Anne Fraser - The Playboy of Harley Street

‘Used to?’ Fabio looked at her sharply.

Oh, God, she always dreaded this question. It made people embarrassingly uncomfortable and they usually quickly moved the conversation to safer ground. Not that she could blame them—what was there to say? ‘They died in a plane crash when I was thirteen.’

There was no disguising the shock and genuine sympathy in his dark green eyes. ‘I am so sorry. That must have been hard, losing both of them.’ Fabio touched her hand lightly.

‘It was.’ Her heart thumped against her chest. She guessed what was coming next.

‘What about brothers? Sisters?’

Katie flinched and shook her head. He’d already elicited much more information than she was comfortable with—and what could she say to this virtual stranger about her brother? Especially when she was still so raw she could barely acknowledge the truth herself?

‘No. It’s just me.’ Even as she said it, she hated that she couldn’t yet bring herself to mention her brother. But she couldn’t. Not without wanting to cry.

She needed to turn the conversation back to safe ground. Anywhere but on her family life. Forcing a smile, Katie turned to him. ‘And you? Where are you from? Not England, I’m guessing.’

‘So where do you think, then?’ he asked with a crooked smile.

She leaned her head back and made a show of thinking. ‘Portugal.’

Fabio wiggled his hand in a side-to-side gesture. ‘Hmm, not quite. Brazil.’

Brazeel. The way he said it made it sound so exotic.

‘That’s a long way from your family.’

‘My mother lives in Brazil most of the time, it’s where most of her work is. My father died when I was in my teens.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Kate said simply.

‘His mother is a film star,’ Lucy piped up again. The child had remarkable hearing.

‘Hey, don’t you give all my secrets away, Luce,’ Fabio protested.

Katie sneaked a sideways look at Fabio. It made sense he’d have an actress as a mother. That was probably where he got his stunning good looks. She raised an eyebrow, inviting him to elaborate.

‘You might have heard of her. The actress Camilla Salvatore?’ The way he said his mother’s name, rolling the consonants around his tongue, his Brazilian accent becoming stronger, made Katie’s toes curl, even as she wondered what had caused the bleak look in his eyes.

Camilla Salvatore—who hadn’t heard of her? If Katie remembered rightly, she had been a model before becoming an actress, the wife of the equally famous Tom Lineham, who had been huge in the 1980s and whose hits were still popular even now.

Tom Lineham! God. That made Fabio his son.

Fabio must have read the dawning realisation in her face. ‘Yes. ‘Fraid so. They’re my folks.’

Katie’s head was spinning. The couple had been international celebrities. She remembered reading somewhere that Tom Lineham had died and that there had been some mystery surrounding the circumstances, but wasn’t that always the case with celebrities? It was hardly something she could quiz his son about. It wasn’t surprising she hadn’t made the connection, between Dr Fabio Lineham and Tom Lineham. It had never crossed her mind that two famous people would have a son who had become a doctor. Why had he anyway? It seemed an unusual choice for the child of extremely wealthy parents.

‘Yet you became a doctor,’ she said.

He looked amused. ‘As opposed to what? Being in the movies? A singer? Lolling about, living off my parents’ money?’ He smiled wryly. No doubt he was used to this reaction. ‘I’m a lousy actor and my voice is worse.’

‘So all this …’ she waved a hand around the interior of the plane ‘… is pretty much old hat to you.’

‘’Fraid so,’ he said again. ‘I didn’t even know there were commercial aircraft until I was thirteen or so.’

Poor little rich boy.

A flicker of a smile crossed his face. ‘That didn’t come out too well, did it? But I’m not going to apologise for the way I was brought up. There was money, yes. But as for …’ He stopped suddenly but not before Katie thought a flash of pain in his eyes. Almost immediately it was gone and the mask was back in place. ‘One thing I’ve learned, Katie Simpson. Never apologise for who you are. Or what you were. Never look back. It’s the here and now that matters.’

What did he mean by that? For a second she wondered if he knew about Richard. But that was impossible. She hadn’t told anyone. She was beginning to get the unsettling sensation he could see inside her head.

‘And, before you ask, no brothers, no sisters—only a cousin who lives in California.’ Maybe he could read her mind.

‘So what made you choose physiotherapy?’ Fabio said, before she could question him further.

‘My young cousin has CF. Like all sufferers, she has to get physio regularly. She’s one of the lucky ones, though.’

Her cousin had escaped the relentless round of chest infections that most CF patients were susceptible to throughout their lives.

‘What about you? Why did you become a doctor?’ Katie tried to turn the conversation back to him. She was reluctant to share any more details of her life with this man. He already knew more about her than she wanted him to know.

‘Pretty much the same reason as you—personal experience. I was ill as a child—nothing too serious. I found it really interesting what everyone was doing around me and decided I’d like to be on the right end of a needle.’ His words trailed off and Katie thought something shifted in his eyes before his mouth widened in a smile. ‘Seems we have more in common than just being colleagues.’

Katie was pretty sure they didn’t have much in common. Apart from the fact they had both lost their fathers, his upbringing couldn’t have been more different from hers. He was rich, sophisticated and probably used to socialising with the kind of people she’d only read about. Furthermore, the way he looked, the confidence that seemed to ooze from every pore, made her feel gauche and unsophisticated. He had no right to make her feel like that.

‘I doubt that.’ As soon as the words were out of her mouth she realised how abrupt she sounded. ‘I’m sorry, that didn’t come out the way I intended.’

‘That’s okay,’ He gave her a puzzled look. He was probably wondering why she was so prickly. She wasn’t sure herself. Ever since he’d stepped on board, she’d felt flustered.

She picked up her magazine again, making it obvious she preferred to read than chat.

Fabio gave her a long look before settling himself back in his seat and closing his eyes. He opened one briefly to look at Katie. ‘Give me a nudge when we’re about to land, would you? It was a hell of a late night last night.’

Before Katie could reply, the rhythm of his breathing changed and within seconds he was sound asleep.

AS SOON as the plane touched down, the co-pilot returned to open the door and release the stairs. As they left the plane, Katie saw the statuesque blonde slip a piece of paper to Fabio. Her contact details, no doubt.

Lucy let out a squeal of delight and almost ran down the steep steps towards a slim, elegant woman and a stocky man, who had to be her parents from the delighted expressions on their faces.

Lucy’s father swung her into his arms and held her tight, whilst her mother smothered her with kisses.

Katie hesitated at the bottom of the stairs, reluctant to intrude. Tears clogged her throat as she watched their emotional family reunion, suddenly stricken by a sense of loneliness and longing.

But she couldn’t let her personal feelings overwhelm her—she was here to do a job—and perform it professionally. Forcing herself to breathe slowly and evenly, Katie regained her composure. Besides, what would it be like to have a child not knowing how long she’d be with you? Unbearable. As bad as having a son or brother or any loved one in a war zone. Life had taught her one thing. Happiness wasn’t guaranteed and even this couple, for all their fame and fortune, weren’t immune to the roll of the dice. Katie prayed Lucy’s parents would have their daughter for a long, long time to come.