Joanna Neil - Becoming Dr Bellini's Bride

He reached out to her, laying a hand over hers when she would have drawn back from the table. ‘Don’t let me frighten you away, Katie. It’s just that you shook me to the core the first time I met you, and that feeling hasn’t gone away. You’re really something special and I’d do anything to see you again.’

She gently pulled her hand out from under his. ‘I’m sorry. It’s not that I have anything against you, Nick, but I’m not in the market for relationships right now. I just… There are too many things going on in my life, too many changes I have to deal with.’

It was all too much for her. The business with James had hurt her deeply, made her guarded and uncertain, and now she was struggling to build a new life, trying to find her niche in a new job. She couldn’t deal with any distractions right now, and she sensed that Nick was way more trouble than she could ever handle.

She pulled in a deep breath and stood up, pushing back her chair. ‘Thanks again for lunch,’ she said, hating herself for the slight tremor in her voice. ‘It was delicious… but I really must go.’

He wasn’t going to make it easy for her, though, she discovered. He came to stand beside her, his body so close to hers that she could feel the heat coming from him, could register the heavy thud of his heartbeat as he leaned towards her and slid an arm around her waist. Or was that her own heart that she could feel—that pounding, intense rhythm that warned of imminent danger? His hand splayed out over her rib cage, and her whole body fired up in response.

‘That’s such a shame,’ he murmured. ‘There is so much more I want to say to you. I could even show you around the hotel if only you would stay a little longer.’

She shook her head, steeling herself to resist the lure of his embrace. She couldn’t allow herself to lean into the warmth of his long, hard body, no matter how great the temptation. ‘I can’t,’ she murmured. ‘I. I really ought to go back to the office and type up my notes while everything’s fresh in my mind.’ It sounded such a weak excuse, even to her ears.

‘Such mundane tasks, when life could be so much more interesting.’ He sighed, reluctantly giving in. ‘If you’re determined to go, you must at least let me walk you to your car.’

She nodded. ‘Okay.’ At least he was yielding to her decision. Escape was within reach at last, and maybe soon the fog of indecision would lift from her mind…though it didn’t help at all that he kept his arm around her as they headed back through the hotel.

Only when they reached her car did he let her go and finally she began to breathe a little more easily.

‘I imagine you have to write up a report on Mrs Wyatt’s accident,’ he said on an even note, ‘for the inquiry.’

‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘There’ll more than likely be an official investigation. I gather any kind of accident on public premises causes the wheels to be set in motion.’

‘Hmm…do you have any idea what will go in your report?’

She sent him a quick glance. ‘I can only state the facts. Anything else would be pure conjecture.’

He considered that for a moment, a line indenting his brow. ‘Yes, of course.’ He pulled open the car door for her and held it while she slid into the driver’s seat. ‘I’d be interested in hearing the results of the tests.’ He paused. ‘Anyway, I expect we’ll run into one another again before too long.’

She nodded. ‘I should think so.’ He closed the door and she turned the key in the ignition, starting up the engine.

She frowned as an errant thought dropped into her mind. He’d asked about the report and what she might put in it… and for a good deal of the time while they had been eating he had been asking about the precise details of Mrs Wyatt’s medical condition.

Was he worried about the outcome of the investigation and how it would affect the hotel?

Her report could sway things one way or the other. Was that the real reason he was making a play for her? Why would a man such as him be interested in her, after all, when no doubt he could take his pick of beautiful women? The thought disturbed her. She had to tread cautiously, and she couldn’t take anything or anyone at face value these days, least of all Nick Bellini.

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