www.millsandboon.co.uk

      To Andrea Debomford, who gave me the inspiration for the way Jake and Kitty first meet. Thanks for your friendship. Love you. xxx

       Dear Reader

      While I was writing my last Medical, THE SURGEON SHE NEVER FORGOT, I had a scene where an Accident and Emergency doctor came in to talk to my hero Lewis Beck about his ill father. I found my next medical hero Jake Chandler right then and there. I just love it when characters come to me and beg me to write their story!

      Jake was tall and incredibly good-looking, with dark blue eyes. I knew immediately that he was a bit of a playboy. I even knew why he was so against settling down. His backstory was like a download in my head.

      All I needed now was a suitable heroine to rock Jake’s world. And in no time at all newly qualified A&E doctor Kitty Cargill came along. Again it was like a download. I knew immediately Kitty would be a classic fish out of water. I also knew she would be an old-fashioned English girl from an unconventional background.

      A sweetheart home girl with a broken heart meets a commitment-phobe, notoriously sexy playboy. What a perfect mix for a pulse-racing romance!

      I love writing the scene where my characters meet for the first time. I have so much fun thinking of ways they can take an instant dislike to each other, or get the wrong impression, or strike passionate sparks from the first moment their eyes meet. Jake and Kitty certainly didn’t let me down. Kitty makes a first impression on Jake that is nothing like the impression she hoped to make on her devilishly handsome boss!

      I hope you enjoy reading about how Jake and Kitty met and fell in love, and that you laugh and cry with them along the way. I certainly did!

      Warmest wishes

       Melanie Milburne

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘I CAN’T believe you talked me into wearing this,’ Kitty Cargill said to her cousin as they entered the city hotel where Julie’s ‘Pimps and Prostitutes’ fancy dress thirtieth birthday party was being held. ‘I’m sure it’s because I’m still suffering from jet lag and I’m not in my right mind.’

      ‘You look awesome,’ Julie said. ‘I never knew you had such great legs. That PVC skirt really shows some serious thigh.’

      Kitty pulled the skirt—which in her opinion was too skimpy even to qualify for the term—down over the ladder in the black fishnet tights that her cousin had insisted was an essential part of the get-up. ‘Now I can see where my mother got her wacky out-there genes,’ she said, cringing in embarrassment at some of the looks she was attracting as they made their way to the function room.

      ‘Lighten up, hon,’ Julie said. ‘You’re not going to last long in Aussieland unless you strap on a sense of humour. You’re way too conservative. You Brits all act like you’ve been potty-trained at gunpoint.’

      ‘Ha, ha, ha,’ Kitty said. ‘I’ll have you know I wasn’t potty-trained at all. My parents thought it was far more progressive and fundamental to my development that I sorted it all out for myself when I was good and ready.’

      Julie grinned at her. ‘So should I be worried about you going where you shouldn’t while you’re bunking down with me?’

      Kitty gave her a look. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I won’t be with you much longer. I’ve already found a town house to rent online. The real estate agent confirmed it this afternoon. It’s not far from the hospital and even closer to the beach at Bondi.’

      ‘It sounds perfect,’ Julie said. ‘Have you met anyone from St Benedict’s yet? Your boss in A&E or the CEO?’

      ‘Not yet,’ Kitty said. ‘I’m going to introduce myself in the next day or so. I’m not due to start until next week, but I thought it’d be polite to put in an appearance—given I didn’t go through the normal face-to-face interview process.’

      ‘I still can’t quite get my head around you being a fully-fledged doctor,’ Julie said, giving her a playful shoulder-bump. ‘Last time I saw you, when Mum and I came to London for Christmas, you were playing with dolls.’

      Life was certainly a whole lot simpler then, Kitty thought wistfully as she followed her cousin into the party room, which was thumping with deafening music.

      Jake Chandler was on