The Midwife and the Millionaire

Unable to get a rise out of Smiley she turned to watch the scenery flash by. The overhanging escarpment of the Cockburn ranges in the distance ran along the right side of the vehicle and the stumpy gums and dry grass covered the plains to the left before they soared into more ochre-red cliffs that tinged purple as the sun set.

Sophie knew the darkening gorges hid pockets of tangled rainforest and deep cold pools like the dread she could feel at meeting him again.

But the stands of thick and thin trees made her smile. She’d missed the pot bellies of the grey-trunked boabs the most while she’d been in Perth.

‘Why don’t you like Odette?’ Smiley was stewing. Something in his voice warned her not to be flippant.

‘Who wouldn’t like Odette?’ she said carefully. ‘She seems lovely. I just don’t want you hurt when she flies back to Sydney.’

Smiley frowned at the road ahead and Sophie winced at his displeasure. Now that was something she’d very rarely encountered and she didn’t like it. ‘I’m sorry, Smiley. I have no right to judge your friends. I think Odette’s great. I just can’t see her as an outback girl and I can’t see you in the city. But it’s none of my business.’

‘Thank you.’ His voice was dry and the two words were a statement. Thanking her for agreeing it was none of her business.

Oops. She really had upset her brother and that was something she’d never consciously do. Since her parents had died she’d become used to bossing Smiley around, giving her opinion, and he’d never seemed to mind.

Obviously she’d crossed the line with Odette. She’d just have to button her lip and trust Smiley’s instincts.

It would’ve been easier if she’d sent him to Xanadu on his own though. She had the feeling her trepidation for Smiley was tied up in the trepidation she held for herself with Odette’s mysterious brother.

Smiley turned off the main dirt road onto the red dust of the track through the scrub. They splashed through several watercourses and wound through the ochre-coloured hills until they turned into the Private Property, No Entry sign that hid the homestead.

‘Welcoming,’ she mumbled, and Smiley glanced at her.

‘You’ve met the brother?’

‘Briefly.’ She could be just as taciturn. She didn’t expand her explanation and Smiley didn’t ask again. Then the homestead came into view.

Xanadu Homestead was a long low building, and she’d been too young to remember visiting in her grandparents’ day. Apparently now it had been divided up into luxury suites, if what Sophie had heard was right, perched on the edge of the escarpment above the river that flowed beneath it.

The main building faced into the sunset which glowed deep red as it faded. Nice place to holiday if you had the platinum or even a black credit card, but not when you were eight months pregnant. Why would Odette and her brother come here now?

At least the thought gave her something else to concentrate on as they drew up at the house. She wondered what the other guests would think of outsiders being invited to invade their sanctuary. What month was this? April. The resort would only just have opened for the season anyway.

Odette swayed onto the main entrance portico in a muslin caftan that must have cost a bomb, and Sophie wondered how she could still be graceful when she was supposed to be awkward in the last month of pregnancy. Sophie glanced at Smiley and judging by his face he’d just seen the Holy Grail.

Sophie sighed and felt for the handle to climb out of the truck when her door moved away from her grasp.

‘Welcome to Xanadu.’ Levi held out his hand and Sophie wasn’t sure if he wanted to shake hers or help her from the vehicle. Where’d he come from? She’d been hoping to see him from a distance and get her face straight.

She resisted the urge to snap her hand back to her side and forced herself to let him take her fingers. Initially cool, the strength in his fingers surprised her, but not as much as the feeling of insidious connection, a frisson of ridiculous warmth that passed between them and echoed the impact of his eyes. There was something she’d deny with her last breath.

No. She hadn’t felt a thing. So why rub her hand surreptitiously behind her back? And why did he look down at her with one enigmatic eyebrow raised as if he’d been surprised as well?

Then Odette was dancing around the car like an elegant puppy as she looked adoringly up at Smiley, and Levi left her to shake Smiley’s hand.

‘It’s so good to see you, William.’ Odette flashed a smile at Sophie before she looked back at Smiley and captured his hand. Odette tugged his fingers to make him follow her. ‘This is my brother, Levi,’ she said dismissively. ‘Now, come and see the place.’

‘William’ looked back at Sophie, who managed a tiny smiling shrug that said she’d be fine.

‘My sister can be impetuous,’ Levi said grimly.

