Читать книгу The Prince Who Charmed Her - Fiona McArthur - Страница 8

DR KIKI FENDER gazed across the blue of the Mediterranean to distant houses that clung like pastel limpets onto the cliffs of Italy and breathed in the beauty of the day.

It wasn’t something she’d done when she’d first boarded the ship, but it was easier now as she listened to the delight of the newly embarked passengers.

These first few hours sailing along the Italian coast was her favourite time. But duty called so she brushed the hair out of her eyes and turned towards the hospital below. Four months of shipboard life had brought the purpose back into her life and she was so grateful for that.

Her smile slipped when she remembered it was only five days until the date she’d so looked forward to would be behind her, and then it would get even easier.

One deck down, Prince Stefano Adolphi Phillipe Augustus Mykonides tried not to think of the worst-case scenario as he rolled the unconscious wife of his brother into the recovery position. With immense relief he noted the blue of her lips improve slightly as her airway cleared.

He’d hoped Theros could stay out of trouble this week, on his wife’s birthday holiday, but it seemed it wasn’t so. With a sigh, the eldest son of Prince Paulo of Aspelicus, a tiny but wealthy principality in the Mediterranean Sea, knew it was his fault his brother had done something else stupid.

When he looked up at Theros his brother was as helpless as ever, his handsome face twisted in distress. ‘Get the ship’s hospital on the phone. Tell them it’s an emergency,’ Stefano said.

Theros’s mouth worked silently, like a child’s, and he looked shocked and incredulous as his wife began to turn blue again.

Stefano lowered his voice to a stern order. ‘Now! Tell them it’s a reaction to latex. To bring adrenalin.’ He said the words slowly and enunciated clearly.

Theros blinked and stumbled to his feet as Stefano began to strip Marla of her skintight rubber playsuit, cursing under his breath as her breathing became even more laboured, but thankful that at least Theros had had the good sense to call him in time.

His concern lay in removing the offending clothing as fast as possible—before his sister-in-law stopped breathing. Not an easy job—which he gathered should have been half the fun. What he would have given for a scalpel …

Ten doors away Dr Kiki Fender jogged down the hallway to the largest suites, running over in her head what she knew about latex allergies. In truth Kiki was the on-call doctor for crew—not passengers—and she hoped her boss would follow quickly in case the patient was in extremis.

She’d hate to lose a patient on departure day, and royalty at that—very poor form. Terrible luck that Will had been on a cabin visit when the call had come in, so she was it till he came. She didn’t even bother to try and imagine where this latex exposure had come from.

She’d tossed the usual personal protection gloves out from the emergency pack and donned latex-free ones, reminding herself they should use them in the whole medical centre in this current climate of escalating allergies, and had packed extra adrenalin ampoules. She carried in her hand the Epi-pen which made administration much quicker in such emergencies.

She prayed the patient’s airways wouldn’t have closed completely by the time her boss arrived with the rest of the equipment.

When the door opened she barely glanced at the distressed man in black shiny underwear and glanced ahead to the woman on the floor. Another man was bent over her as he struggled to extricate her legs from skintight latex leggings.

There was something oddly familiar about the shape of his head, but the woman was already unconscious and her skin was blotched with a paling red rash.

Kiki spoke to the dark hair of the man kneeling on the carpet as she bent down beside him. ‘Is she breathing?’

‘Just.’

Kiki glanced at the man’s face and recognition slapped into her like one of the ocean white caps outside the window.

What the hell was Stefano Mykonides doing on her ship? Lock that away, quick-smart, she chastised herself, and quickly pinched the woman’s leg to inject the adrenalin. Her eyes skimmed the almost naked woman for tiny rapid rises of her chest, aware that the movements would tell if the medication was helping. Most times with this type of shock recovery was dramatic, because the drug turned off the body’s flooding allergic response like a tap.

But a tiny section of her brain was still suggesting that the Stefano she’d known was the last person who needed a threesome with a dolly bird in latex to fill his day.

She heard her boss and the nurse arrive with the emergency stretcher as Stefano leaned towards her.

‘Of course I expect you to remain discreet about this event.’

She could see the pulse beating in his strong neck and a part of her responded involuntarily—and that increased her dislike. She met his eyes and tried with only some success to keep the contempt from her face. So typical. The woman was fighting for her life but it was all about how important the good name of the Mykonides family was.

She could say a few things about his good name. Instead she nodded at her patient. ‘Of course, Your Highness.’

