Nat glanced at him briefly and quickly looked away. He loomed in the dim light and with each passing second, he seemed to take up more room. ‘Well, no point in standing. Might as well get comfortable for the long haul.’
She sat then, cross-legged on the floor, her back pressed to the wall. She looked up at him looking down at her and was reminded of their first meeting when she’d had the bean-bag disadvantage. He was looking at her with that now familiar coolness in his eyes and she couldn’t stand it for a moment longer.
‘Sit down, for God’s sake,’ she grouched.
‘Are you always this disagreeable?’ he asked as he slid down the wall, planting his feet evenly in front of him, his knees bent.
Nat, who was excruciatingly aware of his encroaching masculinity, shot him a startled look. She opened her mouth to protest. No, she wasn’t. Despite her father’s desertion and the recent ending of a long-term messy relationship that would have caused the most congenial woman to become bitter and twisted, she was essentially a very agreeable person.
Perennially happy. Everyone said so. She almost told him so too. But then a quick review of the twice she’d spoken to him had her conceding that his comment was probably fair.
She raised her gaze from the fascinating way his trousers pulled across his thigh muscles. ‘I owe you an apology. For the other day. After Ernie. I was out of line. It was none of my business.’
Her apology seemed to surprise him but he didn’t comment on that, just nodded and said, ‘You did overstep a little.’
Nat wanted to protest again, justify her reaction as being in Julian’s interests, but he was right. ‘I get too involved. I always have. My first nurse unit manager said I was a hopeless case.’
He smiled grudgingly as he removed his stethoscope and loosened his tie. ‘There are worse human flaws.’
Nat stared at how even a small lift to his beautiful mouth transformed his face. Combined with the now skewed tie and the undone top button, revealing a tantalising glimpse ofverymale throat, he really was a sight to behold. She wished she could loosen something because it was starting to get hot and stuffy without the benefit of the air conditioning.
‘She didn’t think so.’
Straightening his legs, he stretched them out in front of him as he shrugged and lifted his eyes to skewer her with a direct look. ‘We’d just lost a patient. Death affects everyone in different ways.’
The teasing light she’d glimpsed briefly snuffed out and he seemed bleak and serious again. An older version of Julian. She hesitated briefly before voicing the question that entered her head. But they had to talk about something. And maybe he was looking for an opening? ‘How long ago did your wife die?’
She realised it was a mistake immediately as every muscle in his body seemed to tense in unison and he drew his legs up again. His withdrawal clawed at her and she was startled by a twist of empathy deep inside.
Oh, no. No. No.No.
Alessandro Lombardi was a big boy. He didn’t need her empathy. It was bad enough that she was sexually attracted to him. He didn’t need her to comfort him and fix things too. His wife was dead – she couldn’t fix that. Only time could fix that.
‘I’m sorry. There I go again. None of my business.’
Alessandro grunted. She was right, it wasn’t. But her admission took him by surprise. It was refreshing to be with a woman who could apologise. Refreshing to be with one who could be calm about their current situation. Certainly, Camilla would have thrown her first tantrum by now, demanding to speak to someone in authority.
Nat Davies dented his guard and perhaps that was why a fragment of a memory had slipped unbidden from the steel trap in his brain. Opening his door on the other side of the world to two grim-looking policemen…
A memory he didn’t seem to be able to stuff back in again thanks to the confounding Nat Davies. It was the first time he’d been close to her since her outburst after theirMIpatient had died but he’d certainly heard her name frequently enough.Julian had spoken of little else. He’d heard it so often he’d started to dream about her and that perky blonde ponytail his gaze had been glued to as the lift had made its descent.
And now her fresh orchard-in-bloom scent wafted towards him causing the kind of distraction he couldn’t afford.Damn it all. The draw he felt to this woman was a complication he didn’t need. But he found himself opening up anyway.
‘Nine months.’
‘Oh.’
She was clearly surprised at the information. Had she thought it sooner, or later? But she recovered quickly, murmuring, ‘I’m so very sorry.’
Alessandro watched as her gaze filled with pity, the blue of her irises turning soft and glassy in the gentle light and he couldn’t bear to see it. A sudden black fury streaked through him fast and hot like a lightning bolt from the deep well of self-hatred that bubbled too close to the surface. He didn’t deserve her pity. He wasn’t worthy of it.
All he deserved was her contempt.
This was why he’d left England. To get far away from other people’s pity. Their well-meaning words and greeting-card platitudes. Knowing thathehad driven Camilla to her death, thathealone was responsible… the hypocrisy had eaten him up inside.
Looking into Julian’s face every day was more than he could stand. Which was why it was much easier to just not.
It took Alessandro all of his willpower to drag himself back from the storm of broiling emotions squeezing his gut. ‘Nat,’ he said, desperate to change the subject now, wishing he hadn’t gone there in the first place. ‘Is that short for something?’
