Unbuttoned by Her Maverick Boss. Natalie Anderson

happening whether you agree or not, Lorenzo. Why not make it that bit more pleasant?’

      He breathed in—she could see the effort hurting him. He closed his eyes and she knew she’d won. ‘Okay, but you’ve done your thing. You can go now. Kat can send the doctor up.’ Another tremor shook him.

      But she didn’t think she could go now. She couldn’t leave anyone alone in this state. And oddly enough she felt that even more strongly about him—he’d never admit it, but he was vulnerable. He was alone.

      He shook his head slightly and looked cheesed again. ‘At least bring my laptop back.’

      ‘What’s the point, Lorenzo?’ she said quietly. ‘Staring at the screen isn’t going to get it done. You’re better off getting some sleep and getting well. Then you’ll do the work in a quarter of the time.’

      His head fell back against the sofa cushions. Round two to her.

      The doctor stayed only ten minutes. Sophy waited on the top of the stairs, put her phone in action some more. Then, after exchanging a few words with the doctor on her way out, she went back in to face the grumpy patient.

      ‘I’m getting you a rug,’ she said, heading towards the doors at the back of the room, refusing to be embarrassed about the idea of going into his bedroom.

      ‘There’s one on the end of the sofa.’

      She stopped. So there was. She’d not noticed it. Hard to notice anything else in the room when he was mostly naked. ‘Well—’ she tried not to stare at him as she reached down and picked it up ‘—I think perhaps you’d better put it on. You don’t want to get a chill.’

      He was well enough to send her an ironic glance. But he leaned back on the sofa and pulled the rug over his waist and down his legs. ‘Happy now, nursie?’

      His chest was still bare, so, no, she wasn’t. But he was obviously feeling a touch better. The doctor said she’d given him some pain relief—must be fast acting stuff.

      ‘So it’s tonsillitis?’ Sophy asked carefully, not wanting to intrude too much, yet unable to stop.

      ‘Stupid, isn’t it?’ Lorenzo said.

      No. Like anyone, Sophy knew how painful a sore throat could be. ‘Did you get it as a child?’

      ‘A bit.’ He nodded. ‘Haven’t had it in years, though.’

      ‘They didn’t take them out for you?’ While it might not be a regular practice any more, she knew that for the most recurrent cases they still did tonsillectomies.

      He repositioned his head on the sofa cushions again. ‘I was on the waiting list for a while. But it never happened. When I got to boarding school the episodes seemed to stop.’

      Sophy poured the electrolyte drink the doctor had given her into a glass. ‘It was a good school, wasn’t it?’

      ‘Better than all the others I went to.’

      She knew he’d been at school with Alex Carlisle—his partner in setting up the Whistle Fund. It was the school her elder brother had gone to too—years before. Private, exclusive, incredibly academic and with superior sporting results as well. It was a tough place to shine—and she just knew Lorenzo had shone. Her sister had gone to the girls’ equivalent. But by the time Sophy had come along their parents were happy for her to just go to the local—they’d said they didn’t want to send her away to board. But Sophy knew it was because she hadn’t had the off-the-charts grades her siblings had had. It wasn’t that she was below average, she just wasn’t brilliant. ‘The antibiotics will have you better in no time. Then maybe you should have a holiday.’

      His brows shot up.

      ‘Cara says you’ve been working too hard,’ Sophy said blandly, ignoring his mounting outrage. ‘Perhaps you’ve gotten run down.’ At that she sent him a look from under her lashes—unable to resist the temptation to let a hint of flirt out.

      ‘Honey, I’m hardly run down.’ His muscles rippled as he stretched out his arms in an unabashed display of male preening.

      Oh, he was definitely feeling better. And she just couldn’t resist teasing him some more.

      ‘The muscles might look good, Lorenzo,’ the devil made her whisper, ‘but you wouldn’t be up to it. You’d be spent just trying to stand.’

      ‘You want to move closer and we’ll test that out?’ Sick or not, he didn’t miss a beat.

      She turned and paced away. Enough channelling of Rosanna—Sophy just wasn’t as practised a flirt as her best friend. ‘I’m not in the mood for more disappointments.’

      ‘You were disappointed I wasn’t there to meet you?’

      She spun and caught his amused, satisfied look. She inhaled. ‘You should be lying down. Hurry up and finish that drink.’

      ‘Sophy—’ his eyes glittered ‘—I don’t need a mother.’ It was a slicing rejection of any sort of kindness.

      ‘No,’ she agreed curtly. ‘You need a nurse. I’ve arranged for one to come from an agency.’

      Lorenzo was so shocked he couldn’t speak for a full minute. He repeated her words in his head several times. Still didn’t believe it. ‘You’ve what?’

      ‘I’ve got a nurse coming. I’ve got work to get on with, so does Kat, and you can’t be left alone.’

      Can’t be left alone? What did she think he’d been all his life? ‘You can tell your nurse she’s not necessary.’

      ‘No. Too late for that.’ She moved back to the table and took away the empty glass. ‘She’s on her way.’

      Oh, she thought she was so damn competent, didn’t she? ‘She’ll have a mobile. Call it.’ Wasn’t getting a doctor around enough for this woman? Another tremor shook him from the bones out. Blow the fever—he was boiling mad.

      ‘Don’t bother trying, Lorenzo,’ she said coolly, cutting him off before he’d even got started. ‘She’s on her way and she’s staying.’

      He gritted his teeth and glared at her. He’d never felt this frustration—hadn’t felt this useless since he was a kid being shunted from place to place with no say in it.

      He closed his eyes as a wave of utter weariness hit him. Okay, he had been working hard—even harder than usual recently. He didn’t know when his hunger for success would be filled. Always he was chased by the feeling that it could be whisked away from him, that he’d wake up one day and find himself with nothing. So he worked, worked, worked—building the base bigger. He could never have enough of the security he needed.

      But investing in Vance’s bar idea might have been one project too many. He’d sent all his staff and resources there for the last week. Helping him get ready for the big opening night—which Lorenzo was going to miss at this rate. As a result his own offices had been sadly neglected. The Whistle Fund in particular. It wouldn’t take too much to get it right again, but it needed time that he simply didn’t have right now. He’d been working twenty-hour days in the last fortnight as it was. So Cara’s office was a mess. It was stupid, but there was a big part of him that hated this woman seeing it like that.

      Sophy—the supremely interfering piece of efficiency.

      And how could he be finding her remotely attractive? She was so damn quick and proper and right it was nauseating. Had she ever made a mistake in her life? He so didn’t think so. And if she had, he bet she’d never admit to it.

      Utterly perfect, wasn’t she?

      He shifted under the rug. She was perfect—like a porcelain doll. Creamy skin and a blonde bob that sprang into neat curls at the ends—how long did it take her to get it to sit just so? Then there was that little nose and the lips that had a sweet cupid’s bow that begged