“… to count.”
Coming to, Bailey gathered herself. He’d been speaking, but she’d only caught his last words.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “To count what?”
His brows swooped together. “How many babies I’ve delivered. Too many to count.”
Bailey withered as her cheeks heated up. How had she lost track of their conversation so completely?
But she knew how. Whether he was being polite or fiery and passionate, Mateo exuded an energy that drew her in.
Indisputable.
Unwelcome.
Heartbeat throbbing in her throat, she lowered her gaze and turned a little away. “Guess they all blur after a time.”
“Not at all. Each safe delivery is an accomplishment I never take for granted.”
The obvious remained unsaid. Even in this day and age, some deliveries wouldn’t go as planned. No matter how skilled, every doctor suffered defeats. Just like criminal lawyers.
She remembered her parents speaking about one client her father had failed to see acquitted. The man’s family had lost nearly all their possessions in a fire, and her father donated a sizable amount to get them sturdily on their feet again. She’d felt so very proud of him. But he seemed to lose those deeper feelings for compassion after her mother passed away.
As Mateo’s gaze ran over the mother and child, Bailey wondered again about his direct family. He’d lived with his grandmother in Italy. Had come to Australia with his father. Where was his mother?
“I’m turning in,” he said, rolling back one big bare shoulder. “There’s a television and small library in your room if you can’t get back to sleep.” That dark gaze skimmed her face a final time and tingling warmth filtered over her before he rotated away. “Sogni d’oro, Bailey.”
“Sogni d’oro,” she replied and then smiled.
Sweet dreams.
Mateo sauntered back inside, his gait relaxed yet purposeful.
He was a difficult one to work out. So professional and together most of the time, but there was a volatile side too, one she wondered if many people saw. More was going on beneath the sophisticated exterior … deep and private things Mateo Celeca wouldn’t want to divulge. And certainly not divulge to a troublesome passerby like herself. Even if they had the time to get acquainted, he’d been clear. She wasn’t the kind of woman the doctor wanted to get too close to.
Bailey thought of those shoulders—those eyes—and, holding the flutter in her tummy, concurred.
She didn’t need to get that close either.
Three
Early the next morning, Mateo strode out his back door and threw an annoyed glance around the hedges and their statues. Not a sign of her anywhere. Seemed Bailey Ross had flown the coop.
After knocking on her bedroom door—politely at first—thinking she must be hungry and might join him for breakfast, he’d found the room empty. The shabby knapsack vanished. No matter her consequences, she shouldn’t have taken money from an elderly, obviously soft-hearted woman. Equally, she ought to have had the decency to at least stay long enough to say “thanks for the bed,” and “so long.”
He’d practically laughed in her face when she’d vowed to pay that “loan” back. After this disappearing act, he’d bet all he owned neither he nor Mama would hear from Miss Ross again. She was a woman without scruples. And yet, he couldn’t deny it—he was attracted to her.
After her stumble yesterday, when he’d cupped, then searched, her face, the urge to lean closer and slant his mouth over hers had been overwhelming. Last night while they’d spoken among the shadows of these gardens, he’d fought to keep a lid on that same impulse. Something deep and strong reacted whenever she was near. Something primordial and potentially dangerous.
He’d felt this kind of intense chemistry once before, Mateo recalled, looking over the statue of mother and child Bailey had found so interesting last night. Unfortunately, at twenty-three he’d been too wet behind the ears to see that particular woman for what she was: a beautiful, seductive leech. He’d fallen hard and had given Linda Webb everything she’d wanted. Or, rather, he’d tried. Expensive perfume, jewelry, even a car. She was an unquenchable well. Took twelve months and a ransacked savings account before he’d faced facts—unemployed Linda hadn’t wanted a fiancé as much as a financier.
Unlike Mama, he had no problem with being wealthy. He’d worked hard to achieve this level of security and he wouldn’t apologize for doing well. He also liked to be generous—but only where and when his gifts were put to good use and appreciated. That cancelled out the likes of Linda Webb and Bailey Ross.
Giving up the search, Mateo rotated away from a view of bordering pines at the same time he saw her.
Beyond the glass-paneled pool fence, a lithe figure lay on a sun lounge, floppy straw hat covering the back of her head and the teeniest of micro bikinis covering not much of the rest. An invisible band around Mateo’s chest tightened while his clamoring heartbeat ratcheted up another notch. Last night in the moonlight she’d looked beyond tempting, but in an almost innocent way. There was nothing innocent about the way Miss Ross looked this morning.
Those bikini bottoms weren’t technically a thong, but far more was revealed by that sliver of bright pink fabric than was covered. Minus the jeans, her legs appeared even longer, naturally tanned. Smooth. His fingertips, and other extremities, tingled and grew warm. He couldn’t deny that every male cell in his body wanted to reach out and touch her.
One of Bailey’s tanned arms braced as she shifted on the lounge. The disturbed floppy hat fell to the ground. When she blindly felt around but couldn’t find it, she shifted again, pushing up on both palms. A frown pinched her brow and, as if she’d sensed him standing nearby, her gaze tipped higher then wandered across the lawn.
When their eyes connected, hers popped and she sprang up to a sit while Mateo fought every impulse known to man to check out the twin pink triangles almost covering her perfect breasts. With difficulty, he forced his face into an unaffected mask.
Get a grip. You’re a medical doctor. An obstetrician who has tended hundreds of clients.
But there was a distinction between “work” and this vastly different environment. Irrespective of profession, he was still a man, complete with a man’s urges and desires. Under normal circumstances, being physically attracted to a member of the opposite sex was nothing immoral. Trouble was … he didn’t want to be attracted to Bailey Ross. Whether she was a victim or a schemer, she was a drifter who seemed to court trouble.
As Bailey swiped her T-shirt off the back of the lounge, Mateo set his hands in his trouser pockets and cast an aimless glance around. When he was certain her top half was covered, he crossed over.
“I took an early morning dip,” she said as he entered the pool area.
“When I couldn’t find you inside, I thought you’d run off.”
She frowned. “I wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.”
“Unless I was your fiancé?”
“I’m grateful for the bed,” she said, standing, “but not appreciative enough to listen to any more of your put-downs.”
He moved to the rock waterfall, wedged his hands in his pockets again and, after debating with himself several moments, said calmly, “So tell me more about your situation.”
“So you can scoff?”
“So I can understand.”