Midwives On-Call

Alessi shrugged. ‘I guess. You feel you have to make up for all the opportunities that they never had.’

She remembered the black-sheep comment that Allegra had made about Alessi, and curiosity got the better of her now for she wanted to know more about him. ‘Did your parents push you?’

Alessi nodded. ‘You know, apparently, Geo, my brother, would never have spoken back to them. In fact, he’d be married by now and would have given them grandchildren.’

Isla smiled.

‘And he wouldn’t have given up piano at fifteen or …’ Alessi shook his head. Things were moving closer to a painful part of his past than he would like, so he wrapped it up there. ‘The list goes on. I really feel for Elijah, too. If he makes it.’

She watched as Alessi yawned. She could see he was exhausted and if it were any of her staff Isla would have told them to go home.

‘Shouldn’t you let Jed take over Archie’s care?’ Isla ventured, referring to the neonatologist on this weekend. ‘You’ve been here all week and you’ve got a big night tonight. Surely you need—’

‘What I need,’ Alessi interrupted, ‘are three things from you.’

‘Three things?’

‘Your coffee and whatever smells good in that bag …’

‘What’s the third?’ Isla said, handing them over.

‘If I don’t get there tonight, can you give my speech for me?’

‘Alessi, you’re up for an award, I think it’s taken as a given that you’ll be there. My father—’

‘Archie is having seizures,’ Alessi interrupted. ‘Violent ones, and they aren’t nice for his family to see. Jessica wants to be there also and I want his death to be as gentle and as pain-free as possible. I want to be there for him. I’m sorry if it upsets your father that I might not make it but right now Archie is my priority.’

Alessi waited. He knew she was about to protest and he actually wanted her to. That was his tipping point. When anyone tried to come between him and his work Alessi walked away very easily. He wanted not to get in too deep; he wanted her to insist that he be there tonight. Instead, she nodded her assent.

‘Fine,’ she said, though her father would think it anything but fine if Alessi didn’t show up. ‘What do you want me to say on your behalf?’

‘Whatever is said at such things. I’m sure you’ll give an excellent speech,’ Alessi said.

‘That sounds like an insult.’

It was, actually. He looked at her, so completely calm and unruffled, even as he had broken down, and knew she’d be the same tonight. ‘Do any of them get to you?’

‘Sorry?’

‘I remember the night we met. You were all animated, completely enthralled about a baby that had just been delivered.’ He watched her cheeks redden and rather than leave things there he chose to pursue them. ‘I’ve seen you elated but I’ve never seen you upset and, though avoiding each other, we’ve still found ourselves working together at times.’

‘When have I avoided you?’

‘Come off it, Isla,’ Alessi said. ‘And don’t avoid the question. Do any of them get to you?’

‘I don’t let them get to me,’ Isla said, hopefully slamming the door closed on that observation, but Alessi wrenched it straight back open.

‘That would take an awful lot of self-control.’

‘Not really.’ She tried to keep her voice even.

‘Yes, really. Otherwise it would mean that you’re completely burnt out and I don’t believe that you are.’

‘You don’t know me,’ Isla said.

‘I know that I don’t, because a year ago I could have sworn that we were getting on, that we were enjoying each other’s company, that you wanted me as much as I wanted you,’ he said. ‘Yet it would seem I was wrong.’ Isla wanted to tear her eyes from his but somehow she made herself hold his gaze.

‘I may be wrong now,’ Alessi said, and Isla knew that she could turn and head to her desk and he would go, but she didn’t. Instead, she stood there as he continued speaking, the air between them crackling with tension. ‘The thing is, I won’t put myself in that position again. You’ll never give me that look again, Isla …’

She wanted to point out that she wasn’t giving him that look now; she wanted to point out that she wasn’t turning and walking off. The air seemed too thick for her lungs and Isla’s eyes flicked to his mouth, to his soft, full lips, and she wanted to place hers there, or for his mouth to move to hers, but Alessi just stood his ground.

‘When you’re ready to apologise for that night …’

‘Apologise?’ Isla gave an incredulous smile.

Alessi didn’t return the smile. ‘Yes, apologise,’ he confirmed. ‘The next move is yours.’

