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The Spanish Consultant's Baby
Kate Hardy
When sexy doctor Ramón Martínez starts his new job, nurse Jennifer Jacobs can't help being attracted to him. But after an unhappy marriage, she's vowed never to wed again. She's determined not to fall for Ramón's dark good looks.Easier said than done. Ramón makes no secret of his passion for Jennifer, and as they're forced to work closely together on the busy pediatric ward, Jennifer gives in to temptation. But desire soon has life-changing consequences-Jennifer is pregnant!
Ramón was very, very still. “Cariña? You think I’d desert you? Do you think I’m that dishonorable?”
“No.” But she couldn’t bear him to stay out of pity and a sense of honor. She lifted her chin. “I just don’t want you around.”
He laughed shortly. “I can disprove that in thirty seconds. All I have to do is carry you up the stairs to your bedroom.”
Dear Reader (#ulink_6e00ef5e-a7c9-5f17-b94a-39ac6953cdc6),
I had been planning to write a GP book. I’d even written the first three chapters. But then Ramón Martínez walked into my head and insisted I write his story instead. What could I do but agree?
He was so sexy that he struck me as the kind of man who could make an icemaiden weak at the knees, so I set him up with Jennifer Jacobs, a woman with a past she wanted to keep secret. After an unhappy marriage, she planned never to get involved with anyone again. Ramón had other ideas, and he managed to charm down every single barrier Jennifer put in his way. (Frankly, if a man with a good voice serenaded me in a sexy Spanish whisper and fed me chocolate, I’d be melting, too!)
Ramón is probably the nearest I’ll get to writing an alpha hero. But he doesn’t have that hard edge—in fact, he’s an absolute softie at heart. He also has a slightly outrageous side….
I hope you enjoy their story and have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.
I’m always delighted to hear from readers, so do come and visit me at www.katehardy.com (http://www.katehardy.com) or www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)!
With love,
Kate Hardy
The Spanish Consultant’s Baby
Kate Hardy
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CONTENTS
COVER (#uc6a900f6-7cff-53b7-b31b-29df096a34d3)
Dear Reader (#ub9b5be71-0c4e-5054-9336-4ac9a31ffa9b)
TITLE PAGE (#u153be461-1dea-50ea-b157-4b1cea390f92)
CHAPTER ONE (#ube4aa558-ab55-55fb-ab00-cc4c4b9c994a)
CHAPTER TWO (#u21072e89-8638-5d98-a2f2-19d36e1a8d53)
CHAPTER THREE (#u2d04cd2c-b7c3-575b-a1fe-fea66d7d7408)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ua3827b5e-6ca7-5bb1-a7b9-3cea561d6a3c)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
EXTRACT (#litres_trial_promo)
COPYRIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_d0849251-decb-5417-9f3c-7739a67e2f22)
‘HE’S gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous,’ Meg said. ‘Tall, dark and handsome—and a smile to die for! When he looks at you, he makes you feel as if you’re the only one in the room. And his voice…ooh, it’s like melted chocolate.’
Jennifer smiled wryly. Anyone would think Meg was a teenager, not a mum of three and just about to become a grandma for the second time. ‘So you liked him, then?’ she deadpanned.
‘You wait till you meet him, JJ. He’ll melt your heart.’
Jennifer doubted that. She’d spent too many years insulating it—and with good reason. The only male who melted her heart was her cat, Spider. And she intended it to stay that way. ‘As long as he knows his stuff,’ she said. ‘We can’t afford to carry a lightweight who spends all his time charming the nurses.’
Meg blinked in surprise. ‘Wow. Who’s rattled your cage this morning?’
‘No one,’ Jennifer said lightly. ‘But you’re supposed to be off duty in three minutes and we still need to do the handover.’
‘Yeah, of course.’ Meg smiled and started going through the list of patients with Jennifer.
Jennifer forced herself to concentrate on the handover, though a part of her mind couldn’t help wandering. Panicking. Don’t be so silly, Jennifer Jacobs, she told herself sternly. You haven’t met Ramón Martínez yet. Meg likes him. He’s probably really nice.
And yet she couldn’t help it. Even ten years after Andrew, she found herself on the defensive whenever she met someone new—correction, someone new who happened to be male. And every time she had to remind herself that not all men were like Andrew, that she knew plenty of nice men. It was a gut reaction that she couldn’t quite overcome, despite the counselling she’d had.
‘Earth to JJ,’ Meg said, waving a file at her.
‘Sorry. I was miles away.’
‘Dreaming about our hunky Spaniard?’
Jennifer scoffed. ‘I’ve only got your word for it on the hunkiness issue.’
Meg grinned. ‘Believe me, any woman under ninety would get palpitations just from looking at him.’
