The Princess's Christmas Baby Read online

  The adrenalin was wearing off now and Gigi was starting to tremble. She felt tears prick at the backs of her eyes. Scenes from the accident flashed across her mind. Snapshots of fear. Pain. The sound of metal crunching. The bang. Her father being worked on, their bodyguard covered in blood and—

  Oddio, how was he? How had this happened?

  Her brother had only managed fleeting eye contact with her before she’d sent him to see their papa and the others who’d been in the car and so far there’d been no news about any of them.

  So she was stuck here, alone. And cold. She couldn’t risk anyone finding out that Domenico was her brother and the heir to the throne...a throne he may well have to step into immediately if their father didn’t pull through. A throne he didn’t want. On an island he didn’t even call home any more.

  Her father might die. She had a baby inside her and she didn’t know if it was okay. She didn’t know if anything was going to be okay. Everything was going to change and she wasn’t ready. Suddenly she felt very frightened and very alone and her body hurt from the impact.

  She gripped Kat’s arm with her good hand. There was nothing else to do but find someone to help her, and the only someone she could think of was the father of her baby. Even though he had no idea what was about to hit him. ‘Please. Please, find Lucas.’

  * * *

  ‘Blood pressure dropping. Systolic seventy-five. We need to get him to Theatre now and fix that haemorrhaging.’ Lucas looked down at the old man’s pale face. He was holding on, but with a serious open leg fracture and possible head injury Lucas didn’t know for how long. He nodded at Emilia, the talented orthopaedic surgeon about to take care of the nasty leg break and hopefully stem the blood loss. ‘Ready?’

  She nodded. ‘I’ll take it from here. Thanks, Lucas.’

  ‘Good luck, not that you’ll need it.’ He removed his hands from his patient’s head and let the anaesthesiologist take over care of his airway, then watched the flurry of activity from the staff as they hurriedly raced their patient towards Theatre, managing his lifesaving adjunct fluid therapy and balancing beeping monitors on the gurney. Then he snapped off his gloves and tapped out a history on the patient file on the computer.

  Once done, he left Resus and rounded the corner, almost bumping into one of the ER nurses, Kat. She smiled. ‘Oh, Lucas. Glad I’ve found you. There’s a patient here demanding to see you and only you.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Yes. MVA. Nasty bruising from the seatbelt and a swollen, painful wrist. Refusing any care at all, unless she’s seen by you.’ Kat gave him a quizzical look. ‘Weird, right?’

  ‘Why me?’

  ‘A secret admirer?’ Kat winked.

  ‘Somehow, I don’t think so.’ He laughed at such a preposterous thought. He didn’t need this right now. ‘Has she been in before?’

  ‘No. First time. At least, there’s no other notes on the system for her. She came in with the patient that’s just gone to Theatre. Roberto Baresi. She’s his daughter, I think. Giada Baresi, I think she said.’

  The floor under Lucas’s feet felt as if it was shifting. ‘Giada’s here? Giada was in the car? In the MVA?’ How had he missed that?

  Because he’d been so focused on saving that man’s life he’d paid no attention either to his name or to what else was happening in the department. Hell. His gut tightened like a vice. ‘Where is she? Is she hurt?’

  ‘Room nine. Her wrist’s...’

  He didn’t stop to hear the rest of Kat’s handover. Giada was here and she was hurting, everything else was immaterial.

  As he dashed down the corridor his mind filled in the blanks. If the patient going into Theatre was Giada and Dom’s father he was also...the King of Isola Verde. Yet no one had mentioned it—not even Dom, who had overseen his own father’s initial care. Which surely meant that no one else knew and that must be for a reason...so he would keep it that way for his friend’s sake.

  Lucas’s heart rate doubled. Poor Dom, to be faced with the only two members of his family injured and in his hospital. Every medic’s nightmare. Lucas determined that after seeing Giada he’d seek out his friend and see how he was holding up. Be there for him. For them all. The way Dom had been there for Lucas over the years, as if he were a brother.

  But, then, trouble often stemmed from families too. It was always about families. The good, the bad and the estranged.

