St Piran’s: Italian Surgeon, Forbidden Bride

‘I was surprised to see you,’ he told her once they had left the unit and were in no danger of being overheard. ‘I thought you had left for the day.’

Once more a tinge of colour warmed her smooth cheeks. ‘I had to rush home to meet the insurance company’s assessor. I said I’d be back,’ she added defensively, refusing to meet his gaze.

She had said that but he’d assumed she had meant the next day. Apparently unsure what to do with her hands now that she was no longer carrying the assorted paraphernalia he’d seen her with before, she pushed them into her skirt pockets.

‘What about you? Why are you still here?’

Her questions cut across the electrically charged atmosphere that hummed between them.

‘I was called in after a young woman was knocked down by a coach.’ He gave her a brief summary of the events and the unsuccessful struggle in the operating theatre. ‘Her injuries were too severe… there was nothing we could do.’

Jessica’s expression softened, understanding and sympathy visible in her olive-green eyes, and in her voice when she spoke. ‘What a rotten end to your first day.’

‘It could have finished on a better note,’ Gio admitted with a rueful shrug, running the fingers of one hand through his hair.

Leaning back against the wall, Jessica met his gaze, and he witnessed her first real smile for him. Dio, but she was beautiful! The heavy weight settled back on his chest, making it difficult to breathe, and he felt each rapid thud of his heart.

‘If it’s not too late and you still want to talk about your patient…’Jessica’s words trailed off and she bit her lip, looking hesitant and unsure.

‘That would be good, thank you.’ He’d take any opportunity to spend time with this elusive and most puzzling woman. ‘Shall we go to the canteen? I’ve not eaten and the now congealed ready meal waiting in my microwave holds no appeal.’

Gio thought she was going to refuse and he found himself holding his breath as he waited for her answer. That it meant so much to him and he wanted so badly to be in her company should have worried him—would have worried him even one day ago. But in the short hours since he had met Jessica he felt changed somehow. Where this inexplicable but intense attraction was heading he had no idea, but he was keen to find out.

‘All right.’

However reluctantly given, her agreement cheered him, and as he walked by her side down the deserted hospital corridor he felt as if he was setting out on one of the most important journeys of his life… with no map to help guide him and no clue as to the final destination.

CHAPTER THREE

‘THAT wretched woman!’

Jess looked up in surprise as Brianna Flannigan, a nursing sister from the neonatal intensive care and special care baby units, banged a plate down on the canteen table and sat down, joining Megan and herself.

‘What woman?’ Jess and Megan asked in unison, concerned that the gentle, dedicated and softly spoken Brianna was so upset.

‘Rita.’

Rita was the ward clerk in NICU/SCBU and renowned for nosing into other people’s business, making her opinions, and often her disapproval, known. Few people took notice of her, but none wanted to fall under her spotlight. Both Brianna and Megan had suffered when Rita had picked on them in the past, and news she was hassling Brianna again brought out Jess’s protective instincts.

‘I’m sorry.’ She sent her friend a sympathetic smile. ‘What brought this on?’

Brianna idly pushed her salad around the plate. ‘Now Diego and Izzy are no longer occupying Rita, she’s refocused on me,’ Brianna explained, frustration and displeasure in her lilting Irish voice.

‘Tell her to mind her own business… that’s what I do,’ Megan riposted, stirring a sugar into her mug of tea. ‘Not that it stops her. She’s started making comments about me again, too.’

Jess knew Rita wasn’t easily diverted once she set her mind on something. She suppressed a shiver. The idea of anyone probing into her past and her secrets was too awful to contemplate.

‘She’s always been nosy and judgemental. I thought she’d given up on me, but now she’s asking where I came from and what I did before I joined St Piran’s,’ Brianna continued.

Jess recognised the dark shadows in her friend’s brown eyes and couldn’t help but wonder what had put them there.

‘She’ll never change,’ Megan predicted. ‘If she’s not prying into someone’s business, she’s having a go about single mothers… or teenage ones. And don’t get her started on her daughter.’

‘What’s wrong with her daughter?’ Jess queried with a frown.

Megan dunked a biscuit in her tea. ‘Nothing. That’s the point. Marina’s been happily married for twenty years and has several children—I’ve treated some of them for the usual childhood accidents and illnesses. They’re a great family. Noisy and loving. Maybe that’s what bugs Rita. She claims Marina married beneath her and shouldn’t have had such a big family,’ Megan finished, brushing crumbs from her lip.

‘It’s true she picks on Marina,’ Brianna agreed. ‘She finds fault with her grandchildren, too.’

The talk made Jess even more grateful that she had managed to avoid Rita’s attention and speculation. Megan and Brianna were the closest she had to friends, yet they knew no more about her than she did about them, even after the years they had known each other. Which was probably why they got along so well. The mutual trust was there and they guarded each other’s privacy, sharing an unspoken agreement not to ask personal questions, yet they could turn to one another should they need to, knowing their confidence would be respected.

