Midwives On Call: From Babies To Bride. Kate Hardy

was it Aiden’s grin as he lifted the visor of his helmet that was doing it?

      He unclipped a second helmet and held it out to her. ‘Are you ready?’

      Sophia had to suck in a big breath. Was she ready? This was about way more than a long bike ride, wasn’t it?

      Those unusual light brown eyes were doing that dancing thing again. A look that implied mischief. Fun …

      She reached for the helmet as she nodded and returned the grin. ‘I’m ready.’

      It was a long ride. Leaving the outskirts of Melbourne behind, they took to the open road, heading south. They bypassed the large town of Geelong and sped towards the point where the harbour met the open sea—the quaint seaside village of Queenscliff.

      ‘It’s gorgeous,’ Sophia exclaimed as they parked the bike and took off on foot to explore. ‘Look at the turrets on that house!’

      ‘We’re lucky it’s not a weekend. With weather like this, it gets really crowded.’

      ‘You’ve been here before?’

      ‘It’s a great destination when I want to get out on the road and blow a few cobwebs away.’

      ‘It certainly does that.’ Sophia made a face as she threaded her fingers into the end of her hair where the waves brushed her shoulders. ‘I should have tied this up. I might never get the knots out. I didn’t even think to bring a brush. It probably looks like a rat’s nest.’

      Aiden stopped walking. They were outside the door of a bakery and a woman came out, laden with paper bags. She had to walk around them but Aiden didn’t seem to notice because he was only looking at Sophia. He caught her hand and pulled her fingers out of her hair. Then he flattened her hand gently against her head with his still on top of it.

      ‘Forget about it,’ he told her. ‘You look gorgeous.’

      And then he bent his head and kissed her. Right there on the footpath, half blocking the door to the bakery.

      Sophia had relived the softness of that first kiss in a bar a hundred times by now. Had conjured up the tingle of anticipation and the curl of desire so many times that she’d been sure she had magnified it out of all connection with reality.

      Turned out she hadn’t.

      This was even better. It still had the restraint that being in a public place required but there was a new depth to it. A familiarity. The knowledge that they both wanted this and it was going to go somewhere else. Very soon.

      ‘Excuse me.’ The voice sounded annoyed. Breaking apart, they could see why. A young woman with a twin pushchair had no chance of getting past them to the door.

      Aiden smiled at the mother as he murmured an apology. He held the door open for her but it was obvious she had already forgiven him.

      ‘No worries,’ she said, smiling up at him. ‘You have a great day.’

      ‘Oh …’ Aiden’s glance went over the top of her head, straight to Sophia’s. ‘I already am.’

      The woman turned her head and her smile widened. Her gaze told Sophia exactly how lucky she was. Then she winked and disappeared into the shop. The smell of something hot and delicious wafted out as the door swung shut.

      ‘Hungry?’

      ‘Starving.’ Sophia took a step towards the door but Aiden shook his head.

      ‘Bit crowded in there. I’ve got a better idea.’

      He took her across the road to the fish-and-chip shop. A short time later, they were walking down the hill and away from the shops. Aiden held the big white paper parcel in one hand and Sophia’s hand in the other. He led her across the railway lines and onto a track that took them to a grassy spot with a view through the trees to the water. The meal was still hot and absolutely delicious. A woman walked past on the track with a dog and then a whole family with a toddler in a pushchair and a small child on a bike, but nobody came to share their patch of grass or even looked their way. It felt as if they were almost invisible.

      ‘This is perfect.’ Sophia licked salt off her fingers as she looked away from the pelicans and swans gliding peacefully on water still enough to mimic glass.

      ‘Mmm. I find it pays to put some effort into planning date number two.’ Aiden turned away from the view with a smile.

      ‘One of the rules? I’ll—um—have to remember that.’

      Not that she was likely to remember anything other than the look in Aiden’s eyes that she could already recognise as the intention to kiss her. She barely even noticed the colourful cloud of parakeets landing on the fig tree that was shading them as Aiden leaned towards her.

      The cloak of invisibility was still around them but Sophia would have forgotten about the rest of the world anyway as soon as Aiden’s lips touched hers. Or maybe it was the moment she felt things change as the intensity kicked up several notches. Aiden’s hand cradled her head as he pushed her back to lie on the grass. Their tongues danced, the pang of lingering salt a delicious foil to the sweetness of escalating desire. She felt the touch of Aiden’s fingers beneath the hem of her shirt, a trail of fire on the delicate skin of her belly, and the heat when it reached her breast was enough to make her gasp into his mouth.

      He pulled away with a groan.

      ‘You make me forget where I am,’ he murmured.

      ‘You’re on date number two,’ Sophia whispered back. ‘I think it’s okay to get distracted. Isn’t it?’ she added, feeling her eyes widen.

      ‘Yes, but there’s a time and place for everything. And this probably isn’t the place for what I’m thinking about right now.’

      Sophia’s inward breath was audibly ragged as she sat up. She’d been thinking along similar lines and she certainly hadn’t wanted him to stop. Anybody could have seen them. Like that woman with her dog, who was coming down the track towards them again, presumably on the homeward stretch of their walk. The dog—a very cute miniature schnauzer—ran towards them and the woman called it back with an apologetic smile.

      ‘I doubt there’s enough time anyway.’ There was a wicked edge to Aiden’s smile as the woman disappeared along the track. ‘It’ll get cold around here when the sun goes down.’

      He wanted a whole night with her? The thought made Sophia’s toes curl. But this was a daytime date.

      Oh, help … What if there was a rule about not going any further until date number three? What if this three-dates business was just a build-up for a one-night stand?

      Hard not to believe that it would be worth waiting for, if that was the case.

      ‘We have options,’ Aiden added. ‘You get to choose.’

      ‘Oh?’ Maybe one of those options included going somewhere really private. Sophia grinned. ‘Fire away. I like choosing.’

      ‘Option one: we could take the ferry over to Sorrento to get dessert. There’s a shop there that has the best vanilla slices in the world and we might get to see some dolphins on the way.’

      Sophia nodded thoughtfully. He really had planned this date carefully. Or—the thought sent a chill down her spine—was this a standard number-two date?

      ‘Option two is a swim. The water is probably arctic but it’s warm enough to dry off on the beach and, by then, it’ll be about time to head home.’

      Home? To his place? After getting almost naked and lying in the sun for a while? It wasn’t hard to make a choice.

      ‘It would be a shame to come to the seaside and not have a swim.’

      ‘I knew you were brave.’ The kiss was swift but sweet. ‘Let’s go.’

      The walk made the day seem even warmer and by the time they went down the