by Lucy Clark
In fact, he should do as she’d suggested and leave her to do her job. He should get up. Mumble something about just making sure she was all settled in and then leave. Being around Iris only made him want to know more, to breathe in that scent of hers, which was filled with sweetness and light, to watch as her emerald eyes sparked with annoyance as they were doing now. She wanted him gone. He shouldn’t argue with that.
Still, he didn’t move.
‘So…is there something you needed? Wanted? Anything I can help you with?’ Iris decided the direct approach was her only hope to get him gone.
Dex’s mouth twitched with amusement at her words. ‘Now, there are three very loaded questions. Is there something I need?’ As his rich brown gaze skimmed over her upper torso, Iris tried not to gasp at the visual caress, her heart rate, which had only just started to return to normal, picking up pace again. ‘Is there something I want?’ His gaze focused on her mouth and her traitorous lips parted with quivering anticipation.
Dex leaned forward so his elbows were on the desk, his gaze now flicking between her eyes and her lips. ‘Is there anything you can help me with?’ The words were soft, husky and exceedingly intimate. ‘Oh, Iris.’ Her name was like a whispered caress on his lips. ‘I do believe there is.’
Iris swallowed. Once. Twice. Still she seemed to be incapable of speech. Third time lucky. She sucked in a deep breath and forced herself to speak. ‘And what might that be?’ Her eyes widened imperceptibly as she heard her own voice. Why had those words come out sounding like a husky invitation for him to join her in an early morning tryst?
Silence reigned between them, their bodies appearing to have a completely different conversation to the one being spoken aloud. Finally, Dex spoke.
‘Dinner. Tonight. Stiggie’s.’
It took but a moment for his words to penetrate the haze he’d created around them. Was he asking her out? Was he demanding she go with him? To dinner? As in a date?
These thoughts helped Iris to snap out of the bubble she’d been in as her temper began to rise. Dex was a player. She had to keep remembering that. Add to that fact that he no doubt felt sorry for her now that he’d discovered her traumatic past. He’d asked her out to dinner last weekend without knowing anything about her and now that he knew far more than she’d planned on revealing, it was nothing more than a pity invite. A sour taste rose in her mouth but she ignored it. What did it matter that she found this man attractive? Nothing, because she knew, deep down in her heart, that he would never find her so.
Without moving and still holding his gaze, she said quietly but firmly, ‘No.’
Dex didn’t seem to be offended. He leaned back, though, putting some much-needed distance between them. He crossed his legs, one ankle resting on the opposite knee, his whole attitude displaying nonchalance. ‘Why not?’
‘Why?’ she countered.
‘I told you last week at the fair that we’d go to Stiggie’s on Saturday night and sample the food in his restaurant.’
‘That’s right. You told me. You never asked me, Dex. In fact, you still haven’t asked me.’
‘All right.’ He sat up straighter, squared his shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes. She wished he hadn’t because it was his eyes that made her want to forget everything and to completely throw caution to the wind.
‘Iris, would you like to go with me to Stiggie’s tonight to sample the delicious food at his restaurant?’
Iris smiled politely at him. ‘Well, Dex. What a sweet offer and how nice of you to ask. Unfortunately, if I’d known sooner, I wouldn’t have made other plans.’
‘Plans?’ His frown was real and it was clear Dex wasn’t used to being turned down. Iris was pleased with herself. Other women in this community may not have willpower when it came to their leading bachelor boy, but she certainly did. ‘What plans?’
‘That, Dr Crawford,’ Iris said, standing as she heard the sound of someone actually coming in the front door of the clinic, ‘is none of your business.’
With that, she walked straight past him, out of her consulting room towards the waiting room. Dex leaned back in the chair and shook his head. What was that all about? He had thought Iris would be happy to go out to dinner, to meet some of the community at Stiggie’s. Sure, Saturday night was like ‘date night’ in this town but that didn’t have to mean a thing. They were colleagues. He hoped they could become friends. It had nothing at all to do with the fact that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her last night.
