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One Night With Dr Nikolaides: One Night with Dr Nikolaides
Tina Beckett
Annie O'Neil


About the Authors (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
ANNIE O’NEIL spent most of her childhood with her leg draped over the family rocking chair and a book in her hand. Novels, baking, and writing too much teenage angst poetry ate up most of her youth. Now Annie splits her time between corralling her husband into helping her with their cows, baking, reading, barrel racing (not really!) and spending some very happy hours at her computer, writing.
Three-time Golden Heart® finalist TINA BECKETT learned to pack her suitcases almost before she learned to read. Born to a military family, she has lived in the United States, Puerto Rico, Portugal and Brazil. In addition to travelling, Tina loves to cuddle with her pug, Alex, spend time with her family, and hit the trails on her horse. Learn more about Tina from her website, or ‘friend’ her on Facebook.
Also By Annie O’Neil
Her Knight Under the Mistletoe
Reunited with Her Parisian Surgeon
Italian Royals miniseries
Tempted by the Bridesmaid
Claiming His Pregnant Princess
Hot Greek Docs collection
One Night with Dr NikolaidesTempted by Dr Patera by Tina Beckett
And look out for the next two books
Back in Dr Xenakis’ Arms by Amalie Berlin A Date with Dr Moustakas by Amy Ruttan Available July 2018
Also By Tina Beckett
Rafael’s One Night Bombshell
The Doctors’ Baby Miracle
Hot Brazilian Docs! miniseries
To Play with Fire
The Dangers of Dating Dr Carvalho
The Doctor’s Forbidden Temptation
From Passion to Pregnancy
Hot Greek Docs collection
One Night with Dr Nikolaides by Annie O’Neil Tempted by Dr Patera
And look out for the next two books
Back in Dr Xenakis’ Arms by Amalie Berlin A Date with Dr Moustakas by Amy Ruttan Available July 2018
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
One Night with Dr Nikolaides/Tempted by Dr Patera
One Night with Dr Nikolaides
Annie O’Neil
Tempted by Dr Patera
Tina Beckett


www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09576-1
ONE NIGHT WITH DR NIKOLAIDES/TEMPTED BY DR PATERA
One Night with Dr Nikolaides © 2018 Annie O’Neil Tempted by Dr Patera © 2018 Tina Beckett
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Table of Contents
Cover (#u744339cd-9edf-5d83-b66c-85bf20a3f8f9)
About the Authors (#u62ed1f12-42b0-5342-a625-a8103eb79a2e)
Booklist (#u1819cafc-2096-5707-8f3d-b12e31c05966)
Title Page (#u2eb79015-28d8-5fbd-81fc-774d5ad899e7)
Copyright (#uc68f035f-19d9-53d9-a457-577bc07a5955)
One Night with Dr Nikolaides (#u6fe400d1-5695-50f6-8403-d329a7fa0176)
Back Cover Text (#u9a4d3542-8733-5e5f-8b68-7e1e40bbc99f)
Dedication (#u6bddb996-5a25-53d9-9320-6f092fa6f4a5)
CHAPTER ONE (#uebfa522a-72ba-59aa-805c-3f26cc0236ad)
CHAPTER TWO (#ucfaa39b8-efce-57b9-b030-3a88ba13e699)
CHAPTER THREE (#uc9ebc585-ec73-5b77-9959-74e0c59cc97a)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u1e00be02-d710-504e-a496-3e3b88ced717)
CHAPTER FIVE (#ubcc19242-a429-5dd3-b41d-9d12f82caa52)
CHAPTER SIX (#u1c79fa9f-c218-555e-ba79-aff88d1c7026)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#u15a3da13-b94e-59a7-a9fc-54f18d14727c)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#u460ee0a6-24f2-5107-a75a-d8a79e0eb3f1)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
Tempted by Dr Patera (#litres_trial_promo)
Back Cover Text (#litres_trial_promo)
Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
One Night with Dr Nikolaides (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
Annie O’Neil
One night...
That could change her life forever!
In this Hot Greek Docs story, when an earthquake hits the Greek island of Mythelios, nurse Cailey Tomaras rushes to help—only to encounter childhood crush Dr. Theo Nikolaides! As the trauma fades, they find comfort between the sheets... But when Cailey realizes the consequences of that night, she must prove to lone wolf Theo that he’d make the perfect dad.
This book is dedicated, for the rollercoaster ride of creativity, to Amalie, Amy and Tina. You’re all amazing. xx A
CHAPTER ONE (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
THEO’S EYES FOLLOWED the wheeled supplies trolley as it rolled past the exam bed. The moan and creak of concrete against steel shot his senses to high alert.
When his fingers were unable to gain purchase on the delicate needle he’d been reaching for he knew what was happening.
“Up you come!” He pulled the little boy he’d been treating from the exam table to his chest, careful to mind his freshly sutured knee. “You too.” He beckoned for the boy’s mother to stand in the doorframe, grateful for the modern reinforced framework they’d insisted on for the clinic.
She stood frozen with fear. Pragmatism demanded he pull her close to him, certain it was the safest place to be. Earthquakes weren’t common in the Greek islands, but the archipelago had been subject to more than its fair share over the past few years.
“I know it’s frightening, but you must stay here!” He held the terrified mother, a young woman he’d gone to school with, close to him. “Alida, please.”
He tightened his grip, fighting the urge to cough as the shift and strain of drywall released chalky clouds of gypsum into the air.
“The clinic is the safest place to be.”
His voice ended up sounding harsher than he’d intended. Harsh for the voice of a schoolfriend and a doctor. But the clinic had never borne the test of an actual earthquake, and as the seconds ground and rasped into minutes he knew the uncompromising deal he’d made with his father had been the right one. Pride for money.
An infinitesimal wince crossed his face as he remembered the handshake that had sealed his fate.
“What is happening?”
He held the pair of them tight, the toddler clinging to his shoulders, soft whimpers of fear vibrating along his small chest into Theo’s.
Alida tried to take her son and run. A natural instinct, he presumed. To care. Protect. Put one’s own life on the line to save that of your child.
His lips thinned. That wasn’t a childhood he’d known. And what had followed in its wake wasn’t worth thinking about. Not anymore.
Waves splashed up against the back of the clinic...the secure dock had been rendered invisible. The normal gentle hum and buzz of the clinic had been replaced by a cacophony of tightly issued instructions. Phones. Alarms.
Theo lifted his eyes to the invisible heavens in thanks for the emergency training they’d insisted upon for all the staff. He and his “brothers” had never wanted anyone to feel any unnecessary pain or fear when they entered the doors of the Mythelios Free Clinic. The Malakas of Mythelios. His best friends. The closest thing he had to a real family after his own had proved to be nothing more than a mirage.
He’d get on the phone to them as soon as possible. His gut told him that whatever was happening beyond these sheltered walls would demand all of them this time. If he could even track them down...
Ares was usually in the world’s latest hellhole, doing his best to put a dent in its need for medical care. Deakin’s specialist burn treatment skills were in demand worldwide. Heaven knew where he was now. And Chris, a neurosurgeon, could usually be found in New York City. If he wanted to be found, that was. More often than not he didn’t.
Not that it had stopped him from posing for that insane calendar of local island men that had been organized to raise funds for the clinic. Ooopaa! Theo’s eyes followed that very calendar’s trajectory across the room as it slid to the floor behind the reception desk. It was his month anyway. No great loss.
Again Alida tried to pull her son away from him and run. “It’s gone on too long!”
“It’s nearly over now,” he soothed. As if he knew. Earthquakes could last for seconds or minutes. There’d been tremors on the island before, but nothing like this. The Richter scale would be near to double digits. Of that he had no doubt.
He tuned in to the chaos, breaking it down and putting it back together into some sort of comprehensible order. Rattling. Sharp cries of concern. Sensory discord.
As much as Alida struggled against him, pleaded with him to free her and let her run from the building, Theo’s instinct was to stay put and work through it. These were his patients. His clinic. He’d promised them solace and care from the moment they entered the bougainvillea-laced doors and he’d meant it with every pore in his body.
The need to launch into action, preparing for the storm bound to follow in the earthquake’s wake, crackled through his body like electricity. It was likely only seconds had passed—a minute or two at most—but each moment had shaken the island to its core.
He heard a woman cry out in pain.
“Get in a doorway!” he shouted, his broad hands cupping the child and Alida’s heads.
Not being able to control what was happening made Theo want to roar with frustration.
“Is it over?” Alida’s voice was barely audible amidst the rising chaos of human voices.
Theo shook his head, tightening his grip so that she didn’t leave until he was positive it was safe.
How soon were aftershocks? Immediate? The next day?
This was the cruelty of nature. You simply didn’t know.
The same way you didn’t know if the parents who gave birth to you would act like Alida—protectively—or like his—abandoning him at the first opportunity.
He shook his head clear of the thought. They didn’t deserve one second of his attention. The people here did. The people he’d vowed to care for.
He shouted out a few instructions. Their clinic was a small one, but there must be at least fifty people there. Doctors, nurses, patients, a few older patients who needed more care in the overnight wards.
Another crash of waves and the howl of the earth fighting against the manmade buildings upon her surface filled his senses.
Please let the clinic be spared.
He tightened his grip on the mother and child, wondering for just an instant what it would be like to hold his own wife and child. What lengths would he go to for them?
Another tremor gripped the ground beneath them.
All thoughts other than survival left him.
Theós. Let us be spared.
CHAPTER TWO (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
FOLD, FOLD AND TUCK.
Just the way her mother had taught her.
Perfect.
Cailey gave a satisfied grin at her swaddling handiwork, popped a kiss onto her finger, then onto the baby’s nose, all the while imagining her mum giving her a congratulatory smothering hug before pulling out a huge plate of souvlaki for them to share. Or bougatsa. Or whatever it was she had magicked up in her tiny, tiny kitchen. Miracles, usually.
She ran her finger along the infant’s face. “Look at you, little mou. So perfect. You’ve got your entire life to look forward to. No Greek bad boys breaking your heart. That’s my lesson to you. No Greeks.”
“Are you trying to brainwash the babies again, Cailey?”
Cailey looked across, surprised she hadn’t even noticed that her colleague Emily had entered the nursery. The more time she spent with the babies, the more she was getting lost in cloud cuckoo land!
“Yes.” She grinned mischievously, then turned to the baby to advise her soberly, “No Greeks. And no doctors.”
“Hey!” Emily playfully elbowed her in the ribs. “I’ve just started dating a doctor, and I won’t mind admitting it’s a very welcome step up in the world.”
Wrong answer!
“And what, exactly, is wrong with being a nurse?”
“Not a thing, little Miss Paranoid.”
Emily’s arched eyebrows and narrowed eyes made her squirm.
“Looks like someone’s had her heart broken by a doctor. A Greek doctor, to be precise.”
“Pffft.”
Emily laughed. “All the proof I needed.”
She moved to one of the cots and picked up an infant who was fussing.
“C’mon. Out with it. Who was the big, bad Greek doctor who broke our lovely Cailey’s heart?”
“No one.”
Someone.
“Liar.” Emily laughed again.
She shrugged as casually as she could. Maybe she was a liar, but leaving her small town, small island, and archaically minded country behind for the bright lights of London had been for one purpose and one purpose only—to forget a very green-eyed, chestnut-haired Adonis who would, for the purposes of this particular conversation, remain anonymous.
Cailey lifted the freshly swaddled infant, all cozy in her striped pink blanket, and nuzzled up close to her. Mmm. New baby smell.
Life as a maternity nurse was amazing, but rather than mute her urges to hold a child of her own it had only set the sirens on full blast.
Twenty-seven wasn’t that old in the greater scheme of things. And Theo wasn’t the only man in the universe. Definitely not her man. So...
“Cailey?”
The charge nurse...what was her name again? Molly? Kate...? Heidi? There had been so many new names and faces to learn since she’d started at this premier maternity hospital she’d become a bit dizzy with trying to remember them all... She ran through the names in her mind again...
High on the hill was the highest nurse... Heidi!
She squinted at her boss’s name tag.
Heidi.
Ha! Excellent. The memory games she’d been playing were paying off. She knew she’d battle her dyslexia one way or another. She’d done enough to get this far in her medical career, though it would never take the sting out of the fact that she’d most likely never become the doctor she’d always dreamt of being.
“Sorry to interrupt, love, but I think you might want to see this.”
Cailey gave the infant—Beatrice Chrysanthemum, according to her name card—a final nuzzle before settling her back into the tiny bassinet and following Heidi along to the staffroom, where a television was playing on a stand in the corner of the room.
It was a news channel. The ticker tape at the bottom of the screen was rolling with numbers...casualties? Cailey’s eyes flicked back up to the main news story. There were familiar-looking buildings—but not as she was used to seeing them.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Emily walk in, reach for the remote and turn up the volume. At first the English words and the images of a Greece she didn’t quite recognize wouldn’t register. They were a series of disconnected phrases and pictures that weren’t falling into place.
“Isn’t that the island you’re from?” Emma prompted. “Mythelios?”
Cailey nodded in slow motion as everything began falling into place.
An earthquake. Fatalities. Ongoing rescue efforts.
Her heart stopped still. The pictures of devastation had switched to a live interview being conducted outside the clinic in the fading daylight.
