A Christmas Knight. Kate Hardy

greeted her warmly, and then Essie motioned to the man who was sitting apart from the others, reading a medical journal.

      ‘Louisa, this is Dominic Hurst, our senior reg. Dominic—Louisa Austin, our new nurse practitioner.’

      Essie had described him as looking like Prince Charming. And that wasn’t the half of it, Louisa thought. Dominic Hurst looked like a Pre-Raphaelite painting of a medieval prince, all dark flowing locks and fair skin and chiselled cheekbones and dark, dark eyes. Even dressed simply in a plain white shirt, sober tie and dark trousers, he was incredibly striking. No wonder women fell at his feet in droves. He was tall—just over six feet, she’d guess—and, at close range, those navy-blue eyes were devastating. Not to mention that beautiful mouth, which sent all kinds of crazy thoughts spinning through her head.

      ‘Pleased to meet you, Dr Hurst,’ she said politely.

      He looked up from the journal and blinked. ‘Sorry?’

      ‘Dominic, I can’t believe you’re still working when you’re on a break.’ Essie rolled her eyes. ‘You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?’

      ‘’Fraid not. I was reading.’ He gave her a wry smile. ‘Sorry.’

      ‘This is Louisa Austin, our new nurse practitioner,’ Essie repeated.

      ‘Pleased to meet you, Nurse Practitioner Austin.’

      Dominic’s handshake was firm, precise and brief—and it felt as if an electric current was running through her veins. Which was crazy, because she never reacted like that to anyone. It hadn’t even been like that with Jack, in the good days. So why now? And why this man?

      ‘Louisa’s looking for riding lessons, because her son likes horses,’ Essie continued, and Dominic’s expression turned wary.

      Oh, for pity’s sake, did he think she was going to use her child as an excuse to come on to him? Still, she wasn’t going to be rude to him. ‘He does indeed. He wants to be a knight when he grows up,’ Louisa said, keeping her tone light.

      If anything, Dominic’s expression grew even warier. She didn’t have the faintest idea why, but despite Essie’s suggestion she wasn’t going to bother asking him if he could recommend any riding stables locally. Clearly he’d take it the wrong way, so she’d be better off doing what she always did and sorting it out for herself.

      Dominic Hurst might look like Prince Charming, but he definitely didn’t have a charming manner. She sincerely hoped he was better in a work situation, for the sake of his patients and his colleagues. She made a polite murmur, and to her relief Essie stepped in again. ‘Let me introduce you to Sasha and Ronnie,’ Essie said, and swept Louisa over to where two women were making coffee.

      Dominic took a gulp of coffee. Whatever was the matter with him? It was the poor woman’s first day in the department and he’d been rude to her.

      Well, not rude, exactly—he had at least acknowledged her and shaken her hand.

      But the zing of attraction when her skin had touched his had thrown him, made him tongue-tied. Which was crazy, because he was never that boorish. Essie had even given him an opening, saying that Louisa was looking for riding lessons for her child. He could’ve given her Ric and Bea’s number, because he knew they had a couple of spaces on their list. They’d talked about it last night, how people were cutting back on extras in the recession and riding lessons were expensive, and Bea had suggested that they should hold an open day to get people interested in the stables.

      But then Louisa had said something that slammed right through him. He wants to be a knight when he grows up. Yeah. Been there, done that, and the absolute worst had happened.

      Though that wasn’t her fault and he shouldn’t have taken it out on her.

      He’d apologise later, and hopefully she wouldn’t hold it against him if she was needed to work with his team in Resus.

      Riding lessons. For her son.

      Though she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. And there wasn’t a tell-tale band of pale skin on her finger to say she’d removed it for work. He’d looked. And he was cross with himself for looking.

      Dominic took another gulp of coffee, needing the bitter liquid to jolt some sense back into him. Louisa Austin was gorgeous, with beautiful grey eyes and long dark hair; she’d tied it back hygienically for work, but he could imagine what it looked like loose. Like waves of shiny silk. Her mouth was a perfect rosebud, and it sent a shiver of pure desire running through him, along with an insane urge to find out how it would feel against his own mouth. It had been a long, long time since he’d felt an attraction that strong and that immediate—and that was what had thrown him most.

      He knew that it would be pretty stupid to act on that attraction. He wasn’t in the market for a relationship; and, even if he was, Louisa had a son. Which meant that either she was already spoken for, despite the lack of a wedding ring, or she was a single parent who’d be wary of taking any risks in a relationship, for her child’s sake, and would want someone responsible in her life.

      Responsible.

      Right.

      Which was about as far from him as you could get: hadn’t he ruined his brother’s life, two years ago?

      He needed to get out of here. Now.

      ‘No rest for the wicked,’ he said, striding over to the sink and rinsing out his mug. ‘If we’re to have any chance of meeting our targets today, I’d better get back out there and hope Resus stays quiet for the rest of the afternoon. Welcome to the team, Nurse Practitioner Austin.’ And he left the rest room before he could do anything ridiculous. Like asking her to have lunch with him tomorrow so they could get to know each other a little better.

      The rest of Louisa’s shift turned out to be as busy as the morning, but she managed to get to the after-school club on time to meet Tyler.

      ‘Hi, Mum.’ He gave her the shy smile that always made her melt.

      ‘How was your day, honey?’ She gave him a hug.

      ‘OK.’

      ‘Best bit?’

      ‘Lunch. We had pasta. It wasn’t as good as yours, though.’

      She really hoped that he hadn’t actually said that to the dinner ladies. She could still remember the time they’d had Sunday lunch at her best friend’s house and then, when asked if he’d enjoyed it, he’d very politely thanked Mel and gone on to tell her that her gravy was slimy and her potatoes weren’t nice and crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle like his mother’s were. Luckily Mel hadn’t taken it to heart, but Louisa had had to explain to Tyler that sometimes it was OK to tell a little fib so you didn’t hurt people’s feelings. And even after she’d finished explaining, he still didn’t get it. ‘Let’s go home and make dinner. Do you have any spellings or times tables I need to test you on?’

      ‘No. Do you want to see the horse I drew at lunch-time?’ He had his sketchbook out of his schoolbag as soon as he’d put his seat belt on.

      She stared at the drawing in awe. ‘It’s beautiful, darling.’ The horse was drawn in painstaking detail, and was incredibly realistic. Tyler really did have a talent for art—something she could only assume came from Jack’s side, because nobody in her side of the family was arty. But there was nobody to ask, because Jack’s family had severed all connection with them as soon as Jack had left—and for the same reason.

      Though it didn’t bother her any more. She knew that she and Ty were better off without them. Her parents accepted Tyler as he was and gave him enough love for two sets of grandparents. They didn’t need the Listons.

      Tyler disappeared to his room as soon as they got home, and Louisa knew exactly what he was doing. Putting his drawing in a plastic wallet, labelling it and adding it to his database. One good thing about having a son who was obsessed with order was that