Read Online Expecting Miracle Twins by Barbara Hannay - Free Book Online Page A

seductive sounds of her laughter and her soft whisperings.
    Last night, every inch of his body had been on fire. He’d never spent a night like it, but now he needed to clear his thoughts, to sort out exactly what had happened to him and to Mattie and what it meant now. Had he made a terrible mistake?
    His normal reaction to having bedded a new woman was a sweet feeling of conquest, a subtle boost to his ego that left him tingling with anticipation for repeat performances. But, last night, he’d experienced something more. So much more. And it left him this morning feeling quite shaken.
    Making love with Mattie had been beyond beautiful, beyond amazing—but what had caught Jake completely by surprise was the deep sense of inner contentment he’d felt afterwards. He’d lain here, with this heavenly woman in his arms, and he’d been filled with an astonishing sense ofwell-being, a nudging awareness that Mattie Carey was completely and absolutely right for him.
    The experience was totally new, and he found it more than a little frightening. He’d never felt this close to anyone since…
    For a devastating moment he was a small boy again, locked on the outside of his mother’s bedroom, afraid and lonely and lost. Understanding nothing…
    No, he couldn’t think about that or the following years when his mother had shut him out. He never allowed himself to think about it.
    His priority now was to work out what to do about his worrying desire to stay with Mattie, to protect her.
    To protect her from what, exactly?
    It seemed he wanted to protect her from everything—falling buildings, colds and chills, other men…
    Get real, Jake…
    It was his usual style to put distance between himself and the latest girl, to keep her guessing. Normally, he would go surfing, or ring up a mate and down a couple of beers at the pub, anything to avoid getting too involved with any one woman.
    Today he would be leaving Sydney and he knew he had to shake off this sense of deeper connection to Mattie Carey. He hadn’t planned on starting a relationship. There was no point. He could never promise anything long term and it was only fair that Mattie understood that.
    But it was too hard to think about this while lying beside her. Carefully, Jake eased out of bed without disturbing her. He padded down the hall to the kitchen, where Brutus was waiting to be let out. He opened the door and watched the little dog dash off into the garden.
    He put water on to boil, removed the cloth covering Pavarotti’s cage, topped up the bird’s seed and gave him fresh water. While his coffee was brewing, he went to the bathroom to shower.
    Naked, beneath the hot water, he thought about the tedious journey back to Mongolia—the long flight to Beijing, followed by another flight to Ulaanbaatar and then a journey by truck out to the mine site.
    If he was honest, he had to admit that he’d never really minded his current lifestyle. Even though he’d complained at times about being stuck in Mongolia for long stretches, he quite liked the isolated blokeish world of the mine. It was almost an extension of his boarding school days.
    He got on well with his workmates. They filled the long evenings with chess or poker, backgammon or Scrabble, and he’d also made friends with a few of the locals and managed to go horse-riding at least once a week.
    He certainly liked the money he earned. Given the current mining boom and the constant need for environmental monitoring, anyone with his qualifications could make a small fortune if they were willing to work on the remote mines scattered around the world. Jake was prepared to do just that.
    His ambitions were important to him, mainly because he had something to prove to his parents. OK—it was a clichéd young bull/old bull struggle, but he’d grown up determined to make his way in the world by rejecting the life his parents had planned for him.
    His father had never had much time for him. Admittedly, Jake and his