‘My new best friend at school—who incidentally is still my best friend—had a mother who was a top lawyer. She helped me get legal emancipation from my grandmother. There was compensation and insurance money from the accident that got signed over to me. I was able to support myself.’
He whistled. ‘That was a tough thing to do. Brave too.’
She shrugged. ‘My new life started then.’
‘You had worse things going on than a teenage me ranting at you...’
She met his gaze. ‘What happened with you hurt me. I won’t deny it. I...I valued our friendship. It was a beacon in the darkness of those days.’
Mitch swore low and fluently.
She waited for him to finish. ‘It’s history now. I appreciate your apology. And I don’t want to hear one more word about it.’
‘Just a few more words,’ he said, with that engaging grin.
‘I can’t imagine what more there is to be said,’ she said, her lips twitching into a smile in response. ‘But okay. Your final words. Fire away.’
‘I was sent to the principal to be punished for my plagiarism. She was new that year and didn’t know me. When I explained she listened. Turns out I had a mild form of dyslexia that had never been diagnosed. I got help. My grades picked up. Not just in English, but all my subjects. I could have gone to university on my Higher School Certificate results if I hadn’t chosen to play soccer instead.’
‘Mitch, that’s wonderful news!’
Her instinct was to reach out and hug him. With every fibre of her being she resisted it. She could not trust herself to touch him.
But while she thought touching was not on the agenda, Mitch obviously thought otherwise. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. ‘I have a lot to thank you for, Zoe,’ he said.
His hand was warm and firm on her bare skin and she had to force herself not to tremble with the pleasure of it.
She had to clear her throat before she could reply. ‘Not me. The principal. Yourself. That’s who you should thank.’
He let his hand drop from her shoulder and she felt immediately bereft of his touch. That attraction she’d felt for him at seventeen was still there, simmering below the surface.
‘I’m determined to thank you, whether you acknowledge your role in the outcome or not,’ he said. ‘The least I can do is buy you dinner.’ He looked at his watch. ‘An early dinner?’
That threw her. She’d assumed once they’d sorted out the problems of the past he’d be on his way. ‘Here? Now?’
‘I don’t think it would be a good idea to go into Seminyak so soon after the quake. Too dangerous.’
‘I...I was going to order room service,’ she blurted out.
‘I was going to suggest the hotel restaurant. But I might get recognised. And I don’t want anyone else intruding on our reunion celebration. Room service is a great idea. Your villa or mine?’
‘Uh... H-Here would be good,’ she stammered. Reunion celebration?
Had the earthquake knocked her off that massage table and she’d hit her head? Was she hallucinating? Or in some some kind of coma?
Her and Mitch Bailey, having dinner tête-à-tête in the seclusion of a luxurious private villa in Bali? Maybe she’d wake up and find herself back in the spa, sprawled amid the debris with a big fat headache.
But if it was a dream, or a long-ago fantasy come true, she was going to enjoy every second of being with Mitch. Who knew what tomorrow might bring?
She swung her legs off the side of the lounger. ‘I’ll go get the room service menu.’
CHAPTER FOUR
MITCH RECLINED ON HIS lounger and watched Zoe as she walked into the living area. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the way her hips swayed enticingly under the body-hugging dress. Somehow he doubted that seductive sway was intentional. He’d seen enough of the type of woman who turned on the sex appeal with seduction in mind to know the difference.
No. Zoe had a natural, unconscious sensuality. The fact that she seemed unaware of it made her only more appealing. Zoe Summers. Who would have thought it?
He couldn’t get over the difference in her. It wasn’t that he’d found her unattractive as a teenager. There’d been something quirky and rebellious about her that he’d liked. But now...now she was sexy as hell. Sparky and feisty too. He was finding it fascinating to discover the woman she’d become. Was grateful to the twist of destiny that had flung them together.
She headed back towards the pool, waving a cardboard folder. ‘I had to hunt for it, but I’ve got the room service menu.’
