Her Brooding Italian Surgeon (5 page)

Leo deciphered the code as,
If I'd known you were here I wouldn't have come,
and annoyance fizzed in his veins. He'd apologised for his behaviour and she'd accepted so surely their rugged start was now water under the bridge. So why did she want to avoid him so much? It fuelled his determination to cut a swathe through her reserve. He gave her a slow smile. ‘I finished the list and cut out early to visit Nonna so I wouldn't be late for our meeting.'

‘Oh, right, of course.' Her hands seemed to flutter as she reached for the chart, the action unusually flustered.

Then he caught a flash of something flare in her eyes before being quickly replaced by her professional doctor look—the one she always gave to him. He stifled his grin and mentally high-fived. Abbie McFarlane was working seriously hard to stay aloof. Wine and antipasti might just do the trick.

‘Actually, Leo, it's good you're here.' With studied casualness she turned back to Maria. ‘I know you want to go home and you've been recovering well but I want you to have some time in rehab, and a bed's just come up. Leo can transfer you now and that way you're ready for physio and OT first thing tomorrow.'

Maria beamed and patted Abbie's hand. ‘I will walk there.'

Abbie shook her head. ‘Sorry, Maria, but you have to go in a wheelchair; it's hospital policy. But once you're in the rehab ward you'll be able to use your frame.'

The old woman gave a snort of derision and Leo expected a tirade of rapid-fire Italian to follow but his grandmother surprised him. ‘Leopoldo, pack my things.
Dottore
, get my dress.'

Abbie looked startled for a moment and Leo wondered if she'd refuse the request or call a nurse but, as his hand opened a drawer, she walked to the wardrobe. Three dresses hung neatly and, without giving Maria a choice, she plucked one off the rack. ‘This will do nicely.'

Leo hid his smile. He'd learned early that he did things Nonna wanted but in his own way. Abbie had worked that out fast.

Ten minutes later, with Maria seated in the wheelchair, Leo pushing and Abbie carrying the small suitcase, they crossed the courtyard to the rehab wing.

‘When I am home,
dottore
, you need to come again and make bread.'

‘Maria, my last attempt was a disaster. It was so rock-hard that if it was thrown it could knock a man unconscious.'

Leo laughed. ‘Remind me never to upset you in a kitchen.'

Abbie crooked a challenging eyebrow and lights sparked in her eyes. ‘No chance of that ever happening.' She bent her head towards Maria. ‘Kitchens and I have never been a match and never will be. I know enough to feed myself and that's all I need to know.'

‘Pfft.' Maria threw her hands out in front of her as if Abbie had just uttered a cardinal sin. ‘Food is not just for a hungry belly. It feeds the soul.'

Abbie's expression clouded for a moment before her shoulders rolled back and she picked up her pace.

Leo's gaze swept over Abbie's slight but shapely body that had curves in all the right places. Abbie wasn't underfed but he'd noticed occasional shadows peeking from those amazing eyes, and his observant
nonna
had noticed too. Abbie hadn't realised that Nonna wasn't trying to teach her to cook but was trying to teach her the joy of food.

Abbie opened the rehab ward door. ‘Here we are.'

Maria's orders started flowing again in a combination of English and Italian and she didn't pause until they'd settled her into the dining room. They left her happily chatting with the other residents and her final words to their retreating backs were, ‘Hang my clothes.'

Leo strode into Nonna's new room. Shaking his head in a combination of half laughter and half apology, he opened the wardrobe door. ‘And that was Nonna in full flight.'

‘True, she organises us mere mortals.' Abbie passed him clothes from the suitcase, a wicked laugh twitching her plump lips. ‘But who knew that the hotshot city surgeon is a complete pushover when it comes to his grandmother?'

He slid the coat hanger over the metal rail and grinned. ‘Not many people know that. It's classified information.'

Sea-green eyes, devoid of any shadows or clouds, twinkled brightly with teasing in their depths. ‘Classified information? How so?'

