The Irresistible Royal Read online

  ‘Go.’ Gabriel said—his eyes reflected his own deep concern.

  Marco couldn’t get to Chloe’s side fast enough.

  ***

  It was hell to see Chloe lying lifeless in the hospital bed while the machine did her breathing for her. He looked up at the monitor showing her heartbeat. He needed the repetitive pattern of the sinus wave on the screen and the intermittent beeping to calm him. The sound of the ventilator set his teeth on edge and he grew to hate it in the first five minutes he was at her side.

  The surgeon hadn’t exaggerated about her battered state. Almost every patch of skin he could see was swollen and bruised. Thank God the driver of the van hadn’t been going any faster or she may’ve been killed outright.

  Marco dragged a chair over to sit at Chloe’s bedside. Once he was seated, he looked at the hand, which lay still at her side. He wanted to enfold it in his own, but there was a long needle taped into place and he didn’t want to disturb it. Instead he reached out and placed his hand carefully over her fingers. Dio. They were cold.

  ‘I’m here, Chloe, mia bellezza.’

  ‘I’m going to the nurses’ station outside, Your Highness. I won’t be long and I’m within earshot if any of the alarms go off, so don’t worry.’

  He gave the nurse a nod. When she left, he wiped his eyes and dug deep for strength. ‘I’m so sorry, tesoro. I’m sorry you’re in this pain. If I could swap places with you, I would.’

  The only response was the steady beeping of the monitors.

  Tell her, his conscience urged. Tell her what she needs to hear.

  ‘You and Rico are my world. You mean everything to me.’

  Not good enough. Say the words.

  Marco drew in a deep breath. ‘I’ve told you how important you are to me, but I’ve never told you how I really feel. For a while I denied my feelings, because after Eden died I swore I’d never love another woman. Part of me felt disloyal to her—guilty that she was gone and I was enjoying life, enjoying the son she could never give me, but most of all I felt guilty because you captured my heart completely.’ It took every ounce of his energy to keep his voice from breaking. ‘But you’re lying here in intensive care and I’ve never told you. I want you to be looking at me when I tell you, and I’ll tell you over and over again for the rest of our lives, but right now I need you to know. I love you, Chloe.’ The tears streamed unchecked from his eyes. ‘Forgive me for not telling you sooner. Fight for me, my love. Fight for Rico. We both need you desperately.’

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chloe drifted in and out of a strange realm of awareness.

  There were bright lights that blazed then faded. At times she had the weirdest experiences, like she was outside her body looking at herself lying still in the hospital bed. She listened to snatches of conversations the doctors and nurses had about her—sometimes the voices were clear and the words meaningful, then they’d lose clarity as though someone fiddled with the radio dial and changed the frequency. Then there was static as the signal was lost—white noise and a steady pulse or beep.

  It was confusing.

  Dreams were fuzzy.

  Almost always there was a solid warmth at the fingers of her right hand. She wanted more of that heat—more of that connection. Marco. She knew he was with her. She listened to his voice and was comforted by it even when she couldn’t make out his words.

  Inwardly, Chloe frowned. Am I close to death?

  ‘I love you, Chloe.’ Marco’s voice, deep and full of tears. ‘Fight for me, my love. Fight for Rico. We both need you desperately.’ Reality or a dream?

  Rico... Her darling baby boy. Where was he? She searched for him, needing him. Sometimes she sensed him close—felt his weight against her chest, smelt his adorable baby smell, heard his little sounds as Marco spoke to him.

  ‘Rico is here, my love. We’re both here, waiting for you to recover—waiting to take you home. I know you’d want to feed him, tesoro, but there are too many barbiturates in your body right now.’

  Take her home? Again, she tried to untangle her confused thoughts. There was something she needed to tell Marco. Something weighing on her mind.

  Something about her Irish father?

  Marco had said something about feeding Rico. Yes, she wanted to feed her son. At times her breasts were so full they hurt. Then there was a blessed relief as though they were being iced down.

  At some point she was moving. Well, her bed was moving. There was activity around her. Lots of people bustling. A corridor? Thoughts blurred. Bright lights again. Some sort of machine clunking around her as she continued to lie completely immobile.

