The Valtieri Marriage Deal by Caroline Anderson Read Free Book Online

wassilent, and in the normally noisy theatre they could have heard a pin drop.
    ‘You have a beautiful little girl, Mrs Marchant,’ Luca said in a calm voice, his eyes smiling. ‘Well done.’
    Julie’s hand tightened on Isabelle’s. ‘Can I see her?’
    ‘Not just yet,’ Isabelle said, squeezing back reassuringly while her ears strained for a sound of life. ‘They need to clear her airway.’ Luca was still busy, but she could see that like all of them he was acutely aware of the deafening silence in the room, and his eyes kept flicking to the neonatal team.
    ‘What’s taking so long?’ Mrs Marchant said, her eyes filled with tears. ‘Why isn’t she crying?’
    ‘It only seems a long time,’ Luca lied, but one eye was on the clock and it was ticking. One minute—two…
    They were all holding their breath, because if they couldn’t, then the baby couldn’t—and then, when they had all but given up, there was a small, mewling cry, then a shuddering breath and a full-blown bellow of rage, and they all laughed with relief and carried on, because at that moment the sound of a baby crying was the sweetest sound in the world.
    ‘Nice work, Mr Valtieri,’ Isabelle murmured while Julie met her baby daughter, fairness making her give him his due, and his eyes met hers over the mask and softened in a smile that turned her heart to pulp.
    ‘Ditto,’ he said quietly. ‘What made you get me when you did?’
    She lifted a shoulder. ‘Gut instinct?’
    ‘I like your instincts, cara,’ he said, and turned back to their patient, still smiling under his mask.
    Maybe working with her would be OK after all—and given time…
     
    ‘What time do you finish?’
    She looked up from the notes she was writing at the nursing station in the centre of the ward and contemplated telling him it was none of his business, but apart from the fact that it would have been petty, it would take him ten seconds to check the rota.
    ‘Nine-thirty,’ she told him, and he frowned.
    ‘So late?’
    ‘I work a thirty-seven-and-a-half-hour week. So if I do three fourteen-hour days with an hour-and-a-half break, I’ve done my hours. And I get four days off.’
    ‘But you haven’t had a break yet.’
    She met his scowl with a dry laugh. ‘That’s right. I usually don’t.’
    ‘But that’s not good for you—and it’s not fair.’
    She couldn’t disagree, so she just shrugged and carried on with her notes. Until a large hand arrived in the centre of the page, the fingers splayed across it so she couldn’t see. The fingers which had touched her with so much skill, making her body sing…
    ‘Come and have a coffee, at least. We need to talk.’
    ‘I don’t think so. I told you that earlier. We’re working together, by an unhappy coincidence, but that’s all. Our relationship is professional only, Mr Valtieri, and that’s the way it’s staying.’
    ‘Has anyone ever told you you’re stubborn?’
    ‘It’s one of my more endearing qualities—but it’s nothing to do with being stubborn. I just don’t like my wishes being ignored.’
    ‘I didn’t ignore them!’
    ‘So what are you doing here?’
    He closed his eyes, growling in frustration. ‘It was coincidence, as you said.’
    ‘You were looking for me,’ she reminded him, and a flash of dark colour swept over his cheekbones.
    ‘I had been. I just wanted a chance to see you.’
    ‘Well, you should have checked if I wanted to see you before you wasted your time, Luca.’
    ‘Maybe I should. Maybe I would have, if you’d given me your number, but this is nothing to do with that. This is just chance, and I’m sorry if you don’t like it, Isabella, but since I’m here…’
    Isabella. With at least two more syllables, and a rolling purr that made her heart hitch. Well, it wouldn’t work. Her heart could hitch all it liked, but she wasn’t going to let herself get drawn into a relationship with him by that flagrant Italian charm.
    Except professionally, and only