Luca's Bad Girl (6 page)

‘Move over,’ Evie announced. ‘We’re coming in.’

Mia tried not to look at Luca as she was forced to take the seat next to him. But she could feel his eyes on hers and the heat of him immediately enveloped her as
her body responded in an almost Pavlovian fashion to his proximity.

The booth was spacious but with three bodies either side it was a cosy fit.

‘Mia, long time no see.’

Mia smiled at John Allen, the psychologist she’d been forced to see that morning by Luca. Susie, his wife, was also there and greeted Mia warmly. Of course she saw them regularly enough anyway, given that they too lived at the nearby Kirribilli Views apartments where a lot of The Harbour staff resided.

‘How did the debrief go?’ Luca enquired.

‘Mia’s fine.’ John winked.

She glared at him. ‘I
am
fine.’

‘Sure,’ he soothed.

‘You know, Mia, it’s not a bad thing, to talk this kind of thing through.’ Rupert Davidson, head of Neurology, entered the conversation.

‘He’s right,’ Teo Tuala, SHH’s head of Paediatrics, agreed.

Mia looked at all of them, exasperation bubbling inside her. She inclined her head towards Luca. ‘He didn’t. He was being threatened too.’

‘Yes, but I wasn’t lunged at with a knife. Neither did I have my arm slashed open by said knife.’

Mia took a long swig of her drink as his voice, so close to her ear, took her right back to the on-call room. ‘I’m fine,’ she repeated.

‘Well, you know where I am if you want to talk any more,’ John offered.

Mia couldn’t help but think that a sweaty twenty minutes with Luca had helped more than an hour’s conversation with John but it was a dangerous path for
her thoughts to take given how aware she was of Luca right now.

‘Absolutely.’ She nodded. ‘What’s happening with Stan?’ she asked, deftly moving the focus of the conversation off her. ‘His ninety-six-hour hold must be up by now.’

John nodded. ‘He’s staying on voluntarily. He’s had increasing paranoia episodes over the last few years apparently. We want to get his meds right and get him well supported before we discharge him.’

Mia nodded and soon the conversation drifted to other subjects.

Ten minutes later, Evie finished her beer and stood. ‘Gotta go. I promised my father I’d drop by some hideous dinner party he’s having. He’s sending a car for me.’

Mia leapt at the opportunity to escape and stood as well. ‘I’d better go too. I’m on in the morning.’

‘Oh, Mia, no,’ Susie objected. ‘Don’t leave me alone with all these men talking shop. Stay a bit longer.’

Mia looked at Susie’s beseeching gaze and acquiesced. It had absolutely nothing to do with every cell suddenly crying out for Luca’s heat to be squashed back up against her again. ‘Okay, I guess I can stay for one more.’

‘I’ll get another round,’ Luca said. He climbed out of the booth and watched bemused as Mia took a step back. ‘Is that vodka and orange?’

Mia shook her head. ‘Just orange.’

He frowned. ‘You’re not on call, are you?’

‘Nope. Just not drinking.’

Luca slid a glance at the table, where the merits of a journal article were being debated. He looked back at
Mia. ‘Are you worried you may lose your inhibitions?’ he murmured, dropping his voice a little. ‘I don’t need alcohol to lose mine.’

Mia, aware of how close he was standing, felt the pronunciation of
inhibitions
slide right down her spine. His English was perfect but the occasional word leant towards his native Italian.

‘I wasn’t aware you had any,’ she said, her voice steely.

Luca walked away chuckling, deep and low. Unfortunately, that was exactly where Mia felt it—deep and low.

Standing at the bar a couple of minutes later, Luca rattled off the drinks order and waited for Pete to return with them.

‘Here you are, Luca,’ Pete said, placing them on a round tray.

‘Thanks.’ Luca handed over the money.

‘You’re with Mia, I see,’ Pete said casually. ‘Great girl.’

Luca nodded, his gaze straying back to a smiling Mia. She was wearing a long skirt, a turtle-neck skivvy and black knee-high boots. He’d been fantasising about her in those boots, just the boots, all day.

‘Yes,’ he agreed. Except they weren’t the words he’d have used. Sexy, feisty, prickly seemed to suit her so much better.

‘Fantastic doctor,’ Pete pressed, joining Luca in his observation of Mia.

Now, those were words Luca would use. ‘Yes, she is,’ he agreed.

