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200 Harley Street: The Enigmatic Surgeon
Annie Claydon
When opposites attract…!Edward North—child prodigy turned genius microsurgeon—has no idea how attractive women find him! Hours spent researching and saving lives leaves little time for socialising. Until an adorable little boy wanders into his office, followed by his frantic mum, nurse Charlotte King, and they turn his world upside-down!Charlotte’s never allowed herself to act on her feelings for devastatingly gorgeous Edward—her life is complicated enough! But when everything begins to fall apart this enigmatic surgeon is the only man she can turn to…200 HARLEY STREETGlamour, intensity, desire—the lives and loves of London’s hottest team of surgeons!
200 Harley Street:
The Enigmatic
Surgeon
Annie Claydon
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Dear Reader
I’ve always loved reading continuity stories, so it was a thrill to be asked to write one, and an honour to be in the company of the other wonderful authors who have contributed to this series.
From the moment he came alive on the page for me I knew that Edward was going to be a challenge. He’s one of those people who’ll shine whatever he turns his hand to. He might not be much of a team player, but give him a problem and he’ll come up with a brilliant and imaginative solution. He has his work, his books and his music, and seems to want nothing and no one else. What can you give a man like that?
Well, you can give him Charlotte. Charlotte might not always understand the complexities of Edward’s thought processes, but she understands people. And as she gets to know Edward it becomes obvious that there’s something missing in his well-ordered life. But she and her son have been hurt once already, and the one thing that Edward needs is the thing that Charlotte has promised herself she’ll never give.
I hope that you enjoy Edward and Charlotte’s story. I’m always delighted to hear from readers, and you can contact me via my website at www.annieclaydon.com (http://www.annieclaydon.com)
Annie x
Dedication (#uef1053d8-9af2-5a9a-adbf-83a39f1e8577)
To the ladies who lunch: Yve, Nicky and Vicki.
Table of Contents
Cover (#u77859fe8-6321-5ef0-8fa5-c7cbecb7f275)
Title Page (#uab546fb6-7a8f-5cd8-8aac-dfcf0631c9d4)
Dear Reader (#u896eddfa-4284-5651-8925-039210ca480a)
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#uef1053d8-9af2-5a9a-adbf-83a39f1e8577)
‘SO WHICH IS it, then?’
‘Eh?’ Charlotte King was busy trying not to notice that Edward North was currently going through his pockets to find the key to his office, and she had lost the thread of the conversation that was going on around the nurses’ station.
‘Which do you think? Secret love-life, or no love-life?’ Paula craned across the desk to get a better view. ‘Wonder if he needs a hand with that?’
Charlotte swallowed a laugh. ‘What? You know where he’s left his keys?’
‘No. But I’m really good at finding things.’ Paula’s smile left no doubt that she was contemplating a thorough investigation and possibly a body search.
‘Too late. He’s got them.’ Allie grinned at Paula. ‘And I reckon he’s got a secret mistress somewhere.’
‘When does he get to see her? In between here and the hospital, I’d be surprised if he has much time for anything else.’
‘He has time to swim.’ Allie’s blue eyes flashed mischievously.
‘Yeah?’ Paula’s attention was on Allie now.
‘Mmm-hmm. I left my trainers downstairs in the gym the other day and went to fetch them after work. He was in the pool, doing laps.’
‘Hmm. Perhaps I’ll go buy myself a swimming costume. Common interests can be very important in a relationship.’
‘So you’ve thought this through, then?’ Charlotte wished that Paula and Allie would keep their voices down. Not that the nurses were in any danger of being heard. It was difficult enough to get Edward’s attention even when he was supposed to be listening to you. It just seemed somehow wrong to be talking like this.
‘Who hasn’t? I reckon he just needs a good woman. And I’ll apply for the position if no one else is interested.’
Allie laughed. ‘Steady, Paula. Remember there’s a queue and I’m in it. Charlotte, too, eh?’
Charlotte considered the prospect. She couldn’t get away with a lie that big. ‘Yeah, okay. Just to keep you two company, though. I don’t have time for dating.’
Or the money. Or the inclination, most of the time. Apart from when Edward … Her gaze wandered over to the glazed wall of his office. He was behind his desk now, deep in thought, a stack of papers and books in front of him.
‘Yeah, right.’ Paula was laughing now. ‘Guess we could share him around.’
Oh, no. Edward wasn’t for sharing. He was for being loved, nurtured by one woman, not passed around like a beautifully wrapped, enormously sexy parcel. He looked up, as if somehow the thought had penetrated the walls of his office, his eyes suddenly focussing in Charlotte’s direction.
She could feel the flush spreading up from the back of her neck to her cheeks. Edward might be for one woman, but that woman definitely wasn’t her.
Charlotte turned, trying to pretend that he hadn’t just caught her staring at him. ‘I’ll leave you to do that. I’ve got to do my last ward round and my friend is bringing Isaac here soon.’
‘Really?’ Paula always made a particular fuss of Isaac. ‘What do we owe that pleasure to?’
‘There’s no school today and my friend’s been looking after him. Lucy’s got a date tonight so she’s dropping him off here before she goes on to hit the town. If you see them, will you get them to wait here?’
Paula nodded. ‘Sure thing. Take your time.’
Edward North had just got to the complex part. Not that tomorrow’s microsurgery wasn’t all complex, but this particular section was intricate in the extreme. Running through it in his head was his preferred method of preparation, and the swimming pool in the basement of the Hunter Clinic his preferred place. Working his body seemed to free his mind, but he couldn’t be assured of solitude until the clinic was closed for the day, so his office was going to have to do.
