By saving his island...
...can this time be forever?
When Dr. Anna Raymond unexpectedly inherits a fortune, she’s forced to travel to a Mediterranean island and comes face-to-face with Leo Aretino, the doctor she’d once hoped to marry! On discovering Anna was related to Tovahna’s hated ruling family, Leo knew marrying her would be impossible. But now, as Anna uses her inheritance to revitalize the island, can she persuade Leo that they can finally have a future together?
Anna belonged to him, simple as that.
She’d made a vow ten years ago and that vow was as strong now as it was then. Every nerve in her body confirmed it for her. She’d given her heart to this man and it still belonged to him.
Leo was hers.
It wasn’t even a vow, she thought. It was simply a fact, a knowledge so deep and so strong that nothing could change it.
She shouldn’t be out here. She shouldn’t be almost naked, kissing a man she’d had nothing to do with for ten long years.
But her body said it was right. Her hands held the wetness of his body against hers. She felt her breasts mold against his chest and she felt like...she’d come home.
This man. This body.
Hers.
His hands were holding her, claiming her, pulling her closer. His mouth was possessing hers, her passion answered by his and more. The warmth of him, the heat, the strength... This was right. This was where she wanted to be.
Her man.
Dear Reader,
Last year I fulfilled a lifetime dream and visited Italy, surely one of the most fascinating countries in the world. Nearing the end of our travels, my husband and I found ourselves an apartment almost welded to the castle walls in Otranto, right down in Italy’s heel. The castle was fabulous. The cobbled lanes in the old town were made for exploring, the locals were welcoming, the food was mouthwatering and the sea was turquoise blue and warm.
Fifty meters out from the seawall was a rock, smooth, flat, sun warmed. I swam out there every morning and snoozed, occasionally gazing back at a castle and town that seemed almost breathtakingly beautiful. So... I’m a writer and my scene was set. I needed a story to match my castle. I needed lovers who deserved my sea and my rock. So right there I dreamed of doctors Leo and Anna, just the two to step forward when Otranto...sorry, Tovahna...needed them.
As Leo and Anna found their way to their happy ending, I’ve been able to dream of my rock again, of an ancient castle, of a place that touched my heart. I hope Anna and Leo can touch yours.
Marion
Second Chance with Her Island Doc
Marion Lennox
Books by Marion Lennox
Harlequin Medical Romance
Bondi Bay Heroes
Finding His Wife, Finding a Son
Wildfire Island Docs
Saving Maddie’s Baby
A Child to Open Their Hearts
Meant-to-Be Family
From Christmas to Forever?
Falling for Her Wounded Hero
Reunited with Her Surgeon Prince
The Baby They Longed For
Harlequin Romance
His Cinderella Heiress
Stepping into the Prince’s World
Stranded with the Secret Billionaire
The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby
English Lord on Her Doorstep
Cinderella and the Billionaire
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
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Praise for Marion Lennox
“Very beautiful story, love conquered with true bravery and courage by their sides, highly recommended read.”
—Goodreads on Falling for Her Wounded Hero
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
EXCERPT FROM TAKING A CHANCE ON THE SINGLE DAD BY SUE MACKAY
CHAPTER ONE
‘HEAD LACERATIONS ALWAYS look worse than they are. If you’ll help me to a washbasin I’ll stop wasting your time. I’m not dizzy any more. Really.’
The woman’s voice drifting from the treatment room was warm, husky and a little bit shaky. She was speaking the Tovahnan language, with an English accent overlaid.
Dr Leo Aretino knew this voice well. For the last few weeks he’d been expecting her arrival on the island, but hoping he could avoid her.
He hadn’t been expecting her here, in his territory.
The language she was speaking was Leo’s native tongue. The first time he’d heard her use it had been over ten years ago. She’d been standing over a microscope, trying to focus. The ’scope had been fiddly, but Anna had been patient. She’d started humming, and then softly singing to herself. In Tovahnan.
It was a tune his mother had taught him as a child.
Leo had doubted if anyone at their prestigious English medical school had even heard of his birthplace, the island of Tovahna, much less known how to speak its language. He’d cut across her song, incredulous. ‘Where did you learn that?’
‘From my mother,’ she’d said. She’d had the slide in focus at that point and had been looking intently at the nasty little pathogen the tutor wanted them to see.
‘Your mother’s Tovahnan?’
‘Yes, she is. Or she was. She left Tovahna before I was born.’ Anna had checked the slide again. ‘But it’s this little guy we’re interested in. You want to look?’
There was a queue. He needed to look at the bug.
His attention was solidly diverted.
Tovahna was a Mediterranean island, sparsely populated, fought over for centuries until its big neighbours had decided it wasn’t worth the bother. It was now mostly ignored by the outside world. Few foreigners made the effort to visit, much less learn the language. The women of Tovahna were generally olive skinned and dark haired. Anna had red hair and freckles. This didn’t make sense.
