The Greek Billionaire's Love-Child

Tamsin was panting for breath but she stopped clawing at the mask and pointed to a dress.

‘Pink? Good choice. I love pink, too.’ Ella pulled the pink dress over the doll’s head and Tamsin reached out a hand for the doll.

‘Say please, Tams,’ the child’s mother muttered, but Ella didn’t care about manners. She just wanted the child to keep the oxygen mask on.

‘Are you going to help me put a mask on Angie? Oops—it’s a bit big.’

Forgetting her own mask, Tamsin tried to help the doll.

‘Good girl. Aren’t you clever? She’ll soon be feeling all better.’ As Ella praised the child she glanced at the monitor again and felt a flash of unease. Worried about what she was seeing, she glanced at the child’s mother. ‘Amanda, has she had an attack like this before?’

‘Nothing this severe.’ The woman was cradling a young baby and trying to calm Tamsin at the same time. ‘Just breathe through the mask like the nurse is telling you, Tams.’

‘Has she had a cold? Any sort of infection you’re aware of?’

‘Nothing.’ The baby started to cry and Amanda shifted the tiny bundle onto her shoulder with an apologetic look. ‘Sorry. I wouldn’t have brought the baby but I didn’t have anyone to leave her with. Shh, Poppy—not now. Good girl, hush.’

Alan pushed his glasses higher up his nose. ‘Someone could give your husband a ring, if that would help?’

Amanda gave a quick shake of her head and looked anxiously at Tamsin, clearly afraid of upsetting her still more. ‘He’s not on the scene any more,’ she murmured quietly. ‘Not since he discovered I was having this one.’

Ella felt a rush of sadness as she focused on Tamsin’s sweet face. Long eyelashes. Blonde curls. And no father.

Another fractured family.

He should be here, she thought grimly, holding his little girl when she needed him.

Mortified at having been tactless, Alan mumbled an apology, but Ella was too concerned about the condition of the little girl to dwell on the unreliability of the male gender.

‘Alan, that salbutamol inhaler isn’t having much of an effect. Do you want to give her some prednisolone?’

‘She doesn’t seem to be wheezing that badly.’ Wary of approaching the child and unsettling her again, Alan hovered a safe distance from the trolley. ‘Perhaps we ought to just try checking her peak flow?’

‘She won’t be able to manage it. She’s too young.’ Ella contemplated telling him that wheeze didn’t give an accurate indication of airway obstruction, but decided it would be better to mention it later when they were alone. She didn’t want to worry the child or the mother.

Suddenly she wished that Nikos hadn’t chosen that moment to disappear with Ruth. It was impossible not to compare Alan’s hesitant, hyper-conservative style with Nikos’s bold, fearless approach to every emergency that crossed his path. He might be the last man in the world she wanted to see personally, but professionally he was a dream.

She was swiftly weighing up her options when Tamsin’s small hand slid into hers. She looked exhausted and frightened, but the trust in her eyes tugged at Ella’s heart.

‘You’re going to be fine, sweetheart. We’ll make you better.’ Her hand tightening over the child’s, Ella looked at Alan. ‘She needs prednisolone.’ She spoke firmly, hoping that Alan would realise that she had experience in this area and just agree with her. ‘I think a dose of 20 milligrams would be a good idea.’

Alan rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. ‘I’m wondering whether perhaps I might just pick the prof’s brains on this one.’

Ella gritted her teeth. ‘Go ahead.’ She didn’t really care, just as long as someone with more experience than Alan checked the little girl. ‘See if he’s free.’ Do it now.

As if the cosmos had ordered it, Nikos strode into the room at that moment. He’d shed his jacket, rolled his shirtsleeves up to the elbows and everything about him was relaxed and confident. ‘Everything all right in here?’

‘Professor…’ Alan straightened, a flicker of awe in his eyes. ‘We weren’t sure whether or not to go straight ahead and give her a dose of prednisolone or wait a bit and see if the inhalation improves her breathing. It’s been a bit tricky, persuading her to co-operate.’

Nikos took one look at the gasping child and murmured, ‘Give the prednisolone—now,’ in a tone that suggested the question should never have been asked.

Alan gave Ella an apologetic look and she gently pulled her hand from Tamsin’s. ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she soothed as the child gave a whimper of protest and clutched at the air. ‘I’m right here. Just getting you something to help you breathe.’

