The Bridesmaid's Baby Bump Read Online Free Page B

unfit for female company. Unfit for any company, if truth be told.
    He’d been thrown so badly by the first big failure of his life that he’d gone completely out of kilter. Drunk too much. Made bad business decisions that had had serious repercussions to his bottom line. Mistakes he’d had to do everything in his power to fix. He had wealth, but it would never be enough to blot out the poverty of his childhood, to assuage the hunger for more that had got him into such trouble. He had buried himself in his work, determined to reverse the wrong turns he’d made. But he hadn’t been able to forget Eliza.
    ‘Eliza!’ he called now.
    She started, looked up, was unable to mask a quick flash of guilt.
    ‘Jake. Hi.’
    Her voice was higher than usual. Just as sweet, but strained. She was not a good liar. He stored that information up for later, as he did in his assessments of clients. He’d learned young that knowledge of people’s weaknesses was a useful tool. Back then it had been for survival. Now it was to give him a competitive advantage and keep him at the top. He could not let himself slide again.
    ‘I suspected you might try and avoid me, so I decided to head you off at the pass,’ he said.
    Eliza frowned unconvincingly. ‘Why would you do that?’
    ‘Because you obviously think I’m a jerk for not calling you after the divorce. I’m determined to change your mind.’ He didn’t want to leave things the way they were. Not when thoughts of her had intruded, despite his best efforts to forget her.
    ‘Oh,’ she said, after a long pause. ‘You could do that over coffee. Not during an hour’s drive to Port Douglas.’
    So she’d been mulling over the enforced intimacy of a journey in his car. So had he. But to different effect.
    ‘How do you know I won’t need an hour with you?’
    She shrugged slender shoulders. ‘I guess I don’t. But I’ve booked the shuttle bus. The driver is expecting me.’
    ‘Call them and cancel.’ He didn’t want to appear too high-handed. But no way was she going to get on that shuttle bus. ‘Come on, Eliza. It will be much more comfortable in my car.’
    ‘Your rental car?’
    ‘I have a house in Port Douglas. And a car.’
    ‘I thought you lived in Brisbane?’
    ‘I do. The house in Port Douglas is an escape house.’
    He took hold of her wheeled bag. ‘Do you need to pick up more luggage?’
    She shook her head. ‘This is all I have. A few bikinis and sundresses is all I need for four days.’
    Jake forced himself not to think how Eliza would look in a bikini. She was wearing flat shoes and he realised how petite she was. Petite, slim, but with curves in all the right places. She would look sensational in a bikini.
    ‘My car is out front. Let’s go.’
    Still she hesitated. ‘So you’ll drop me at my resort hotel?’
    Did she think he was about to abduct her? It wasn’t such a bad idea, if that was what it took to get her to listen to him. ‘Your private driver—at your service,’ he said with a mock bow.
    She smiled that curving smile he found so delightful. The combination of astute businesswoman and quick-to-laughter Party Queen was part of her appeal.
    ‘Okay, I accept the offer,’ she said.
    The warm midday air hit him as they left the air-conditioning of the terminal. Eliza shrugged off her jacket to reveal a simple white top that emphasised the curves of her breasts. She stretched out her slim, toned arms in a movement he found incredibly sensual, as if she were welcoming the sun to her in an embrace.
    ‘Nice and hot,’ she said with a sigh of pleasure. ‘Just what I want. Four days of relaxing and swimming and eating great food.’
    ‘April is a good time of year here,’ he said. ‘Less chance of cyclone and perfect conditions for diving on the Great Barrier Reef.’
    The garage attendant had brought Jake’s new-model four-by-four to the front of the airport. It was a luxury to keep a car for infrequent use. Just as it was to keep a house