‘I’m not with you.’

‘You’ll kiss me, Isla.’

‘And if I don’t?’

‘Then we both die wondering.’

She would, Isla realised.

No matter what the future held, if a part of it did not contain a night with Alessi, then she would die wondering because he was possibly the most beautiful, sensual man to cross her path and, yes, she wanted her time with him, for however long they had.

‘I need to go,’ Alessi said. ‘Thank you for the coffee.’

‘I hope today goes better than expected for you,’ Isla croaked.

‘It won’t,’ Alessi said, ‘but some things have to be faced and dealt with.’ He turned and opened the office door. Her face was on fire, his words playing over and over. Some things had to be dealt with and faced, but not this.

Alessi’s invitation turned fears into pleasure.

CHAPTER EIGHT

DARCIE HAD PROVED to be a brilliant flatmate but as Isla got ready for the ball she was actually relieved to have the place to herself.

Nothing was going to happen between her and Alessi tonight, she told herself, except Isla knew where their kiss could lead.

She’d fought it once after all.

Isla got back from the hairdresser’s at four, where she’d had her thick blonde hair curled and pinned up and had also had her nails done in a neutral shade as she still hadn’t decided what to wear tonight.

Red, Isla thought, taking out her dress and holding it up, yet it was everything she wasn’t—it was bold, confident and sexy, and Alessi could possibly sue her under the Trade Descriptions Act once he got the dress off!

Black.

Safe.

Only it felt far from safe when she put it on. It showed her cleavage, it showed the paleness of her skin and the flush in her cheeks whenever his name came to mind, which it did at regular fifteen-second intervals.

He might not even be there, Isla reminded herself. Except that thought didn’t come as a relief.

She could still feel the heat between them from that morning. Her body, as she dressed for the night, acutely recalled the burn of his gaze and the delicious warning that the next move was hers. There had been no physical contact that morning yet it felt as if there had been.

Isla was shaking as she put on her make-up, shaking with want, with nerves, with the absolute shock of the availability of Alessi should she choose to make a move.

Should she choose?

Isla looked at herself in the mirror and realised she already had.

She wanted Alessi.

A car had been arranged—Charles Delamere didn’t want his daughter arriving in a taxi—and Isla sat in the back, staring ahead. The sights of Melbourne were familiar; the feeling inside wasn’t. There was no Isabel to chat with, no Rupert to deflect male attention.

She stepped into the venue alone.

Her eyes scanned the reception room as she drank champagne and sparkled as she was expected to.

There was no sign of him.

Relief and disappointment mingled as they were called to take their seats.

‘Where’s Manos?’ Charles frowned at the empty seat at the table.

‘I think that he may be stuck at the hospital,’ Isla said. ‘He’s asked me to make a speech on his behalf if he can’t get here.’

‘You are joking?’ Charles snapped. ‘The whole point of this award is to raise NICU’s profile. How are we going to get people signing cheques if the star of the show can’t even be bothered to turn up?’

‘Dad.’ Isla looked at him. ‘He’s with a family—’

‘Isla,’ her father broke in. ‘To be able to take care of the families, sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture. I told him the same when I had lunch with him the other day. Not that he wanted to hear it. He’s an arrogant …’ Charles’s voice trailed off as Alessi approached the table but then he stood and shook Alessi’s hand.

‘Good to see that you finally made it,’ Charles said. ‘I thought I’d clearly outlined how important tonight was.’

‘You did.’ Alessi pushed out a smile but didn’t elaborate or explain the reason for his lateness. He looked like heaven in a tux, but he’d clearly rushed. His hair was damp and he hadn’t shaved, which somehow he got away with. There was a teeny stand-off between the two men and Isla found herself holding her breath, though why she didn’t know.

Alessi took a seat beside her and the fragrance of him, the scent of him, the warmth of him was the reason Isla turned. Greeting the guest, manners, polite conversation had nothing to do with the turn of her head.

‘How was today?’

‘I’ve had better,’ Alessi responded. ‘I’m pretty wrecked. I don’t want to talk about it here.’ He wasn’t in the mood for conversation. It had been a hell of a day and it had depleted him, and he didn’t need Isla’s coolness, neither did he need Charles’s sniping.