Of course it was him. Who else could command the world’s attention?
There, front and center, more breathtakingly gorgeous than she’d allowed herself to remember, was Dr. Theo Nikolaides, appealing for any and all medical personnel who could help to come to Greece in its time of need.
She tried not to morph his entreaty for help into an arrogant call for “the little people” to come and do the dirty work while he took the glory. This was a crisis and all hands were helping hands—not rich or poor, just hands.
She stared at her own hands...her fingers so accustomed to work...
“Cailey?” Heidi touched her arm. “Are you all right?”
She turned her hands back and forth in the afternoon light as the news sank in. People were hurt. Her mother could be hurt. Her brothers...
A flame lit in her chest. One she knew wouldn’t abate until she was on a plane home.
No matter how much she hated Theo, hated the wounds his words had etched into her psyche, she would have to go home. Islanders helped one another—no matter what.
“I’m fine. But my island isn’t. I’m afraid I’m going to need some time off.”
CHAPTER THREE (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
IT WAS ALL Cailey could do not to jump off the ferry and swim to shore. Flights to the island had been canceled because of earthquake damage to the runway, but it hadn’t put her off coming. The same way a childhood crush gone epically wrong wouldn’t stop her from helping. Not when her fellow islanders needed her. And this time she would be able to do more than help with the clean-up.
Ducking out of the wind, she pulled her mobile out of her pocket and dialed the familiar number. She wanted to hit the ground running—literally—but if her mother found out she’d come back and hadn’t checked in first it would be delicious slices of guilt pie from here on out.
“Mama?”
Static crackled through the handset. She strained to listen through the roar of the ferry’s engine’s.
“...seen Theo?” her mother asked.
Theo?
Why was her mother asking about him? She’d come back to the island to help, not answer questions about her teenage crush. Surely ten years meant she’d moved on enough in her life for people to stop asking if her heart had mended yet?
“Mama. If you’re all right...” she parsed out the words slowly “...I’ll go straight to the clinic.”
“Go...clinic... Theo...love...brothers...getting by...”
Cailey held out the handset and stared at it. She’d spoken briefly to her mum before she’d boarded her flight last night, so she knew her brothers were unhurt and, of course, already out working. As was her mother who—surprise, surprise—had already gathered a brigade of women to feed the rescue crews and survivors at the local taverna.
A Greek mother, she’d reminded Cailey time and again, was nothing if not a provider of food in times of crisis.
But...love and Theo in the same sentence?
Had her mother gone completely mad or was the dodgy reception playing havoc with her sanity?
“See you soon, Mama. I love you,” she shouted into the phone, before ending the call and adding grumpily, “But not Theo!”
She glared at the handset before giving it an apologetic pat. It wasn’t its fault that everyone on Mythelios was trapped in a time warp. But she’d moved on, and working at the clinic was as good a time as any to prove it.
She moved back out to the ferry’s deck and squinted, trying to make out the details of the small harbor she’d once known like the back of her hand. By the looks of all the blinking lights—blue, red, yellow—it was little more than a construction site. Deconstruction, more like, she thought, grimly stuffing the phone in her bag and shouldering her backpack.
The news footage she’d seen at the ferry terminal in Athens had painted a pretty vivid picture. Some people’s lives would never be the same. Two tourists had already been declared dead. Scores injured. And the numbers were only expected to rise as rescue efforts continued.
The second the boat hit the shoreline Cailey cinched the straps on the backpack she’d so angrily stuffed with clothes she’d hoped would suit the British climate all those years ago, and took off at a jog.
Some buildings looked untouched, whilst others were piles of rubble. There was a fevered, intense buzz of work as the dust-covered people of Mythelios painstakingly picked apart the raw materials of the lives they had been living just twenty-four hours earlier. Window frames. Cinder blocks. Stone. It was clear the earthquake had been indiscriminate, and in some cases brutal.
“Cailey!”
She stopped and turned. Only three voices in the world made her feel safe, and this was one of them.
Kyros!
Before she had a chance to give voice to her big brother’s name she was being picked up and swirled around.
“Cailey mou! My little starfish! How are you?”
Despite the gravity of the situation, Cailey laughed. She never would have believed hearing her childhood nickname would feel so good. Or simply smelling the island, her brother’s dusty chest and, miraculously, the scent of baking bread.
Together she and her brother looked across the street to the bakery. All that was left was the building’s huge and ancient stone-built ovens. And there, undeterred by the open-air setting, was Mythelios’s top baker, pulling loaves out as if working amidst rubble was the most normal thing on earth.
Cailey’s brother smiled down on her. “I’m so glad I saw you. We’re just about to go up to the mountains—see what we can do up there to help the more isolated houses.” He squeezed her tight. “How is the family success story? Does that London hospital know how lucky it is to have you? Have you seen Theo?”
Cailey did her best not to let her smile falter as Kyros held her at arm’s length and waited for answers. What was it with her family and all the Theo questions?
Kyros’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t look like you eat enough over there.”
“I’m fine!” She batted away his concerns. She ate plenty. There was no keeping her curves at bay no matter how often she ate like a rabbit. “You must be boiling in that suit.”
“This?” He did a twirl in his firefighter’s gear. “I suit it well, don’t I?”
“Still the show-off, I see.”
“Absolutely!” He winked, then just as quickly his expression turned sober. “And now I’d better show off how good I am at helping. There are still a few dozen people unaccounted for. Tourists, mostly.”
“Is it as bad as they say on the news?”
He nodded. “Worse. The more we dig, the more fatalities we find. There are a lot of injuries.” He tipped his head down the street. “The clinic was heaving when I was there last. Have you spoken to Theo yet?”
She ignored the question. “How’s Leon? I tried to ask Mama a minute ago but the line went—”
She stopped talking as a very large, very exclusive, four-by-four, outside just about any mortal’s price range, pulled to a stop beside them. The back window was rolled down centimeter by painstaking centimeter to reveal silver hair, icy cold blue eyes...
Oh, goodness. Theo’s father had aged considerably since she’d seen him last. One of the most powerful men on the island seemed to have been unable to hold back the hands of time.
Just about the only thing Dimitri Nikolaides couldn’t do, Cailey thought bitterly.
“Ah! Miss Tomaras. How...interesting to see you back here.”
Shards of ice shot through her veins as her brain tumbled back through the years to that day when he’d made it more than clear what he and the rest of his family thought of her.
Nothing but a simple house girl. That’s all you’ll ever be.
Her brother leaned in over her shoulder. “Cailey’s here to help, Mr. Nikolaides. She’s a Class-A nurse now.”
“Oh?” A patronizing smile appeared on the old man’s face. “You’re planning on going to the clinic?”
“To help, yes.”
She caught her knees just as she was on the brink of genuflecting and stopped herself.
What was she doing? Was her body trying to curtsey? Good grief! The man wasn’t a king and he certainly didn’t run the island. Even if he behaved as if he did. And yet there was a part of her that still worried she would never be smart enough, good enough, talented enough to come home and do anything other than fulfil the fate Dimitri Nikolaides had outlined for her.
“I’m sure there’s some little corner you’ll be able to help out in. Plenty of cuts and scrapes to tend to.”
Mr. Nikolaides eyes scanned the length of her, as if assessing a race horse. Working class mule, more like. That was how he viewed her family and it was how he always would.
Cailey’s spine stiffened as she forced her static smile not to waver.
“Maternity, wasn’t it?”
“S-s-sorry?” Noooooo! Don’t stutter in front of the man.
“I heard through the grapevine that you help other women with their children. Sweet.”
Coming from his mouth, it sounded anything but. Not to mention bordering on pathetic. Women on Mythelios were expected to do nothing less. Cook. Clean. Bow. Scrape. Sometimes she wondered if the island had ever been informed that the twenty-first century had arrived—an era when women were allowed to be smart and have opinions and love whomsoever they chose!
She stared at the lines and wrinkles carved deeply into his face. Saw the cool appraisal of his unclouded eyes. What made you so mean?
Once he’d successfully bullied her off the island the man should have had all he wanted. A son to matchmake with the world’s most beautiful heiresses. A daughter at an elite medical school. No doubt he knew exactly who she’d marry, too. The daughter of his housekeeper was safely out of the picture, so as not to sully his daughter’s circle of friends or, more importantly, his son’s romantic future.
She forced a polite smile when the silence grew too awkward. “My family usually bundles in wherever help is needed. Leon’s police squad is out saving lives this minute.”
“You don’t look too busy,” Mr. Nikolaides glanced at Kyros. “And your mother? Is she doing anything or simply enjoying her retirement?”
Cailey almost gasped at his effrontery. Her mother had earned her money at the Nikolaides mansion just as she had earned her retirement. And Kyros? Why wasn’t he saying anything? Why wasn’t she saying anything?
She’d never let anyone speak to her like this in London. Not after the years of work she’d poured into becoming a nurse. And definitely not after her years of living away from the island to “protect” a billionaire’s son. As if Theo needed protection from all the European heiresses she’d seen dangling off his arm in the society magazines she might have read accidentally on purpose at the hospital gift shop. On a regular basis.
“Oh, yes. You know us, Mr. Nikolaides,” she eventually bit out. “We Tomarases love helping clear up other people’s messes.”
Mr. Nikolaides blinked. Then smiled. “Yes, we do miss your mother’s deft touch up at the house. I trust she’s well?”
“Couldn’t be happier,” Cailey snapped.
“Mama’s very well, thank you Mr. Nikolaides.” Kyros’s hand tightened round Cailey’s arm. “We’re just off now, sir. Glad to see you weren’t hurt in the quake.”
He turned his sister around and frog-marched her away from the dark-windowed four-by-four, now weaving its way through the rubble strewn along the harborside road as if it had been thrown down by a petulant god.
“What was that all about?” Kyros growled.
“Nothing.”
He wasn’t to know Dimitri had all but packed her bags himself all those years ago. Demanded she never enter the Nikolaides house again. Not as a friend to his daughter Erianthe. Not as a “helping hand” to her mother. And especially not as anything whatsoever to do with Theo, his precious son who was prone to develop “a bleeding heart for the less fortunate.”
She launched herself at her brother for a bear hug. It was the easiest way to hide the lie she was about to tell. “I’m just tired after the overnight flight. Once I get to work I’ll be fine. It’s just weird seeing the island like this.”
“I know, huh?”
She could feel his voice rumble in his chest and cinched her arms just a little bit tighter around him. Once she let go of him she’d have to go and face the other Demon of Mythelios.
Full points to Dimitri for pipping her to the post. But she wouldn’t have been surprised if he was stalking the harbor for interlopers. Huh.
He looked old. The worn-out kind of old that came from emotional strain rather than physical. Proof he was human? Somewhere in there?
Besides, he’d only put a voice to what Theo and his mates had already been thinking, and no doubt Erianthe too, who hadn’t even had the guts to say goodbye to her before winging her way off to her fancy boarding school...
Bah! Enough of putting blame at other people’s doors. She’d believed everything Dimitri Nikolaides had said about her because there had been some truth in it. She wasn’t as smart as the others. She did have to work twice as hard to understand things. Finally figuring out she was dyslexic had helped. A bit. But it hadn’t made all the medical terminology easier to read. She’d just had to face facts. She wasn’t up to Nikolaides standards and no amount of teenage flirtation would change that.
A siren sounded and shouts erupted from a fire truck as it pulled to a stop beside them.
She gave her brother a final squeeze. “Go out there and save some lives.” She went up on tiptoe and gave each of Kyros’s ruddy cheeks a kiss.
“Same to you, Cailey.” He scrubbed a hand through her already wayward hairdo, if you could call stuffing her curls into submission with an elastic band a hairdo. “Welcome back.”
She smiled up at him, praying he wouldn’t see how their run-in with Dimitri Nikolaides had shaken her to her core. “It’s good to be here.”
* * *
“Is that enough?” Theo was impatient to get back to work. Yes, the media could help. No, he didn’t have a moment to spare.
The look on the reporter’s face acknowledged the question was rhetorical.
He undid the microphone and began to walk away, ignoring the pleas of the other reporters. They’d be better off showing footage of the rescue crews hard at work while he figured out how to help patients and simultaneously order the urgently needed helicopters to get the worst cases over to Athens.
He could call his dad.
He could also saw off his own hand. Lifting up that phone would come at a cost. It always did.
“Dr. Nikolaides?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have time for any more interviews—”
“No! I’m not with the press. I’m a doctor. My name is Lea Risi.”
He stopped and turned. The woman was wearing holiday clothes. Chinos. A flowery top. Her accent was not local, but she spoke flawless Greek. Useful, considering there was a heavy mix of tourists and locals pouring into the clinic.
For just a nanosecond he rued the appeal of this gorgeous port town that drew holidaymakers from all around the world. If only they were on a rocky outcrop with a diminished population...
“Dr. Nikolaides!” A paramedic was calling him from the hastily put-together triage area off Reception.
He beckoned to Lea. “Come along, then.”
“Don’t you want to know my credentials?” She ran a few steps to catch up with his long-legged strides.
“Not particularly.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, then pulled the shoulder-length mane back under control with an elastic band he’d picked up somewhere during the course of the day. He didn’t know when, exactly. Sixteen hours’ straight trauma work did that to a man. The details blurred.
“I’m a psychiatrist.”