‘Rita’s also asking questions about Gio Corezzi,’ Brianna added, snapping Jess from her thoughts.

‘Why would she start on him?’ she asked, fighting a blush at the mention of Gio’s name. ‘She hasn’t even met him, has she?’

Brianna nodded. ‘She met him this morning. We all did. We have a baby with hydrocephalus—along with several other problems, the poor mite—and Richard Brooke called Gio up to the unit for advice,’ the caring Irish woman explained, referring to the consultant who headed NICU.

‘What sort of questions is Rita asking?’ Jess queried, striving for casual indifference.

‘She wants to know why someone who was such a wow in London would chose to “bury himself” in Cornwall,’ Brianna told them, spearing some food with her fork. ‘She saw Gio in the consultants’ car park with James Alexander, chatting about cars—apparently they own the same model Aston Martin, but in different colours, so Rita’s sure Gio’s loaded.’

‘For goodness’ sake,’ Megan responded, with the same disgust Jess was feeling.

‘Rita asked Gio if his wife would be joining him here.’ Brianna paused, and Jess steeled herself for what her friend would reveal next. ‘Gio said,“Unfortunately not,” and you could see the speculation in Rita’s eyes until Gio added, after a deliberate pause,“She’s dead.” It was just awful. I felt terrible for him. He looked so sad. Even Rita was embarrassed, and that’s saying something.’

As Brianna and Megan discussed Rita-avoidance tactics, Jess sat back and battled her emotions. Her heart squeezed with pain at the news of Gio’s loss. Concerned for him, she also felt guilty for the unstoppable flicker of relief that he wasn’t already taken. Not that she had any future with him. Or with anyone. But she couldn’t help wondering what had happened… or question why he hadn’t told her himself. Not that it was her business. She respected his privacy. And she hadn’t told him her secrets.

Discovering how protective and possessive she felt of Gio was disconcerting. She knew the answer to some of Rita’s questions, but she would never divulge them. Not even to Brianna and Megan. Not because they might gossip, they wouldn’t, but for much more complicated reasons. She didn’t want to admit to her friends, or to herself, how much she enjoyed and looked forward to Gio’s company.

After Gio had returned to the hospital on the evening of his first day and had found her in PICU with the Rowlands, they had spent well over an hour in the canteen together. She’d had little time to wonder if he’d overheard any of her conversation with Cody’s mother because she’d been pole-axed by the charge of electricity and blaze of sensual awareness that hit her every time she saw him. He’d looked gorgeous in jeans and a blue shirt, the shadow of stubble darkening his masculine jaw making him seem rakish and dangerous.

The canteen had been far less crowded than it was now, Jess acknowledged, shifting her chair in to allow a group of nurses to pass and access a nearby table. Gio had chosen a full meal, while she’d opted for a small bottle of mineral water and a packet of sandwiches… out of habit selecting things in disposable packaging. She hadn’t budgeted for an extra snack, but as she’d not eaten anything but a banana and an apple since breakfast, she’d been hungry.

Having sunk everything she’d had into buying her cottage, she was counting every penny. The storm damage had been an unforeseen disaster but the insurance company was going to cover repairs for her roof despite the policy only being a month old. Having overstretched herself on the property, she was having to be frugal with everything else, not that she had hinted at the sorry state of her finances to Gio—or anyone else.

‘Have you always worked here?’ Gio had asked, turning their conversation that first night away from his patients and to work in general as he’d tucked into his dessert.

‘No. I joined St Piran’s when I was in the final year of my training,’ she’d explained to him, amazed he’d found room for apple pie and cream after the large portion of lasagne that had preceded it. ‘They asked me to stay on once I’d qualified.’

What she hadn’t told him had been the extent of her relief that she’d not needed to move on again, something she had done several times since the life-changing bombshell had brought things crashing down around her. She’d carved out a niche for herself in St Piran, fulfilling a role that patients, relatives and staff all appreciated and which allowed her some welcome autonomy.

‘You don’t see patients in your office?’ Gio had queried.

‘Very rarely—although I have done so if circumstances required it,’ she replied, thinking of Izzy, the young A and E doctor who, then six months pregnant, had wanted to return to work after taking leave following the traumatic time she had experienced.

It hadn’t been easy, for Izzy or herself, but things had worked out well. Now Izzy had a beautiful baby girl and an amazing new man in her life in the shape of attractive Spaniard Diego, who had been a charge nurse in NICU/SCBU, and Jess wished them all the happiness in the world.

‘My role is more immediate,’ she had gone on to tell Gio. ‘I give emergency help to those who need it, be that on the wards, in A and E, or elsewhere in the hospital.’