Free A Film Star, A Baby, And A Proposal by CC MacKenzie Page B

putting words in my mouth that aren't there?" he roared against the wind.
    She tried to pull away but his own temper glittered in his eyes as he grabbed her other arm and lifted her right off her feet.
    Alarmed , she stared into eyes as black as night and her heart went crazy in her chest.
    Omigod.
    He was absolutely furious with her.

Chapter Eleven
    Matt was a big strong man.
    His strength was something he never took for granted . He was always careful with women. And it appalled him now to find that he was so angry he'd forgotten that strength with Eve. A woman who was carrying his child.
    He let her go as if she'd burned him and took a hasty step back.
    The woman was driving him fucking nuts.
    "I shouldn't have grabbed you like that. I'm terribly sorry. I..."
    Now she stepped into him, tilted her head to look up into his face.
    "You didn't hurt me so stop looking like a smacked puppy." The smacked puppy comment made him want to grab her again to kiss her smart mouth. Before he could open his mouth she continued, "I think what you're trying to ask me is why am I keeping the baby?"
    Gloved hands scrubbed his face before his eyes met hers and he gave a single nod.
    "It's because I don't want history to repeat itself." She paused and took a shaky breath before continuing, "I didn't have the best start in life."
    It was a reluctant admission and it struck him that he'd never noticed the deep sadness in those spectacular eyes before. In fact, he wondered if she was aware just how much sadness there was in her eyes, her voice.
    " Your childhood was rough?"
    Her brows knitted as she turned to stare unseeing over the river and Matt's arms ached with the need to hold her close, to offer comfort. "It's tricky for a person to describe something she finds hard to understand herself. My mother made sure I had the best childhood she could manage considering she worked two low paid jobs to keep a roof over our head and food on the table." Now as she turned back and slowly began to walk back to Ludlow Hall, she glanced at him. "I was happy enough. I had plenty of friends, a small but immaculately clean home, an education..." she paused when Matt shook his head. "What?" she demanded.
    "D oesn't sound like too much to expect for any child." He frowned. For the first time since black ice had wiped out his entire family Matt wondered if perhaps his loss hadn't been the dark hole he'd always believed it to be. While he'd had them at least he'd had love, support, tender loving care and understanding from his parents, his brother. Now he stared into her beautiful but stubborn face. "Did your parents love you?"
    " In her own way my mother did," she said, and at the look in his face, tilted her chin. "She did her best. She worked very hard."
    " Father?"
    She shook her head and continued to walk very slowly. "Didn't want to know. I was seventeen when my mother died. He didn't even come to the funeral. As far as I'm concerned the man doesn't exist."
    How could any father turn his back on such a beautiful girl?
    Matt didn't have any trouble imagining what a young Eve had looked like. All legs and soft skin and big eyes. Fury with the man who'd been so careless with her heart, her personal safety, rose in his chest, filled his lungs with absolute outrage. He knew the modelling world was full of blood suckers and a certain type of man who would have been attracted to the vulnerability that he now recognised and understood was buried deep in Eve. Buried under a tough don't-mess-with-me facade that she portrayed to the world. The fact she'd survived apparently unscathed was nothing short of a fucking miracle.
    How could a real man have left such a lovely girl alone in the world to fend for herself?
    Bastard.
    Matt wanted to hug her so badly it hurt. To hold her, to physically take that sadness from her heart to absorb it into his.
    He gave a soft laugh. A sound between pain and heartbreak. An d for the first time in his life found himself opening up. "My