Luca's Bad Girl Read online

  ‘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.

  She followed him through the open doorway into the empty room. ‘I’m not seeing a shrink, Luca. You can—’

  Luca turned abruptly, cutting her off with a swift, hard kiss, crowding her back towards the door, shutting it with the combined weight of their two bodies.

  Every cell in Mia’s body leapt to life. She grabbed the knot of his tie, pulling him flush against her.

  She groaned, or was it him?

  Madness, it was madness.

  She broke off. ‘We said once,’ she gasped.

  Luca nodded. ‘I know.’ And then he went back for more.

  Mia gave herself up to the urgent press of his mouth. The bold stroke of his hand against her breast. The hard thrust of his erection.

  She whimpered as he ground his pelvis into hers and rubbed herself shamelessly against him. Her hands travelled to his butt, urging him closer, nearer, angling him just right.

  She shut her eyes as he hit the spot, her head lolling back against the door. His mouth moved lower to the mad flutter at the side of her neck.

  The flutter was everywhere. In her breasts and her belly and between her legs. It thrummed through her ears in a deafening thunder like the roar of the ocean or the call of the wild.

  Luca. Luca. Luca.

  Not even the peeling of an emergency beeper pierced it. It took two squealing beepers to manage that.

  Mia pushed on Luca’s chest as the sound finally penetrated. They were both gasping, their clothes askew as they automatically reached for their pagers.

  Damn! ‘Cardiac arrest two minutes out,’ Mia panted.

  Luca nodded as he read the same message on his beeper. ‘Great timing,’ he murmured.

  Mia took a few seconds to straighten her clothes and clear the heavy fog of lust from her brain. Luca followed suit.

  ‘How do I look?’ she asked as she quickly retied her hair to its pristine smoothness.

  Luca smiled. ‘Like you’ve been thoroughly kissed.’

  Mia glared at him.

  That was exactly what she’d been afraid of!

  The following night, Mia snuggled into her ancient duffle coat as she and Evie left The Harbour behind them and crossed over the road, heading for the flashing neon sign that read ‘Pete’s’. It was nearly ten o’clock but Wednesday was traditionally staff discount night—if you could produce an SHH badge, drinks were half-price—it was an ingrained part of The Harbour’s culture.

  Not that the majority of people letting their hair down at tables needed to produce ID. Pete, the owner, had been running the popular bar for the last twenty years and not only knew who was who but usually who was doing who as well.

  Of course he would never have disclosed such information. Like every good barkeeper, discretion was his middle name. And it was definitely the reason why Pete’s had been the hangout for SHH staff over the years.

  Sure, proximity and comfy booths also helped but when down-time was limited, a cosy place nearby where a busy professional could talk and unwind and not be on for a while or worry about gossip, which was already rife enough in their work environment, was definitely appreciated.

  He was also fiercely protective of the hard-working staff at Sydney’s most prestigious hospital. He didn’t tolerate customers who complained to him about bias or hassled his favourite clients in any way. After all, the good staff of The Harbour had been his bread and butter since he’d opened.

  But it was more than that. The doctors and nurses of the SHH were special. Too many times he’d seen them walk through his door with weary, haunted expressions. They saw things on a day-to-day basis that were the stuff of most people’s nightmares. And if a drink or two at his bar managed to take their minds off that then Pete considered he’d done a good day’s work.

  Mia welcomed the blast of heat as Evie opened the heavy wooden door to Pete’s. They shrugged out of their coats and headed to the bar, greeting several people they knew along the way.

  ‘It’s freezing out there,’ she said to Pete, thrusting out her hands. ‘Just feel these.’

  Pete smiled at them and dutifully folded Mia’s chilly fingers in his big warm mitts. ‘Cold hands, warm heart,’ he quipped.

  Mia grinned at him. ‘You are a romantic.’

  ‘Nothing wrong with that, love. Right, Evie?’

  Evie, distracted by Finn chatting to a busty blonde further along the bar, answered automatically. ‘Right.’

  ‘Pete, Pete, Pete,’ Mia tutted. ‘Romance belongs in books.’

  ‘Maybe you should read a couple,’ he jested.

  ‘Books? We don’t have time for books, do we, Evie?’ Mia asked.

  ‘Nope,’ Evie murmured, sliding a surreptitious gaze towards Finn.

  ‘Journals are all I get a chance to read,’ Mia lamented.

  Pete sighed. ‘No time for a man either, I suppose?’

  ‘There are men,’ she protested. Being happily married for thirty years had rendered Pete’s vision permanently rose coloured.

