The Doctor's Rescue

The Doctor's Rescue
Kate Hardy

GP Dr. Will Cooper had rescued a toddler from a busy road but ended up in hospital himself, with a broken arm and leg and a beautiful stranger, Dr. Mallory Ryman, by his bed! Mallory had been climbing in the area and had been the first doctor at the scene.Now Will was asking Mallory to be his locum – and live in his house so she could care for him until he recovered! But Mallory had no idea that her stay would force Will to confront some past traumatic events – nor that their mutual attraction would develop into an all-consuming passion….

“I really, really can’t stay here in hospital much longer. It’s driving me bananas,” Will said between gritted teeth. “I know you said you were planning on being our locum for a while…. Have you got digs lined up?”

Uh-oh. She had a nasty feeling she knew what was coming. “I’m staying at The Limes.”

“I’ve got a better solution,” Will said. “My spare room. If you stay at the cottage there’ll be a doctor on the premises if I get into trouble, so they’ll let me out.”

Yeah, right.

He grimaced. “Mallory, this wasn’t—isn’t—an attempt to seduce you. Sharing my cottage until I’m fit again doesn’t mean I’m expecting you to share my bed or anything like that.”

Her skin heated again. She hadn’t been thinking along those lines at all. Although now he’d mentioned it…No. He might be drop-dead gorgeous, beneath the bruising and the plaster, but she wasn’t going to have an affair with Will Cooper. She was going to be sensible, and make sure her working partnerships stayed work only. “I didn’t think you were.”

Dear Reader (#ulink_f7843fa1-c44a-5074-9078-124348097b13),

The Doctor’s Rescue started life in the most unromantic situation—at the beginning of the school run, in torrential rain, when I was wearing the least sexy raincoat in the world. I looked like a gnome. Ping! That’s where the first line of the book comes from. My poor editor just sighed when I warned her what was coming!

It also had something to do with a book I was reading on Everest. I’d love to climb a mountain. But as I get queasy on three-inch heels, the chances are pretty slim. So I decided to make my heroine do it for me—meaning that I got all the fun and none of the danger.

GP Mallory Ryman rescues Will Cooper when he’s knocked over by a car, and he talks her into acting as his locum while he recovers. But it also means her moving in with him: which means they both have to come to terms with their past. As for who rescues whom—I’ll let you make up your own mind.

Oh, and the storm sort of happened to me. Thirteen miserable hours with no heating, and reduced to using birthday cake candles! Now, imagine it was my heroine and the most gorgeous man in the world (my own gorgeous one was on call at work) and suddenly it becomes much more interesting….

With love,

Kate Hardy

The Doctor’s Rescue

Kate Hardy

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

CONTENTS

COVER (#ufa8f1a00-e914-55bd-84c0-d7b5d1d4825a)

Dear Reader (#uee55b8ad-62e9-5e02-ae3f-84345f7608bd)

TITLE PAGE (#u74cce634-5b58-5aae-a67c-b6c3c446c00c)

CHAPTER ONE (#u64b1f9e9-0de0-5a79-9a3a-b2d651045e32)

CHAPTER TWO (#uab7912e5-6e7a-50f2-b6e2-69f4a99df0ab)

CHAPTER THREE (#u821b510f-e410-5f6c-a383-27e48c212162)

CHAPTER FOUR (#u828c80ba-dc31-507f-ad3c-46fb5e3d42eb)

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)

CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

EXTRACT (#litres_trial_promo)

COPYRIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_baa1b0c2-77a2-5f99-ab23-d70ed1f992a2)

‘GO ’WAY, Gnome,’ Will slurred. ‘Wan’ sleep.’

‘No, you don’t, sunshine. You’re really, really not going to sleep now. Stay awake for me.’

Bright blue eyes stared at him from under the even brighter yellow hood. Not fair, torturing him like this. His leg hurt, his head hurt, his arm hurt, and all he wanted to do was go to sleep. But the gnome was shining a light in his eyes and wouldn’t let him.

‘What’s your name?’ Her voice was gentler this time. Like her hands, which stroked his face tenderly. Lovely hands.

‘It’s W—’

Then everything faded, and he sank into sweet oblivion.

Everything hurt. Absolutely everything. Will risked moving an eyelid and closed it again quickly. The light was too bright. But he couldn’t go back to sleep again now—there was too much noise. People talking, clattering sounds and beeping. Sounds that were familiar somehow and yet strange at the same time. Where was he?

Resignedly, he opened his eyes. And saw her sitting cross-legged in the chair at the foot of his bed, reading a book. The gnome. Not a gnome—an elf, he decided, now she wasn’t wearing that huge yellow waterproof.

She smiled and put the book down. ‘Well, I suppose an elf’s an improvement on a gnome.’

Oh, no. He couldn’t have actually said that.