‘My brother can’t.’ She watched Smiley leap up the stairs after Odette. ‘Or I didn’t think he could.’

Levi lifted one eyebrow sardonically. ‘Welcome to Xanadu. I’ll send someone for the bags when we get inside.’

Sophie glanced in the back of the truck. ‘Actually, we’re used to carrying our own.’

He inclined his head. ‘But I’d be offended. Please come in.’

The bags weren’t worth standing out here with him so she turned resolutely towards the entrance. He went on. ‘The resort’s not technically opened for the season and we have the run of the place.’

‘Well, that’s very nice.’ But she couldn’t help thinking, How the heck did you do that? They must know the owners extremely well or have unlimited funds. Best not go there. ‘When does it open?’

He glanced at the sky. ‘Depends on the weather and the state of the roads, though apparently next week, if all continues well.’

She slanted a look across at him. ‘I guess you and Odette will be gone by then.’

Another enigmatic brow rose. ‘Trying to get rid of us?’

They crossed the gravel drive to the stairs and she paused. ‘You did say you were passing through. A week ago,’ she said calmly.

‘I lied.’ Straightfaced, no remorse.

Sophie blinked. She’d known he was dangerous. Like sniffying the briny scent before a storm. Her instincts had been right. He was trouble. She started walking again, faster now, but he kept pace. ‘People don’t tend to do that up here.’ Liar like Brad.

His eyes narrowed as if he sensed some history there. ‘Necessity can make liars out of us all.’

She could feel her lip curl. ‘So some people say.’

He looked across at her and no doubt he could see her distaste. She hoped so. ‘Had a bad experience with a man, have you?’

‘I think I’ll look for my brother.’ She turned away but before she could take a step he caught her hand again and she pulled up short to look back at him with raised eyebrows, actually astounded that he would invade her intimate space.

Maybe he didn’t know that people from the bush—used to wide-open spaces and few people—didn’t do space invasion well. Smiley tended to wave at people rather than shake their hands. Not like those from the city, who were used to people brushing up against them in elevators and on city streets.

He let go. This time she didn’t hide that she rubbed her hand.

‘I apologise, Sophie.’ To give him his due he looked as confused as she felt. ‘We seem to have got off on the wrong foot. Twice.’ Those deadly lips of his were as devastating in an almost smile as she’d imagined. Damn him.

‘Now why do we rub each other the wrong way, do you think?’

No way was Sophie going there. She looked him up and down. Coolly, she hoped. ‘I’m not interested in rubbing anyone at all.’

His almost smile, which she decided was forced anyway, departed and he nodded. ‘Let’s go in, then.’ He gestured with his hand for her to precede him, but he didn’t touch her. And she didn’t thank him for the courtesy because she could feel his eyes on her back uncomfortably the whole way up the steps. And he was still in her space.

Levi watched her attempt to walk sedately ahead of him; they both knew something had happened. He wanted to come up beside her and put his hand on the small of her back—lay claim, in fact—and he crunched his fingers into his palm to stop from reaching out. She’d invaded his head with the tiny bit he’d seen the other day but in full-blown glory she took his breath away.

Her dress was simple and blue but smoothed the slender line of her back and hips as she swayed in front of him and her legs were bare and brown and long enough to dream about. This was crazy. She smoked, just by walking in front of him.

It felt as if a wire from one of the fences dragged him along in her wake, and there was a tautness he could see in her shoulders that said she wasn’t comfortable either.

He didn’t know what it was. Apart from totally impractical and heinously inconvenient…but then again the travel agent had quoted the Kimberleys as a destination of adventure. Suddenly he was thinking of a side tour of a different sort.

He ushered her, with great restraint and no contact, through to the veranda where they all shared the sunset, or at least her brother and his sister shared it; he and Sophie separately observed. Maybe not even that because he wasn’t looking at hills bathed in purple.

He’d always had a thing about women with long necks and hers flowed like an orchid to her throat. He’d bet her skin felt as soft as a petal. He shifted his scrutiny away from temptation and looked higher. He couldn’t see her eyes from where he stood but he knew they were blue. Like her dress. High cheekbones, snubby nose that should have just been snubby but turned out deliciously cute, and those lips. He reefed his eyes away and took a long swallow of his beer. Who was he and what had happened to the normal, sane, overworked man who’d arrived last week?