Stefano turned back to extricating Marla’s foot. He was in shock—much like poor Marla without the benefit of the drug’s reversal. Kiki Fender was here and to see her like this … As a saviour to his family, dynamic, confident of her skills as he’d known she would be. But it was not these things he remembered the most. Nor the woman who looked at him with distaste and called him Your Highness.

Before he could think what to say Marla groaned and stirred, and his sigh of relief escaped silently as Kiki leant over and spoke near her ear.

‘You’re okay. Take it easy.’ She looked at him and silently mouthed, name?

‘Marla,’ he said quietly, just as thankfully the last of the trouser leg came free over her foot with an elastic snapping noise. He slid the rubber suit under the seat of the lounge chair out of sight as more medical staff approached.

Kiki saw him do it and rolled her eyes at his priorities as she turned back to her patient. ‘I’m going to put another needle—a cannula —in your arm and tape it there, Marla, as a precaution, but I think you’re improving every second.’

The cannula slid in easily. Always a relief.

‘Like I said, this is only a precaution,’ she said to the dazed woman, ‘in case you need further medication or intravenous fluids.’ But within herself, Kiki thought the response appeared adequate from the initial dose—often the way—and it seemed the crisis was over.

She felt the trolley being manoeuvred in beside her and Stefano stood up.

He said, ‘Please take my towelling robe,’ and handed it to Kiki to cover the patient with.

Her nod of appreciation wasn’t only for the gown for Marla, but because with him gone there seemed so much more air around the patient—and herself—more distance. Funny, that, and funny that she wasn’t in the mood for laughing.

She had always had a respiratory awareness of him—like her own damned anaphylaxis—but she’d thought herself desensitised against that response after what she’d been through. Later, on her own, she would worry about that.

‘Hi, Will.’ Kiki glanced at the senior ship’s doctor as he knelt down beside her. ‘This is Marla. Severe reaction to latex. We’ve removed the causative agent.’ She flicked an ironic glance at Stefano before she turned back to her boss.

Dr Wilhelm Hobson leaned over and took the woman’s wrist to feel her pulse. ‘You’ve given adrenalin?’

‘Two minutes ago.’ Kiki finished taping the intravenous cannula in place.

Marla groaned and opened her eyes more positively. ‘Where am I?’

‘It’s okay, Marla. You’re in your cabin. Just close your eyes and rest. You’ll feel better soon.’ She rested her hand over Marla’s in sympathy. She and Wilhelm looked at the welts on her arms that seemed to be fading before their eyes. ‘Good response, as you see.’

Will nodded, then wrote the pulse-rate, dose and time down on his scribe sheet while Kiki took the blood pressure cuff from the nurse and wrapped it around Marla’s arm. As expected, the pressure was very low.

‘In shock.’ The nurse nodded as she adhered cardiac dots to the patient’s skin and the sound of a racing heartbeat permeated the room. They began to assemble an intravenous line to increase the pressure in Marla’s blood vessels with an extra fluid bolus.

Confident now that their patient was stable, Will stood up and faced the two men in the room. This’ll be good, Kiki thought, and though she didn’t look away from her patient her ears were tuned for their explanation.

‘And who is responsible for this woman?’ Wilhelm’s tone was deadly serious. But then he was serious most of the time.

Stefano had watched Marla wake up with relief and now he refocused on the room. Kiki, down on the floor with Marla, ignored him—as she should. He glanced at the man in charge—a stocky blond-headed man with a South African accent and air of command. A ship this size would need a competent senior. One who knew how to be discreet.

Then he looked to Theros. His brother stood, twisting his hands across his body, suddenly aware that he looked strange in those ridiculous shorts. His mouth worked but, as usual in times of stress, nothing came out.

Stefano sighed and stepped forward. Of course he was responsible. He had been since the moment of Theros’s accident all those years ago. It did not occur to him to feel vulnerable, dressed only in swim-trunks, and he glanced coolly at the medic. ‘I am.’

Kiki flinched when she heard Stefano’s voice and realised she’d hoped otherwise. It shouldn’t have mattered. Didn’t matter. She’d always expected him to be more than he really was. A prince who lied and made promises he didn’t keep.

She didn’t wait to hear the rest. ‘Okay, Ginger,’ she said to the nurse. ‘Let’s help Marla up onto the trolley and we’ll take her down to the hospital for observation.’

Fifteen minutes later Stefano paced in front of the window in his brother’s suite. ‘Please get rid of those ridiculous shorts,’ he said. Stefano moved very slowly, with rigid control, frustrated at his brother’s propensity for disaster and his own for not preventing it—and at the fruitless urge to ask why he had to deal with this. He knew why.