He nodded. Fine. That meant she had medical credentials. “What do you want? Old or young?”
“Sorry?”
“We’ve got patients coming in from a care home and a school. Both were hit hard. We’re triaging on site and transporting to hospital with limited resources.”
He stopped and wheeled round, holding out his hands to steady her when she lost her balance trying not to collide with him.
“Apologies.” He shook his head. “I’m a bit short on manners today.”
“I totally understand. I just want to help.”
Theo put out a hand. “Good. Help is what we need. Theo Nikolaides.” They shared a quick handshake as he rattled off the necessary facts. “I run the clinic. With the help of some friends. Doctors.”
He silently reeled through the cities in the world where they might be. Was Deakin in Paris or Buenos Aires this month? And Christos...? New York. Definitely New York. Ares? Only heaven knew.
Burn specialist.
Neurosurgeon.
Miracle-worker.
If only they were all pilots. He needed them here. But they’d come...they would come.
“Put me wherever you think I’ll be best placed—”
Lea was about to say something else when his eyes latched on to a set of unruly curls weaving its way through the crowd jamming up the entryway into the clinic.
Christos!
A jolt of lightning would have affected him less.
What was Cailey Tomaras doing here? The last time he’d seen her—
“Doctor?”
“Sorry. I’m a bit frazzled.” He tapped the side of his head. “What did you say your name was again?”
“Leanora Risi. Lea. Just call me Lea.”
Her empathetic smile spoke volumes. She could see he was busy, but she wanted to help—and at this juncture he needed all the help he could get.
His eyes slipped past Lea again. Cailey had left the island to become a maternity nurse, hadn’t she? Good for her. He knew she’d always been interested in medicine—
“If there’s someone else you’d rather I speak with...” Lea put a hand on his arm.
“No. I’m your man. Apologies. There’s just someone I—”
Someone I should’ve kissed ten years ago. Someone I should’ve taken on a proper date. Someone I never thought I’d see again.
He looked down at Lea’s feet and saw strappy sandals not wholly suited to working in a chaotic clinic.
“Here on holiday?”
“I was.” Lea tipped her head and tried to capture his attention. “But now I’m here to help. I don’t have any equipment but I have these.” She lifted up her hands and twisted them as if they were freshly washed for surgery.
“Perfect. Good.”
Wholly distracted, he let his attention shift past Lea yet again.
Cailey face had grown...not thinner...just... Well, even more beautiful, obviously. She’d had quite a lead in that department. Her cheekbones had become more elegantly defined...her lips were still that deep red, difficult to believe it was real and not painted on...
Had she finally come home?
“Dr. Nikolaides...?” Lea’s expression shifted to one of grim determination. “You obviously need to be elsewhere. Now, I haven’t practiced emergency medicine in a while. But I’m definitely up to the cuts and bruises variety of injury—if you’ll just point me in the right direction I can get on with helping patients.”
“Yes. Of course.”
He gave himself a sharp shake. He wasn’t here to ogle ghosts from the past. There were very real, very urgent medical cases that needed help. Now.
“Why don’t you go grab a notebook from Petra? She’s the loving but steel-hearted battleax working the main desk. She’ll give you everything you need to work your way through the queue and categorize people. We’ve got a couple of doctors working just through that archway. It’s makeshift, but we aren’t really kitted out for intensive care. I’ll be there shortly. There are a couple more volunteer doctors from the mainland seeing less urgent cases.”
He looked up to the skylight above them as a medical helicopter flew overhead.
“And a medevac. If we’re lucky, we’ll soon have one very talented nurse on board as well.”
Lea gave his arm a quick squeeze, then headed toward Reception to start work. If she’d said something to him, he wouldn’t have known. All he wanted to know was what had brought Cailey back to the island she’d sworn never to set foot on again.
CHAPTER FOUR (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
“WELL, LOOK WHO we have here. If it isn’t Little Miss I’m-Going-to-Make-a-Difference.”
Theo Nikolaides. As she lived and breathed...barely.
She opened her mouth. She’d prepared for this. Spent hours of her life thinking about what to say when and if she ever saw him again.
Fffzzzzttt! There went her ability to use actual words.
“Come to help out at our little backwater clinic, have you?”
“I...uh...”
Kaboom! An explosion of fireworks she was clearly powerless to resist went off in her chest, then her belly, then her... Well, everywhere, really.
“Cailey? Are you all right? You haven’t been hurt, have you?”
Crrrrassssh! Down came the defenses she’d worked so hard to build up.
She batted away his hand as he reached toward her. She wasn’t ready yet.For that voice. Those words. His kindness.
Her cheeks burned at the memory of their heated exchange all those years ago. She forced herself to swallow the array of comebacks she could’ve spat back, and instead shifted the infant she’d been cuddling back into the arms of his mother.
Prove you’ve grown up. Prove you’ve made something of yourself!
“It looks like a superficial wound to me. Cuts always bleed a lot. Just keep the pressure on and I’m sure the good doctor here will get to you as soon as possible.”
“Absolutely.” Theo gave the mum a quick nod in Lea’s direction. “Dr. Risi will be down in a minute to log the case, and we’ll get someone to see you and this little one as soon as possible.”
Cailey watched, transfixed, as Theo ran his index finger along the infant’s face. How could someone so incredibly caring leave his father to do his talking for him?
Pffft. They’d both been young and stupid. At least she had been. On too many fronts.
Didn’t mean they could kiss and make-up, though.
A vivid image of Theo pulling her roughly to him for a hot, heated kiss swept through her body. And then she crushed it. That was all in the past.
“How funny—you remember my goal.” She turned on her brightest smile. “Mission accomplished. I am here to make a difference, thank you very much. A good one. So, if you don’t mind putting one of the ‘little people’ to work, I’ll happily get out of your way.”
Sea-green eyes bored into her from a face featuring the strong, evenly planed cheekbones she’d dreamt of tracing with first a finger...then her lips...
He was looking at her curiously. She shifted under his gaze, not enjoying the intense scrutiny.
“Here I was, thinking an earthquake would’ve reminded you that we’re all born equal,” he said blandly.
It would’ve been a hell of a touché if she hadn’t known for a fact he thought she was in an intellectual league well below him.
She held her ground, arched an eyebrow that might have looked defensive but was in fact proud and resilient and completely without insecurity. She hadn’t knuckled down for years of painstaking study, work and paying off student loans to get this far only to feel belittled again.
“I think you would probably be most useful working alongside me. C’mon.” He scooped up her backpack, turned and signaled for her to follow him. “Let’s get you some scrubs and then you can show me what you’re made of.”
He put his hand on the small of her back and began steering her through the crowd, using his own body as a shield against the push and surge of people desperate to see a doctor.
While her infuriated brain shot off in one direction Cailey’s body was actively registering Theo’s on a much more primal level. All six-foot-something, long-legged, trim-waisted, white-coated package of complete and utter male perfection kept brushing up against her as if...as if they had already shared an intimacy beyond that one perfect kiss...
“I think I can get scrubs on my own, ta.” She shot him her best I’m-a-big-girl-now look, eyes sparking as they landed on his amused expression.
“No, you can’t. You’ve never been here before.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Yeah, but nothing.” He grinned down at her. “You can quit the ‘city girl’ act, Cailey. You’re home now. Time to see what my little kouklamou of Mythelios is made of.”
It certainly wasn’t sugar and spice. Not these days, anyway.
Despite her rising fury, something in her softened as she stomped alongside him to get kitted out in scrubs.
Beautiful doll. He’d always called her that back then. Sure, she’d just been his kid sister’s friend. Daughter of his family’s housekeeper. But even though they’d never put words to it there’d been something... Something magic between them.
She’d been absolutely sure of it right up until the moment she’d heard him tell his friends that a Nikolaides would never end up with a cleaner.
And that had been that.
Rage at the memory did nothing to stop her insides from fluttering as his hand shifted on the small of her back. How on earth she’d thought she would be immune to him even after all this time was beyond her.
She stole a glance at him as he stepped to the side to avoid a gurney being wheeled through the packed corridor at high speed.
Theo might not be everybody’s cup of tea. He had his flaws. A tiny scar by his eye acquired from daredevil antics in one of his father’s olive groves. Hair that always looked as if it could do with a cut. Another small scar just below his nose that only seemed to add to the strength of his unbelievably sensual mouth. Sensual, but male.
Everything about him screamed alpha. Masculine. It had since they were young—as if he’d been born vividly aware of the world’s mysteries and was just biding his time until the rest of the world caught up. Take it or leave it—that was his attitude. Not cavalier. Or haughty. Simply knowing. As if he’d made a deal with the universe to do his part and in exchange...
That was the mystery. She’d never seen him take anything. Not one single solitary time. That was the Theo enigma.
He might talk the talk of a rich, privileged so-and-so, but she’d always thought the shadows that crossed those sea-green eyes of his betrayed greater depths. Hidden sorrows he’d rather keep secret. He’d never bare the heart behind that insanely touchable chest of his.
He turned back to her with a smile still playing on his lips. Trust him to be all calm and relaxed amidst a level of mayhem that would have rendered any sane person tearing out their hair.
“There’s no need for a tour of the clinic. Shall we just get to work?”
“I think you’re going to want to get out of that top first.”
“I...uh...” She looked down at the white top she was wearing that had somehow magically acquired a layer of grime and rolled her eyes. Kyros. Her brother had been filthy.
Oh, good grief. Where’s your spine? Your vocabulary? Use them!
“It’s not—I’m here to...”
What is wrong with you?
A nurse skidded to a halt beside Theo and put a hand on her chest to stop him. Lucky minx.
“Dr. Nikolaides, we’ve got five patients coming in the next ambulance.”
“Five!”
Two pairs of eyes snapped to her.
“There are only two ambulances on the island. We bring in as many people as they can carry,” Theo explained.
There was nothing in his voice beyond passing on information. Where was the derision? Why was he taking his time with her? When had he become so...so...extra-perfect?
Her eyes fixed on Theo’s lips as he spoke to the nurse. On the tip of his tongue as it touched and retreated from the smooth run of teeth save one crooked one just to the left of center that she’d always liked. Yet another slight imperfection that made him mysteriously even more perfect.
His tongue swept the length of his lower lip before his teeth snagged that lip and pressed down on it while he thought for a moment when the nurse asked where he wanted the patients. It was like being in a slow-motion version of her teenaged fantasies...before the kissing began.
She watched, still mesmerized, as he released his lip and rattled off a list of updates.
A Mrs. Carnosi with a broken arm needed to go to Cubicle Three while her plaster set. A man was in Recovery on the first floor after a heart attack—could someone find his wife down at the harbor? She was helping the baker, he thought. A four-year-old with a head wound could probably do with some crayons to pass the time as the televisions weren’t working. All the children, in fact. There were some in a storage locker along with some paper. He was sure of it. Oh, and he’d organized a water delivery so everyone who entered the clinic could be given a two-liter bottle to see them through their waiting time.
Was there nothing the man hadn’t thought of? All this while also seeing patients? Where was the young man she’d last seen? Arrogant. Elitist. The one who’d turned against her as easily as kicking a door shut. The one who’d compelled her to scrimp and save and study and learn. To leave her homeland pushed by the towering wave of shame that she would never be good enough for a man like him.
She couldn’t have been wrong about him after all of this time. Could she?
Theo reached back and gave her shoulder a little pat and a squeeze as another doctor took the nurse’s spot and asked him to run his eye across some X-rays. A compound fracture. Were they up to performing the surgery the patient would require?
Vividly aware of Theo’s fingers on her shoulder, Cailey was barely capable of lucid thought. Her insides were behaving like electricity cables cut loose in a storm. Sparks flying everywhere. Nothing behaving the way it should.
She squeezed her eyes tight against the warm olive color of Theo’s skin. His toned physique. The perfect, capable hands touching her.
Just imagining the man holding a child, helping a yiayia to cross the street with her shopping or explaining to a daredevil teen that he couldn’t go swimming while his arm was still in a plaster made her insides turn into liquid gold.
Which was all very irritating because she was meant to have become immune to Theo Nikolaides.
She forced herself to open her eyes and meet the mossy hues of his irises whilst trying her level best to ignore the fact that the man was in possession of the longest, darkest lashes she’d ever seen. He also had more than a five o’clock shadow, but that indicated he’d been working hard and—surprise, surprise—made him look more like a rock star than an unkempt layabout.
No doubt about it. As a grown man Theo Nikolaides was a living, breathing example of a mortal embodying the majesty of the Greek gods of legend. Zeus, Adonis, Apollo... Eros...
“Shall we get you out of these things?”
Theo was looking pointedly at her filthy top, but her thoughts and his tone suggested anything but an innocent need to improve her hygiene.
Was he...flirting with her?
This was taking being cool in the eye of a storm to a whole new level.
Just one lazy scan of her dust-covered body and—poof!—just like that she felt naked. Each sweep of his eyes drew her awareness to the cotton brushing against her belly, her breasts, the tingling between her legs that was really, really inappropriate seeing as she’d vowed to remain immune to the Nikolaides effect. Not to mention the scores of patients waiting.
Seeing him looking at her the way he was...hungrily...she felt a brand-new array of fireworks light up her insides and actual electricity crackle between them.
