Chapter 5
‘That’ll be ten dollars and twenty cents, please,’ said the woman at the cash register.
Nat was fishing around her bag to grab her phone to pay for the sandwiches and drink on her tray when a very male voice from behind said, ‘Take it out of this.’
Every nerve ending in her body leaped as the authoritative tone washed over her and she glanced over her shoulder.
Even not trapped in a lift with him – was that only yesterday?
– his sheer masculinity had her heart doing a funny shimmy in her chest. She frowned, both at her unwanted response and his offer to buy her lunch.
‘I pay my own way,’ she said, annoyed that Alessandro was both arrogant enough to presume and able to make her body feel so alive – in the middle of the staff cafeteria – all at the same time.
The worker looked from her to him and Nat couldn’t help but notice that, when he wanted to, Alessandro Lombardi could indeed pull a hundred-watt smile.
His face went from darkly handsome, deeply tortured widower to blatantly sexy, Roman god.
His curved lips utterly desirable as he dazzled the poor woman at the till.
After another stifling night with only a fan that seemed to do nothing other than push the hot air around and little sleep, it was especially irksome.
Pushing his money closer, he murmured, ‘Keep the change.’
Nat rolled her eyes as the woman practically swooned and reached for his crisp orange note. Picking up her tray, she left him to it but within seconds she could sense him following.
‘Italian women may think it’s charming to be taken care of but I don’t,’ she said, steaming ahead to a table that overlooked the rose gardens for which St Auburn’s was famous. ‘So, don’t pull your macho rubbish with me.’
Last time she’d let a man pay for her, she’d been sucked into wasting five years of her life.
He pulled out her chair and Nat glared at him as she angled herself into it, which was childish but he was seriously the living end.
‘I wanted to talk to you about Julian. I thought the least I could do was buy you lunch while you listened.’
Nat eyed him across the table as she folded her arms. If anything, he looked more tired than she’d ever seen him.
His hair was more tousled, like he’d been continually running his hands through it, and the furrows in his forehead were more prominent, but damn if this man didn’t already know her Achilles’ heel.
‘Is he okay?’
She’d spent the morning with Julian and he didn’t seem any different from his usual quiet self. Had something happened? What did he need to talk about?
‘Of course,’ he dismissed curtly as if irritated by her assumption that something was wrong. ‘I just wanted to… ask you something.’
Intrigued despite herself, Nat opened up her packaged egg and lettuce sandwiches and took a bite. ‘Ask away.’
‘How come you work at both the crèche and the hospital?’
Okay… not what she’d been expecting. ‘You have to ask me that after Ernie?’
He regarded her for a moment. ‘So, it’s a… self-preservation strategy?’
‘I prefer to call it a happy medium. Too many hospital shifts and I get burned out. But I miss it if I’m away too long.’
‘The best of both worlds?’
Nat shrugged. ‘I like to temper the Ernie days with the Julian days. Both workplaces let me have permanent shifts. No weekends, no night duty. Two days at St Auburn’s gives me my hospital hit, keeps my hand in, let’s me know I’m alive. Three days at the crèche restores my sanity. It keeps me Zen.’
He seemed puzzled by the admission and she wondered if the man even knew what Zen was let alone experienced the phenomenon.
‘Do you have childcare qualifications too?’
She narrowed her eyes. Why did this suddenly feel like a job interview? ‘I’ve done my certificate and have a child health qualification.’ She cracked open the lid on her can of soft drink and eyed him over the top as she took a swig. ‘Why?’
His gaze brushed over the bob of her throat as she swallowed and Nat’s gut clenched but thankfully his eyes didn’t linger, meeting hers as he cleared his throat. ‘I think I have a solution to your eviction situation.’
Of their own volition, Nat’s eyes mapped the movement of his lips.
‘Oh, yes?’ she said cautiously, trying to ignore the fullness of his mouth. A mouth made for whispering. Made for kissing.
Bloody hell – get a grip, woman.
‘You can stay with me. And Julian.’
The canteen noises around them faded as his stunning suggestion plonked on the table between him like a boulder.
Live under his roof? A man who, fully clothed, grim faced and utterly inaccessible, made her heart flutter like an epileptic butterfly?
What the hell could he do in his own place, where the pretence of professionalism didn’t exist?
Where he’d be all relaxed and homey and… wearing less.
‘Just until your unit is built, of course.’
Nat blinked as her mind shied away from inconvenient images of Alessandro wearing less. ‘But… why? I barely know you.’
