The Midwife and the Millionaire (2 page)

Odette pursed her lips for a moment, then visibly pushed away whatever had caused the look. ‘He knows about the crocodiles. But thank you. Levi is a good guy, just forgotten how to have fun.'

And too attractive, and Sophie needed to talk about something new because she had the feeling anything else she learnt about him wouldn't help her forget.

‘So when's your baby due, Odette?'

‘A month.'

Sophie fought to keep her jaw from dropping but she had another look. Surely too small. Maybe Odette had it all tucked away. ‘I'd say your brother was right and you shouldn't be flying. Where's your mother?'

‘She died when I was a kid.' Oops, Sophie thought. Another foot-in-mouth question.

Luckily Odette didn't seem worried. ‘Levi brought me up. Our father ran off with another woman when I was young. That's why Levi's serious. He's been the man of the house for a lot of years.'

Too much information. Not hearing this. ‘OK.' Sophie pushed open the door and they went into the small exam room. ‘How about I check your blood pressure, feel your tummy and have a listen to your baby's heart rate? If it's OK with you I'll photocopy
your antenatal card. Then if you have any worries I can talk you through most of it on the phone.'

Odette grinned. ‘This is like booking into a spare hospital.'

Sophie smiled back. ‘Except we don't deliver babies here, only the unexpected ones.' She gestured to the chair beside her desk. ‘Have a seat.'

Odette settled herself and held out her arm. ‘That's OK. We'll probably be back in Sydney in a few days anyway.'

Maybe that justifies as passing through and he didn't technically lie. Though what the heck was he doing bringing someone this pregnant away from home?

Sophie wrapped the cuff around Odette's arm and pumped it up, then let it down. She unhooked the stethoscope from her ears and smiled. ‘Blood pressure's perfect. One ten on sixty.' She indicated the footstool beside the examination table. ‘If you can climb up there we'll see where this baby of yours is hiding.'

Odette chuckled. ‘Everyone says I'm small but I was only five pounds when I was born. The ultrasound said it's a boy.'

Sophie draped a thin sheet over the lower half of Odette's body and Odette lifted her shirt. ‘A boy. Wow. Nice tummy.' Sophie was serious. Odette's abdomen curved up in a perfect small hill, brown and smooth, and the baby shifted a body part into a small point as Sophie laughed. ‘He's waving.'

Odette slid her hand over the point and the baby
subsided as if trained. ‘My baby's no sloth. Moves heaps, especially at night.'

‘Women tend to feel their babies at night because they're not busy like they are in the daytime. They say the baby already has a rhythm so if he's awake a lot at night you might be in for some sleep deprivation.'

‘I don't mind.' Odette smiled dreamily. ‘I can't wait.'

I hope you do
, Sophie thought, as she measured the mound of Odette's belly and, taking into account the petite mother, the measurements confirmed Odette's estimated due date.

She slid the hand-held Doppler over the area she'd palpated as the baby's shoulder and the sound of the baby's heart rate filled the room. They both listened and their eyes met in mutual acknowledgement of the wonder of childbearing. ‘There you go,' Sophie said, as she turned off the Doppler. ‘One hundred and forty beats a minute and just as perfect as his mother.'

She helped Odette sit up. ‘Everything looks great.'

‘Thanks, Sophie. I feel better just talking to you.' Odette climbed down and smoothed her clothes. ‘How much do I owe you?'

Sophie shook her head. ‘I didn't do anything. Free service. Anyone can walk in and get the same.'

‘You and Smiley should come over to Xanadu on the weekend and have dinner with my brother and me. Our treat. As a thank-you for this.' She gestured to the examination couch. ‘I could come and get you in the chopper. Or Levi could.'

Lord, no. And she thought they were going in a day or two? It was only Monday. She walked her to the door. ‘Thanks, Odette, but the weather's still too unsettled for me to fly—I'm a chicken in the air—and I don't know what Smiley's planned. I've only just moved back from Perth.'

‘Sure. I'll ring later in the week.' Odette stopped and turned back with a new idea. ‘If you're not keen on flying, you could stay overnight and drive back the next day. In fact, that sounds more fun anyway.'

Sophie felt she was being directed by a small determined whirly wind, like the one that was lifting leaves outside her window and the one inside her chest when she thought of staying anywhere near Odette's brother. ‘I'll mention it to Smiley.' Not.

Odette pulled a gold compact from her bag, flicked open the mirror and touched up her lipstick. Not something Sophie did regularly out here in the bush and the thought made her smile to herself.

Odette snapped shut the compact. ‘What's your brother's real name?'

Sophie had to think for a moment. ‘William.'

Odette nodded as if she liked it. ‘I think I'll call him William.'

‘It's been a while since anybody has.' Now where was this going? Nowhere, she hoped. ‘He may not even remember it.'

‘Even more reason to,' Odette said cryptically.

 

That afternoon, Levi poured his sister a chilled juice and himself a cold beer before he moved to look over the veranda at the gorge below. Then her words sank in. He turned back to her. ‘You what?'

‘I invited William and Sophie to stay over for a night on the weekend. The midwife and her brother. To have dinner and drive home the next day.'

He'd strangle her. ‘Did I mention we didn't want to draw attention until I find out if anyone around here hated our father enough to push him into that river?'

Odette crossed her arms and lent them over her large tummy. ‘Hated him more than you?'

Levi shook his head. ‘I didn't hate him. I didn't respect him. That's all.'

He fully intended to sign the ownership he'd unexpectedly inherited back over to his sister, another baffling development his estranged father had left for him, when they'd all expected Odette to benefit by the resort automatically.

Odette rolled her eyes. ‘Because you've just found out he's had another son to another woman. Humph.' She returned to topic. ‘Besides, they wouldn't know anything about Father's accident. Sophie's only just moved back from Perth and William is—' she paused and her mouth curved ‘—just William. He hasn't a mean bone in his body.'

He flung his hand out towards the view. ‘We don't know that. Your new best friends. You've met them, what, once?'

‘You've met her too.' Odette sat forward as he frowned.

He'd done his part. He'd avoided meeting anyone. Not likely. ‘When?'

‘She said she'd met you by the river—' Odette didn't quite poke out her tongue but he knew that look ‘—this afternoon.' A winning point.

The little honey in the car? The last person he needed to be exposed to, as she seemed lodged like an annoying bindii from the grass in his memory bank. ‘Blonde ponytail? Nice, um, features?'

Odette coughed and he couldn't help the curve of his own lips. He really didn't have socialising on his agenda on this trip. He needed to go home; he'd already been away past his expectations, and his theatre list would be a mile long.

His sister would be the death of him. He sighed. Too late now. ‘So why can't we fly them in and out? That way they don't have to stay.'

Odette shrugged. ‘Sophie doesn't fancy the chopper.'

Chicken, eh? Good. Though she hadn't seemed a shrinking violet. ‘Maybe she wouldn't mind so much if the pilot didn't look like she was going to break her waters any moment?'

Odette flapped her hand at him. ‘You're too used to your own way. Let me worry about me.'

Five days later

‘I
DON'T
know how you talked me into this.' Sophie glared at her brother.

Smiley kept his eyes on the road. ‘You've been twitchy all week.'

‘And you've been moonstruck like a big old cow.'

Smiley turned to look at her briefly but didn't say anything.

It was disappointing. A bit of a spat might have taken her mind off the nerves that were building ridiculously at the thought of meeting the brooding rich man again. She was even avoiding his name in her thoughts. How ridiculous.

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 in stincts 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 ab
sorbed 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.'