This was all wrong. There was a crisis happening not inches away. People needed help. Patients needed his attention. Her attention.
He’d never looked at her like this before. As if she were an oasis and he’d crawled in from the desert desperate for one thing and one thing only.
The sun abruptly lit up the clinic’s central glass dome, its rays filtering down to them through a tumble of rooftop wisteria like film lighting. Dappled. Hints of gold and diamonds.
When Theo tilted his face, green eyes still locked with hers, it was all she could do not to reach into her chest and give him her heart. It had always been his. He’d just never wanted it.
Before she could say anything, though, he held out his arm to clear a path for her toward the rear of the clinic.
Of course the crowd parted. Things like that happened for the Theo Nikolaideses of the world. And the Patera and the Xenakis families. Not to mention the Moustakas family. The four families who commanded the bulk of the island’s wealth thanks to their business savvy.
Mopaxeni Shipping. The glittering star of the Aegean Seas and beyond. All those businessmen’s sons would inherit untold millions—if not billions. So what on earth was Theo doing here in this small town clinic when the world was his oyster?
“Aren’t you meant to be—?”
“Right.” Theo cut her off, directing her to a green door at the far end of the corridor. “In here.”
She turned and tried to take her bag from him.
He shook his finger—tick-tock, no, you don’t—in front of her lips. “I’m coming with you.”
Great. Just what she’d always dreamed of. Death by proximity to the unrequited love of her life.
She pushed open the swinging door to the changing room. Might as well get it over with.
* * *
Theo had absolutely no idea where this cavalier Jack-the-lad attitude he was trying on for size had come from.
He was exhausted. Running on adrenaline. He needed food, coffee, and yet... Was this—? Was he trying to flirt? Was this what stress did to him? Or was this what all-grown-up Cailey Tomaras did to him?
There’d been that one time as teens, when they’d all been running around the pool, messing about. He’d grabbed her, and she’d slipped on the grass, and they’d fallen in a tangle of limbs on top of one another and there’d been a moment...a kiss...
Μakapi!
There were a thousand other things Theo should be doing besides going down memory lane to find hints of a romance that had never been. A restorative fifteen minutes of sleep. Walking the small wards, filled to bursting wards, and diving in where an extra pair of hands were needed. Helping with rescue efforts.
Not staring at a pretty girl from the past.
She looked good. A far cry from the reedy teenaged girl who had seemed to all but live in the shadows of his father’s ridiculous mansion. A full cherry-red mouth. Inky black hair. A deliciously curvy figure he could almost feel—as if he’d already tugged her close to him for a passionate embrace.
He scrubbed a hand through his long hair, hearing his father’s distinctive voice in his head.
“If you’re going to slum it as the island medic, the least you can do is maintain the family reputation. I’ll not have you gallivanting round the island with a halfwit cleaner’s daughter.”
His eyes flicked to Cailey’s. Dark. Full of passion and empathy. And, if he wasn’t wrong, the smallest dose of fear.
His heart cinched. That she should feel that way around him... His father was a cruel man. Why he couldn’t see that kindness, understanding and empathy were far more effective tools for so-called “people management” was beyond him.
Theo had grown immune to Dimitri’s tendency to cut a person to the quick, but Cailey...? He’d never subject her to the ego-lashings his babbo had dealt out without a second’s thought. And for some reason his father had always had it in for the girl. He’d need to keep her close to him. Far easier to keep her out of harm’s way then.
“Are you ready to go straight to work?”
Smooth. Nice way to make a woman who’s flown overnight to come and lend a hand welcome.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not going to stand there while I change my clothes, are you?”
Cailey’s sharp tone brought him back to the present.
He ran his eyes down the length of her. Long legs. Sensually curved hips making a nice dip at the waist. A tug of desire unexpectedly tightened in his groin. What the hell? He was supposed to be exhausted, not horny.
“I’ll sit with my back turned.”
“Yeah.” Cailey’s hands landed solidly on her hips. “I don’t think so. Say what you need to say and then...” She swirled her finger around in an out-you-go gesture.
“Fair enough.” Despite himself, he grinned. She was setting parameters. The old Cailey would’ve been too shy to be so feisty. This new Cailey was becoming more appealing by the minute.
Another tug below his belt line broadened his smile. Quite an impact for an unexpected reunion. One of the earthquake’s silver linings, he supposed. Maybe she was strong enough now to stand up to his father.
She pursed her lips and tipped her head from side to side in a when-are-you-going-to-get-going? move.
Fine. He got the message. “Right. Here’s the story. All hell’s broken loose. As you probably know, the quake was strong. It hit this side of the island hardest. A lot of old buildings weren’t up to the magnitude. It hit in the afternoon—”
“I know. I know all that,” interrupted Cailey impatiently. “I saw the news. Late lunch. Quiet time. Lots of people taking naps... Only the Brits mad enough to go out in the sunshine. You should probably know I specialize in pediatrics and maternity nursing, so if it’s—”
“You’ll be working with me in urgent care,” he cut in. He didn’t care how bolshie she was. He was going to look after her, and the easiest place to do that was in his trauma unit.
“I haven’t done trauma for over a year.”
“But you’ve done it. And that’s where I need you. Case closed,” he said firmly before she could protest.
Her shoulders shot up, her mouth opened, but when she saw his stance go rock-solid she dropped the challenge with a flick of a shrug.
“Casualties? Any idea of the scope yet?” she asked.
“Hundreds.” Theo shook his head. “I don’t know. Several hundred at the very least. The island’s got...what?...fifteen or twenty thousand people on it, so it could be more. Patients are presenting with injuries hitting every level of the spectrum, from cuts and bruises to...well...” His mood sobered at the thought of the older gentleman who’d had a fatal heart attack earlier in the day. “Worse than cuts and bruises.”
Unexpectedly, Cailey reached out and took his hand. “Are you sure you don’t need some rest? You look awful.”
“Ha! Thanks. Don’t beat around the bush anymore, do you, Cailey?”
She gave him a sad smile. One that said, I think you might know why.
The door to the locker room swung open and with it came the chaos and mayhem of the quake’s aftermath.
“Dr. Nikolaides?” The nurse was halfway out through the door already. “There’s a helicopter on approach to collect a couple of patients. We need you to sign off on them. And the ambulance is pulling up now.”
“Of course.”
He brusquely pointed toward a cabinet. “There are spare scrubs in there. All sizes. Report to trauma when you’ve changed. You’re working with me. And that’s an order.”
CHAPTER FIVE (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
CAILEY STARED AT the empty space Theo had just occupied.
What on earth...?
Bossy so-and-so.
Hadn’t changed a bit. Still lording it about as if he knew everything which—well, in this case he probably did.
You’re working with me. And that’s an order.
Typical Nikolaides privilege. Just because she was a nurse, and had failed to get into med school, and had taken twice as long as anyone else to get her nursing degree—
Stop! She didn’t need to keep raking it all up again. The all too familiar pounding of her heart suddenly leapt into her head, drowning out everything else as she forced herself to take in a deep, steady inhalation and then breathe out again.
You’re a nurse, she told herself. There are patients. This isn’t about you. Or Mr. Bossypants.
She was scared, that was all. The trauma ward wasn’t her optimum work zone. But she’d done it before—admittedly getting one teensy-tiny panic attack on her score card. Never mind. She could do it again—minus the panic attack part. There was no way she was leaving this island with her tail between her legs a second time.
A quick wash and she’d get her priorities back in order. She’d returned to Mythelios to help, not to swish around Theo Nikolaides praying he’d notice her. That ship had long since sailed.
* * *
When Cailey entered the trauma area it was sheer madness. The number of people had doubled. The volume was higher. The urgency of tone was even more shrill.
A shot of fear jettisoned through her bloodstream and exploded in her heart. This was a far cry from the calm, hushed corridors of the maternity ward she’d left behind in England. There the serene environment helped her stay calm—particularly when she struggled with writing up notes and tackling new medicines and...well...any new words. They all took extra time. Her brain processed things differently.
For the most part she’d beaten her dyslexia into a new, workable form of submission. But this?
This was bedlam. She was going to have to shore up every ounce of courage and nursing know-how she had to avoid falling to bits. It had happened before and she never wanted to go back there again. Especially not in front of—
“All right? Ready to go?”
Theo.
Theo was putting his arm round her shoulders and giving her a squeeze. Everything faded for an instant as she just...mmm...inhaled the scent she hadn’t realized was all but stitched into her memory banks.
Could he sense her fear? Had he seen the blood drain from her face when she walked into the trauma unit? Spotted the tremor in her hands before she wove them together to stop their shaking?
He squared himself off in front of her, one large, lovely hand on each shoulder. “Just remember: I’m a humble country doctor and you’re a big city nurse. You can do this, kouklamou. Okay?”
Surprisingly, the term of endearment wrapped around her like a warm blanket. She looked up into his rich green eyes and drew strength from them, felt her breath steadying as he continued.
“I know it seems crazy in here. It is. But this situation is new to all of us and we will each do the best we can. One patient at a time is how we’re going to deal with it. All right? One patient at a time.”
When their eyes caught she felt her heart smash against her ribcage. The man was looking straight into her soul, seeing her darkest fears and assuring her he would be there to help no matter what. She stared at his chest, half tempted to reach out and touch it, to see if his heart was doing the same.
When their gazes connected again he was all business. He steered her over to a gurney that was being locked into place by a couple of rescue workers.
“Right! Cailey, this is Artemis Pepolo. I’ve known this feisty teen since she was born.”
The dark-haired girl nodded a fraction, the rest of her body contracted tightly in pain.
“Artemis has just been rescued after a pretty uncomfortable night under a beam—but you hung in there, didn’t you, my love?”
Artemis’s breathing was coming in sharp, staccato bursts and her lips were rapidly draining of color. She tried to smile for Theo but cried out in pain. Her arm lay at an odd angle and one touch to the side of her throat revealed a rapid heart-rate.
“Pneumothorax?” Cailey asked in a low voice.
Theo gave an affirmative nod, his gloved hands running along the girl’s ribcage as he spoke. “Good. Yes. Traumatic pneumothorax, in this case. The beams of her house shifted when they were getting her out and broke a couple of ribs. No time to get her X-rayed before we relieve the tension. Can you snap on a pair of gloves, get some oxygen into her and clean her up for a quick chest tube?”
Cailey clenched her eyes tight, forcing herself to picture the chart she’d made for herself on how to go through the procedure. Images always worked better for her than words. Miraculously it came to her in a flood of recognition.
And then, as one, they flew through the treatment as if they’d worked together for years.
After snapping on a pair of gloves from a nearby box, Cailey swiftly pulled an oxygen mask round the girl’s head and placed it over her mouth, ensuring the tube was releasing a steady flow. She then took a pair of scissors from a supplies trolley, cut open the girl’s top, applied monitors, checked her stats and covered her with a protective sheet, leaving a mid-sized square of her ribcage just below her heart exposed. She swabbed it with a hygiene solution as Theo explained the protocol he was going to follow.
“I’m using point-five percent numbing agent to numb the second intercostal space and then a shot of adrenaline-epinephrine before we insert a pigtail catheter, yes?”
“Not a chest tube?” she asked.
The doctor she’d worked under during her stint in the London trauma unit had been old school. Very old school. She wouldn’t say it had been entirely his fault she’d had her...blip...but he most certainly hadn’t helped.
Theo put the tube over a tiny metal rod. “Most hospitals are using the pigtail catheter now. Far less painful for the patient.”
She looked for the sneer, listened for the patronizing tone, and heard neither. Just a doctor explaining the steps he was going to take. But better. A doctor saying his patient’s comfort was of paramount importance to him.
And then it was back to business. Cailey gave the region around the fourth and fifth intercostal space of the girl’s ribcage a final swipe of cleansing solution and then stood back as Theo expertly inserted the needle into the pleural space, his fingertip holding just above the gauge for a second. Their eyes connected as he smiled.
“Ha. Got it. I can feel the air releasing.” He turned to his patient and gave her a gentle smile. “Hang in there, love. We’re almost there.” He attached a syringe to the needle. “I’ll just do a quick aspiration to make sure we get all that extra trapped air out.”
Once he was satisfied, he expertly went about inserting the thin wire and tube as if he had done it a thousand times. Within seconds the tube was in, the wire was pulled out and Cailey had attached the tube to a chest drainage system.
“Right, Artie. We’ll just leave you here to rest up for a bit and then see about moving you somewhere a bit more peaceful where we can check out that arm, all right?”
He pulled off his gloves, smiled at Cailey and tipped his head toward the main trauma area. “Ready for the next one?”
She was impressed. For a man who professed to be a humble country doctor, he knew his stuff.
“Did you study trauma medicine?” She couldn’t help but ask the question after pulling the curtains round Artemis and watching Theo give notes to the nurse who, he’d explained, was in charge of moving patients out of the trauma area.
He nodded. “I thought if I was going to be running this place on my own sometimes I’d better be prepared.”
“You’re here alone ?”
“Well, not alone, alone. There are interns who come in from Athens to have a spell, but they usually get bored with island life eventually and want to get back to the mainland. And the lads come back on and off at certain times of the year in a sort of unofficial rotation; they’re just not here at the moment.”