  Giada.

  ‘Lucas?’ She looked up as he threw open the door to her room. Her face was pale, her dark brown eyes huge as she sat on a plastic chair next to the examination couch, looking vulnerable and strained. Completely opposite from the way she’d looked that weekend months ago—vibrant, sexy, full of fun.

  ‘Lucas.’ She stood up and he could see the angry welt slashed across her skin, from her collar bone to the edge of her pale blue sweater.

  ‘Gigi. My God.’ He didn’t know a heart could feel as if it had completely stopped and yet race at double speed at the same time. Didn’t know he’d feel like this when he saw her again, awash with emotions he couldn’t put a name to.

  And he certainly didn’t know what the right thing to do was. They’d put royal protocol aside three months ago, but things were very different now. He went to her but waited for her to make a move. This was a long way from sex on the beach. A million miles from two people enjoying each other just for one weekend.

  Ciao, Captain Sensible. You dark horse, you. Thanks for taking care of all my...needs!

  That smile. The wink. She’d drawn out a different side of him that weekend, but the fun had stopped the minute he’d delivered her to the private airfield and ever since he’d been...

  This was not the time for that. ‘Gigi, the nurse said you’re hurt.’

  Nodding, she stood, before swaying a little and stepping into his arms, clinging to him. ‘Oddio. Lucas, I can’t stop shaking. It was... Is he going to be okay? Is Papa going to die? And what about his bodyguard? He was injured too.’

  ‘It’s okay, Gigi. I’m here.’ He stroked her hair, battling the whoosh of emotions besieging him as her scent wound round him, as muscle memory made his hands fit round her waist exactly...there. As his body found space for her.

  She had a way of hugging that was full contact. At least, a way of hugging him that felt as if she was giving everything to it. And he held her close, waiting for the ragged breathing to subside, the same way he’d held her on the beach, in his kitchen, in his bed and watched her come down from the throes of ecstasy.

  But this was very different.

  They stood like that for a minute, maybe more. Touch was their vocabulary and comfort.

  Her touch had driven him crazy with desire only months ago and he hadn’t realised he’d been craving it ever since. And yet they’d both agreed it would be a single weekend in a lifetime. No more. There just couldn’t be more.

  Now she was here and he didn’t know what to do to make her feel better.

  He mentally shook himself. He was a representative of Seattle General Hospital, a senior doctor and medical professional. He could compartmentalise three days from the rest of his life. He had to be the utmost professional now, especially with her brother breathing down his neck and her father in surgery. Added to the fact she was European royalty with a destiny very different from his.

  Eventually she pulled away and breathed out deeply, tugging on a mask of coping. ‘Okay. Thank you. I think I was starting to fall apart. I’m okay now.’

  ‘You don’t have to pretend, Gigi. You’re allowed to fall apart at times like this.’ He put a little distance between them and adopted his usual professional tone. ‘Your papa is in Theatre. He’s had a nasty leg injury and he was unconscious when the paramedics brought him in so we’re a little worried about a brain injury—especially with the complications of his tumour.’

  ‘You know about that?’ Her eyes widen
ed.

  ‘A few of the more senior staff are aware that a VIP is scheduled for neurosurgery on a tumour in about three weeks’ time. Dom confided to me that it was your father.’

  ‘Of course he did.’ Her hands worried at the hem of her sweater that was frayed and blood spattered. ‘This is so bad.’

  ‘As soon as we’ve stabilised him we’ll take him for a brain scan. We won’t know anything for a little while, but he’s in good hands. Emilia’s the best orthopaedic surgeon we have.’

  She pressed her lips together as blood drained from her face. He took her hands and led her back to the chair. ‘Sit down. You’re in shock. That seatbelt trauma looks painful. Do you need something to help with the pain?’

  ‘No!’ She shook her head sharply. ‘No drugs. I’ll be fine.’

  ‘Okay, okay.’ She was clearly traumatised. He tried to make his tone gentler. ‘Can I have a look at that wrist now?’

