When The Brazilian Returns

Chapter Thirteen Part 14

Davi continued to laugh. "Nadine? Seriously? You think I'd be attracted to an overbearing, man-eating piranha like Nadine Carmicheal?"

Ava's head started to pound. She didn't know what she thought. "But you always said that you admired her and when I saw you together today..."

Davi reached forward and grabbed her hand his face suddenly serious. "Were you going to leave me because you think I left you for her."

Just looking in his eyes was enough to know that she'd jumped to completely the wrong conclusion and Ava looked down, feeling foolish. "Yes..."

"Baby, I would rather eat hot coals whilst lying on a bed of nails than be linked romantically to that woman. She has a brilliant business mind and has been really successful here which is hard for a foreign woman. That's the reason I admire her. The only reason." He gently lifted her chin so she could look at him.

"She's having a some problems with a Chinese business partner, so I agreed to help her. Believe me, business is the only reason I would ever meet her."

He was telling the truth, she knew that, but there was one thing that was worrying her. "Why did you switch off your phone?"

A faint blush spread across Davi's high cheekbones and he turned away from her, just a fraction. "I had my reasons."

"What reasons? Davi, if you want me to trust you, you'd better tell me everything."

His colour deepened and he stretched his neck from side to side before replying. "OK, OK. I was a little annoyed with you." Davi refused to look at Ava directly.

"Annoyed with me? Why?"

He started to fidget. "Well... you were kind of preoccupied."

Ava wasn't sure if she should be getting annoyed with his evasiveness or be amused by his childlike efforts to avoid having to admit something. "I was preoccupied? With what? Davi, stop being so cryptic and just tell me."

He crossed his arms. "Before the issues with Nadine landed on my desk I tried to call you but you didn't answer."

Ava ran the timeline of the day back through her mind. "OK, so you must have called when I'd forgotten my phone. I accidentally left it in the car."

"Yes, I know. I tried calling a few times and then I called Zhang Lei. He told me you'd left your mobile on the back seat of the car. I asked him where you were, and as I was close by and had some free time before my meeting I thought I'd surprise you."

Ava's brow wrinkled in confusion. "OK, so what happened? Why didn't you surprise me?"

"Well...," he sat up even straighter, making the plastic fabric of the hospital visitors chair, squeak noisily. "You seemed to be a little busy."

"Busy? I wasn't busy, I was just talking to....." Realisation dawned. "I was just talking to Matt. You were jealous. You turned your phone off in fit of pique, didn't you?" She quizzed him comically.

"You weren't just talking. You were holding hands, smiling at each other and.."

Ava interrupted him, trying to keep the smile off her face and out of her voice, "and... what? What did you think that meant?"

"Well, I don't know. He's your ex, it could have meant anything." It was the verbal equivalent of sticking out his bottom lip and Ava couldn't help but feel his little outburst of jealousy tug at her heart. A heart that was now so warmed by him that she couldn't stop herself getting up and sitting on his lap.

Grazing her fingers through his luscious hair, Ava eased his head back gently and placed a delicate kiss on his pouty lips.

"What that meant, which you'd know if you'd just come in, was Matt telling me all about how in love he is with his new girlfriend."