She nodded. He must mean Chris, Deakin and Ares—the other Mopaxeni malakas he’d set up the clinic with. She wasn’t so sure malakas was the right word for them anymore. Miracle workers, more like. This place was a far cry from the crumbling old clinic she’d gone to as a girl. And Theo was completely different from the elitist snob she’d been expecting.
“Right.” He rubbed his hands together as if preparing for a fantastic adventure. “How are you with broken bones?”
* * *
Broken bones. Fractures. Lacerations. Internal bruising. Heart palpations. A massive blood clot... The list went on.
And no matter what he threw at her Cailey stayed bright, attentive and, much to his surprise, willing to learn. There were holes in her knowledge—as to be expected for someone whose specialty wasn’t trauma—but she seemed capable of everything short of reading his mind, and even that was sometimes questionable.
Whatever he needed—a particular gauge of needle, a certain type of suture thread, the correct scalpel—she already had it ready before he could ask for it.
As he opened the curtain for their next patient he stopped. Ah. Marina Serkos. They’d gone to school together until his father had deemed the local primary unfit for purpose and shipped him off to boarding school.
“Looks like someone’s due soon.”
This was his one bugbear. The baby checks. He knew he should be happy for others. Share in the joy of a new innocent life being brought into the world. But all he could think each time he saw a pregnant patient was, Good luck. You’ll need it.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for “happy families”. But happy families hadn’t been the remit in the Nikolaides household. Appearances were everything. No one outside the family knew he wasn’t his father’s success story. Nor did they know he was adopted. And no one—not even his sister—would ever know his silent vow never to bring a child into this world.
Pawns. That was what he and his sister had been. Pawns in a game that hadn’t seemed to have any rules.
“Theo?” Cailey had helped Marina up onto the exam table and was wheeling a sonogram machine into place. “Do you want to do the exam?”
Both women were looking at him a bit oddly. If they’d been exchanging information he hadn’t a clue.
He scrubbed his hands over his face and forced a smile. “Apologies, Marina. It’s been a long day.”
“Marina’s worried about her baby,” Cailey explained in a confident voice.
Ah! Of course. This was her terrain. He nodded for her to continue. It was a relief not to have to ooh and ah each time a fist curled, or a hiccough came halfway through an exam. In his darker moments he sometimes wondered if the only thing his fellow islanders could think to do during the slow winter months was procreate.
“She’s not experienced any blunt trauma, thank goodness, but when the quake struck she was taking a much-needed nap, I presume...”
Both women smiled at Marina’s large bump. She was probably near full term by now.
“Are you at seven months, Marina?”
“Eight,” she answered, her brow creasing with worry. “The baby used to kick all the time, but when the bed collapsed, I just—Ooooh...” She blew out a steadying breath as tears popped into her eyes. “I haven’t really felt the little one move since.”
“Well, then.” Cailey pulled on a fresh pair of gloves. “I guess we’d better take a look at the little one.”
Her tone was bright, efficient, and exactly what a worried mum needed to hear at a time like this.
She held out the scanning wand to Theo. “No, no, you go ahead. This is your terrain,” he said.
“You’re a maternity doctor?” Marina asked, her eyes brightening.
A flash of something crossed Cailey’s eyes before she answered. Frustration? Sadness? But when she turned back to Marina it was as if he’d imagined it.
“No, no. I’m a nurse working on a neonatal ward in a London hospital.”
“No chance you want to stay here, I suppose?” Marina asked, then threw an apologetic glance at Theo. “Apologies, Dr. Nikolaides, but sometimes it’s nice to have a woman to speak with about...you know...”
He nodded. He knew. But they were a small, charitable clinic running on a limited budget on an island few doctors wished to call home all year round. He’d tried to get female obstetricians to come in at least once a month, but with weather, budget constraints, people’s busy schedules—things didn’t always pan out.
He didn’t blame them, those doctors who refused his invitations to take a massive pay-cut and cope with small-town life complete with an unlimited supply of Mythelios Olive Oil.
Big-city hospitals, well-funded research clinics...those were the places that drew talent. Look at Cailey—she’d gone to London and stayed there. And his best friends had left. Add to that an earthquake, and... Oh, well. No need to go down that rabbit hole again.
Obstinacy—or something like it—was the only reason he stayed. Whether it was a relentless showdown or a twisted truce he and his father were engaged in...
He shook his head and forced himself to tune in to Cailey’s exam. There were no answers when it came to his father. But there were in medicine. Which was why he all but lived in the clinic. Long shifts were a damn sight better than “family time.”
Cailey had just slid up Marina’s top to expose her swollen belly, complimented her on her lack of stretch marks—something he would have felt like an idiot doing—and was about to apply a huge dollop of gel when she pulled it back.
“Have you eaten or drunk anything in the past few hours?”
Marina shook her head, then stopped herself. “I did drink a lot, because I remember from my last scan they needed me to have a full bladder. It doesn’t take much these days!”
“I’m not surprised.” Cailey laughed, then put the gel tube above Marina’s stomach. “Ready for the cold?”
Marina flinched as it hit her skin and gave a nervous laugh. “This is my third pregnancy. You’d think I would be used to it by now.”
“Skin never gets used to a sudden hit of cold,” Cailey soothed as she placed the baton on the far right of Marina’s stomach and began the scan. “So...let’s see what your little one has got up to.”
Theo rocked back on his heels and crossed his arms. It was nice to take a backseat for a change, to watch Cailey slip naturally into a role that obviously suited her. He’d never known why she hadn’t followed her dream of becoming a doctor and had instead opted for neonatal nursing, but if her complete calm and confidence at this moment exemplified her professionally he’d bet that London hospital would be holding on to her for dear life. Dedicated quality nurses were like rare jewels—something you kept close.
Soon enough, the tell-tale rush of a liquid-sounding heartbeat was accompanied by the whooshed release of air from everyone’s lungs.
The women’s eyes connected and together they laughed, then returned their attention to the screen. where they could see the curled-up form of a baby sucking its thumb.
Theo picked up Marina’s chart, which Petra had somehow magicked out of the mayhem despite the ongoing chaos at the clinic. “Want me to take notes?”
The women turned to him, almost surprised to see him still there.
“Sure. Feels like a luxury to have a doctor take the notes,” Cailey said with a smile.
“Consider it payback for all your excellent help today.”
Cailey’s brows contracted together briefly, as if she were trying to divine something deeper from his words before turning back to the monitor. “The good news is we have a steady, regular heart-rate. One-thirty.”
“Isn’t that a bit low?”
“Mmm...it’s at the lower end of the spectrum, but well within what we would expect. Anything below one hundred or above one-seventy would be of concern.” She winked at Marina. “Your baby is obviously made of stern stuff! Now, I presume you’re up to date on all your antenatal scans?”
“Yep. Dr. Nikolaides makes sure of that.”
Theo nodded and lifted up the clipboard as a reminder that he was here to take stats. These lapses into chit-chat with mothers always made him nervous. There were the inevitable questions—when are you planning on tying the knot? Starting a family of your own? Bringing a little shining star into the world for your parents to spoil? Conversations he normally actively avoided.
Cailey threw him a hold-your-horses look, but gave him the baby’s BP in the same steady voice she’d been using with Marina.
She checked the baby’s growth, matched the results with the previous figures and pronounced them excellent. She measured the blood flow between the placenta and the baby, and checked the amniotic fluid.
Cailey pointed at the screen, then clamped her fingers over her mouth. Her fingers dropped to her chin and she threw an uh-oh look in Theo’s direction before asking Marina, “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
Marina nodded her head. Yes, she did. “It’s another boy! I’m going to be officially outnumbered when this one is born.” A look of panic crossed her face. “If everything’s all right?”
“Well, he’s moving around just fine, from what I can see. You probably received a big shock yesterday, and perhaps he was sensing your need for stillness. It sounds pretty scary.”
“It was,” Marina said. “But now that I know my baby’s safe I can relax.” She smiled at Cailey. “Have you got any of your own?”
Theo’s eyes snapped to Cailey. He knew how well he responded to that question...
“No,” she said simply, taking the baton off Marina’s belly and wiping it clean.
Irritation lanced through him as he finished off the notes.
No. That was it? No, Maybe one day. No, Yes, I’ve left him back in London with my lover. No, Perhaps when I meet the right guy...
What the hell? What did it matter to him if she wanted children or not?
They all started as shouting erupted beyond the curtained cubicle. There were calls for the defibrillator, for more blood.
Theo didn’t need to hear more. “Apologies ladies, I’d better get out there.”
“All right if I finish up in here?” Cailey asked, clearing the monitor and scanning equipment to one side.
“Yeah. Fine. You wrap things up then I’ll see you out there?”
She nodded.
“Good.”
Just a few hours in and already he was growing a little too used to having Cailey by his side.
Which was not good. Because whoever came too close into his orbit would also come into his father’s orbit...and that never went well.
CHAPTER SIX (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
“AND IT LOOKS like we’re back to a normal BP. Heart-rate is steady.”
The team around Theo clapped with relief. Their sixty-five-year-old patient, a local schoolteacher, had been helping rescue crews to pull away rubble when a lifetime’s worth of deep-fried squid and a love of the honey-soaked sweets brought to him by his students had caught up to him.
Despite her fatigue, Cailey was riding high. She hadn’t helped on a cardiac arrest in ages, and this had been a resounding success. Theo had been amazing. A cool, calm and collected doctor in the eye of a pretty crazy storm.
As an orderly wheeled the patient to a recovery room Cailey couldn’t help but express her admiration. “That was amazing.”
Theo smiled down at her, green eyes alight with the satisfaction that came with a high-adrenaline, high-stakes treatment. He’d never looked more attractive to her than he did at that moment.
All of a sudden her knees went weak and everything flew off balance. Theo’s arms were around her in an instant, swirling her into the doorway in a fluid move that would have put a tango dancer to shame.
When she opened her eyes all she could see were his lips. And that teensy little scar her tongue itched to reach out and—Stop it! She sucked in a shallow breath, horrified to notice that her breasts were pressing against his chest. They obviously had a mind of their own. Little minxes.
Theo didn’t move. OMG. Did he...did he like it? Like her?
Her brain went into overdrive. Was she going to have to rearrange a thousand vows never to succumb to the likes of Theo Nikolaides for the very clinical and reasonable sake of finding out just once what it would be like to...? Oh... Oh, my... His thighs were pressed against hers. His hips... He was very, very close. She felt the soft exhalation of his breath against her mouth and wanted more than anything to part her lips and taste him.
She risked a glimpse up into his eyes.
What she saw in them conveyed a thousand messages. Hope. Interest. Desire. A bit of confusion.
Little wonder! She was feeling about as confused as they came. For starters...why was he holding her in this doorway after she’d swooned like an idiot?
“Aftershocks.”
“I’m sorry?” Cailey shook her head, only to hear a collective gasp come from the trauma unit as another one hit.
Theo’s hold tightened around her, his tall, lean form curling protectively over her, his hands cupping her head against the rigid doorframe as they waited for the tremor to pass.
When it did he stood back and, as if nothing had happened at all, reached out to tuck a few strands of her disobedient hair behind her ear.
“Are you all right, love? Do you need to take a break? We’ve got relief doctors coming in from the mainland in about...” his eyes traveled to a nearby wall clock “...twenty minutes or so.”
Love? Since when did he call her “love”?
He stifled a yawn.
“I think if anyone deserves a break it’s probably you,” she said, pleased with her stern tone. Then she reached out to give his arm a you’ve-worked-hard squeeze.
Big mistake.
Go away, tingles and butterflies!
“You look tired, Cailey.”
“No, you look tired.”
He rolled his eyes. No kidding, the gesture said. Of course I’m tired, but I’m in charge.
A strange need to coddle him seized her. He was great at looking after others, but who looked after him?
Good grief. She wasn’t letting herself fall for him again, was she? But then perhaps she had never actually got up again after the first time...
“Cailey...”
“Theo?”
He crossed his arms and fixed her with a classic big brother look. “You should get some rest.”
She crossed her arms too, beginning to enjoy this back and forth banter. Never mind the fact that being sassy helped her hide the wave after wave of emotion pummeling her mind, her guts, her heart.
Longing. Desire. Heartache. Lust.
She’d thought she’d lain all those things to rest when she’d boarded that plane bound for London all those years ago.
“Tell me, Cailey, who exactly do you think is going to look after the clinic if I leave?”
His expression of triumph spoke volumes. He thought he’d nailed it.
She glanced past his shoulder and smiled as a group of a dozen-plus doctors shouldering medical kits walked through the double doors leading into the trauma area. Fresh-faced. Ready to work.
“They will.”
“What?” Theo turned around and registered the change of events.
“So I guess that’s settled, then. We’ll both take a break.”
* * *
“Where are you staying?”
Theo was as surprised as Cailey when the question popped out.
She glanced at him, and their eyes caught and held tight.
She was always more than your kid sister’s friend.
“I haven’t really organized things yet. My brothers are crazy busy with the rescue crews.” Cailey looked away, a slight flush blooming on her cheeks as she mumbled, “And I don’t really think there’s room at my mum’s now that—”
“What?” Theo took Cailey’s shoulders in his hands, forcing her to look at him. “Is Jacosta all right? Is her home intact?”
Cailey shrugged, tears filming her dark eyes. “She says so, but I’ve not seen the flat myself.”
“Flat? I thought you lived in a house?”
