said it with the manner of a man without a friend in the world, which was so totally implausible she almost laughed. ‘And you couldn’t pick up a phone or simply snap your fingers and have gorgeous, agreeable, intelligent company?’
His grin flashed. ‘I thought the lonely card was worth playing,’ he admitted with no trace of remorse. ‘You are agreeable, intelligent company.’
‘Flattery will get you nowhere.’
‘So?’ He arched a brow. ‘You will come?’
‘That’s out of the question.’
‘Why?’
‘I’m in my uniform and you’re …’ She stopped, her glance sweeping upwards from his toes to the top of his glossy sable head. Oh, God, but he really was the best-looking man she had ever seen.
One corner of his mouth twitched. ‘I’m what, Dervla?’
The way he said her name in that seductive velvet voice sent a rush of colour to her cheeks. She lowered her eyes. With a voice like his he could make a shopping list sound sexy.
‘People like you don’t go to dinner with people like me.’
People like him went to dinner with glossy long-stemmed beauties, women with blonde dead-straight hair and interesting lifestyles that did not require them under any circumstances to wear something that resembled an ill-fitting and not very flattering uniform.
‘There is a law to this effect?’
Dervla pursed her lips primly, stared at her feet and thought there ought to be. She was deeply ashamed of and painfully conscious of her physical response to his overt brand of rampant raw masculinity.
‘You make it sound as though we are different species, Dervla.’
‘We might as well be, Mr Bruni.’
‘Gianfranco.’
‘It’s really very kind of you, Mr Bruni, but you don’t have to take me to dinner just because you bumped into me. Most relatives express their gratitude with a tin of toffees.’
‘I am all out of toffees.’ He held out his hands palm up to illustrate the point.
Dervla’s glance moved to the long fingers extended towards her.
‘And I did not bump into you; I was waiting for you.’
Her eyes flew to his face. ‘Why would you do that?’ she demanded, unease unfurling low in her belly. Along with it was an equally uncomfortable flutter of excitement.
‘Why do men usually wait for you, Dervla?’
‘They don’t and will you stop calling me that?’
‘Is it not your name?’
‘Not the way you say it. The way you say it makes it sound like someone else.’
‘Good, then act out of character and get into the car.’
She turned her head in the direction he indicated. ‘What car?’
How had she missed that?
The limousine with the tinted windows pulled up to the kerb beside them was massive.
She felt his hand fall on her shoulder and didn’t see the harm in letting it stay there just for a minute.
‘You need cheering up.’
Their eyes meshed and Dervla felt the resistance weaken as she gazed into his deep velvet brown eyes.
‘I’m not in need of cheering up,’ she protested, tugging her arm free. ‘Seriously.’
‘I am in need,’ he retorted. ‘Seriously.’
Something in his voice made Dervla pause in the act of pulling away. Her eyes lifted slowly, a crease of concern appearing on her brow as she registered for the first time the dark shadows under his eyes and the lines of strain etched into the skin around his mouth.
Her belligerence melted away. For some people prayer, adrenaline and caffeine took them through the early critical stages of a loved one’s illness, but later, when the critical danger passed, the emotional backlash hit them. The effect could often be debilitating.
It was difficult to imagine a man less likely to rouse her maternal instincts. It was also difficult to think of one more likely to push himself too far.
‘You must be very tired.’ This man really doesn’t need looking after, her inner voice of reason and logic pointed out.
‘I could do with a change of scene. I thought you’d be pleased I was taking your advice. Isn’t that what you’ve been telling me for days via your excellent charge nurse?’ he asked innocently. ‘A more sensitive man might assume you were reluctant to talk to me …?’
‘I thought you might find advice easier to take if it came from a man.’
‘You think I have a problem with strong women? Actually I like a woman who knows what she wants and is not afraid to tell a man.’
It could be she was hearing sexual innuendo that wasn’t there. All the same she struggled to keep the blush at bay.
‘Taking instruction from a woman in the right circumstances can, in my experience, be most agreeable.’
Oh, no, it was most definitely there!
She ignored the dangerous kick of excitement in her stomach and gave him a level look. It only stayed level until she saw the glitter burning deep in the dark depths. ‘Don’t look at me like that!’
Inside the hospital she was in control; outside there was no name badge to hide behind. Their roles were reversed and it scared her.
‘Why?’
‘Because I don’t like it.’ Not totally a lie—liking had very little to do with the shivers walking up and down her spine.
‘Have dinner with me.’
‘I wouldn’t be good company.’
‘I’ll take the risk. Relax.’ The advice almost made her laugh … relaxing around this man was a clinical impossibility. ‘You’re hungry, I’m hungry … where is the problem?’
He turned aside to speak in rapid Italian to the driver before opening the rear door of the plush vehicle for Dervla.
After a pause she slid inside. It was only a meal and sometimes you had to live a little dangerously—and all that was waiting for her at home was a microwave dinner for one.
‘Gracious, this is bigger than my kitchen!’ she exclaimed, too startled by the extravagant luxury to maintain any level of nonchalance. ‘You’re not worried about your green credentials, then.’ This monster had to have a gigantic carbon footprint.
‘I