She’d obviously had such terrible things happen to her, had gone through so much, was no doubt still dealing with a lot of the emotional fallout from such trauma, but she was here, she was dealing with it, she was being strong. Even though he kept telling himself that Iris Tennant wasn’t his type, he couldn’t help but want to be around her.
Deciding to come and help her in the clinic had been a strictly professional decision. He was helping his new colleague settle in. What he hadn’t expected was to find the clinic empty and the woman who had plagued his dreams last night sitting in her chair, relaxed and happy, a smile on her face as she’d sighed with utter longing.
Had she been thinking about her husband?
He swallowed at the thought, wondering at the sudden stirring of jealousy within his gut. No. Ridiculous. He couldn’t be jealous. He didn’t do jealousy. He held himself aloof from those sorts of emotions. He immediately pushed the thought away, telling himself sternly that Iris was only in Didja for six months. She was a colleague. His relationship with her should be one of pure professionalism and mild friendship. Nothing more. Really, fighting his attraction to her should be the least of his problems.
‘Dex!’
Iris’s shout from the waiting room was tinged with urgency. He was on his feet in a split second and bolted to the waiting room. It was only then he realised the noise level surrounding them. ‘Something I can help you with?’
Those were the same words he’d said to her before but this time they held a completely different connotation. She was pleased he was calm, that although she could see his eyes taking in the entire situation, he still outwardly remained calm.
‘Sorry to yell. Didn’t mean to startle you.’ Iris glanced at him as she took a five-year-old boy from his mother. The child was screaming so loudly she thought her eardrums might burst. ‘Thought you might not have heard me otherwise.’
‘Oh, I heard,’ he remarked as he looked at the father, who was coming into the clinic holding another screaming child. ‘Smitty?’ Dex directed his comments to the father. ‘What on earth’s been happening at your place?’
Smitty shook his head. ‘Wouldn’t believe me if I told ya.’ He smiled, his white teeth shining out against his dark skin.
‘Try,’ Dex encouraged as he followed Iris, who was heading towards her consulting room. ‘Maybe we should take them both straight to the hospital. Give us more room to move,’ he suggested. He wasn’t sure how Iris would take his suggestion. After all, officially she was the one in charge. Would she ignore him, tell him to mind his own business, or would she listen?
‘Makes sense.’ She veered off, the five-year-old still wailing like a banshee at the top of his lungs. ‘I still have no idea what’s happened.’ She looked to Smitty for an answer and the man shook his head as they rounded the corner into the hospital section at the rear.
‘Dumb really. Diamond—’ he pointed to the child Iris was holding ‘—was playing with his pet goanna out in the back yard when Trapper—” Smitty indicated the squirming six-year-old in Dex’s arms ‘—yeah, well, Trapper decided to not be very nice and hit Goofy with a stick.’
‘Goofy?’ Iris was confused.
‘The goanna,’ Dex said matter-of-factly.
‘Oh.’ Iris placed Diamond on a bed, not surprised to see Bub appearing beside them. The other patients currently in the hospital would be rather put out by the noise but Dex had been right in suggesting they bring both boys here rather than trying to deal w
ith them in the consulting rooms.
‘Goofy got mad.’
‘Rightly so,’ Dex agreed.
‘Yeah, but Goofy upset Trapper’s spider cage,’ Smitty continued.
‘One of them was bitten by a spider?’ Iris started to check for marks on Diamond’s arms. Why was Smitty being so calm and telling a yarn when his son could be dying? The little boy’s mother was standing quietly to the side, her eyes wide as she looked on from a distance.
‘Ah…she don’t do well in hospitals,’ Smitty said, obviously following the line of Iris’s gaze. ‘Anyway, the spiders got onto Trapper.’
‘Trapper was bitten? By what sort of spider?’ Dex was looking for marks but the kid was squirming too much. ‘We need to keep him still. If there’s poison in his blood, moving around is the last thing we need him to do. Mate, can you lie still for me, please?’
‘Nah, he didn’t get bitten.’
‘Then what happened?’ Iris was starting to get rather impatient, wishing the father would just spit out the exact circumstances that had led them to bring their two boys here to be treated.
‘Has anyone been bitten?’ Dex tried, keeping his cool. He didn’t blame Iris for feeling impatient. He was beginning to get there himself.
