The Doctor's Runaway Bride

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to think rationally. She’d cope, of course she would. Plenty of people did. Not everyone was like her own mother and there was no reason why she should be, but still…

Dragging her mind back to her work, she settled herself at the computer and updated Fiona’s notes, glancing up as Sharon, in full professional mode as the unit sister, bustled up to the nurses’ station.

‘Are you still here, Tia?’ She frowned and checked the clock on the wall. ‘You should have gone home hours ago.’

Tia ignored her.

She didn’t want to go home. She liked being at work. It took her mind off her problems.

‘Baby Adams has taken her first feed nicely,’ she told Sharon, her smile overly bright. ‘I’m just updating the notes and then I’ll go and check on Mrs Dodd if you like.’

‘What I’d like is for you to stop pretending nothing is wrong.’ Sharon lowered her voice and glanced up the corridor to check that no one was within earshot. ‘Have you called him?’

‘No.’ Tia turned back to the computer, vaguely registering that Sharon looked slightly agitated about something. ‘And I don’t intend to.’

‘But if he comes to you, you’d talk to him?’

‘Sharon, I left the man standing at the altar,’ Tia reminded her patiently, wondering why her friend was looking so nervous, ‘and he’s in love with another woman. There’s no earthly reason why he would possibly want to see me ever again.’

‘Except, maybe, that you’re carrying his child,’ Sharon pointed out quietly, her eyes flickering briefly down to Tia’s flat stomach. ‘Talking of which, how are you?’

Tia pulled a face. ‘Oh, you know, sick, exhausted—apart from that, fine.’

Sharon didn’t smile. ‘You need to register with a doctor, Tia.’

Tia nodded and didn’t meet her eyes. ‘Plenty of time for that.’ Not wanting to pursue the topic, she stood up and tucked her notebook into her pocket. ‘Maybe you’re right about it being time to go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

Sharon looked suddenly flustered. ‘Tia, wait, there’s something I—’

‘Not now, Sharon.’ Tia interrupted her with a weary smile. ‘I really don’t want to analyse my love life any more tonight.’

She just wanted to go home and be on her own.

She walked through to the staffroom, changed her clothes and made her way down the stairs to the car park. The battered old bicycle that she’d found in the garage of her rented cottage was exactly where she’d left it.

By the time she’d cycled home she was exhausted, but the minute she saw the red Italian sports car parked outside the cottage her exhaustion vanished.

No!

Surely he couldn’t be…

Opening the front door slowly, Tia walked through to the kitchen and pushed open the door, stopping dead as she saw the man lounging there, one powerful thigh resting on the kitchen table, his cool, dark eyes steady on her shocked face. ‘Luca…’ One hand reached out blindly for the wall as she sought support.

She really, truly hadn’t expected to see him again. Certainly not now. It had been two weeks.

Two weeks, and somehow she’d managed to diminish him in her mind. She’d blanked out just how much his physical presence affected her, forgotten how his blatant masculinity and unshakable self-confidence made her weak at the knees.

‘Tia.’ Thick, dark lashes swept down over his eyes, concealing his expression. He looked remote and unapproachable and she was suddenly totally unable to speak. Luca always did that to her. He was the only man in the world who rendered her completely tongue-tied.

She said the first thing that came into her head. ‘How did you know where to find me?’

‘I called Sharon.’ His eyes lingered on her pale face. ‘She gave me your address.’

Sharon?

‘No.’ Tia shook her head in disbelief but Luca’s expression didn’t change.

‘Don’t blame her. I didn’t give her much choice. Let’s just say I was…’ he paused and searched for the right word ‘…persuasive.’

And Tia knew only too well just how persuasive Luca Zattoni could be when he wanted to be.

That explained why Sharon had looked so uncomfortable and guilty.

She glanced back towards the front door, still feeling shell-shocked by his unexpected presence. ‘But presumably Sharon didn’t provide you with a key?’

Luca lifted one broad shoulder dismissively. ‘The sign was still outside and the letting agent was very helpful once I told him who I was. He seemed concerned about you living on your own here. This cottage is extremely isolated and you obviously aroused his protective instincts.’

It took a few moments for his words to sink in.

‘The letting agent gave you a key?’ She looked at him incredulously. ‘Is there anyone you can’t charm, Luca?’

