating ferociously.
Then jumped nervously as a long, square-tipped finger moved past her and stabbed purposefully on a computer key.
"What - ?"
"Matthew Delaney."
His tone sounded reasonable enough but there was a note threaded through it that set her teeth on edge even if she didn't quite know why.
"My name - it's right there."
"I could see that!"
The need not to look a fool made her voice sharper than she would have liked - and sharper than he liked too, that much was obvious, as the straight black brows twitched together at her tone.
"I'm sorry - I mean ..."
"What you mean is, keep my nose out."
To her relief his voice sounded reasonable, even amused, and a faint smile softened the hard, controlled line of his mouth.
"Well, I wouldn't have put it quite that bluntly. But I did have things in hand."
"Of course you did, Miss -" those blue eyes dropped to the name badge pinned to her smart white blouse "- Miss Richardson."
And suddenly, unnervingly, the smile had vanished as swiftly as it had come.
"So now that you have things in hand, Ms Caitlin Richardson, would you like to tell me exactly where my room is?"
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Their Secret Baby by Kate Walker Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
loading...