‘Your mother taught you Tovahnan songs?’
‘She taught me the language.’ She’d moved away from the microscope, allowing the student after Leo access. ‘I think she used it to assuage homesickness. But you’ve missed your turn,’ she’d told him, switching effortlessly into speaking Tovahnan. She’d smiled, a wide, happy smile that had made him feel even more astounded. ‘Don’t tell me you’re...’
‘Tovahnan.’ And suddenly he’d been close to tears.
Tovahna was tiny, impoverished, its assets gouged for generations by a single family dynasty. Most of its people were trapped in a ceaseless cycle of poverty, but Leo had been so smart at school that the community had rallied to send him to England.
‘Get yourself a medical degree and then come home and help us,’ they’d told him, and off he’d gone, aged all of fifteen.
At nineteen he’d been doing brilliantly. His English had been flawless. He’d fitted in with his fellow students. He’d even been enjoying himself, hardly homesick at all. So there’d been no reason why he should gaze at this redheaded, freckled, fellow student speaking his language and feel like...he
’d wanted to take her into his arms.
Of course, he hadn’t. Not right then. It had been two whole days before he’d kissed her.
It wasn’t just that they’d shared a language. Anna had been special.
But that was past history, he told himself as he listened to her voice carrying from the next room. What was between them had been a long time ago. Right now he needed to focus on medical imperatives. A woman he’d met years before was being carried into his emergency room on a stretcher.
He was a doctor and he had to deal with whoever needed to be treated. He needed to haul himself together and go see what the problem was.
The medical problem.
* * *
Wow, her head hurt.
The thump against stone had been stupid and entirely predictable. When she’d insisted she wanted to see everything—she now owned a castle and who wouldn’t want to see it all?—her late cousin’s agent had given her a torch.
‘Watch your head,’ he’d told her as he’d led her deep into the depths of Tovahna Castle.
What she’d seen had been a maze of tunnels, some built almost a thousand years ago. Secret passages led in and out from the castle walls, to be used in times of siege. There were hidden living areas, ventilation shafts, storage spaces for weapons, for food and water, all dark and dusty and so fascinating it was no wonder she’d finally forgotten to watch her head.
The thump had been solid and the results immediate. The world had spun and then disappeared. She’d surfaced to find blood oozing down her forehead. Victoir, the agent, had been useless, torn between wanting to help and not wanting to get blood on his suit. Finally she’d ripped off her windcheater and applied pressure herself, then had him help her to the surface.
‘I don’t want paramedics coming down here,’ she’d told him. ‘This looks worse than it is. You’ll have a team of split heads instead of one.’
But emerging to daylight, Victoir’s authority reasserted itself. ‘I’ve called the ambulance,’ he told her. ‘I said those passages were dangerous. They need to be closed off, filled in, before someone’s killed. Kids get in and we can’t stop them. You’ve seen the parts that are crumbling. And now this...’
And then a rattletrap ambulance had come blaring down the cobblestoned street to the castle forecourt, and Anna had been bundled inside before she could object.
She could hardly blame them, she decided. She probably did look like something out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and, to be honest, she was still a bit woozy. So she’d lain back and let the paramedics put in a drip to compensate for blood loss. She’d felt every bumpy cobble as they’d made their way who knew where, until finally she’d been carried into what looked a plain, businesslike emergency entrance.
‘The doctor’s on his way,’ a middle-aged nurse told her. She didn’t attempt to remove the windcheater-pad Anna was still holding. ‘Don’t worry. Our Dr Leo’s on duty and he’s the best we have.’
And her bad day suddenly got worse.
Dr Leo. No! Please...
But then the door swung open and a guy in a white coat was beside her trolley. ‘Maria, what do we have here?’
And her worst fears were realised.
Leo Aretino. Her first love.
Her greatest love.
How could you be truly in love at nineteen? You couldn’t be, she’d decided. What they’d had had been a teenage fling.
He’d broken her heart, but teenagers’ hearts were made to be broken. She’d told herself that over and over in the years between then and now. She’d met other men. She’d even fancied herself in love with them, but the thought of Leo had always stayed with her. Tall, dark, intense, speaking the language of her mother, making her laugh, studying with her, making her body sing...
And then walking away...
She closed her eyes. Her head felt like it was about to explode and it wasn’t just the pain from the accident.
She’d guessed she might meet him when she came here, but to meet him now, like this...
‘It’s Anna Raymond.’ The nurse’s voice held suppressed excitement. ‘Anna Castlavara. Katrina’s daughter. Victoir was showing her the tunnels under the castle.’
‘Of course.’ Leo’s voice was smooth, unfussed, as if the name meant nothing to him. Had he known she’d be in the country? He must have, she thought. For Tovahna this must have been big news.