‘Apparently.’ A ghost of a smile touched his firm mouth. ‘Or presumably you wouldn’t have left me standing at the altar two weeks ago,’ he drawled, resting one lean brown hand on his muscular thigh. ‘We have a great deal to talk about, cara mia.’

Her heart rate suddenly increased dramatically. ‘We have nothing to talk about, Luca.’

Certainly not now, after a long day at the hospital. Tia hadn’t been expecting this conversation and she had no idea how she was going to handle it. Was she going to confront him with what she’d discovered? Or was she going to wait for him to tell her the truth about his past, which he should have done right from the start? She needed to be prepared before she spoke to him. She needed to feel strong and in control.

As it was, all she felt was…vulnerable.

‘Nothing to talk about?’ He straightened in a fluid movement and strolled across the kitchen towards her. ‘First you take flight on our wedding day without the slightest explanation, and next you leave the country, go back to your old job and rent a cottage in the middle of nowhere. We could talk for a week and not cover even half of what we have to discuss.’

Tia’s throat was uncomfortably dry. ‘I left you a note.’

‘Ah, yes…’ Thick lashes lowered slightly to shield his stunning dark eyes. ‘The note that Sharon delivered, saying that you had changed your mind about marrying me.’

Her heart gave a little flip. She hadn’t expected him to follow her and she wasn’t prepared for this confrontation.

‘It wouldn’t have worked, Luca.’ Her knees trembled slightly but she forced herself to hold his gaze. ‘We were getting married for the wrong reasons. We—we didn’t know each other properly.’

She hadn’t known that he was involved in a serious, long-term relationship with another woman.

There was a long silence while he studied her face, the expression in his dark eyes unreadable. ‘So, just like that, you leave?’ His tone was even. ‘You decide this by yourself, with no consultation with me? No attempt to discuss whatever problem you think exists? Dio, is that normal behaviour for two people who were planning to marry?’

Tia’s breathing quickened and anger gripped her. He was criticising her? This was the time to confront him about what she’d heard, but she wasn’t ready to do that yet. She didn’t want to say something she’d regret. She needed time to think through the best way of tackling the subject.

Anyway, it was his responsibility to tell her about his past, to open up and tell her the truth.

‘When would we have had this discussion, Luca?’ She took refuge in attack. ‘You were always at the hospital.’

His black brows met in a frown. ‘Is that what this is all about? My working hours? I’m an obstetrician, Tia. You should understand the demands of the job better than most women.’

Suddenly she didn’t feel at all well. She’d woken early that morning, been sick repeatedly and now he was expecting her to dissect their relationship. It was too much.

Her eyes closed briefly and she took a deep breath. ‘Do we have to talk about this now?’

‘Yes.’ His voice was a deep growl and she flinched slightly. She’d always thought that Luca was very controlled, but suddenly he seemed like a stranger.

Which was part of the problem.

They didn’t really know each other. That fact had been brought home to her with shocking clarity on the day of her wedding. She should never have agreed to marry him, but she’d been so swept away by the way he’d made her feel…

‘We can meet up tomorrow or something,’ she suggested, hoping that she wasn’t going to embarrass herself by being sick in front of him. ‘Where are you staying tonight?’

‘Staying?’ One dark eyebrow lifted as if her question was wholly irrelevant. ‘Here, of course.’

‘No way, Luca.’ She shook her head vigorously. ‘This is my cottage.’

Luca straightened in a fluid movement and moved purposefully towards her. ‘And you’re expecting our child, Tia.’ He said the words with careful emphasis. ‘Your place is with me.’

‘With you?’ Her heart started to gallop. With him? Surely he wasn’t serious—not after everything that had happened. ‘You’re not seriously suggesting that we should still get married?’

‘Hardly.’ His tone was dry. ‘You’ve made your feelings on that subject very clear.’

Tia blushed slightly and looked away. Leaving him at the altar had been a lousy thing to do, but at the time she hadn’t been able to see an alternative. She’d just needed to get away as fast as possible.

‘So what exactly do you want, Luca?’

There was a slight pause. ‘You,’ he said softly. ‘You and our baby.’

