Michelle Douglas - Surrender To The Single Dad

“I’m on my way. Bless you, Valentina.”

* * *

He alerted his pilot and flew to the Naples airport, where he took the company jet to Crotone. En route he phoned to make certain a rental car was waiting. Following that he made calls to the three hospitals in the town, but no one would give him information about the injured because he wasn’t a relative. Other injuries over the southern area had been reported and hospitals all along the coast were filling.

Emergency vehicles and fire trucks filled the parking area of the first hospital. He made it to the ER and learned that one diver had been brought there. No one would give him information, but one of the ambulance crew helped him out by telling him they’d transported a male diver here.

Thanking him, Rini drove to the next hospital. Again it was the wrong one. He made the rounds until he reached the last hospital. When he spotted Bruno Tozzi in the waiting room, he knew Alessandra had to be here. Avoiding conversation with him, Rini walked through the hospital to the director’s office. He’d do whatever it took to be granted permission to see her.

* * *

“I’m fine,” Alessandra assured her parents after she’d spent six hours in the chamber.

“Are you in pain?”

“No, not at all. The doctor told me I have a light case of the bends.”

“Dr. Tozzi wants to see you.”

“He worries about all the team, but I’m not up for visitors. Tell him I promise to call him tomorrow when I’m feeling better.”

“All right. We’ll find him out in the reception area and be back in two hours. The doctor said you’ll be here overnight. We’ll stay with you and drive you home in the morning. Try to rest in the meantime. Love you.” They kissed her before slipping from the room.

No sooner had they gone than the door opened again. It was probably the nurse coming in to check her vital signs. When she saw who entered the room, her heart fluttered dangerously fast.

“Rini—what are you doing here?” After three weeks of not seeing him, the sight of his tall, well-honed body wearing a navy blue business suit was too much to handle in her weakened state.

“When I heard what happened, I couldn’t stay away.”

She turned on her side, trying to hide from him. “Did you talk to my parents?”

“They don’t know I’m here.”

Her breath caught. “You shouldn’t have come. We’ve said all there is to say.”

“I had to be sure you were going to recover,” he said, his voice throbbing.

Tears stung her eyes, but she refused to let him see them. “I don’t see how you found out where I was.”

“A simple deduction after Valentina phoned me with the news about the epicenter of the quake.”

She sighed. “How did you get past the desk? No one is allowed in here.”

“I have my ways. Alessandra, you could have died out there. The doctor said you lost consciousness. It could have been fatal. Do you have any idea what I’ve been going through thinking I might have lost you?”

“Maybe now you know how I felt when you let me leave Positano and I knew it was over with you.” A bitter little cry escaped her lips. “My parents will be taking me home in the morning. The only reason I can imagine you’re being here is because of your guilt.

“What a surprise I’m going to survive! Surely it’s a relief to you. That way you don’t have to tell me what you’ve been holding back. It would only add to your guilt.”

“Alessandra—” His mournful voice reached that vulnerable place inside her before he’d come around the side of the bed. She felt him cup her face with his hand. “Grazie a dio you’re alive and safe.”

She kept her eyes tightly closed. “I admit I’m happy about it, too.”

His fingers toyed with her hair, sending fingers of delight through her exhausted body. “I once came down with a case of decompression sickness and know how it feels.”

“One of the hazards when you’re having fun.”

“You don’t need to pretend with me. I know you’ve had a fright and need sleep. Do you mind if I stay here with you for a little while?” He leaned down and kissed her lips. It felt like the touch of fire.

“The doctor won’t like it, but that’s up to you.”

Peering at him through slits, she watched him draw a chair to the side of the bed next to her. He looked like a man with the weight of the world on his powerful shoulders. She needed him to go away and never come back, but she couldn’t find the words.

In a minute a nurse came in to bring another bag for her IV. She checked Alessandra’s vitals and left without saying a word to him. The man could get away with murder. “What did you do to get permission?”

“I told the administrator that Montanari Engineering would make a generous donation to the hospital if they’d let me in to see you.”

There was no one like him, her heart cried out. “Rini Montanari. That was a naughty thing to do.”

“It worked. That’s all that mattered to me. To find you alive means everything. These last three weeks without you have been a hell I never want to live through again,” he admitted, his voice breaking.

His pain was tangible. “Now you’ll have to make good on your offer and work all hours of the day and night to recoup the loss.”

“It’ll be worth it since the hospital helped save your life. You’re the most precious thing in my world. I love you, bellissima,” he said in the huskiest voice she’d ever heard. “Now go to sleep and don’t worry about anything.”

When Alessandra woke up in the middle of the night, she decided she’d been dreaming that Rini had come to visit her. Had he really said he loved her? There was no sign of him. The night nurse came in and helped her to the restroom, then walked her back to bed.

CHAPTER SIX

THE NEXT MORNING Alessandra awakened to find her parents in the room. They’d brought her a fresh change of jeans and a soft top, which she slipped into. At 11:00 a.m. the doctor discharged her with the proviso that she rest, stay hydrated and do no diving for at least fourteen days.

It felt good to be wheeled outside to her parents’ limo. They made her comfortable before driving her back to the castle. Yet not at any time had they or the medical staff mentioned that Rini Montanari had been a visitor.

She’d really experienced a whopper of a dream to imagine he’d left his office to fly to Crotone in order to find out if she was all right. Alessandra was terrified it would take years, maybe a lifetime, to get over him. But what if she couldn’t? The ache in her heart had grown acute.

Instead of going upstairs, she told her mom she wanted to stay in the day room and curled up on the couch under a quilt to watch television. Supplied with water and nuts, she didn’t lack for the creature comforts. Alfredo wandered in and jumped up on her lap. He supplied the love she craved.

“Alessandra?” She lifted her head to her mother. “Are you up for company?”

“If it’s anyone from the diving group, could you tell them I need a few days?”

“It’s Rinieri Montanari.”

She reeled in place.

“He said he visited you at the hospital, but the nurse put something in your IV and you fell asleep. He’s anxious to know how you are.”

Rini had been there!

She hadn’t dreamed it after all and couldn’t believe it. Thrilled, yet tortured by what her mother had told her, she couldn’t concentrate on anything else. “I—I look terrible.”

“That would be impossible,” her mother assured her, “but if you want me to send him away, I will.”

“No—but don’t tell him to come in yet. Could you hand me my purse? It’s over on the credenza.”

Her mother did her bidding. Alessandra’s hand trembled as she brushed through her hair and applied a coat of lipstick.