The Mills & Boon Sparkling Christmas Collection. Kate Hardy

look, or if she was seeing something she wished was there.

      But friendship would simply have to be enough.

      Madison was catching up with some paperwork one afternoon in the registrars’ office when there was a knock on the door. She glanced up to see Theo in the doorway. ‘Hi. What can I do for you?’

      He took it as an invitation to walk in, and came to sit on the edge of her desk—not quite close enough to touch, but near enough to send her pulse rocketing. She had to fight to look completely unconcerned and casual about it, because she definitely didn’t feel it.

      ‘Our students. Do you do any role-play with them?’ he asked.

      ‘I haven’t with Sanjay and Nita so far,’ she admitted. ‘What did you have in mind?’

      ‘A joint teaching session. You as the patient, Iris or Rosie as the midwife, and me there as the consultant to answer questions when our students get stuck on diagnosis or treatment.’

      She felt her eyes widen. ‘Me as the patient? Why?’

      He smiled. ‘Well, I’m not going to be remotely believable as a pregnant patient, am I? Unless, of course, I’m a miracle of modern medical science…’

      She rolled her eyes. ‘Very funny. Actually, role-playing’s a great idea because it’ll give them a safe way to practise their skills. When did you want to start?’

      ‘Tomorrow at half-past eight—deliveries permitting,’ he added. ‘If we keep it to fifteen-minute sessions, one case at a time, we’ve got more chance of being able to do a role-play without being called to a patient, and we’re also avoiding information overload for Sanjay and Nita.’

      ‘Agreed. It’s a date,’ she said with a smile.

      ‘Good. Are you busy tonight?’ he asked.

      ‘Not that I can think of. Why?’

      ‘I wondered if you’d like to have dinner with me tonight. We could go to the cinema afterwards.’

      It was the sort of thing she loved doing with her female friends.

      But dinner and a film with Theo…

      It would really, really help if she didn’t still feel that pull of attraction towards him. If she didn’t remember what it was like to dance with him. If she could forget that moment when the balloon had landed and she’d been plastered against him.

      ‘Thanks for the offer, but I’m not that keen on action movies,’ she said.

      He smiled. ‘And I don’t like girly films. But there’s bound to be something on that we’ll both like. Something where we could compromise.’

      Help.

      Double help.

      If she said no, he’d know that she was having trouble with this ‘friends and colleagues’ business, that she was finding it tough to fight the attraction between them, and it would push him even further away.

      If she said yes…Dinner with Theo would be pure torture. Because it would increase the longing for something she couldn’t have.

      ‘Maddie?’

      She took a deep breath. ‘OK. What time?’

      ‘I’ll meet you at your flat at, what, six?’

      ‘Six would be lovely.’

      He rang her doorbell at six on the dot—he’d already checked the listings on his mobile phone and come up with three alternatives he thought they’d both like.

      ‘Any of them would be fine by me,’ Madison said when he showed her. ‘They’re all good choices.’

      ‘This one starts at eight, which gives us a chance to eat first,’ he suggested. ‘And I checked out the local restaurant reviews, too.’

      ‘So you have somewhere in mind?’

      ‘I do, but it depends on whether you like French food.’

      ‘There’s very little food I don’t like,’ she said with a smile.

      He took her to a small French-style bistro in Covent Garden. When the waitress brought the menus over, Madison turned straight to the puddings and read the menu from the bottom up. Then she became aware that Theo looked amused.

      ‘What?’

      ‘You’re reading your menu backwards.’

      ‘It’s called planning,’ she explained. ‘If one of my favourite puddings is on the menu, then I’ll have a lighter main course to make up for the fact I’m having a dessert.’

      He groaned. ‘Please, tell me you’re not one of these women on a permanent diet, Maddie.’

      ‘Not exactly.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘The thing is, I enjoy food.’

      ‘Good. I loathe eating with someone who counts every single calorie.’

      ‘Actually, I do count calories,’ she said. ‘I inherited the short gene in the family and I put on weight easily, so unlike my cousin Katrina I can’t eat whatever I like and get away with it. And I don’t want to spend my entire off-duty in the gym on a treadmill to work off the calories—life’s far too short.’ Not to mention the fact it had been Harry’s suggestion. It hadn’t just been the long hours she’d worked as a junior doctor or her longing for a baby that had been a problem in her marriage—it had turned out that her image also hadn’t been right for an up-and-coming stockbroker. Short and slender was fine; short and curvy most definitely wasn’t. ‘So that means compromising a little.’

      ‘There’s another solution,’ he said. ‘You could share a pudding with me.’

      She laughed. ‘No chance. I’m not polite enough to do that. I’d end up having a spoon duel with you. And I’d win—because I’d play dirty and smack your knuckles with my spoon.’

      ‘Oh, would you, now?’ He laughed back. ‘But, for the record, I like you and your curves just the way you are. And I really like the fact that you enjoy food and you’re not going to nibble one olive and claim you don’t have room to eat anything else that evening.’

      ‘No, that’s not me.’ She shrugged. ‘But I should probably tell you I don’t cook.’

      ‘Can’t or don’t?’ he asked.

      ‘A bit of both,’ Madison said lightly.

      When the waitress came to take their order, Madison ordered the crème brûlée. ‘Oh, and the salad niçoise to start with, please,’ she added with a smile.

      Again, she noticed Theo hiding a grin. ‘What?’ she asked when the waitress had left.

      ‘Not only do you read a menu backwards, you order backwards.’

      ‘And your point is?’

      ‘I’m not laughing at you, Maddie,’ he said softly. ‘I’m smiling because it’s so refreshing to be with a woman who knows what she wants and is direct about it.’

      If only he knew, she thought. Because there was something else she wanted. Something she couldn’t be direct about, because she couldn’t have it.

      Dinner was fabulous, and the crème brûlée with rhubarb and ginger compote was just perfect. The film, too, lived up to expectations.

      Theo insisted on walking her home from the tube station.

      ‘You really don’t have to. I’m streetwise enough not to get into trouble,’ Madison protested.

      ‘I don’t care. Where I grew up, men look after women.’

      ‘I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself, Theo. Really. You don’t have to worry.’

      ‘Tough. You can argue as much as you like—I’m walking