‘I’m sorry,’ Isla said, and he glanced over and those two words and their gentle delivery helped.

‘It was peaceful.’ Alessi conceded more information. ‘I’m glad that I stayed.’ He couldn’t think about it right now so he looked more closely at Isla, who was a very nice distraction from dark thoughts, and the night seemed a little brighter.

‘You look amazing.’

‘Thanks.’ Isla smiled. ‘So do you.’

They shared a look for a moment too long. She could have, had there been no one else present, simply reached over and kissed him. It was there, it just was, and Alessi knew it, too, and he confirmed it with words.

‘You have to say sorry first.’

Isla just laughed. There was a thrill in her spine and all the nerves of today, of yesteryear just blew away. It should be just them but the entrée was being placed in front of her.

‘I’m going to have to disappear,’ Alessi said, ‘and write my speech. I didn’t get a chance today.’

‘I’ve already written it,’ Isla said, and handed him a piece of paper. ‘Just lose the first part.’

‘The first part?’

‘“Dr Manos regrets that he’s unable to be here tonight.”’

‘Dr Manos is suddenly very glad that he is.’ Alessi smiled. It was a genuine smile and one that had seemed a long way off when he had left the hospital. Had it not been for this commitment, tonight would have been spent alone. Alessi took each death very personally and had long since found out that a night on the town or casual sex did nothing to fill up the black hole he climbed into when a little life was lost.

His grief was still there yet her smile did not dismiss it and neither did his.

Isla could hear her father asking a question, breaking the spell, dragging them back to the table, to the ball, to the world.

Dinner was long, the speeches even longer, and Alessi noted that Isla chatted easily with the guests at the table during dinner and listened attentively to the speeches.

She really was enjoying herself. Alessi shared her humour. His foot pressed into her calf on one occasion, not suggestively, more to share an unseen smile when one of the recipient’s speeches went on and on and on.

Then it was Alessi’s turn to take to the stage. Charles gave a rather long-winded introduction about the work he had done in the year that Alessi had been at the Victoria and how pleased they were to have such talent on board.

Isla watched as Alessi went up to the stage, the speech she had written in his hand, and he took a moment to arrange the microphone. Absolutely she could see why it was her father wanted a more visible profile for Alessi because, even before he had spoken, he held the room.

She watched him glance down at his speech and, yes, he omitted the first part where Isla had explained that, regretfully, he couldn’t be there.

He thanked everyone present and then Isla froze as Alessi hesitated and she realised she had omitted to mention a small joke she had written—I’d especially like to thank the extraordinary Isla Delamere for her amazing work on the MMU. It would have been funny had she read it out. Instead, Alessi’s face broke into a smile and he met her gaze.

She could feel her father’s impatience at the small lull in proceedings, she could feel her own lips stretching into a smile as Alessi omitted her joke and then moved on.

‘“I am very proud to receive this award,”’ Alessi said, reading from Isla’s notes. ‘“But more than that, I am incredibly grateful to work alongside skilled colleagues at such a well-equipped hospital. It helps when you can say, in all honesty, to parents that everything possible is being done or was done. It makes impossible decisions and difficult days somewhat easier to be reconciled to.”’

It was the truth, Alessi thought.

That Archie had been given every chance had been a huge source of comfort to Donna. That the facilities were top class, that there had been a private area for the family to take their necessary time with empathetic staff discreetly present had made his passing more bearable.

He wrapped up the speech and then added a line of his own, or rather he didn’t completely omit Isla’s.

‘I would especially like to thank Isla Delamere for being here tonight and for her amazing work on the MMU.’

Ouch!

Isla was blushing as Alessi returned to his seat.

‘Thank you,’ Alessi said. Her words had hit home. Yes, he might loathe this side of things but he was starting to accept that it might be necessary. No, he wouldn’t be appearing on morning television, as Charles had in mind for him, but he would make more effort, Alessi decided. That was the reason he stood around talking, being polite and accepting congratulations, while others headed off to dance. That was the reason he didn’t make his excuses and head home.

