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The Greek Billionaire's Love-Child
Sarah Morgan
Enter into the world of high-flying Doctors as they navigate the pressures of modern medicine and find escape, passion, comfort and love – in each other’s arms!Accidentally pregnant with the billionaire doctor’s baby Six months of bliss with gorgeous, high-flying paediatric surgeon Nikos Mariakos leaves children’s nurse Ella head-over-heels in love…until Nikos unexpectedly ends the relationship. Later that same day Ella’s pregnancy test turns positive, and it is only then she discovers – from a celebrity magazine! – that the father of her baby is also a billionaire!On learning Ella is expecting his love-child, everything changes for Nikos. This rich Greek playboy is back on the children’s ward, and back into Ella’s life. Determined to be a full-time dad, taking Ella as his convenient wife seems his only solution…Billionaire DoctorsHot, jet-set docs at the top of their game – professionally…and personally!
Never, if he lived to be a hundred, would he understand women.
Nikos swung his sleek, high-performance sports car into his parking space directly outside the paediatric emergency department.
He’d offered her marriage and put a diamond the size of New York on her finger.
And she’d given it back.
Theos mou, what was going on in her head? How many women had longed for him to make exactly that gesture?
Her refusal had been genuine. And yet she still wanted him. He knew that. So why hadn’t she just said yes?
Realising that he didn’t have any answers made him realise how little he knew about her.
What, in all honesty, had they shared in the six passionate months they’d spent together? Sex, he acknowledged ruefully. They’d lived in a small intimate bubble that had involved their work at the hospital and the two of them. Nothing had intruded.
And that had been the way he’d wanted it.
Locking his car, Nikos strode purposefully towards the entrance of the paediatric emergency department, his naturally competitive nature roused by the block she’d erected in the path of their relationship.
She would marry him, he vowed silently. Shewas carrying his baby. It was just a matter ofunderstanding why she was saying no. Once heunderstood that, he would turn the no to a yes.
Praise for Medical™ Romance author
Sarah Morgan:
‘Whether it’s a Modern™ or a Medical™ Romance,
if a book’s got Sarah Morgan’s name on the
front cover, then a spellbinding read is guaranteed!
Fast-paced, moving and passionate…another keeper
by the wonderfully talented Sarah Morgan!’
—Cataromance on THE REBEL DOCTOR’S BRIDE, Medical™ Romance July 08
‘An exceptional romantic tale written by a writer—
romantic, intense and absolutely breathtaking…
I can’t wait for the next spellbinding romance
by this hugely talented star!’
—Cataromance on BOUGHT: THE GREEK’S INNOCENT VIRGIN, Modern™ Romance June 08
Sarah Morgan trained as a nurse, and has since worked in a variety of health-related jobs. Married to a gorgeous businessman, who still makes her knees knock, she spends most of her time trying to keep up with their two little boys, but manages to sneak off occasionally to indulge her passion for writing romance. Sarah loves outdoor life, and is an enthusiastic skier and walker. Whatever she is doing, her head is always full of new characters, and she is addicted to happy endings.
Recent titles by the same author:
Medical™ Romance ITALIAN DOCTOR, SLEIGH-BELL BRIDE THE REBEL DOCTOR’S BRIDE** THE ITALIAN’S NEW-YEAR MARRIAGE WISH* THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS
*Brides of Penhally Bay
**Glenmore Island Doctors
Modern™ Romance THE VASQUEZ MISTRESS BOUGHT: THE GREEK’S INNOCENT VIRGIN THE SHIEKH’S VIRGIN PRINCESS THE BRAZILIAN BOSS’S INNOCENT MISTRESS
Sarah Morgan also writessexy heroes and feisty heroinesfor Mills & Boon Modern™.Don’t miss her next onePOWERFUL GREEK, UNWORLDLY WIFEcoming soon.
THE GREEK
BILLIONAIRE’S
LOVE-CHILD
BY
SARAH MORGAN
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
PROLOGUE
IT WAS a bad time to realise that she was in love.
The atmosphere in the resuscitation room was strained and tense—the child’s injuries so severe that no one was holding out much hope of a good outcome.
No one, that was, except Dr Nikos Mariakos, the Greek consultant who had a reputation for making miracles happen.
Ella adjusted the oxygen flow with shaking hands and sneaked a glance at the man working across from her. Her heart tumbled, dipped and soared.
Why now? And why this man?
She’d broken both her rules.
Don’t trust.
Don’t love.
At the age of eight she’d learned that men were bad news and she’d locked away her emotions and thrown away the key.
But this man had not only found the key, he’d used it. And what had started as a scorching affair, a physical releasefrom the constant stress of working in the paediatric emergencydepartment, had turned into something deeper.
Ella felt a moment of pure panic, but the child’s condition didn’t allow time for reflection.
‘Suction—more light.’ He gave his orders in a calm, detached tone, apparently undaunted by the enormous task that faced him. It was almost as if he relished the challenge. His hands didn’t shake, his brow didn’t sweat and there was no trace of emotion on his cold, handsome face as he worked to stabilise the critically injured child.
I really do love him, Ella thought helplessly, watching every movement of his swift, skilled fingers with something close to desperation. Only hours earlier they’d been in bed. Those same fingers had created a very different kind of magic and the sensual spell he’d woven had somehow unravelled the protective web she’d spun over years of suspicion and caution.
A feeling of dread seeped into her bones as she realised how vulnerable she was.
Love had punched holes through her defensive shield.
Love now made her open to the same agonising hurtshe’d suffered as a child.
‘Do you want to give him another unit of blood?’ It was one of the more junior doctors who spoke, his face almost as pale as that of their small patient.