He winked at her. ‘I've got a reputation to protect.'

Her belly laugh brought a delicious pink to her cheeks. ‘Are you worried that if the information got out it might put a dent in your macho surgeon image?'

He hung up the last dress and turned to face her, a streak of fun pouring through him unlike anything he'd felt in months. ‘Let me put it this way—if word got out I might not be responsible for my actions.'

She chuckled as she leaned against the wardrobe door, her arms crossed firmly against her chest. ‘Oh, right, and if I talk, what are you going to do to me? Hit me with that high wattage charm that works for you so well? I hate to tell you, Romeo, but it won't ever work on me.'

Her words laid down a challenge he couldn't refuse. Raising his left arm, he pressed it against the door, leaving plenty of space for her to duck out underneath, should she choose that option. Leaning in closer, he kept his gaze fixed firmly on her face as her strawberry and liquorice scent swirled around him, filling his lungs before pouring through him and leaving a trail of banked heat.

He caught a flicker of movement—the twitch of a muscle
in her cheek. A chink in her professed armour? Perhaps she wasn't as impervious to him as she made out. Slowly he brought his right hand up to her face, twirling a tight curl around his finger as he spoke softly. ‘And what makes you so sure?'

She tilted her chin, the action all defiance. ‘I've been charmed by experts and I know every trick in the book.'

He'd expected her to spin out under his arm and stalk away but instead she stood her ground, so he edged in closer until he could feel the heat of her body radiating out to meet him and the tickle of her sweet breath on his face. ‘But you don't know all my tricks.'

She swallowed hard and heat unfurled inside him so fast he thought he'd ignite. A pulse quivered against the pale skin of her throat, completely undoing him, and with a groan he gave in and lowered his mouth to hers.

Plump lips of pillow-softness met his with complete stillness, but the hint of sweet sultana grapes and summer sunshine hovered, pleading to be tasted. He flicked his tongue, stealing the tang, wanting the full taste.

Her arms stayed crossed against her chest like an unyielding barrier and her eyes were squeezed shut as if she was battling herself. He almost pulled back but then she gave a moan-like sigh and opened her lips to him.

His tongue tumbled over the precipice and the taste of summer fruits flooded his mouth. Their sweetness bubbled through his veins like champagne—intoxicating and demanding—and he angled his mouth, seeking more.

Her tongue met his with a jolt and immediately darted away, only to return a moment later, all hesitancy gone. With the experienced mouth of a temptress, she took her full taste of him and at the same time branded him with her own unique essence.

White lights exploded in his head and his blood pounded to
his groin with an urgency he hadn't known in months. Pure lust poured through him, driving all of his actions as every cell in his body screamed to touch her, feel her, taste her and fill her with himself. Frustratingly, her arms still stayed rigidly between them, acting like a blockade and preventing him from lining his body against hers. Instead, he slid his free hand up into her hair, the silky strands caressing his palms and releasing their heady scent of floral fragrance.

She tilted her head back and her throaty groan rocked through him. The realisation that buried under those chain-store clothes lay the body and soul of an incredibly sexual woman socked him so hard it threatened to undo him on the spot in a way that hadn't happened since he was fifteen. He gently nipped her lip and she replied in kind and the last vestiges of reason floated away. Sound vanished, light wavered and he lost himself to everything except the overwhelming need to have that amazing mouth on and in his.

Abbie floated on layers of glorious sensation, totally disconnected to her real world and lost in the wondrous touch of Leo's mouth on hers, trailing along her jaw and down into the sweet hollow of her throat. His mouth suckled, nipped, tasted and branded her, filling her with swirling light and colour. Colour that built upon itself until it detonated inside her, sending a surging torrent of unmitigated lust rolling through her, leaving no part of her untouched.

Her body took over—seeking pleasure, needing it like it needed oxygen. Her breasts strained at the lace of her bra, her hips tilted forward and her protective arms fell to her sides, their barrier utterly vanquished.

