One Night With Dr Nikolaides: One Night with Dr Nikolaides. Tina Beckett
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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.
“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