The Surgeon and the Princess by Karin Baine (ebook reader with android os .TXT) 📕

he’d probably still be lying on a couch, snoozing or awake, wondering where his hostess was. At least he had the answer to that question. He’d call Dean tomorrow to find out how his sister was and make sure her house was still available. If not, he’d look for somewhere else, no problem.

He took another glance around. It’d be great to stay here but Mallory wouldn’t want him hanging out in her space. She came across as independent and not needing company in the evenings while winter raged outside. Then again, she might be a complete softy on the inside. After all she had given him, a stranger, a bed for the night rather than sending him along the road to a cold, empty house.

He was daydreaming. At the moment he had arrangements in place and wouldn’t be changing them on a whim. A fascinating, gorgeous whim, though. Mallory hadn’t flinched when she’d found him in her house, hadn’t been fearful or stroppy. Not that he’d have wanted to push her good nature. He suspected she’d have had him on the floor with a foot on his back while she phoned the police if she’d had any doubts about why he’d come to be here. How embarrassing to be found in a stranger’s home, looking like he was meant to be there, though that was probably what had saved him from having his backside kicked.

Mallory might be small, but she was strong. Not once had her shoulders dropped while sussing him out, her gaze had never wavered, and her tone had pierced him with a warning that he’d better be genuine or watch out.

‘Josue,’ a gentle, kind voice called from the kitchen, showing yet another side to Mallory. She straightened up from petting Shade as he joined her. ‘I’m making tea. You want one?’

He gasped internally. Mallory wore pyjamas, the summer-sky shade making her eyes gleam. They drew him in. Dampness, no doubt from the shower, made her blonde hair darker. It fell in thick waves down her back and over her shoulders to her breasts. Her white robe was tied tightly around a tiny waist. Was this the same woman who’d been wearing shapeless overalls and thick work socks inside heavy boots? This version was feminine and lovely.

His breathing stuttered, as though his lungs were confused over taking air in or huffing it out. The other version had been gorgeous, but this Mallory? Gasp. Out of this world. His finger and thumb pinched his thigh. Reality returned through a sudden haze of lust. Why had he put the wrong damned number in the GPS? He was in for a sleepless night knowing this woman was in the same house.

‘Josue?’ Confusion scrunched her face. ‘Tea?’

Tea? What? Shaking his head, he finally got his act together. ‘Would you mind if I have coffee?’ He crossed his fingers. ‘As in real coffee?’ Glancing over the benches, he smiled. ‘It’s okay. I see you have some.’ Instant coffee was worse than none at all.

‘Help yourself.’

‘Merci.’ Mallory was already treating him as though he fitted right in, moving around him in the small space as she prepared her tea. It made him feel good, like he mattered in a relaxed way. Even though it was casual and not deep and meaningful, that warmed him throughout. It wasn’t something he’d had a lot of. None of the foster families he’d been placed with had been so quick to accept him, if they’d ever even got there. Only Gabriel and Brigitte had right from the get-go, and that had been massive as at the time he’d been the worst kind of brat possible. They were the reason he was heading home after this job, to be there when Gabriel had his heart surgery, to support both of them.

Yet, despite all they’d done for him, the memories remained of how every time he’d met a new family his hopes of being liked and cared about had been dashed. It was as though he had to prove himself every time he met someone, and as a kid he’d turned his anger to hurting others by stealing from them. Gabriel had soon talked sense into him, saying he was hurting himself more than anyone else. It was true, but he’d never quite got over being on edge when he first met someone.

Of course he mattered, as a man and as a doctor. He did believe it, but there was a hole inside that he just couldn’t fill. In the two instances when he’d thought he’d come close with women he’d cared for, Colette and Liza, he’d continually questioned his feelings and their reactions to him, eventually leading those relationships to failure. So why was he feeling like he mattered here with this woman in a way he’d not known before? As though he just might be able to find that settled life he craved? It was a foreign sensation. Because she’d shared her pizza? Offered him a room? Or because she wandered around her kitchen as though he’d always been there?

No doubt he was overreacting to her kindness, but a rare warmth was spreading throughout him, surprising and confusing him. Should he be pleased or worried? He obviously wasn’t having the same effect on Mallory. Which had to be good, he supposed, if he wanted to get to know her better, as he liked to do with locals wherever he was working. That way he learned more about the area, where best to ski, hike, eat and drink.

Right now he’d like to do all those things with Mallory. Already he knew that? Oui, he did, if that’s what this unusual sense of anticipation meant. But, like everything he did, if he acted on these sensations waking up his manhood, it would be short term. He knew too well that the itch to move on would strike, as it had done all his life, after going from one foster family to the next, a new school each time, new people