She felt Nikos’s gaze on her as she reached for the dose she’d already prepared in anticipation of that exact outcome.

‘Her sats are 95 percent.’ Ella turned back to the child, making encouraging noises as she coaxed the medicine down the little girl, painfully conscious of Nikos’s powerful frame on the other side of the trolley. ‘The charts are behind you if you want to take a look.’

But Nikos didn’t look at the charts. He was looking at his little patient.

‘Tamsin?’ A smile danced in his eyes and his expression changed from detached to playful. ‘You have no idea how happy I am to see you.’

Tamsin shrank closer to Ella, like a tortoise retreating into the safety of its shell to hide from danger. ‘Go away.’

Nikos leaned on the trolley to reduce his height and make himself less intimidating. ‘I will if you want me to, but first I was hoping if you could help me out with this. I have no idea what to do with it.’ From his pocket he produced a small stuffed mermaid with long golden hair. Despite her growing stress levels Ella couldn’t help smiling because it was so typical of him to know exactly how to relate to each patient.

People said he was cold, but she knew that wasn’t always the case.

The little girl’s expression changed from panic to interest. Still clutching Ella’s hand, she reached out for the toy, but Nikos held it just out of reach. ‘First you have to give her a name. What are we going to call her?’

Ella caught the startled expression on Alan’s face and knew that he was wondering why a professor of international repute would choose this moment to play mermaids with a little girl.

He looked at Nikos and saw him playing a frivolous game.

But Ella saw something very different.

She saw a skilled doctor using a distraction technique as a tool to give him answers. She saw Nikos’s gaze rest on the child’s chest as he assessed her breathing. She saw him encouraging the child to speak to him, so that he could evaluate how breathless she was.

And she saw a more relaxed child.

Look and learn, Alan, she thought wryly.

Nikos removed his stethoscope from his pocket. Tamsin immediately tensed and opened her mouth to protest loudly, but Nikos simply smiled and listened to the mermaid’s chest, a look of total concentration on his handsome face.

‘Well?’ Playing along, Ella asked the question with a solemn expression on her face. ‘How’s the mermaid?’

Nikos nodded slowly. ‘I think she might have swallowed some sea water but, other than that, she is good.’

Tamsin grabbed at the stethoscope. ‘Me.’

‘You want a turn?’ Ella stroked Tamsin’s silken curls. ‘Would you like to listen?’ She took Nikos’s stethoscope and pretended to put it to the child’s ears.

Seeing Ella smiling at Nikos, Tamsin started to relax. And Nikos was so skilful at dealing with her that by the time he finally placed the stethoscope on the child’s chest, the little girl was so fascinated by him that she simply reached up a chubby hand and tugged at his dark hair. Then she pushed the mermaid in front of him again and Nikos smiled.

‘She’s all yours, koritsi mou. Make sure you look after her.’

Ella felt her heart flip because this side of him always left her in a puddle. She’d seen him verbally dissect experienced doctors who had fallen short of his expectations, she knew he was capable of being ruthless when the need arose, and yet with a small child he was a pussy cat—extraordinarily gentle, all that latent strength and power firmly leashed.

It was so hard to hate this man. So hard.

Choked by the thought of what could have been, she concentrated her attention on the monitor.

‘Her sats are improving.’

Nikos nodded. ‘She’s doing fine.’

Despite the simmering tension between them, they worked together seamlessly, their movements smooth and slick as they did what needed to be done—a veneer of normality covering dangerous undercurrents…

Twice his fingers brushed against hers and in the end Ella stepped back from the trolley because although he was clearly indifferent to her, she didn’t think she had the control to be this close to him and not react. He registered her retreat with a faint narrowing of his eyes and she wished she knew what he was thinking.

Why was he so angry?

He should have been thanking her for making things easy for him.

For quietly accepting his cold email brush-off.

She studied his handsome face for signs of strain—some evidence that the separation of the last four months might have affected him in the same way that it had affected her. Had he lost weight? Did he look as though he’d suffered?

But his face showed no sign of the ravages of worry. He looked strong and healthy, as if the weaknesses that permeated other mortals were afraid to lay a hand on him. The collar of his white shirt was undone and for a moment Ella’s gaze lingered on the strong column of his throat, remembering how many times she’d pressed her mouth to that exact place. And his skin was a deeper bronze than usual, suggesting exposure to a more generous climate than that enjoyed by the South of England. Which reminded her of just one thing.