“We did, but...” Cailey looked away, a few poorly hidden tears falling from her eyes as she turned.
“But what?” His chest felt restricted against the strain of his lungs. “Has my father not been paying her retirement pension? Do you want me to speak to him?”
Bloody man! The most tight-fisted billionaire he’d ever come across. Not that he knew scores of them, or anything, but he knew enough to know that money made a man more of who he was at heart. Good, greedy, kind, cruel...it didn’t matter. Money was an enabler, and if he thought that for one second—
“No, it’s not that. When I left for London she sold the house.”
She swiped at her eyes, her expression one of pure defiance. There was a story there, but Cailey wasn’t pausing for him to ask any questions.
“The place she’s in now is diddy. But it’s fine. She’s fine. We’re all fine. The Tomaras clan is, as it always has been, perfectly happy. Earthquake aside.”
She quirked an eyebrow, adopted a faint smile and looked up at him, unable to hide the shadows of the past shifting across her features like a slow-moving storm.
Clearly not all of the Tomaras clan was happy.
“All right, then. If there’s no room for you to stay with her, you’ll stay with me.”
“What? No.” She took a step back and held up her hands. “No. Completely unnecessary. You’ve got—”
“Pish-tosh.”
He plucked the old-fashioned English expression from his days at medical school in London. Why had their paths never crossed there? She should have called him. Or Erianthe, who was still there.
He swore silently under his breath. He should have kept a closer eye on Cailey. From now on he would. “You’re my responsibility.”
“Er...and why is that, exactly?”
“Because I said so.”
Winning answer, Romeo.
Unsurprisingly, Cailey looked unconvinced.
What was he going to say? That he didn’t want his father to see her without him there to protect her? It was true. It was also true that he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he thought for one second Cailey’s family had been forced to downsize because of anything his father had done.
Somewhere deep inside that sinewy heart of his, he knew his father loved him. Even if he was “just adopted.” But he also knew Dimitri’s vow to make him pay for not becoming the son he’d wanted when they’d adopted him all those years ago still held strong.
Anyone might think the man would be proud that his son had become a doctor. Healing and supporting the very islanders who had helped make his family rich. But, no. He was meant to have followed in his father’s wake, taken up the helm at Mopaxeni Shipping and filled the family coffers even further.
“‘Because I said so’ doesn’t really cut it with me, Theo.”
He tipped his head back and forth. Fair enough. Cailey was a spirited, passionate woman. No surprise tht she wasn’t falling for the dominant male tack.
“You’ve worked hard, and tomorrow will be more of the same. Please. Come to mine and get some rest.”
Better.
“I’m not staying.”
He barked out a disbelieving laugh. How could he have forgotten how stubborn she was?
“Yes,” he ground out in a non-negotiable voice. “You are. My clinic. My rules. You work for me, and if you want to continue to do so you need some rest. I’ve got a spare room and a perfectly good bed for you to sleep in. As far as I’m concerned you need to be in it. Now.”
Cailey’s cheeks streaked with red. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”
Theo squared himself in front of her. Rolled his shoulders back. Pulled himself up to his full height.
What was he doing? Presenting himself like a prize stallion?
Idiot. She’s exhausted. So are you. Act normal.
He cleared his throat and started again.“Get your things. I’m taking you home.”
Way to go caveman. Real smooth.
“Theo, really. I’ll be fine.”
He smiled, caught by surprise at the way she’d said his name. It sounded like a...a verbal caress. Just the chink in her armor he needed.
“I’m afraid it’s non-negotiable, Cailey. Bed. Sleep. I can throw some hot chocolate into the mix, but that’s where I draw the line.”
What was he? Twelve?
Cailey pressed her feet to the ground, obviously gearing herself up to protest, and then, much to his surprise, suddenly wilted.
Raising her hands, she said, “Fine. You win.” She turned her surrendering hands into pistols, “But we need to stop by Stavros’s taverna so I can see my mother. And after that just a few hours’ sleep then I’m back here, just like everyone else.”
“Deal.”
He put out his hand, and when she placed hers in his to shake on it he stunned them both by raising her palm to his lips and giving it a kiss.
* * *
Cailey virtually ran to the changing room to get her backpack. She wouldn’t have been surprised if sparks were flying out of the soles of her trainers.
What was going on?
An earthquake wasn’t the only thing that had shaken up the island.
Theo was not the man she had decided he would be. In her head—and in truth she had devoted far too much time to this—he had become a mini-Dimitri. No. Worse. A Monster Dimitri. A: because he stood about a foot taller. B: because he was a thousand times more commanding when he chose to be. And C: Theo was a million more miles off-limits and a gazillion times more gorgeous than his father.
But other than that...? Exactly the same.
She pushed into the changing room, ran to the sink, stared at the back of her hand for a minute, debating whether or not to kiss it back, then threw handful after handful of cold water on her face willing her brain to try and match Bad Theo with—well...with Real Theo.
The real Theo posed a much greater threat to her. The real Theo, in just one day, had teased apart each of the perfect tight stitches she had carefully inserted over the wound in her heart and burst them wide open again.
The man was an infinity of little perfections.
Never mind the tug-your-fingers-through-it hair, the ridiculously green eyes, his athletic physique and utterly kissable mouth... He was an incredible doctor. And she found that about as sexy as it came. He was thoughtful. Empathetic. Resourceful. He was a generous colleague. He hadn’t once patronized her or tried to catch her out when she’d hesitated over a medicine vial or which scalpel to pick up when he needed one. Not that it had happened much. From their very first patient he’d actually managed to bring out her A-game.
And now she was going to spend the night at his house.
Her powers of resistance were pitiful. She stared at the mirror above the sink and mimicked herself, “‘Okay, Theo. Yes, Theo. Whatever you say, Theo.’” Pathetic!
She’d always imagined her return to Mythelios would be more...triumphant, in a dignified and grown-up way. She’d wow him with her cool professionalism and make him realize exactly what he’d lost.
Not fall into his arms at the first sign of an aftershock and then agree to curl up in his guest bedroom only not to sleep because he’d be right next door.
She stared at herself again.
Serious face, this time.
Had she tarred Theo with the same brush as his father? Theo had never told her to get lost. Or to steer clear. Okay, so she had heard him laughing with his mates about a Nikolaides never marrying a housemaid once, and that had stung—singed itself into her psyche probably for ever—but it was Dimitri who’d told her to stay away from Theo, not Theo himself. And she wasn’t a housemaid anymore.
Besides, there was definitely chemistry between them. No denying that. There always had been.
But what if this was just a tease only for him to push her away again? She knew Theo would never marry her, but she had come back sort of triumphant. She was a nurse in an exclusive hospital. She’d done some cracking good work today. Her mother was free of her need for a Nikolaides paycheck so there’d be no more dangling that fear factor over her head. It still shocked her that Dimitri had said he’d fire her mother if Cailey didn’t leave his family alone.
A flame lit sharp and bright inside her. She would take Theo up on his invitation. The bed. The hot chocolate. She deserved it.
It might not have been his fault her mother had decided to sell the family home to help Cailey with her nursing school fees, but it was his fault for being so ruddy nice she couldn’t find a reason to say no to staying with him. And if Dimitri found out about this and tried to exact any kind of vengeance the blame would fall solidly on Theo—and then she’d leave the island and never think of either of them again.
“Ready?” Theo strode into the changing room, scooped up her backpack with one hand, slung it on his shoulder and opened his other arm to create a protective arc around her shoulders as he steered them through the crowds to the front door.
Oh, swoon. Wrinkly scrubs suited him. Then again, being naked probably suited him too. Not that she’d imagined that. Much.
He pushed open the front door, his arm still round her and whispered, “Out of the frying pan...”
At first she didn’t get it—and then just a few footsteps beyond the clinic a whole new raft of sensations bombarded her.
Discordancy. The shrill sounds of heavy machinery hammering away at centuries-old rock and beam. The savaged spot-lit remains of homes and businesses that had virtually disintegrated when the quake had hit.
A wash of guilt rushed over her that she could have been thinking naughty thoughts and having saucy tummy-flips while all this mayhem was still happening across the harbor town.
This was the reason she was here. Not to play out some revenge fantasy against one of the island’s richest men.
She shivered beneath the weight of Theo’s arm, which was still resting lightly on her shoulders protectively, the way a boyfriend or a husband might touch a loved one who’d had a rough day and was feeling a little fragile.
“You warm enough?”
Theo’s voice was soft, a balm against the harsh sound of saws on metal and jackhammers rat-a-tat drumming against concrete.
“Mmm...” She was confused, maybe, but not cold. Not with his arm wrapped around her.
Another shiver rattled down her spine at the thought of his father seeing them. He’d warned her off once and this was stark disobedience of the “stay away from my son” remit she’d promised to obey.
But that was years ago.
“Want my jacket?”
“No, no. I’m good.”
Scared. Excited. A little bit more lusty than she should be. But strangely...whole. As if coming back to the island and finding herself walking side by side with Theo Nikolaides had been the one thing missing from her life.
“Sure?”
He slid his hand to her waist and steered her round some debris that had fallen from a shop front they were passing. The owners sat inside. Their folding chairs flanked an empty crate holding a candle and a half-empty bottle of ouzo. The pair, who must be husband and wife, lifted their glasses when they saw Cailey and Theo passing.
“Yasou!” the pair called out in tandem, then downed their drinks, wincing against the angelica and mace-flavored liquor.
Cheers? Seriously? With their house fallen to bits round them?
“Yasou!” Theo called back, smiling warmly at Cailey, then quickly tightening his fingers at her waist and tugging her out of the path of a couple of smashed watermelons that had been squirted out beneath a collapsed canopy.
“Making the best of a bad lot?” Theo called over his shoulder.
In Greek they called out the age-old saying, “Everything in its time, and in August...mackerel!”
Despite herself, Cailey giggled. “They’re certainly optimistic.”
Theo shrugged. “They’ve probably seen worse.”
Cailey pulled back, and the warmth of Theo’s fingers shifted easily to the small of her back as if they’d been a couple forever. “Worse than their shop crashing to bits when they both look on the brink of retirement?”
Theo stuck out his lower lip and tilted his chin. “First: people like them never retire. Second: a bit of patient-doctor privilege sometimes gives an insight into how people prioritize what is bad and what is worth raising a glass for.”
Ah. A “big picture” response. She got it. Theo was saying a mashed-up shop was nothing to what that couple had already faced on a personal level. They might have lost a child. Battled cancer. Survived a serious accident. Whatever it was had already put this couple face to face with their mortality—and this time, after the huge quake that had taken over a dozen lives already, they had survived. So why not toast one another?
She glanced back at the couple, merrily refilling their glasses and laughing quietly to one another. Bad things happened, but it was how you responded to them that mattered.
Like deciding whether or not to be frightened of a man who no longer held her family’s purse strings. Or of his son who, when you looked at him “big picture” style, was little short of perfect.
CHAPTER SEVEN (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
“CAILEY-OULA!”
Theo retracted his hand from Cailey’s waist at the sound of her brother’s voice emerging from the rising and falling chatter across the street at Stavros’s taverna.
It wasn’t strange at all for Greeks to show one another physical affection, but it was now that disaster had struck that Theo realized his protective older brother feelings had morphed into I really want to kiss you ones.
At the sound of Leon’s voice Cailey unleashed the fullest smile he’d seen since her arrival. Bright, full of energy, eyes sparkling as if she hadn’t just spent the past twelve hours working her heart out.
A swift tug and a tightening right where it counted hit him hard and fast. Oh, yes. His intentions toward her were definitely romantic.
“Kyros! Leon!”
Cailey was up and being hugged in a big brother sandwich before he’d even had a chance to get his head round the fact that she wasn’t standing next to him anymore. The crowd was so thick at Stavros’s it would have been no surprise to find half the island’s population were there on the flower-laced veranda. A veranda miraculously untouched by the quake.
A rapid-fire exchange of information passed between the siblings in a shorthand he almost envied. Wives? Great. Where were they? Serving food—just like everyone else. Stavros and Jacosta had organized it. Where was Mama? Serving her famous souvlaki.
Cailey moaned, kissed the tips of her fingers and lifted them to the starlit sky. Theo’s stomach rumbled. He too had moaned with pleasure over Jacosta’s souvlaki on days when his father had been out of town and he’d “slummed it” in the kitchen.
Shouts were being launched in the direction of the taverna. “Theo! What are you doing standing over there by yourself?”
Jacosta appeared next to her children and beckoned for him to join them, her arms wide open. As ever she was non-judgmental, welcoming, loving.
For the first time in his life he hesitated. How strange to suddenly feel like an outsider on his own island. This had never happened before.
Neither had wanting to completely rip the clothes off a woman he’d known since childhood.
The earth wasn’t the only thing that had shifted that day.
“Come! Come!”
Jacosta had him in a warm embrace before he had another moment to think. Kisses were exchanged. The standard questions peppered him: “Are you all right? Is your home all right? How is your mama? Is her ankle elevated? I heard she twisted it. Your father? I saw him driving past, so I took it as a good sign. Cousins? Aunts? Uncles? Are you hungry? Eat. Eat. Look at you. Skin and bones. You must eat!”
He laughed and succumbed to the hug she pressed him into. It was pointless to resist Jacosta’s entreaties for a hug from her “third son.”