  ‘I love you, Chloe.’ She heard the words over and over again. Marco said them. Her father said them. Her father was here.

  Back into the haze of dark and light.

  ‘Chloe, your mother was here at the hospital demanding to see you. She was in London when she heard the news, but I had Gabriel send her away. I hope that’s what you would’ve wanted me to do.’

  Oh, absolutely. Now she was a mother herself, Chloe could understand even less how Lidia could’ve walked away from her.

  Rico... Where was her baby son?

  ‘I don’t expect we’ll hear any more from Lidia in quite a while,’ Marco was telling her. ‘Her divorce from Barry Stewart hasn’t even come through, but apparently she’s met a sheikh who’s fallen for her.’

  Good luck to the sheikh. He’d need it.

  Her head ached and she gave into the pain and lapsed back into unconsciousness.

  At another point she roused again.

  ‘The swelling in her brain has reduced.’ It was a confident male voice. One she’d heard before but couldn’t place. ‘We started decreasing the drug dosage slowly last night so now we expect she’ll come out of her medically induced coma.’

  ‘And her kidney?’ That was her father.

  ‘You know I’m prepared to donate mine if I’m a match,’ Marco said.

  ‘That won’t be necessary. She won’t need a transplant.’

  Chloe slipped back into the haze.

  ***

  Her eyelids were heavy. Chloe was aware of her eyeballs moving around behind them before she could finally signal to her brain to open them up.

  Instantly, she recognised she was in a hospital room.

  Marco was there by her side, but his eyes were closed. She tried to smile, tried to open her mouth to talk, but nothing happened and her lids shut again. Her handsome husband’s image was imprinted on her mind’s eye. He looked harrowed—his cheeks more prominent, his hair unbrushed and his jaw and upper lip sporting a thick stubble that was well on the way to becoming a beard. He was incredibly sexy in a piratical kind of way.

  She wasn’t sure how long it was before she managed to flex the fingers of her right hand. Hours later? Days later? She couldn’t say. It was only a slight, weak movement, but it took so much concentration.

  ‘Chloe?’ She was aware of Marco’s movement beside her and pictured him sitting forward. ‘Nurse. She moved her fingers.’

  As hard as she tried, she couldn’t get her eyelids to open. Exhaustion claimed her. She dreamt she ran hard down a long driveway. Marco’s driveway at his home in London. She ran fast. Marco was coming down the drive in his sports car, he didn’t look happy. He flashed the car lights at her, beeped the horn at her. He accelerated towards her as though intent on running her down.

  There was a screeching sound followed by excruciating pain and inky blackness.

  But Marco’s car was too far away to have hit her... A flash of white from beside her...

  ‘Tesoro, India has brought Rico to see you. Can you open your eyes and look at our handsome son?’

  Rico. This time her eyes opened fairly easily.

  ‘Chloe.’ Marco’s face crumpled with emotion. His mouth trembled as he pressed his lips together but was unable to prevent the sob of joy that escaped through them. ‘Stay with us, mio amore.’ He looked over his shoulder. ‘Nurse.’r />
  ‘Yes. Oh, yes.’ India cried.

  The movement of Chloe’s lips into a smile seemed slow and rusty.

  ‘Thank God.’ Marco placed a kiss on Rico’s forehead, then reached out and squeezed her fingertips.

  ‘Princess Chloe, you’re awake.’ A middle-aged woman in a white nurse’s uniform smiled broadly at her. ‘I’ll call the doctor straight away.’

  ‘H...’ She opened her mouth and searched for her voice, but it wasn’t working.

  ‘Here, let’s sit you up before I call the doctor.’

  Chloe couldn’t move. She couldn’t help herself and every muscle in her back hurt as the nurse raised the back of the bed. ‘Wa... ter,’ she croaked, anxious to relieve the dryness of her throat.

  ‘Can she have a drink?’ Marco asked.

  Even while Chloe’s eyes never left Marco’s, she was aware the nurse poured some water from a jug into a tumbler. A few moments later, a straw made contact with her lips and she drew it in and sucked, grateful when the fluid entered her parched mouth.

