Free The Blackmailed Bride by Kim Lawrence Page B

nature, I’ll kill her, she vowed. Better that, though, she reflected worriedly, than seeing her blatant matchmaking mother annihilated by one of the cutting barbs she was sure Javier was more than capable of delivering!
    â€˜Now that’s what I call a generous offer,’ Charles Anderson said, looking mightily relieved. ‘Isn’t it, Kate?’
    Kate smiled in a sickly way back at him and tried unsuccessfully to resist the mesmeric pull of mocking blue eyes—she failed miserably. Chin up, she glared, ignoring that sinking sensation low in her belly; whilst she was in no position to throw his offer back in his face, she could at least make sure he knew that’s what she’d like to do!
    â€˜It’s the least I can do, under the circumstances,’ he responded smoothly.
    â€˜You bet it is!’ Aware of the stares that her spiky retort had caused, Kate forced herself to smile. She gritted her teeth through the horridly bright grimace and fantasised about puncturing his ego—it was a healthier fantasy than others she’d indulged in recently.
    â€˜Yes, very kind,’ she responded stiffly.

CHAPTER FIVE
    I T SEEMED like hours to Kate before the room finally emptied and she was left alone. She waited until she heard the door click closed with a sound of promising finality before leaving her bed to search for the bathroom. Her need was fairly urgent and the search proved to be frustratingly slow.
    â€˜Never a loo when you need one,’ she grumbled softly to herself as the first two doors she opened turned out to be walk-in wardrobes. She was about to try out the third when a voice at her shoulder almost made her leap out of her skin.
    â€˜You should not be out of bed.’
    Hand pressed to her thundering heart, she spun around, an action which made her head spin as she tilted it back to look up at the tall man towering over her.
    â€˜You’re gone…!’
    Even before one dark brow rose, Kate was wincing at the inanity of this patently false observation, because he definitely was very much there!
    Every lean, muscle-packed inch of Javier Montero was standing so close that, had she chosen to reach out, she could have touched him—touched his broad chest, his lean flat belly. In fact, had she wanted to touch him, like a child in a sweet shop she’d have been spoilt for choice!
    Kate swallowed hard and averted her eyes before she was totally submerged by the wave of sensual inertia that washed over her. She might no longer fear for her life in his presence but she wasn’t so sure about her sanity. This man’s raw masculinity had roughly the same effect as a thousand volts of unearthed electricity on her nerves.
    â€˜I thought you were asleep.’
    What would it be like, she found herself speculating, to wake up and find that face on the pillow beside you when you woke up? She swallowed convulsively, further unsettled by the alarming direction of her maverick thoughts. Aware that his heavy-lidded eyes were sliding thoughtfully over the length of her body, she folded her arms defensively over her chest and felt extremely glad she’d taken the time to exchange the slinky black undies for the pretty nightdress which was beautifully cool on her overheated body and, more importantly, given her present situation, covered her from neck to ankle.
    It was doubtful she would have considered this a fortuitous exchange had she realised that, despite the demure design and sweet embroidered flowers around the scooped neckline, the borrowed nightdress was totally transparent beneath the electric light!
    â€˜So you just thought you’d, what…? Come and watch me?’ Now there was a very unsettling thought. ‘Have you been demoted to nursemaid, or has making money got boring?’
    â€˜If you’d agreed to be transferred to the clinic overnight, as the doctor suggested, I wouldn’t need to…’
    She may not have been in a