At seven Stefano had pulled Theros from a deep ocean pool on their island and saved his life with a boy’s rough and ready resuscitation. Unfortunately Theros had been left with an injury to part of his brain from its time without oxygen. After that Stefano’s young brother had not been the most sensible of boys, and later had become a handsome and lovable but childish man.

But that had not stopped Theros from diving into mischief and danger whenever he could, and as often as he was able Stefano would be the one to rescue him.

‘Trouble. It will find you in the dark. Or in this case broad daylight. Is sex so tedious with your wife that you must risk her life with latex?’

Theros wrung his hands. ‘No. No. One of her friends gave the suits to us for her birthday … We were playing. Laughing. Suddenly she could not breathe. I did not know Marla was allergic to rubber.’

‘Latex.’ Stefano squeezed the skin under his nose with his fingers in a pincer grip to stop himself from losing patience. He never lost patience with Theros. His father had been right to say that if only he, Stefano, had been faster at getting help perhaps his brother’s brain would not have been damaged.

It was a legacy of guilt he could not shake. The job of protecting the family and Theros from ridicule had fallen to Stefano, and he had protected his brother well for many years—because he’d been willing to take up the mantle and carry it regardless of the impact on his own life.

His foray into medicine—the vocation that should have been Theros’s—had stemmed from that guilt, from his father’s distress and disappointment, and from his own lack of ability to prevent such a sequela for his brother. Even at such a young age he had vowed if such a situation ever arose again he would know what to do. Unexpectedly, medicine had also provided a true vocation, and something that soothed his soul.

His father, Crown Prince Paulo III of Aspelicus, had hired a sensible woman to supervise Theros while Stefano had been away at a medical symposium in Australia earlier that year, and to everyone’s surprise his simple little brother had found true love.

At his father’s urgent request Stefano had rushed home from the arms of Dr Kiki Fender—but too late.

Theros had already eloped. Then Stefano himself had been involved in a serious motor vehicle accident, and during his slow recovery months had passed.

To his unexpected relief Theros’s sensible wife had proved helpful in steering Theros on a more stable path, but even the most sensible could make an unfortunate mistake. So any notion of Stefano being released from his duty of care was a misconception. Theros would always need him, and he could offer no life to a vibrant and intelligent woman like Kiki, who was not accustomed to the strictures of royal duty.

In the harsh light of reality he knew that as heir to the throne he should let go of what had passed between he and Dr Fender in Australia. That was for the best.

But it seemed she had not forgiven him for his failure to return.

Theros coughed and Stefano returned to the present. His brother still waited for reassurance.

He took his fingers from his face and stared at Theros so he could be sure he was listening. Perhaps even absorbing the gravity of the situation.

‘Marla could have died. Almost did.’ He paused, let that settle in. ‘One of you must carry an injection, similar to that which the doctor had, in case she is exposed to this product again accidentally.’ He stared hard. ‘You are her husband and it is your duty to keep her safe. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, Stefano.’ Theros chewed his lip. ‘The doctor said she would be all right, though? They’ll let her out of the hospital this afternoon?’

Not surprisingly, Theros had an irrational fear of hospitals—which hadn’t been helped when Stefano had nearly died.

Stefano saw that fear, and his irritation with his brother seeped further away. His voice gentled. ‘For the moment the danger is gone. Yes.’

Theros climbed into his swim-trunks and sadly handed Stefano his latex briefs. ‘And she will be fine tomorrow, won’t she? We’re going to Naples to climb Vesuvius. You’re coming with us.’

‘My leg is a little painful.’ Why must his brother love adventures that required exposure to the public? It would be so much easier on the island of Aspelicus, their island home off mainland Greece, and he had so many things that required his attention there. But his father had asked him to watch over them on this short cruise that Theros had promised his wife.

Ashore, his man could be with them. And while they were touring it would be a good time for him, Stefano, to reacquaint himself with Dr Fender.

After finding Kiki where he least expected her, he had pressing matters to attend to. First an apology for his non-return. Past ghosts to lay.

The problem was that the woman he’d left behind in Australia had stayed like a halo around his heart. He, of all people, knew it wasn’t sensible to desire a woman who did not understand or deserve the ways of royal commitment. As heir, in his country’s crises he was the one who was called.

But still he smarted from the thinly veiled contempt in her sea-blue eyes, because he remembered the warmly passionate, fun-loving side of sweet Kiki.

The gods must be laughing at this insult to his pride. If they had been destined to meet again this was not how he would have orchestrated the moment.

Less than an hour ago—still achingly beautiful, yet transformed—she’d hated him.

