Dating The Millionaire Doctor(9)

'If we don't charge her, then she won't come.'

'And you want her to come.'

'Yes,' he snapped, and Rob grinned.

'I see,' he said thoughtfully. 'Shall I ring Barb, then, and tell her the five-minute dating was a success?'

'Just try it.'

'That's what I thought,' Rob said. 'Okay, not yet. But I'm thinking I  might get Mrs. Matheson to pull out all the stops. It's time we had a  great dinner.'

'Nothing special,' Jake said.

'You don't want to scare her?'

'Rob … '

'I know,' his manager said, placating. 'But I'm thinking lobster. She  can think we have it every night, because we're not trying to impress  her at all.'



'Manwillinbah Lodge.'

She turned into the driveway and she could scarcely believe she was on  the same planet as the place she'd just left. The lodge looked gracious  and inviting, long and low and sprawling. Beyond rambling rose gardens  were acres of grapevines, just coming into bud. It looked not where she  belonged at all.

Why was she panicking?

She shouldn't be here. She should be somewhere she could be alone to  think things through. Though hadn't she had enough time to think things  through, and where had that got her?

But before her muddled thoughts could take her any further, her car door was tugged open, and Jake was looking in.

'Hey,' he said softly. 'I was starting to think I'd need to come up the mountain and fetch you. Welcome, Tori. Welcome, Rusty.'

He was smiling. That smile was enough to make a girl panic all on its  own. 'I was just coming to tell you … to tell Rob I wasn't coming,' she  muttered. 'And to thank you for the cleaners.'         

     



 

He nodded, suppressing his smile. 'That makes sense. Or not. The  cleaners were my pleasure. As for not staying …  You want to have dinner  while you tell us why not?'

'I can't stay here,' she said wildly, gesturing towards the house.

'Why ever not?'

'I don't fit.'

'You fit in fine,' he said. 'Our only two guests were burned out themselves. They're here to sleep.'

'I don't have any clothes.'

'Odd,' he said thoughtfully. 'You'd have thought I'd have noticed no clothes.'

'You know what I mean.'

He did. His gaze met hers and she knew he understood. 'You look great,'  he said softly. 'Tori, you look lovely. Jeans and T-shirt are  practically uniform here and no one's going to judge you even if they  weren't. Dinner's on the table in an hour. That gives you time to have a  bath first.'

'You're saying I'm dirty?'

'I'm saying there's a heated spa bath on your balcony with a view to die  for. It's totally private. If you're dirty to start with, there's only  you to notice. Unless you want me to come scrub your back?'

'No!'

'No?' He was laughing now, and suddenly she found herself smiling back.  Okay, she thought, maybe this wouldn't be as bad as it seemed. She  didn't need to trust. She only needed to stay for a night. And tomorrow …

'Worry about right now,' Jake said gently and, chameleon-like, his  laughter was gone again. It was replaced by a gentle concern she found  disconcerting.

Insidious. Impossible to resist.

Inviting her to trust. Terrifying.

'Okay, no back-scrubbing,' he said, and he put out a hand to help her  from the car. 'Nothing but bath, food, sleep, and if that's not what you  need I'll eat my medical degrees. There's no pressure, Tori. You're our  welcome guest.'

His hand was waiting. Just waiting. All she had to do was accept.

'I won't bite,' he said softly. 'Rob's in the house, as is our  housekeeper, Mrs. Matheson. There are two elderly ladies lying on Rob's  fabulous lounges on the balcony watching the cockatoos. One's wearing  dungarees, one's wearing tweed. Life's safe here, Tori. It's a refuge,  if you like. You provided refuge for your battered wild creatures. Now  it's time for you to take refuge.'

'I don't need-'

'I think you do. Barb thinks you do, too.' He hesitated but then  continued. 'Maybe I should confess I phoned Barb this afternoon. When  she heard your koala was dead she was all for rushing up the mountain  and taking you home herself. Only I gather Barb has a husband, five sons  and a menagerie. We both thought you'd be best here. So what's it to  be, Tori? Here, or Barb's, because no one's going to let you stay in a  motel by yourself tonight.'

'Even if I want to?'