Isla watched in mild surprise as her student Flick danced with Tristan, a cardiac surgeon. She could almost feel the sparks coming from them, or was it just that Alessi was standing close?

‘Well done,’ Isla said, when finally the crowd gathered around him had dispersed enough for them to have a conversation.

‘Thanks,’ Alessi said.

‘Not too painful?’ Isla checked.

‘No. Your speech was perfect. I really am very grateful for such a well-run hospital. I just don’t like the fact that your father seems to want me to be the poster boy for the NICU.’

‘What was that?’ Charles came over and Alessi didn’t even flinch.

‘I was just telling Isla how well run and well equipped the hospital is.’

‘Because of nights such as this one,’ Charles said. ‘You cut it very fine getting here.’

‘I already explained that, Dad,’ Isla said, but Alessi didn’t need Isla to speak for him and told Charles exactly how difficult it had been to get there, albeit a little late.

‘I certified a patient dead at eight minutes past six,’ Alessi responded coolly, and Isla frowned at the tension between the two men. ‘As I said to you at lunch, please don’t rely on me to be your front person. I’ll do what I can on the social side of things but my job is to keep up the stats while yours is to bring in the funds.’

Isla swallowed. There were few people who spoke to Charles Delamere like that and got away with it, but it was what her father said next that truly confused her.

‘You could have at least shaved before you got here.’

‘Dad!’ Isla was shocked that her father would be so personal but Alessi didn’t seem remotely bothered.

‘It’s fine,’ Alessi briefly addressed Isla, then turned his attention back to Charles, who was looking at Alessi with thinly disguised murder in his eyes. ‘I stayed with the parents of the baby that died until seven and then I spoke at length with their daughter. Shaving really wasn’t my priority.’ He looked at Isla. ‘Would you like to dance?’

She said yes just to get the two of them apart.

‘Alessi, I’m so sorry about that!’ Isla said as they hit the dance floor. She was honestly confused by the way her father was acting. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He had no right to say anything about you not having shaved.’ Privately she was glad that Alessi hadn’t shaved—he looked wonderful and she actually ached to feel his jaw against her skin, but she held back from dancing with him the way she wanted to.

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Alessi shrugged.

‘Even so, I don’t know what’s got into him.’

‘I do.’ Alessi smiled. ‘He knows tonight I am going to be sleeping with his daughter.’

‘You assume a lot,’ Isla croaked as he pulled her in closer.

‘I never assume,’ Alessi said. ‘I just aim high.’

His fingers were stroking her arms and now his cheek was near hers as he spoke, his jaw was all scratchy against her cheek, even more delicious than Isla had predicted, and she found she could barely breathe.

‘I thought you were exhausted.’

‘Do I feel tired to you?’ Alessi said, and Isla guessed he was referring to the hard heat that was nudging at her stomach.

‘No.’ A single word was all Isla could manage.

‘I’m never too tired for you, Isla.’

She was beyond turned on. She wanted to move her face so their mouths could meet, she wanted the wetness of his tongue and the heat of his skin on hers.

Did she tell him how scared she was?

Did she tell him that he would be her first?

Isla would possibly die if he found out she was a virgin.

She’d had an internal when she’d had appendicitis and the doctors had thought it might be an ovarian cyst.

There was going to be no bloodshed, no ‘Oh, my God, is that your hymen?’ Just utter inexperience in very experienced arms.

Yet she wanted him and she had never till now wanted a man.

She wanted to be made love to and kill this demon for ever, choke it at the neck and get on with her life.

She knew his reputation, knew his relationships were fleeting at best. This might be just a one-night stand but it would be one that would help her step into her future.

Isla pulled her head back and looked into black, smiling eyes and, no, a heavy heart was not what was needed tonight. A long confessional could not help things here.

It was lust looking back at her, not love, she reminded herself.

Yet it was the beginning of the end of the prison she had trapped herself in and, however unwittingly, Alessi could set her free.

‘What are you thinking?’ he asked.

‘I’m not going to tell you.’

It was the truth and it was also the truth.

Isla’s decision was made.

Alessi would never know that he was her first.