‘No. I want to control the haemorrhage.’ The consultant’s coldly analytical approach to the critically injured child was in direct contrast to the less experienced doctor’s agitation. ‘Raise the temperature in here. I want overhead heaters and warming blankets.’
Ella quietly did as he instructed, remembering the day Nikos had started in the department. His reputation had caused such a stir that for days before his arrival no one had talked about anything but his technical brilliance and the fact that he was the youngest consultant ever appointed in the hospital.
And then he’d strode through the doors and the talk from the females in the department had shifted from his clinical skills to the fact that he was sexy enough to start a riot in a nunnery.
Even Ella, with her natural suspicion of very handsome men, had been blinded. Not just by his startling good looks, but by his bold, determined approach to every case that came through the doors of the emergency department.
Dismissive of bureaucracy, Nikos Mariakos was fearless in his pursuit of clinical excellence. His willingness to challenge conventional thinking and push boundaries meant that he frequently clashed swords with the hospital management who were terrified by his indifference to protocol and policy.
Nikos didn’t care.
When it came to his work, he cared about one thing alone.
His young patients.
It was as if he was on a one-man crusade to save every injured child.
And that included the little boy on the trolley.
‘He’s arrested. Get me a thoracotomy pack. I’m going to open his chest.’
A stunned silence greeted his statement and Phil, the anaesthetist, shook his head in disbelief. ‘In the emergency department? You can’t be serious, Nikos. Do you know the mortality rate for performing that procedure outside the operating room?’
Nikos was resuscitating the child. ‘I’m sure you’re about to remind me.’
The anaesthetist proceeded to do exactly that, but Nikos didn’t pause in his efforts.
‘Get that pack open, Ella,’ he ordered. ‘You should take a job with a medico legal company, Phil. They’d love you. Has someone called the cardiothoracic surgeons?’
‘What the hell is the matter with you, Nikos? Were you dropped on your head as a child?’ His colleague was perspiring under the heat of the lights, his concern for the patient eclipsed by concern for himself and the potential consequences of what the Greek consultant was proposing. ‘Don’t you ever follow protocol?’
‘Not if following protocol means giving up on a child,’ Nikos said coldly. ‘This child has a penetrating chest wound which appears to be confined to the thorax. If I can stop the bleeding within the next few minutes, he stands a chance. Ella—the pack. Now.’
‘Think of your reputation.’ The anaesthetist became a shade paler as Nikos prepped the child’s chest. ‘You could be struck off.’
‘If I’m struck off for doing my best for my patient then I would leave medicine happy. A bit like having a heart attack during sex.’ Nikos spoke in a lazy drawl, nothing in his demeanour suggesting that he was about to perform major surgery. ‘I’ve always thought that if you are going to make an exit, you should at least make it while striving for perfection.’
It must have been the impossible tension of the situation that made Ella want to laugh. Or perhaps it was just the inconceivable idea of someone with Nikos’s physique and stamina dying during sex.
‘Your girlfriend is obviously a lucky woman,’ quipped one of the cheekier nurses, and Ella felt her face grow scarlet.
They’d always kept their relationship secret, but suddenly she had a wild desire to tell everyone that this incredibly talented man was hers. That she was the one he spent his nights with.
He’d chosen her.
His gaze met hers and her heart skipped several beats because she knew he’d read her mind.
A faint gleam of irony lit his dark eyes and then he held out his gloved hand.
‘Scalpel,’ he said softly, and she took a deep breath and handed him the instrument, feeling that the moment was almost symbolic. He had the ability to heal, but he also had the ability to hurt.
Would he hurt her?
The only thing she knew for sure was that if she were the one who was injured, he was the only doctor she would want in the room.
Unfortunately the anaesthetist didn’t share her confidence. ‘If you can make a joke then you have no idea of the seriousness of what you are about to do, Mariakos,’ he said harshly, but Nikos was already operating.
‘For this procedure to have any chance of success, it has to be performed within five minutes of cardiac arrest. I have four minutes remaining, Phil.’ His tone was conversational. ‘Do you want to talk or save a life?’
‘I want you to consider what you’re doing.’
‘Retractor.’
Ella handed Nikos what he needed as sweat beaded on the anaesthetist’s brow.
‘The child will not survive if you do this, Nikos.’
‘He won’t survive if I don’t do it.’ Nikos worked swiftly and with cool precision, not once faltering as he carried out a procedure that would have been beyond the nerve or capability of most doctors. ‘Now I see the problem.’ He made it sound as though he was dealing with something routine. ‘There’s a tear in the atrium—give me a suture.’
Ella detached herself mentally from the emotional side of the case. It was a procedure, not a child. If she thought about the human story behind every injury that came through the doors, she’d be an emotional wreck. So she passed the sterilised instruments, concentrating on what he was doing, trying to anticipate what he was going to need even though she’d never seen this performed before.
The anaesthetist wiped his forearm over his brow. ‘If this child dies, the parents will sue you. Doesn’t that frighten you?’
‘I think you are frightened enough for both of us,’ Nikos murmured, his fingers swift and skilled as he staunched the bleeding and repaired the damage. Cool, unflustered, he lifted his gaze to the monitor. ‘Come on, agori mou. Fight for me. Put a little effort into this. So far I have been doing all the work. I am tired—it is your turn, I think.’
As they continued to resuscitate the child, Ella found that she was holding her breath.
If there was ever the slightest hope, Nikos never gave up.
Every child mattered to him.
And, this time, his efforts were rewarded. The child’s heart responded and the monitor flickered to life just as the cardiothoracic surgeon entered the room.
‘You’ve missed the party.’ Nikos didn’t shift his focus from the child. ‘How’s he doing from your end, Phil?’
