Secrets and Seductions Read Online Free Page B

gathering her daughter in her arms and breathing in her sweet innocence. “What is it, darling?”
    Teardrops glistened on her daughter’s flushed cheeks. “Dreams, Mummy, angry dreams. It was the bad man.”
    “Oh, sweetie, hush.” She brushed her daughter’s damp hair from her forehead. “You know what we say about bad dreams,” she reminded Charlee, gentling her tone. She reached for her daughter’s pillow and turned it over, patting it down. “Now it’s your turn.”
    Charlee’s tiny hand bunched into a fist, and she punched the pillow several times. “Squash, squash, go away.”
    “That’s right. Turn the pillow. Squash the bad dream and it will go away.”
    Tentative eyes the image of her father’s, and Mac’s, searched Leah’s face for reassurance. “It is gone, isn’t it, Mummy?”
    Leah kissed the top of her daughter’s blonde curls, inhaling the sweet fragrance she knew so well. It fired every protective bone in her body. No one would hurt her child ever again. She offered Charlee a reassuring smile. “Sure is. Now down you go, back to sleep. I’ll leave the side light on, and that bad dream won’t dare come back.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Absolutely,” Mac’s strong voice reached from behind. “It wouldn’t dare come back with me here.”
    Leah stiffened and instinctively shielded her daughter with her body. “Please keep your voice down.”
    A wide-eyed Charlee stared at him. “You’re big.”
    “So they tell me. Thought you might need some help. Bad dreams sometimes need a couple of warriors to vanquish them.” He offered Charlee a smile as he stepped into the room, and a tiny part of Leah melted. Why couldn’t Curtis have been more like him? Kind. Gentle. Fatherly. Charlee deserved that.
    Then Leah remembered the real world.
    With a soft sigh, Charlee settled, dark lashes shadowing her tiny face, her acceptance of another man in the house surprising Leah. “All gone now, Mummy.”
    Leah’s heart swelled with love for her daughter. “Yes, sweetie, all gone. Back to sleep, but remember, I’m only in the kitchen if you need me.” Leah rose and walked to the doorway, bitter tension coiling inside when she thought of Mac’s unwelcome intrusion. Wasn’t that just like a Grainger? He walked in as if it was his automatic right to be there, and could be as charming as the devil when he wanted something. Just like Curtis. Leah wanted Mac gone. “Time to go,” she said to him with a soft plea.
    “Sure, now that the demons are gone.”
    She stepped into the hallway, making sure to leave the door slightly ajar and only the bedside lamp on. She flicked him a withering glare. “So how come you’re still here?”
    “You know why.”
    Even with Curtis, Leah had never felt so awkward. Mac loomed large and overpowering. She didn’t know what to do with him and certainly didn’t want him anywhere near Aroha Farm. Secrets had to be protected.
    He talked about choices, but right now Leah knew she had none left. A heavy sigh slid from her chest as she turned toward the spare bedroom. “I’ll make up the spare bed.”
    He didn’t say a word. Didn’t need to. He just offered a suggestive slight arch of one brow.
    That was enough to set her off. Hands on her hips, she rounded on him. “Just because you want to fulfill some familial role, don’t go getting any ideas of making it permanent, Mr. Grainger.”
    He held his hands up in surrender. “As if I would.”
    And that was her problem—the man made her more than nervous. A little frisson of heat sparked through her every time he came near, a sexual awareness she didn’t want to acknowledge. The man was a Grainger, and Grainger men were not reliable as far as she was concerned. She wanted safety and security, not the erotic surge of excitement he generated.
    She jabbed a finger toward the closed door to the spare bedroom. “In there.”
    Mac pushed open the door, and if Leah hadn’t been so darned furious, she might have