‘I’m going to go soon,’ he said in a low voice that made her shiver on the inside. ‘I don’t want to offend your father by leaving with you. I’ll text you my address.’

‘You don’t know my number.’

‘I do,’ Alessi said. ‘Don’t you remember sending me that school reunion photo on the night we met, the night you blew me off?’ She was on fire in his arms as he scolded her for her actions that night. ‘You’re going to apologise properly for that tonight.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning I am going to go and say my goodbyes,’ Alessi said. His fingers were at the tie of her halter neck and she had an urge for him to unknot it, to be naked against him, to give in to the kiss that they both craved.

As the song ended, so, too, did their dance and Alessi gave her a brief smile of thanks before walking off.

To the world it might have looked like a duty dance, but for Isla it had been pure pleasure. She joined her father and tried to carry on a conversation with a prominent couple as her heart hammered and her mind whirred as to what to do. She saw Flick leaving with Tristan but this time Isla could only smile with the realisation that she had reprimanded Alessi just a few weeks ago for the very same thing—a doctor seeing one of her students.

She had been jealous, Isla could see it so clearly now.

Her phone buzzed and she glanced at it.

There was no message from Alessi, just his address.

‘Heading off already?’ Charles frowned. ‘It’s a bit soon.’

Isla looked at her father. She always did the right thing by her parents, by her sister, by Rupert, by her staff, her patients, by everyone but herself.

It was far from too soon.

Putting herself first was way overdue, in fact.

Isla left without another word.

CHAPTER NINE

ALESSI STEPPED INTO his apartment and swapped the crystal of his award for the crystal of a brandy glass.

He sent a text and wondered.

Would she come?

And if she did, then what would tomorrow bring?

He had spent close to a year wondering about Isla. Disliking her, yet wanting her. A whole year of trying to fathom what went on behind that cool facade.

No one had ever got into his head-space more and yet, rarely for Alessi, he did wonder about the consequences of tonight. He didn’t want to be shut down by Isla again, yet a part of him knew it was inevitable. Rare were the glimpses of the true Isla and he found himself craving them. From the first unguarded night to the smile when she had walked out from speaking with Blake and Christine, or sitting on a birthing ball with her teenage mums-to-be.

It was a case of one step forward and a hundred steps back with Isla and, despite the promise of their dance, despite the passion he had felt, Alessi actually doubted now that she’d even turn up at his door.

He checked his phone and, no, she hadn’t responded and Alessi found himself scrolling back and looking at their brief communication.

There was an eighteen-year-old Isla, as blonde and as glossy as she was now and smiling for the camera, but there was still that keep-out sign in her eyes. Alessi stared at the image for a long time, zooming in to avoid seeing Talia, for she had no place here tonight. Instead, he looked into Isla’s cool gaze and wondered about the secrets she kept, especially when he heard a knock at the door.

‘I was wrong,’ Alessi said as he opened the door to her. ‘I was starting to think you wouldn’t come.’

‘Why would you think that?’ Her voice lied—it was clear, it was confident, it was from the actress she had learnt to be.

‘Because you’re impossible to read.’

‘Better than boring,’ she said as he poured her a drink and handed it to her. She didn’t like brandy but it was a necessary medicine tonight. She was on the edge of both terror and elation and she wanted her demons gone.

To him.

He really was impossibly beautiful. His tie and jacket were off. If she ignored their surroundings, if she could pretend that they weren’t in his apartment, it could almost be the night they’d met for he had been wearing black pants and a white shirt then. He was just as toned, just as sensual, just as confident as he had been that night as he walked over to her, removed her now empty glass from her hand and placed it on a small table. His hands returned to her hips as they had that night, only his mouth did not take hers.

‘So …’ Alessi looked at her. ‘Here we are again.’

He was going to keep to his word, Isla realised as his lips did nothing to meet hers.

‘Up to you, Isla.’

Her lips actually ached from his ignoring them, and her body wanted to twitch from the lack of attention she craved. His hands were warm on her hips, his fingers just at the curve of her buttocks, and he moved not a muscle yet he stirred her deep on the inside. ‘I thought you were the great seducer,’ Isla said, willing her voice to be even, begging her heart to slow down.