‘Luca, no!’ Her voice was suddenly hoarse and her heart was beating faster than she would have thought possible. ‘It’s time we were honest with each other. Our whole relationship was a mistake. We were just—very carried away…this baby wasn’t planned.’ Tia decided that it was time to voice at least some of her concerns. ‘A month ago when I told you I was pregnant, you couldn’t escape to the hospital fast enough!’

He tensed and his mouth tightened. ‘That’s not true.’

‘It is true, Luca, and you know it.’ Despite her best intentions, she felt her voice wobble slightly and forced herself to stay calm. The last thing she wanted was for him to know how badly his reaction had hurt her. She had too much pride. ‘You were horrified to learn that I was pregnant and don’t try and deny it because I’m excellent at reading body language and yours was shouting at me!’

His dark eyes were suddenly wary and for the first time since she’d met him he seemed slightly uncomfortable.

‘You misunderstood me. It’s true that the news of the baby came as a shock at first,’ he admitted finally, his voice quiet. ‘I would be less than honest if I didn’t admit that I would have preferred us to have more time together before we considered having children, but—’

‘You don’t need to make excuses. I know that you weren’t pleased, and nothing can change that.’ Suddenly Tia felt hideously sick and she took several deep breaths to try and settle her stomach.

An ominous frown touched his forehead. ‘Tia, when you first told me that you were pregnant, I hadn’t been to bed for almost forty hours,’ he said, his dark eyes intent on hers as he paused only inches away from her. ‘I was called to one difficult delivery after another. By the time I saw you I was dead on my feet. The news that you were pregnant came as a shock, I admit that, and I probably didn’t react the way I should have, but…’

Her eyes challenged him and she tried to ignore the effect that his closeness had on her. ‘So you’re saying that had you had a good night’s sleep you would have been delighted?’

His dark gaze swept over her. ‘You need to calm down, cara mia. You’re very emotional.’

‘Emotional?’ Her jaw dropped and she gaped at him. ‘Of course I’m emotional. We had three blissful weeks together in Venice, but when we moved back to your home in Milan you changed, Luca. I barely saw you. You spent every available minute at the hospital. When I finally found time to tell you that I was pregnant, you reacted as though it was the worst news I could have given you and vanished to the hospital again. Then you came home and proposed. But obviously for all the wrong reasons. I think I have every right to be emotional.’

Especially in view of what she’d found out since.

He muttered something under his breath in Italian and raked long fingers thought his glossy dark hair. ‘Tia, I have already admitted that my reaction was less than perfect—’

‘Understatement,’ Tia muttered. ‘Major understatement.’

A muscle worked in his jaw. ‘I think we both need to calm down and then start this conversation again.’

‘No.’ She shook her head vigorously, desperate to get rid of him. Being so close to him eroded her will-power. ‘There’s nothing more to be said. This isn’t about the baby, Luca, it’s about us. You and I. And the fact that our hormones got tangled with our common sense.’

Nausea washed over her and she lifted a hand to her mouth. Oh, help! She was going to be sick again. She was sure of it.

Luca frowned sharply and his long, strong fingers curled into her shoulders. ‘What’s the matter? Are you ill?’

‘No,’ she lied, steadying her stomach with a few deep breaths. ‘I’m just not enjoying this conversation. I want you to acknowledge that we both made a mistake so that we can move on.’

His hands dropped from her shoulders and his face might have been carved from stone. ‘We’re having a baby, Tia. It’s too late to talk about making mistakes. We need to plan for the future.’

‘Luca, we don’t have a future,’ she said firmly, genuinely amazed that he’d even suggest such a thing. But it was because of the baby, of course. Whatever his initial reaction had been, he’d clearly decided that responsibility should come before personal happiness. ‘If a relationship isn’t right without a baby then it certainly won’t be right with a baby. We’re totally wrong for each other. Discovering that I’m pregnant doesn’t change that. I understand that you’re upset because I left you at the altar, but—’

‘I don’t care about that,’ Luca said dismissively. ‘That is in the past, but the baby is in the future and our future is together.’

Tia stared at him. Sharon was obviously right. Luca Zattoni was a traditional Italian male to the core.

He might have been shocked originally, but the concept of family and children was so important to Italians that she should have guessed that, once he’d had time to think about it, there was no way that Luca would just dismiss the fact that she was pregnant.

‘I am not going back to Italy with you, Luca.’