Shame it wasn’t prehistoric times because dragging her off to his cave looked mighty appealing to him at this moment. And no one had appealed for a while. He’d better find something to stay focused on, something apart from how to get her into bed.

‘Odette tells me you’re a midwife,’ he said, and now he could see her eyes. Her pupils were big and dark and he’d read somewhere that was a sign of arousal. He hoped so ‘cause he was sure his eyes would be all pupil to his lashes.

She ran her finger around the rim of her glass and even that tiny movement made him swallow. ‘And community nurse, and anything else that needs medical attention,’ she said.

He almost wished he was sick. ‘Sounds diverse. It must be a heavy workload.’ He watched her face light up.

‘I enjoy it,’ she said. ‘Love it, in fact. Now it has the added dimension of meeting people like Odette who’d benefit from access to a midwife.’

Passion for her job. Bless her. He used to have that. Now he didn’t even want to talk about work. ‘Odette said you’ve just returned from Perth.’

He felt the cold breeze and even her pupils constricted until her eyes were light blue again. She jutted her chin and he regretted the question. Obviously bad choice of conversation and a major setback. Probably a good thing.

‘Yes. It’s great to be home.’ Such a cold voice, so different than when she’d spoken of work.

She put her glass down and turned to his sister. ‘The view is wonderful, Odette.’ Sophie pretended to be absorbed and tried to fade Levi into the background. She didn’t want to think about Perth and the fool she’d made of herself there. Though it served as a reminder not to be foolish here. Just because externally Odette’s brother was hard to ignore, internally he’d be the same as Brad. He’d already shown his arrogant, untruthful side. Rich, callous, oblivious to hurting others. And she’d promised she’d never become that vulnerable again.

She just wished he’d stop studying her. She could feel him watching. Could feel the brush of his analytical study as if she were some strange species he hadn’t figured out yet and it made her want to think of some witty, slash-cutting thing to make him back off. But of course she couldn’t think of something. No doubt tonight in bed it would be there on her tongue.

Well, he could look, but she refused to squirm. He’d be used to city women falling all over him but he’d come to the wrong place for that. Here a woman wanted a man with more to his repertoire than looking good.

‘So what do you do, Levi?’ Apart from watching me. Not that she was interested.

‘I have a business in Sydney.’

City slicker. She’d bet it wasn’t a physical job because his hands looked too clean. She wasn’t going to comment, even mentally, on his obvious fitness.

He raised his eyebrows. ‘You have a very expressive face. By the curl of your lip I’m surprised you think I do anything?’

‘Perhaps.’ She abandoned the subject. If he didn’t want to tell her, then that was fine. The less she knew about him, the better. She turned her shoulder further away from him.

‘My sister tells me you don’t like helicopters much.’

Politeness meant she had to turn back. No doubt he would see her reluctance and maybe then he’d leave her alone. ‘Nothing personal to helicopters, I don’t like to fly.’

He shifted his body so she was lined up with him again. ‘Shame, then. A pilot’s licence would be useful with the distances they have out here.’

Like Kate and her plane. She’d never feel comfortable enough to do that. ‘My friend flies. I’ll do without.’

He acknowledged her aversion with a flick of his hand. ‘It’s a different world, immediate, stunning, and even I admit this country is spectacular from the air.’

She felt her hackles rise and she sipped her drink before she answered to damp down her desire to demand he appreciate her home. ‘The Kimberleys are spectacular from the ground as well.’

He put his glass down. ‘I’ve offended you again.’

‘The bush is not for everyone.’ She shrugged, thankfully.

‘And you’re happy about that?’

It seemed she couldn’t cause him offence. ‘There are advantages.’ Well, at least they were conversing in a fairly normal way, and then a waiter appeared and it was time for dinner.

Levi gestured her ahead of him and Sophie pulled up short at the candlelit veranda; a glass ceiling showcased the glorious starlit sky above a table that glowed with white linen and silver cutlery. ‘Amazing room.’

‘Very civilised,’ Levi agreed, as if he were still surprised by it. Even that offended her, as if they couldn’t put on a good show up here in the bush.