Wouldn’t life have been different if only he’d been adopted by a family for love, not power. He stiffened at the thought and, as if sensing his conflicted feelings, Jacosta let him go.
It was his body protecting his emotions. Protecting them from the inevitable hurt that would come if he so much as thought of having a family of his own one day.
“Theo.” Jacosta crooked a finger, indicating that she wanted him to come closer. Not that Cailey and her brothers, who were still in the full flow of information exchange, would overhear.
“I hope you are keeping an eye on my daughter.” She tapped the side of her nose and smiled gently. “Look after her. She may act the brave one, but she’s tender inside.”
A huge cheer erupted from the overspill of villagers at Stavros’s, followed by an excited gabble of conversation.
Jacosta gave Theo a knowing look. One that said, I know you know her as well as I do...so be kind.
Cailey twirled round toward them with a huge smile on her face. “They’ve found Stavros’s cousin’s daughter!”
“Wonderful.” Jacosta pressed her hands into the prayer position and lifted her eyes to the clear sky up above.
“Mama!” Cailey gave her mother a huge squeeze. “Why are you crying?”
“I’m just so happy. So relieved to have all my children here.” She reached out her hands, and a sob of relief filled the air around them as she pulled Cailey closer and then called her boys over for a big, tight family hug.
Something that would never happen in my family, Theo thought darkly. His father had only called to say he’d chartered a helicopter to come to the mansion and fly his mother to the mainland for treatment on her ankle and her nerves, and then asked if Theo was “keeping up appearances” with the clinic.
He couldn’t believe his father still didn’t get it. That he loved being the island doctor. No, he wasn’t a specialist surgeon like his mates—the other “golden boys” of the Mopaxeni founders—but he loved it. Loved helping carpenters and fishermen and cherished ever-aging yiayias and even billionaires. Not that his father would deign to receive treatment from him. Too personal. Too much like needing the son he claimed was nothing but a disappointment to him.
He scrubbed his hands through his hair. Enough. He was tired. Hungry. No point in getting all emotional over a family who liked to hug just because his didn’t.
“Come! Theo.” Jacosta waved him over to their small group. “Give me a kiss, then go in and make yourself useful. Fetch this poor girl some souvlaki.”
She turned to her daughter and they had a swift, low-voiced exchange. He caught the words “sofa” and “extra blankets”. Cailey’s eyes flicked to his, then guiltily back to her mother’s. Jacosta shot him raised eyebrows, clearly went through some mental calculations then offered him an aha-you-sly-dog smile.
“I’ve got food at home, Jacosta,” he said.
“What’s wrong with the food we have here?” Jacosta’s smile shifted to a frown. “You’ve never turned down my souvlaki before.”
She lowered her gaze to half-mast and tilted up her chin, her expression wreathed in suspicion. He’d seen this look before. Mostly when his father had exploded about something ridiculous and Cailey had been present. Jacosta had always swiftly shifted Cailey behind her, literally protecting her from the verbal lashing, bowing her head, apologizing, taking every blow he unleashed.
He didn’t like being on the receiving end of that look. He wasn’t his father. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Cailey.
“Mama, it’s fine. Volunteers have brought food to the clinic. Why don’t we eat together later? As a family, when this is over. Then we will have a reason to celebrate, yes?”
“Paidi mou!” Jacosta threw her hands into the air in disbelief. “It’s not reason enough to celebrate that my daughter has come home? That her brothers still have life coursing through their veins? That your mama’s souvlaki is being devoured by all these good people who have escaped with their lives but my own flesh and blood won’t take even the tiniest of bites to add some flesh to her body?”
“Yes, of course, Mama, but...” Cailey pressed her thumbs above her eyes and gave her forehead a rub, surreptitiously appealing to Theo for help with a sideways grimace.
Theo swept a hand across his mouth to hide his smile as a glimpse of the teenage Cailey emerged.
“It’s been a long day,” he said placatingly to Jacosta.
“So she should eat!”
“I need to sleep, Mama!”
“Mama, let her go.” Kyros appeared through the crowd with two takeaway packets wafting the alluring scent of Jacosta’s souvlaki in their direction. He kissed his mother’s cheek, then handed the boxes to Cailey with a wink.
“Now, go!” Kyros made shooing movements with his hands as if he were clearing the area of chickens. “Get some rest, then come back and fix more people. I’m not going to bust my gut rescuing people only to find the clinic staff falling asleep on the job.”
His grime-streaked face turned from teasing to sober.
“My wife’s nephew is still missing. He went off to play before the quake and they haven’t seen him since. There’s a crew out there searching right now.”
Cailey reached out and gave his arm a squeeze. “I’m so sorry. How old is he?”
“Six.”
They all stood for a moment, weighed down by the ramifications. The weather wasn’t yet obscenely hot, but spring often saw the temperature gauge fly up unexpectedly, and the longer someone was trapped the more likely it was they’d suffer from severe dehydration. What happened next wasn’t worth considering.
“Fine.” Jacosta wiped her hands together as if she’d been behind the decision for Theo and Cailey to leave all along. “Off you go. Shoo! Get some rest. I’ll bring you some yoghurt and fruit in the morning.”
Cailey took a deep breath as if to protest, then clearly remembered it would do no good and surrendered to the hug her mother was drawing her into.
Another round of kisses were exchanged and then they were back on their way.
* * *
“Your mother is a force of nature.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Cailey replied dryly, then sucked in a sharp breath as first her spine and then her whole body responded to Theo’s touch when he replaced his hand on the small of her back to steer her onto a small tree-lined street that led away from the village’s main thoroughfare.
Who was this man?
He was much more comfortable with the villagers than she’d anticipated. No lofty heights. No clear social barriers up between him and them.
Had he really changed from that arrogant teen she’d overheard telling his friends about the heiresses his father had lined up for him to marry into this...this kind, generous-hearted, self-effacing man?
There weren’t any heiresses in sight now. And—not that she was obsessed or anything—but the pictures of Theo with some willowy blonde on his arm had dried up in the society mags of late.
She chanced a glance at him as he ruffled a child’s hair after the little one had run out to show him the bandage he’d applied earlier to her arm. He knelt down and gave it a studied look, then praised her for looking after it so well.
Crikey, that was sweet. He was sweet.
Just feeling Theo’s broad hand reassert itself on the small of her back relit a flame in her core she now knew had never really been fully tamped out.
As they continued walking she couldn’t stop the niggling thought that ten years ago she’d blown the whole “Nikolaideses don’t marry housemaids” thing out of proportion. Had she, a teen herself, taken umbrage for something she should’ve just laughed off? Or, better yet, should she have flounced out of the pool house she’d been cleaning, flicked a hip in his direction with a saucy follow-up that he didn’t know what he was missing?
Instead she’d been upset, hurt and offended. Leaving had been an easy way to protect her heart from feelings she’d thought would never be reciprocated.
Theo slowed his pace and dropped his hand from her back. She missed his touch instantly. How quickly she’d grown used to something she thought she’d never know.
He stopped in front of a large wooden gate and dug his hand round in his pocket, presumably for a key, his shaggy hair falling forward across his darkly stubbled cheeks.
Theo must have felt her gaze on him. He raised his eyes to meet hers and dropped a slow, dark-lashed wink in her direction as he pulled something out of his pocket with a flourish.
“Ta-da!”
She stared at the object in his hand. A mini-screwdriver?
“Man’s best friend.”
“A screwdriver?” she deadpanned.
“Absolutely.” Theo gave her a quick nod, then turned to the gate. “I lost the key about three years ago, and last winter it started jamming, so...”
He fiddled a bit with the screwdriver at an area on the doorframe that looked as if it had borne this routine more than a few times, then gave the door a swift kick. “Voila! Your boudoir awaits, mademoiselle!”
Trying to push aside images of Theo sweeping her off her feet and carrying her to said boudoir, she tried to wrangle her backpack off his shoulder.
“No, you don’t.” Theo swept his arm out, indicating that she should enter the small but incredibly lush garden where a smattering of golden sandstone slates led to a modest-sized whitewashed traditional home. “In you go.” He pulled the gate shut behind them as she entered the garden. “So. What do you think?”
What did she think? She thought it was the last sort of place a Nikolaides would live in. More to the point, she thought it was perfect.
The small house was precisely the type of a home she’d dreamt of living in before she’d left the island. Draped in bougainvillea, shaded by palms and...was that a pomegranate tree? It felt...cozy. It was about as far as you could get from the ostentatious steel beams, floor-to-ceiling glass and columns of the neo-classical mansion he’d grown up in.
There went a few more of her hypothetical conjectures about The Life of Theo.
“I think it’s beautiful.”
He squinted at her, the corners of his lips tweaking up into a quirky smile. “Excellent. And it looks like the chaps who did the stonemasonry all those years ago knew what they were doing.”
“What?”
“No cracks from the earthquake.”
“Haven’t you been—?” She stopped herself. Of course he hadn’t been home yet. He’d been at the clinic yesterday afternoon when the quake struck and hadn’t been home since.
In lieu of throwing herself at him and telling him how selfless and wonderful he was, she shifted her weight on her heels and gave the house a studied look.
“How old is it, exactly?”
“Hmm...” Theo drummed his fingers on his chin and stared at the house as if someone would pop out of the front door and tell him.
My goodness, he has a lovely jawline. Had she ever even noticed a man’s jawline before?
“Not very. Three hundred years old? Maybe four? Not dawn of civilization stuff.”
Cailey couldn’t help but laugh. She’d always held a deep affection for the neglected and often abandoned stone structures dotted about the island. How funny that Theo seemed to share the exact same level of enthusiasm. He took a few long-legged steps past her and opened the thick wooden door to the house.
“You have the key to this one?” she teased, feeling a strange new store of energy coming to the fore.
“Never locked.” He looked back at her and gave her another one of those butterfly-inducing winks. “Wait here for a minute while I check the structure. It would be a bit embarrassing if your bedroom had been swept out to sea.”
Double swoon!
There was no doubt about it. Theo was flirting with her and she was falling for it hook, line and sinker. Just as she’d warned herself not to.
Then again... If this whole “get some rest at my house” thing was leading where she thought it might, it could lay a few old demons to rest.
Yes. Definitely. They’d have their night of carnal bliss and then poof! She’d lend a hand for a few more days at the clinic, maybe throw in a bit of a showdown with Dimitri, then get back to her job in London, put an end to the evil glares of the gift shop lady every time she leafed through the society mags, and get on with the rest of her life.
And maybe monkeys wearing tiaras would fly out of her backpack.
Theo appeared at the doorway. “It’s safe. Still no power so I’ve lit some candles. Just a couple of broken plates.” He laughed. “Typical Greek, eh? Breaking plates in the best and worst of times. C’mon. In you come.”
He crooked his finger, beckoning to her like the wicked wolf luring little Red Riding Hood into his lair.
Goosebumps skimmed across her skin as she stepped inside. Like the outside, the interior had the gentle glow of whitewashed stone walls. Theo had lit several candles set in traditional wall stands complete with mirrors, so a soft, warm light flickered around the room.
The ceilings were higher than she’d expected. The odd exposed support beam added character. Wooden, of course. A small kitchen was tucked at the back of the large open-plan area, so that there was room for a circular dining table opposite a pair of French windows. In the living room area, where they stood, a pair of over-sized sofas, perfect for napping or reading on, were dotted with blue throw pillows. The sofas faced another set of French windows, leading to a covered veranda, beyond which she could just see the white effervescent foam of the sea—still a bit choppy, though there had been no aftershocks since the one a few hours ago.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Not as beautiful as you’ve become, Cailey.”
Theo was right behind her, his voice low and weighted with intention.
She wheeled round and stumbled back a few steps. Being so close, inhaling his scent—amazingly pure and clean after such a long day—was suddenly too much.
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
Theo actually looked shocked at her question. “Why shouldn’t I be?”
Cailey was about to launch into a rather detailed explanation of exactly why this was all rather peculiar when he closed the space between them and put a finger to her lips.
“Cailey mou. I’ve always felt we had a connection, you and I. Don’t you know that?”
She shook her head against his finger, fighting the urge to open her lips and draw it into her mouth. Any connection they’d had had been more master and servant than anything. She’d grown up working in his house. Scrubbing, cooking and cleaning alongside her mother, who had spent her entire adult life serving as the Nikolaides housekeeper.
Sure, she’d played with Erianthe when they were kids, and sometimes with Theo when he and his gang were in the mood to torture or tolerate his kid sister, but a connection...? She’d thought that kiss they’d shared all those years ago had been a dare. A cruel one at that. For it had been only a day later when she’d overheard him telling his friends he’d never marry a housemaid.
She was surprised to see him looking hurt. Genuinely hurt. Furrowed brow. Eyes narrowing. A sharp intake of breath. The whole caboodle.
“Not in the strictest sense,” she whispered against his finger.
“We’re peas in a pod. You must know that. And today, working together, wasn’t that proof?”
“No. It only proves we work well together. Our lives...we’re so different.”
She wanted to hear him say it. Say he’d held himself apart from her because of her background. That he’d soared where she had failed even to get into medical school, let alone become a doctor.
“You are different from me,” he said, lowering his head until his lips whispered against hers. “You’re better.”