The gap between them vanished. His legs pressed against the length of hers, her hips melded with his, her breasts flattened against his solid chest and their combined heat roared into a fire ball of heat-seeking bliss. He absorbed her moan of spiralling need with his mouth, as her hand tugged its way under
his shirt, desperate to touch him. Her palm hit the corded musculature of his back, his skin burning hers, and her fingers went exploring, trailing the length of his spine before burying themselves in his thick hair.

The scent of desire cloaked them, tongues duelled, neither able to get enough of the other and then his hand cupped her breast, his thumb skimming across the utilitarian cotton of her blouse, caressing the erect nub so desperate for his touch.

‘Sei magnifica.'

Leo's usually velvet voice rasped out the words with the grazing sound of gravel, instantly slicing through Abbie's lust-fuelled haze. The hard corner of the wardrobe door bit sharply into her back, Leo's weight pressed heavily against her, as did his arousal, and the shock snapped her eyes wide open.

Everything came into sharp focus. The windows of the rehab ward, the two neatly made patients' beds with their smart green covers and the white porcelain of the hand basin. Deep inside her, a wobbly Warrior Abbie stumbled to her feet, picked up her sword and shield and screamed in horror.
What the hell are you doing? Remember your pact. Staying single is the only safe way.

Reality dumped so hard on Abbie she could hardly move her ribcage to breathe and her legs struggled to hold her up. She was wrapped around Leo like a sex-starved teenager, a hair's breadth away from locking her legs up high around his waist and impaling herself against him, letting him have sex with her against a wardrobe door in his grandmother's room at the rehab ward.

Oh, God, how had she let this happen? Since Greg she'd decided to take a totally different path in her life and she wasn't going backwards, yet look what she'd just done. Horrified, she pulled her hands out from under his shirt and dragged her mouth away from his. Somehow, despite her pant
ing chest, she managed to force out, ‘That kiss is never happening again.'

Dark eyes filled with the fog of lust stared back at her. ‘No, you're right.'

‘I am?' Bewilderment lost out to relief. Thank God he knew it was a mistake as well. She tugged at her blouse, straightening it. ‘I mean good. I'm glad we agree.'

His finger reached out and tucked a curl behind her ear. ‘That kiss has passed and can never be repeated because no kiss is ever the same twice.' Impossibly, his eyes darkened even more. ‘Still, it will be fun to test that theory in a more appropriate place.'

Panic lurched through her. ‘No. What I meant was
we
are never kissing again.'

He looked at her with a gaze of incredulity. ‘Abbie, given what just went down between us, not kissing again would be an absolute tragedy.'

She pushed past him, needing to put a bigger space between them, needing to do everything in her power to remove the temptation that was Leo Costa. ‘Famine, disease and death are a tragedy, Leo. Lust is just a nuisance that can be controlled.'

His black brows hit his hair line. ‘A nuisance?'

But she wasn't being drawn back into dangerous Leo-filled waters that involved discussing anything other than work. ‘Yes, a nuisance. We're colleagues for the next few weeks, Leo. As professionals, I'm sure we can keep our hands off each other and focus on the health of Bandarra.'

Leo's palm slapped the wardrobe door closed and he turned towards her with a lazy smile but shadows lurked in his eyes. ‘I have every intention of focusing on the health of Bandarra.'

His words should have reassured her but it was what he didn't say that worried her.

L
EO
walked into the kitchen to find Anna standing at the coffee machine frothing milk for the breakfast cappuccinos. He was grumpy and out of sorts after a night spent fighting the sheets more than sleeping in them. His sleep had been a tangled mess of the usual demon dreams but added in was Abbie's mouth, so hot and delicious against his own one minute and gone the next. ‘This morning I need espresso.'

His sister's dark brown eyes gazed at him with a speculative look. ‘Too much Cab Sav last night, big brother?'

