Six Sexy Doctors Part 1 (Mills & Boon e-Book Collections): A Doctor, A Nurse: A Little Miracle / The Children's Doctor and the Single Mum / A Wife for ... / The Playboy Doctor's Surprise Proposal

by Carol Marinelli

  ‘Twins. Twenty-six weeks gestation,’ he told her briefly, focusing once more on the situation waiting for them. ‘Mother’s started having contractions and her blood pressure’s gone up, but we’re still waiting for tests to tell us whether that’s stress-related or eclampsia or a kidney infection or…whatever other complication pregnancy can throw up at us.’

  ‘But you’re thinking we might end up with two more patients in the very near future?’ She stepped out of the shower and reached for a towel, giving him a swift view of her perfect heart-shaped bottom before it disappeared behind the nubby cloth.

  ‘That’s usually what happens when I get calls at this time of night,’ he said heavily as he flipped the water off and exited the enclosure to grab his own towel. ‘It’s rarely good news.’

  ‘Unfortunately,’ she added, distractedly scrubbing at her hair with the towel as she hurried through the door that led into her own room, obviously in a quest for clean clothes.

  Josh reached for his deodorant and knocked several other items off the shelf, only realising what they were when the little foil-wrapped packages spilled across the vanity unit.

  For several stunned seconds he stared down at them in horrified fascination, only then taking in the fact that he’d never once thought about using them last night.

  His mind was so full of his discovery that he reached for his ringing phone without conscious thought, unable to decide whether his initial reaction had been dread or delight.

  ‘Yes?’ he said, unforgivably distracted by the image of Dani’s slender body swollen with his child.

  ‘Full-blown eclampsia,’ said the voice on the other end of the phone. ‘She’s on her way to Theatre for an emergency Caesarean.’

  Josh swore fluently, not certain whether the worst of his invective was for the babies that might die before he could even reach the hospital or for the baby that might even now be in its earliest stages deep inside Dani.

  Dammit, how could he have been so careless? As if it wasn’t bad enough to have taken her virginity, he might even have impregnated her at the same time.

  ‘What’s the hold-up?’ the object of his guilty thoughts demanded from the doorway. ‘Was that the hospital? What’s the latest situation?’

  ‘Eclampsia,’ he said gruffly, having to drag his eyes away from the slenderness of her waist as he realised with a sudden surge of possessiveness that he fiercely wanted her to be pregnant; that the cave-man in him could think of nothing more wonderful than to know that the seed he’d planted inside her during the night would grow into the perfect combination of the two of them.

  He drove them to the hospital, the early hour meaning that traffic would be light enough for them to make good time, but to Dani’s surprise, the journey took place in complete silence.

  Well, he was probably thinking about the babies that were even now being brought into the world to save the life of their mother, she rationalised, even as she was remembering the shocked expression she’d glimpsed on his face as he’d gazed down at the condoms littered across the vanity unit.

  She’d been shocked, too.

  She’d never even given pregnancy a thought until that moment, or the possibility of contracting a sexually transmitted disease…and she was supposed to be a responsible medical professional, for heaven’s sake!

  Inside her head she heard a hollow laugh.

  As if doctors were any less likely than anybody else to get carried away by hormone overload. In fact, the more she thought about it, the fact that medicine was such a high-stress occupation probably made it all the more likely that they would grab at the chance to indulge in the release of such a basically life-affirming activity.

  She blew a mental raspberry at her self-serving rationalisation, knowing that it had been nothing more than greed that had made her so forgetful. She’d seen her chance to make love with Josh and she’d grabbed at it, regardless of any consequences.

  And if she had become pregnant some time between the first time against the shower wall, the second time on the vanity counter—when they hadn’t even been able to get out of the bathroom before desire had overtaken them again—and all the other times they’d reached for the stars once they’d finally made it to his bed?

  Well, if Josh’s baby was already taking shape deep inside her, a microscopic bundle of rapidly dividing cells, she would have some decisions to make. Not about whether she would keep the baby, because there was absolutely no question about that. No, there would be other choices to be made, about the change in direction her career would have to take if she were to become a single parent.

  Her heart ached at that thought, knowing it was the last thing she would want for her child. Meredith had been the best mother she could have wished for, but she’d always been so certain that one day she would have a real family, with two parents to share the joys and pains of parenthood.

  She flicked a quick glance in Josh’s direction as he manoeuvred into a slot in the staff car park and wondered just how long it would be before he had time to speak to her…to bring up the matter of the forgotten birth control, because she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would bring it up. She also knew that his over-developed sense of responsibility towards her, honed from the first second he’d seen her in that special care baby unit all those years ago, would probably lead him to make all sorts of promises that he didn’t need to make.

  No, she was absolutely determined that one thing was not up for discussion, no matter what else happened. She may have been in love with Josh for more than half her life, and she would have loved nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with him, if this had been anything more than a sexual encounter fuelled by proximity and more than a hint of stupidity, but there was no way that she would ever use a pregnancy to trap him into marriage.

  We didn’t use a condom. Not once.