Mitch swung his legs from the lounger so he sat on the edge. ‘Let’s take a look.’
‘It’s the same food as the restaurant. I’ve eaten there a few times. It’s good.’
Menu in hand, she hesitated near his lounger. He patted the seat next to him. Cautiously she sat down, being so careful to keep a distance between them that it made him smile. Again she tugged down her dress to cover her thighs. But that only meant the neckline of her dress slid down, revealing more than a tantalising glimpse of the swell of her breasts.
Surely he would have noticed if she’d had a body like that back at school?
‘What’s for dinner?’ he asked, shuffling a little closer to her until her scent filled his senses. ‘Any recommendations?’
‘I don’t know what you like,’ she said.
Of course she wouldn’t. Despite that briefly opened window on a shared past, he and Zoe were strangers.
‘What are you going to order?’ he asked.
‘Something not too spicy,’ she said. ‘The curries don’t agree with me.’
‘Bali belly, huh?’ he said. ‘Happens to the best of us. But you survived?’
Zoe pulled a face. ‘I’ll spare you the details,’ she said. ‘I seem to be over it now, but don’t want to risk a relapse.’ She handed over the menu. ‘I’m going to stick with the ayam bakar—I’ve had it before with no...uh...ill effects.’
Mitch read out the description of her chosen dish. ‘Organic chicken pieces marinated in a special blend of Indonesian spices, grilled, and served with a lemongrass salsa. Sounds good.’
‘It’s absolutely delicious. I want to learn how to make it when I get home.’
‘You like cooking?’
She nodded. ‘I wanted to have cooking lessons while I was in Bali but I’ve run out of days.’
‘Next time,’ he said.
She bit her lip and paled at his words, paused for a long moment. ‘Yes,’ she said finally. ‘Next time.’
Mitch cursed himself for his insensitivity; he’d already suspected she was only masking her fear.
Would there be a next time? Or another earthquake? Maybe a tsunami?
Despite the manager’s reassuring words Mitch knew there was a risk the entire resort would be wiped out by breakfast. But he tended towards optimism in his view of life. Not so Zoe, he suspected.
She’d lost her whole family when disaster had hit from nowhere. No wonder she was frightened. He wanted to take her in his arms and reassure her that there was a low statistical risk of any more serious danger. But he sensed she wouldn’t welcome it. He sensed a ‘hands off’ shield around her.
‘Y’know, I’m not really that hungry,’ she said in a diminished voice.
She twisted her hands together. To stop them trembling, he guessed.
‘You do realise it’s highly unlikely anything else is going to happen?’ he said gently.
Her chin rose. ‘I know that.’
‘There’s no need to be frightened.’
‘Who said I was frightened?’
‘I thought that was why you’d lost your appetite?’
‘No. I...’ She met his gaze. ‘Maybe I am a little frightened,’ she admitted.
‘Let’s order for you anyway. You might get hungry later.’ He scanned the menu. ‘I’m hungry right now.’
‘You were always hungry,’ she said, with a weak smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth.
‘Back then, I mean.’
‘Your granny mightn’t have been so nice, but she made good cookies.’
Zoe nodded. ‘Baking cookies with her is one of the few nice memories I have of her. She liked having a boy to cook for. I realise that now.’
‘Is she still around?’
Her lips tightened. ‘I guess so. I don’t know and I don’t care.’
‘I don’t blame you,’ he said. Not after the way she’d been treated by someone who should have cared for her. Hearing about the old woman’s pregnancy fear for Zoe had given him the creeps.
She nodded and quickly changed the subject. ‘Anything on the menu appeal?’
This was the first time he’d eaten at the hotel apart from breakfast. He’d spent most evenings with friends who owned the most fashionable beachfront nightclub in Seminyak. ‘I’m going for the Balinese mixed seafood.’
Zoe had to shift a little closer to him to read the menu. Her scent was fresh, tangy, with an underlying sweetness. Much like her personality, he suspected.
