Christmas Bride For The Sheikh. Carol Marinelli

enough troubles of her own since she’d returned from Zayrinia, without Flo piling on hers.

      That wasn’t the full reason, though. Maggie and Flo were close and usually she would have told her, but the break-up that had happened last Christmas, when Maggie had been away, had hurt Flo deeply.

      And Flo was still terribly ashamed.

      No, she did not want to go to Dion’s tonight.

      In fact, Flo hadn’t really had a night out since last Christmas.

      Maggie’s baby was due a week after this one.

      She looked at her friend, who had no family and was pregnant and scared, and Flo put on her smile.

      She was very good at doing that and keeping her thoughts to herself. ‘I could always come with you to Dion’s after my shift,’ Flo offered.

      And so it had been arranged.

      * * *

      ‘I have to go.’ Flo glanced at the time. ‘I’m going to be late.’

      She was often late, though not usually for work. It tended to be the other way round—she would stay on at work and arrive late for her life.

      Men didn’t seem to like that, Flo had worked out.

      At least, not the ones she was used to.

      Flo’s shift had been a good one.

      She was a midwife on the maternity unit at the Primary Hospital in London. It was a busy, modern hospital but, as much as Flo loved it, sometimes she yearned for more one-on-one time.

      She had been rostered to work in Delivery but had instead been moved to the ward. There she had caught up with a mother she had cared for in the delivery unit the previous day. It had been a difficult birth and had ended in an emergency Caesarean.

      Tonight, at the end of her shift, Flo had held the outcome in her arms.

      Rose.

      ‘She looks like one.’ Flo had smiled, for Rose was delicate and pink and utterly oblivious to the terrible scare she had given everyone.

      ‘Thanks for all you did, Flo,’ Claire, the mother, had said.

      Flo had smiled as she’d looked down at the tiny baby. Very rapid decisions had needed to be made and the petite, fun-loving Flo had snapped into action and become extremely vocal.

      In her private life she did not stand up enough for herself, but at work, when looking out for the mothers and babies, she was very different indeed.

      Her job was exhausting.

      Quite simply, it was always so busy and it was a constant juggling act to give enough attention to the mothers.

      Tonight, though, she had a moment.

      Several of them.

      At twenty-nine, and with her ovaries loudly ticking, Flo would have loved a baby of her own. Still, she got more than a regular fix of that delicious newborn scent each working day. ‘Your beautiful daughter has reminded me exactly why I love my job,’ Flo said.

      She popped the sleeping baby back into her Perspex crib and then reset Claire’s IV.

      ‘Are you on tomorrow?’ Claire asked.

      ‘No, but I’m back on Monday. You should be about ready for discharge then but I shall do my best to come in and see you both.’

      She looked again at little Rose, so peaceful and safe, and then Flo turned at a knock on the door and saw it was her senior.

      ‘Flo, it’s time to give your handover.’

      It was just after nine, and for the first time in a very long time it seemed that Flo might just get away on time.

      She did.

      Flo raced back to her flat and had a very quick shower. She was used to getting ready quickly to go out.

      Or she had been.

      Not all men were bad, Flo knew that.

      She saw evidence every day that good guys existed. Her parents had just celebrated their thirtieth wedding anniversary and her brothers and sisters were all happily married. At work, she regularly saw fathers support their partners and she worked with an amazing team.

      Yes, she knew there were good guys, but she had met the other kind too.

      Flo grabbed a sheer, grey dress and high-heeled shoes and then quickly set to work on her hair and make-up.

      She put her hair up and quickly did her eyes, followed by a slick of neutral colour on her lips. She was about to add earrings when her hands paused over her jewellery tray.

      It was a testimony to her disastrous love life. Flo knew she had been too easily appeased by bling.

      She had thought the more expensive the gift, the deeper the commitment.

      Flo knew now she could not have been more wrong.

      And so she left the earrings off and raced for the underground, firing Maggie a quick text on the way.

      Ten minutes

      It would be more like twenty, Flo knew, but she also knew Maggie would be terribly nervous and looking for an excuse to walk away.

      Flo was more than a little concerned at the predicament her friend was in. Maggie had been raised in foster and care homes and had no family to advise her. As a midwife, Flo was well versed on single mothers who were facing difficulties alone. She wasn’t exactly trained, though, in advising women who were pregnant by a future King.

      Goodness!

      She hurried up the escalator, came out of the underground and arrived out on the street a little breathless.

      Even from that distance she could see the queue and wondered if there was even a hope of them getting in. She knew just how exclusive it was.

      ‘Flo!’

      Marcus, the doorman, called her name and Flo flashed her winning smile as she walked over, thrilled to be remembered. ‘I’m just waiting for my friend to arrive.’

      ‘Well, you could both be waiting for a very long time if you don’t come in now,’ Marcus told her. ‘I’m being moved to security inside in a moment so there will be someone else on the door.’

      Flo wavered and looked down the street, but there was no sign of Maggie.

      ‘You can leave your friend’s name at the front desk,’ he suggested.

      To the moans of the queue, the velvet rope was lifted and Flo was allowed in.

      ‘You have to hand in your phone,’ Marcus warned. ‘So maybe text her now.’

      ‘Why do I have to hand in my phone?’

      ‘Orders from the top.’

      Ah, so Hazin must be here.

      His bad-boy ways had been captured on camera one too many times, Flo guessed, and the management would not want to upset him. She fired Maggie a quick text to meet inside, left her name at the desk and then made her way in.

      Dion’s was very beautiful. There were intimate velvet booths for diners, a gleaming walnut bar, and occasional tables where patrons could sip their cocktails and beverages of choice.

      The place was packed with endless, rich beauty, and though it had once excited her, now it left Flo rather cold.

      She had been caught up a little in this world once and, having been a lot more innocent back then, she’d believed that men had actually wanted to get to know her!

      Instead, they had wanted her to hang quietly on their arm and not ask too many questions.

      Yes, she’d been hurt.

      Badly so.

      But she pushed it to the