by Sarah Morgan
Tia almost gasped at the audacity of the woman but relaxed slightly as she felt Luca’s arm slip round her shoulders, pulling her close to him. ‘Not tonight—I’ve finished work and Tia and I are off until Boxing Day. There’ll be plenty of time to answer your questions when I’m back.’
A warm glow spread through Tia’s veins as his grip tightened. He was making it clear to Dr Ford that a meeting with her would be nothing but professional.
‘Fine.’ Dr Ford gave a bright smile that barely hid her disappointment and swung her dark hair over her shoulders. ‘I’ll see you after Christmas, then.’
‘Indeed.’ Luca took Tia’s hand firmly and led her to the car. ‘Get in before you collapse. You must be exhausted. You shouldn’t have stayed for that breech delivery.’
Tia’s expression softened. ‘I like Sally and—’ She broke off and blushed slightly. ‘And I wanted to watch you.’
Mild amusement lit his eyes. ‘Was I being tested? Did I pass?’
His lazy drawl made her blood heat and she struggled to keep her breathing steady.
Oh, yes, he’d passed.
‘You were great,’ she said gruffly. ‘Most doctors would have just sectioned her to avoid the risk of litigation. Dr Ford was right. You were amazing.’
He gave a shrug. ‘I don’t think so. There was no reason why she couldn’t deliver normally,’ he said. ‘She had a good-sized pelvis and the baby wasn’t big, she had a normal volume of liquor, no pre-eclampsia and no foetal distress. It was perfectly reasonable to let her deliver on her own.’
‘And what about the woman earlier, the ruptured uterus?’ Tia turned to look at him. ‘Did you have to do a hysterectomy?’
‘No.’ Luca shook his head and raked a hand through his hair. ‘She was lucky. We managed to repair it.’
Lucky.
Lucky to have Luca.
‘Luca…’ She turned to face him, feeling suddenly impossibly shy. ‘Thanks.’
He yanked on the handbrake and frowned at her. ‘For what?’
‘For not going for a drink with Dr Ford.’ She swallowed hard. ‘She’s very attractive…’
‘And why should that make a difference?’ He lifted an eyebrow, his expression deadly serious. ‘It’s you I want, Tia.’
Did he?
Warmth spread through her veins and for the first time she was tempted to believe him. He certainly didn’t behave like a man who was in love with another woman.
He gave her a slow smile and turned the key in the ignition. ‘Come on, let’s go home and get some sleep. We’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.’
‘How about that one?’ Luca pulled the collar of his wool coat up and narrowed his eyes as he looked at the trees.
Tia picked her way over the muddy path and squinted at the price. ‘Luca, it’s a blue spruce! It costs a fortune.’
Luca shrugged indifferently. ‘Do you like it?’
Tia looked at it again and tried to imagine it covered in delicate white lights. ‘It’s gorgeous, but—’
‘Then we have it,’ Luca announced arrogantly, looking around for the man who was helping haul the trees to people’s cars.
Fifteen minutes later they were bumping down the forest track with the tree half hanging out of the boot of the car.
‘I hope we don’t meet a policeman,’ Tia said, glancing back anxiously to check that the tree was still mostly in the boot. ‘Is it going to fit?’
Luca nodded with his usual confidence. ‘It will fit.’
It did. In fact, it was perfect, filling their cosy living room with a musky smell of forest and pine needles.
Tia fingered the needles with awe. ‘This is a dream tree.’
‘No.’ He tucked his fingers under her chin and lifted her face to look at him. ‘It’s not a dream, Tia, it’s real. Remember that.’
He bent his head slowly and brushed a kiss against her mouth and then paused, obviously fighting some internal battle.
She held her breath, wanting him to kiss her properly, but he released her suddenly and gave her a tense smile.
‘Come on. We haven’t started our Christmas shopping yet.’
The town was crowded and they were soon caught up in the excitement of Christmas, smiling at the groups of carol singers gathered on street corners and admiring the decorations in the shop windows.
