Bound by a Baby Bump (Harlequin Romance Large Print) Read Online Free Page A

there?’
    ‘Grooming,’ she replied with a quick, accidental glance at his tangle of hair, the stubble on his chin, the wrinkled shirt.
    ‘Meow.’ He laughed as he sat up on the unmade bed and reached for a coffee. ‘Are you always this mean in the morning?’
    ‘Are you always this annoying?’
    Her scowl cracked into a grin as she sat beside him.
    ‘This will help.’ She reached for the other cup of coffee and took a long gulp. ‘And then I really do have to go. I have things to do at the office.’
    ‘The office? You know it’s a Sunday, right? I saw your boss last night. I bet he’s not going to be racing out of bed to get to work.’
    ‘Quite. All the more reason why I have to. I had to put a few things on the back burner in the lead-up to the fundraiser. I want to get them moving again.’
    ‘They’ll still be there tomorrow. I, on the other hand...’
    ‘Will be long gone—you were quite adamant about that last night, I remember. And yet here you are, holding me up when I want to get to work.’
    ‘You work too hard.’ The deliberate change of subject wasn’t lost on her.
    ‘Do you work at all?’ she asked, genuinely curious, and realising now how little she knew about him. Other than that he likely had a rich benefactor, of course.
    He nodded as he took a gulp of coffee. ‘Sort of.’
    ‘Sort of? Anyone I know who “sort of” has a job has mainly been occupied spending a trust fund.’
    He winced, she noticed.
    ‘So when you say “sort of”, you don’t have an actual job.’
    ‘You could say that.’ His grin told her that he was enjoying frustrating her, refusing to spill the details of his life. Not that it mattered to her what he did or didn’t do, she reminded herself. It was just she was curious, having spent the night with a man to whom the very idea of a plan near on brought him out in hives.
    ‘So how do you fill your days? When you’re not attending gala dinners, that is.’
    He gave her a carefully nonchalant look. ‘I spend it at the beach.’
    She nearly snorted her coffee with a good-natured laugh. ‘Well, I should have guessed that,’ she said, draining the dregs.
    She hunted in her drawers for underwear and grabbed a simple shift dress from the wardrobe and then headed into the bathroom. When she emerged, dressed and perfectly coiffured, Leo was leaning against the kitchen counter, jacket and shoes on, the smile gone from his eyes.
    * * *
    ‘I didn’t want to just disappear. I could walk you to the train? I have to get going.’ He hoped his voice sounded less conflicted than he felt. That he wasn’t giving away his battle between regret and impatience. Leo Fairfax didn’t do regrets. He was walking away because it was the only way to be safe. The only way to ensure he didn’t find himself in a situation that was intolerable, as he had at school. As much as last night and this morning had been exhilarating, wonderful, this had to end now.
    He’d been perfectly frank last night that she shouldn’t expect anything lasting from him.
    ‘A walk to the station would be good. Are you ready to go?’
    Leo reached for her hand as they walked along the leafy street, and wound his fingers with hers. It was only when he felt her hesitation, the tension in her muscles, that he realised what he’d done. He didn’t do holding hands. He didn’t do
Shall I walk you to the station?
because that led to expectation, and that was the very last thing that he wanted.
    One morning like this led to another and another, until it became impossible to escape. But her hand felt right in his, her delicate, smooth palm lost in his huge, calloused, weather-worn grip. This was a choice, a pleasure, and he couldn’t make himself take it back or regret it. He let go briefly as they passed through the ticket barrier, and had to stop himself from wrapping an arm around her waist as they walked through the station.
    ‘I go north here,’ she said eventually, when they reached the stairs.