‘No. Not like that …’ He shook his head, muttering in disgust at his own ineptitude. He’d have to start over now. Or at least from the last set of microscopic sutures. Edward took a breath, cleared his mind, and …
The image that floated into his mind was nothing like the one he was concentrating on building. Pale chestnut hair, bound in a tight knot at the back of her head. Light brown eyes. He couldn’t see the flecks of gold from this distance, but he knew that they were there. Somehow Charlotte’s eyes had impressed themselves on his consciousness when he had difficulty in recalling the names, let alone the eye colour, of most of the rest of the nursing staff.
She’d looked away, then. Blushing.
The exact mechanics of that particular form of vasodilation was child’s play alongside the complexities of its causes. Most things were. Edward closed his eyes, cleared his mind, and went back to the matter in hand.
* * *
Lucy was already standing at the nurses’ station when Charlotte returned from her ward round.
‘Hey, Lucy, you look nice. I won’t be a minute. I’ve just got to pick up my coat.’ Charlotte looked around. Just one glimpse of her son after a long day was always enough to lift her spirits.
‘Sure. Why don’t you leave Isaac here with me?’
‘Isn’t he with you?’
‘No. He ran ahead up the stairs. I called after him to wait for you here …’
For one split second the two women stared at each other. Charlotte almost choked as something squeezed tight around her heart, and then instinct and the sure knowledge that she needed to move now took over.
‘Go downstairs, Lucy. Make sure he’s not slipped out of the building. I’ll look for him here.’
She glanced over in the direction of Edward’s office. The view inside was partially obscured by a long, low cabinet, running the length of the glass wall and designed to keep the mess of books and other artefacts under some semblance of control, but she could see that he was no longer sitting at his desk. Not that he’d probably notice if a whole horde of five-year-olds started roaming the corridors, but he’d been the only one there and beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Isaac shouldn’t have gone into any of the treatment rooms. He knew not to do that. All the same she looked, trying not to panic, trying not to cry. Allie hadn’t seen him and neither had Paula. She opened every cupboard, every locked door, just in case. And each time her baby wasn’t there the agitation in the pit of her stomach grew.
‘The receptionist says that he can’t have got out of the building. He would have had to have either opened one of the back doors, and they’re all alarmed, or gone straight past her.’ Lucy arrived back upstairs, red and breathless.
That was something, at least. Mind you, there was plenty of trouble right here that a five-year-old could get into. The swimming pool … Charlotte remembered the swimming pool in the basement and felt suddenly sick.
‘I’ll call Security …’ She grabbed for the phone and then dropped it. Either she was hearing things, or …
Isaac laughed again. That was definitely not a hallucination.
Lucy had heard it, too. ‘Where is he?’ Lucy looked around wildly.
Another laugh. This time deep, round and rich. The kind of laugh that Edward might have, only Charlotte didn’t think she’d ever heard him laugh. Wordlessly she swung round and marched towards the door of Edward’s office, opening it without bothering to knock.
For a moment, in the relief of seeing that Isaac was safe, she didn’t register the scene in front of her. Somehow she noticed that Isaac’s favourite toy, the blue bunny that he carried with him everywhere, was sitting in Edward’s black leather chair, and that Edward was on the floor.
‘Isaac!’ Charlotte gulped out his name. ‘What are you doing?’
Her son looked up at her. Innocent blue eyes and dark blond hair framed the sweet smile which never failed to dissolve her anger and dispel her fears.
‘Hi, Mum. I’m making water.’ He picked up a small red ball from the box in front of him. ‘Look, you take one red one. That’s …’
‘Um … oxygen.’ Edward got to his feet quickly, facing Charlotte with a slightly abashed air. ‘So you’re Isaac’s mother?’
‘Yes.’ She ducked around Edward. She could deal with him later. ‘Isaac, come here, please.’
‘But, Mum, I haven’t shown you. Look …’
‘We mustn’t bother Mr North any more, sweetie. Where did you get that from?’ She looked at the molecule model kit in front of him on the floor. It looked like a great toy and she wished she could afford something like it for Isaac, even if he was a bit young for it at the moment.
‘It’s Edward’s.’ Isaac shot a pleading look up at his new friend, who ignored him completely and sat down in his chair, remembering just in time to pull the blue bunny out from under him before it got squashed. He proffered it to Isaac and when he didn’t show any inclination to take it propped it up against the phone.
It had been a long week, and Charlotte had just about had enough. You could only take so many small crises, each one popping up hard on the heels of the last, before life became one big crisis.
‘Then put everything back in the box and say thank you to Edward. We’ve got to get home.’ Hopefully she could get out of here before the temptation to tear Edward off a strip became too great. Didn’t he realise that someone would be looking for the stray five-year-old who had wandered into his office?
Isaac shot her a look which left her in no doubt that he wasn’t in agreement with that decision, but complied anyway. One down, one to go. Charlotte turned to Edward, who was arranging the blue bunny into a crossed-legs, hands-behind-the-head posture which gave the impression that he was leaning back against the phone, sunbathing.
‘I’m sorry he … interrupted you. We’ll be going home …’
The sheer force of his gaze stopped her. Thoughtful. Intensely blue. And at this moment tainted with an uncertainty that was unlike Edward.
‘Were you looking for him?’
‘Yes. But it’s all right, he’s here …’ Charlotte just wanted to hug Isaac. As soon as she got out of Edward’s office that was the first thing she planned to do.