‘Better alert the cardiac ward, then.’ Jennifer smiled to take the sting from her words and gave Meg her full attention while they finished the handover. ‘Right—you have a good couple of days off, Meg. See you on Friday.’
‘I will. Oh, and Ramón will be with Stephen Knights,’ Meg said, referring to the baby who’d come in for an operation on a cleft palate. ‘He should be back from Theatre any minute now.’
‘I’ll keep an eye out for him,’ Jennifer said. Time to move on, she told herself as the other sister left the ward. It’s just another day. Another ordinary day. Ramón Martínez is nothing to worry about. And if he is a bulldozer, he’s only here for four months. Nothing that bad can happen in four short months.
She was steeling herself, ready to meet him, when Lizzy Bowers pushed past her in the corridor in floods of tears.
Jennifer picked up the couple of files she’d dropped, then followed in Lizzy’s wake to the toilets. Lizzy was leaning against the sink, sobbing. Jennifer balanced her files on top of the wastebin and put her arms round the student nurse. ‘Hey. It’s OK.’ Clearly it wasn’t—she would have said Lizzy was the least likely of her staff to burst into tears. But it wasn’t necessarily something to do with work. She knew Lizzy was going through a rough time at home; maybe she’d had the news she’d been waiting for but praying not to hear. ‘What’s happened?’ Jennifer asked gently.
‘Dr Martínez…he was so angry with me. I didn’t mean…’ Lizzy hiccupped her way through a garbled explanation.
Jennifer squeezed her hand. ‘It’s just a simple misunderstanding. We’ll sort it out.’ Though her expression hardened. So much for her thinking she’d been unfair to Ramón Martínez. He’d just bawled out her best student in front of her patient’s parents. Whatever Lizzy had done, a public telling-off was completely unprofessional. And it was Jennifer’s job, as the senior sister on the paediatric ward, to make him understand that bullies would not be tolerated. Under any circumstances.
‘I…’ Lizzy was still shaking, still incoherent.
‘It’s OK. I’ll handle it,’ Jennifer said quietly. ‘Wash your face and take ten minutes out in the restroom. Have a cup of tea then if you’re ready to come back on the ward, that’s fine.’ She gave Lizzy a hug. ‘If you need some time off, just let me know and I’ll get a bank nurse in.’
‘Thanks, JJ.’ Lizzy gave her a watery smile. ‘I feel so stupid…’
‘You’re not stupid. You’re doing really well. You’re a final-year student, you still have things to learn, and you’re already worried sick about your aunt.’
‘I won’t let the team down.’
‘I know you won’t. And that’s what teams are for—to support each other.’ Jennifer gave her a wink. ‘Go get that cup of tea.’ She gathered her files together again and headed for the side room they’d allocated to Stephen Knights.
Standing next to the parents was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. Meg’s description had hardly done him justice. Ramón Martínez was seven or eight inches taller than her own five feet six, Jennifer guessed. His white coat was a perfect foil to his olive skin and blue-black hair; he had broad shoulders, narrow hips and very long legs. He used his hands a lot when he spoke, she noticed. His eyes were dark and expressive.
But his mouth was the real killer. Generous and full, promising warmth and passion. Meg had been absolutely right about that smile—a smile to die for. For one intensely scary second, Jennifer even found herself wondering what it would be like to be kissed by that mouth. And then she stopped herself. No. She didn’t do kisses. She didn’t do dates. She didn’t do anything of the kind any more. Besides, this man had just reduced one of her staff to tears. He might be gorgeous to look at, but he was also arrogant and in dire need of a lesson in good manners.
‘Hello, Mandy. Hello, Paul,’ she said, walking into the room. ‘Hello, gorgeous.’ She ruffled the sleeping baby’s hair, then turned to Ramón Martínez. ‘Good afternoon, Dr Martínez. I’m Sister Jacobs. I’m sorry I wasn’t on duty when you joined us.’
Cool, controlled and terribly English, Ramón thought. And he hadn’t been prepared for her in the slightest. She was a completely ordinary woman—average height, average shape, light brown hair cut in an unassuming short style, grey-blue eyes. No make-up, dressed in a dark blue sister’s uniform and flat black shoes. She was nothing out of the everyday. So why had his heart rate just speeded up a notch?
Ridiculous, he told himself. He was here at the Bradley Memorial Hospital for a four-month secondment. A relationship of any kind would be short term and pointless. And even if he was prepared to think about it, it couldn’t be with someone he worked with. There would be too many difficulties. And then there was Sofía…No, it was all too complicated.