She’d always been confident, sassy, and so different from the women he was usually introduced to. Of course he’d been recklessly drawn to the young doctor during his Sydney study tour to promote groundbreaking surgery at his small hospital. What a week that had been.

He would admit he had not behaved thoughtfully during their intense time together. Neither of them had. Everything had progressed far too quickly. They’d immersed themselves in each other for a torrid affair of incredible closeness, tucked away from the world in her tiny flat when they weren’t at the hospital.

Until another crisis created by the man in front of him had required his immediate presence on Aspelicus and he had left her bed and flown out that same night.

He had spent the last few months recovering from his own accident—months of rehabilitation after he’d almost lost his leg. He’d barely been able to look at himself in the mirror, let alone consider showing himself to a woman.

But that excuse had gone now and his treatment of Kiki Fender had recently made him feel ashamed. It was another burden of guilt he found he could not move on from, because it had taken him almost five months before he was able to rule his own life again. A loss of control he never wanted to experience again.

By the time he had begun to search for her, at least to attempt an explanation, she’d been untraceable.

At first he had tried the hospital in Sydney, then her home phone, mail to her old lodgings. He did not know her friends or family. She had disappeared without a trace. Ironically to this very ship.

Tomorrow he would finish this and then fulfil his destiny for his country. Seek her forgiveness, allow himself to let go, and move on to secure the succession.

But for the moment his man-boy brother needed reassurance. Theros was playing with the legs of the latex suit he’d found under the chair and Stefano reached out and took them from him gently. ‘Manos will drive you to Vesuvius.’

‘Oh, good. And Marla will come.’

Theros looked childishly happy and Stefano supposed it was good that someone was pleased.

Later that afternoon, in the ship’s medical centre ten floors below the royal suite, Dr Hobson was ready to discharge Marla.

‘You can go back to your suite.’ Kiki helped her sit up. ‘Your observations are fine, and will stay that way if you stay away from latex.’

Poor Marla blushed again. ‘No more birthday gifts that almost end it all!’

‘It was just bad luck.’ There was a lot of that around at the moment. Kiki grimaced with her. ‘Allergies can be to anything. It could have been peanuts.’

Marla smiled. ‘I’m supposed to be the sensible one. But thanks for that.’

‘Hey, it was your birthday.’ Kiki grinned back. ‘At least now you know latex sets up a reaction in your body and you can make sure that if you ever go into hospital the staff keep you latex-free.’

The young woman nodded and stared down at the little Epi-pen in her hand.

‘And be careful with that.’ Kiki smiled. ‘You can get into trouble if you inject it in the wrong place.’

Maria nodded.

‘True,’ Will said helpfully. ‘I saw a man once who injected it into his thumb trying to work the plunger. It’s a powerful drug and it shuts down the peripheral blood flow. His thumb fell off with gangrene.’

Kiki’s eyes widened as she helped Marla up. ‘Imagine what a disgruntled wife could do?’

The senior medic held out his hands in horror. ‘That’s true. Don’t go there.’

Kiki shook her head in amusement, because Wilhelm’s seriousness always cracked her up. ‘Is he scaring you, Marla?’

‘Only because of my husband.’ The girl laughed and shook her head. ‘I will not let Theros near it. I truly can be sensible.’

‘Not too sensible.’ Kiki smiled. ‘Still have a great birthday. It’s such a shame this has marred your holiday.’

Kiki couldn’t help but think that Marla wasn’t the only one whose voyage had been affected. And this week of all weeks, when her emotions were already on a rollercoaster. Bummer. Bummer. Bummer.

Usually fair-minded, Kiki guessed she owed Stefano an apology—but it wasn’t going to happen. She still didn’t get why he was on his brother’s holiday as his minder—on her ship—and was finding it hard to forget that somewhere above her head was the man she’d accepted she’d never see again.

She glanced at the ceiling above her head. Up there, larger than life and twice as disconcerting—because she might not have agreed to dress in latex for him, like Marla had for Theros, but she’d been just as weak, losing her common sense in the sensual haze they’d created together.

And as for her less than flattering thoughts of him earlier—well, he could jump off the owner’s suite balcony before she’d apologise.

Ginger’s offer to escort Marla to the suite was jumped on with enthusiasm. No way was Kiki going back up there. Because during the long weeks while she’d waited for his promised return, during the phone calls when she’d tried to contact him after she’d discovered she was pregnant, it had been too shameful.

There had been an unexpected lowness of her spirits when he hadn’t called, and she’d been so sick and weak, barely able to function in early pregnancy, that she hadn’t been able to motivate herself to do anything more about it.