He’d been back in Greece.

With his beautiful Greek wife?

The pain almost split her in two and with the pain came anger.

He’d betrayed her and she needed to remember that. What she didn’t need was to be seduced all over again by his skills as a doctor.

‘So—her breathing is much improved.’ Having won the child’s confidence, Nikos addressed his remark to the little girl’s mother. ‘We need to try and establish what might have caused this attack. Her asthma is usually well managed?’

Still jiggling the baby in her arms, the woman nodded. ‘Yes. In the winter she sometimes has problems if she has a chest infection, but nothing like this. We’ve rented a house on the coast with my sister and her family. One minute she was playing happily, the next she couldn’t breathe.’

‘And she is well at the moment? No cold? No temperature?’ As he questioned the mother Nikos carried on examining Tamsin, this time checking her throat and her ears, feeling her glands and doing the same with the mermaid whenever required to do so by the little girl. ‘Nothing different?’

Ella’s heart jerked as her eyes settled on his skilled, bronzed fingers. Fingers that could save a life or drive a woman crazy.

She had so many questions.

Why was a billionaire playing at being a doctor?

Why hadn’t he told her the truth about himself?

The mother was trying to give him the answers he wanted. ‘I can’t think of anything. She hasn’t even been on the beach much because the children have mostly been playing in the house with the puppy.’

Nikos raised an eyebrow. ‘Puppy?’

‘I’m on holiday with my sister. They bought a puppy last week. A little spaniel. Tamsin loves the dog. They’ve been sleeping together.’

Ella exchanged a brief glance with Nikos just as the little girl snatched the mask off her face.

‘Want to see Bruno.’

‘Keep the mask on, Tams. Oh, my goodness.’ Her mother was staring at Nikos. ‘You think it might be the dog? Some sort of allergy? I hadn’t thought of that.’

‘It’s possible.’ Nikos reached for the notes. ‘For the rest of the holiday play with the dog outside, not inside. When you get home, go and see your own doctor and talk it through with him. He might want to rethink your management plan.’

‘Do you want to do a chest X-ray?’ Ella asked. ‘Shall I phone the radiographer?’

Nikos shook his head. ‘Her oxygen saturation is improving, her heart rate has come down and her breathing has improved. I’m happy with that. You can move her to one of the cubicles and she can play for a while. If she’s all right in an hour, she can go home.’

‘I wish my sister would pick up my message and call. They’ve all gone for a walk.’ Tamsin’s mother fretted as the baby’s wails grew louder. ‘I want her to take the baby so that I can give Tams some attention.’

‘The baby is probably picking up on your stress levels.’ Ella held out her arms. ‘Give her to me for a moment. I’ll hold her while you give Tamsin a cuddle.’ She took the baby, her heart melting as she studied the child’s miniature features. If she felt like this about a stranger’s baby, how would she feel about her own? ‘There, now, Poppy. I bet you’re wondering what you’re doing in this strange place.’ She murmured nonsense to the baby who promptly stopped crying and stared up at Ella.

Holding the baby securely, Ella smiled at her.

Apparently reassured and intrigued by a new face, the baby smiled back.

‘She smiled!’ Her arm around Tamsin and the mermaid, Amanda laughed with amazement and delight. ‘Did you see that, Tams? Poppy smiled at Ella. It’s the first time. She was six weeks yesterday and we’ve all been trying to get her to smile. You’ve obviously got the touch. Do you have kids of your own?’

Ella’s eyes shifted from the baby to Nikos and found him looking at her with an almost fierce intensity. The emotion inside her tumbled and threatened to spill over.

‘No,’ she said huskily, dragging her gaze from his before she made a fool of herself. ‘I don’t have children.’

‘Oh, well, plenty of time.’ Amanda stroked her daughter’s hair. ‘First you have to find that prince, don’t you, Tams?’ There was a wistful note in her voice that said her own ‘prince’ had fallen far short of expectations and Ella frowned slightly, wondering whether it was a good thing to fill a child’s head with fairy stories.

If she had a little girl, she wouldn’t do that, she vowed silently. She’d bring her up to have realistic expectations of life.