  Josh knew he should feel utterly guilty for the oversight and for the fact that it could be responsible for derailing the career Dani had fought so long and hard for. But it was very difficult to feel more than a twinge of remorse when everything inside him was soaring at the thought that his lack of forethought might have resulted in a pregnancy.

  Of course, he could try to excuse himself with the probability that a woman of her age was more than likely to be on the Pill, and reason with himself that that was why she hadn’t felt the need to mention protection, but there was no point dwelling on it now. In fact, he shouldn’t be thinking about it at all.

  He should be thinking about those two little babies and going over lists in his head to be certain that he wouldn’t miss anything in their care, but to be perfectly honest, this was something he’d done so often that the basic organisation was all but automatic. Then, too, there was the fact that he had a staff that was probably second to none in the specialist care of these fragile little beings, every one of them hand-picked and utterly dedicated.

  No, he’d far rather dwell on the possibility that those hours of mind-blowing pleasure, when he’d filled Dani with his seed over and over again, had started the miracle of a whole new life.

  Even now, he could hardly believe that it had happened. In so many dreams through countless harrowing days and during nights shattered by the loss of patients for whom he had never been able to do enough, it had always been Dani shining in the darkness like a lodestar.

  He should have been mortified to have her walk into the bathroom and find him so obviously aroused, but the expression in her eyes had been exactly like the one in his imagination and he’d given up the will to resist.

  A final warning had gone off in his head as he’d pulled her into his arms, but it had been too little and much too late. He’d claimed her mouth, kissing her over and over, the mere fact of having her in his arms at last making him ache with a need more intense than he’d ever known, and when she’d…

  ‘Thank God you’re here,’ the anaesthetist said fervently as soon as the lift doors slid open, and that train of thought was derailed for t
he foreseeable future.

  ‘The two babies are alive, so far,’ the haggard man reported, his scrubs looking as if he’d slept in them, even though the shadows under his eyes proved that he hadn’t.

  ‘Obs and Gyn on-call did a good job getting them out so quickly when she arrested,’ he continued, ‘but the mother’s not looking much better yet. She’s in ICU and I’ve got to get back to her, but you’ve got some serious juggling to do if you’re going to make room in your unit. Either that, or you’ll have to find another unit to take them,’ he added as he strode away, his clogs clunking noisily all the way down the corridor.

  Transfer such vulnerable babies to another unit? Not if he could help it, he vowed silently as he automatically began the rigorous hand-cleaning routine outside the glass-walled heart of the unit. Without being arrogant about it, he knew that they would have a better than average chance of survival with the least possible number of side-effects to their premature arrival if they stayed here, so what he had to do now was work out how he could make that happen.

  ‘Dani!’ Nadia exclaimed. ‘I knew Josh had been called in because the babies’ father is a member of staff at the hospital, but I didn’t know you’d been called in, too.’ Josh saw the swift wash of hectic colour flood into Dani’s face, her pale complexion making her embarrassment impossible to hide.

  She threw a panicky glance at him, clearly at a loss to explain her presence without revealing their current living arrangements.

  ‘Dani and I happen to live in the same block of flats,’ he said perfectly truthfully, much as he would have liked to stake a public claim to her. ‘I gave her a lift in, knowing it was going to be utter chaos while we play pass-the-parcel with the babies.’

  He reached out to the box of disposable gloves. ‘So, let’s get down to it,’ he said briskly while he began his own assessment of their newest charges, double-checking everything that had happened to them so far. ‘I need a rundown on each of the babies so we can decide who’s ready to graduate to the tender mercies of Paeds.’

  It was more than an hour before things began to be organised to his satisfaction, and still several hours before either he or Dani was officially due on duty, when he finally made his way to his office.

  They were still waiting for a specially equipped ambulance to arrive to take one little boy back to the hospital nearest to his family home, and Josh knew that he would probably have to make more than a few visits to the little girl who’d been transferred to the paediatric department at the other end of the children’s wing, but it looked as if the current crisis had been brought under control.

  Now it was time to deal with the potential crisis brewing in his private life, and he’d do that just as soon as Dani answered her page.

  He swore aloud, cursing himself for getting into this situation in the first place.

  ‘I should know better,’ he said angrily, then realised just how crazy that sounded. Doctors were just as likely as any other member of society to get carried away, especially when they’d been waiting as long as he had to make love with Dani.

  And he could honestly say that he hadn’t given a single thought to protection once he’d seen her standing there with those big dark blue eyes travelling over his naked body with that hot hungry expression in them.

  The memory of that expression made him burn anew, his body responding fast enough to make him feel light-headed as so much of his blood headed south.

  ‘Damn, you’d think I’d be exhausted after the number of times we reached for each other during the night,’ he muttered. In fact, they should both have been close to comatose and in need of oxygen therapy if their hunger for each other hadn’t seemed to redouble with the slightest contact, and Dani’s ego-boosting eagerness had let him know that she had been every bit as ravenous.

  Even thinking about what they’d experienced together made him desperate for more, but he had something far more permanent in mind than an affair, even if that affair was hot enough to blister the paint off the walls.

