Christmas Star (Contemporary, Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page B

daughter?” Trying to recover from his shock, studied first the girl, then the woman.
    “Oops!” SeLi clapped a hand over her mouth. “Didn’t I say if you’re ever gonna snag a husband, I oughtta call you Starr?”
    Before Starr could gather her wits, the child thrust a small hand at the man and said around a lopsided grin, “Don’t worry, mister. She’s not married.”
    A growling sound gurgled from Starr. “To your room, young lady.” She pointed. “The gentleman was just leaving,” she said, doubting the man had ever a passing acquaintance with the term. “I know you have homework.”
    “Aw, Mom. You said we’d get out the Christmas decorations today.”
    “Yes, well, that was before I had an unexpected chat with your teacher.”
    Sullen, the girl buried her hands in her back pockets.
    Starr knew that look. But she could be stubborn, too. “You heard me, SeLi. And not another word.”
    Starr might as well have saved her breath, because SeLi obviously wasn’t finished talking to their uninvited guest. “Judge Forbes said I could use Starr’s last name till the ‘doption’s square. ‘Cause it will be...soon.” She paused to shoot Starr a troubled gaze.
    Starr smiled and touched one of the girl’s shining braids. How could she not show encouragement? As usual, though, when she gave SeLi an inch, the little rascal took a mile.
    “Jeez, mister.” SeLi gazed up at the man. “I know boyfriends get antsy ‘bout kids from another marriage, but she ain’t been. Married, I mean. She don’t even date much, ‘cept for nerdy Stanley.” The girl shot a sly grin over her shoulder at Starr.
    Starr groaned. She didn’t date Stanley—not that it mattered. Maybe this was nothing more than a hideous nightmare. But no, she knew it was real the moment the stranger jammed his hat on so tight it rode the crest of black brows that met over the bridge of an impossibly aristocratic nose.
    “I called you a wildcat,” he snarled. “Alley cat might be more fitting. Allowing yourself to be a kept woman is one thing. Having your kid solicit is quite another. I imagine the child-protection service would be interested.”
    Starr wondered where to begin unscrambling this awful mess.
    “He doesn’t work for Wicked Wanda, does he?” For the first time SeLi showed alarm.
    Starr wanted to assure SeLi that he wasn’t with the county adoption agency, but at the moment she couldn’t be sure of anything. In the midst of a helpless shrug, her gaze fell accidentally on a piece of the check, which had stuck to the sleeve of her robe. A bold, black signature leapt out at her.
    Barclay McLeod.
    This lowlife was the senator’s brother?
    Anger welled from the tips of Starr’s toes. “You have some nerve,” she said, tossing the piece of check against his broad chest. “How dare you threaten a nice man like the senator. How dare you threaten me!”
    Her sudden offensive caught Clay off guard, and he backed toward the condo’s entrance.
    In steady pursuit, Starr reached around him and yanked the door open.
    Clay stumbled backward across the threshold.
    The moment Starr saw him safely outside, she regained enough control of her senses to deliver a scathing lecture.
    Entranced by the fiery halo of her hair under the skylight, Clay missed half her tirade—until she wound up by shouting, “I suggest you clean up your own backyard, Mr. McLeod, before you start on mine!”
    The door, en route to closing in his face, jolted Clay back to reality. “What do you mean, clean up my yard?” He wedged the toe of his boot between the casing and the door. If he wasn’t always left to mop up his sister-in-law’s tears, he might find this woman’s last-ditch efforts amusing.
    “It means,” Starr said, gritting her teeth, “ask yourself where the senator’s wife has been for the past few months.”
    “At my ranch.” The thrust of Clay’s jaw dared her to make something of it.
    “I rest my case.”
    “So that’s Harrison’s