‘That looks good,’ she said. ‘Healthy.’ She looked up at him. ‘I guess you have to watch everything you eat?’
‘All the time. When I’m training or before a game I carb-load. On vacation I stick with lean protein and vegetables.’
‘I eat healthily too,’ she said. ‘But as I’m far from a professional athlete I also make room for chocolate.’
‘I can’t remember when I last ate chocolate.’
From the time when he’d first started playing for Sydney soccer clubs his diet had been overseen by a nutritionist. It was all about discipline. Discipline and constant self-denial.
‘You want to order dessert?’ he said, flipping the menu to the appropriate page.
‘Why not? The mini chocolate lava pudding with lychee ice cream might be good for my nerves.’
He liked her self-deprecating attitude to her fears. ‘That’s as good an excuse as any,’ he said. ‘Fruit salad for me. I’ve spent a season on the sidelines. I have to be at my peak when I start intense training again.’
She glanced at his right knee. So she knew about the incident when two opposing players had slammed into him and his anterior cruciate ligament had snapped.
‘Australia’s most famous knee...’ she said.
Mitch found it disconcerting that Zoe was so aware of the details of his life while he knew so little about hers. He doubted he’d ever get used to the scrutiny he endured as a celebrity athlete. Even his knee had become public property.
‘I wouldn’t say “most famous knee”,’ he said, laughing it off.
‘How about most notorious knee?’ she said, her head tilted to one side, teasing.
‘Notorious knee? I like that.’
Most painful knee was more like it. Both in terms of the actual injury and also in the way it had lost him a season of play. The memory of being carried off the field came flooding back. The agony. The terror that he wouldn’t be able to play again. The months of rehabilitation and physiotherapy that had followed. The effort to get himself back to peak fitness after the weeks on crutches.
‘I don’t see a scar,’ she said, her eyes narrowed.
‘No scar,’ he said. ‘Three small incisions for keyhole surgery have left tiny marks. That’s all.’
For a moment he was tempted to place Zoe’s hand on his knee and let her feel the punctures. Not a good idea. He found her way too attractive to be able to trust himself.
‘Is it healed now?’ she asked.
‘Good as new.’ He wouldn’t admit to anyone his niggling fear that once he was back in the game his knee would betray him again. His sporting life would be over if it did.
‘There was talk that your injury might force you to retire,’ she said.
‘No way,’ he said vehemently.
This exact injury had brought other great players’ careers to a skidding halt. He wasn’t going to let it end his.
It would take something more catastrophic than a cruciate ligament repair for his manager, his fans or himself to allow him to consider giving up. At the age of twenty-seven he was in his football prime. He cursed the six months it had taken him to achieve full recovery. Now he had to get back out there on the field and prove he could play better than ever.
Soccer was his life.
Zoe drew her dark brows together. ‘So, why are you in Bali?’
‘I was visiting family in Sydney, then decided to have a break here on the way back to Madrid. I met up with a mate who has a surf gear business. Another runs a big nightclub.’
‘When do you go back?’
‘Who knows how the earthquake has affected the airlines? But I’m scheduled to fly to Singapore then back to Madrid the day after tomorrow.’
It was May. He would hurl himself into intense training immediately he got back. Pre-season games started at the end of June. He needed those ‘friendly’ games to test his knee and get back into top form before the season proper commenced. The first games for La Liga—the Spanish league—started at the end of August.
‘What about your flight?’ he asked Zoe.
‘I fly out tomorrow morning, if all goes well.’ She crossed her fingers.
‘I guess the airlines will keep us informed,’ he said.
If all goes well.
He didn’t repeat her words—didn’t want to bring her fear to the fore again.
There was an awkward pause that she rushed to fill. ‘Do you like living in Madrid?’
‘Madrid rocks. An Aussie boy from the north shore of Sydney living in one of Europe’s great cities never tires.’
