Page 45 of Prognosis Baby Daddy

Her eyes fluttered open and Ben was so relieved for a moment he wanted to kiss her instead of strangle her.

‘What happened?’ she asked, half sitting.

‘You fainted.’ He pulled a blood-pressure cuff out of a desk drawer, wrapped it around her arm and took a quick reading.

‘Eighty over thirty-five,’ he told her disgustedly.

Katya returned his told-you-so look with a baleful glare. ‘My blood sugar got a little low,’ she said, ripping the cuff off and sitting up. Her head swam for minute and she shut her eyes briefly, willing it to stop.

When she opened them Ben was looking at her with raised eyebrows. ‘What?’ she said crankily. ‘Pregnant women faint from time to time.’

Ben swore again in his native tongue. She’d scared the hell out of him. ‘I will not have you jeopardising this baby’s health because you want to be some kind of super-nurse.’

Ben’s blunt reminder that to him she was just a life-support system for their baby stung. But it was a good reminder to her foolish heart of her purpose here in Italy, which seemed to get more and more blurred the longer she stayed.

‘I am not giving up work,’ she said stubbornly.

‘Oh, yes, you are,’ he countered, rising from his crouched position to sit behind his desk.

‘You think if you sit behind that desk that it makes you more important? That I’ll suddenly realise you’re the Count and I’m the commoner and I’ll bow before you?’

Ben chuckled. Hardly! Katya was not like any other woman he’d ever known. Fawning and flattery just weren’t part of her persona. She had her own opinions and spoke her own mind. She’d certainly been a refreshing change in his life.

‘Would you?’

‘Not a chance.’

Ben chuckled again. It was good to see a glimpse of her prickliness. She had lost a lot of that edge to her personality over the weeks and it was reassuring to still see flashes of her old spark.

The Katya who had never given him an inch.

Too many women had hung on his every word once upon a time and he’d soaked it up. Even Bianca had been a major ego trip for him. Being with someone who afforded him no such adulation had made him see that about himself. In fact, Katya made him work for his compliments and he was surprised at how much more rewarding it was.

A knock on the door interrupted them. It opened to reveal Carmella. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, looking from one to the other, ‘I’m interrupting something?’

‘Yes,’ Ben said.

‘No,’ Katya said, glaring at Ben.

‘Katya’s giving up work,’ he told Carmella.

‘No, Katya’s not,’ Katya denied hotly.

Carmella looked from one to the other, as if she was watching a tennis match. ‘Right...maybe I should come back later,’ she said, backing out the door.

‘No,’ Katya said. ‘Go ahead. Ignore me.’ She lay back on the lounge. In truth, she’d have liked to have risen from the couch and stalked out of the room with her head held high, but she still felt a little dizzy.

Ben and Carmella slipped into Italian and Katya let it swirl around her as she shut her eyes and waited to feel more grounded. She heard papers rustling and realised that she kept hearing a word she was familiar with. Mulgahti.

She sat up. ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked.

Ben and Carmella stopped what they were doing and turned to her. ‘There’s a baby girl in a remote village that has been brought to our attention, but her extraction is proving difficult due to internal politics.’

‘Mulgahti?’ Katya asked. ‘That’s the village?’

Ben frowned. ‘Yes. Do you know it?’

Katya nodded and rose. A wave of dizziness swept over her and she swayed momentarily. Ben stood and was at her side in an instant. ‘Katya!’ Exasperation laced his voice.

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