It had been big news to her. Her cousin’s death. An inheritance so huge she could hardly take it in.
Leo.
‘Anna and I have met before.’ Leo still sounded calm. Professional. Like she was one of the scores of patients he saw each day. She was a fellow student he’d had a casual fling with ten years ago. No more.
A fellow student who’d inherited most of his country?
‘Anna.’ His voice gentled and he spoke in English. ‘Are you with us?’
‘I’m with you.’ She couldn’t keep ten years of resentment from her voice. ‘Unfortunately.’
‘Can you open your eyes?’
‘I can but I don’t want to.’
‘Because the light hurts?’
‘Because I don’t want to see you.’
And the man had the temerity to chuckle.
‘Still the firebrand I remember, then, Anna? Okay, keep those eyes closed and I’ll check out the rest.’
His hand was on her wrist and the touch made her...what? She should want to pull away.
She didn’t do that either.
He didn’t touch the pad on her head. He was doing an overall assessment, she thought, checking the IV line, blood pressure, the paramedic notes. Taking in the whole picture.
He was a fine doctor. She remembered that comment at their graduation ceremony. Leo hadn’t been there. As soon as his last exam was behind him he’d left to do a fast track course in surgery before heading home. To Tovahna. But at the graduation his name had been read out with pride by the head of the medical faculty. ‘Dr Leo Aretino has topped almost every class during his time here and he intends returning to serve his country. He’s a doctor we can be proud of, now and into the future.’
So she was in good hands. Leo’s hands.
She hurt.
‘Is it just your head?’ The laughter was gone now—he was all doctor—and that gentle voice she remembered so well was almost enough to bring tears to her eyes. ‘Anna, have you hurt anything else?’
‘Just m-my head,’ she managed, and was ashamed it came out as a stammered whisper.
‘Do you remember what happened?’
‘There was a cavern with ancient pottery urns. I bent to see and then stood up.’ She managed to dredge up a bit of indignation but it was directed at herself. ‘Victoir said it was dangerous and I didn’t listen.’
‘The notes said you lost consciousness.’
‘Victoir said I was out of it for a few seconds, but all I can remember is bang and then feeling dizzy.’
Leo would be thinking of internal bleeding, she thought. Did they have the facilities to treat that here?
She’d read about Tovahna over the years—of course she had.
Still almost a feudal economy, with one family controlling much of the wealth. Most of the population pay rent to the Castlavaran family, and little is put back into infrastructure. Schools, hospitals, public services are minimal, to say the least.
Tourist sites reported on the medical facilities, too.
Travellers are advised to carry extra health insurance to cover transport to a neighbouring country. Medical services are basic. Complex medical situations often mean either evacuation or a less than satisfactory outcome.
A less than satisfactory outcome. Death?
‘If I did lose consciousness it was only for seconds,’ she said, more surely now. Wanting to reassure herself as well as him. ‘You know split heads bleed en
ough to make people think you’re at death’s door.’
‘Blood running down faces does seem to frighten onlookers,’ he agreed, and she heard the hint of humour return. It was the laughter she’d fallen for. Oh, Leo... ‘We’ll take X-rays to be sure, though.’
‘You have facilities?’
‘Amazingly, we have.’ The laughter was still there, but underneath...the trace of bitterness she’d heard only once but would remember for ever. Old accusations flooded back. ‘Your family has sucked our country dry...’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...’
‘Let’s take a look,’ he said, gentle again, and he moved the padded windcheater aside.
The paramedics had moved it to do a fast check but they’d replaced it and bound it fast, thinking it was best not to disturb things until they had a doctor’s back-up. Now the bleeding had stopped, and it had become sticky. She felt the windcheater tug on the dried blood in her hair.
She had no choice. Finally she opened her eyes.
Leo was right there, leaning over her. His face was maybe two hand widths from hers. This was a Leo who was older, his face creased a little, with age, with weather, his eyes seemingly deeper set.
But he was the same Leo. Those gorgeous brown eyes. The deep black, crinkly hair, a bit unkempt. The laughter lines. His mouth...
It was as if he was about to kiss...
Um...not. He was looking at her head, not into her eyes.
Oh, but those eyes...
She needed to get over herself.
She’d never intended seeing him. Once she’d got over the shock of her inheritance, her intention had been to come here fast, put the organisation of the estate firmly back into the hands of her cousin’s agent and then retreat. She knew the country was impoverished and she had no intention of making it more so. Her uncle and then her cousin had squirrelled away rents and profits. She needed to figure a way to channel them into charities, and then go home.
Home was in England, where she worked as a family doctor in a village a couple of hours south of London. The community was lovely and she loved her job. She had two beloved springer spaniels, dopy but fun. She’d recently broken up with a rather nice lawyer but they were still friends. She had lots of friends. Life was good.
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