by Amy Ruttan
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Baby Surprise for the Doctor Prince
by Robin Gianna
CHAPTER ONE
AUBREY HENDERSON LIFTED her face to the lagoon breeze and smiled, soaking in the incredible history, vivid colors, and sheer amazement that was Venice, Italy. How lucky was she to have snagged a temporary job here? She might have spent only two days in Venice before leaving for her two-month nursing job in Rome, but every detail of those hours felt etched in her brain.
Which included every detail of her illicit, probably ill-advised, and beyond wonderful fling with Enzo Affini. That one night felt burned into her mind—and body, as well—and just the thought of him made her silly heart both skip a beat and burn with annoyance.
Maybe they’d left it a little vague, but hadn’t he implied he’d be in touch? What exactly they’d said to one another when they’d parted in the wee hours of the morning didn’t seem too clear anymore, but still. She’d expected he’d at least call her while she was in Rome, since he knew she was coming back to Venice around now.
Knowing she might run into him in the flesh had her feeling nervous and excited and ticked off all over again for making her wonder if she’d ever hear from him. Then ticked off at herself for wondering at all.
Then annoyed even more when she realized that when the phrase in the flesh had come to mind, an instant all-too-sexy vision of the man’s glorious body made her feel a little breathless.
Ridiculous. Time to concentrate on why she’d come to Venice, which had nothing to do with a handsome Italian prince who was obviously the love-’em-and-leave-’em type. Which was okay. She didn’t care if she saw him or not. In fact, she had no desire at all to see the guy, since he clearly didn’t want to see her.
No, she’d come here before to support her friend Shay, who’d recently married Enzo’s brother, Dante. Now she was here to work in the clinic, enjoy that adventure, and meet with the art and architecture preservation society she’d donated more money to in her mother’s memory.
Her mom had always been fascinated with Venice and its incredible history, and it had only been her fear of travel and crowds that had kept her from coming to explore it. Seeing the fresco she and her mom had “adopted,” paying for its restoration before her mother had died, would be sad but wonderful, too. Her mother’s legacy as a preservationist in New England had now been expanded across the ocean, and that thought brought her smile back and her thoughts completely away from Enzo Affini.
Really. She wasn’t going to think about him again. Period.
A renewed pep in her step took her down narrow stone passageways in front of colorful homes, over numerous charming footbridges, then across the piazza toward the well-marked clinic she’d be working in for the next four months. When she opened the wide glass door, a bell chimed. Inside, a friendly-looking, middle-aged woman sat at a rather spartan desk. Aubrey had been told most of the people here could speak English, but wouldn’t they appreciate it if she tried a few of the Italian phrases she’d learned?
“Buongiorno. Mio nome e Aubrey Henderson. Um...sono qui...per lavorare.”
She struggled to remember more, then abandoned the effort when she saw the quizzical and amused expression on the poor woman’s face. Doubtless she was completely butchering the pronunciation.
“I’m a nurse with the UWWHA, assigned to the clinic here starting today.”
“Welcome. We’ve been expecting you. And let’s speak English, shall we?” said the woman, her smile widening.
“That sounds good.” Aubrey smiled back. “I’m working on the language, but I’m not too good at it yet, obviously! I’m hoping by the end of the time I’m here, I’ll be practically fluent.”
“Learning a language takes time, but working with patients will teach you much. I am Nora, and you can ask me for anything as you need it, sì? Come with me.” She stood and gestured to the door behind her. “I’ll show you where you can put your things. We have a small staff here—you may already know we have just one doctor and nurse working each day, which sometimes gets very hectic. The doctor who is director of the clinic is here today, and he will be the one to show you around. A patient is here right now, though, so the doctor may not be available for me to introduce you at the moment. When you see him, can you introduce yourself? I must greet patients as they arrive, you see.”
“Of course. And I confess I don’t really know much about how the clinic runs,” Aubrey said as she followed Nora down a brightly lit hallway. “I saw the opening in Venice and jumped at the chance to work and explore here.” Had jumped at the chance to explore a certain unbelievably sexy prince, too. Except she wasn’t thinking about him ever again.
The place was very modern and scrupulously clean. Aubrey glanced into a few rooms to see each had a blue and white examination table, along with the usual medical necessities that you’d see in the United States. Not exactly plush and comfy-looking, but they’d do the job.
Nora opened a tall cupboard door made of the same white material as the rest of the built-in furniture in the space. “Here is a locker for your things, with your uniform inside. I don’t see the doctor, so make yourself comfortable and he will be with you soon. Okay?”
“Okay.” Nora left her alone and Aubrey was about to put her purse inside the locker until she wondered if maybe she was supposed to change into her uniform right then. Probably yes, since she assumed she would be working with patients right away? Why hadn’t she asked Nora those things while she was still here?