Before she could craft a single lucid thought they were kissing. Softly at first. Not tentatively, as a pair of teenagers might have approached their first kiss, more as if each touch, each moment they were sharing, spoke to the fact that they had belonged together all along.
Simply kissing him was an erotic pleasure on its own. The short walk to Theo’s house had given his lips a slight tang of the sea. Emboldened by his sure touch, Cailey swept her tongue along Theo’s lower lip, a trill of excitement following in the wake of his moan of approbation.
The kisses grew in strength and depth. Theo pulled her closer to him, his lips parting to taste and explore her mouth. The hunger and fatigue they’d felt on leaving the clinic were swept into the dark shadows as light and energy grew within each of them like a living force of its own.
Undiluted sexual attraction flared hot and bright within her, the flames licking at her belly, her breasts, her inner thighs, as if it had been waiting for exactly this moment to present itself. Molten, age-old, pent-up, magically realized and released desire.
CHAPTER EIGHT (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
“COME, KOUKLA MOU.”
Theo pulled one of the candles off its stand and took Cailey by the hand. He led her to a doorway on the far side of the living room, barely knowing where his energy was coming from. A stress release after such an intense day? A primal need to remind himself of his mortal ability to weather such an extreme act of nature?
Or was it something much more simple? Like fate?
He turned to her and released the riot of curls from the wooden hairclip barely managing to hold her inky black hair in place. She flushed and looked to the floor as silky waves cascaded around her shoulders.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” His voice sounded hoarse. A sure sign that his emotions had taken over.
She turned her head and gave looked at him askance. It was a look that said, Are you?
“Thee mou... I’ve thought about you—about this—all day. I just want you to be sure. If this is your first time—”
She cut him off with a shake of her head. “This isn’t my first time. But...”
He swept his fingers along her face. “But what? You can talk to me, Cailey.”
She looked him straight in the eye and said, “You’re the first man I ever wanted.”
Her words roiled through him like molten lava.
“Come here, you.”
He tugged her to him, blood pounding through his veins, powering the need to taste, touch, taunt...and fulfil her every desire.
Cailey tutted playfully. “I’ve waited twenty-seven years for this...let’s take it slow.”
She pushed his hands down, then began with trembling fingers to unbutton his shirt.
He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed each of her fingertips. “Don’t be scared. It’s only me.”
Her cheeks pinkened. “That’s precisely why I’m shaking, you fool.”
“I don’t frighten you, do I?” He almost laughed at the absurdity of it.
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s how I feel about you that frightens me.”
She looked so vulnerable the only thing he could do was pull her to him and whisper into her ear that she could trust him. He meant it, too. And couldn’t imagine making the promise to anyone else.
“How do I know?”
He held her away, so he could look her straight in the eye as he said, “Because I feel exactly the same way as you do.”
“What? Excited, terrified and itching to get naked all at once?”
He laughed softly. “That about captures it.”
She tipped her head to the side, as if ascertaining whether he meant it. “You’re not quite who I thought you were, Theo Nikolaides.”
“Oh? And who exactly did you think I was?”
She shook her head, “I’m not really sure anymore, but...” She lowered her lashes then opened her eyes with a teasing flash of a smile. “Do you think we should just go for it?”
“I think that’s a most excellent idea.” He laughed again, before weaving his fingers through hers. “Come on.” He led her to the big sprawling bed he’d indulged himself with when he’d bought the place. “Let’s spend as long as we need to get to know one another all over again.”
She held her ground. “Sorry. Just one more little thing. Can we have a no-strings-attached rule? Like, what goes on at the earthquake...stays at the earthquake?”
“If you wish.” He shot her a sidelong look. “Unless it’s to keep this a secret from a boyfriend back in London?”
“No.” She sucked in a quick breath. “No boyfriend. Just big brothers...and a mother who seems to find out everything anyhow and...well...your father.”
“My father?” He barely recognized his own voice it had hollowed out so quickly. “What’s he got to do with anything?”
“I don’t really think he likes me.”
“Well, I don’t like him very much.” The bastard. If he’d so much as said a single word to her...
Cailey’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“Really.”
He flicked a switch in his head. He didn’t want to be talking about his father right now. Or anyone else, for that matter.
“C’mere, you.” He pulled her over to the bed and straddled her before pressing his lips gently to hers. “What goes on at the earthquake...stays at the earthquake.”
He took Cailey’s hands and put them back on his chest as he dipped his lips to hers for another deep, erotically charged kiss. Feeling her breasts press up into his chest, her nipples taut with anticipation, sent a surge of blazing heat straight to his groin.
He gave the hem of her scrubs top a gentle tug. “May I?”
She nodded, her eyes sparkling in the candlelight.
He slowly lifted her top up and off her, his fingers lightly grazing the bands of lace cupping her breasts as he did so. By God she was beautiful. Olive skin. Full breasts. Dark nipples, taut and tempting.
He put the top on a chair by the bed and knelt in front of her. Unable to resist, he softly cupped her breasts, relishing the sensation of lace and warm skin as Cailey wove her fingers through his hair and tugged his head back for an urgent kiss.
Enough with the niceties, her kiss told him. It’s time to get down to business.
All he could absorb in his overwrought brain was that he wanted more. To touch. Caress. Give her every ounce of pleasure he could.
He curved an arm around her waist and pulled her to him, his fingers cupping one of her breasts as he licked the other one through the gossamer lace barely containing it. He shifted the fabric to one side and gave her nipple a hot, wet lick. Her fingers dug into his hair again, giving him all the permission he needed to continue. Swirling, tasting, touching, caressing...
He forced himself to adopt a more luxurious pace, relishing the soft shudders of approbation as Cailey’s body reeled and recovered from the erotic journey of his tongue and lips across her breasts, down to her belly. Shifting across her hips. Making the most of the luscious dips and curves along the way before lowering his lips to her waistline.
His fingers worked slowly, tauntingly, at the butterfly bow she’d tied in her scrub bottoms. Before releasing it, he encouraged her to lie back as he teased two of his fingers over the gently rounded surface of her belly, stopping only to draw in a deep breath of her skin. Vanilla? Or was it honey? The sweet and pure scent of olive oil? Enchantingly indescribable aromas all designed to drive a man wild. Drive him wild.
Centimeter by centimeter he lowered her scrubs...then her panties...adoring the shivers of excitement buzzing across her skin as he dropped kisses, little nips and licks, along the swoop from hip to hip and lower until she wove her fingers into his hair and cried out to be with him.
“Not yet. Not yet, koukla mou.” He spoke the words and his lips whispered against the delicate skin just above the thin strip of hair leading to the soft folds between her legs. “If you have waited this long, I want to make it worth it.”
He thought he heard her say, “It already is!” and “Now!” but then her words melted into moans as he slipped his fingers between her legs and stroked the honeyed response to his caresses.
He was as fully erect as he had ever been, and sustaining this level of control was going to be a challenge, but she was worth it. Especially if it was true that she had wanted him all along...
* * *
Cailey felt drugged with pleasure as Theo slid his warm, assured hands between her legs and parted them.
She’d had sex before, but she was certain she had never been made love to. And they hadn’t done anything much beyond kissing yet!
All the blood in her body surged and collected at the pulsing triangle between her legs as Theo cupped her buttocks in his hands and began to lick her. The level of pleasure he elicited was electrifying. She felt so sensual, so alluring—it was as if he was drawing an inner goddess out of her she’d never known existed. Each of his touches inflamed a deep-seeded pulse from her very essence that grew and hummed until she dug her nails into Theo’s shoulders, pressed closer to his lapping tongue and cried out to him to let her release. She tried and failed to stem a wail of sheer ecstasy as her body tightened and arced as wave after wave of pleasure luxuriously swept throughout her body.
Theo held her tight to him after climbing up onto the bed alongside her. “Feeling better?”
“I was never feeling bad,” she managed to murmur as she pressed herself to him, seized by the spirit of a tigress.
She’d forgotten he was still wearing clothes. Nerves completely eradicated, she swiftly undid his shirt buttons, then just as quickly unhooked and, in one extraordinary move, whipped off his belt. To their mutual astonishment she gave the length of leather a sharp crack before flinging it to the far side of the simply furnished room.
“My goodness, little one...” Theo said approvingly. “You’re full of energy tonight.”
Cailey moved her hands to his thick erection. “I’m hardly little, and it’s not exactly as if you’re running on empty. Shall we see what we can do for you now?” She gave the length of his shaft a playful lick.
Where did that come from?
She didn’t do sexy talk. Or crack leather belts like a dominatrix. Or demand sex, for that matter.
Being with Theo was dangerous. On far too many levels. But at this exact moment she had no inhibitions—and no ability to stop herself from wanting more. She pushed him back on the bed and crawled on top of him, straddling him with a provocative twitch of her lips.
“Tell me, Doctor. Would you like to have your own turn?”
For a nanosecond he looked confused. When her hand began to stroke the velvet-soft length of his shaft the dawn of realization came quickly. He grinned, clearly amused at the she-woman he’d unleashed, and raised his hands in a move that said, Do what you will. I’m yours for the taking.
Cailey pressed herself up onto her hands and knees and swept her breasts along the smooth surface of Theo’s well-defined chest. Not weight-lifter bulky...just strong and perfect. She gave each of his dark aureoles a lick and a quick suck before slowly working her way south.
When she first touched his erection with the tip of her tongue he inhaled sharply. When she took him in her mouth he cried out her name, fingers reaching out to touch her hair before falling helplessly to his sides as she had her wanton, wicked way with him. As his pleasure increased, so too did Cailey’s. The two-way exchange of pleasure wasn’t something she’d considered in all these years of wondering... Yes, she’d had sex before, but this felt different. Powerful. Captivating. Like an awakening.
A heated thrill thrummed to life in the very kernel of her femininity. Giving Theo pleasure was as erotic as receiving it. The more he responded to her touch, the more energized she became. The more she gave, the more he craved.
Abruptly Theo pressed himself up and pulled her alongside him. “I want you, Cailey. Now.”
His voice was urgent, full of longing. It was the most uninhibited she had ever seen him. Being the reason for it sent fresh ribbons of pleasure through her. In the clinic Theo was the picture of a man in control. Here, beneath her fingertips, he was vulnerable to her lightest touch. Power and protectiveness wove together as one as she kissed his neck, his throat, his lips.
“I want you,” he said again as their mouths parted after another all-encompassing kiss.
There wasn’t a single cell in her body capable of saying no. She’d imagined this moment for years...and the reality was light years better than any fantasy she had conjured.
“I’m all yours,” she said, meaning each of the words with a totality that came from realizing she’d loved him all along. If this was her one chance to love and be loved she was going to take it. Even if it meant returning to London on her own, she’d have this moment locked in her heart as proof that for one night she had been everything he wanted.
Theo slipped an arm across her belly, then gently shifted her onto her back. “You’re sure?” His green eyes were almost black in the flickering half-light the candle afforded them.
She’d barely finished saying yes before she felt the tip of his shaft tease at the heated entrance to her womanhood. She parted her legs in response. Never before had she been so aroused.
Theo moved slowly at first. Teasing the tip of his erection in and out of her until she was nearly mad with euphoria and longing. And then he began to press into her more deeply, each penetration bringing with it another layer of fulfilling pleasure. It wasn’t until she begged him that each measured stroke became lost in a shared desire to meet one another thrust for thrust. Restraint was abandoned. Her hips became fine-tuned to his untethered thrusts. Her hands wove tight round his neck, then shifted to his back as she wrapped her legs round him, wanting him to bury himself as deep within her as their longing would permit.
Their shared desire lifted them outside of human constraints and into a timeless eternity. When the rhythm of their lovemaking reached a mutual crescendo, as one they gave themselves to the all-consuming joy of a shared climax before collapsing in a weighted tangle of limbs and desire.
As their breathing began to steady Theo rolled off her, pulling her with him so that they were still joined together.
“My goodness, little one...” He dropped kisses on each of her cheeks and her forehead, “Welcome home.”
Cailey gave him a deep kiss in return, then began to giggle as she slipped away from him so they could snuggle under the covers. “I have to admit this is not quite the homecoming I was expecting.”
“You and me both,” Theo teased, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to him so she was nestled against the warm, solid length of his body. “Little Cailey Tomaras is all grown up.” He swept a hand along her curves as if to prove it.
“Worth the wait?” she asked.
“And then some.”
They lay for a moment in silence, their breathing leveling out, shifting into a cadence matching the susurration of the waves just beyond the bedroom windows.
“That’s never happened to me before,” Cailey said eventually.
“What? Getting hit on in the midst of a humanitarian crisis?”
“Well, that too.” She giggled, still a bit shell-shocked at the dichotomy of the day. And how natural it all seemed.
Work hard. Love hard. If that was what this was. It was so easy to be with him. Intuitive, almost.
“I mean the...you know...” Shyness washed over her despite the raw intimacy they’d just shared. “The butterfly magic.” She pulled her arm out from under the sheet and pointed to below her waist, whispering, “Down there.”
Now it was Theo’s turn to laugh. He pulled her closer to him and pressed a soft kiss on her forehead. “Is that what the cool kids are calling an orgasm these days?”
“Well, no. But for me it was...”
“Virgin territory?” he countered, a slightly incredulous tone in his playful voice.

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