They stopped at a small café to drink hot chocolate and eat sandwiches, and Tia’s face glowed with excitement.
‘You know something,’ she said, her hands wrapped around her steaming mug of chocolate, ‘this feels like someone else’s Christmas.’
He sat back in his chair and gave her a puzzled frown. ‘Someone else’s?’
‘Yes.’ She broke off, her cheeks flushed, suddenly shy. ‘I was always on the outside looking in at Christmas. It’s one of those times of year that always seems to be perfect for everyone else. I know that it isn’t, of course,’ she said quickly, ‘but it just seems that way when you’re lonely. This is the sort of Christmas that I always envied everyone else for having. You know, the tree, the lights, sharing it with someone you—’
Dear God, she’d almost confessed that she loved him!
Luca was suddenly very still and when he finally spoke his voice was hoarse. ‘Someone that you…?’
Tia’s heart thumped steadily. ‘Enjoy being with,’ she said quickly. ‘Someone you enjoy being with.’
His eyes searched hers for a long moment and suddenly he looked tired. ‘Well, this year it isn’t someone else’s Christmas, Tia. It’s yours and mine.’
As their eyes locked, her heart started to thump.
Suddenly she didn’t care about Luisa or whether or not she’d been part of Luca’s life before she herself had met him. Either way, she was entirely sure that the woman wasn’t a part of his life now.
‘Luca…’ how could she tell him that she wanted to end the no-touching rule?
‘Are you ready to go home?’
She nodded and wrapped her scarf loosely around her neck, dipping her head in its soft folds to hide her blush.
Back at the cottage, they lit a fire and decorated the blue spruce, smiling with satisfaction as they looked at the results of their handiwork.
Tia had found a holly tree at the bottom of the garden and had decorated the hearth with twists of greenery and berries.
‘This is wonderful.’ She smothered a yawn and stretched herself full length on the sofa, relishing the view of the tree. It was a fairy-tale Christmas tree, covered in tiny, delicate white lights and a few tasteful silver decorations. And under it were presents, gaily wrapped and tied with ribbons of various colours. She knew that Luca had put them there and she smiled at him gratefully. ‘Thank you, Luca.’
‘Prego.’ A smile touched his eyes and he knelt down to tend to the fire, throwing on another log and giving it a prod.
His black jumper pulled across the powerful muscles of his shoulders as he leaned forward and his jeans were tight over his thighs.
Suddenly her throat dried and she swung her legs off the sofa and stood up.
‘Luca…’
He put the poker down on the hearth and turned, his eyes darkening as they clashed with hers.
‘Luca, I don’t think… I— Would you—?’ She broke off, blushing furiously but he rose to his feet in a fluid movement and walked slowly towards her.
She waited, breathless, for him to speak, but he didn’t. Instead he stopped only inches away from her, his eyes still burning into hers. And then he lowered his head and covered her mouth with his, lifting his hands slowly and stroking his fingers down her cheeks as he kissed her.
His hands slid round the back of her head, angling her face so that he had better access to her mouth, and she felt the tip of his tongue slide between her lips.
Her body started to tremble and she kissed him back, her tongue tangling with his, her hands sliding under the wool of his jumper and settling on the silken smoothness of his hot flesh.
There was surely
no one else in the world who could kiss like Luca.
She didn’t feel him move, but suddenly she was lying on the soft rug in front of the flickering fire. They were both breathing rapidly and he stared down at her for a long moment, as if unsure about something.
Surely he wasn’t going to change his mind? Not now…
‘Luca.’ She slid her hands further under his jumper, loving the feel of his hard muscles, loving his strength. Impatient to feel more of him, she pushed the soft fabric up his body and he sat back on his heels and dragged the garment over his head, throwing it carelessly onto the floor next to them.
Tia could barely breathe. Impatient for more, she lifted her hands and reached for his zip.
He smiled. A wicked, intimate smile that made her groan in desperation.
