The Doctor's Runaway Bride

There was still a trace of humour in his voice but this time Tia didn’t respond. Suddenly she did feel sick—but with misery.

What was she going to do? She’d thought that it would be easy to get over him. That he wouldn’t affect her any more. But it just wasn’t the case. One look—one smile—and she had serious trouble with her breathing.

She bit her lip, angry with herself. How had she ever let one man affect her as much as Luca? And so quickly. It was just a physical thing. It must be.

‘I don’t know what there is to talk about, Luca,’ she said, concentrating on her tea and on not looking at him. If she didn’t look at him it should theoretically be possible to keep her pulse rate within the normal range. ‘I’m not going to marry you.’

‘I’m not asking you to.’

Savage disappointment twisted her insides and she felt a lump building in her throat.

‘Right.’ She looked up at him and gave him a wobbly smile. ‘So you agree that our relationship is over…’

He frowned. ‘I agree to nothing of the sort,’ he said, stretching out a hand and smoothing a stray strand of blonde hair out of her eyes. ‘I merely said that I’m not asking you to marry me. Our relationship is very much alive.’

Her heart thudded against her rib cage. ‘We were wrong to get involved so quickly, Luca.’

When he was still involved with someone else.

He sighed and something like regret flickered across his face. ‘It’s true that we could have taken things slower…’

It was the nearest he’d ever come to admitting to her that their relationship had been a mistake.

‘Right,’ she said shakily, trying to ignore the feeling of sick disappointment that he hadn’t contradicted her. ‘Well, there’s nothing more to be said, is there?’

‘On the contrary, there’s plenty I need to say.’ He stood up abruptly and paced across the room to the window, his shoulders tense as he stared into the darkness.

He paused and then turned to face Tia, his expression serious. ‘I have thought carefully about what you said last night and I can see now that being in Italy wasn’t easy for you. I was working much of the time and I accept now that my family may not have been as supportive as they should have been. I intend to speak to them about that.’

Tia’s eyes widened. He was admitting that fault might have been on his side? For a man as autocratic and proud as Luca, that was quite an admission.

‘Luca—’

‘Let me finish.’ He turned to face her, a light frown touching his dark brows. ‘I’m sorry that you feel that I was never around, but there were certain factors which meant that I was at the hospital more than I would have liked.’

What factors? Luisa?

‘And what about the baby? How do you really feel about the baby?’ Her voice was little more than a croak and a smile pulled at his firm mouth.

‘We both know that we made that baby the first night we met, cara mia.’ His voice was suddenly soft. ‘And I bl

ame myself for that entirely. I should have had more control.’

Tia coloured. ‘I was there, too. And I still can’t believe I slept with you on the first night. I’d never—’ She broke off and looked away, cursing herself for being so honest. She’d never meant to tell him.

‘You’d never slept with a man before,’ he finished gently. ‘Did you really think I didn’t know that? I knew almost from the first moment I met you. You were very inexperienced and naïve. It was one of the reasons I was worried about you wandering the streets at night. You are very independent and feisty but also very innocent, and it shows.’

‘Oh.’ Tia stared at him stupidly. ‘I didn’t want to tell you.’

He’d been so sophisticated and self-confident, so unlike the men—boys—she usually met.

‘You are a stunningly beautiful girl, Tia, and there is an incredible attraction between us, otherwise perhaps I would have had the strength of will to take things more slowly. That night was unbelievably erotic,’ he murmured softly, his eyes wandering slowly over her flushed cheeks, ‘which is, of course, why we find ourselves in this position now.’

Her eyes moved warily to his and then slid away again. It was impossible not to be affected by Luca’s looks, she thought helplessly. It wasn’t just his eyes that reflected the raw nature of his masculinity, it was everything about him. The hard lines of his cheekbones, the dark shadow of his jawline.

She gave a small sigh, acknowledging the fact that no woman in her right mind would turn down the advances of a man like Luca. It was hardly surprising she’d lost all her morals and common sense. One look from those dark eyes and she’d been lost.

‘We— I suppose we both got carried away,’ she responded, and he gave a half-smile.