He’d expected the ward’s senior sister to be older than Meg—Meg herself had given him that impression—and this woman didn’t look much older than her mid-twenties. Clearly she had to be older, or she wouldn’t have the experience to do the job.
Automatically, his glance slid to her left hand. There was a slim band of gold on her ring finger. So she was spoken for. He was aware of the stab of regret for an instant before he banished it. ‘Good afternoon, Sister.’ He shook her proffered hand and lightning coursed through him. Hell. This was a complication he really, really didn’t need—especially as it was clearly one-sided. She didn’t look as if his touch had remotely affected her. He only hoped that this cool, calm nurse couldn’t read minds. If she could, he had a feeling she’d slap his face. Hard.
‘How did the operation go?’ she asked politely.
‘It was a success. I was telling Mr and Mrs Knights about the care their son needs over the next few days.’
He didn’t quite understand the look she gave him. Only that she was extremely angry with him—though this was the first time they’d met, so he couldn’t have done anything to upset her…could he?
‘I’ve stitched the palate back together in layers. There is one layer in the floor of the nose, then the muscles in the middle of the palate, and then the skin on the roof of the mouth,’ he said. ‘There are stitches in the roof of his mouth, but you can’t see them from the outside.’
‘You might see some red fluid coming from his nose and mouth,’ Jennifer added, ‘but that’s very common after an operation like this and nothing to worry about. If you see anything that looks like pus or any real redness around the stitches, that’s a different matter, but we’ll be checking him every couple of hours to make sure there isn’t any sign of infection.’
She might be formal and cool with him, but she had a nice manner with the patient’s family, Ramón thought. Reassuring.
‘You mustn’t let the baby put his hands or anything hard in his mouth,’ he added. ‘If he keeps trying to scratch his mouth, we will need to use arm restraints to stop him.’
‘They look uncomfortable but they really won’t hurt him,’ Jennifer said. ‘But if he scratches his mouth, he might tear the stitches or cause an infection. If we have to use the restraints, he’ll probably be a bit grumpy, but just give him lots of cuddles and talk to him to take his mind off them.’
‘He shouldn’t be in much pain,’ Ramón said, ‘but if we think he is I can prescribe mild pain relief.’
‘What about eating?’ Mandy asked.
‘He needs small and frequent feeds,’ Ramón said. ‘He must have enough liquid or he will become dehydrated and develop a temperature.’
‘We recommend using a teat with a large cross-cut opening, so you get a steady flow of milk,’ Jennifer said. ‘Hold him on your lap so he’s semi-sitting and feed him slowly—then give him some water to help clean the inside of his mouth.’
‘He’s teething at the moment,’ Paul said. ‘He’s always chewing his fists.’
‘Sorry, but you can’t let him. He can’t use a teething ring for a while either,’ Jennifer told him. ‘Though you can rub his gums or use some teething gel.’
‘When can we take him home?’ Mandy asked.
‘In about a week,’ Ramón said. ‘We will check him over thoroughly before we discharge him. And he will need to see a speech therapist to check if he has velopharyngeal incompetence.’
‘It’s called VPI for short and it’s quite common in children with repaired cleft palates,’ Jennifer said. ‘All it means is that his soft palate is a bit short or doesn’t move enough, so too much air will escape through his nose when he speaks and he’ll sound nasal. The speech therapist can do quite a lot to help the condition.’
She was good with parents, and very knowledgeable. No wonder she’d made senior sister at a young age, Ramón thought. But he wished he had some idea why her eyes were looking daggers at him.
‘Can we stay with him?’ Mandy asked.
‘For as long as you like. Did Lizzy give you a card for the coffee-machine?’
Paul shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter. We can take turns going down to the canteen.’
‘The machine isn’t that bad. I’ll get someone to bring you a card anyway. You probably remember the routine from the op on his cleft lip two months ago,’ Jennifer said, ‘but I’ll remind you anyway. There’s a phone for incoming calls at the end of Red Bay—the number’s on the wall above the phone if you need to give it to anyone—and there’s a payphone at the entrance to the ward.’
‘And don’t use a mobile, because it might interfere with the equipment,’ Mandy said.
Jennifer grinned. ‘Excellent. Well-trained parents. Just what we like to see.’
She was teasing them? Teasing the parents of a child he’d just operated on and who were clearly worried about their baby? Ramón was about to step in when he saw that Mandy and Paul were both laughing. The English had a strange sense of humour, he mused.
Though that grin…Lord, if she ever looked like that at him, he’d be a gibbering wreck. The smile turned her face from ordinary to stunning. And he wanted her. Badly.
And then Jennifer was speaking again. ‘If you’re worried at all about Stephen or you have any queries, just come and find me or one of the other nurses.’
‘Thanks.’ Paul smiled at her.
