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Alex snapped some pictures. ‘Did you have any problems conceiving?’
Isobella, who’d been swaying gently, suddenly stopped. She looked at Alice’s abdominal scarring and shivered—it was nasty, but nowhere near as nasty as hers. What did Alex know aboutFleckeri stings and fertility?
Alice nodded. ‘Why else would I have a baby at forty?’
Alex chuckled. ‘Good point.’
‘The docs told me when it first happened that they didn’t know if it would affect my fertility, given the area of the scarring and the unknown long-term side effects of the antivenin. Ever since the sting I’ve had erratic periods, and we tried for years to fall pregnant—had all the tests and everything checked out normally. The gynae guys were reluctant to officially say it, but unofficially they think the sting to my abdomen somehow affected my reproductive organs. We’d given up years ago. Little Phoebe was our surprise package.’
Isobella hugged the child closer as Alice’s story chilled her to the bone. The specialists had said the same thing to her. They didn’t know the long-term effects of such extensive envenomation to the abdomen. They didn’t know the long-term side effects of six doses of antivenin. And at nineteen, with more immediate things to worry about, it hadn’t been a big issue for her. But the older she got, the more it weighed on her mind.
She too had been plagued with erratic periods since the sting. Had gone from regular as clockwork to all over the shop. Had that fateful day sixteen years ago robbed her of her fertility? As well as her lover and her self-esteem? What if she could never have a baby?
Phoebe squirmed and she hushed her, rubbing her chin against the baby’s forehead, inhaling her sweet smell. She wanted a baby more fiercely in this moment then she’d thought was possible—so fiercely her womb ached. Damn Alexander Zaphirides. Nothing had been the same since he’d walked into her lab.
Alex turned away while Alice fixed herself up, and his gaze fell on Isobella. Phoebe was fidgeting, and he noticed the tension in Isobella’s knuckles as she held the baby tight. Isobella’s eyes were closed, her forehead against Phoebe’s, as if the baby were the most precious piece of cargo in the world. She certainly didn’t look as if she was about to let the child go any time soon.
Isobella opened her eyes as Phoebe protested against the firm hold. Alex’s cerulean gaze greeted her and held her captive. She could feel it probing, his blue eyes stripping away her glasses, her thoughts, her defences. Holding Phoebe had left her vulnerable, too weak to shut herself off to his intuitive gaze. What would it be like to hold Alex’s baby, their baby, in her arms?
Alex’s breath stopped in his chest. She was so still, the guardedness in her eyes missing for once. She was looking at him, her gaze thick with yearning. And he wasn’t entirely sure it had to do with Phoebe. There was something more in her molasses eyes. Something that spoke to him, that tightened his groin, that danced along the muscles of his lower abdomen. He took a step towards her.
‘I guess I’d better get her back to the hotel. It’s nearly time for bed,’ Alice said.
Isobella tore her gaze from Alex’s and snatched a last whiff of Phoebe’s sweet, sweet smell before she handed her over.
‘Thanks for coming in today,’ Alex said, aware of Isobella busying herself at the laptop, attaching the digital camera.
Alice left, and nothing could be heard in the room but the sound of Isobella’s fingers flying over the keys. Alex looked down at her, trying to fathom what he’d seen in her face, what the hell had just passed between them.
‘You looked good with a baby,’ he murmured, his voice huskier than usual.
Isobella’s fingers stumbled against the keys for a second as her heart accelerated madly. ‘Everyone looks good with a baby,’ she said, eyes firmly on her laptop screen, refusing to be drawn.
‘Join me at the Terrace Bar for a drink?’ Alex requested as they walked into the hotel foyer. The taxi ride from the hospital had been accomplished in silence, with Isobella staring out the window.
‘No,’ Isobella said. She didn’t want to socialise with him. The day had been an enormous strain, and she wanted to soak in a tub and get an early night for their crack-of-dawn start tomorrow.
‘Don’t be difficult, Isobella.’ Alex had tolerated her silence in the cab, but he would not put up with her mood for the next few days. ‘If it makes it easier, consider it an order.’
Isobella gritted her teeth. His tone left her in no doubt he thought she was being a petulant child. Not the consummate professional he demanded her to be. She had a good mind to tell him to shove his job. This wasn’t what she’d signed on for.
