The Italian's New-Year Marriage Wish by Sarah Morgan

you’re needed. You’re needed here, Amy.’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜You keep telling me how important it is for you to work. We need another doctor in Penhally. Urgently. You’re good at what you do and you’re capable of just stepping in and getting on with things. You proved that this morning. If you hadn’t been here, surgery would have ground to a halt.’
    â€˜You don’t want your ex-wife working in your practice.’
    â€˜My wife .’ He emphasised the word gently. ‘Actually, you’re my wife , Amy, not my ex-wife. And why is that a problem? If you don’t love me then there are no emotions involved, so working together should be easy. It’s a good solution.’
    Not for her.
    Amy stood there in a blind panic, once again trapped by her own words. ‘That’s a ridiculous suggestion. We can’t work together.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    Because it would be too painful. Because she wouldn’t be able to hide her true feelings. ‘Marco, don’t do this.’
    â€˜Don’t do what? Don’t talk sense? We need a doctor, you need a job. You don’t love me—fine, we work together as friends and colleagues and at the end of a month I give you that divorce you want. One month, working side by side as we’ve done today.’
    So basically she had to allow herself to be tortured for a month in order to achieve something that she didn’t really want anyway.
    She almost laughed.
    â€˜It would be too…awkward. Marco, how can you even suggest it?’
    â€˜We are both mature, professional people. Why would it be awkward? The only possible reason for it to be awkward would be if you still felt something for me. Is that the case, Amy? Do you feel something?’
    It was like being in court in front of a deceptively gentle prosecutor determined to dig up the truth. ‘I don’t— That isn’t what I mean.’ She stumbled over the words. ‘I don’t feel anything for you, Marco. I’m sorry if that’s hurtful but it’s better that I tell the truth.’
    â€˜ Are you telling the truth?’ He was watching her closely, his gaze disturbingly intense. ‘There’s something going on here, Amy. Something that isn’t right.’
    â€˜You’re putting me in an impossible position, that’s what isn’t right! I can’t stay, Marco.’
    â€˜Why not?’ There was a hard edge to his tone. ‘You’ve said that you never loved me and that our relationship was just a fling. Since when did a bit of hot sex need to get in the way of a sensible business arrangement? Work is all-important to you and I’m offering you work. If emotions aren’t involved, there can’t be a problem, can there?’
    Her emotions were involved. But to admit that would be to admit that she was still in love with him and that would lead to complications that she couldn’t handle.
    Amy waded through her options and found them depressingly limited. It was obvious that if she refused he would take her refusal as an indication that she was in love with him and she just didn’t want him knowing that.
    Desperate now, she searched for another excuse— anything —that might help her extricate herself from the situation. ‘I only planned to come for the day. I don’t have clothes or anything.’
    â€˜All your clothes are still here. Upstairs in the wardrobe where you left them.’ His tone was even. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, you didn’t take much with you.’
    She’d been too upset to even bother with packing.
    Amy turned away and walked over the window, her mind racing. Unlike him, she wasn’t thinking clearly.
    She could walk away, but then she’d just have to come back and go through all this again another time. Or she could stay and work in Penhally and prove that their relationship was truly over.
    All she had to do was