  She nodded again, her eyes brimming with unshed tears as she held out the swollen and bruised arm to him. ‘Kat said it might need an X-ray.’

  ‘I’d say so.’ He turned her hand over to assess the damage, hating himself for hurting her even though it was necessary to ascertain the diagnosis. ‘The problem with wrists is that you can’t always get a good view of the injury, so even if we don’t see anything today, it may be necessary to repeat an X-ray further down the track, just to be sure.’

  ‘Can we be sure without an X-ray?’

  ‘Not really. It will mean you’d have to come back here if you’re still in town. Or you could arrange to have a repeat X-ray at your new hospital in Isola Verde.’ She’d been so excited about her new venture, to the point that he’d felt that excitement too.

  She looked up at him through curls that had fallen over her face. ‘I can’t have an X-ray, Lucas.’

  ‘It won’t take much time. We’ll have you all strapped up before your father gets out of surgery. You can go to him then.’

  ‘That’s not what I mean. Lucas...’ She ran the back of her good hand across her forehead and blew out a slow breath. ‘Lucas, I...’

  ‘What?’

  She blinked. ‘I wasn’t supposed to be coming with Papa for this trip. It was organised very last minute because he wanted to see Domenico about...well, about what might happen if he didn’t make it out of surgery—’

  ‘I’m sure he’ll be fine. I understand his neurosurgeon for the tumour surgery is already on his way from Vancouver to discuss your father’s case with the surgeons here.’

  ‘... If he’s incapable of ruling Isola Verde and the implications that has for Domenico,’ she continued.

  ‘God. Yes. Of course. Dom would become King and have to leave here and...’ Dom loved his job. Loved Seattle. He hadn’t been home to Isola Verde for years. Although he hadn’t actually said it out loud, Lucas had a feeling that Dom was a very reluctant heir to the throne. ‘They need to talk.’

  ‘Yes, very much. Now we don’t know if they ever will. Papa is frail...was frail even before this accident, and he’s determined to bring Domenico back home as soon as possible. He needs his son with him to pass over a lot of royal duties.’ Gigi sighed. ‘But that wasn’t why I came. I can’t be the intermediary between the King and the heir.’ She sighed again, her face creasing with concern. ‘I needed to see you. To talk to you, Lucas.’

  She needed to talk to him and she sure as hell wasn’t professing her undying love for him. In fact, she looked apprehensive, scared even.

  Lucas prided himself on being logical. On working out difficult conundrums, hard-to-solve cases.

  She didn’t want an X-ray. Why not? What was it about X-rays?

  She didn’t want drugs.

  He looked at her beautiful pale face, scanned down to her full breasts. Her belly that looked just as flat as when he’d been with her. But...

  But...

  She put her hand over his. ‘This isn’t how I planned to do this, Lucas. But you have to know—’

  She didn’t need to tell him; he’d worked it out. ‘You’re pregnant.’

  She nodded and looked so distraught about the whole damned situation that he had to look away.

  Unable to bear the raw intimacy of her touch and the memories that brought, he pulled his hand out from under hers. Then he stepped away too, the ramifications hitting him from every angle, jabbing at him like knives.

  A baby? His baby? With the Princess of Isola Verde?

  What the hell had they done?

  CHAPTER TWO

  GIADA’S HEART FRACTURED as she watched Lucas take a step back. Two steps.

  In fact, if the door hadn’t been closed she imagined he’d have kept on retreating right out of the hospital, across the city, through Olympic National Park, over the water and as far away as Japan.

  This was not the way she’d imagined telling him. So raw and brutal.

  This was also not the reaction she’d wanted. Expected, yes. Wanted? Not so much. A smile, perhaps. A claim on their child. A hug. A promise that everything would be okay.

  But, then, she’d known Lucas had been serious when he’d talked about not breaking the best friend code. Plus...okay, so she was a princess. Which made everything a million times more complicated. Pregnant and single. That would certainly attract more headlines. Although, given her reputation, it probably wouldn’t surprise her people. But her father would be singularly unimpressed.

  Again.