‘Hard to believe someone like that’s still single,’ Pete mused.

Luca looked back at the bartender. ‘And why is that, do you think?’

Pete looked Luca direct in the eye. ‘Men these days scare too easily. They buy into her
I’m fine
exterior.’

‘And she’s not?’

Pete shook his head. ‘Of course she’s not. She just doesn’t know it yet.’

They watched her again for a moment or two. ‘But don’t tell her I told you that,’ Pete added.

Luca laughed, picking up the tray. ‘Deal.’

‘So, Luca.’ Susie, desperate for a topic change, watched Luca slip back in beside Mia. ‘Sicily, huh?’

Luca nodded as the familiar feeling of dread and loss and yearning threatened to swamp him. He pushed them back. ‘That’s right.’

Mia glanced at Luca as she felt his thigh, jammed against hers, tense. This close to his delectable profile she could see the clench of his jaw.

‘Where exactly?’ Susie continued, unaware of Luca’s reluctance to talk about his past. Especially his home.

Luca forced himself to breathe out, to loosen the suddenly tense muscles of his neck. ‘Marsala.’

‘Like the wine?’ she asked.

Luca nodded. ‘Yes. Like the wine.’

‘We never got to Sicily,’ Susie said. ‘But we adored Italy, didn’t we, John?’

John nodded. ‘Europe as a whole. We’re actually going skiing in France at the end of the year.’

Luca slowly relaxed each muscle group as conversation moved to travel but a pall had been cast over the evening. If it wasn’t for the alluring press of Mia against his side, he’d have excused himself almost immediately.

But her nearness held him in check. He’d been aware of her since she’d first entered the bar and he could tell she was more than aware of him. There was a crackle between them that had nothing to do with the delicious rub of their thighs.

And after the way the conversation had turned tonight he couldn’t think of a better way of keeping the memories of Marsala at bay than getting lost in Mia for a while.

To hell with their one-off pact.

Teo drained his cola and stood. ‘I have to go back to The Harbour and check on a patient then I’d better head home. Emma’s teething and keeping Zoe and me up most of the night.’

‘Teething already?’ Susie marvelled. ‘Isn’t six months a little early?’

Teo shook his head. ‘Every baby is different.’ And he grinned at them because even with the sleepless nights, Zoe and Emma had made him happier than he’d ever thought possible.

‘Aw,’ Rupert, also happily married, teased. ‘Ain’t love grand?’

Mia, barely able to suppress an eye roll at Teo’s goofy expression, saw her second chance at escape. ‘Yep, me too. Early start.’

‘Same here,’ Luca said, letting her out. ‘I’ll walk you to your car.’

Mia felt a thickening in the air between them as their gazes skittered past each other. Yep, like that’s what she needed right now.
Sex-on-legs escorting her anywhere.

But, sensing he was as desperate to get away as she was, she nodded her head graciously. They said their
goodbyes and made their way through the throng to the coat stands by the front door.

‘I’m not driving,’ Mia said as she shrugged into her coat. ‘I live just down at Kirribilli Views. I walk to work. I don’t need an escort.’

Luca smiled as he adjusted the collar on his suit jacket. ‘What a coincidence. So do I.’

Mia’s fingers fumbled with the tie of her coat.
Of course he did.
‘Of course you do,’ she said faintly. She hadn’t seen him around but it was a big place populated with shift workers.

Luca chuckled as he opened the heavy wooden door and gestured for her to precede him. He looked back over his shoulder as he departed. Pete grinned and gave him a thumbs-up.

CHAPTER FOUR

M
IA
buried her hands in her coat pockets as her warm breath fogged into the night air. She glanced at Luca, who had only his suit jacket to fend off cold winter fingers. But he looked warm and vital—like a walking hot-water bottle. She shook the tempting image of her wrapped around him in bed from her head. It was disconcerting to say the least when the streets were dark and practically deserted and they kept passing interesting alcoves and alleyways where two people could warm up really quickly.

Mia clamped down on the direction of her thoughts and the strange undulation of her pelvic floor muscles. ‘Aren’t you cold in that?’ she groused.

Luca shrugged. ‘Two beers help.’

Mia nodded. ‘I don’t drink much,’ she replied.

Why she felt the need to share that she had no idea, but she could feel his pull and knew she was on a slow march towards an inevitable ending. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be between them and she felt suddenly nervous.

