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Their Secret Royal Baby
CAROL MARINELLI
Dr Elias Santini, secret prince of Medrindos, has his world rocked when he attends an emergency delivery. The patient is Beth Foster, the woman he spent one stolen night with, and she’s in premature labour…with his baby!Estranged from her strict parents, Beth both fears the desire between them and yearns for the support Elias offers her as their tiny newborn fights for life. A fiery kiss tempts her to risk everything, but what will happen when Beth discovers her daughter is the future heir to the Medrindos throne?
Royal baby born in the ER!
Dr. Elias Santini, secret prince of Medrindos, has his world rocked when he attends an emergency delivery. The patient is Beth Foster, the woman he spent one stolen night with, and she’s in premature labor...with his baby!
Estranged from her strict parents, Beth both fears the desire between them and yearns for the support Elias offers her as their tiny newborn fights for her life. A fiery kiss tempts Beth to risk everything, but what will happen when she discovers her daughter is the future heir to the Medrindos throne?
Dear Reader (#ulink_c9956cfe-dfb3-56f9-9445-c66d34e8b8df),
I had the opening to Elias’s story in my mind for such a long time. Beth took a little longer to arrive, but the moment she did I was ready to start writing!
My gorgeous hero, Elias, is asleep during a lull in his shift in Accident & Emergency when he is woken and asked to help with an emergency delivery. The trouble is he knows the mother—in fact Beth is someone he has been unable to forget since their one night together—and judging by the dates…
We have all read stories about emergency personnel having to care for their own loved ones, and I have seen it happen myself. It takes a real hero or heroine to push their own feelings aside and deal with such a situation, and I think Elias rises to the occasion very well.
I hope you enjoy reading Beth and Elias’s story as much as I did writing it.
This is my 101
book! My 100
book, The Innocent’s Secret Baby, is also out this month—if you enjoyed Beth and Elias’s story I hope you will enjoy The Innocent’s Secret Baby too!
Happy reading.
Carol x
Their Secret Royal Baby
Carol Marinelli
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Books by Carol Marinelli (#ulink_482b1f8e-812e-5c37-a35e-eb759dadc7a7)
Mills & Boon Medical Romance
Desert Prince Docs
Seduced by the Sheikh Surgeon
The Hollywood Hills Clinic
Seduced by the Heart Surgeon
The Socialite’s Secret
Playboy on Her Christmas List
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
The Sheikh’s Baby Scandal
The Innocent’s Secret Baby
Visit the Author Profile page at
millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
Praise for Carol Marinelli (#ulink_b0018690-1d04-5467-92f4-53f99d287732)
‘It had me in tears at the beginning, and then again at the end, and I could hardly put it down. A brilliant emotional read by Carol Marinelli!’
—Goodreads on
The Baby of Their Dreams
Contents
Cover (#u854421ea-3955-5924-aaf1-ccdaf1375f91)
Back Cover Text (#u0606d919-c40c-5bc8-b6b5-1c431a61aa32)
Dear Reader (#ulink_d7538155-51bc-5b56-bdbd-64621d28dd66)
Title Page (#udb43900d-92b2-53a1-b15d-668151c9cfcf)
Booklist (#ulink_7754b39b-9845-5c64-ac6d-977267ff6c7b)
Praise (#ulink_a3f8b4e6-e7bd-5ad5-9aa6-effce06b338c)
CHAPTER ONE (#u3666b896-5281-5e22-98c8-046b4b9cb83c)
CHAPTER TWO (#u47c77edb-93d2-5829-be03-92dbdb31e43a)
CHAPTER THREE (#u4d4a6c6c-267b-566f-bcd4-6a919d3c9e21)
CHAPTER FOUR (#uf8d4a7ea-9068-5c09-b37b-1c3d3674f8dd)
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)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#uf458d626-41a9-54e7-8ee0-4eb9c75aac16)
‘DID YOU GO home for Christmas, Elias?’
It was coming up for midnight and it was the first chance for the staff to have a catch-up after a busy few hours in Accident and Emergency.
Mandy, the nurse in charge tonight, had brought around a tray of coffee and cake and was in the mood for a chat.
‘No.’ Elias shook his head and took a very welcome drink as he wrote down his findings on Mr Evans—a patient that he had just referred to Cardiology.
