Off-Limits Temptation for Dr. Day, page 1
“Am I able to kiss your cheeks in the Italian fashion, like I do with your aunt?”
Every instinct screamed no. This was how flirting worked, small intimacies that led to bigger ones, the casual touches that became anything but casual. Still, she said, “Yes.”
And then he was closer, invading her space with his big body. His male scent surrounded her, that haunting cologne. Soft lips brushed her cheek—how could such a brief caress send heat racing through her veins? Then he kissed the other cheek, his mouth warm against her skin. She was certain he lingered at her neck, inhaling as if memorising, and the intimacy of it made her knees weak.
She stepped back quickly, her hands shaking.
“Buonanotte, bella Amelia.” The words in his native tongue felt like a caress all its own.
She forced herself to move toward the entrance, each step toward the door a small win over wanting to ask him to stay.
Mentally, she dragged him in her wake, desperate to get him safely outside before she did something too stupid for words.
Dear Reader,
Welcome back to Rainbow Bay on the Gold Coast of Australia for Marco and Amelia’s love story. There’s lots of old friends to see, if you’ve read my other Rainbow Bay books.
Amelia is everything opposite to Marco. She’s the no-nonsense adult looking after her teen brothers since her parents’ death, managing stretched finances and long hours at the hospital. She can’t remember the last time she went on a date. Feels like never. If only Marco wasn’t that gorgeous, because when he does pay her attention, she doesn’t know what to do except push him away.
Marco is an excellent pediatrician, loves kids, but he plays hard and doesn’t trust women. Perhaps because his mother left him with his uncle to raise him when he was seven and he never heard from her again. He’d rather work on his fitness than second-date any woman. Except perhaps Amelia, if he can manage to secure a first date!
I hope you have a load of fun back in Rainbow Bay as Marco and Amelia battle their attraction to their romantic happily-ever-after while saving lives.
With love,
Fi xx
Off-Limits Temptation for Dr. Day
Fiona McArthur
Note to Readers
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Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9781335993564
Fiona McArthur is an Australian midwife who lives in the country and loves to dream. Writing medical romance gives Fiona the chance to write about all the wonderful aspects of romance, adventure, medicine and the midwifery she feels so passionate about. When she’s not catching babies, Fiona and her husband, Ian, are off to meet new people, see new places and have wonderful adventures. Drop in and say hi at Fiona’s website, fionamcarthurauthor.com.
Books by Fiona McArthur
Harlequin Medical Romance
The Midwives of Lighthouse Bay
A Month to Marry the Midwife
Healed by the Midwife’s Kiss
The Midwife’s Secret Child
Christmas in Lyrebird Lake
Midwife’s Christmas Proposal
Midwife’s Mistletoe Baby
Christmas with Her Ex
Second Chance in Barcelona
Taking a Chance on the Best Man
Father for the Midwife’s Twins
Healing the Baby Doc’s Heart
Falling for the Single Mom Next Door
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
To my dear Aunt Maurine, admired high soprano, I was so blessed to have spent time with you xx
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Excerpt
About the Publisher
Prologue
Standing beside the bridegroom in black, Marco Macaluso tried to assimilate what he was feeling. It was like nothing he was used to, being part of such a gathering of people he didn’t know well, but he was glad to be here. He would have chosen tailored cream suits instead of black for this beach wedding because fashion choices were important, but he felt honoured Henry had called on him to be the best man. Ridiculously so.
Marco’s gaze swept over the man who was like the brother he had never had, seeing through the poise to Henry’s nerves underneath. He said, ‘You’re a lucky man, Henry,’ and he meant it. He’d spent time with Henry’s friends and his imminent bride since he’d arrived in Queensland from Rome a week ago. The beautiful Nadia and her young daughter obviously adored Henry. But marriage? He thought of Valentina’s hints. Marco shuddered internally. Non è possibile! Not for him.
The brilliant sun heated his hair, the waves crashed in his ears and a movement of colour caught his eye as the salty breeze lifted the flying red curls of the small, intense woman in blue. She herded two pre-schoolers—not hers, he knew, because he’d met Henry’s specialist registrar. Dr Amelia Day was not his type, he thought and almost laughed, but something about her fluid movements and her delight in the young mischief-makers kept attracting his attention. And that red hair. Twists of unexpected disruption and mayhem when he knew the woman to be brilliant but prim, and studiously serious. Not a colour to be caught from a bottle, it would be naturally red all over her body, so…curls and colour had always stirred his libido.
‘I know,’ Henry murmured beside him. ‘I’m a lucky man with Nadia.’ He cleared his throat until Marco looked back his way. ‘And I appreciate you being here for me today.’
A warning note? Marco’s mouth kinked up. Perhaps he’d caught his discerning perusal of the sainted Amelia.
Marco’s eyes gleamed. ‘I’ll be here for more than that.’ His gaze drifted left again towards that hair. ‘Such a year of experiences to come.’
‘No, you don’t. Look this way!’ Henry protested in a growl. ‘I need my registrar happy.’