‘I was working late, not drinking.' Leo grimaced and slid into the chair remembering how Abbie had changed the venue of their meeting from the clinic to the hospital and had deliberately sat at the furthest end of the very long hospital board-room table. They'd discussed possible surgery cases over the travesty that was instant coffee, while the food and wine he'd ordered lay untouched at the clinic.

He'd spent the first two cases struggling to reconcile the distant cool professional opposite him with the exciting and un-inhibited woman who'd kissed him so wholeheartedly and without restraint in his grandmother's ward. He hadn't been that turned on since— His mind blanked. He couldn't recall the last time he'd been so aroused. Then she'd coolly stepped back
from him and hit him with her calm and uncompromising gaze. It was as if she'd flicked an internal switch and had locked down every single one of her sexual feelings. The fact she'd called the most wondrous of life's sensations ‘a nuisance' had totally floored him.

Anna slid an espresso cup under the machine. ‘Work? Is that what you call it now? I saw your order at the restaurant and it screamed “seduction plan”. Which nurse was it this time?'

He grunted. ‘I told you, I was working and it took forever. Abbie McFarlane must have pulled out the files of every possible candidate for surgery between here and Budjerree.' If he had to stay in Bandarra then at least he'd be busy.

Anna laughed. ‘I told you, Abbie's a dynamo doctor.'

She's a dynamo kisser.

The wire door thwacked back on its hinges and thundering feet sounded on the floorboards, interrupting his thoughts. Leo turned to see Anna's eleven-year-old twin girls—broad brimmed hats on their heads and green school bags on their backs—charge into the room. The same age when he and Dom had been inseparable.

‘Uncle Leo.' The girls threw themselves at him, their eyes wide with wonder. ‘Nonna Rosa said you're staying for a long holiday.'

Leo opened his arms, hugging them harder than he should as he forced memories down. ‘Well, for a little while.'

Donna, the eldest by five minutes and who'd tried to be first at everything ever since, begged, ‘Can you play tennis with me after school?'

It will keep you busy.

Lauren snuggled in closer. ‘I need you to pitch softballs to me so I can get really good at hitting home runs.'

‘
Stelline mie
, I can do both. In fact I can even come and see you play in your competitions on Saturday.'

They squealed in delight and hugged him hard.

Anna clapped her hands. ‘Girls, outside now or you'll miss the bus. Go.'

They kissed their mother on the cheek and, with calls of ‘bye' and ‘ciao', the door slammed shut behind them.

Anna passed Leo his coffee and sat down with hers, her face filled with surprise.

Her expression ate into him, along with his general agitation. ‘What?'

‘Sorry, I'm just astounded that you offered to watch the girls play.'

‘Why wouldn't I?' He heard the aggravation in his voice and took in a deep breath.

She shrugged. ‘Because you're always tense and distracted when you're here.'

He ran his hand across the back of his neck, wanting to deny her accusation, but he could not. ‘I'm usually only here for a day or two but this trip I have the time.'
Way too much time.

‘Well, it's good you're staying longer. Mamma's beside herself. You should have seen her in town yesterday. She must have stopped every second person to tell them you were working here for a month. Do you realise you haven't spent more than two days at a time in Bandarra since you left for uni years ago?'

He knew that was exactly how it had been because it was a deliberate decision on his part. Being in Bandarra ate at him like acid, reminding him of Christina and Dom and taunting him with his success in life when Dom hadn't had a chance to excel. Reminding him that he'd stuffed up two lives. He matched her casual shrug. ‘I'm a specialist surgeon and it keeps me in Melbourne.'

Anna reached out her hand and in an uncharacteristic gesture she patted his arm. ‘It means a lot to Mamma and Papà. It's not often all four of their kids are under the same roof.'

Five kids
. He bit off the comment he so wanted to shout but instead he forced a wry smile to his lips. ‘Oh, yeah, just like growing up, except for the three sons-in-law and eight grandchildren.'

