St Piran's: Prince on the Children's Ward

Tasha felt the strength drain from her legs. Her heart pounded with a rhythm that would have concerned her had she not been too busy staring at her brother. ‘Alessandro? The Alessandro?’

‘The very same. His Royal Highness.’

She hadn’t thought it was possible for the whole body to blush. Suddenly she was a teenager again and sobbing her heart out. ‘The answer is no.’ The words stumbled out of her mouth, disjointed, shaky. ‘No! And don’t look at me like that.’

‘I thought you’d jump at the chance. You were crazy about him. He was all you ever talked about—Alessandro, Alessandro, Alessandro.’ Josh mimicked her tone and Tasha felt the flush of mortification spread from her neck to her ears.

‘I was seventeen,’ she snapped. ‘It may have escaped your notice but I’ve grown up since then.’ But not enough. Not enough to be cool and detached. Not Alessandro. No, no, no. The humiliation crawled over her skin.

‘I know you’ve grown up. That’s why I’m offering you the job. If you still felt the same way you felt about him back then, you wouldn’t be safe.’ Josh’s eyes teased her. ‘Oh, boy, were you dangerous. Teenage hormones on legs. You threw yourself at him. Being royalty, he travelled everywhere with an armed guard but the person he really needed protection from was you. Every time he turned round, there you were in another minuscule bikini. I seem to remember he told you to come back when you’d grown a chest.’

Tasha relived humiliation and discovered it was no better the second time around. Dying inside, she folded her arms and gave her brother a mocking smile. ‘Laugh it up, why don’t you?’

‘My little sister and the prince. You used to scribble his name all over your school books. I particularly liked the Princess Tasha you carved on the apple tree in the garden, although the heart was a weird shape.’ Josh was clearly enjoying himself hugely and Tasha tapped her foot on the floor, irritated on the outside and squirming on the inside as she remembered those horrible, hideous months.

She’d been a little girl with very big dreams. And when those dreams had burst … ‘Have you quite finished?’

‘For now. Good job you were a late developer or he might have taken you up on your offer. Alessandro has always had a wicked reputation with women.’

And her brother clearly had no idea just how well deserved that reputation was, Tasha thought desperately, trying to block out images she just couldn’t face.

Josh was still smiling. ‘Anyway, he’s been nagging me to find him someone to nurse him but it’s been a nightmare because of the security clearance. And I have to be careful who I give him because if they’re pretty he’ll seduce them.

It’s unbelievably complicated. You have no idea how much red tape we’re trying to cut through. If we wait for the palace to approve someone, the guy will be in hospital for at least six months and that can’t happen because the press are disrupting the place.’

‘Why is security a problem?’

‘He’s the crown prince. Don’t you watch the news? His older brother was killed in an accident. All very tragic.’ Josh rummaged through the papers on his desk and pulled out a newspaper. ‘Here. Your teenage crush is now officially Europe’s most eligible bachelor.’

Tasha snatched the newspaper from him. Her head was filled with unsettling images of Alessandro playing in the garden with her brothers. Alessandro stripped to the waist, a sheen of sweat on his bronzed chest as he kicked a ball into the goal with lethal accuracy. ‘I read about his brother. It was completely awful.’ She tried to imagine bad boy Alessandro as Crown Prince. Nothing about the way he’d treated her had been princely. ‘He was the black sheep of the family.’

‘Alessandro always had a difficult relationship with his parents but he was close to his brother. It’s been hard for him. And he’s now heir to a throne he doesn’t really want. He prefers his freedom.’

Freedom to break hearts all over the world. ‘I can’t imagine Alessandro in a position of responsibility.’ And that was the attraction. Restless, edgy, a danger-seeker. The devil in him had drawn her.

‘He wasn’t given any choice. It’s a matter of succession. He’s the heir, whether he likes it or not. So what do you think? I’d say it’s the perfect job for you.’ Josh was looking pleased with himself. ‘You idolised him.’

‘I did not idolise him. And the last thing I want to do is act as nurse to Alessandro Cavalieri,’ she snapped. ‘He’s arrogant, full of himself …’ Super-bright, scorching hot and sexy as hell.

He’d—and she’d—

Oh, God.

Feeling the blood rush into her cheeks, Tasha turned to look out of the window. She couldn’t face him.

Sexual awareness shot through her, as unexpected as it was unwelcome. The man wasn’t even in the room, she thought angrily, so why did she feel hot all over?

It was just her memory playing tricks.

What you found sexy at seventeen just made you angry at twenty-eight.

This was the man who had destroyed her dreams. He could have treated her kindly and let her down gently, but instead he’d been brutal. Cruel.

She should thank him, Tasha thought numbly. He’d screwed up her confidence and her relationships with men, but he’d done wonders for her career. When she’d finally emerged from under the rubble of her fantasies she’d given up on relationships and focused on her studies. Instead of parties, she’d spent her evenings with books. And her family hadn’t questioned it. Her brothers had just been relieved that wild Tasha had finally settled down to study. They had no idea what had happened that night.

Thank goodness.

Josh would have killed him.

Her brother was idly flicking through correspondence, apparently unaware of her trauma. ‘He was pretty arrogant, I suppose …’ Josh signed a letter. ‘But that was hardly surprising. When we were at university, women couldn’t leave him alone.’

Tasha stood stiff as a board. ‘Really?’

‘You were crazy about him.’ Josh dropped the letter in his in tray. ‘Are you embarrassed to face him again?’

‘No! Of course not! I just—have better things to do with my time, that’s all. I’m a paediatrician. I need a job in paediatrics. I need to think of my CV.’

‘Because it’s just that it occurred to me that you did flirt with him a lot.’

I want it to be you, Alessandro. I want you to be the first.

Tasha felt as though she’d been plunged head first into a furnace. ‘I was a teenage girl. I flirted with everyone.’ Why was she reacting like this when it had happened almost ten years ago? Get over it, Tasha.

But humiliation wasn’t so easily forgotten. Neither was Alessandro, which was crazy because she probably wouldn’t even find him attractive any more. It had just been the whole prince thing and her impressionable, romantic teenage brain.

She knew better now.

Tasha leaned against the wall, forcing herself to breathe slowly. Unfinished business, she thought. He’d walked away and left her wounded. She’d never had the opportunity to defend herself, to tell him how much he’d hurt her.

Anger flashed through her, sharp and bright.

There was no way she could nurse him through a broken ankle. She was more likely to break the other one for him.

Tasha opened her mouth to turn her brother down and then a thought flitted into her brain. Shocked, she shook her head. No. She couldn’t do that. It would be juvenile. Shallow. It would be …

Fun?

Satisfying?

It would teach him a lesson.

‘This nursing job …’ Her lips moved and she heard herself speaking. ‘Does it involve moving in with him?’

‘Yes, of course. He needs someone there day and night for a month or so. Maybe a bit longer.’

Day and night.

That was plenty of time to drive a man out of his mind.