  ‘Small sips. Take it easy,’ the nurse directed.

  Chloe closed her eyes again but kept taking little sips until the nurse took the cup away.

  ‘Right. I’ll be back with the doctor. He’s still on this ward.’

  ‘Marco,’ she croaked.

  ‘Mia bellezza. My love.’

  ‘I’m going to fetch Gabriel,’ India said tearily. ‘We’ll be back shortly and we love you very much, Chloe.’

  Chloe sent her friend a smile as she departed then said slowly to Marco, ‘How long have I been asleep?’

  ‘You were in an induced coma, cara.’ He lifted one arm out to her and smoothed a strand of hair away from her face. ‘You were ventilated for four days and it’s taken you another three days to come to. Does your head hurt?’

  She frowned. ‘Not badly, but I feel really... disoriented. Really hazy.’

  ‘That’s because of all the medication. Here, let me hold Rico to your chest.’ He shifted their baby son and Rico made little cooing noises.

  God, but it was so good to feel him there. ‘You did that while I was in a coma, didn’t you?’ she asked. ‘You never left my side for more than a few minutes, and Rico was here sometimes, wasn’t he?’

  ‘Yes.’ He smiled. ‘You were aware of it?’

  ‘Vaguely. It was comforting.’ She looked all around the room. ‘Dad was here too.’

  Marco nodded. ‘He’ll be back in an hour or so. He’s gone home to rest.’ He squeezed her fingers. ‘Chloe, I love you. I’ve been telling you over and over. Were you aware of that too?’

  Her lips widened and she felt her cheeks dimple. ‘I hoped I wasn’t dreaming.’

  ‘Oh, il mi amore. You weren’t dreaming. I’m so sorry I hadn’t told you before your accident.’

  Even though it cost her physically, she reached out and touched his arm where he was holding Rico. ‘I love you, too, Marco.’ Madly, deeply and desperately. She would’ve added the words but she simply didn’t have the breath left to say them. Instead, she hoped her love blazed clearly from her eyes.

  It was much later in the day. Chloe had slept again. She’d been awake for the doctor’s examination, and for brief visits from her father, India and Gabriel, and Marco’s family. Rico had gone home with India and Gabriel, but Marco was still at the hospital.

  She saw it was late afternoon as the sunlight faded outside. The room was full of flowers, including magnificent bouquets from Sabihah and Khalid and Mackenzie and Devereaux.

  Marco had produced a single red rose and that was her favourite. It was not only a reflection of his love, but a message that he understood the person she was—she still liked simplicity and understatement best of all and the sentiment behind the gesture meant so much more to her than the cost of it.

  Looking at her loving husband, she realised he hadn’t shaved in days. She quite liked the growth on his jawline and upper lip. ‘You look exhausted,’ she told him, ‘but I’m so glad you’re here.’

  ‘Do you remember the letter from the judge?’

  ‘Yes.’ It all came flooding back to her, but she replayed it all through her head without the shock value now. ‘He wants to meet me. He said he’s my biological father.’

  ‘His claim checks out, bella. I let your father—Luis—know and he met with the judge yesterday. Luis said he liked the guy and that he didn’t have any ulterior motive for wanting to meet you.’

  ‘It’s a strange coincidence that he’s a judge.’

  Marco shrugged. ‘Luis said the familial resemblance is strong; obviously you take after Judge Mulroney in more than looks.’

  ‘I guess two fathers are going to well and truly make up for one deplorable mother.’ Her thoughts snagged. ‘Marco. Did the doctor think at one stage I might need a kidney transplant?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She looked at him in awe. ‘You offered to donate your kidney to me if you were a match.’

  ‘Thankfully you didn’t need it.’

  ‘But you really would’ve done gone through that for me?’

  He sat down very carefully on the edge of her bed and framed her face with his hands. ‘You already possess my heart. Why wouldn’t I give you one of my kidneys?’

  Her breath hitched. Her lips trembled and her eyes filled with tears.

  Very slowly, very tenderly, his mouth closed over hers. The kiss was way too brief, but there was so much feeling in it that it imprinted itself indelibly on her memory.