'If you really want, then we'll pay for a five-star hotel in the best  part of Melbourne,' he said. 'And you needn't think I'd have to  personally pay-according to Barb half the valley would have their hands  in their pockets in a minute to help you. So what's it to be?'

Still his hand was held out to her.

What was it to be?

She could still drive away. She knew she could.

There was a bath inside. A bath!

And Jake.

There was the problem.

She looked up at him. He smiled.

She couldn't trust.

She didn't need to trust. This was a night in a guesthouse, nothing more.

She took a deep breath. She tried to smile back. She put her hand in his and let him pull her up.

The tug had her rising too fast. She almost overbalanced, but he had her steady, catching her shoulders, holding.

He was so near.

She should pull away-but didn't.

'Tori … ' he said uncertainly, and she just looked at him. Sex on legs, she thought absently.

No. He was much, much more.

Get a grip, she thought frantically and shoved her hands up, breaking  his grip. She came close to falling back down into the car-but didn't.  Thankfully. A girl had some pride.

'I …  Thank you,' she muttered and managed to get herself round to the other side of the car to retrieve her cardboard box.

'I like your luggage,' he said, and grinned.

'Eat your heart out, Mr. Gucci,' she said, managing a smile in return. 'This is so next year's catwalk.'

'I believe it is,' he said. 'If there's anyone who can start a trend it would be you.'

'Enough with the compliments,' she said, feeling … disconcerted. No, more than that, totally flummoxed. 'You promised me a bath.'         

     



 

'I did. Let me carry your box.'

'I can manage myself,' she said with an attempt at dignity. 'Once upon a time I depended on others. I don't do that any more.'

'It's only carrying a box,' he said mildly.

'No,' she said softly, as she carted her belongings up the steps and into the house. 'Believe me, it's much, much more.'



She lay back in the vast spa; she let the bubbles float up around her  and she felt as if she was floating herself. From here she could see all  the way across the valley floor. There were candles lit around her,  gardenia with maybe a hint of citrus. The housekeeper had lit them as  she'd settled her into the room.

'And don't worry about privacy,' she'd said. 'There's oneway glass so  you can see forever but no one can see you, even if there was someone  outside, which there isn't. The one-way glass is brilliant. Jake had it  installed just after his father died.'

'Jake did that?'

'He wants this place to be the best. It was his stepmother's passion, and we want to carry it on.'

Jake's stepmother's passion …  There was a lot here she didn't understand, that she hadn't thought through.

She knew this place had been built by the local doctor and his wife.  Charlie McDonald had cared for this community for as long as most people  remembered. He'd cared for her mother during her long illness, allowing  her to die at home surrounded by her family and her beloved animals.  Tori remembered him with deep affection, and with gratitude.

He'd lived in Combadeen and his wife had run the lodge. The place up on  the ridge had been his weekend retreat, so they'd been weekend  neighbours. But just after she'd started university he'd retired to the  city, and she'd not heard of him until his funeral.

And now …

The old doctor was Charlie McDonald. Jake was Jake Hunter.

Illegitimate? Who knew with mixed families?

She tried to remember community gossip. There was talk of a son at his  funeral. She remembered a faded baby photo on Dr. McDonald's surgery  wall. That must be Jake.

She'd find out. She had all the time in the world to get it right, she  thought dreamily as she sank deeper into bubbles. But then she thought,  No, she was only here for a night until she organised something more  permanent, and Jake himself would return to New York. There'd be no time  for questions.

The thought left her curiously bereft.

But at least she could sleep tonight, she reminded herself. She glanced  through into the bedroom, at the enormous bed piled with white-on-white  eiderdowns and feather pillows. A woman could melt into a bed like this.

As opposed to melting into a man like Jake Hunter?

She was delirious. That was the only possible explanation for where her  mind was taking her. She was not thinking of doing any melting into any  man.

All she had to do to stop that was to think of Toby. Betrayal. A heartache that would never leave her.

Jake was different.

Maybe or maybe not, she thought sharply, but Jake was heading back to  New York and he didn't want to even indulge in five-minute dating, much  less anything else. She was tired beyond belief and her mind was playing  tricks.

So get out of the bath, get to dinner, so you can go to bed.

Right. She wiggled even deeper under the bubbles.

'Tori?'

Uh-oh. Jake's voice brought her bolt upright. 'Tori, are you okay?'