CHAPTER ONE

      SAMMY LAUGHED AS the penny finally dropped. ‘So you want me to photograph naked men for you?’

      Ayesha, who chaired the Friends of the London Victoria Hospital, squirmed and stared into her latte. ‘Put like that, it sounds terrible!’

      ‘I know what you meant. Do it artistically,’ Sammy said, still smiling. ‘A calendar of hot men to raise funds for the cancer ward. It’s a great idea. So do you have a bunch of sexy doctors lined up to pose for me?’

      ‘A couple,’ Mari, the vice-chair, said. ‘But we were thinking maybe we can include other people who’ve been involved with the ward.’

      ‘Cured patients, so you can say that this is what a cancer survivor looks like? That could work well.’ And, for a cause like that, Sammy would seriously think about going public and baring her own leg, if they couldn’t get enough models.

      ‘We were thinking relatives of patients,’ Ayesha said. ‘Ones with high profiles locally. We’ve got an actor, a musician, a chef, a gardener...’

      ‘So I could maybe shoot them in their own locations, doing their job. That’d work really well,’ Sammy said. ‘And they’re all happy about posing naked—provided I preserve their modesty?’

      ‘Ye—es,’ Ayesha said.

      The hesitation told her everything. ‘You didn’t actually tell them it meant posing naked, did you?’ Sammy asked.

      ‘We’re going to,’ Mari said. ‘We can talk them into it.’

      ‘As I’ll need signed model release forms before I can let you use the photographs, I’m afraid you’ll have to do that.’ Sammy looked at her diary. ‘If you’re using the hospital as a location, I could shoot the whole lot in a day, but if I need to go to different places then I’ll have to work out a schedule based on the locations and the availability of the models.’ She scribbled some notes down on a pad. ‘These are the best times for me to do it, but I can also work round a couple of other things if you need me to. Talk to your models and let me know where and when you want me to do the shoots.’

      ‘Sammy, you’re a star. Thank you so much,’ Ayesha said.

      Sammy shrugged off the praise. ‘It’s the least I can do. If it wasn’t for the treatment I had here when I was a teen—’ and again two years ago ‘—then I wouldn’t be here. And this means I can give something back.’ She smiled. ‘This is going to be fun. And we’re going to raise a ton of money for the ward.’

      * * *

      Nick folded his arms and looked at his sister. ‘All right, Mandy. Out with it.’

      ‘Out with what?’ she deadpanned.

      ‘Amanda Kennedy, I’ve known you for thirty-five years.’

      ‘At least one year of which you wouldn’t remember, because you were a baby at the time,’ she retorted.

      ‘Agreed,’ he said, ‘but I can always read your expression. So don’t ever take up playing poker, will you?’

      She sighed. ‘I guess.’

      Nick had known that tonight wasn’t just about his sister giving him an update on his nephew’s cancer treatment. Despite going through a messy divorce, Mandy still believed in love and happy endings. And all too often she tried to fix him up with someone she thought would be his perfect date. Nick had stopped believing in love years ago, and he’d learned the hard way that you couldn’t be successful both in love and in your career. So after the break-up of his marriage he’d gone for the safe option and concentrated on his career.