Marco laughed. Henry knew him. Knew his ways. They’d shared a flat for several years in London together working long hours towards becoming consultant paediatricians, and even longer ones with Henry often a barely interested fourth in a double date, as Marco had caroused his way through the delightfully willing ladies of London who caught his eye. There had been those few sticky moments when Henry had had to steer away last week’s paramour since Marco had moved on with the new week’s temptation, but it hadn’t happened that much. Really. And rarely at work.
But once Henry had left, Marco had felt oddly bored, as if his only family had abandoned him again, so that even the ladies had lost some of their lustre to him.
Strangely, the ennui had dissipated once he’d set foot on this sunny beach suburb on Australia’s east coast. He’d been enamoured of the pristine sand and the sapphire skies on his first day. And the sun-kissed women.
When he’d been asked if he’d be interested in working with Henry and the senior partner, Simon, in the Rainbow Bay paediatric practice for the next year, and perhaps even seek permanent residency in Australia, it had been surprisingly easy to say yes. Apart from real estate, he had nothing in London or Rome to keep him.
He could certainly consider the move across the world to start fresh. And yes, please, to Nadia’s offer of renting him her beachfront ground-floor apartment, since she and her daughter had moved upstairs with Henry, with the option to buy.
The apartment block stood above the beach and was walking distance to the hospital where he would happily take over Henry’s full work commitments during his friend’s honeymoon. When Henry returned, Marco looked forward to assuming jurisdiction over all paediatric emergency admissions at Rainbow Bay Hospital from then on…with Henry’s red-haired registrar’s help. Hence lightening Henry’s workload now that he was married.
That disturbing red-haired registrar grabbed her glorious curls and held them away from her eyes while she laughed with the children, and the movement snared his attention again.
* * *
Amelia Day chuckled as her small charge headed back towards the trampoline. ‘No, Sacha, Sarah, it’s starting. Look, Mummy is waving to you. Time to take our seats and watch the bride arrive.’
The little girls’ mouths widened in matching Os as they spied the wedding party on their way across the street, and they turned and scampered back towards their mother.
Amelia blew the hair out of her eyes. Why on earth had she listened to her aunt Luna about wearing it loose for the wedding? She stilled. That man was watching her again. Amelia turned her face away from him and settled in her seat. Plenty of interested ladies here he should be looking at instead of her.
Determined to ignore him, Amelia reminded herself she loved the setting she found herself in. The beach. The elegant wedding marquee on the sandy grass.
Most of all she loved that the whole child-friendly event lay open to the sparkling afternoon seascape while the sun passed overhead. White tables, blue-handled cutlery and scented flowers climbing the marquee poles made the shady space look pretty and festive. The heady aroma of roses drifting in the breeze. She knew most of the children, most of the bridal party, and a lot of the people from the hospital.
He was looking at her again. The best man. She’d been introduced to Henry’s friend Marco, a ridiculously handsome Italian with an accent to die for if she was the dying type. Luckily she seriously wasn’t, and apparently he was coming to work for the paediatric department when Henry went on his honeymoon next month. Oh goodie.
Amelia lifted her chin and stood with the crowd as the bride and her party gracefully arrived at the far end of the aisle. Nadia looked so beautiful, and Marco Macaluso wouldn’t be starting for a few weeks, so she refused to ruin this beautiful event thinking of him. She wanted to savour the joy that kind and caring Henry and the lovely Nadia had found with their happily-ever-after.
In the year she’d worked with Henry as his registrar, she’d learnt so much and been so warmly encouraged by Henry’s expanded faith in her diagnoses and decisions because she’d had serious responsibilities, but she’d also been able to rely on Henry on the rare occasions when she needed advice and backup. However, she wasn’t quite so confident about the Italian Stallion being her new boss. She’d heard about the recently smitten surgical resident who’d enjoyed a whirlwind fling with Marco after meeting him at Henry’s and had then been dined, danced and dropped, all before the wedding. Fast work.
The man was a flake, possibly a rake, and she didn’t trust him not to take his eye off the ball when lives were at stake. Ha! That rhymes.
Chapter One
One month later
‘Paging Dr Day. Dr Amelia Day. Please go to the emergency department.’ Amelia logged out of the computer in the children’s ward and glanced at the nurse manager next to her. ‘I’ve ordered a stat dose of antiemetic. Try that, Tara, and I’ll come back after I’ve seen the ED.’
‘No problem. Thanks, Amelia.’
Pushing her enormous new cobalt-blue prescription glasses up her nose, a fashion statement her aunt Luna talked her into this week, one she wasn’t sure of, Amelia stood and strode swiftly to the exit of the ward and down the long corridor towards the ED on the ground floor. Usually, when a sick child presented, one of her residents phoned her from there or sent a message to her phone if they needed help. A global announcement through the hospital PA system meant urgency.
And darn, Henry and Nadia had left on their delayed honeymoon last night, so she had the new consultant as backup. Today, she had to work with Macaluso, and she just hoped he’d arrived because she might need him.
