Read Online What Love Sounds Like by Alissa Callen - Free Book Online Page B

to think anything other than money was what mattered. His flippant ten million dollar comment had been uncalled for but if anyone knew how upper management operated, it was Langford Windsor’s daughter.
    He turned to Tilly to hide his confusion. ‘I really must go. Thank you…for a nice picnic.’ She smiled and he found himself smiling in return.
    He reached for the vanilla container to pack into the cooler. Mia’s hand was quicker. The tub hung between them like a cable car suspended over a gorge.
    ‘I’ll put the things away.’ One of Mia’s eyebrows arched. ‘We don’t want to keep you let alone cost you any money.’
    She was so close he could see the softness of her mouth that would taste as sweet as ice-cream and feel the chill of her condemnation. Tension coiled around his chest. He wanted Mia’s approval, not censure. He wanted her to listen to him as she listened to Tilly and wanted her to smile at him as she smiled at his niece.
    What she thought of him shouldn’t matter.
Money. Focus.
That’s what life was all about.
Not people. Not feelings.
And especially not an auburn-haired speech pathologist with music in her laughter and secrets in her large eyes.
    He released his grip on the container. He needed to get to work and back to the only world he could control. If Mia wanted to place the tub into the cooler herself, she could. She wasn’t the one he should be battling.
    He had a war to win with himself.

Chapter Six
    MIA FROZE. Her ears strained, but the only sound to disturb the midnight quiet was her breathing. She eased her strangle-hold on the book clutched to her chest and continued along the hallway. The cotton of her pyjama shorts whispered in the intense silence.
Stop it.
There was no reason for her senses to be on high alert or her nerves as jittery as a red-lolly fuelled toddler.
    Her pulse leapt again at a faint scrape of sound behind the door on her left. It wasn’t as though Kade was going to step out from the shadows and surprise her. She glanced out a hallway window toward the large shed that housed his helicopter. She’d heard the whir of rotor blades and the barks of the workmen’s dogs hours ago. He’d be well and truly asleep after his day trip to Sydney.
    She released a slow breath and headed for the stairs. She’d no doubt that yesterday on their picnic the first bricks in the wall between him and Tilly had been dislodged. Then he’d put the making of money ahead of her welfare and every single loose brick had been firmly wedged back into place. An impression confirmed this morning at breakfast when he’d appeared power-dressed in his charcoal suit. He’d barely looked at Mia and only shot his niece a stiff nod, before piloting his helicopter to Sydney for a meeting. Kade could avoid Tilly all he wanted but Mia wasn’t about to abandon her unofficial duty. She
would
make room in Kade’s life for Tilly.
    Mia pushed open the kitchen door. Two things registered as she entered the dark room. One, the range-hood light was on and two, the light from the open fridge spilled over a picture-perfect set of masculine abs.
    Air quit her lungs.
Kade.
White shirt untucked. Unbuttoned. Milk wasn’t going to help her sleep now.
    Her fingers clamped around the spine of her book. She had to leave before he caught sight of her and before her professionalism became undermined by spotted-green pyjamas and birds-nest hair. She stepped backward. A floorboard creaked.
    Kade’s head lifted. The fridge door swung shut, plunging his torso into darkness. The remaining range-hood light lit the right side of his face in a soft glow. There was nothing soft about his expression. He looked tired, testy and as uncomfortable as she was about discovering each other in the kitchen.
    ‘Hi. Sorry,’ she said in what she hoped passed as a light and breezy tone. ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you. You must have had a long day.’
    Not expecting him to answer, she walked into the kitchen and made a beeline