‘You still haven’t told me why you left Italy in the first place,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘I can’t believe that you changed your mind at the last minute. If you had doubts, why didn’t you discuss them with me? Dio, I went up to your room and found everything gone. How did you think I felt?’

Remembering just what had made her leave in such a hurry, she looked at him without sympathy. ‘I expect it damaged your ego.’

He muttered under his breath and gave her an impatient glance. ‘Tia, I left the need to protect my ego behind in childhood, but I would be less than human if the unexplained disappearance of my bride-to-be—my pregnant bride to be—didn’t disconcert me somewhat.’

‘I thought you’d be pleased that I’d gone,’ she mumbled, rubbing her toe on the kitchen floor and refusing to look at him. Having him so close was unsettling to say the least. She couldn’t look at the man without remembering how they’d been together…

‘I wasn’t pleased,’ he said softly, his Italian accent suddenly very pronounced as he accentuated every syllable.

She lifted her chin, her expression defiant. ‘If you missed me so badly, if you were really that worried, why didn’t you follow me straight away?’

He tensed and hesitated for only the briefest moment. ‘There were complications,’ he muttered finally. ‘Things I needed to sort out.’

Luisa.

Tia turned away, hiding her hurt, but knowing that she’d done the right thing not to marry him. She didn’t want to be anyone’s second choice.

‘You haven’t told me why you changed your mind.’

‘I—I had second thoughts,’ she said honestly, flicking her hair back and looking him straight in the eye. ‘I suddenly realised that there were so many things I didn’t know about you.’

Luca frowned. ‘Like what?’

Flustered, Tia avoided his question. ‘I don’t know, but it was all so fast and I don’t think you should get married without knowing everything there is to know about the person you’re marrying—’

‘Tia there are always things about another person that stays hidden,’ he said, and she shook her head.

‘Not when you’ve known each other for a long time. When people have known each other for a long time they’re as familiar as old socks.’

He lifted an eyebrow and looked at her incredulously. ‘Dio. That is your idea of a stimulating relationship? To live with someone who is like a sock?’

‘I’m just trying to say—’

‘It’s all right—I think know what you’re trying to say.’ He let out a long breath and shook his head slowly. ‘Tia, the length of a relationship is not always an indication of its depth.’

His voice was suddenly quiet and her heart suddenly missed a beat.

Was he going to tell her about Luisa?

Luca’s jaw clenched. ‘It’s true that our relationship moved quickly and was very intense—’

Intense?

That had to be the understatement of the year.

She’d been so totally overwhelmed by what had been happening between them that she hadn’t bothered to think about the future.

‘But we weren’t suited, Luca.’

‘No? If my memory serves me correctly, we were never able to look at each other without needing to rip each other’s clothes off,’ he drawled softly. ‘I wouldn’t exactly describe that as “not suited”, would you? You were in my bed the same night we met.’

His blunt reminder of just how quickly they’d become intimate brought a flood of colour to her cheeks and Tia closed her eyes. He was right, of course. The physical chemistry between them had been frighteningly powerful. It had completely swamped her common sense, what little she’d had, and it had clearly taken his mind off his troubles with Luisa.

‘There’s more to a relationship than good sex, Luca,’ she said quietly, dragging her eyes away from his penetrating gaze and trying to regain some semblance of control.

The mere brush of those long, strong fingers against her flesh made her tremble and she struggled to hide it from him.

Dear God, why couldn’t she just tell him the truth? That she knew he’d met her when his other relationship had been in trouble. That she knew he was in love with another woman.

He was watching her closely. ‘You think our relationship was just about sex?’

For her, no, but for him?

‘We’re different, Luca,’ she said finally. ‘I—I didn’t realise how different until we lived together in Milan. Perhaps if I’d had a job…’

The temperature in the room dropped below zero.

‘There was no reason for you to work.’ His jaw tightened and his expression was grim. ‘I gave you credit cards—you weren’t short of money.’

That was true enough. The Zattoni family were obviously extremely wealthy. She’d never had access to so much money in her life. But she didn’t really care about money.

‘It isn’t about money, Luca,’ Tia declared emphatically, trying to make him understand something of what she’d felt when they were in Italy. ‘When we met in Venice it was beautiful—romantic. But Milan…’

‘Milan is not Venice,’ he agreed quietly, his eyes fixed on her pale face. ‘Milan is more of a business city than a tourist one. It’s foggy in winter and muggy in the summer and the pollution is grim.’

