Sydney Harbour Hospital: Luca's Bad Girl
And if the bulge in his snug cotton boxers was anything to go by, large, in all the right places.
She’d seen a marble statue just like him in Rome many years before. Luca di Angelo had Made in Italy stamped all over him.
Then he came to her, towering over her, snapping the lamp off, helping her out of her jeans, kissing her everywhere, arching her back over the arm of the lounge, thrusting her breasts upwards towards his eager mouth. Making her sigh. Making her whimper. Making her come.
And, best of all, making her forget.
Three days later Dr Finn Kennedy, chief of Surgery, strode into the emergency department on what he was sure was going to be a fool’s errand. He was tired. His upper arm had ached all night despite several shots of whisky, and he rubbed at it absently. His eyes felt scratchy and his damn nuisance thumb was numb and tingly.
He pulled up short as Evie approached him. Great, just what he needed. Dr Evie Lockheart. Princess Evie. Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, working in her granddaddy’s hospital, a place still generously supported by the Lockheart family trust and her father in particular, who was treated like royalty by the boffins upstairs.
With absolutely no idea how hard ordinary people had it.
And the only woman in the entire hospital who seemed to be able to push his buttons. She didn’t simper or cower. Just looked at him patiently with those damn hazel eyes.
‘Dr Kennedy,’ she greeted him.
‘There’s a consult for me?’ he asked, not bothering to acknowledge her greeting. He had a feeling that she saw beyond his curt exterior and he didn’t like it.
The only other woman to have done that had been Lydia—his brother’s widow—and that had been an unmitigated disaster.
Evie refused to give Finn the satisfaction of seeing how his brusqueness grated. He wasn’t in the army any more and she wasn’t one of his soldiers to be ordered around. Instead, she launched straight into her spiel. Still, it didn’t stop her heart from pounding like a runaway train in her chest—she’d made an amazing incidental find and despite his gruffness she was desperate for his approval.
‘Twenty-two-year-old female, with a painful lump in her breast. Ultrasound identified a small benign cyst—’
‘Are you kidding me?’ Finn glared down at her, hands on hips. ‘You do know I’m a cardiac surgeon, right? That means stuff to do with the heart.’
Evie held his gaze and her tongue and continued as if he hadn’t just rudely interrupted her. ‘She also complained of fatigue, shortness of breath and intermittent chest pains. Incidental finding reveals bicuspid aortic valve with associated ascending aortic aneurysm.’
Finn stared at her. Was in hell was she on about? ‘Sure,’ he said sarcastically as he held out his hand. ‘Radiographer report?’
‘There isn’t one. Radiology was backlogged and the ultrasound was performed in the department.’
‘I see. By who, exactly?’ he demanded.
Evie’s gaze didn’t waver as his piercing blue eyes dared her to blink. ‘By me.’
Finn snorted. ‘You? You diagnosed a complex heart condition through a breast ultrasound?’
Evie crossed her arms too. ‘Yes.’
‘That’s not even remotely possible,’ he snapped.
Until right now, Evie would have agreed. ‘It is if the woman in question has very small breasts.’
Finn glared at her. Princess Evie—her place at the prestigious SHH emergency department no doubt paid for by her father’s huge donations—wasting his time. ‘Where’s the patient?’
‘Cubicle fifteen,’ she said calmly.
‘What have you told her that I’m going to have to untell her?’ he asked silkily.
‘I told her I couldn’t get a good enough angle and I was going to call for someone more experienced,’ Evie bristled. ‘I did go to medical school, Dr Kennedy,’ she said frostily.
‘Really? Daddy couldn’t fast-track you, then?’
Evie ignored the dig. ‘I graduated top of my year.’
‘He gives to the university too, then?’ Finn retorted, before turning on his heel and heading for the indicated cubicle.
Evie’s heart tripped in her chest as she struggled to keep up with his long-legged stride. But even falling flat on her face would be worth it just to see the look on Finn’s when her diagnosis was confirmed.
Finn snapped back the curtain and introduced himself to a petite young woman in a hospital gown who was chewing on her bottom lip. He smiled at her. ‘Hello. Bethany, is it?’ he asked, consulting her chart. ‘I’m Dr Kennedy. Dr Lockheart’s asked me to have a look at you.’
‘Is something wrong?’ Bethany asked, looking from one doctor to the other.
Finn patted her hand. ‘Give me one minute and I’ll be able to tell you.’