‘Did you work it, then?’ Mandy asked.
Elias Santini was a locum Accident and Emergency registrar and, for the last few months, had worked at several locations across London, though he was fairly regular at The Royal. This meant that, as he became more familiar, people wanted to know more about his life.
‘No,’ Elias said. ‘I just took a couple of weeks off and travelled. I saw in the New Year in Scotland.’
It was rare that Elias volunteered information about what he got up to in his personal life. Possibly he offered that sliver of information to distract Mandy from what he was sure she had been about to ask.
It didn’t work, though.
The question still came. ‘Where exactly is home?’
It would be easier to lie.
With his dark good looks and rich accent, Elias could say he was from Italy or Greece. He spoke both languages and could easily carry either off, but he didn’t want to lie and neither did he want to deny his heritage.
He hadn’t wanted to reveal it before.
Yet he was starting to feel ready to now.
‘Medrindos,’ Elias answered.
‘Oh!’ Mandy exclaimed. ‘Mark and I went there on our honeymoon! We’d love to go back someday and see if it’s still as beautiful as we remember.’
‘It is,’ Elias assured her.
‘Where are you talking about?’ Valerie, another nurse on tonight, asked as she selected a cake.
‘Medrindos. Where Elias is from,’ Mandy told her. ‘It’s an island in the Mediterranean and it’s stunning.’
It was, in fact, a small but extremely wealthy principality, though Mandy was right in her description. Medrindos really was stunning. It was an absolute jewel in the Mediterranean and an expensive holiday location. Mandy chatted about the pristine beaches and azure water, as well as the churches and the palace, while Elias carried on writing his notes.
And, while he didn’t deny his country, he chose not to mention that he was a prince there, and second in line to the throne.
Soon, Elias knew from experience, he would be outed as a royal.
Maybe something would come on the news, or Mandy would go on the internet for a quick reminisce and would see pictures of the royal family, or she would read some headline about the errant young royals. His brother was currently kicking up his heels on board the royal yacht and partying hard in the South of France.
Elias knew he would soon be recognised, or the press would discover that he was working here, as had happened when he’d been a doctor in Oxford. The ensuing publicity had meant that the palace had summoned him home and for a couple of years Elias had lived the same depraved, albeit luxurious, lifestyle that his brother Andros adhered to.
Scandal had abounded but that didn’t seem to matter, just so long as he remained in the fold. ‘Princes will be princes,’ his mother would say when another salacious article appeared. There had been one that hadn’t been so readily dismissed. Elias had run into the inevitable trouble that awaited a man in his position—a heavily pregnant woman had gone to the press saying that she was carrying his child.
Despite Elias’s assurances that there was no need for them to do so, the palace had set their lawyers and PR people into action. They had even worked out the payments should the baby prove to be his.
They had ignored two pertinent details, though.
Yes, there were pictures of the woman with Elias at a prominent London wedding and, yes, they had both attended the same gathering back in a luxury hotel.
But they hadn’t slept together.
And had his mother known him at all, the other detail should have made her laugh at the absurdity of it all—the woman claimed Elias had told her he loved her.
Elias had never even thought, let alone uttered, those words to anyone.
No one had cared to hear that, though; instead, they had awaited the DNA result. Everyone, except Elias, had breathed a sigh of relief when the results had proved the baby was not his.
He had always known.
Elias had emerged from the scandal even more jaded—the life of a young single royal, though fun at first, had soon turned into what had felt a rather pointless existence. He didn’t want to spend his life attending lavish parties, long-winded functions and openings, or getting wasted on the royal yacht.
It had felt empty and meaningless and when he’d discussed it with his parents they’d suggested that he marry. Princess Sophie of Theodora was their choice for him. They’d refused to accept his love for medicine and he’d refused to marry at his parents’ command and so, six or so months ago, he had left it all behind and moved back to England, though to London this time.
He returned to Medrindos for formal occasions when his presence was required but here in London he relished the freedom of people not knowing his royal status. It came with its own unique difficulties—Elias held back from others and maintained his distance, yet it was a price that he had been willing to pay for this rare chance of normalcy and to do the job he loved.
Elias wanted more now, though.