Within a couple minutes of brisk walking, a nurse steered Amelia towards one of the main assessment rooms. Not a cubicle for new admissions but the fully stocked resuscitation bay, also not a good indication of patient stability.
The gasping wheeze of the child as she entered the doorway quickened her heart rate and narrowed her gaze. Provisional diagnosis: severe asthma!
The small blonde girl of about six, not someone Amelia recognised from previous admissions, sat high on the white sheets, and this little one’s pale cheeks almost blended into the cotton surrounds. The bedhead raised, the three pillows behind her were uncreased as her shoulders curved forward in an instinctive attempt to help her breathing as she struggled to exhale.
Amelia’s gaze shifted to the monitoring equipment noting the rapid heart rate, reduced blood–oxygen percentage and high respiration rate. Respiratory distress. All that in the first second of her arrival. She pulled the dangling stethoscope off her neck as she approached the bed. Wheezing air entry. Thankfully no blue tinge to the lips. Yet. Agitation and no attempt to cry or speak. So clinically moderate respiratory distress at best.
Tom, Henry’s more senior resident, spoke up. ‘Thanks for coming, Amelia. Cressa is six and woke this morning with a cough that escalated quickly to breathlessness. She arrived with her parents twenty-five minutes ago by car. Jock and Grace Green, this is Dr Day.’
Amelia nodded at the worry-stamped parents. She shook their hands briefly before crossing to the other side of the bed so she was facing them across the child between them. Both were blond and fine-boned, and she could see Cressa was very like them as they held hands and leaned towards their daughter.
‘I had asthma as a child,’ Jock said. ‘Bad for a few years.’
‘But she’s never had anything like this before,’ Grace was saying. ‘Just a cough last night, then it came on so fast. She didn’t even have the breath to tell us what was wrong, so we brought her straight here.’
Dangerous with the speed of this escalation. They should have called an ambulance, Amelia thought, but didn’t say yet. The paramedics could have started treatment on the way, a drip, some Ventolin, but she would make sure the parents knew before they left what to do next time. ‘She’s in the right place,’ Amelia said. ‘We’ve got her.’
She glanced at Tom as she took an alcohol wipe off a tray and wiped her stethoscope membrane, an ingrained essential habit before and after using it. ‘You’ve ruled out an anaphylaxis?’ Amelia verbalised the question in her mind as she went on to wash her hands. It looked like classic asthma to her, but Tom would have asked, and they needed to differentiate with treatment if there were other possibilities.
‘No known allergies. No changes in diet or surroundings, no new pets, no welts, redness or swelling noted. Marked wheeze both lungs escalating, and family history of asthma, though no previous episodes for Cressa.’
She dried off and approached the bed. ‘What have you done so far?’
‘Six metered doses of salbutamol in a spacer on arrival and four of Atrovent. Repeated five minutes ago with minimal response. I inserted an IV but the cannula has just packed up.’ His cheeks reddened. ‘I paged you to replace it urgently and escalate treatment as Cressa’s respirations are increasing with breath sounds decreasing. I didn’t want to be left without a line in.’
‘I agree.’ Decreasing breath sounds were an ominous sign, and intravenous access was paramount especially in a shut-down child. This little one was too sick to go slow with. ‘Let’s sort that first, and we’ll get some steroids on board.’ Amelia glanced at the senior emergency nurse who pushed a trolley set for cannulation towards her. ‘Thanks, Gilly.’
Amelia leaned down. ‘Cressa?’ The little girl’s eyes were wide, and she was slow to take her gaze off her parents, but when she did Amelia felt her heart grab. Yep. So, so terrified.
‘I’m Dr Mellie.’ The name her brothers called her, and which she used with small children to establish some rapport. ‘I know you’re having a hard time breathing, but we’re going to help that. First, I’ll listen to your chest and back.’ She paused to allow Cressa to understand. ‘Then I need to sting your hand again so we can give you medication into your arm that will ease the tightness in your lungs. We’ll be busy and annoying, but in about ten minutes you’ll begin to feel better. Okay?’
The little girl blinked and gave a tiny nod. Eyes wide and only slightly less panicked. Amelia took her hand. ‘We have you. You will feel better soon.’
Before she started, Amelia listened to Cressa’s chest and back, noting the wheezing and grateful there was still enough air entry to make a noise. Silence would be much worse, but both lungs were tight with secretions.
Amelia leaned down to the child. ‘Thank you. Now the sting and the medicine.’
A shadow darkened the door, and Amelia looked up to see Macaluso appear. Her brows raised. He must have heard the page, and it seemed he had also come in early, maybe because it was his first day. ‘Dr Macaluso. Good to see you.’ Not for her but for the backup if needed. Yes, that was good.
She looked across at the Greens. ‘Dr Macaluso is our consultant paediatrician. He’ll talk to you about what’s happening, and he is our backup if we need more help.’ She smiled at them. ‘Though, I believe you’ve brought Cressa in to us in good time.’ She glanced at the younger resident doctor. ‘Tom, can you do the introductions and update the boss, please?’