By the time the first trimester had been over and she’d begun to feel more like herself again Kiki had accepted that Stefano wasn’t coming back. He had clearly decided his royal status meant she wasn’t good enough for him to follow up. Well, she and her baby didn’t need him. All her life she’d been independent—the youngest sister to three brilliant sisters who didn’t need her, with her doctor parents who were busy. The only person she’d felt connected to had been her big brother Nick. And briefly Stefano. But soon she’d have her baby and they would be a team. She couldn’t wait.

But at eighteen weeks, when she’d already begun to create a nursery of tiny clothes and softest wraps, the pains had come and suddenly her baby was gone. Soon her baby’s due date would pass and she would finally be able to move on. She’d promised herself.

The best thing she’d done was to come here to heal and move on to a new life.

Wilhelm wandered back into the main office. ‘Marla seems very sweet.’

‘She does.’ Kiki blinked and came back to the present.

‘Embarrassing for our royal guests, though.’

‘Mortifying.’ Kiki raised a smile. ‘I bet her brother-in-law hated that!’

Even in the brief time they’d been together Stefano’s avoidance of the whole topic of his royalty and his absolute hatred of the press had been obvious. At the time it had seemed sensible—she knew little of the life of a minor royal, which was the impression of himself he’d left her with. Not that she’d even thought about it much when they were together. As a man he’d been able to help her forget the world.

She dragged her mind back to Marla and Theros. ‘It’s Marla’s birthday. They’ve been married less than a year. And Theros wanted to holiday on a cruise ship instead of their island like most of the family do.’

Will shrugged. ‘So why is his brother here? Heir to the throne and all that. A bit high-powered for a minder, don’t you think.’

Kiki tried for a careless shrug. ‘Family name is very important to everyone, so I imagine in a royal family it would be more so.’ She wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince—Will or herself. ‘Apparently Marla’s husband has bad luck with the press.’

‘Bad luck, eh?’ Will raised his brows as he waved Ginger off duty on her return and shut the clinic door.

Kiki picked up her bag, but he put his hand up to stop her.

‘One sec.’

She paused, looked back, and her stomach sank. She’d been afraid of this.

Will scratched his head. ‘So what’s going on between you two?’

‘Which two?’ She’d hoped nothing had been noticed. Nothing had been said. She hadn’t even looked at Stefano as they’d wheeled Marla out.

Will waited patiently and Kiki felt the blush heat her cheeks. The silence stretched and she didn’t like silence. That was her only excuse for being unable to extricate herself. ‘You mean me and Theros’s brother? Nothing.’ How the heck had Wilhelm sensed that? ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

She switched off a computer she’d thankfully missed at shut-down. An excuse to turn away.

But the flood of memories she’d been holding back all day rose like a wave in her throat. Such rotten timing. She concentrated on her feet, firmly planted on the deck. She was not going under. Control re-established, she turned back to Will, who tilted his head and went on.

‘Come on. I may be a bit oblivious sometimes, but the air was thick between you two and the guy was watching your neck like Dracula on a diet. Nick didn’t mention you knew any royalty?’

Because she’d told no one about her stupidity—not even her closest sibling, and definitely not any of her sisters. ‘Nick has nothing to do with this.’ Because her brother Nick would be out for Stefano’s blood if he knew what the Prince had done to his little sister. ‘Stefano is a surgical consultant I worked with him briefly in Sydney during my last rotation.’

‘You worked with a prince?’

Will looked even more interested, not less, and Kiki could feel the walls of the little clinic begin to close in on her. She didn’t want to think about that time with Stefano, let alone talk about it, but her South African colleague could miss the obvious sometimes.

He proved it. ‘So what happened?’

‘That’s all there is.’ To her horror her eyes filled with tears. Not because of Stefano, but at the thought of the sadness that had been building for this past week.

‘Hey. I’ve upset you.’ Will shook his head. ‘Sorry. I just want you to know I’m here to listen if you need an ear.’ He raised his hands in defence. ‘I promised Nick I’d look out for you.’

Don’t mention this to Nick. But if she said it out loud it would be the first thing he’d do. ‘I’m a big girl, Will. I don’t want to talk about it. Don’t need to talk about it.’

Even she could hear the over-reaction. She sighed. Too vehement.

She turned away to wipe at the tear that had slid out against her will. ‘Sorry—water under the bridge, that’s all.’

‘Well, if he gives you a hard time just let me know,’ Will said gruffly, and she nodded and fled.