‘Yes. Diamond.’
‘By what?’ Bub was the one who asked the question as she headed to the cabinet where the different types of antivenene were kept.
‘Brown snake.’
‘Where?’ But even as she said the word, Iris found the two little puncture wounds on the inside of the boy’s right foot. ‘Found it.’
‘When did all of this happen?’ Dex asked.
‘About ten minutes ago. We just scooped up the boys and brought them straight here. Seemed the best thing to do.’
‘And Trapper?’ Dex was slowly getting the boy to calm down as he glanced over to watch Iris dealing with Diamond. At least the five-year-old wasn’t thrashing about like his brother.
‘The spiders crawled all over him. He doesn’t like it. They’re all harmless ones, none are poisonous, Doc Dex, I swear, but Trap still doesn’t like the sensation.’
‘I don’t blame him. It’s all right, mate. They’re all gone.’ Dex tried to soothe the six-year-old.
‘I did get bitten. I did,’ Trapper returned with vehemence.
‘Where? Whereabouts?’ Dex asked, his tone calm. ‘Show me?’ The sooner the boy was more in control, the sooner they’d really be able to help him.
‘On the finger.’ Trapper started to calm down but still kept twitching as he held out the finger in question.
‘A spider bit you on the finger?’ he checked, unable to see any marks.
‘No. Goofy did.’
Dex relaxed a bit and took a look at the finger. ‘Hmm. It looks OK to me.’
‘No. It’s not OK. Goofy bit me. He’s naughty.’
‘You was the one hittin’ him with a stick,’ Smitty pointed out to his son. Iris and Bub were stabilising Diamond by inserting an IV line, administering the antivenene, splinting the area and doing the required observations to ensure the boy’s heart rate remained at a normal pace. The faster his blood was pumping, the faster the poison could spread around his body. Dex returned his attention back to Trapper, quite satisfied that Diamond was receiving the best care this clinic could offer in the form of their new paediatrician.
‘Hey, mate. I’ve got a question for you.’
‘What?’ Trapper looked at him a little sceptically but still kept trembling.
‘What happens when a goanna bites you?’
‘It hurts.’
‘Yep. And then what?’
‘And then your whole body starts to shake and tremble.’ His little brown eyes were growing wide with panic as he spoke the words. ‘And then when you can’t stop shaking, you know all the goanna spit is in your body and it’s like all over the place and like everywhere. And then you die.’ Trapper looked seriously up at Dex. ‘Am I gonna die, Doc Dex?’
‘Not at all.’ Dex made sure his answer was serious, even though he was hard pressed not to laugh at what Trapper had been saying. ‘I do have another question, mate. Who told you about this reaction to a goanna bite?’
‘Glaston.’
Dex nodded. ‘Your big brother. Right.’ He looked at Smitty. ‘Makes sense now.’
Smitty shook his head. ‘I’m gonna have a little talk with Glast when I get home. Rotten kid. He knows how his little brothers listen to everything he says.’
‘No doubt he said it as a joke.’ Dex kept his words quiet, not wanting to really upset Trapper or embarrass him. Thankfully, the six-year-old had stopped squirming around and was lying quite still. Dex cleaned and bandaged the boy’s finger, pleased to see that Iris and Bub really did have everything under control where poor little Diamond was concerned.
‘Now, Trapper,’ Dex said, ‘I want you to know that your finger isn’t going to fall off. Everything is going to be fine. You’re not sick. In fact, you’re in very good health. What Glaston said was wrong.’
Iris listened with half an ear to what Dex was saying to calm the boy down. She was pleased Trapper was now settled as he’d been causing Diamond some distress. ‘Your brother’s fine,’ Iris told the five-year-old. ‘Dr Dexter is explaining everything to Trapper and soon you’ll both be up and running about the place, causing more havoc. For now, though, you’ve been a very lucky boy.’
She and Bub continued to treat Diamond but Iris couldn’t help sneaking glances at Dex. She’d been so aware of him as they’d looked after their patients and she’d been impressed with the way he hadn’t talked down to the six-year-old but instead had figured out what was wrong and then handled it well. A lot of doctors had difficulty treating children but it appeared Dex was a man of many talents.