‘You don’t like it?’ Luca enquired.

Mia shook her head. ‘I went through a stage where I liked it a little too much.’

‘Ah,’ Luca said, intrigued by the nugget of information. Was this what Pete had alluded to? ‘Care to elaborate?’

Not bloody likely!
Mia couldn’t believe she’d told him that much. Damn this man! But there was something about him, a recognition that they were the same, that seemed to loosen her lips around him. Still, she had absolutely no intention of reliving two years of booze and bad men with him.

The past was the past.

‘No,’ she said. He quirked an eyebrow at her and she said, ‘It’s complicated.’

They walked in silence for a few moments. ‘I suppose a man from Marsala probably doesn’t understand that.’

Luca tensed. He’d been enjoying the build-up between them as each footstep took them closer to their apartments. To their beds. The footpath had narrowed and their arms brushed; her body warmth mixed and flirted with his. Their footsteps matched, their breathing synchronised.

But suddenly that was forgotten.

Mia turned her head to face him. ‘How long ago did you leave?’

Luca bit down on the urge to laugh at her choice of words. Leaving implied consent. He hadn’t been given a whole lot of choice. ‘I was sixteen.’

She whistled. ‘That’s a long time.’

Luca chuckled, trying to divert the conversation. ‘Are you implying I’m old?’

Mia laughed too and let it peter out. ‘You’re a long way from home, Luca,’ she mused.

Although she, more than anyone, knew that geographic
proximity had nothing to do with that sense of ‘home’. She’d grown up a twenty-minute drive from here and it may as well have been Italy for all the connection Mia felt to the brick and mortar house where her mother still resided. Mainly on the couch.

Luca kept his gaze firmly fixed on the illuminated arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge he could just see through the treetops. ‘Yes.’

Mia smiled. ‘Care to elaborate?’

‘No.’

‘Word on the grapevine is you studied medicine in London. I thought Italian mamas liked to keep tabs on their sons. No decent universities in Italy?’

Luca saw his mother’s broken face again on that horrible day that had changed everything. The sorrow and disappointment etched in lines that had seemed somehow instantly deeper. He schooled his expression as he looked at Mia and repeated her response.

‘It’s complicated.’

Mia nodded. If anyone understood that, she did. And she understood the underlying message—butt out. She got that too.

They lapsed into silence again but she was aware of him large and silent beside her. Aware of his tension and his potent, brooding masculinity.

‘Here we are,’ she announced unnecessarily as the doors to the ten-storey apartment complex loomed ahead.

Luca dragged himself out of the sticky web of his past. ‘Yes,’ he murmured. He looked down at her. ‘Your place or mine?’

Mia swallowed. She should have been outraged at his assumption. But he was looking at her intently with that
devil mouth and heat was flooding through her belly and tightening her breasts.

She didn’t do repeat performances, that was her golden rule, but, heavens above, she wanted him.

‘Yours,’ she murmured huskily. ‘I share with Evie.’

He held her gaze for a moment before opening the door for her and following her to the lift. They rode it to the ninth floor in silence, Luca propped against one wall, staring across at Mia propped against the opposite wall. The bold way she returned his gaze tugged at his groin and his whole body tightened in anticipation.

Mia felt utterly dominated as Luca lounged against the wall, arms crossed. His gaze raked her body lingering on her breasts, her thighs, her boots. Then travelled all the way back up again to rest on her mouth.

The seconds ticked by as his eyes locked on her lips. Her tongue darted out to moisten them, a nervous gesture.

His nostrils flared. She swallowed.

His arms dropped. Her heart skipped a beat.

He took a step towards her. She tensed.

The lift dinged. He stopped. She breathed again.

‘Ladies first,’ he murmured. ‘Number nineteen.’

Mia walked on legs made of Plasticine to the indicated apartment, aware of his eyes on her the whole time. She could barely breathe by the time she pulled up in front of his door.

Absently she reached for the doorhandle the same time he did. He sucked in a breath. ‘Your hands are freezing,’ he murmured.

‘Yes,’ she agreed. That was because all her blood had drained to her belly and breasts. In fact, apart from her
torso she felt cold right through to her bones. She even shivered involuntarily.

Luca grinned at her as he pushed open the door. ‘I have the perfect solution.’

He tugged on her hand and she followed him into the toasty centrally heated apartment.