The GP's Marriage Wish. Judy Campbell

      Connor gave a short laugh. ‘It’s obvious, my dear Victoria, that you’re not too keen about working with me.’

      He looked at her steadily. ‘Perhaps you’ve good reason… I know I was a brat at school.’

      Victoria was startled. That was something, she supposed—a kind of apology.

      ‘It was a long time ago,’ she murmured.

      His clear blue eyes held hers questioningly, and Victoria suddenly felt rather flustered, as if a switch had been thrown to register a mixture of excitement and danger. She looked at him in confusion. She looked at his strong, intelligent face and firm, uncompromising lips and swallowed hard. How extraordinary was that? She was beginning to admit to herself that she found Connor Saunders just as sexy now as she had when she was a schoolgirl!

      Judy Campbell is from Cheshire. As a teenager she spent a great year at high school in Oregon, USA, as an exchange student. She has worked in a variety of jobs, including teaching young children, being a secretary and running a small family business. Her husband comes from a medical family, and one of their three grown-up children is a GP. Any spare time—when she’s not writing romantic fiction—is spent playing golf, especially in the Highlands of Scotland.

       Recent titles by the same author:

      THE DOCTOR’S LONGED-FOR BRIDE

       Dear Reader

      I am so thrilled that THE GP’S MARRIAGE WISH is being published in the Mills & Boon centenary year—it is such an exciting time, and I feel it is a real privilege to write for a great publishing empire and be a small part of its history. Happy Birthday, Mills & Boon, and may you continue to put romance to the fore for many, many years to come!

      I love writing medical romances, and exploring the relationships that develop between patients and the people who care for them. The world of hospitals and surgeries provides a wonderful background for a romantic story between two people who love each other and have to deal with all the myriad dramas, both heartrending and humorous, that occur in the medical world. I really feel part of that world as I write and watch my characters unfold.

      The idea of writing THE GP’S MARRIAGE WISH arose from meeting some old schoolfriends at a reunion, amongst whom was the drop-dead gorgeous boy (now a man!) we’d all fallen madly in love with in the sixth form! The last I saw of him at the reunion he was getting very friendly again with one of my contemporaries! Immediately the thought of Connor, my hero, sprang into my mind—the guy who’d been the centre of attention at school and, with maturity, was even more delectable many years later! In my imagination Victoria seemed just the girl to tame his macho manner when she re-enters his life!

      I do hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

      Best wishes

       Judy

      THE GP’s MARRIAGE WISH

      BY

      JUDY CAMPBELL

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

      PROLOGUE

      HE LOUNGED confidently against the wall in the assembly hall, a thick quiff of hair swept over cool dark blue eyes, watching the excited crowd of teenagers milling around him. Nobody could do attitude better than Connor Saunders—and he was arrogant enough to know that he made all the other youths at the Braithwaite Sixth Form College Ball look like wimps. He also had to be the hunkiest and sexiest guy in the room, thought Victoria Sorensen wistfully.

      Victoria twitched her dress nervously and flicked a look at herself in the mirror next to the honours board—not a reassuring sight. She wasn’t sure about the blue colour against her auburn hair, she felt her glasses made her look geekish and she was horribly aware of the wretched bands over her front teeth. If only she looked more sophisticated, stood out from the crowd a bit more, Connor just might ask her to dance… After today he was going to take a year out, going round the world, before studying medicine, and she’d be working at her mother’s surgery before going to university, also to study medicine. She might never see him again.

      A familiar mixture of resentment and jealousy jolted Victoria for a second—how easily everything came to Connor Saunders! Girls, scholarships, medals—they all dropped into his lap like ripe apples. There’d been an unspoken rivalry between them for some time: she was just as bright as him, but because he had the loudest voice, the cocksure personality that almost assumed he would get every prize going, she was left in the shadows.

      A group of boys was round him now, laughing at something he’d said, and he was grinning back at them, flicking back his hair, used to being the centre of attention. That was the trouble, of course—he had such charisma. When he was around there was a sense of fun and adventure—perhaps even danger—and even though she resented the way he’d always pipped her at the post in so many ways, of course Victoria had been hopelessly attracted to him while they’d been students together at sixth form college.

      Her friend Jean Martin sidled up to her. ‘Our hero’s looking good, isn’t he?’ She grinned, looking at Connor. ‘And he knows it,’ she added.

      ‘I can’t believe I might not see him again for years…’ said Victoria bleakly.

      ‘’Course you will! Don’t your mum and his dad work together at the medical centre? There’s bound to be occasions you’ll meet through them in the future.’ Jean looked at Victoria’s gloomy face and sighed. ‘Look, kiddo, you’re mad about him—why don’t you ask him to dance before you go your separate ways?’

      ‘That’s ridiculous—I don’t want to demean myself by pleading for a dance…’

      Jean groaned. ‘Come on, Vic, women have been emancipated for nearly a century—why should we hang about waiting for the men to get round to asking us? Don’t be a wimp—what have you got to lose? If you don’t dance with him now, you’ll never know what it’s like to be held in those strong manly arms…’

      An unwilling smile lifted Victoria’s lips for a second. ‘I’ll just have to imagine it, then, I suppose…’

      ‘Oh, to hell with it! This is your last chance. Go on, I dare you! He’ll admire you for it!’

      Victoria looked across at Connor doubtfully and just as she did so, their eyes met for a second, a flash of amusement flickering across his face as if he knew exactly what she thought of him. She flushed in embarrassment, then her mood became more combatant. Jean was right—why should she play the quiet little flower, frightened to approach him because of what he might think of her? Women didn’t have to play a passive role nowadays.

      She took a deep breath and walked up to him, ignoring the lads around him.

      ‘Connor, I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing each other for a while. How about a dance before we go?’

      Connor looked down at her lazily. ‘Ah, Freckles…the last goodbye, eh?’ He glanced around at his friends. ‘Quite an honour to be asked to dance by the head girl, isn’t it?’ Then he lowered his voice slightly, his blue eyes dancing with laughter. ‘It’s been sparky competition between us for the last two years, Vic—I’ll miss it.’

      Victoria stood for a second, waiting for him to accept her invitation, and the little crowd around him watched them both with interest. Connor grinned at her, then nodded his head towards his friends. ‘Sorry, darlin’—can’t keep the lads waiting. We’re off for a few beers before the pubs close, so the dance routine will have to wait for now. Some other time, eh?’

      A ripple of laughter went round the boys and Connor lifted a careless hand to her and strolled out of the room, followed by his sniggering cohorts, leaving Victoria standing alone. She stared after them, her cheeks burning