  ‘I’m so desperate to be held close to you, Marco, but I hurt all over and I’ve got all these damned tubes and wires everywhere.’

  His smile was understanding. ‘Concentrate on getting better, tesoro. I want to hold you so badly I ache with the need of it.’

  ‘I promise you, I’m going to be home with you in record time.’

  Epilogue

  On the evening of their first wedding anniversary, Marco took Chloe by the hand after they’d bathed, fed and tucked Rico into his cot for the night. ‘I have a surprise for you, cara.’

  ‘Another one?’ The day had been full of wonderful surprises, including Marco’s family, their closest friends and Chloe’s natural father, all arriving to stay at the Salvatore resort for a week.

  Nodding, he told her, ‘Follow me.’

  He led her through the spacious home they’d built on the vineyard that had once belonged to Luis’s neighbours and which Marco had purchased with the intent that they divide their time between London, Ralvinia and Wild Horse Valley. Still working in his position at the bank, he was also absorbed in learning all there was to know from Luis about winemaking, as he planned to make the vineyard a viable concern.

  ‘Are you ready?’ he asked her as he led her out from the back door.

  ‘Where are you taking me?’

  ‘You’ll soon see.’

  He took her right away from the house and around the machinery shed.

  ‘Oh my gosh,’ she exclaimed as she rounded the corner and saw that a baseball batting cage and PowerNet had been set up.

  ‘Little League, here we come,’ Marco said with a grin, while he reached into his back pocket, pulled out a baseball cap and stuck it on his head.

  Chloe covered her mouth with her hands as she dissolved into fits of laughter. ‘Marco. He’s still a baby, for heaven’s sake.’

  ‘Never too young to learn. I’m going to start watching baseball movies with him and I’ve already started reading the manuals out loud to him.’

  ‘You’re ridiculous.’

  ‘Well, I thought it might help if I learn the rules of the game before we turn up at Little League each weekend we’re in California. Wouldn’t help Rico’s image with the local girls if his dad makes an idiot of himself and doesn’t even know where to look to find first base.’

  ‘You didn’t have any trouble getting to first base, my darling. It was second and third base that posed the problem.’ Chloe turned the cap on his head so it was on backwards, giving her unhind
ered access to his mouth. Standing on tiptoes, she reached up, put her arms around his neck and drew his head down so she could kiss him. ‘Thank you for all you’ve done, Marco. But you really don’t have to go to such lengths, because you’re so much better than the husband I’d always dreamed I’d have.’ She kissed him again. ‘How about we go back inside and I’ll show you how much I love you?’

  ‘Sounds good to me, tesoro.’

  But when she went to walk towards the back door, he steered her around to the front of the house instead. ‘One more surprise,’ he told her. ‘I think we’ve spent enough time out the back here and it should be ready for us.’

  And there it was.

  It brought the tears to her eyes, because there on the front porch was a swing seat, and right next to it was a table set up with a bottle of wine, two wineglasses, and two bottles of Bud.

  Marco raced up the steps and sat down on the swing seat, patting the spot next to him. ‘Want to come and join me and tell me about your day?’

  She shook her head in absolute wonderment. ‘You remembered all these details from the one conversation we had back what almost seems to be a lifetime ago?’

  ‘I loved you then, cara. I must have, because I remember every word and every detail. Maybe deep down I committed it to memory because I wanted to be your dream husband.’

  Sitting down next to him, she cracked open the bottle of Bud. ‘Well, because you’ve gone to so much trouble, I’m going to humour you.’

  ‘Humour me?’

  ‘Yes.’ She grinned at him so broadly she was sure she must resemble a loon. ‘You see, I think I’ve changed my opinion about my ideals—or rather you’ve changed my opinions.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘Before we were married, I used to think the ideal way to end the day would be like this—nice and peaceful contentment.’

  ‘And now?’

  ‘Now I’d far rather be active and naked with you between the sheets.’

  Marco was up on his feet in a flash, the beer was out of her hand, and she was swept up into his arms and cradled against his chest as he strode into the house. ‘I can live with that.’