Secrets and Seductions Read Online Free PDF Page A

laughed as she witnessed his horrified expression.
    “You expect me to sleep in here?”
    “I do.”
    He dragged a hand through his hair, looking to the bed, then to her and back again to the bed. “It’s…”
    “Small,” she finished for him.
    “Try minute,” he countered.
    With delight, Leah envisioned his long legs dangling over the end of the single bed. She forced her lips into a stiff smile. “You wanted to play happy families. I, however, did not promise it would be comfortable.”

Chapter Three
    Nightmares filled Leah’s sleep, fears escalating and countering all reasonable thought, and as morning edged over the horizon and shards of light filtered from behind the curtain, exhaustion racked every part of her. Her head ached, her muscles were stiff and uncoordinated, yet she couldn’t take the day off. She had a debt to repay, and the faster she paid Mac Grainger, the quicker he would disappear from her life.
    She hauled herself from bed, walked through to the kitchen and spied the door to his bedroom wide open.
    “Mac?” Her call echoed through the expanding silence, his name uncomfortable on her tongue. At the doorway to his bedroom, she switched on the light, only to see the bed made, corners tucked in hospital-style, but no Mac. She turned to face her small kitchen. “Mac?”
    Still nothing.
    And he’d talked about her doing a runner. Perhaps the thought of hours toiling under the hot sun had turned him off the idea of familial fun after all. She smiled. Good. Now she could carry on and relax.
    With no sign of him, nerves that had been stretched to breaking point finally eased, and she busied herself with her normal morning routine.
    An hour later, with breakfast out of the way, she readied Charlee for kindergarten. She locked up the house and was down the front steps before she realized what was different. Mac’s car wasn’t there.
    She breathed deeply. He truly had gone.
    “Mummy” —Charlee tugged at her hand— “where’s the big man?”
    “Gone, sweetheart.” They were safe, just the two of them.
    “But he helped you fight my bad dream. Why can’t he stay?”
    “Because…” Because in less than twenty-four hours, he made her want things she wasn’t sure she could cope with—things like passion and heat, and when Curtis died, she had vowed never to trust those feelings ever again.
    Relieved that Charlee didn’t keep questioning her about Mac’s appearance and disappearance, she dropped her off at kindergarten, then returned home and headed straight into the grove to check the crop.
    At this time of the year there was only a little light pruning to be done to remove small branches that grew toward the centre of the bush to allow the light to get to the fruit and help ripen it. She had no choice but to manage it on her own for now, but she’d be grateful when Howard Parker’s crew arrived to help with the picking.
    She glanced toward the heavens and prayed the weather would stay warm and dry. The last thing she wanted was rain at harvest time.
    About to walk through the small white wooden gate that led to the grove, already able to smell the pungent fragrance of her olives, Leah stalled at the intrusion of a shrill whistle that pierced the quiet.
    But this was no avian morning chorus. Mac stood in her grove. Working! Whistling!
    Her fingers curled over the fence posts as she watched him. Already stripped to the waist, he reached beneath an olive bush, tugging at the undergrowth, a soft sheen of perspiration slicking his taut muscles.
    Leah’s insides did a flip, her mouth suddenly desert dry. Then she remembered what was most important. Where she was. Where he was. She stormed down the path. How dare he? She didn’t want him here. He had to go. This was her home, her safe place, and having Mac Grainger here made everything topsy-turvy. She came to a halt in front of him. “What are you doing here? Your car is gone.”
    He offered her a cocky grin as he straightened and