Read Online Australian Outback Kings / The Cattle King's Mistress / The Playboy King's Wife / The Pleasure King's Bride by Emma Darcy - Free Book Online Page B

something more substantial than melon. Help yourself.”
    â€œYou, too,” she invited.
    They sat, munching and drinking in a loaded silence.
    Eventually Miranda decided to settle a harmless point of curiosity. “Why did Albert call you ‘oldfella’? I wouldn’t call you old.”
    â€œIt relates to my family having been linked to this area for more years than Albert has lived. Longevity is counted in generations. Five generations here makes all of the Kings ‘oldfellas.’”
    â€œI see,” she murmured, mentally kicking herself for even momentarily regretting her earlier rejection of him. A member of the King family would never seriously link himself with her, any more than a member of the Hewson family would, as Bobby had finally spelled out to her.
    â€œWhat do you see, Miranda?”
    She shrugged, meeting the searing question in his eyes with the inescapable fact she’d known from the beginning. “That I don’t belong and you do.”
    â€œWhere do you belong?” he asked.
    She broke into laughter, shaking her head over the emptiness of that question. “Nowhere. That’s part of why I’m here. It doesn’t matter where I am.” She flashed him an ironic look. “I guess you could say I belong to myself.”
    He frowned and turned his gaze down to the pool below them. A dark, dark pool, Miranda thought, like her family background. Not that it could actually be called family, just her and her mother whose men had never offered a wedding ring…the whole sorry misery of it coming to a lonely end years ago. It was hardly the kind of history the King family would want attached to them in any shape or form.
    â€œSo you don’t care about breaking up anyone else’s sense of belonging.”
    The harsh remark was one too many for Miranda. “You have no right to probe into my personal life. I am here on a professional basis,” she stated icily.
    â€œYou might have fooled my mother…”
    She leapt to her feet, snapping with anger. “That’s enough! I have never been a married man’s mistress. Nor would I ever put myself in such a demeaning situation.”
    â€œThen what was all that mistress stuff about?” he shot back at her.
    â€œIt was about a man like you, wanting to put me in that position, and he had the power to mess up all I’d worked for. Just as you have the power to mess up my contracted time at King’s Eden.”
    He was suddenly on his feet, a towering figure of proud indignation. “That’s a hell of a thing to think of me!”
    â€œLike the things you’ve being thinking about me, huh? Treating me like dirt because I said no play! ” Her eyes raked his arrogant pride into meaningless tatters. “Well, let me tell you I’m not about to take the chance you’re any different from him. I don’t care how sexy you are. I…won’t…play!”
    Her whole body was shaking with the vehemence of that denial and her last three words boomed around the cavern, echoing, echoing…out of her control. She’d let him drive her out of control.
    Desperate to grab some shreds of it back, she shoved her drink bottle into her bag. Her hands fumbled over the lid of the melon container. A hand clamped around her wrist, stilling the agitated action.
    â€œI promise you…I swear to you…your position at King’s Eden is safe from any interference from me.”
    Her heart was pounding so hard she couldn’t bring herself to speak at all. She stared down at the strong brown fingers wrapped around her wrist, imprisoning it.
    â€œAnd please…accept my apology for making you feel at risk. That was not my intention.”
    His voice seemed to throb with sincerity. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t tear her gaze from the hold he had on her, his flesh imprinting itself on hers, fingers pressing on her pulse, his energy zipping