‘Patience, cara mia.’ He lowered himself onto her, carefully supporting his weight on his elbows, and this time his kiss was hot and purposeful, and she knew with a shiver of excitement that this was a kiss that was going all the way.
It was like holding a flame to dry timber. Something inside her ignited and the flames spread, licking through her trembling, quivering body
Her hands slid behind his neck, drawing him closer, and her heart thudded uncontrollably as he kissed her with a savage passion.
Somehow the buttons of her dress were undone and he dragged his mouth away from hers, his breathing laboured, his eyes dark with need as he wrenched the dress down her body. Frantic to feel him against her she used her legs to kick it away, her heart pounding as she felt his long, skilled fingers slip inside the elastic of her panties.
It had been so long…
His name on her lips was barely more than a whisper as he touched her intimately, as only he ever had, his fingers working a magic that left her shaking with need.
Impatiently she pushed his trousers down his hips, feeling the comforting weight of his muscular body press down on her as he parted her thighs. She felt his hard hands on her buttocks as he guided her closer to him and then he paused.
He said something in Italian that she didn’t understand, hesitating for just long enough to drive her wild with frustration.
‘Luca, please…’ She lifted her hips towards him and he altered his position, entering her smoothly and slowly, with none of the fierce desperation that had characterised their previous encounters.
But his touch was all the more arousing for its unusual gentleness. Instead of slaking their need with driving force, he took her slowly, introducing her to an eroticism that she’d never known before. Hypnotised by the heat in his eyes, she gazed up at him, the incredible intimacy between them making her breathless. In the past there had been an edge of violence to their love-making, a mutual desperation that had driven them both wild. But this time his movements were slow and deliberate, building the excitement between them to an almost intolerable level.
Still holding his gaze, she slid her hands over his hard buttocks, urging him still closer, and she felt him move deep inside her, filling her and driving her towards completion.
Then he lowered his dark head and his mouth closed over hers again, his tongue touching hers, tasting, seducing until she felt a throbbing need build inside her. As spasms of pleasure convulsed her body she felt him tighten his grip and knew that he’d reached the same pinnacle.
She held him tightly, her eyes squeezed closed as she tried to bring herself back to earth, tried to cope with the turmoil of her emotions.
Despite all her efforts, tears stung her eyelids and slid down her cheeks. He’d made love to her so gently, so possessively, and yet he still hadn’t said that he loved her.
Was he still thinking about Luisa?
‘I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?’ His rough voice teased her sensitised nerve endings and she shivered as he rolled onto his back, taking her with him.
‘No.’ She leaned her head on his muscular chest, trying to hide her tears, but he slipped a hand under her chin and tilted her face towards him.
‘If I didn’t hurt you, why are you crying?’
What could she say? Because I missed you? Because I love you and you don’t love me?
His arms tightened around her and she closed her eyes, revelling in the physical contact that she’d denied herself for so long. It was so good to be near him, to be held by him.
‘You’ve never made love to me like that before,’ she said, her cheeks growing pink under his steady gaze.
‘Slowly, you mean?’ He gave a wry smile. ‘You and I were never very good at taking our time, but this time I was worried about the baby.’ His gruff statement made her heart twist.
‘You’re an obstetrician. You should know better than anyone that making love doesn’t hurt the baby.’ So that was why he’d been so unusually gentle.
‘You haven’t answered my question.’ He lifted a hand and stroked the tears away from her face, his eyes searching. ‘I broke the no-touching rule, didn’t I? Is that why you’re crying? Are you angry with me?’
His unusual self-doubt touched her.
‘No.’ How could she possibly be angry? She’d wanted him as badly as he’d wanted her.
She just wished that he loved her.
A frown touched his smooth dark brows. ‘Tia?’
How could she tell him the truth? That making love had just confirmed what she already knew. That he was the only man in the world she ever wanted to be with.
‘I’m fine. Merry Christmas, Luca.’
The frown disappeared and he smiled. ‘Merry Christmas.’