She took her seat and, much to Sophie’s amazement, dinner proved a delightful affair. They were joined by the resort manager, Steve, a handsome young man—more Odette’s age than Levi’s—who said and did all the right things and was very anxious to ensure that Odette was safely seated or served, as if she were an invalid. Baby phobia, Sophie guessed, but he left Sophie with a feeling of awkwardness she couldn’t explain.

The rapport between Levi and Odette showed genuine affection. Reluctantly Sophie admitted she liked that—family was important—so he had some redeeming features which she didn’t really want to see. And Levi devoted himself to being a wonderful host. Then again, her ex, Brad, had been a great host too.

Odette remained animated and ‘William’ held his own end of the conversation up for a change. Sophie had to shut her mouth when she would normally have answered for her brother until finally she subsided in awe at his previously hidden ability to socialise. He could have come on his own after all. Great!

Until the talk turned to helicopters and the suggestion of a joint expedition the next day. This she couldn’t keep silent on. ‘I hope you don’t expect me to go along. Helicopters fall out of the sky.’

Levi sat back in his chair and smiled at her. ‘No, they don’t.’

Loosened up by the delightful Margaret River Shiraz, Sophie pointed her finger at him. ‘I want to know what happens when the engine stops in a helicopter.’

Her comment came in a lull and stilled the other conversations, and Levi tilted his head at her. ‘They glide. Autorotation. Instead of the air being pulled in from the top by the engine, the rotors turn the other way and pull the air in from underneath as you descend. Gives you fairly good forward and downward control. Like a winged aeroplane, just not as far.’

She didn’t believe him. ‘How far?’

‘Enough to get passengers on the ground without hurting them.’ He held her gaze, daring her to disbelieve him.

Sounded too simple. ‘Then you can take off again?’

He rubbed his chin. ‘Maybe not always without hurting the chopper.’ He seemed sure of his facts.

Sophie digested that.

‘We’ve two helicopters at Xanadu,’ Steve said, ‘and never had a problem.’ He smiled kindly at her and she almost felt patted like a small dog. Sophie wondered why she had the urge to wipe the smile off his face. Maybe the poor guy had trained himself to be extra accommodating around his VIP guests, but Sophie found his attentions irritating.

She glanced at Levi but she couldn’t read anything in his face. He was probably used to people fawning over him.

The conversation moved on and Sophie sat back to observe. She watched mostly Levi, despite her attempts not to be drawn to him. He made no blatant attempt to direct the conversation, he just did. While she didn’t like him she had to admit he was smooth. He seemed to know the right thing to bring out the passion in Smiley for the land, and Sophie was surprised by her brother’s apparent liking for their host.

Sophie refused to fall for the same thing and she wasn’t going to lose. Actually, she wanted to go home or at least get out of this room, away from him.

With the meal cleared away, Sophie drifted towards the end of the veranda where the steps led down to the path around the side of the homestead. The stars winked down at her and the further she moved away from the veranda the brighter the sky lights formed into the constellations and patterns she’d grown up with.

The Southern Cross, the Pot, the Milky Way. A wooden bench under a huge boab looked the perfect place to hide. She sank gratefully down on warm wood in the dimness, and the soft breeze rattled the boab leaves over her head as if to soothe her.

Until Levi strode out onto the veranda with his satellite phone and shattered the magic of the night, along with the calm she’d achieved.

Typical city man. They never stopped. No doubt he couldn’t imagine being without a phone at his fingertips, to direct underlings and ensure nobody forgot how important he was, and to order up the next convenience. Or like Brad, to check that his woman was waiting patiently at home, while he dallied somewhere else.

She’d like to see Levi bogged in a bulldust hole with no handy phone. See how resourceful he’d be with nobody but himself to rely on.

Then he saw her, ended the conversation and snapped his phone shut. She leant back into the shadows in a futile move as if he would forget she was there, slightly guilty about her mean thoughts for a man she barely knew, but still bitter by personal experience from the callousness of a man like him.

He paused at the bottom of the steps, and she thought he probably didn’t even want to get his shoes dirty out here. Her nose wrinkled.

Levi hesitated at the bottom step, quite sure Sophie didn’t want company, and reluctant to force his company on her. ‘Coffee is ready if you’d like some.’ He glanced at the grass. ‘Unless you’d prefer it out here?’

