The Mills & Boon Sparkling Christmas Collection. Kate Hardy

have lunch on my own with Nita,’ he said softly.

      She knew exactly where he was coming from. She’d seen the way the student looked at him, too. ‘You’re the consultant. All you have to do is tell her you’re not allowed to date students.’

      ‘So I meet her for lunch and tell her I’m not interested in a date.’ He raked a hand through his hair. ‘Which makes me sound like an arrogant bastard who thinks anyone female will be desperate to go out with me.’

      She laughed. ‘Theo, all the single women in the hospital want to go out with you. Do you have any idea how many of them have asked me to lunch and grilled me about you?’

      He looked surprised. ‘Why would they grill you?’

      ‘They want information so they can work out how to seduce you.’

      Surprise turned to worry. ‘Oh, lord. I hope you’ve told everyone I don’t mix business and pleasure.’

      ‘I did consider telling them you were gay,’ she teased.

      The concern in his eyes vanished, replaced with laughter. ‘And you think people would believe that?’

      ‘Look at the facts. You’re easy on the eye—and don’t you dare give me any false modesty here, Theo Petrakis, you know you are—you’re thirty-five years old and you’re single. Which means either you have a major personality defect—and anyone who spends two minutes with you will know that that’s not the case—or you’re not interested in women.’ She spread her hands. ‘But if I start that rumour, then all the single gay men in the hospital will be calling me with lunch invitations so they can grill me about you.’

      He rolled his eyes. ‘I suppose at least they wouldn’t want to marry me.’

      ‘Don’t bet on it.’ She gave him a wicked smile. ‘You can have a civil partnership nowadays, you know.’

      He groaned. ‘Madison Gregory, you’ve got an answer for everything.’

      ‘Nearly.’

      ‘Civil partnership.’ He shook his head. ‘You are going to have to make that up to me later, matia mou.’

      ‘Yeah, yeah.’ She waved a dismissive hand.

      ‘Good coffee. Seriously good coffee. And one of these brownies you were raving about. And…’

      It was probably her imagination, she told herself, but all the same the look in his eyes made her heart miss a couple of beats. She shook herself. ‘Yeah, yeah. Make a list.’ She smiled. ‘See you at lunch.’

      In the end, Theo didn’t make lunch. He was called in to try external cephalic version to turn a breech baby round for a vaginal delivery, and Madison ended up talking to Sanjay and Nita about different foetal presentations in labour and how to avoid intervention as much as possible. They were both busy in clinic during the afternoon, but later that evening Theo called her. ‘Are you busy on Saturday?’

      ‘I’m on an early shift.’

      ‘But you’re free when you’ve finished?’

      Say no, the sensible side of her urged. But her mouth wasn’t listening. ‘Yes.’

      ‘You know we were talking about all the places you hadn’t explored in London? I wondered if you’d like to come with me to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs.’

      Part of her wanted to go. Part of her knew that the more time she spent with Theo, the more she was falling for him—and, considering he didn’t want the same things that she did out of life, that would be crazy. On the other hand, maybe spending time with him would convince her heart that being friends was the best way to go. ‘We won’t get a huge amount of time there,’ she warned, ‘but sure. I’d like that. I’ll meet you on the steps by the main entrance at four?’

      ‘Fine. See you then.’

      When Madison arrived at the museum on Saturday afternoon, Theo was sitting on the steps, reading what looked like a medical journal. She suppressed a smile. Trust him not to fritter away time. But that was probably how he’d managed to become a consultant at such a young age.

      His dark good looks were attracting second glances from more than a few women in the vicinity. Hardly surprising. Theo Petrakis was gorgeous. If only, she thought, suppressing the surge of longing.

      ‘What’s this, squeezing in some extra work?’ she teased when she reached him.

      ‘Of course.’ He closed the journal, rolled it up and stuffed it in his pocket. ‘Good day?’ he asked.

      ‘The best.’ She beamed. ‘I had two babies.’

      He laughed. ‘People are giving you funny looks. You might want to rephrase that.’

      She laughed back. ‘All right. I helped deliver two incredibly gorgeous babies. And I had a cuddle with both of them. Satisfied?’

      ‘Satisfied.’ His eyes glittered with amusement. ‘Let’s go see the T. rex.’

      They wandered around the Natural History Museum, enjoying the animatronic dinosaurs. But then they came to a display of spiders, and Madison shuddered. ‘Do you mind if we give this bit a miss, Theo?’

      ‘You’re scared of spiders, kardia mou?’

      ‘Big ones that drop down on you in the shower and threaten you?’ She shivered. ‘Of course I am.’

      ‘Don’t you think that the spiders are more likely to be scared of you?’

      ‘Scared? Of me? You’re talking about big hairy things with legs they wave at you in a threatening manner.’ She shook her head. ‘They’re not scared in the slightest. They’re warriors—and they see me as their prey.’

      He wrinkled his nose at her. ‘Sounds as if you need distracting. Let’s go and have dinner. I’ll cook.’

      ‘Then I’ll provide pudding. We’ll need to stop at a supermarket on the way back to your place.’

      ‘Maddie, you don’t need to do that. You’re my guest.’

      She put her hands on her hips. ‘I’m not going to cook for you in return. So either you let me contribute in the form of wine and pudding, or I don’t have dinner with you. Your choice.’

      ‘And you’re bossy,’ he said with a smile. ‘All right. If you insist.’

      ‘I do.’

      ‘Then thank you.’

      They stopped off at a supermarket so Madison could buy wine and some panna cotta. Back at Theo’s house, he cooked them a simple meal of grilled lamb with herb butter, new potatoes, carrots and broccoli spears, clearly making up for the richness of the pudding she’d chosen. Strange, Madison thought, how in such a short space of time he’d come to know her far better than her ex-husband had in the whole time they’d been together. If only…

      She suppressed the thought. ‘So what will you do when Doug comes back?’ she asked. ‘Are you going back to Greece or applying for a senior consultant’s post in England?’

      ‘I haven’t really decided yet.’ He lifted one shoulder. ‘You know, this panna cotta is excellent. Good choice.’

      Yet again he’d switched the subject away from himself. In a nice way and with a smile, but Madison was starting to wish that he’d let her close. That he’d trust her. He’d claimed that he hadn’t been hurt in a previous relationship, but why else would someone put up all those barriers and keep their work and their emotional life so compartmentalised?

      He was making coffee when the phone rang. ‘I’ll let it go through to the answering-machine,’ he said.

      But after the beep, there was a pause. Then a formal, ‘Kalispera, Theo,’ followed by rapid Greek.

      He frowned.