Read Online The Blackmailed Bride by Kim Lawrence - Free Book Online Page B

whose business interests spanned the globe! A family whose marriages to equally newsworthy individuals made front page in newspapers from New York to Istanbul.
    Naturally this put his presence in the blackmailer’s room in an entirely different light; unlike her, he’d obviously been there legitimately. On top of all that, her mind was filled with steamy images of herself doing things she’d never even imagined before, and despite the suffocating heat her burning nipples were brazenly protruding through the flimsy fabric of her bra!
    â€˜It’s awfully warm in here…’ If she had ever felt this mortified or confused in her life before, Kate was pretty sure she’d have remembered!
    â€˜Actually, I was just wondering why the air conditioning is working full blast in here?’
    Kate cast a startled look in the doctor’s direction and was worried when his nod confirmed her mother’s assessment.
    â€˜Miss Anderson has taken a nasty knock on the head,’ he began to explain. ‘I think peace, quiet and rest are the best things I can prescribe for that…’
    Wearily, Kate shot him a pathetically grateful look; as much as she loved her mother, even at the best of times a conversation with her could be an exhausting experience…and her head did ache so…
    â€˜I’d like her to have an X-ray, just to be on the safe side. Javier will arrange that, no doubt. My main concern is the fever she’s running…’
    â€˜I have a fever!’ Kate exclaimed.
    â€˜You do indeed. Your throat is red and inflamed and your lymph nodes are enlarged, which is a sure sign of infection.’
    Kate, who had been too occupied by foiling blackmailers and evading kidnappers to wonder about something as mundane as the feelings of general malaise afflicting her, felt beneath her jaw and encountered the tender area he was speaking of.
    â€˜It’s probably a virus,’ he continued. ‘Maybe just the twenty-four hour variety…?’
    Kate smiled back at him, approving his optimistic attitude.
    â€˜Have you been in contact with anyone with flu or anything of that nature?’
    Elizabeth Anderson got up hurriedly from the bedside, regarding her daughter with reproachful horror.
    â€˜No, I don’t think so…’ Kate began; then she recalled the baby on the flight. ‘There was this child on the flight over, I had him on my knee and he was a bit grizzly…you know, hot and snuffly.’
    The doctor nodded. ‘That could well be the explanation. The cramped conditions on planes make it a fertile breeding ground for bugs. On the other hand, it might be quite unrelated.’
    â€˜Really, Kate, that’s so like you,’ her mother complained, delicately examining her own neck. ‘You never stop to think about how your actions affect others. This is your father’s first break for months; how are you going to feel if he becomes ill because of your thoughtlessness?’
    Kate accepted the strictures meekly. ‘Sorry…’
    â€˜And I shall complain to the airline. You pay for a first class ticket—’
    â€˜Well, actually,’ Kate admitted guiltily, ‘I was travelling economy.’
    Kate wasn’t surprised when her mother looked appalled. Elizabeth was a terrible snob who went to great pains to disguise her own working-class roots. ‘Economy!’
    â€˜I didn’t think Dad would mind if I traded in my ticket and put the money towards the deposit for my new flat,’ she added defensively.
    Kate, tired of flat-sharing and determined to enter the property market, had been economising wherever possible during the last year. She didn’t know how people in less well-paid jobs than herself managed in the scarily pricey London property market.
    â€˜Are you decent? Can I come in?’
    Kate welcomed the interruption as her father’s round, cheery face peered cautiously around the