He turned away to the compact mobile ultrasound machine and shot Evie an exasperated look. It was hardly the most sophisticated machine in their radiology arsenal. He found it hard to believe anyone could diagnose a potentially fatal heart problem on something so basic.
He picked up the transducer from its cradle fiddled with the pulse settings and the screen brightness and turned to back to Bethany, who’d already opened her gown and put her arm above her head.
Finn squeezed a blob of warmed gel on Bethany’s chest, noting that she did indeed have practically nonexistent breast tissue. ‘Okay, here goes,’ he murmured as he ploughed the transducer through the middle of the gel.
He ignored Evie, who was standing at his elbow, and concentrated on the small screen as the grainy grey and black image of Bethany’s pumping heart came into view. It took him less than a minute to concur with Evie’s very impressive diagnosis.
He flicked a glance at her and met her unwavering hazel gaze. There was no triumph or smugness there, just complete confidence in her diagnosis, and he felt a rather foreign feeling of grudging respect.
Maybe there was more to her than the Lockheart name.
‘Is everything okay?’ Bethany asked.
Finn shook his head. ‘No. There’s a problem,’ he admitted. ‘But it’s okay,’ he added quickly. ‘I can fix it.’
Evie listened in awe while Finn sat with Bethany and explained how the small benign-looking cyst in her breast was nothing compared to the real problem, and what he could do about it. For such an arrogant, rude, human being he had amazing rapport with patients.
When they walked out of the curtain thirty minutes later Evie had seen an entirely different side to the infamous Dr Finn Kennedy. She’d known he must have had a heart in there somewhere but it was the first time she’d ever seen any evidence of it.
‘Organise a bed for her in CCU,’ Finn said briskly, handing Bethany’s chart to her.
Evie nodded as she accepted it, trying not to feel discouraged. She hadn’t really thought he’d congratulate her, had she?
‘Good catch, Dr Lockheart,’ he murmured. ‘Maybe you’re not Daddy’s little girl after all.’
And then he turned in the opposite direction and strode away.
Evie blinked as the back-handed compliment sank in.
High praise indeed!
CHAPTER THREE
WHEN Mia came on duty later that afternoon the first person she spied was Luca. Which wasn’t difficult, given that his very presence seemed to attract attention. She’d bet whoever had invented the term chick magnet had met Luca di Angelo.
Of course, she could also just have conjured him up—she couldn’t deny she’d been thinking about him and their illicit liaison in the on-call room a little too often on her days off.
She squeezed her eyes shut tight for a few seconds then opened them again. Nope—still there.
And looking right at her.
Smiling at her, actually. Like he knew all her dirty secrets. And that he was one of them.
She graced him with an indifferent glare and a cool nod of the head as she slung her stethoscope around her neck and deliberately walked in the opposite direction.
Luca chuckled to himself as he watched the hypnotic swish of her blonde ponytail. She seemed all prim and neat, her dark grey tailored trousers classically elegant, her high-necked, capped-sleeve blouse in sapphire blue crisp and stylish.
Not a wrinkle. Or a hair out of place.
Very different from the Mia of the other night. Who had looked rumpled and disturbed and hadn’t cared about either.
A hum coursed through his blood at the mere thought. It certainly hadn’t been the way he had envisaged that night would turn out. In fact, if someone had asked him who’d be the woman least likely to sleep with him, he would have said Mia McKenzie.
But it had been pretty damn amazing. Once she’d made up her mind she hadn’t held back. She hadn’t done that irritating talking/fishing-for-compliments thing that a surprising amount of women did during sex. Or tried to twist herself into some uncomfortable position because she knew it was her best angle.
She hadn’t even asked him what he liked in an effort to make it all about him.
No. She’d known exactly what she’d wanted and she’d taken it. But she’d given, too. She’d been confident and assured and had met him as an equal.
It was the most uncomplicated one-off he’d ever had.
Now, if he could just stop thinking about it …
Mia moved through the shift with her senses on high alert. Her skin prickled when he was near. The hairs on her nape stood to attention. Her nipples seemed to stay in a state of permanent erection. It seemed every cell in her body was well and truly tuned in to Luca.
And it didn’t help that they kept running into each other.
The first time had been in the lift after she’d been on for half an hour. She’d just caught it before the doors had shut and squeezed in with several other people sharing the space with a transport bed. The patient had been almost lost amidst the equipment on the bed and the stuff hanging off the rails had made it an even tighter fit.
She’d smiled at the patient as the doors had shut and turned to stare at the opposite wall, only to be confronted by Luca’s slow, sexy smile.
‘Dr McKenzie,’ he murmured.