‘I felt suffocated there,’ Tia admitted, ‘but it wasn’t really the place. It was us. You spent all your time at the hospital and I was lonely.’

‘Lonely?’ He frowned sharply. ‘You had the support of my family. How could you have been lonely?’

Tia’s eyes slid away from his. ‘They hate me, Luca,’ she told him. ‘They think I’m the wrong sort of woman for you, and do you know what?’ She forced herself to meet that unsettling dark gaze head on. ‘They’re right. I am the wrong sort of woman. You should have married someone sleek and elegant, someone who’d know how to spend your money…’

It was the nearest she’d got to telling him that she knew about Luisa but not by the flicker of an eyelid did he betray himself.

‘My family do not hate you.’ His expression was suddenly ominous. ‘What possible grounds do you have for making such a statement?’

She caught the look of disbelief in his eyes and decided to tell the truth.

‘Luca, I never saw them,’ she told him quietly, ‘apart from the weekends when you and I visited them together.’

He muttered something under his breath in Italian. ‘You spent most weekdays with them. Shopping, lunching.’

Tia gave a wry smile. ‘No, Luca. Check your credit-card bill. I never once shopped or lunched. They never invited me and, anyway, I wouldn’t have wanted to. I don’t like spending money that way. That isn’t the sort of life I’m used to and they knew that, which is presumably why they never invited me.’

Anger flashed in his black eyes and Tia winced. ‘They’re very traditional,’ she said quickly, wishing she’d never said anything. She certainly didn’t want to turn him against his family. ‘They knew I wouldn’t have been comfortable spending days with them.’

Luca’s jaw was tight. ‘So how did you spend your days?’

Tia gave a sad smile. They’d been together for three months and only now was he asking that question.

‘I stayed in the flat and read books,’ she told him, ‘or I went for walks.’

He was suddenly tense. ‘Milan is not a great city for walking. Where did you walk?’

She shrugged. ‘Wherever took my fancy.’

‘And you wouldn’t have had the first clue where was safe and where wasn’t.’ He closed his eyes briefly. ‘That evening we met in Venice, you were pacing the streets at night on your own. Do you have a death wish?’

‘No, but I like to live my own life, and—’

‘Tia, you are a stunningly beautiful woman,’ he ground out angrily, ‘and your blonde head shines like a beacon. It is very unusual to see a woman of your colouring in Italy and you attract no little amount of attention. You were putting yourself at risk.’

Without any warning her heart turned over. He thought she was beautiful?

No, that just didn’t make sense. She was as unlike Luisa as it was possible to be.

Before she had a chance to digest this piece of information, his hands closed over her shoulders like a vice. ‘I will talk to my family about their behaviour and you will promise me that you won’t walk around on your own at night again.’

‘I can’t promise and I don’t want you to talk to your family. There’s no reason to. It’s in the past now.’ Suddenly Tia felt exhausted. Too exhausted to talk any further. ‘It was all my fault, anyway. I am so far removed from a perfect Italian wife it’s laughable. Your family did what they thought was best and they were right. I’m the sort of person who needs space and independence. I’m not the sort of person who enjoys shopping, lunching and beauty salons.’

She swayed slightly and Luca’s grip on her shoulders tightened.

‘We shouldn’t be talking about this now.’ He scooped her up as if she weighed nothing, holding her firmly against his chest. ‘You’re not well. You look pale and worn out. You need to go to bed.’

Bed.

Just thinking about bed when she was held this close to him made her body start to tremble. She could feel the hard muscle of his chest through the fabric of his shirt and her fingers itched to touch him.

No.

‘Put me down, Luca.’ She wriggled in his arms and then groaned and buried her head in his shoulder as everything swam.

He ignored her efforts to escape, his expression grim as he negotiated the narrow staircase that led upstairs.

‘Where’s your bedroom?’

‘It’s none of your business,’ she protested weakly, wishing that being in his arms didn’t feel quite so good. But she fancied him so much that her whole body melted if he so much as looked at her. It wasn’t just that he was stunningly good-looking. There was something about him, an air of confidence and power, that was incredibly sexy.