Читать книгу Sydney Harbour Hospital: Luca's Bad Girl - Amy Andrews - Страница 10

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.