She looked back at Diamond, focusing her thoughts on what she was doing rather than on her colleague. It was quite clear that Dex Crawford needed women to fall at his feet, to be under his thrall, and because she was resisting, he was working harder to ensure he snared her in the end.
It didn’t seem to matter that she was scarred, that her body was a mass of mismatched skin and several grafts. It didn’t seem to matter that she simply wasn’t interested in any sort of relationship other than a purely professional one. He needed her to walk behind him with her tongue dragging on the ground, hanging on his every word. He was a playboy and, as such, he was most definitely not the type of man she was interested in.
So he was good-looking. So he had charm and charisma. So he knew how to make a girl feel special just by giving her his undivided attention. That didn’t mean she had to fall at his feet. It didn’t mean she would be aware of his presence even before she saw him. It wouldn’t happen. She would fight it because she was strong, she was a fighter, and her life would go on long after she’d left the little outback mining town of Didja.
When Diamond was stable, Iris turned to face the boys’ parents. ‘I’d like Diamond to stay in overnight so we can monitor him.’
Diamond’s mother was still standing in the corner and at this news she started to shake her head from side to side. Smitty went to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘He’ll be OK. He’s got Doc Dex and the new sheila to look after him. He’ll be as right as rain.’ Smitty looked around the room. ‘And there’s Bub. You trust Bub. She won’t let anything happen to our Diamond.’
‘No way in the world. Come along, darl,’ Bub said, taking the woman by the hand. ‘Let’s go outside and get some fresh air and I’ll explain everything. Diamond’ll be apples.’ Bub took Diamond’s mother out of the hospital and Iris turned to face Dex.
‘How’s Trapper?’
‘Trapper’s been beaut. What a hero. Survived a goanna bite and lives to tell the tale. The kids at school are going to be rapt to hear the story on Monday.’
‘And my story, too,’ Diamond said weakly.
‘And yours, too, mate.’ Dex walked over to where Diamond lay on the hospital bed and smiled down at the boy. �
�Two brave heroes in the one family. Smitty, you should be right proud of your boys.’
They continued chatting, keeping the two boys at ease, while Iris found the necessary forms and filled them in. Even though this place didn’t have a lot of red tape, there were still rules and procedures to be followed, and Iris was the type of doctor who liked her i’s dotted and her t’s crossed.
Dex continued to watch her out the corner of his eye as he joked with Smitty and the boys. He knew he’d been lying to himself about only wanting to have a professional friendship with Iris. The woman was enchanting.
He wanted to know more about her, wanted to talk to her, to find out about her past, about her scars, to help her in any way he could. He was having difficulty controlling his thoughts where she was concerned. A woman, so vibrant, so beautiful, and yet when he’d looked deeply into her eyes before he’d left last night, he’d seen the tortured soul beneath the exterior.
He wanted to know her, to be able to look at her scars, to touch them, to kiss them. He wanted to pull her hair from the plait, to see how it looked floating about her face, her shoulders, down her back. He wanted to caress the smattering of freckles across her nose and he wanted the opportunity to really taste those lips.
Never before had a woman consumed his thoughts as much as Iris. She’d been married. She’d lost her husband and that would have changed her. He wondered what she’d been like before her tragedy. Whether she’d viewed the world through rose-coloured glasses or if she’d been as closed off then as she was now.
Dex also knew he was moving into uncharted territory as far as women were concerned. He’d always held himself aloof, friends with everyone, serious with no one. Yet the way he was constantly thinking about Iris had come completely out of left field and he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. However, the need, the intensity of the way he thought about her, it was there and he couldn’t deny the attraction, the gravitational pull towards his new colleague.
It didn’t even matter that she appeared to want to have nothing to do with him, except in a professional capacity. She’d opened up to him, shared a part of herself with him, had sobbed in his arms and allowed him to comfort her. She’d touched a part of him deep down in his soul that he’d kept hidden from everyone, especially during the past couple of years when he’d been so estranged from his adoptive family.