He shrugged. ‘I have the room, you need a place. And you’d be doing me a favour, helping with Julian. I haven’t been able to find a suitable live-in nanny and Julian adores you.’
It made Nat happy to think she was making a difference to the serious little boy who came to the crèche and that the feelings were entirely mutual.
She was always pleased to see him and her heart melted faster than an ice cube in this damn heatwave when his solemn little face lit up like a New Year’s Eve firework display the moment he spotted her.
But that wasn’t this.
She frowned. ‘You want me to be a… nanny? I already have a job. Two, actually. Which, by the way, I love.’
Alessandro shook his head. ‘No. I don’t expect you to give up your jobs. Julian can still go to the crèche but he could go and come home with you, which means he wouldn’t have such long days there. And he wouldn’t have to go on weekends and when I’m called in at night.’
Nat listened to his plan, which she supposed, from his point of view, sounded reasonable. A clear-headed, clear-cut offer which would be mutually beneficial.
So why did it seem such an illicit temptation?
‘I’d pay you. And it would be rent free, of course.’
Of course. Nat reeled, her brain scrambling to take in his offer. She looked at him all big and dark and handsome with the added grimness that made him heartbreakingly attractive. She didn’t know much right at this second but she did know saying yes to Alessandro Lombardi was a very stupid idea.
‘No.’
Two black brows drew together. ‘You’ve had another offer?’
Nat contemplated lying. But it really wasn’t her way. Already her cheeks were growing warm just formulating a falsehood. ‘No.’
He shrugged. ‘Then it’s settled.’
The haughty set to his jaw had her bristling at his arrogant assumptions. ‘No.’
‘I don’t understand. What’s the problem?’
The problem was that Alessandro Lombardi was a very attractive man.
The mere thought of sharing a living space with him was breathtakingly intimate and already her pulse raced at the thought.
She knew enough about herself to know she had a soft heart.
She’d end up too involved, too invested in the Lombardis, and she wasn’t stupid enough to get herself embroiled in that kind of scenario again.
‘Ah,’ he said as she averted her eyes from him. ‘You worry about what people will think? You have my word I have no ulterior motive. I have no…’ He searched for the right word, looking her up and down with complete dispassion. ‘Agenda. Your virtue is safe with me.’
Nat felt about as attractive as a bug at his cursory once-over. One of the really ugly ones. It wasn’t something she was used to. ‘Gossip doesn’t bother me.’
‘Then what?’
She stared at him exasperated. The man was obviously not used to hearing no. ‘I don’t have to justify myself to you, Alessandro,’ she said testily, wishing she had any other reason for turning him down other than his irresistible sex appeal.
Unfortunately, she had nothing.
Placing her packaging back on her tray, she rose.
‘I’m sure you’re quite unused to hearing the word no.
I’m sure you just snap your fingers and women fall all over themselves to do your bidding.
But I’m not one of them. The answer is no.
Just plain no. No equivocations, no justifications. Just no. Get used to it.’
She turned to leave but he reached across and grabbed her arm. ‘Wait. I’m sorry, Nathalie.’ Contrition coloured his voice. ‘I didn’t mean to be so…’
Nat shivered. She didn’t know if it was from his touch or the way her name sighed from his lips like a caress. She turned back. He seemed so perplexed and her anger dissipated as quickly as it had risen. ‘Italian?’
Alessandro smiled and dropped his hand. ‘You have knowledge of Italian men.’
‘I lived in Milano for a year. A long time ago now.’
‘There was a man there?’
Nat gave a wistful smile. She’d lost her virginity in Italy. She’d been eighteen and hopelessly enamoured. ‘A boy. It didn’t last long. I was a little too… independent for him.’
He nodded. ‘So, you know we’re not very good at asking for things.’
A shard of a memory made her smile broader. ‘I don’t know, I seemed to remember he was very good at asking for some things.’ It had been a heady few months.
He didn’t return her smile; if anything, his mouth thinned a little. ‘I meant help. Italian men like to be… men. Yes?’
‘Yes.’ That she did know.
‘I need help with Julian. We are not… close. Since his mother died… it’s been difficult. He doesn’t let me in… He’s very unhappy.’
Nat swallowed at the raw ache in his voice. It clawed at her soft spot. ‘His mother just died, Alessandro. He’s grieving, just like you. He’s allowed to be unhappy. There would be something wrong if he wasn’t. He just needs time.’