The Firebrand Who Unlocked His Heart. Anne Fraser

       Maybe it was the way he was looking at her—maybe it was because she was tired—or maybe it was because she didn’t want to be friends with this man.

      She wanted only to think of him as Harry’s father—her employers—she didn’t want him to try and be her friend. It felt … dangerous. He made her thoughts fly in directions she didn’t want them to go.

      ‘I’m tired,’ she said. ‘If you don’t mind, I think I’ll turn in for the night.’

      Suddenly his hand was in her hair, and he leant down and kissed her lightly on the lips. For a moment the world spun. ‘Goodnight, then, Colleen. I’ll see you in the morning.’

       Dear Reader

      I almost always write my Medical Romances from my personal experience as a nurse, and this one is no different.

      When Harry is badly injured in a car accident his father, barrister Daniel Frobisher, is determined to do everything in his power to save the son he didn’t know he had and barely knows. His research for the right person to help his son leads him to sparky nurse Colleen McCulloch.

      Following an accident that left her brother brain-injured, Colleen has made it her mission to make sure every patient under her care is given the best possible chance to improve. So when she meets Harry, who has lost almost everyone he loves, how can she resist taking up Daniel’s offer of a job? Particularly when it gives her time away from her disastrous love-life …

      Soon sparks fly, and as Colleen begins to see the tortured and grieving man behind Daniel’s cool façade, professional distance goes out of the window and she becomes involved with this small, hurt family. And if Daniel makes her feel something that no man has ever made her feel, doesn’t she just have to find a way to deal with that too?

      I hope you enjoy Colleen and Daniel’s story.

       Anne Fraser

      About the Author

      ANNE FRASER was born in Scotland, but brought up in South Africa. After she left school she returned to the birthplace of her parents, the remote Western Islands of Scotland. She left there to train as a nurse, before going on to university to study English Literature. After the birth of her first child she and her doctor husband travelled the world, working in rural Africa, Australia and Northern Canada. Anne still works in the health sector. To relax, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, walking and travelling.

       Recent titles by the same author:

      MISTLETOE, MIDWIFE … MIRACLE BABY

DOCTOR ON THE RED CARPET THE PLAYBOY OF HARLEY STREET THE DOCTOR AND THE DEBUTANTE DAREDEVIL, DOCTOR … DAD!† MIRACLE: MARRIAGE REUNITED SPANISH DOCTOR, PREGNANT MIDWIFE*

* The Brides of Penhally Bay

† St Piran’s Hospital

       These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

      The Firebrand

      Who Unlocked His Heart

      Anne Fraser

      

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      For my wonderful and thankfully healthy daughters,

      Rachel and Katherine. You inspire me.

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘I’M SORRY, but the answer is still no,’ Colleen said.

      Daniel Frobisher leaned back in his chair and wiped an imaginary fleck of dust from his dark-grey suit. He narrowed his eyes at her as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

      He looks like a tiger studying his prey just before it attacks, Colleen thought. He was in his late thirties, she guessed, with light brown hair and intense green eyes. He had the kind of face that you wanted to stare at as if it were a painting. Long, straight nose, full mouth and cheekbones most models would give their designer gowns for. He was almost too good-looking. Men who looked like him were too unreal somehow.

      ‘I’ll pay you well. Very well,’ he said in his Oxbridge accent and then went on to name a weekly sum that made Colleen’s head reel. What he was proposing was more than she earned in a month. More than she earned in two months, come to think of it, but money wasn’t the issue here.

      ‘I don’t need the money; besides I’m perfectly happy with my life the way it is,’ Colleen said firmly. The last part wasn’t exactly true, but there was no need for the man in front of her to know that.

      This wasn’t the first time she had said no. She had told Daniel Frobisher’s assistant—what was his name again? Haversham or something—the same thing over the phone only a few days ago.

      ‘If Mr Frobisher can’t spare the time to come and see me for himself, I’m afraid that tells me that he is not committed to making his son better,’ Colleen had told Haversham. ‘In order to make the greatest improvement, his son is going to need round-the-clock, intensive treatment. That means his father helping. A lot. And if he can’t spare the time to meet me …’ Colleen paused ‘… it’s a non-starter.’

      ‘Mr Frobisher is a very busy man,’ Haversham replied. ‘He would have come personally if he could have. He asked me to represent him in this matter.’

      This matter? It was Frobisher’s son they were talking about.

      ‘Look, please tell him I’m sorry about his son, really I am. But if Mr Frobisher is as wealthy as you say he is, there are other arrangements he could make that would work better for him.’

      She had said a polite goodbye, and forgotten all about it until this morning, when Daniel Frobisher himself had appeared, demanding to see her.

      ‘There is a gorgeous-looking man asking to see you,’ Lillian, the receptionist, had said, having come to find Colleen in the staff room where Colleen was giving her report to the on-coming staff before leaving for the day. ‘I told him you were busy, but he says he needs to speak to you—right now.’ Lillian’s eyes had been round. ‘You’ve been keeping him a secret from us, you naughty thing, although I can quite understand why. If I was two-timing my boyfriend—especially with someone who looks like that—I don’t think I’d be telling anyone either.’

      ‘I’m not two-timing Ciaran with anyone,’ Colleen had protested. ‘How can you even suggest such a thing? Tell whoever it is that he’ll have to wait—or to come back on Monday.’

      ‘Honey, whatever you’ve been up to with that man, he’s not going anywhere.’

      Mystified, Colleen had peeked around the corner. Lillian was right. Whoever he was, he was a hunk. Just because she was engaged to Ciaran didn’t mean she couldn’t recognise yumminess when she saw it. But the man pacing the floor, irritably checking his watch every couple of seconds, wasn’t anyone she had met before. She would have remembered.

      ‘I’ve never seen him before in my life. Did he give you a name?’ Colleen had whispered to Lillian.

      ‘Says he’s called Mr Frobisher.’

      So the too-busy man had come in person this time. Well, she’d be telling him exactly the same as she’d told Haversham. But he’d have to wait until she’d finished the handover to the night staff and