‘Not any more. I’m...’ she paused and then smiled ‘...in between jobs.’
Their eyes met and held and Alessandro wondered what the hell he’d done to deserve this extra punishment. ‘You’re looking good, Natasha.’ Too good, he thought, noticing in that single reluctant glance that her body had fulfilled its teenage promise. As a girl, she’d been teenage temptation. As a woman, Natasha O’Hara was a vision of glorious curves that made a man think of nothing but wild sex. And thinking of wild sex made him ache in the only place that wasn’t already aching, so he looked away from those smooth arms, tried to block out the image of those slender limbs and told himself that the last glossy mouth he’d kissed had led to nothing but trouble.
‘Thanks, Nurse...er...’ She squinted at the name badge. ‘Carpenter. You’ve taken enough abuse from this patient for one day. I’ll take it from here.’
Nurse Carpenter’s face fell. ‘But I’ve just come on duty and His Highness needs—’
‘I know exactly what His Highness needs.’ The words were a polite but firm dismissal and Alessandro tried to remember whether she’d had that air of command as a teenager. No, definitely not. She’d been full of wide-eyed, barely repressed excitement and optimism. ‘Hopeless romantic’ hadn’t begun to describe her.
The nurse gave Alessandro a final wistful look and melted away.
Tasha closed the door firmly, leaving the two of them enclosed in the private room. ‘Yes, Your Highness, no, Your Highness—it must drive you crazy. Or do you like your women servile?’
She was such a contrast to all the other people he’d come into contact with since he’d crashed into the mud on the polo field that Alessandro found himself laughing for the first time in weeks. ‘Definitely not servile.’
‘Good, because if I have to call you Your Highness every two minutes, this is never going to work.’
Alessandro watched as she strolled across the room. Something about the way she was looking at him made him uneasy. Or maybe it was just the guilt, he thought. It was definitely there, shimmering underneath the surface. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You have to stop eating the nurses for breakfast, Alessandro. They’re all terrified of you.’
‘I’m a pussy cat.’
Her mouth flickered. ‘Right.’
‘Maybe I’m a little cranky, but I’m not good at lying in bed, doing nothing.’
‘Then you’d better get used to it.’ Her gaze was frank and direct. ‘I looked at your X-rays. You won’t be walking on that ankle for a while. You’ve made a mess of your bones.’
‘Not me. The horse.’ But it had been his fault and the knowledge gnawed at him. He’d been distracted. To take his mind off that, he studied her closely. Was she taller or was it the way she held herself? There was a confidence about her that hadn’t been there a decade before. A knowledge of herself as a woman. It showed itself in the way her hips swayed when she walked and the hint of cleavage revealed by the neck of her casual top. Trapped and immobile, unaccustomed to feeling helpless in any situation, Alessandro set his teeth and tried to think cold thoughts. ‘What are you doing here, Tasha?’ He hadn’t seen her since that night—the night when he’d left her sobbing, her make-up streaked over her beautiful face.
He pushed the memory aside, trying to lose it in the darkness of everything else he was trying to forget.
‘Rumour is you’re looking for a nurse so you can escape from this place.’
‘In this case rumour is correct.’ But he was starting to wonder whether being trapped at home with a star-struck nurse who called him Your Highness every two minutes might not be just as irritating as being in hospital.
‘I can’t imagine who would want the job. As temperaments go, yours is pretty volatile.’
‘Once I’m out of here my temper will be just fine. Josh promised to find me a nurse by the end of the day. Do you know if he’s had any luck?’
‘Depends on your definition of luck.’ She picked up the phone that he’d slung on the bedcover. ‘You shouldn’t be using this in the hospital. It’s breaking the rules.’
‘So I’ve been told. Trouble is, I’ve never been much good with rules.’
Her beautiful mouth flickered into a tiny smile of mutual understanding. ‘That’s one thing we have in common, then. But while you’re in here, you have to behave.’
‘Discharge me and I’ll behave. So—has he found me a nurse?’
‘Not a nurse, exactly.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean? I have to have someone who knows what they’re talking about. And preferably someone who doesn’t call me Your Highness at the end of every sentence.’ He needed to get out of here before lying here trapped with his own thoughts drove him crazy. He needed distraction.
Tasha lifted her head. Her gaze connected with his. ‘I know what I’m talking about. And I have no intention of calling you Your Highness.’
‘You?’ Alessandro felt shock thud through his gut. ‘You’re a children’s doctor.’ She was also someone he’d carefully avoided for over a decade.
‘I’m a doctor. My speciality just happens to be children. But I have all the skills necessary to assist your rehabilitation. I can nag you to do your exercises, throw away the junk food and make sure you take lots of healing early nights—’ humour lightened her voice ‘—on your own. I’ve never been anyone’s nurse before but I’m a quick study.’
His mouth felt dry but he was in too much pain to try and reach for his glass again. ‘You’re offering to nurse me?’
‘We’re old friends, Alessandro. It’s the least I can do.’ Her smile was warm and genuine, so why did he feel so uneasy?
Something didn’t feel right.
He decided that this was one of those occasions that merited the direct approach. ‘You and I, we didn’t exactly part on good terms.’
‘No. You were a complete bastard,’ she said frankly, ‘but that was a long time ago. I was at an impressionable age. Do you honestly think I’m still bothered about something that happened almost ten years ago? That would be ridiculous, don’t you think?’
Would it?
He looked at her for a long moment, his eyes searching out the true sentiment behind the lightly spoken words. ‘Tasha—’
She leaned towards him, mockery in her gaze. ‘I was seventeen years old. I had no taste, and I was overwhelmed by the fact that you were a prince. And now we’ve got that out of the way, can we just forget it? No girl should be made to feel embarrassed about the foolish crushes she had as a teenager. So what do you say, Alessandro? Am I hired?’
* * *
Josh opened the front door of his house, his mood swerving between elation and guilt.
He tried to push the guilt back where it belonged.
His marriage to Rebecca was over. She was the one who had called time on their relationship and moved out. They’d wanted different things. Right through their relationship, they’d wanted different things.
As he hung up his jacket Megan’s fragrance engulfed him, wrapping him in memories.
Maybe he’d moved on a bit quickly, but he was human, and when it came to Megan...
Just thinking about her lifted his mood, and he closed the front door, relieved that Tasha had