for your nonna and papà on when to come back, and later, for changing the bandage again and using the antibiotic ointment.” He pulled a folded paper from his pocket, and his eyes met Aubrey’s. “You did put the ointment at the desk?”
“I gave it to Nora after we set him up with new pants.”
“Bene. They—” He stopped short as he looked at the child’s pants, then, after a long pause, laughed out loud.
“What?” she asked, bristling that he obviously thought her sewing job was amusing. Or bad. Or something. “There wasn’t anything that would fit, so I made a bigger pair fit at least a little.”
“I see that. They look very good on you, Benedetto. Very good.” He reached to give the child a quick hug. “Now you go run your errands. Come back tomorrow to let us take another look and change the dressing, and ask your nonna or papà to call me before that if they have questions.”
“Okay. I don’t think Papà will be as mad now that my bike is fixed. Thank you again!”
Aubrey watched the boy mount the bike and ride it slowly and carefully away, and she smiled. “He’s being very cautious now, I see.”
“Not for long, I’m sure.” Enzo’s amused gaze met hers. “Good thing you made the pants fit so the legs wouldn’t get caught in the chain and make him fall again.”
“Yes, good thing. So why were you laughing at my sewing job?”
“I wasn’t laughing at your sewing job. I was laughing because those are—were—my pants.”
Her mouth fell open. “What? They were in the cupboard you told me to look in! With some shorts and T-shirts and...and...” The vision of the neatly folded shorts and manly T-shirts in that cupboard made her voice fade away. Why hadn’t she realized those items were all the same size, when the ones in the other cupboard had been a total mishmash? Heat washed into her face. So much for showing she was indispensable around here. “I’m so sorry. Really sorry. I thought—”
“Aubrey.” He pressed his fingertip to her lips. “It’s fine. Sometimes I run when the clinic’s slow, and I keep clothes here for that. Obviously, they served Benedetto well. Between you and me, his father is very old-school and can be hard on him when he makes mistakes. Not having to show up in bloody, torn pants with a broken bike is a good thing.”
“What about his mother?”
“She died a few years ago.”
Her heart squeezed for the little boy who had lost his mother far too soon. Having her own mother for twenty-seven years hadn’t been nearly long enough. She looked into Enzo’s eyes and could see they’d shadowed with sadness for the boy, too. Probably for the child’s whole family, since he obviously knew them fairly well, and seeing how much he cared melted her heart. Just a little, though. “Poor little thing,” she said softly. “It’s good that you fixed his bike for him, then.”
“And I thank you for making the pants work. We Venetians take care of our own.”
Not being a Venetian, she knew he wasn’t talking about her, but somehow it felt absurdly nice to be included in the thought. Which reminded her how much she wanted to stay here for the next few months, and how Enzo Affini had implied just a bit ago that he didn’t want to work with her in the clinic at all.
“So.” She squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye. “We were having an important conversation about my job and future here, and you need to know I’m not leaving.”
“No?” His lips quirked at the same time that suspicious frown dipped between his eyes again. “And if the director of the clinic, who would be me, says you have to? That he’ll find you employment somewhere else in Italy?”
“I’ve already worked two months in Rome. And I’ve come to Venice now because this is where I want to be. Didn’t taking care of Benedetto prove we can work together just fine?”
“Aubrey, I cannot promise that I wouldn’t allow myself to be seduced by you again.”
Her mouth fell open. “I didn’t seduce you! I believe it was you who seduced me. And I can promise that it won’t happen again. I don’t even find you attractive anymore.” Which was kind of true. For good reason. And yes, her nose was growing a little, but she’d stick with that half-truth if it killed her.
A slight smile softened the hard lines on his face. “That I know is a lie. Shall we agree that the seduction was on both sides? And that’s the problem, because I can’t have an affair with someone who works at the clinic.”
“Listen. I know we only got together at first that night because you wanted to ask me questions about Shay.” Knowing that hadn’t kept her from jumping into bed with him, though, had it? “It was just a one-night thing. I have zero desire to...to co-seduce you again.”
“And if I can’t say the same thing?”
She wondered if he knew he spoke the words in the same low, sexy rumble he’d used when they’d kissed and made love, and she sucked in a breath as memories of all that shimmered between them. “Then that’s your problem, not mine. Though you clearly didn’t want to anyway, since you never called me in Rome.”
Oh, hell. Did those words really fall out of her mouth? Implying she’d wanted him to, and wondered if he would, and hadn’t liked that he hadn’t? Lord, that was the last thing she’d wanted to admit.
“Aubrey. It wasn’t—”
“Skip it.” She held up her hand, desperate to stop him from giving her some lame excuse he didn’t really mean. “We’ll just have to figure out how to work together. I have no doubt we can act like mere acquaintances and pretend that night never happened.”
“That would be extremely difficult. For me, at least.”
“Uh-huh. And since we’re going to have a professional relationship, please stop with that tone of voice and...and those kinds of comments.”
“I thought you no longer find me attractive, so why is that a problem?”
The way her heart fluttered and her breath caught at his physical beauty and sexiness and utter male appeal, she knew it would be tough going to learn to be immune to it.
“It’s not. Now, I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a tour of the facility, so I’ll know where everything is when a patient arrives, Dr. Affini.” She moved past him to the clinic door and paused there. “Shall we?”
ENZO STUDIED THE woman standing there by the door, looking expectantly at him. Coolly, her pretty chin tipped up as her eyes challenged him. Those eyes had seduced him the second he’d met her two months ago, at the same time he’d wondered what her story was, and her friend Shay’s, too, who’d shown up in his brother’s life pregnant.
He still had no idea if the two women had an agenda that included snagging two doctors who also happened to be princes, and whose problems with their inheritance had been well-documented in the press. He’d planned to just talk with Aubrey the night they’d spent together,
