Free A Baby to Care for (Mills & Boon Medical) by Lucy Clark Page A

taut beneath his T-shirt and she doubted there was an ounce of flab on him. Pure, solid muscle…and what delicious-looking muscle it was.
    She wondered if she’d ever get the chance to really feel it. To run her fingertips over his biceps, to caress the solid six-pack of his abdomen, the broadness of his shoulders. She also wanted to plunge her fingers into his dark, unruly hair, to feel the texture between her finger and thumb. He had the most alluring voice, his tones rich and deep. His brown eyes, so incredibly expressive. And his mouth…
    Oh, yes. Dex Crawford really was one in a million and she could quite easily drown simply by looking at him. Iris’s eyelids fluttered closed as she pictured him, so clearly. She sighed, long and slowly, as she leaned back in her chair.
    ‘Something I can help you with?’ Deep, husky, masculine tones washed over her.
    Iris sat bolt upright in her chair, her eyelids snapping open instantly. Dex was standing in her doorway—lounging in her doorway—and the look on his face said that he was more than willing to offer her his services for…whatever she’d been thinking about!

CHAPTER FIVE
    ‘D EX !’
    ‘Iris.’
    ‘What are you…?’ She couldn’t believe how fast her heart was pounding in her chest, how breathless she felt and how she was so glad she was sitting down as she felt her body begin to tremble. She’d been sitting there, thinking about the man who was now before her, and she’d been thinking such tantalising things, she was sure she was also blushing.
    ‘Doing here?’ He shrugged and sauntered into the room. ‘Just thought I’d stop by and see if you needed any help.’
    ‘Uh…No, thanks, because, as you can see, all is quiet on the western front.’
    He smiled at her words as he sat down opposite her. She wished he wouldn’t. She wished he’d up and leave, go as far away from the clinic as he could in order to give her peace of mind and a lot more breathing space than currently existed between them. She also wished he wouldn’t smile at her like that! Didn’t the man have any idea just how irresistible he was?
    Of course he did. That was why he was here. He needed her to fall for him just like all the other women in the town. He needed to know she’d be definitely joining the line if there was another kissing booth in the future. He had an ego the size of Uluru and she’d do well to remember it.
    She had to remember it because if she started thinking about the man she’d been with last night, the man who had offered compassion and comfort, the man who had been anything but a playboy, then she’d start to give in to the feelings he still managed to evoke just by being this close to her.
    ‘You don’t need to be here.’ Her words were a little more brisk than she’d intended. ‘It’s your day off, Dex. I’m sure you have better things to do than to hang around this place.’
    ‘Maybe I like this place. ’
    Iris raised her eyebrows at that. ‘Well, there’s nothing going on clinic-wise. It’s as dead as a dodo.’
    Dex looked at her thoughtfully for a moment then clapped his hands together and rubbed them with mock excitement. ‘A quiet western front and dead dodos. This place is sounding more interesting than the pub on a Friday night.’ And Iris Tennant was a woman who was somehow continuing to interest him.
    Last night, ensconced safely back in his own apartment, a heat pack on his shoulders, Dex had reflected on what he’d learned about his new colleague. A widow. Fire. Scarred body. If that wasn’t some serious baggage she was carrying around, he didn’t know what was. She may be stunning, she may have a sharp and intelligent mind, but he knew it wasn’t his job to help her work through that baggage.
    After Catherine, Dex had firmly decided he wasn’t capable of having a fully involved, adult relationship. He’d messed up badly all those years ago, and that was the reason why he’d adopted the type of lifestyle that avoided