Tempted by Her Italian Surgeon Read Free Page B

made her feel strangely uncomfortable. Heat shimmied through her. It was unseasonably warm in here—a spring heatwave, perhaps? Too many bodies in such a small room? She must ask someone to fiddle with the air-con at once.
    Where was she? Ah, yes, keeping…what? Keeping track. Focus .
    â€˜Good morning, Miss Leigh. And so it begins.’ Oh…and then there was the accent. Kind of cute, she supposed. If you were Becca and easily taken in by deep honeyed tones melting over your skin. She let it wash right over her, along with the irritated vibe that emanated from his every pore.
    â€˜Mr Finelli, glad you could eventually join us. I hear you kicked up a bit of a fuss about it all, though.’
    A frown appeared underneath the dark curls that fell over his forehead. ‘The HR director is as enthusiastic about this as you are, it seems. Does no one in this hospital have any common sense, Miss Leigh?’
    â€˜That is exactly what I’m trying to engender with this course, but some of our staff seem to want to flaunt themselves at every opportunity. And, please, call me Ivy.’
    â€˜Ivy, ah, yes. But only if you call me Matteo. Or if you can’t manage that, Matt will do. Ivy .’ He smiled as if something other than this conversation was amusing him. He took a sip of black coffee and winced. ‘ Dio, more poison. Why is coffee so bad here?’
    More poison? What in hell did that mean.? Uh-oh, she could guess. ‘Poison ivy? Really? Is that the best you can do? I’ve been hearing that since I was in kindergarten. I expected better…more…from you, Mr Finelli. Oh, sorry, Matteo. Please, do try harder.’
    He put the cup into his saucer, clearly much more insulted by his drink than her words. ‘I was just seeing what it would take to wind you up—not a lot, it seems.’
    She played it cool, ignoring the fluster in her gut. ‘Oh, make no mistake, I’m not wound up. Just disappointed by your performance so far.’
    The smile he gave her was wicked and it tickled her deep inside. ‘Oh, trust me, Miss Leigh, no woman has ever been disappointed by my performance.’
    Heat hit her cheeks as she realised she’d been drawn in and chewed up—worse, he was flirtingand she could barely admit to herself that she was a little intrigued by someone so sure of himself. Her heart beat wildly in her chest and she willed it to slow. This sort of battleground tactic was way out of her league—flirting wasn’t something she was used to. A cold, hard stare and feigned disinterest had always been enough to keep any potential lovers at bay, that and her refusal to undress in anything other than darkness. Plus a side helping of reservation had helped, and a desire to not end up like her mother.
    No way would she let a man have any kind of effect on her…no way would she let this man have any kind of effect on her.
    What she needed was to put him on side and a little off balance. She looked at his cup and wondered…maybe if she let him in on her little coffee secret he might just be so taken aback he’d sit quietly at the back of the class and listen, instead of— She could only imagine what he had in store. Creating merry hell about her subject matter. What better way to derail him than by being friendly? She leaned a little closer and whispered, ‘There’s a coffee shop down the road on the corner, Enrico’s, great coffee. I always make sure I get one on my way into work, it keeps me going. I don’t like to offend the catering staff here so I decant it into one of their cups.’
    â€˜And now we have a secret shared. Me, too.And who would have thought you could be so subversive? Maybe there is more to you than I thought.’ His eyes widened and then he winked. ‘Enrico’s a friend, and, yes, his coffee is the best this side of the English Channel. Although that isn’t hard.’
    â€˜No. I guess