Dr. Moreno.”
“Why do I get the feeling the boss is tossing me out on my ear?” He turned that lethal grin on Megan. “See you next time you’re in. You have my contact information if you need me.”
Remarkable how the minute the man was out of the room, Gabby was able to focus on her patient and her job without dropping or forgetting a single thing. Pitiful. Which meant that, if Rafael was really going to be sticking around for a while, somehow, some way she’d have to get a handle on her ridiculous, distracted hormones.
* * *
Chuckling to himself as he walked down the hallway to see his patient, Rafael reflected on how easy it was to get under Gabriella’s skin, and how much fun it was. She was such a complex mix of characteristics combined in a fascinating way, all bundled up inside a beautiful, touchable package. Sweet and smart, feisty and a little shy all at the same time, he wanted to spend more time with her. Learn a lot more about what made her tick.
He might have gotten off on the wrong foot with her initially, but he knew she found him attractive now as well. Last night when he’d held her in his hands and her wide eyes had looked up at him in the dark bedroom, he’d seen the way her lips had parted; had felt her quickened breaths skating warm and fast across his skin. The rise and fall of her chest had been less about her fear and more about sexual attraction—he knew because he’d felt the same hot vibration. Then she’d tried to cover up the zing happening between them with pretend indignation. Zing that had been a two-way street—it had taken all his won’t-power to resist the urge to pull her closer for a kiss, to see where all that heat shimmering between them might lead.
Except he’d then figuratively smacked himself with the reminder that he was supposed to be lying low in L.A. “Behaving himself,” to quote his parents, and dating “appropriate” women, whatever the hell that meant. Apparently not strippers, or those whose faces graced the gossip magazines, and why any of that was a big deal, he didn’t understand.
It wasn’t as though a single one of them would ever get an engagement ring from him. Seeing the various loveless marriages in his family, not to mention what James’s parents’ relationship had been like, Rafael figured that kind of commitment would be sheer purgatory. Why in the world would he want to handcuff himself to one woman forever if he didn’t have to?
Short-term handcuffing, though? Now, that he was all for. Thinking about something short, sweet and hot with Gabriella put the smile back on his face, only it quickly faded because, damn it, he couldn’t let that happen, with the media and his parents breathing down his neck.
Seeing his next patient got his thoughts back on track, and as he was about to go to the nurses’ station to discuss her chart, the sound of his name on the large, wall-mounted television in the patient’s room stopped him in mid-step. He looked up at the screen to see what ridiculous, untrue story was being spread on the TV gossip shows now.
To his shock, the photos were of the cliffside mansion he was renting, with two people in front of it. Pictures of him carrying a sleeping Gabriella inside, then of the two of them leaving in the morning, with sensationalized questions and speculation about who Prince Rafael Moreno’s late-night booty call might be this time.
Damn it to hell. What had he just said about his parents breathing down his neck? This time they’d probably be belching pure fire. He glanced at his patient and her nurse, glad they were too busy talking to pay attention to the stupid television. He wiped his suddenly sweaty hands on his lab coat, thankful the photos were distant and grainy enough that nobody would likely be able to figure out who the woman was. He hoped Gabriella didn’t get wind of the story, and hoped even more that she wouldn’t suffer any embarrassment from it. Already, he knew she wasn’t the kind of woman who would appreciate being part of a media frenzy, which was one of several good reasons he’d been telling himself he had to keep his hands off her.
Anger surged into his veins on her behalf. The hard-working, exhausted woman couldn’t even fall asleep in his car without untrue rumors being spread, and he wished he could contact the TV programmers with a vehement rebuttal, telling them to lay off.
But experience had taught him that kind of thing just inflamed the gossipmongers even more. With any luck, the hounds would back off when they couldn’t figure out who she was, and the story would die a quick death.
For Gabriella’s sake, and for his too, he hoped like hell that was exactly what would happen. Seeing the photos in his mind again as he strode from the room to update the charts, he nearly ran into Freya.
“Rafael.” A smile played about Freya’s lips and she lifted an eyebrow. “I hear your patients love you, so thanks for stepping in. Also sounds like you’re very much...enjoying your time in L.A.?”
“Not as much as I’m given credit for, I can tell you that,” he said, somehow keeping his voice cool and amused, even as his stomach felt a little queasy. “The story of your life and mine, isn’t it?”
“Stories aren’t always fiction.” Her smile widened, and she walked away without another word.
Trying to get the annoying voice of the TV host out of his head, along with the blurry images he hoped Gabriella wouldn’t have to see, he concentrated on the computerized patient charts until his phone interrupted him.
Then he knew the day was going downhill even faster when he saw it was his mother, and his gut clenched with the certain knowledge that their palace spies had informed her of the latest gossip fest.
“Buenos días, Mother. It’s wonderful to hear your voice.” Or would be, if their conversation was going to be about the palace horses or her latest fundraiser or something else pleasant and benign, but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be that lucky.
“Rafael. What do your father and I have to do to make you understand your position in life? Your responsibilities? We might not have liked that you chose to do something like doctoring instead of accepting your traditional role here, but we have learned to live with it. That doesn’t give you the right, though, to disregard your family’s status completely and do whatever you wish! I thought the latest scandal had taught you that. You said that’s why you went to L.A. for a while, to behave! And yet here you are, the subject of gossip again. When are you going to marry a nice girl and be done with this? When—?”
“Mother.” He’d gritted his teeth and held the phone from his ear during her long diatribe, but finally managed to cut her off when she took a breath. “If you’re talking about the stupid TV news, I can assure you it’s nothing. I’m working for a time in James’s clinic, and a co-worker and I had work to discuss. She fell asleep and...” This time he cut himself off. Why the hell should he have to defend himself to anyone, including his mother, about something completely innocent? Was it his fault he’d been second born into a royal family, and because of that was a chronic disappointment and annoyance to his parents? His fault that the paparazzi liked to stalk him? As for getting married, she might as well save her breath, because that was never going to happen. “You know, I’m done with this conversation. Is there something else you’d like to talk about?”
“We need to get this ironed out first. If you—”
“Goodbye, Mother. Call me if you want to talk about something besides how much my being a doctor and a heathen embarrasses you.”
Under normal circumstances, he would have felt bad hanging up on his mother, even when she was scolding him. But this subject had been beaten to death for months, and he’d moved here to escape the gossip his parents despised. He couldn’t handle one more minute of being accused of something he hadn’t done.
