He didn’t want to hear it; he just needed her to go.
Adding a tight smile to lessen the dismissiveness of his tone, Alessandro swivelled the chair around to face his desktop monitor and waited, his pulse thick, every muscle on high alert, for her to leave. She didn’t depart immediately; he could feel her presence, sense her gaze boring into his neck. But she did eventually, the gradual uncinching of his muscles confirming her absence.
Which was a good thing, he knew, and at some point, he’d truly appreciate his level of resolve. Just not now with a long, lonely night stretched endlessly ahead.
10
Nat woke in the wee small hours to Flo meowing and nudging her. Rain drummed on the roof, which was unsurprising. The day had been humid and a storm had been brewing as she’d climbed into bed. She stroked Flo, lying there for a second just enjoying the noise and luxuriating in being dry and snuggled beneath the covers. But Flo persisted with her nudging and Nat reluctantly got up.
‘All right, bossy-boots. I know you like to frolic in the rain, you crazy cat.’ She seriously thought Flo was a dog in disguise as she picked up the purring animal. ‘Come on.’
Familiar now with the layout of the house, Nat made her way downstairs in the dark and opened the laundry door for Flo to go out. She watched the cat bound into the rain and grinned. Silly animal – giving up a dry, warm bed snuggled into a doting little boy to chase a few raindrops around.
Nat shut the door, knowing Flo would be happy out there for an hour or so. Stopping to grab a drink of water in the kitchen she noticed a chink of light from beneath the office door. What the hell? Alessandro wasstillup?
She stood outside the door in a quagmire of indecision. Should she go in and check on him or just leave him to it? She’d barely escaped without doing something ridiculous like hugging him – or worse – earlier; why would she open the door to something like that again?
The near constant urge to comfort Alessandro was an issue she needed to tackle. Along with how easily her nurturing instincts morphed into something far less pure around the man.
By the time she’d left him earlier, her thoughts had been practically depraved.
But he’d gone from having his no-trespassing shutters up to so anguished at her suggestion of allowing Julian to have a photograph of his mother, it had almost hollowed her out. She’dfelthis pain all the way down to her toes. Felt dreadful, pushing. But she knew enough child psychology to know she was right and Alessandro’s denial wasn’t doing Julian any favours.
Sticking to her guns had been hard when his obsidian eyes had turned flinty, and his fervent denial at her accusation about him pretending his wife didn’t exist had flared out at her like a striking snake. But then he’d acquiesced to her request and the entire tempo in the room had changed. His eyes had roved over her, agitating the beat of her heart, the rhythm of her lungs, and setting her flesh aflame.
Hell, the entire room had become a furnace, heat roaring between them.
So, it was probably best to just leave him be but… somehow Nat just couldn’t. She’d really pushed him tonight. What if he was in there drinking himself into a well of despair whilst hugging a photo of his dead wife?
She should definitely do a wellness check, at least.
Mind made up, Nat knocked lightly on the door and waited for his gruff ‘Entra’, but nothing. She knocked again a little louder – maybe he hadn’t heard her over the rain?
Still nothing.
Taking a breath, she pushed it open slowly, expecting him to swivel around, his face black as thunder. Instead, he was bent forward in his chair, head on desk, amidst the clutter of textbooks, his eyes closed.
Asleep? He wasasleep?
Bloody hell, the man had a perfectly good bed. She approached quietly and whispered, ‘Alessandro.’
He didn’t stir and she stood for a moment just looking at him. A soft light from the desk lamp spread a glow around the office and settled against the angles of his face, emphasising the richness of his bronze complexion and shadowing his mouth. His black hair fell across his forehead, just like Julian’s did when he slept. It was disarmingly innocent on the boy but the growth shadowing Alessandro’s jaw and his softly parted lips were one hundred per centman.
He looked dark and dangerous and breathtakingly good-looking and her very first thought was to turn around and run. But her second thought was to the state of his neck in the morning if he stayed like this and she could do without his particular brand of grumpy.
‘Alessandro,’ she called again as she gave his shoulder a gentle shake.
He startled, sucking in a breath and sitting bolt upright, causing Nat to take a step back. His hand automatically went to his neck like it was already twinging and she felt justified disturbing him. For a moment anyway. Until his clouded expression took in her long sleep shirt under which she was wearing no bra, and her nipples reacted blatantly to his gaze.
‘I’m sorry.’ He used both hands to rub his neck. ‘I must have fallen asleep.’
There was a red mark on his cheek where it had been stuck to a textbook and Nat had a crazy urge to stroke it. ‘What are youdoing up so late?’ she whispered. She wasn’t sure why she was whispering. It just seemed appropriate in the dead of night.
Alessandro shrugged. ‘I’ve been working on St Auburn’s preparedness plan for the swamp flu.’
The swamp flu, as it had been coined by the media due to its suspected origins in a South American rainforest, was causing concern in health sectors right across the world due mostly to the spike in influenza deaths in the northern hemisphere.
‘It’s two-thirty in the morning,’ she chided, annoyed that he wasn’t looking after himself. Almost like he didn’t think he deserved self-care. Annoyed that she was in here with him looking all tired and rumpled and that it was pushing all her buttons. ‘That can wait. You need sleep.’