No relying on fictitious princes for happiness.

Without looking at Nikos, she handed the cooing, contented baby back to Amanda and, at that moment, another nurse popped her head in with an urgent request for him to look at another sick child.

With a smile at Tamsin and a fulminating look at Ella that promised a future far more complicated than that of any fairy story, he left the cubicle.

Ella felt a flicker of panic as she transferred Tamsin into one of the cubicles and contemplated the inevitable confrontation. What was he going to say to her? What excuses would he give? Was he going to tell her that his wife didn’t understand him? That their marriage was in name only?

Frustrated with herself, she fished a book out off the shelf and sat down next to Tamsin. Nikos was married. The exact circumstances of that marriage were irrelevant. All that was between them was recriminations. And, on her part, self-blame.

Would he apologise for not telling her the truth?

Or was he one of those men who thought affairs were a natural part of marriage?

Forcing herself to concentrate, she read to Tamsin for a bit and then let her play with toys.

An hour later Nikos reappeared and pronounced her well enough to be discharged.

‘Thanks so much for everything.’ Amanda held Poppy against her shoulder with one hand, while Tamsin tugged at the other. ‘You’ve been so great. Thank you.’

Nikos was writing up the notes as Tamsin dropped her mother’s hand and held out her arms to Ella.

‘Play.’

‘No more playing today. You’re going home, Tamsin.’ Ella dropped into a crouch and smiled at her new friend. ‘And you’re going to have a lovely holiday.’

‘You come.’ Tamsin grabbed Ella’s hand and gave her a tug.

Ella laughed and stood up. ‘Now, that’s a tempting invitation.’ The way she felt at the moment she’d do anything to escape from the prospect of working with Nikos. ‘Unfortunately, I can’t come home with you.’

‘I wish you could,’ Amanda breathed. ‘You’re a miracle with the children. You have a real way about you.’

Ella saw Nikos’s pen still and wondered what he was thinking.

Did he feel regret that they could never be a proper family?

Guilt that his child would grow up without a father?

Pushing that thought aside, she guided Amanda and the children out of the department and then reluctantly returned to the cubicle.

Fortunately there was no sign of Nikos and Ella felt a rush of relief as she cleared and restocked the room ready for the next patient.

The tension had formed a knot inside her stomach and she reminded herself that he wasn’t going to say anything while they were at work.

Having used that fact to calm herself, she turned to leave the room only to find Nikos blocking her exit, his legs spread apart in a confrontational stance, the look in his black eyes dark and dangerous.

This time there was no evidence of gentleness or kindness. This wasn’t a man who would be pulling a mermaid out of his pocket.

Anger surrounded him like a forcefield.

Closing the door firmly behind him, he strolled forward until his body was brushing against hers. ‘It’s time you and I had a conversation, agape mou.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘I DON’T have anything to say to you, Nikos.’ Heart racing, desperately flustered, Ella pushed at his shoulders but he didn’t budge.

This wasn’t a man about to apologise for anything. Mouth grim, he backed her against the wall and planted an arm either side of her shoulders, imprisoning her and blocking her escape. Through the fabric of his shirt she could feel the heat and power of his body and the immediate response of hers, and it appalled her that she could still feel like this after the casual, careless way he’d treated her.

He didn’t care and yet still she couldn’t switch off the screaming need inside her.

Her body was no judge of character, she thought bitterly, turning her eyes away from his in the hope of reducing temptation. He was everything male, from the top of his glossy dark head, down six feet four inches of supremely fit body, to the arrogant way he stood in front of her, as if he owned the world.

Which apparently he did, she thought, biting back a hysterical laugh as she remembered all the things she’d learned about him during that one, awful afternoon four months ago.

‘You don’t have anything to say to me? You are pregnant with my child and you don’t think you have anything to say to me?’ His voice shook with emotion, his eyes narrowed to dangerous slits as he focused on her face. ‘Answer me one question—were you going to tell me? If your friend Helen hadn’t written that letter, would you have told me?’

‘Why would you even care?’

The hiss of his breath was the only sound in the room. ‘You are seriously asking me that question?’

She pushed at his chest, the enormity of the issue closing in on her like huge brick walls. ‘We can’t talk about this here. It’s going to have to wait until we’ve finished work.’

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