Dani Collins - Modern Romance March 2019 5-8

‘All about first impressions, cara ,’ he whispered, running his lips up the curve of her neck. ‘There are people here who will be reporting back to my grandfather.’

She was dimly aware in the distance of Jamie making his own first impressions as he kicked off— loudly !

‘Jamie...’

He nodded and speared his free hand through his hair, wondering as he did at what point he had actually thought he was in control.

He was acting like some sort of hormonal teenager...or his father.

Short of hugging an iceberg, nothing could have exerted a more blood-cooling effect than the second possibility.

Flora listened as he responded to a question from someone standing inside the plane with what sounded like orders issued in his native tongue. She used the moments to gather her wits.

‘Sorry about that,’ he murmured as the person vanished.

‘For kissing me?’ she said, managing to sound cool, even slightly amused.

Was he sorry?

He ought to be. She was, it turned out, exactly the sort of woman he’d spent his life avoiding, the sort of woman of whom he could imagine men becoming reliant on the sound of her voice to start the day.

He wasn’t one of those men. He had no emotional connection, it was just sex...or it had the potential to be.

‘You’d be insulted if I said yes.’

Flora met his dark, hypnotic gaze and was lost. Great big holes appeared in the composure she had managed to gather around herself. Lowering her gaze was the only protective option left and that wasn’t as easy as it should have been. By the time her eyes were safely fixed on her toes her skin was covered by a fine sheen of perspiration.

‘I’m sure you enjoy performing to your adoring audience but, like I said, I’m not good with heights.’

‘Come on. Watch your step.’

His hand stayed an inch clear of her elbow as she walked straight-backed down the steps, close enough to steady her should it be required and far enough away to avoid having another of her displays of pig-headed independence.

* * *

The meet-and-greet, the VIP fast route—actually everything that happened between walking down the metal stairs and getting into the middle one of the half-dozen cars that seemed to be reserved for their party—was a bit of a blur.

Was this what it felt like to be a celebrity? If so, Flora couldn’t for the life of her work out why so many people wanted this dubious status.

She knew she’d been introduced to people she’d never seen before, and wouldn’t know again, even though their names were drifting like flotsam through her head. She knew she’d smiled in what she hoped were appropriate moments.

Ivo spoke to the driver for a few moments before the screen separating them slid silently into place. He leaned back in his seat.

‘That went well.’

Flora held out a toy, zooming it in to tickle the baby’s tummy and nuzzle his cheek to distract him.

Ivo’s proximity was bothering her too much. She really hoped this was a short journey. ‘I think your idea of well and mine might be pretty far apart.’

‘The kiss?’ Head against the deeply padded leather rest, he turned his head.

‘Yes, the kiss.’ She had decided to treat it just like any other line that had been crossed. Making a big thing of it would make it big thing or, and that was what she was afraid of, make him realise that it had been a big thing for her—nothing short of a revelation.

He had tapped into a passion inside her. A hunger that she hadn’t known existed. Even when she had imagined herself in love with Callum she had never considered herself a particularly sexual person. If she had been she might have been less appreciative of what she had idealistically assumed was his consideration . She’d realised later, of course, that he simply hadn’t been into her that much.

‘You want me to ask next time?’

‘A little warning would have been appreciated, and maybe a breath mint.’

She was just feeling pleased with herself for keeping things light when he laughed; the deep vibrant sound sent illicit shivers down her spine. Then he touched her cheek and the contact seemed both natural and intimate. His eyes dropped to her lips. ‘You tasted like strawberries.’

She fought the magnetic pull with a shocked little gasp to break the contact, before flopping back in her seat, breathing hard.

‘So, what happens now?’ she said, putting all the cool and practical at her command in her voice.

‘Try catching up on some sleep.’

Her eyes went to the baby. ‘I couldn’t.’

‘It might help some of those frown lines smooth out.’

‘I suppose I might come across as a bit overprotective.’ The concession came reluctantly and drew a short, hard laugh from her travelling companion.

‘You think?’

She gave a little shrug. ‘He’s my responsibility and I was worried about him flying.’ Not worried enough, she thought with a fresh rush of guilt.

The possibility that the tiny defect in his heart detected at Sami’s twenty-week scan and confirmed at birth might make air travel an issue had not occurred to her until after Ivo had left that first morning.

Obviously she had contacted the family GP immediately, who, declaring himself unable to see a problem, had in turn checked with the paediatric cardiac consultant who had overall responsibility for Jamie’s care.

His advice had been the same: there was no reason Jamie could not fly.

‘Babies fly all the time.’

It was annoyance at his dismissal that made her toss back, ‘Not all babies have a heart defect.’

The indolent pose he’d adopted vanished as his posture stiffened. ‘A heart...’ His chest lifted as he inhaled deeply before training his accusing stare on Flora. ‘Why am I just learning of this?’

‘Possibly because you never asked, or maybe because it’s none of your business?’ she charged back, angry at his display of how very dare you? hauteur.

The muscles in Ivo’s brown throat rippled as he swallowed. He was still in the grip of shock, not just because of the information she had casually dropped into the conversation, but because of the overwhelming surge of protectiveness that had hit him without warning.

‘Is he...is it bad?’

She shook her head. ‘At Sami’s twenty-week scan they discovered a small defect in the baby’s heart. Something they call a VSD, and the rest of us call a hole in the heart. Sometimes it’s vanished by birth, but Jamie’s hadn’t. He was referred to a top cardiac paediatrician.’

It took a supreme effort but Ivo managed to stop himself asking any of the myriad questions that were hovering on the tip of his tongue. He knew that letting her speak would tell him what he wanted to know quicker, and she was being concise as she gave the information in a carefully neutral voice.

‘It isn’t that rare. In more severe cases they surgically intervene on infants. Jamie’s isn’t severe and there is every chance it will close spontaneously over the next few years. It’s a wait-and-see policy at this stage and he has no symptoms.’

‘So he is in no immediate danger.’

‘No, the doctors are quite relaxed about it.’

‘But you’re not,’ he said, leaning back into the leather and half closing his eyes. ‘You have to relax. Babies pick up on that stuff.’ He opened one eye and saw she was looking at him in astonishment. ‘I’ve been doing a bit of research.’

The slightly embarrassed look on his face as he made the admission made her smile. It was weird—she had never known her emotions to be on such a roller coaster and it was all the unpredictable man’s fault. One moment he was yelling at her and being totally unreasonable, the next he was being disarmingly sweet.