Tempted by Her Italian Surgeon. Louisa George

      Praise for Louisa George:

      ‘How to Resist a Heartbreaker keeps you hooked from beginning to end, but make sure you have a tissue handy, for this one will break your heart only to heal it in the end.’

       —HarlequinJunkie

      ‘A moving, uplifting and feel-good romance, this is packed with witty dialogue, intense emotion and sizzling love scenes. Louisa George once again brings an emotional and poignant story of past hurts, dealing with grief and new beginnings which will keep a reader turning pages with its captivating blend of medical drama, family dynamics and romance.’

      —GoodReads on How to Resist a Heartbreaker

      ‘Louisa George is a bright star at Mills & Boon®, and I can highly recommend this book to those who believe romance rocks the world.’

      —GoodReads reader review on How to Resist a Heartbreaker

      A lifelong reader of most genres, LOUISA GEORGE discovered romance novels later than most, but immediately fell in love with the intensity of emotion, the high drama and the family focus of Mills & Boon® Medical Romance™.

      With a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and a nursing qualification under her belt, writing medical romance seemed a natural progression and the perfect combination of her two interests. And making things up is a great way to spend the day!

      An English ex-pat, Louisa now lives north of Auckland, New Zealand, with her husband, two teenage sons and two male cats. Writing romance is her opportunity to covertly inject a hefty dose of pink into her heavily testosteronedominated household. When she’s not writing or researching Louisa loves to spend time with her family and friends, enjoys travelling, and adores great food. She’s also hopelessly addicted to Zumba®.

       Tempted by Her Italian Surgeon

      Louisa George

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Dear Reader,

      Thank you so much for picking up Matteo and Ivy’s story.

      The idea for this book came from a news article I read about a doctor getting into trouble for commenting about a case on social media. The dos and don’ts of stepping into that very public place the internet as a professional person intrigued me. What if someone did something silly and inadvertently brought their place of work into the glare of the media? What would the ramifications be? How do medical providers deal with social media platforms? And, best of all, how would a very English uptight hospital lawyer deal with a super-sexy, rule-breaking Italian man?

      These two professionals with very different approaches to life have no idea what’s about to hit them when Ivy summons Matteo to her office for a dressing-down!

      Both of them have been hurt before, and neither wants to trust anyone any time soon—but having to live a little in each other’s world opens them up to the potential of letting their guards down and falling in love. And they fight it every step of the way.

      Matteo and Ivy were such fun to write about—possibly my favourite characters so far (although I always think that!). But what’s not to like about a handsome Italian surgeon and a good old feisty Yorkshire lass? (I’m slightly biased, I know …)

      For all my writing news and release dates visit me at www.louisageorge.com

      Happy reading!

       Louisa x

      Table of Contents

       Cover

      Praise for Louisa George

       About the Author

       Title Page

      Dear Reader

      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

       Copyright

       CHAPTER ONE

      ‘WHAT ON EARTH …?’ Ivy Leigh blinked at the image downloading to her inbox, pixel by tiny pixel.

      A … bottom?

      A beautiful perfectly formed, tanned, bare bottom. Two toned thighs, a sculpted back … a naked male body, in what looked like a men’s locker room. A tagline next to the pert backside read: Dr Delicious. As perfect as a peach. Go on … take a bite.

      She swallowed. And again. Fanned her hot cheeks. She might have imposed a strict dating hiatus but she still had an appreciation of what was fine when she saw it. But why on earth would her work computer be the recipient of such a thing?

      Maybe the spam screens on the hospital intranet server weren’t up to scratch. Adding a new note to her smartphone to-do list—Call IT—she let out a heat-infused sigh that had nothing to do with sexual frustration and everything to do with this new job. Two weeks in and yet another department she needed to pull into order. Still, she’d been employed here to drag this hospital into the twenty-first century and that was what she was going to do, no matter how many toes she trod on.

      Twisting in her chair to hide the offending but not remotely offensive bottom from anyone who might walk past her open office door, she sneaked a closer look at the image, her gaze landing on a pile of what looked like discarded clothes on a bench. No, not clothes as such …

       Scrubs?

       Please, no.

      Dark green scrubs bearing the embroidered name of St Carmen’s Hospital. She gasped, and whatever vague interest she’d had dissolved into a puddle of professional anxiety … her bordering-on-average day was fast turning bad.

      So who? What? Why? Why me?

      She slammed her eyelids shut and refused to look at the accompanying email message.

       Okay, big girls’ pants.

      Opening one eye, she took a deep breath and read.

      From Albert Pinkney. St Carmen’s Hospital Chairman. His formidable perfectly English pronunciation shone through his words. ‘Miss Leigh, what in heaven’s name is this? Our new marketing