Her Secret, His Love-Child. Tina Duncan

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       He nodded. ‘Well, you can set your mind at ease. I have every intention of being a part of Samantha’s life.’

      Relief swept through Katrina, unknotting muscles she hadn’t even known she’d been holding tight. ‘That’s great.’

      Alex stared at her, face expressionless. For some reason she began to feel uneasy, a restless sensation attacking the base of her spine.

      ‘So, we’re in agreement, then?’ he asked. ‘We have to do what’s best for Samantha?’

      There was an odd note in Alex’s voice she couldn’t quite decipher. It made her unease quickly expand into out-and-out wariness. ‘Of course. That’s why I came back.’

      ‘Good,’ Alex said, breaking into her thoughts. ‘Then the only logical course of action is for the two of you to move in with me.’

      Katrina blinked. Dragged in a breath. Blinked again. Surely she hadn’t heard him right? Because she thought he’d just said…Well, she thought he’d just said…She shook her head.

      ‘I insist.’ His tone was smooth, but underlined by steel.

      Tina Duncan lives in trendy inner-city Sydney with her partner, Edy. With a background in marketing and event management, she now spends her days running a business with Edy. She’s a multi-tasking expert. When she’s not busy typing up quotes and processing invoices, she’s writing. She loves being physically active, and enjoys tennis (both watching and playing), bushwalking and dancing. Spending quality time with her family and friends also rates high on her priority list. She has a weakness for good food and fine wine, and has a sweet tooth she has to keep under control.

      Her Secret, His Love-Child

      by

      Tina Duncan

      

      

MILLS & BOON^®

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘“HELLO, Alex.” Is that all you have to say to me after disappearing to God knows where for months on end?’ Alex Webber demanded.

      He regretted the words instantly, not only because he had an audience but because they also demonstrated a rare loss of control on his part.

      But that was hardly surprising, was it? He’d been caught way off-guard by Katrina’s sudden appearance. Bursting in on him uninvited was not her style at all but, more importantly, she’d been missing for months.

      Katrina Ashby shrugged her shoulders, sending her caramel-blonde hair rippling around her leather-clad shoulders. ‘I suppose I should have added, how are you?’

      Alex clenched his hands into fists. Although he wasn’t a violent man, and had never lifted a finger against a woman in his life, he wanted nothing more than to stride across the room and shake Katrina until her teeth rattled.

      After all of this time, how dared she turn up like this, out of the blue, and say, ‘Hello, Alex,’ as if nothing had happened?

      His insides contracted on a burst of anger as week upon week of frustration imploded inside him. At the same time, other parts of him were swelling as another far more primitive form of frustration made itself known.

      Forget shaking her until her teeth rattled, Alex conceded. What he really wanted to do—even though he shouldn’t—was to pull her into his arms and kiss her until she wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed her surrender into his mouth.

      Aware they had an interested audience—several board members were openly gawping, others surreptitiously looking backwards and forwards between them behind the cover of hands and folders—Alex did neither.

      ‘Out!’ he commanded.

      Body rigid and teeth clenched, Alex remained where he was as the board, five men and two women, rose hastily to their feet and competed for who could reach the door first. They knew their boss well. He rarely lost his temper, but, when he did, it was usually a major eruption. Able to read the danger signs, each and every one of them was eager to get out of the firing line.

      When the door closed behind them, Alex moved purposefully towards Katrina. She didn’t back away from him. She stood her ground and gave him look for look, with a glint of challenge in her eyes he hadn’t seen before.

      ‘I asked you a question,’ he asked silkily when he stopped in front of her.

      She angled her chin into the air. ‘And I answered you. Hello, Alex. How are you?’

      ‘I’ll tell you how I am.’ He stepped closer until they were almost touching. He could smell the scent of her perfume—a gift he’d had his PA send her for her birthday shortly before she’d vanished—and could see the little specks of golden-brown in her cat-like green eyes. ‘I’m furious!’

      She cocked her head. ‘Why?’

      ‘Why?’ Alex thought the top of his head might explode; he could actually feel the blood pumping at his temples. He grasped her shoulders and put his face close to hers. ‘Because you disappeared without a trace, that’s why!’

      She smiled. ‘Without a trace? Isn’t that the name of an American TV show?’

      ‘Katrina!’

      Her smile faded. ‘I didn’t disappear, Alex. I just decided to go away for a while, that’s all.’

      Katrina had always been the cool, collected type—except when they’d been in bed together. Then she’d been wonderfully abandoned, returning kiss for kiss, touch for touch and pleasure for pleasure with a passionate intensity that blew his mind and everything else.

      Normally, he liked the fact that she was so selfcontained, but today her calm demeanour annoyed the hell out of him.

      ‘Without telling me where you were going or how long you’d be gone for?’ Alex prompted through gritted teeth.

      ‘I told the people who mattered,’ she said softly.

      Alex exhaled sharply, his teeth snapping together. ‘And you didn’t consider including me in that group?’

      Her gaze remained steady on his. ‘No. I didn’t.’

      Alex struggled to keep his anger contained. He knew he was overreacting badly but he couldn’t seem to help himself.

      ‘Why not?’ he bit out.

      ‘Why should I tell you?’ she shot back at him, that new challenging light in her eyes making them appear greener than usual.

      His fingers flexed, digging into the soft leather of her jacket. ‘Because you owed it to me,’ he grated, the answer dragged from somewhere deep inside him.

      Alex wasn’t sure what angered him more: the fact that she had run out on him, or that she was the one to have betrayed him.

      Of all the women he’d been with over the years, Katrina was the last one he would have picked to put him in this position.

      ‘Owed it to you?’ Her eyes flashed like quick-silver and the tip of her index finger dug into the centre of his chest, as if she was trying to bore a hole through to the other side. ‘I don’t owe you a thing, Alex. Not a single thing. And don’t you forget it!’

      Alex was stunned by her reaction. The Katrina he’d known would never have spoken to him the way this Katrina just had.

      Pressure built inside his head until once again Alex thought the top of his head might explode.

      Dragging in a breath, he fought for control.

      He hated losing his