Aubrey nearly went back out to the reception area but decided that was silly. If she got into uniform and it turned out to be just an introductory day, it was no big deal. At least she’d be ready, right?
Finding a bathroom, she changed into the crisp white dress, smiling at how it was oddly old-fashioned compared with what nurses wore in the US today, and yet the whole place felt ultramodern. She dropped her clothes and purse into the locker, then hovered around, not sure what to do next. The various drawers and cupboards tempted her to open them up and poke around on her own, but she figured it would be more polite to wait until she was invited to do that.
She stood there for a good ten minutes, and each minute that dragged on felt more awkward. And didn’t it make sense to acquaint herself with where things were, in case she needed to take care of a patient sooner rather than later? But luck being the way it was, just as she opened one of the cupboards above the long countertop a deep voice spoke from behind her.
“Buongiorno. You must
be the new nurse from the US.”
Jumping guiltily, she nearly slammed the cupboard shut and turned with a bright smile. Then her heart completely stopped when she saw who stood there.
Enzo Affini. The man who’d unfortunately kept coming to mind since she’d returned to Venice. The man whose hands and mouth had been all over her two months ago. The man who hadn’t bothered to call her again after that very intimate night together.
Aubrey felt a little as if she might just fall over, as though she’d been physically struck at the surprise of seeing him right there in front of her. She barely noticed the elderly man standing next to him as Enzo’s dark eyes met hers for several breathless heartbeats. He recovered from the shock more quickly than she did, moving next to her to get something from the cupboard she’d just been snooping in, then turning to the elderly man with instructions. Aubrey didn’t hear a word he said, feeling utterly frozen as she watched Enzo and the patient move down the hallway, with Enzo opening the door to the reception area for him, then following behind.
Aubrey sagged against the countertop, her hand to her chest, trying to breathe. Did she have any chance of slipping out the back door before he came back? Though if she did, what would that accomplish? She’d come to Venice to work. Was it her fault that he, incredibly, worked at this clinic, too? Gulping down the jittery nerves making her feel numb from head to toe, she forced herself to stand as tall as possible and stared at the door, willing herself to look calm and confident.
Proud that she managed to be standing there in a normal way when the door opened again...assuming he couldn’t see her knees shaking...she met his gaze. The look on his face was completely different than the last time she’d seen him, which was the night they’d parted in the wee hours of the morning. Then, his eyes had been filled with warmth, his sensuous lips smiling and soft.
These lips could have belonged to someone else. Hard and firmly pressed together. His silky eyebrows formed a deep V over his nose as he stared at her.
“Aubrey. To say this is a surprise is an understatement. How did you know I work here?” His voice was a little hard, too. Ultra-chilly. She’d have to be dense as one of the posts sunk into the silt of the lagoon if she couldn’t read loud and clear that he was not pleased to see her at all.
Something painful stabbed in the region of her heart, but the nervousness and, yes, hurt filling her gut slowly made way for a growing anger at the strange suspicion in his eyes. As if she’d come here on purpose to stalk him or something. “I didn’t. I didn’t even know you were a doctor. Something you conveniently forgot to mention.”
“You knew Dante is a doctor.”
“So that meant you had to be one, too? From the way you talked about the restoration of the old homes here, I thought you were an architect or in the construction business or something. You at least knew I was a nurse traveling with Shay.” She wasn’t about to add that her attraction to him and excitement about deciding to let herself enjoy a little carnal pleasure on the trip had been foremost in her mind, not the thought of what he did for a living, since right now he clearly had other things on his mind. Like being ticked off that she was there.
Well, he wasn’t the only one feeling beyond annoyed right then. It was painfully obvious that he’d never planned to contact her when she was back in Venice, and she wasn’t sure if she was angrier at him for that, or at herself for wishing he’d wanted to.
“I assumed you were working at the hospital with Shay.”
“Well, you assumed wrong, the same way I did.” She tipped her chin and stared him down, her chest pinching tightly at the way he was looking at her. As if she were some black rat that had scurried out of the sewer into his clinic.
A long slow breath left his lips as he stuck his hands in the dress pants that fitted him as impeccably as the ones he’d taken off as fast as possible the last time she’d seen him. His white lab coat was swept back against his hips, and even through his dress shirt his strong physique was obvious. The body she’d gotten to see in all its glorious detail.
The jerk.
“Our time together before was...nice, Aubrey. But this is a problem.”
Nice? The most incredible sexual experience of her life had been nice for him? “Why?” she challenged, beyond embarrassed and steaming now. “You’re obviously a man who enjoys women. I enjoyed our night together, too. But that’s long behind us. Now we move into a professional relationship, which won’t be a problem for me at all.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire, her inner self mocked. Though maybe it was true. Right now, if he tried to kiss her, she just might punch him in the nose.
