Free Housebound by Anne Stuart Page B

let you escape,” Anne shot back, ignoring her own suspicions.
    â€œPerhaps,” he said, unconvinced. He started toward the narrow kitchen steps and she followed him, the Bavarian cream in her hands. When he stopped short, blocking the doorway, she nearly careened into him, flattening the Bavarian cream on his back. Luckily she was adept enough to catch herself in time, and she contented herself with a mild curse.
    â€œDo you really care so much for this house?” He had turned back and was looking at her out of troubled blue eyes.
    She didn’t hesitate. “Yes. This house means more to me than anything.”
    â€œMore than your family?”
    â€œIt depends what you mean. If one of them was ill, or really needed something, then they would come first. But if it’s a question of Ashley and Holly wanting an extra thousand to keep up their extravagant life-styles and not wanting the considerable bother of a house this size, then yes, the house would mean more to me than them.” She took a deep breath. “I can’t expect you to understand, but this house is part of my family. It’s my child, my mother, my security and my happiness.”
    â€œAnd you’ll sacrifice everything for it?” Despite the lightness in his voice there was no mistaking the dead seriousness behind his question.
    â€œI haven’t made any sacrifices I haven’t wanted to,” she said, firmly believing it. “And I never will.”
    â€œI wish I could believe you,” he said enigmatically. And then he turned and continued up the stairs, leaving her staring perplexedly after him.

Chapter Five
    Noah Grant stretched out in front of the fire, reveling in the unexpected solitude of the moment. Though he could have wished for one certain companion, the silence was nevertheless welcome. He warmed the brandy in his hand, taking another small sip as he stared meditatively into the flames. The Kirkland family was not at all what he had expected, and he could feel himself being drawn in against his will. It was hard to remember that he was here to do a job, not to get involved in the various emotional entanglements that ran rampant. And that included the wistfully beautiful woman who’d run and hidden in her room the moment her younger sister drove off with that pompous idiot.
    Not that Wilson was really that bad, Noah conceded. A little stiff, a little unimaginative, but definitely not a stupid man. Except for the fact that he didn’t seem to have noticed that he was in love with the younger sister, not with his fiancée, he was really quite astute. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out why Noah was really there, even if Annie still remained mercifully in the dark.
    As for Holly, she’d certainly forgotten her determination to seduce him once Wilson appeared on the scene. It was a goodthing his masculine ego was reasonably secure, he thought wryly, remembering her haphazard attention throughout the evening. Looking into Holly’s distant, unhappy blue eyes, Noah had little doubt that she knew the depths of her feelings. It was no wonder she was such a brat—she couldn’t help but suspect Wilson’s feelings might be warmer than he let on. It must be incredibly frustrating for her—no wonder she was eager to take out all those untapped sexual energies on the first willing man. Except that he wasn’t particularly willing.
    He had always chosen his sexual partners carefully, for their invulnerable hearts as much as for their various attractions, but his ego did draw the line at being someone’s substitute in bed. Even if he deliberately steered clear of any sort of commitment, he still wanted some level of honesty in bed, and Holly Kirkland wasn’t going to provide that. Her sister was another, far more dangerous matter.
    Leaning back, Noah wondered idly whether the kindest thing he could do would be to leave Anne strictly alone. No, perhaps the