‘At least your sisters have given Mamma and Nonna the family crowd they love.' Her hand touched his in sisterly concern. ‘What happened with Christina was a long time ago. I heard she's remarried and teaching school now in Italy. But what about you, bro? It's time you tried again.'

You only married me to hold on to Dom. I won't put up with your resentment any more
. Christina's bitter words boomed in his head as if it had only been yesterday. As his mouth opened to say,
No way am I trying again,
Abbie's caramel curls and plump red lips suddenly beamed across his brain in brilliant 3D.
What the hell?
Abbie McFarlane was one sexy woman but he didn't do ‘forever' with any woman. He'd tried and let Christina down badly. Just like he'd let Dom down. He wasn't ever doing that to anyone again and that was why he excelled in short-term superficial relationships. Fun, uncomplicated good times and then he moved on, but he always made sure every woman knew the ground rules before the first date.

He drained his coffee, not wanting to have this conversation. ‘I'm leaving all the family stuff to you, Chiara and Bianca because you do it so much better than me.' He pushed back his chair and grabbed a brioche off the plate. ‘I better not be late for clinic. Ciao.'

He ignored the sigh of frustration that came from his sister's lips and headed out the door into a clear and hot day. A normal February day with the early morning song of the magpies floating across the warm air. The kids of the vineyard's employees shot past on bikes, a plume of red dust rising behind their wheels as they raced towards the main road, late for school. He and Dom had done the same thing every morning, racing each other to the gate.

A sudden pain burned hot under his sternum and he rubbed it with his left hand. Damn it. Day three in Bandarra and already it was too hard. Spinning on his heel, he marched towards his rental car, thankful that clinic started in ten minutes and he had a surgical list to prioritise. Not to mention his pursuit of Abbie McFarlane. A ticking sexual time bomb lay under her frumpy clothes and he intended to be the man to detonate it.

 

Abbie tried unsuccessfully to out-stride Leo as their paths intersected on the way to the operating theatre but he easily caught her up.

‘Abbie, you can walk with me; I promise I won't bite.' He grinned. ‘That is, unless you want me to.'

His deep voice streamed over her like rich, dark melted chocolate and it took every ounce of strength not to lick her lips and replay their kiss. Her body wanted him so badly it constantly hummed with need but her head and heart knew better, so she kept walking and answered briskly, ‘I had no idea surgeons had such a sense of humour.'

‘More than some GPs, it seems.' He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. ‘Come on, Abbie, we're colleagues; let's eat lunch together.'

She shook her head emphatically. ‘No.'

‘Dinner at the best table in my sister's award-winning restaurant?'

The idea tempted her. She'd wanted to eat at Mia Casa for ages. ‘No, thank you.'

‘Coffee at Tony's under a market umbrella?'

‘Uh-uh.'

Leo didn't miss a beat. ‘OK, then, popcorn and chocolate at the latest chick-flick blockbuster?'

She laughed. ‘Now you're getting desperate.'

His eyes had the temerity to twinkle, making her stomach lurch. He gave a fluid shrug as if all her ‘no's' just slid off his broad, broad shoulders. ‘I appreciate all genres of film.'

She wanted to scoff but sincerity lined the edges of his eyes and bracketed his mouth, and that disarmed her. She wanted to put Leo Costa into a predictable box but more often than not he just didn't fit.

‘If you want to be more active, then how about a bike ride and a picnic?'

‘In this heat? Are you insane?'

‘Not that I'm aware of, no.' The scar on his chin seemed to suddenly whiten as his jaw stiffened for a fraction of a second. ‘We could do it early in the morning or at sunset.'

‘I walk Murphy then.' Even to her ears that excuse sounded lame.

‘I suppose I should be thankful you didn't say “washing my hair”.' He crossed his arms. ‘So, basically, no matter what I suggest you're going to say no?'

