Free The Bridesmaid's Baby Bump by Kandy Shepherd

numbers and concepts than words. Especially words evoking emotion and tension.
    ‘Yes. I do. And I’m honoured to be the first.’
    He took her in his arms for a long, sweet kiss.
    The oven alarm went off with a raucous screech. They jumped apart. Laughed at how nervous they’d seemed.
    ‘Lunch is ready,’ he said. He was hungry, but he was tempted to ignore the food and keep on kissing Eliza. Different hungers required prioritising.
    But Eliza had taken a step back from him. ‘After we eat I need to cancel my resort booking,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to pay for today, of course, but hopefully it will be okay for the other days. Not that I care, really. After all I—’
    ‘I’ll pay for any expense the cancellation incurs.’
    He knew straight away from her change of expression that he’d made a mistake.
    ‘You will not pay anything,’ she said. ‘That’s my responsibility.’
    Jake backed down straight away, put up his hands as if fending off attack. That was one argument he had no intention of pursuing. He would make it up to her in other ways—make sure she didn’t need to spend another cent during her stay. He would organise everything.
    ‘Right. I understand. My credit cards will remain firmly in my wallet unless you give me permission to wield them.’
    She pulled a rueful face. ‘Sorry if I overreacted. My independence is very important to me. I get a bit prickly when it’s threatened. I run my own business and my own life. That’s how I like it. And I don’t want to ever have to answer to anyone again—for money or anything else.’
    ‘Because of your ex-husband? You described him as controlling.’
    ‘To be honest, he’s turned me off the entire concept of marriage. And before him I had a domineering father who thought he had the right to rule my life even after I grew up.’
    Jake placed his hand on her arm. ‘Hold it right there. Don’t take offence—I want to hear more. But right now I need food.’ His snack on the plane seemed a long time ago.
    She laughed. ‘I grew up with three brothers. I know the rules. Number one being never to stand between a hungry man and his lunch.’
    Jake grinned his relief at her reply. ‘You’re right. The pizza will burn, and I’m too hungry to wait to heat up more.’
    ‘There are more ?’
    ‘The housekeeper has stocked the freezer with my favourite foods. She doesn’t live in. I like my privacy too much for that. But she shops for me as well as keeps the house in order.’
    ‘Unlimited pizza? Sounds good to me.’
    From the look of her slim body, her toned muscles, he doubted Eliza indulged in pizza too often. But at his height and activity level he needed to eat a lot. There had been times when he was a kid he’d been hungry. Usually the day before his mother’s payday, when she’d stretched their food as far as it would go. That would never happen again.
    He headed for the oven. ‘Over lunch I want to hear about that country upbringing of yours,’ he said. ‘I grew up here in Queensland, down on the Gold Coast. Inland Australia has always interested me.’
    ‘Trust me, it was not idyllic. Farming is tough, hard work. A business like any other. Only with more variables out of the farmer’s control.’
    She followed him through the kitchen to the dining area, again with a view of the sea. ‘I was about to offer to set the table,’ she said. ‘But I see you’ve beaten me to it.’
    ‘I’m domesticated. My mother made sure of that. A single mum working long hours to keep a roof over our heads couldn’t afford to have me pulling less than my weight,’ he said.
    That was when he’d chosen to be at home, of course. For a moment Jake wondered what Eliza would think of him if he revealed the whole story of his youth. She seemed so moralistic, he wondered if she could handle the truth about him. Not that he had any intention of telling her. There was nothing he’d told her already that couldn’t be dug up on an online search—and