She closed her eyes and nestled against his chest, fighting back the tears again. She wasn’t going to cry. She was going to enjoy the moment. All right, so Luca didn’t love her, but he found her attractive and she was expecting his baby.
That would just have to be enough.
CHAPTER EIGHT
JANUARY was bitterly cold and Tia threw herself into her work and concentrated on preparing herself mentally for the arrival of their baby.
Her relationship with Luca was becoming closer by the day. And as for their love-making… She closed her eyes and felt her heart miss a beat. It was so spectacular that it was hard to believe that he really didn’t love her. In fact, sometimes when they were in bed he was so tender with her that she could almost convince herself that he did.
Which was ridiculous, of course, she reminded herself firmly, because he’d never once told her that he loved her in all the months they’d been together.
Fortunately the weeks seemed to fly by and she had to be fitted for a larger uniform to accommodate the growing evidence of her pregnancy.
At work things were as busy as ever but Sharon was careful not to give her too heavy a workload.
‘If you deliver early it will just be extra work for us,’ she teased one morning as they were sharing a coffee on the postnatal ward. ‘How are you feeling?’
Tia smoothed a hand over her swollen abdomen. ‘Big,’ she admitted with a rueful smile. ‘Big and clumsy. And what’s worrying me is how on earth it’s going to come out.’
She hadn’t mentioned her fears to anyone but the thought of the labour was beginning to worry her.
But at least she was excited about the baby now. Even though she was a midwife and knew the theory better than most, she still devoured pregnancy magazines and read everything she could get her hands on.
Sharon grinned at her. ‘Is Luca anxious?’
‘Luca?’ Tia looked at her with surprise and then smiled. ‘You’re joking, aren’t you? When have you ever seen Luca anxious about anything?’
‘Never. You’re right.’ Sharon nodded agreement. ‘He’s the coolest doctor I’ve ever worked with but, still, you are his wife and obstetricians behave differently with their wives.’
Tia frowned thoughtfully.
Was Luca anxious?
He certainly didn’t seem to be. Unlike her.
Fortunately for Tia, the postnatal ward was very busy and she didn’t really have time to dwell on her own thoughts a
nd fears.
The weeks passed quickly and she was halfway through an early shift in the thirty-third week of her pregnancy when she felt a stabbing pain low in her abdomen.
She gave a soft gasp and stopped dead, clutching the notes that she’d been about to return to the trolley.
The pain gripped her fiercely and then vanished, leaving her tense and anxious.
What had caused it?
She rubbed a hand over the curve of her abdomen, trying to be rational. Towards the end of pregnancy it was normal to feel Braxton-Hicks’ contractions, mild contractions that made the uterus tighten up and contract in preparation for labour. She knew that sometimes they could be painful.
Was that what she had felt?
Should she call Luca?
Filing the notes carefully back in the trolley, she decided to carry on with her shift and see what happened. It was bound to be nothing. Maybe she’d pulled a muscle lifting something that she shouldn’t have done. What else could it be? She had at least another seven weeks to go until the baby was due.
And she really didn’t want to bother Luca with it. He’d only insist that she go home to rest and then she’d have to leave Sharon and the others in the lurch.
As it was, she only had one more week at work and she knew that Sharon had been searching for a replacement.
Determined to carry on, she checked her notebook and noticed that she still needed to do a daily examination on Mrs Burn, a thirty-year-old woman who’d had a forceps delivery during the early hours of the morning.
Putting her own problems to the back of her mind, Tia walked through to the four-bedded ward which was on the south side of the hospital. Despite the fact that it was still only March, the sun shone strongly through the window, making the room bright and warm.
‘Morning, ladies,’ Tia said cheerfully as she walked briskly up to Mrs Burn. She noticed immediately that the woman looked pale and tired. ‘I’ve just come to do your check, Lisa, if this is a good time for you.’
Lisa nodded slowly and tried to struggle into a sitting position.
Tia frowned. ‘Are you in a lot of discomfort?’
