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His mother could be embarrassingly heavy-handed in her matchmaking efforts and he preferred to run his own race. Besides, he couldn’t be certain of winning. He couldn’t be certain it would turn out how he wanted it to with Peta Kelly. But he meant to give this chance a damned good try.
Driven by furious energy, Peta ploughed through twenty laps of the pool with barely a pause. Only when her chest started aching did she slow down and change to a leisurely sidestroke. Her mind, however, did not ease off its fuming activity. Matt Davis’s poking and prying into her heart, followed by his outrageous advice with the focus on him as her future interest, still made her burn.
Devious, cocky man! Trying to turn her personal wounds to his own profitable advantage. He’d obviously taken her blunt honesty as a challenge and couldn’t let it pass, worming out how best to get to her, then presenting himself as the answer to her dreams to be gratefully grabbed on the spot!
Peta knew what he wanted to grab. Did he think she was a fool who could be caught on the rebound if he held out a heap of glib promises? She ought to play him along and keep pinning him down just to teach him a salutory lesson. Yes...she would quite enjoy watching him wriggle on the hook he thought he’d baited for her. Serve him right!
Except it would be a total waste of her time and energy. Better to ignore him. Though that would be rather difficult if he went along to the same activities she’d planned to enjoy here. His persistent presence could become an irritation, but she wasn’t about to change her choices because of him. At least she didn’t have to share the same table at meals. She could frustrate him on that score.
Peta hauled herself out of the water and dripped her way over to the wall switch that activated the hot spa pool. Having turned it on, she lowered herself into the bubbling warmth, finding a seat where the powerful jets hit her in all the right places. She needed to relax. It was counterproductive to her whole purpose in coming to the health farm to let Matt Davis work her into a lather.
The temper he’d raised gradually dwindled into a brooding gloom. It was a pity he wasn’t Mr. Right. Physically he couldn’t be faulted—a fine build of a man, obviously a good athlete, nothing objectionable about any of his features. Any woman would fancy a share of his genes for her children. High on intelligence, too.
As a stud, he could be considered almost perfect, but Peta didn’t believe he was genuine about having fatherhood on his mind. No one came on that far that fast unless he was a con-artist. In fact, given the blatant sexual interest he’d already shown, his outrageous attempt to put marriage and children at the top of his list of wants was an insult to her intelligence.
Too much of an insult.
That afterthought clung, stirring niggling doubts over her angry dismissal of him as a candidate for Mr. Right. What if he had been frustrated in his search for a woman who wanted a family? Career women were holding off on motherhood these days. He’d certainly ascertained her attitude about her job before leaping in with his proposition of possibilities between them.
But he couldn’t be serious...
No...it would be too much of a miracle if he turned out to be a really nice guy who wanted a family as much as she did.
The memory of last weekend with Megan and Rob and their baby brought a dull ache to her heart. Her sister was so lucky. Rob was besotted with his beautiful little son, supportive in every way. But it was baby Patrick who touched the deepest chords in Peta...holding him, cuddling him, smelling him.
Tears pricked her eyes. Damn Giorgio for fooling her into believing what couldn’t be. Even now her mind writhed over the dreadful shock of seeing the photograph of his children... hits... and his wife’s.
She mustn’t keep dwelling on it. She had to move on. Yet the need stirred by Megan’s baby kept reminding her what she’d been cheated out of by Giorgio and his lies. It hurt. It hurt all the time.
She’d come to the health farm for distraction, for...
Maybe she should find out more about Matt Davis. The chance of him being sincere was highly remote but...why turn her back on a chance? She wasn’t exactly inundated with eligible men and time was her enemy.
Even given the worst case scenario of his being a king rat, she was too wise to the seduction game to be taken in by ploys to bypass her wedding ring edict. At the very least he would provide some distraction from her misery over Giorgio.
Dinner tonight.
Avoiding him wouldn’t achieve anything.
Though if Matt Davis thought he could make a meal of her, well, let him try. He would end up choking on the sweets course.
CHAPTER SIX
SEVEN o’clock at last! The guests in the lounge room started moving out for dinner. Others were coming down the stairs from the accommodation provided on the upper floor. Matt was starving, not only for food but for the sight of Peta Kelly again. He tried to hurry his mother in his eagerness to satisfy both needs.
She hung back. “You go on, dear. I think I’ll visit the powder room first.”
Matt sighed. No forethought. Since he might have missed seeing Peta on her way to the dining room, he didn’t want to wait. “Okay, Mum. Don’t be long.”
He was at the door when he remembered he’d left the salt cellar in his tracksuit pocket. A quick scan of the women already in the dining room did not pick up the vibrant hair of Peta Kelly. Making a snap decision, Matt turned away and hotfooted it to the cottage. Dinner without salt could not be stomached. Five minutes at most it took him, yet on his return he found both his mother and Peta seated at the table, having a cosy chat.
Suspicion instantly hit. His mother could not have visited the powder room. She had deliberately held back to snaffle Peta Kelly and pursue her maternal matchmaking. Silently cursing the unwelcome interference in his affairs, Matt hastened to his chair.
The pleasure of seeing Peta in her red sweater again momentarily wiped out his disgruntlement at his mother’s tactics. He smiled at her as he sat down, undeterred by the guarded look in her eyes. Peta Kelly was strong-minded enough to put his mother off if she hadn’t wanted to sit with them. It was a good sign she was here. It meant she was prepared to explore the situation further.
“Peta went for a swim in the pool after tennis,” came the first piece of personal digging from his mother. “She likes swimming.”
“Mmmh...” said Matt, hoping his mother hadn’t bragged about his swimming trophies from school carnivals. All the same, he was pleased to hear Peta enjoyed the same activities he did.
