St Piran’s: Italian Surgeon, Forbidden Bride. Margaret McDonagh

wife of forty years, Jess had taken time to visit with him. ‘And I’m the one who’s grateful. You’ve been wonderful, love, letting me talk about my Winnie. I’ll not forget it.’

      ‘It’s been my privilege,’ she replied, a lump in her throat.

      Jess hurried back to the psychology unit, glad everyone had left for the day, allowing her to sneak the basket into her odd little annexe at the back of the building. Dubbed the ‘cubby hole’, it had been assigned to her as the only spare room available, but she couldn’t have been more pleased. Apart from the office and next-door bathroom, it had an adjoining anteroom and a basic kitchen. Away from the main offices, it gave her privacy, which suited her just fine. Especially with circumstances as they were… circumstances no one else knew about and which brought another surge of guilt.

      Setting down the basket, Jess checked the contents then picked up her bag and keys. The sooner she went home, the sooner she could return to St Piran’s. Hopefully she would be too busy in the coming hours to think about Giovanni Corezzi.

      Opening her office door, she hurried out, only to collide with something solid and warm and smelling divinely of clean male with a hint of citrus and musk. Her ‘Oh’ of surprise was muffled against a broad chest as she lost her balance.

      ‘Easy there,’ Giovanni’s voice soothed.

      His hands steadied her, closing on her bare arms above the elbows. She felt the impact of his touch in every particle of her being, the brush of his fingers on sensitive skin making her tingle. She felt as if she’d been branded. A bolt of awareness and long-suppressed need blazed through her, scaring her.

      The urge to lean into him and savour the moment was very strong. It seemed for ever since she had been touched and held, even in a platonic way. Not that there was anything platonic about the way Giovanni made her feel! But that knowledge acted like a bucket of icy water. Panic gripped her, both at the physical contact and her overwhelming reaction to this man. The need to break the spell overrode everything else and she struggled free, her desperation causing her to push away from him with more force than she had intended.

      ‘What are you doing here?’ she challenged brusquely.

      Intense blue eyes regarded her with curiosity. ‘Forgive me, I didn’t know this part of the hospital was out of bounds.’ His tone was gently teasing, but a blush stained her cheeks in acknowledgement of her uncharacteristic rudeness.

      ‘It’s not, of course, Mr Corezzi, but—’ Jess broke off. Everything about him threw her into confusion.

      ‘Please, call me Gio. I came to update you on Cody,’ he explained, his throaty voice and sexy accent sending a shiver down her spine. ‘And to thank you for your help.’

      Her breath locked in her lungs as he rewarded her with a full-wattage smile. ‘I was just doing my job.’

      ‘I also wish to discuss another patient soon to be admitted whom I feel will benefit from your involvement,’ he continued.

      ‘That’s fine. But is it urgent? I’m in a hurry.’

      Although she had softened her tone, his dark eyebrows drew together in a frown. ‘It’s not urgent, but I hoped you’d have a minute…’

      ‘I’m afraid I don’t.’ Jess cursed her stiltedness. She seemed unable to behave normally around him. ‘I’m sorry, I have to rush home. I’ll talk with you later.’

      Eager to make her escape without him seeing inside her office and discovering the secret she had kept hidden so far, Jess fumbled behind her for the handle and pulled the door closed with a determined snap. She turned round, removing herself from his inspection, locked her office and pocketed the key. Then, carefully skirting him, she walked briskly to the main entrance, conscious of him following her.

      ‘Jessica…’

      The way he said her name tied her insides into knots. It wasn’t just his voice or pronunciation but that he alone used her full name and made it sound like a caress. Thankful she had a genuine excuse to escape, she opened the front door and stepped aside for him to exit ahead of her.

      ‘I have to run,’ she said, concerned at his reluctance to leave.

      A muscle pulsed along the masculine line of his jaw, indicating his dissatisfaction. When he stepped outside, allowing her to do the same, the door swinging closed and the lock clicking into place, Jess released the breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.

      He looked down at her, a brooding expression on his far-too-handsome face. ‘Later.’

      It was more demand than question and it filled Jess with alarm… and a dangerous sense of excited anticipation that was the most scary of all.

      ‘Later,’ she allowed reluctantly.

      As she hurried towards her car, she sensed him watching her. So much for her earlier resolution. He was going to be more difficult to avoid than she’d anticipated. And this second encounter had confirmed what a risk he posed to the carefully constructed world she had manufactured for herself. Now a sexy Italian neurosurgeon had bulldozed his way into her life and was in danger of unravelling everything she had worked so hard for.

      Heavy-hearted at the way his first day at St Piran’s was ending, Gio washed, disposed of his scrubs and dressed in the jeans and short-sleeved shirt he had pulled on after arriving home. He’d not long left the hospital after making a final check of his patients when the emergency call had come for him to return.

      A multidisciplinary team had assembled in Theatre, but despite their best efforts their nineteen-year-old casualty had succumbed to severe chest trauma and brain damage after an alcohol-induced accident.

      Gio sighed at the waste of a life. Pain stabbed inside him as his thoughts strayed to another young life that had been cut cruelly short and he closed his eyes, determined to control his emotions and push the destructive memories away. Instead, he found himself thinking of Jessica Carmichael.

      His impulsive visit to her office in the psychology unit—situated in one of the buildings adjacent to the main hospital and abutting the consultants’ car park—had not gone to plan. He usually got on well with people. ‘You could sell sand in the desert, Cori!’ Remembering the teasing words brought both amusement and an ache to his heart. Friendliness, politeness and a touch of flattery soothed troubled waters, but it wasn’t working with Jessica, who remained tense and reserved.

      Their unsatisfactory encounter had disappointed and confused him. He lived for his job, trying each day to make up for the failings that had haunted him for the last five years. Which was why his immediate and intense response to Jessica had shocked him. She had affected him on a deeply personal level. And he didn’t do personal. Not any more. His reaction—and the attraction he wished he could deny—left him disconcerted and off balance.

      When she had rushed out of her office and cannoned into him, instinct had taken over and he’d caught her as she’d stumbled. He’d felt the incredible softness of her skin under his fingers, the press of her femininely curved body against him, and he’d breathed in the teasing aroma of chocolate that lingered on her hair and skin. His attraction and body’s response to her had been instant and undeniable.

      But it was Jessica’s reactions that had left him puzzled and unsettled. Her alarm had been real, and he had not imagined the panic in her beautiful green eyes as she’d wrenched herself free. For some reason Jessica didn’t like to touch or be touched and he was determined to find out what lay behind it. There were several possibilities and each one caused him concern.

      Gio stepped out of the surgeons’ wash room, unsure what to do next. Why had Jessica been so dismissive of him and in such a rush to leave? He was positive she had felt the same bolt of awareness that had slammed into him when they’d first met. And that it had scared her. So could it be, he wondered, heading to the paediatric intensive care unit to check on Cody, that Jessica’s cool professionalism and anxiety were flight responses? Was she trying to ignore the feelings and make them go away? If so, he could tell her