‘Dr di Angelo,’ she replied, dropping her gaze to the knot of his tie rather than the knowing look in his eyes.
‘How were your days off?’ he asked innocently.
Mia couldn’t believe how intimate it could feel between them in a lift full of onlookers. She kept her gaze firmly on the knot at his throat.
His long, tanned throat she’d licked every inch of.
‘Fine, thank you.’ Apart from daydreaming about you.
His grin broadened as if he could hear the words she hadn’t said. ‘I trust your arm is getting better?’
Mia had felt sure that if his voice could cure wounds hers would have miraculously healed on the spot. She kept her gaze resolute, trying not to think how erotic the smooth glide of his jaw had been against her breasts.
‘Thank you, yes.’
‘I can look at it later, if you like. I think there’re still some dressings left in the on-call room.’
Mia’s eyes flicked up before she could stop them and his smile gained a slight triumphant edge. A blast of heat arced between them and Mia was surprised that it hadn’t incinerated everyone in the lift.
‘Thank you Dr di Angelo. I can manage,’ she murmured as the lift doors opened and she walked out on legs that felt like wobbly jelly.
The second time she’d worked with him on a fifty-two-year-old construction worker who had come in from an industrial accident, having sustained major chest and abdominal injuries. He’d placed a chest tube and done the intubation while she’d inserted a central line.
They’d worked in tandem, like a well-oiled machine, but she’d been aware of him and his every move every second. Their gazes had locked regularly. At one stage their heads had even bumped together, competing for the same line of sight. He’d apologised, but their faces had been very close. His gaze had dropped briefly to her mouth and her mind had strayed to exactly where she’d put it on his body.
The third time she’d been plastering a fifteen-year-old-boy’s broken arm when he’d lounged in the doorway to the plaster room. He hadn’t announced himself but something had alerted her and she’d looked up to find him propped against the doorframe.
‘Haven’t you got something better to be doing?’ she asked testily, returning her attention to the job. How was she supposed to avoid him when he seemed to be wherever she was?
Luca shook his head. ‘All quiet. I thought I’d skulk here for a while.’
She’d glanced up at his use of the word ‘skulk’ and he grinned at her. He advanced into the room and she tried not to notice how his beautifully cut trousers and khaki business shirt fitted him to perfection. He could easily have been strutting a Milan catwalk.
‘You the boy who was having a light-sabre fight with your little sister?’ he asked the teenager.
The boy nodded glumly. ‘She’s never going to let me live it down.’
‘Sisters can be very unforgiving.’
‘You’ve got sisters?’
Luca nodded. ‘Three.’
‘Man, that’s harsh.’
Mia slid him a sly glance. His accent had thickened and his words had seemed tinged with something she hadn’t been able to put her finger on. Then the two of them got into a conversation about Star Wars and Mia gritted her teeth and pretended Luca and his mouth were in a galaxy far, far away.
By the time he passed her in the hallway at ten o’clock she was walking a very fine line between homicidal mania and sexual frustration. The man was everywhere—in the department and in her head—and, heaven help her, she wanted to push him into the nearest available private space and tear his clothes off.
But it had been a one-off.
They’d agreed.
‘Oh, Dr McKenzie, I meant to tell you earlier, I’ve arranged for a debrief session with John Allen from Psych for you.’
Mia slowed and turned. How could she want to kill him and kiss at the same time? ’Cos she did. She wanted to kiss that smug Sicilian mouth so badly she could scream.
‘I don’t need a damn debrief,’ she snapped, tossing her head, daring him to push her. ‘I’m fine.’
Luca smiled at the flash in her eyes—like sun shining on a cathedral window. He liked the way her chest rose and fell just a little bit too fast. And how it pulled at her blouse in all the right places.
He pushed back. ‘I’m sure you are. But you’re having one, anyway.’
That was it! Mia put her hands on her hips, barely suppressing the juvenile urge to stamp her foot. ‘Oh, no, I’m not.’
He nodded. ‘Ten tomorrow morning.’
Her gaze locked on his mouth the same time his locked on hers. Something stirred deep in her belly. A primal recognition of attraction. A potent force.
She lifted her chin. ‘You can’t make me.’
Luca felt a subtle shift in the signals emanating from her. Had that challenge been sexual? A nurse bustled past and gave them a strange look.
Luca inclined his head to a nearby door. ‘Shall we discuss this in private?’
Mia knew it was the on-call room. ‘Fine,’ she muttered, her heart rate suddenly trebling.
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