  Pete gave her a reproachful look. ‘Men, sure. But one man, Mia? That’s what you need.’

  Mia rolled her eyes. ‘If I were a man, would we be having this conversation?’ She looked around and spied Finn with a vaguely familiar blonde—Suzy someone? One of the scrub nurses from the OT. ‘Do you say this sort of stuff to Finn?’

  Pete clutched his heart in a wounded fashion. He was like the SHH fairy godfather, wanting happily-ever-afters for all his regulars.

  ‘Of course. I say it to Finn most of all.’ He deliberately looked at a distracted Evie. ‘That man needs the love of a good woman more than anyone.’

  Evie looked at Pete sharply and didn’t say anything for a beat or two. ‘I’ll have a tequila shot followed by a bottle of lager, thank you, Peter.’

  ‘Just the usual for me,’ Mia added.

  He grinned at them. ‘Okay, okay. I can take a hint.’

  Pete served Evie’s shot first and she snatched it up and threw it straight down her throat, revelling in the burn. As she slammed it back on the bar she glanced Finn’s way. He was looking at her with those piercing blue eyes and for a moment their gazes locked.

  Was that disdain? Judgement? Disapproval?

  Too bad, so sad.

  ‘Orange juice for you,’ Pete said, placing it on the bar in front of Mia. ‘Beer for Evie.’

  Evie picked up her drink. ‘Let’s go over there,’ she said, moving off the bar stool in the opposite direction to Finn, before Mia even had a chance to lift her juice. She shrugged at Pete and followed.

  Unfortunately, Evie was heading to a booth Mia would rather not be at but it was difficult to change direction now the occupants had spotted them and waved them over. And she didn’t want to have to explain to her friend who would no doubt put two and two together and come up with five.

  ‘Move over,’ Evie announced. ‘We’re coming in.’

  Mia tried not to look at Luca as she was forced to take the seat next to him. But she could feel his eyes on hers and the heat of him immediately enveloped her as her body responded in an almost Pavlovian fashion to his proximity.

  The booth was spacious but with three bodies either side it was a cosy fit.

  ‘Mia, long time no see.’

  Mia smiled at John Allen, the psychologist she’d been forced to see that morning by Luca. Susie, his wife, was also there and greeted Mia warmly. Of course she saw them regularly en
ough anyway, given that they too lived at the nearby Kirribilli Views apartments where a lot of The Harbour staff resided.

  ‘How did the debrief go?’ Luca enquired.

  ‘Mia’s fine.’ John winked.

  She glared at him. ‘I am fine.’

  ‘Sure,’ he soothed.

  ‘You know, Mia, it’s not a bad thing, to talk this kind of thing through.’ Rupert Davidson, head of Neurology, entered the conversation.

  ‘He’s right,’ Teo Tuala, SHH’s head of Paediatrics, agreed.

  Mia looked at all of them, exasperation bubbling inside her. She inclined her head towards Luca. ‘He didn’t. He was being threatened too.’

  ‘Yes, but I wasn’t lunged at with a knife. Neither did I have my arm slashed open by said knife.’

  Mia took a long swig of her drink as his voice, so close to her ear, took her right back to the on-call room. ‘I’m fine,’ she repeated.

  ‘Well, you know where I am if you want to talk any more,’ John offered.

  Mia couldn’t help but think that a sweaty twenty minutes with Luca had helped more than an hour’s conversation with John but it was a dangerous path for her thoughts to take given how aware she was of Luca right now.

  ‘Absolutely.’ She nodded. ‘What’s happening with Stan?’ she asked, deftly moving the focus of the conversation off her. ‘His ninety-six-hour hold must be up by now.’

  John nodded. ‘He’s staying on voluntarily. He’s had increasing paranoia episodes over the last few years apparently. We want to get his meds right and get him well supported before we discharge him.’

  Mia nodded and soon the conversation drifted to other subjects.

  Ten minutes later, Evie finished her beer and stood. ‘Gotta go. I promised my father I’d drop by some hideous dinner party he’s having. He’s sending a car for me.’

  Mia leapt at the opportunity to escape and stood as well. ‘I’d better go too. I’m on in the morning.’

  ‘Oh, Mia, no,’ Susie objected. ‘Don’t leave me alone with all these men talking shop. Stay a bit longer.’

  Mia looked at Susie’s beseeching gaze and acquiesced. It had absolutely nothing to do with every cell suddenly crying out for Luca’s heat to be squashed back up against her again. ‘Okay, I guess I can stay for one more.’