  She hid her head in her hands and sighed deeply.

  ‘I didn’t intend this to happen, Lucas. I’m...’ She was not going to be sad about the baby. ‘Actually, I’m not sorry. Sure, it’s a surprise and it took a bit of getting used to, not to mention the morning sickness. But I’m having a baby and that should be cause for celebration.’ And she was happy. Now she’d got over the shock.

  When she looked up he was still standing there, rigid, looking at her as if trying to work out a very difficult and shocking puzzle. ‘Lucas. Please. Say something.’

  He blinked and shook his head. ‘You’ll need a scan. Contracting seatbelts can cause damage to the abdomen and the uterus. I’ll get the radiographer to bring the portable machine in here.’

  So they were going the emotionless route. Right. ‘Thank you. But I’d know, surely? If something was wrong. There’d be bleeding or pain and I don’t have either.’

  ‘We need to check.’

  ‘Yes. Yes, please.’ She’d thought he’d leave then to speak to the radiographer, but he made a quick call and stayed in the room. Silent.

  After a few moments and just to say something to break the hideous impasse, she said, ‘You’re going to stay for the scan?’

  ‘Of course. I might be in shock but I’m not a monster, Giada.’ Not Gigi. Back to Giada. ‘You must be, what, twelve, thirteen weeks? Why didn’t you tell me before?’

  ‘I wanted to be sure. Risk of miscarriage is higher before twelve weeks so I figured that if I lost the baby I wouldn’t need to tell you anything. And then we wouldn’t have this awkward scenario going on. But this little one...’ she skimmed a hand across her abdomen ‘...is here to stay. As soon as everything was confirmed I arranged to come with Papa.’

  He captured her gaze with dark, untrusting eyes. ‘You didn’t know I was going to be here.’

  ‘You’re always at work, Lucas. That’s what you told me. If you hadn’t been here I would have called, but I wanted to tell you face to face.’

  The door swung open and an older woman walked in pushing a large trolley with a machine on it. ‘Ultrasound machine as requested, Dr Beaufort. You want me to do it?’

  Lucas frowned. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Oh?’ So much for the privacy she’d been hoping for. ‘I thought you’d do it.’

  ‘Sure, for a heartbeat, but not the full antenatal scan you need to have, given the circumstances.’ One minute he’d bee
n holding her, the next he was back-pedalling as fast and as far as his good manners would allow. Oh, Lucas Beaufort was good at cutting off his emotions.

  Very interesting, and a smack in the face to her. That weekend had been the only time she’d felt seen for who she was as a person and not as the tabloid Princess. He’d wanted to explore her and not judge her. But now? Now she wasn’t sure how the man she’d spent the weekend with could be the same cold one standing here.

  Sure, he was serious by nature, and he’d been bogged down with the bro code and her being a princess and everything, but once he’d got over that he’d been very hot indeed.

  She looked at him now, at his darkened eyes and clenched jaw that told her he was struggling to stay in control. At his dark blond hair, remembering the way it had felt as she’d thrust her fingers into it in the throes of ecstasy. She shivered, surprised at the hot, sharp, tang of lust that rippled through her even now. Even when he was angry and confused and aloof.

  He nodded towards the machine. ‘Obstetric scanning is a highly skilled process and, while I know enough to get by, I don’t want to miss anything.’

  Or he didn’t want to touch her.

  Stung by his reaction, Gigi climbed onto the examination couch and lifted her now ruined cashmere sweater to bare her belly, then wriggled her trousers down to her hips.

  Lucas looked away.

  She tried to read him but he’d simply closed off. Was he staying for the scan because he thought he should? Or because he wanted to? For her? For the baby?

  But these weren’t the kinds of questions she could ask with an audience, especially in the hospital where Lucas and her brother worked.

  ‘Bit of jelly. Here we go.’ The sonographer smiled and squirted gel onto Gigi’s belly, which had grown just a tiny bit over the last few weeks. She was almost breathless at the pride she had in the teeniest bit of a bump. ‘What was the date of your last period, Giada?’