All true. But he hadn’t admitted to anyone how lonely he could get there, despite the buzz of playing for one of the world’s best teams. He had friends on the team, of course, but there were also some big egos to deal with—and the truth was they were in competition with each other as well as the opposing teams.
He wasn’t about to admit to that downside now. Zoe had flitted into his life again and he was very careful of what he said to people except his family and his closest friends—careful of who he let in to his private world. You never knew who would talk to the press. Or misrepresent his words on social media. Or post a compromising selfie.
‘Do you speak Spanish?’ she asked.
‘Enough to get by.’
Mitch decided the conversation had centred too much around him. He was way more interested in her.
‘Me muero de hambre.’
Zoe laughed—a low, husky laugh that hadn’t changed at all since she was a teenager. She’d grown into that sensual, adult laugh.
‘You’re dying of hunger. Did I get that right?’
‘You speak Spanish?’ He knew so little about her—wanted to know more in this accelerated getting-to-know-you situation they found themselves in.
‘Hablo un poco de español,’ she said, with an appropriately expressive shrug.
‘You speak a little Spanish,’ he translated.
‘And a little French, and a little Italian, and a few phrases in Indonesian that I’ve learned in the last few days.’
‘You’ve travelled a lot?’
‘So far most of my travel has been of the armchair variety. I’d like to travel a lot. I’d love to be fluent in different languages. I’ll study more some day—when I’m not so busy working.’
Of course she would. Zoe had been so smart at school. And she’d grown up into a formidable woman. Formidable and sexy. How very different from the women he usually dated. From nowhere came the thought that Zoe Summers would be a challenge. The kind of challenge it would be pleasurable to meet.
‘I have no idea what work you do,’ he said.
‘I have my own accountancy and taxation advice company.’ She paused. ‘Yeah. I know. Boring.’
‘I didn’t say that,’ he said.
She pulled a face. ‘I can see the thought bubbles wafting around your head.’ She made a series of little quote marks in the
air as she sang the words in a clear contralto. ‘“Boring. Boring. Boring.”’
He laughed. ‘Wrong. My thought bubbles are “Clever Zoe” and “Intelligent” and “Entrepreneurial”.’
‘Oh,’ she said. ‘They...they’re great thought bubbles.’
‘But don’t ask me to sing them as I’m totally tone deaf.’
She laughed. ‘I’m grateful—both for the thought bubbles and for sparing me the singing.’
‘You couldn’t call it singing. There isn’t a musical bone in my body.’
‘Not a singer and not a poet?’ She smiled. ‘Seriously, though, my clients are anything but boring—’
‘And neither are you boring,’ he said.
She flushed pink, high on her cheekbones. He would have liked to trace the path of colour with his fingers, then move down to her mouth. Her lovely mouth, with the top lip slightly narrower than the bottom lip, giving it an enticing sensuality.
‘That’s nice,’ she said simply.
‘Tell me about your clients,’ he said. ‘I’m intrigued.’
‘I specialise in working with creative people.’ Her face softened. ‘People like my parents, who were hopeless money-managers. Charming. Talented. My father played guitar. My mother’s instrument was her voice. But they were feckless with money.’
She stopped.
‘That was way more information than you wanted.’
He leaned closer to her. ‘No, it wasn’t. Tell me more. I’m interested in what you do.’
She backed away—so slightly he might have thought he’d imagined it if he hadn’t been so focused on her. He found it intriguing to have her nervous of him. He was used to women who were unabashed—blatant, even—in expressing their desire for him.
‘Shall we order the food first, if you’re so hungry?’ she said, her words tumbling out in a rush. ‘I know the manager said it was business as usual, but the kitchen might not be up to speed after the quake.’
Mitch’s empty belly told him that was a very good idea. But he wasn’t going to let her get away for long with changing the subject. He was fascinated by her—wanted to make the most of the hours they were fated to spend together.
‘Okay,’ he said.
She got up from the lounger. ‘I’ll phone it through.’
From Paradise...to Pregnant! Page 4