Chapter One

      ‘EXCUSE me. I couldn’t help overhearing the shouting. I’m coming in.’

      Marina froze as she heard the voice on the other side of the curtain.

      No; of course it wasn’t him.

      Apart from anything else, Max Fenton didn’t work at the London Victoria. So it was completely ridiculous that she’d think he was standing on the other side of the curtain. And she was furious with herself for, yet again, hearing a slightly posh voice and thinking immediately of her ex.

      After four years, she should be over him—completely over him. Yet every time she had an oblique view of a man with dark hair that flopped over his forehead, every time she heard someone who sounded faintly like him, she immediately thought of Max. And every time it turned out to be a stranger and she ended up cross with herself for being such a fool.

      Of course he wouldn’t have followed her to London—not after all this time. He’d signed the divorce papers a year ago, and they’d been separated for three years before that. Sure, Eve had said something about a new senior registrar taking over from Ed, but she hadn’t mentioned his name and, as far as Marina knew, the new doctor wasn’t starting until next week.

      And then the curtain to the cubicle twitched open.

      Shock kept her silent.

      Since when had Max been working at the London Victoria?

      He was definitely staff. Apart from the fact that he was wearing a white coat with a stethoscope flung casually around his neck, his name-badge sported the hospital logo and his name was printed underneath his photograph. But how on earth had she missed the news that he’d joined the team?

      She stared at him. There were lines she didn’t remember etched on his face, and he was thinner. Too thin. But his hair was just the same, still flopping over his forehead. And she’d forgotten just how blue his eyes were, a smoky, slate-blue that still managed to make her heart miss a beat when she looked at him, even after all the mess and misery that had happened between them.

      For one crazy moment, Marina almost reached out to touch him, to press her palm against his cheek and make absolutely sure that he was really here, that this wasn’t some weird kind of hallucination.

      But she didn’t have the right to touch him. Not any more. For all she knew, he could be married.

       With a child.

      The pain at that thought was so intense that she nearly gasped out loud. Then anger bubbled up to block out the pain. What the hell was he doing here? There were plenty of other hospitals in the world. Why did Max have to muscle into hers, push his way back into her life?

      Max’s face was completely unreadable. She had no idea what he was thinking, or whether he was filled with the same confusing mixture of pain, anger and longing that she was.

      He