  Josh groaned as he leant back in his chair and contemplated the impossible task in front of him.

  He knew that there were a multitude of reasons why the whole situation was wrong. He was too old for her, and they had been brought up as brother and sister, and the hospital could see it as evidence of sexual harassment if a consultant were to become involved with a junior member of staff in his department.

  But…

  He sighed heavily when he tried to envision a future without Dani at the centre of it…especially if she was already carrying his child.

  Could he be happy if he were to keep himself on the very edge of her life, keeping an eye on her without asking for any more intimate involvement? That would leave her free to find a man of her own age and fall in love and…

  ‘No!’ Black jealousy clawed at his heart at the possibility of another man touching Dani, and he knew that he would never be able to stand aside and watch it happen.

  ‘So, what’s the alternative?’ he asked the four walls, glad that Caitlin hadn’t arrived yet to hear him talking to himself.

  ‘I suppose what I’ve got to do is find a way to persuade Dani that we could make a go of it.’ He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to imagine the expression on her face if he asked her to marry him.

  Would she be shocked?

  She’d certainly been willing enough to make love with him last night, but would she be equally willing to commit herself to a lifetime together? She’d worked so hard, fought to be independent, and he might have spoiled everything with his selfish forgetfulness.

  So, should he suggest that they just move in together, take things a step at a time until she was so accustomed to living together that she wouldn’t balk when he suggested marriage?

  A familiar tap at the door told him that Dani had arrived and for a second his heart was beating so fast that he could hardly draw enough breath to speak.

  Dani heard Josh’s voice call her in, but it took her several seconds before she could bring herself to open the door.

  She’d already spent ten minutes in the staff cloakroom psyching herself up for this meeting.

  Oh, she knew exactly what he was going to say…that he was sorry, and that it should never have happened, and that if she thought about it sensibly, she would realise that he was far too old for her, and that she needed to find someone her own age and fall in love and have the perfect family she’d always wanted, and so on, and so on.

  But she didn’t want anyone else. She’d never wanted anyone else, and even if they had been brought up as brother and sister, it certainly hadn’t felt like it last night and there was absolutely no blood relationship between them.

  In fact, apart from the fact that he still had that whole protective thing going, she hadn’t thought of him as a brother since she’d reached her teens. And as for the age difference, it hadn’t stopped them enjoying themselves, neither had it affected his stamina.

  ‘Come in,’ Josh repeated with more than a hint of impatience, and she snatched a quick breath as she crossed her fingers and opened the door.

  He was sitting formally behind his desk with his hands linked on the blotter and she was so nervous about meeting his eyes and seeing the confirmation that he was going to return to their old relationship that she concentrated on those hands.

  She loved his hands; had always been fascinated by them from the days when he would fix her dolls and brush and plait her hair for school. They were lean and deceptively elegant and, oh, so sensitive when it came to treating their little patients…or making love…

  And any moment he was going to tell her that she could never have what she wanted; that it was totally impossible.

  But it wasn’t impossible. Nothing as special as what they’d shared last night could ever be impossible. They were meant to be together. They’d always been meant to be together, right from the first moment when he’d seen her as a tiny baby and decided to learn how to help her to live. They’d already wasted years wh
en they could have been together, making each other happy.

  ‘Dani?’ His deep voice demanded that she finally meet his gaze, but it took more courage than she’d realised. His eyes seemed darker than usual and more intent and it felt as if a fist was clenched tight around her heart as she waited for him to start speaking the fateful words.

  ‘Marry me,’ he demanded simply, and she stared at him in utter disbelief.

  ‘Wh-what?’ she gulped, certain that she must have mistaken what he’d said, turning it into what she wanted to hear instead.

  Oh, and they were the words she wanted to hear, more than anything.

  ‘You must, Dani,’ Josh said heatedly. ‘After last night…’

  Dani’s heart had leapt at his apparent eagerness only to crash to earth when she realised what was really going on here.

  After last night, when they hadn’t taken any precautions, there was every likelihood that she could be pregnant. That was why he’d just proposed. It was that damned over-developed sense of responsibility, not the realisation that he’d fallen in love with her and couldn’t live without her.

  ‘No,’ she said with a quiver of agony in her voice, hardly able to believe that she was turning down the one thing she’d wanted for more than half her life.

  For a fraction of a second it almost looked as if her refusal had hurt him, but then he closed his eyes and she couldn’t be sure.

  ‘Dani…’ There was determination visible in his expression now, but was she guilty of wishful thinking to imagine that she could still see a hint of vulnerability?

  ‘You only asked because Mum will give you hell if she finds out what we did,’ she accused, even as she hoped desperately that he would deny it. And, of course, he did.

  ‘Actually, I hadn’t even thought about that,’ he said with a wry expression. ‘But that wasn’t why I proposed.’

  ‘No?’ Her legs were shaking and she was really beginning to wish that she’d made herself comfortable when she’d first entered the room. Now she was left feeling a bit like a pupil called onto the carpet in the headmaster’s room. ‘So, why did you? Just because there’s a chance I might be pregnant?’