She stood and walked towards him with a swish of her blue dress and he felt the rebuke for ruining her peace. She had attitude all right, he thought, but she carried it well. ‘Thank you. Inside will be fine.’

There was no doubt the less she saw of him, the better, and no doubt either that the less he saw of her, the better.

CHAPTER THREE

LEVI stopped as he entered the room for breakfast on the veranda next morning. It seemed he’d interrupted an amusing show.

His sister, with much eye batting and smiles, was trying to convince cowboy William to do the scenic tourist fly in the chopper. Apparently they should fly to the Bungle Bungles, a massive prehistoric range of striped domes at the edge of the Tanami Desert, with a picnic basket, an idea which left a horrified expression on Sophie the orchid’s face. Intriguing situation.

He could see a ride in the helicopter was the last thing Sophie wanted to do, make that second last. If he read her expression right when she glanced at him, the last thing she wanted was to stay behind at Xanadu, alone, with him.

Levi could tell. That was amusing too. Sort of. Though he’d never had someone blatantly avoid his company before.

He sat down next to Sophie at breakfast, maybe too deliberately close, so his thigh touched hers when he turned, and he could actually feel her thrum with awareness. The fresh herby stuff she’d washed her hair with teased his nose and some psycho inside wanted to sniff her head. Now that would go over well as a space invasion.

Even her skin glowed golden in the morning light, like the honey on the crumpet she nibbled at, and reminded him he’d spent more than a few hours in bed last night trying not to remember those lush little hips and lips. He must be having a crisis.

‘Good morning, Sophie.’

‘Morning.’ Her answer was accompanied by a darting look that came and went as she shrank her shoulders to avoid contact.

He had to bite back a smile. Becoming a habit those smiles. Very strange. ‘Did you sleep well?’

‘Fine, thanks.’ Another flick of her eyes and he relented and shifted his chair a few inches away to give her some space. Her delightful shoulders actually sank with relief and he wondered why he was playing with her. He wasn’t normally pushy.

‘Did you sleep?’ It seemed she could talk easier too.

Now how reluctantly had she asked that? He bit his lip. ‘No, not really. The symphony of the night seemed especially loud.’

She raised those stern brows of hers. ‘Kept awake by nature? Poor you. Well, it is a wilderness park.’ She tossed her head. ‘Sure beats the heck out of traffic noise.’

Maybe she didn’t need sympathy. She could stand up for herself. So they ate their meal in silence as Odette continued to flirt with William.

Levi rubbed his chin as they all stood to leave because, funnily enough, her lack of enthusiasm for the flight made his skin itch.

‘Odette?’ he said, and his sister turned back.

‘Look after Sophie. Remember, she’s not comfortable, so no stunts.’

Odette raised her eyebrows at him and saluted. ‘Yes, sir.’

Sophie sent him a semi-grateful look over her shoulder as she dragged her feet to follow the other two to the helipad.

Levi frowned to himself as he went the other way. He needed to concentrate on the paperwork he had to get through before they returned to Sydney, but the ridiculously blue Kimberley sky outside the window invited sacrifice. Odette was too pregnant to be pilot. And Sophie looked unhappy.

Unhappy was too mild a word. Sophie didn’t know how she’d agreed to this.

Now Steve, the resort manager, had shooed Odette away from pre-flight checks. ‘I can’t let a pregnant lady do that,’ he said with that tilted smile that prickled right up Sophie’s nose. There was something about him that reminded her of someone but she couldn’t connect the impression.

She’d never had much to do with the people from Xanadu and apparently he’d been here for a few years and very close to the late owner. She wished he’d mind his own business though.

To make matters worse, just before take-off, Levi appeared and decreed he’d pilot instead of Odette. Suddenly Sophie could have stayed behind. Talk about bad luck.

Everyone was looking out for Odette. Which was a good thing, but Sophie wondered if it was too late to look out for herself. Now the new seating arrangements meant she’d be up front next to Levi. This kept getting better and better. Not.

The front helicopter seat was as bad as she’d imagined. She shrank back into the stiff leather, semi-frozen, not quite believing she’d agreed to this, when Levi reached in from the outside to click her belt into place. His hands pulled the belt firmly across her and snapped it shut. Talk about space invasion. This whole expedition was crazy and way out of her comfort zone. How the heck had she found herself next to him in a doorless chopper with only the seat belt between her and certain death?