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PROLOGUE

‘THAT WAS TOO CLOSE’ Nurse Elene Lowe shuddered and wiped the back of her glove-covered hand across her brow as she stepped back from the theatre table where five-year-old Joe Crawford lay, cast in sofor the foreseeable future

‘Too daeon, scowled ‘Can everyone ask their favourite child-whisperer or whatever to watch over this kid? He’s going to need all the help going and some’

‘Sure will’ One of the other nurses grimaced over her shoulder as she left the theatre, closely followed by most of the team

Beep Once again the heart one into arrest

Mattia swore as he snatched up the paddles ‘Stand back’

Elene’s own heart stalled ‘So not fair’ The little guy had arrested twice during the hours of surgery he’d just undergone to deal with two fractured legs and one sether

His little body jerked upwards as Mattia applied an electric jolt

Beep Beep Beep

‘I’ll tell you what’s not fair,’ Mattia growled ‘A ht with her son lying down on the back seat asleep instead of belted securely into a car seat’

He was right Why would any loving parent do that? The drunk driver who took out the car at speedher child was? Elene sed the sour taste in her mouth She understood Mattia’s need to let rip, and as there was only her and the anaesthetist to hear hih to Recovery and bring the’

‘I’ with you,’ Mattia aps as you report everything, but I’oing to stop again’

Exactly her feelings ‘It’s hard, but he’ll be monitored and looked after as well as he was in here No one’s going to take their eyes off hi while’

Forty minutes later Mattia said ‘The obs are the best they’ve been, though not how I’d like the distance in case’

No surprise there The Italian specialist on contract for a year had won the adton’s orthopaedic departh standards He’d also won the heart of every feood looks and charis hers ‘Tea for me’ She followed him into the cramped space that was the staff tea room beside the theatre In her head she could still see Joe’s little face sen and the sether The heart failures She wasn’t ready to be alone with her thoughts ‘Who’d be a parent?’

‘It’s enough to put you off, I’ll agree

‘But hell’ Mattia rah his thick, wavy hair ‘A five-year-old having cardiac arrest is beyond description Hoas I going to tell his parents if we hadn’t brought hi his words harder to decipher

Elene’s stomach turned to acid ‘This is when I wonder if I’ve chosen the right job I hate having to be a part of so ony and distress’ She’d spoken in Italian without thought Reverting to English, her native tongue, she continued, ‘Not even saving Joe takes away the nightranules into oneinto another, Elene tried to find soood to think about

‘Don’t believe that You’re an exceptional nurse We all have those doubts at times like

this’ Mattia reached around her with the milk

‘Yeah,’ she sighed ‘I guess’ A hint of the wild tickled her nose Aftershave? Nope, there was light stubble on that sexy chin behind her She tried to step away to put a gap between theainst Mattia’s chest A solid, muscular wall that filled his scrubs top to perfection Jerking away, sherock-solid in front of her, those intense dark eyes locked on hers—with soh them Did he need to blot out the last two hours too? In an instant cos, her sto her forwards, towards that body she’d eyeddown everything but the need to press close and feel—feel his strength, the tone of his worked-out et the horrendous scenes imprinted on her brain

Hands were on her waist, bringing her closer to her goal Firot the hands as Mattia’s head descended until his lips were close, so close, teasing, flirting—waking her up as she hadn’t been in all the years since she’d left her ex As she hadn’t wanted to be for fear she’d repeat the same mistakes But this was Mattia, the ued with often to keep hi here

This is thewith

Elene jerked out of those hands, away from that provocative mouth that could start her on a path to soo, and cursed the day he’d left Italy to work in New Zealand

Mattia breathed deep, filling his depleted lungs and tightening his gut Not for a nanosecond did his gaze leave Elene’s face She ing as if her life depended on getting fluid down her throat Her eyes ide and filled with guilt Guilt that was now creeping into his mind While technically it wasn’t a full-on relationship that would lead to so with another nurse, Danielle Despite the casualness of their liaison he would not seek out another woman until it was over—probably at the end of his contract in four weeks

But he’d co Elene Too da Joe on the table, his heart stopping, his s into a kiss with a beautiful woman, even an out-of-bounds one, seeht to pull away

‘Forget the coffee I’ off track was now in there

‘No probleested it very much was

He paused at the door ‘I apologise forofHe understood too well how that hurt others Not that his ex-fiancée had done that to him No, she’d found another way to decier he’d never taken up deliberately hurting other women to ease his own pain At the moment, Danielle was his latest conquest so other women were off-limits Unfortunately Because that near kiss—He’d never know Yet now he understood why Elene had subconsciously been plaguing hierous to his equilibriu on women and relationships, not because this one set his heart racing as if it were being chased by a greyhound