Mistletoe Brides: Italian Doctor, Sleigh-Bell Bride / Christmas Angel for the Billionaire / His Vienna Christmas Bride

‘Great, bye Mum.’ He turned and sped across the field to join his friends who were making their way back towards the school.

Swallowing down the lump in her throat, Liv said a quick goodbye to Claire and Simon and walked towards her car. Having taken a few hours off in the middle of the day, she was due back at the hospital. No time to mope or feel sorry for herself. The reality of her life. Work. If she didn’t work, there was no money.

The moment she walked through the doors, Stefano Lucarelli strode up to her. ‘Where have you been?’ His raw masculinity took her breath away and Liv felt the instantaneous reaction of her body. Her heart pounded, her knees weakened and she felt horribly light-headed. To make matters worse, the interview with the actress was fresh in her mind and suddenly she had a disturbingly vivid image of him sliding those strong, confident hands over the pliant shivering body of a sickeningly slender woman.

Flustered, she unwrapped the scarf from around her neck. ‘I had a few hours off this afternoon.’

‘In the middle of your shift?’ He stood in front of her, legs spread in a confrontational stance, blocking her path. For a moment she couldn’t speak. Sexual awareness burned hot and dangerous and every thought was blown from her head except one. He’d noticed that she hadn’t been working. For a reason that she didn’t want to examine, she felt like singing and dancing, but somehow she managed to keep her feet still.

‘You were looking for me?’

Maybe the feelings weren’t all on her side.

‘Sì, I was looking for you. We had a very distressed child with a fractured tibia,’ he growled. ‘I needed you.’

A distressed child.

Liv returned to reality with such a bump that every part of her felt bruised even though she hadn’t moved a muscle. Disappointment swamped her like a flutter of freezing snow. He’d needed her. At work. Of course, at work. ‘There are other nurses.’

‘I was given other nurses. And they were slow. I had to ask for the instruments I needed,’ he said scathingly, ‘and they had no idea how to comfort the child. Where were you?’

Liv didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

She should be grateful to him, she told herself. It was just the wake-up call she needed. She wasn’t the sort of woman a man turned to when he needed hot sex, she was the sort of woman a man turned to when he needed something done. ‘I’m working a split shift, today. I went to watch my son play football.’

The thunderous expression on his face vanished and his mouth curved into an unexpected smile. ‘He plays football? Did he score?’

Transfixed by that smile and the sudden change in him, Liv blinked. ‘Y-yes, actually,’ she stammered finally. ‘He did. He was thrilled.’ And he wanted to be picked for the first team but she had no idea how to coach him properly.

His eyes lingered on her face for a long, unsettling moment. ‘So why are you looking so worried?’

‘Worried?’ She was so astonished that he’d noticed that the word came out like a squeak and she almost laughed at herself. Talk about unsophisticated. Anna would have thought of something flirtatious and clever to say, but she couldn’t even hold a conversation with the man without her tongue tying itself into a knot. ‘I’m not worried.’

‘But something is wrong.’ His eyes didn’t shift from her face. ‘Tell me.’

She stared up into the dark glitter of his eyes and felt her stomach flip. Oh boy. My son needs a father, I need a makeover, I’m broke and it’s Christmas in three weeks.

Liv gave a laugh, trying to imagine his face if she spilled out her problems. ‘Nothing is wrong. I’d better go.’ Before her thoughts and her words became mixed up. ‘I’ll be back in the department in a minute, Mr Lucarelli.’

And by then she would have pulled herself together.

She needed to stop dreaming, before she embarrassed herself.

What was the matter with her? Normally, she was realistic and practical. Even if she were single with no responsibilities, she wouldn’t have allowed herself to be tempted by this man.

His life was so far removed from hers, it was laughable.

She could just imagine his reaction if she were to invite him to the ball. His polite refusal would no doubt become her second most embarrassing moment ever, after being overheard discussing sex with Anna.

‘I’ll see you in a minute, Mr Lucarelli.’ She lifted the bag that had slipped off her shoulder and his eyes narrowed.

‘Stefano,’ he purred in a disturbingly male voice. ‘My name is Stefano. Why does everyone keep calling me Mr Lucarelli? The emergency department is a very informal place to work.’

‘Well, you’re extremely senior and you’re also relatively new so I suppose people are wary about being too familiar, and some people find you—’ She broke off and backed towards the staffroom. ‘I really need to change.’

‘Wait.’ His fingers closed over her arm. ‘You didn’t finish your sentence. Some people find me…?’

She hesitated. ‘Intimidating. Just a little.’

‘Intimidating? Me?’ His dark eyes were lazily amused. ‘I’m a pussycat.’

‘Technically, so is a tiger,’ Liv said dryly and he laughed.

‘Providing people do their jobs correctly, I promise to keep my claws sheathed.’ His gaze lingered on her face. ‘You say “some people”. Not you?’

Did he know that he was still holding her arm? ‘I like the fact you have high standards. It means you’re one less thing I have to worry about when I’m in Resus. I’m a control freak.’

He laughed. ‘Likewise.’

‘Two control freaks working in the same room could be a disaster.’

His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ‘Not if they were working towards the same objective. That would make them a powerful team, I think.’ He sounded impossibly Italian and she sucked in a breath and eased her arm away from his grip.

‘I’d better get changed or they’ll be wondering where I am.’

Liv took refuge in the staffroom, slung her bag in the locker, quickly changed into her uniform and stared at herself in the mirror.

Her heart was thumping and her arm was tingling where he’d touched her.

Take a look at yourself, she told herself, standing square to the mirror. Remember who you are. Twenty-eight-year-old single mother. Nothing special. Now remember who he is. Extremely good-looking rich guy with a taste for skinny actresses.

Get a grip, Liv.

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_89b35f44-e1d1-5499-9879-1f525e53a455)

IT WAS past ten o’clock before Stefano was finally able to leave the emergency department.

It had been a chaotic evening, with two serious car accidents in quick succession placing enormous demands on the already overstretched staff.

Fortunately for him, Liv had been working in Resus with him and things had run amazingly smoothly.

As he walked across the car park, the ground sparkled with frost and the sky was clear enough to warn him that it was going to be another cold night. Mentally he braced himself for a spate of accidents in the morning as drivers hit black ice.

From across the car park came the splutter and cough of an engine that didn’t want to start and he saw Liv sitting in a small car, her scarf wrapped tightly around her neck, her breath forming clouds in the cold air.

Stefano tensed, instinctively suspicious.

On at least two occasions in the past, women had faked car problems in order to wangle a lift home with him.