She nodded. ‘Now you're getting the idea.'

‘That's hardly in the collegiate spirit.' His voice held not unreasonable criticism.

She sighed. Her body tingled and was busy yelling ‘yes' to every invitation but fear kept her saying ‘no'. After yesterday's major lapse, she knew exactly what would happen if she said yes to any invitation that threw the two of them together on their own—she'd end up in his arms and probably in his bed, hating herself and hating him. Saying no was her only option.

Leo suddenly stopped in front of the OR doors, effectively blocking them. ‘Do you want me to stop asking you out?'

‘Thank you.' The words shot out on a breath of relief.

‘Hang on, I asked you if you wanted me to stop; I didn't actually agree to it.' His smile was all charm and appeal. ‘How's
this for an idea? You invite
me
to something and then I'll quit asking you out.'

She rushed to say,
But that's still you getting your own way
, when her brain actually engaged and she clamped her lips shut. This was perfect. She could invite him out to something where there'd be no chance of them being alone—in fact they'd be surrounded by ten kids from the shelter. This was the ideal solution because, not only would it stop him asking her out, she actually needed an extra adult to help run the programme.

Warrior Abbie armed her sword across her shield and Abbie stared straight into his handsome face—staring down danger because now she had the protection she needed. ‘So you'll come along to whatever I ask you to?'

‘Sure, why not? I'm up for anything.'

She tilted her head, her gaze sweeping his gorgeous and toned body. ‘It might involve your designer clothes getting dirty.'

‘No problem. I grew up in the country, remember. I can get down and dirty with the best of them.'

He winked at her and his face creased into deep, warm laughter lines. The combination of his dark eyes and black stubble radiated a wave of pure, unadulterated sex appeal that rocked into Abbie so hard she broke out into a hot and tingling sweat. Warrior Abbie fanned herself with her shield.

Oh come on, we can withstand sex appeal and cheap innuendo.

‘Tell me what it is, then.' His words sounded impatient and his urbane charm slipped slightly.

She caught a flash—a remnant—of an enthusiastic and guileless, excited little boy. No sex appeal at all. Her heart hiccoughed.
No, no, no.
She tossed her head and rearmed. ‘Well, it involves a sense of adventure, a good sense of humour and working with kids. Do you think you qualify?'

‘
Sì
. Absolutely. I love kids.'

Her heart lurched again. She loved kids too and had wanted a child of her own but that dream had been discarded, along with her tattered dreams of happy families. Now she worked with kids from the shelter, completely understanding their bewilderment at how their family life had suddenly been turned upside down.

‘Great. Then meet me tomorrow night at the old jetty for canoeing on the river.'

Like water connecting with flames, the twinkling light in his eyes doused. The hovering tension that often surrounded him zoomed back in, firmly front and centre, and all traces of the charismatic man vanished. ‘I can't do that.'

Abbie blinked in surprise at his steely tone as an irrational and unwanted streak of disappointment shot through her. ‘But you just said you're up for anything.'

His tanned skin tightened across his high cheekbones as his left hand brushed the scar on his chin. ‘I have to scrub.' Without another word, he disappeared through the door.

Abbie's feet stayed still as if glued to the floor while her head spun, dizzy with unanswered questions. What had just happened? She couldn't match up the flirting charm with the man who'd just walked away from her. She'd seen Leo in action wearing many guises—the determined grandson, the calm professional and talented surgeon, the super-smooth playboy—but she'd never imagined he'd be a man who'd just walk away from something.

It's no big deal, it's just canoeing.
Perhaps he had a prior engagement and the timing clashed? What did it matter that he'd said no? She should be relieved and happy. She'd kept her side of the bargain and issued the invitation, which meant he had to honour his promise of not asking her out. This was a totally win-win situation for her.

But the relief she knew she should feel didn't come. If his ‘no' was to do with not being available then surely he would have said so instead of walking away. And he had walked away.