“Listen.” He shoved his hand through his hair. “I think it’s better if we look at other options.”
Other options? The rise of panic in her chest shoved aside her anger with him. Nora had said he was director of the clinic. Did that mean he could toss her out if he wanted? She knew there weren’t any positions available at the hospital. What if there wasn’t a single other place to work in all of Venice?
“Enzo, there’s no reason we can’t work through this. I—”
“Dr. Affini.” Nora rushed into the hallway with a boy who looked to be about seven trailing behind. Blood stained his torn pants and dripped onto the floor with every step he took. “Benedetto Rossi is here. He fell off his bike. I tried to call his father and his nonna but haven’t reached either of them. I’ll keep trying.”
“All right.” Instantly, the frown on Enzo’s face disappeared, replaced by a calm, warm smile directed at the boy. “Were you taking the corners too fast again?” he asked in English.
The boy responded in quick Italian, gesturing wildly and looking panicked. Enzo placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder and led him to an examination room as the boy talked, his head tipped toward the child as he listened. Aubrey hurried to follow. Enzo might not want her here, but maybe she could prove he needed her anyway.
The boy stopped talking to take a breath, and Enzo took advantage of the brief break in his recitation. “Sit up here.” He swung the child up onto the exam table. “And speak English, please. I know your papà likes you to practice, and the nice nurse here is American. I’m going to take a look, okay?”
Benedetto nodded and sucked in a breath as Enzo leaned over to carefully roll back the boy’s ripped pants. The skin beneath sported a wide, bleeding abrasion. It was a nasty one, to be sure, but at first glance it didn’t look to be deep enough to require stitches. Not that his leg couldn’t still be fractured in some way.
Time to show how competent and vital to this clinic she could be, right? Before Enzo booted her out the door for having nice sex with him?
Aubrey shoved down the anger and worry and stab of hurt still burning in her chest and opened a few drawers. Pulled out the supplies she’d need to stop the bleeding, washed her hands, and snapped on gloves. “That’s an impressive scrape you’ve got there,” she said to the child, smiling to relax him. And herself, if she was honest. She was glad Enzo had asked the boy to speak English, because she hadn’t been able to understand a single word he’d said. “You’re obviously a very tough guy. Is your bike okay?”
“No.” The panicked look came back. “The wheel is bent, and the tire is flat. Papà is going to be angry.”
“Oh, surely he won’t be angry when he sees you were hurt,” Aubrey said.
“Yes, he will.” He licked his lips and turned his wide-eyed attention back to Enzo. “Nonna will be, too. I was supposed to be getting bread and seppioline, but I went to play with Lucio first. And then I fell off my bike near his house.”
“Let’s worry about that later.” Enzo straightened to send the boy another wide smile he should patent to relax a patient. Or kindle some other reaction, depending on the circumstances and who he was sending it to. “First, we’re going to stop the bleeding. Then we’ll take an X-ray to look inside your
leg. Luckily your papà signed papers allowing me to treat you the last time you were here.”
“X-ray?” Tears sprang into the boy’s eyes. “You think my leg might be broken?”
“I don’t think so, no. But we’ll check just to be sure.” Enzo patted the child’s shoulder and glanced at Aubrey as she cleaned the wound. “Looks like you have that under control. I’m going to get the portable X-ray.”
“Yes, Doctor,” she said, oh, so coolly and professionally, staring at the boy’s leg because she didn’t want to look at Enzo’s wickedly handsome face. Be distracted by all his undeniable beauty, and get mad at him all over again.
He returned just minutes later, rolling the cart to the table. “Between the blood and rips, I’m afraid these pants are ruined, Benedetto. I’m going to cut them off so we don’t have to slide them down over your leg.”
“What? How will I get home without pants?”
“We keep spare clothes here for things just like this. No worries, okay? Nurse Aubrey here will find you something. Now, this won’t hurt at all, and you’ll get to see a picture of your bones afterward, which I think you’ll like.”
Enzo was so incredibly gentle as he lifted the child’s leg to place the X-ray plate under his calf, her vexation with the man softened slightly. The steady stream of calm, amusing conversation he kept up with the boy actually had the child laughing, which was a dramatic difference from the scared tears of earlier. She had to grudgingly admit that the man had a wonderful bedside manner. In more ways than one, darn it.
Enzo straightened, and his dark eyes lifted to hers. “This will take just a short time to develop.”
“I’ll wait to dress the wound until you’ve taken a look. Then find those pants you talked about. Unless you want to wear the ones I brought, Benedetto? They have little flowers on them—quite pretty.”
“Eww, no!” He obviously knew she was kidding, because he laughed, and the impish smile she’d so enjoyed on Enzo’s face the first moment she’d met him returned as he winked at her.