But Nikos didn’t look at the charts. He was looking at his little patient.
‘Tamsin?’ A smile danced in his eyes and his expression changed from detached to playful. ‘You have no idea how happy I am to see you.’
Tamsin shrank closer to Ella, like a tortoise retreating into the safety of its shell to hide from danger. ‘Go away.’
Nikos leaned on the trolley to reduce his height and make himself less intimidating. ‘I will if you want me to, but first I was hoping if you could help me out with this. I have no idea what to do with it.’ From his pocket he produced a small stuffed mermaid with long golden hair. Despite her growing stress levels Ella couldn’t help smiling because it was so typical of him to know exactly how to relate to each patient.
People said he was cold, but she knew that wasn’t always the case.
The little girl’s expression changed from panic to interest. Still clutching Ella’s hand, she reached out for the toy, but Nikos held it just out of reach. ‘First you have to give her a name. What are we going to call her?’
Ella caught the startled expression on Alan’s face and knew that he was wondering why a professor of international repute would choose this moment to play mermaids with a little girl.
He looked at Nikos and saw him playing a frivolous game.
But Ella saw something very different.
She saw a skilled doctor using a distraction technique as a tool to give him answers. She saw Nikos’s gaze rest on the child’s chest as he assessed her breathing. She saw him encouraging the child to speak to him, so that he could evaluate how breathless she was.
And she saw a more relaxed child.
Look and learn, Alan, she thought wryly.
Nikos removed his stethoscope from his pocket. Tamsin immediately tensed and opened her mouth to protest loudly, but Nikos simply smiled and listened to the mermaid’s chest, a look of total concentration on his handsome face.
‘Well?’ Playing along, Ella asked the question with a solemn expression on her face. ‘How’s the mermaid?’
Nikos nodded slowly. ‘I think she might have swallowed some sea water but, other than that, she is good.’
Tamsin grabbed at the stethoscope. ‘Me.’
‘You want a turn?’ Ella stroked Tamsin’s silken curls. ‘Would you like to listen?’ She took Nikos’s stethoscope and pretended to put it to the child’s ears.
Seeing Ella smiling at Nikos, Tamsin started to relax. And Nikos was so skilful at dealing with her that by the time he finally placed the stethoscope on the child’s chest, the little girl was so fascinated by him that she simply reached up a chubby hand and tugged at his dark hair. Then she pushed the mermaid in front of him again and Nikos smiled.
‘She’s all yours, koritsi mou. Make sure you look after her.’
Ella felt her heart flip because this side of him always left her in a puddle. She’d seen him verbally dissect experienced doctors who had fallen short of his expectations, she knew he was capable of being ruthless when the need arose, and yet with a small child he was a pussy cat—extraordinarily gentle, all that latent strength and power firmly leashed.
It was so hard to hate this man. So hard.
Choked by the thought of what could have been, she concentrated her attention on the monitor.
‘Her sats are improving.’
Nikos nodded. ‘She’s doing fine.’
Despite the simmering tension between them, they worked together seamlessly, their movements smooth and slick as they did what needed to be done—a veneer of normality covering dangerous undercurrents…
Twice his fingers brushed against hers and in the end Ella stepped back from the trolley because although he was clearly indifferent to her, she didn’t think she had the control to be this close to him and not react. He registered her retreat with a faint narrowing of his eyes and she wished she knew what he was thinking.
Why was he so angry?
He should have been thanking her for making things easy for him.
For quietly accepting his cold email brush-off.
She studied his handsome face for signs of strain—some evidence that the separation of the last four months might have affected him in the same way that it had affected her. Had he lost weight? Did he look as though he’d suffered?
But his face showed no sign of the ravages of worry. He looked strong and healthy, as if the weaknesses that permeated other mortals were afraid to lay a hand on him. The collar of his white shirt was undone and for a moment Ella’s gaze lingered on the strong column of his throat, remembering how many times she’d pressed her mouth to that exact place. And his skin was a deeper bronze than usual, suggesting exposure to a more generous climate than that enjoyed by the South of England. Which reminded her of just one thing.
He’d been back in Greece.
With his beautiful Greek wife?
The pain almost split her in two and with the pain came anger.
He’d betrayed her and she needed to remember that. What she didn’t need was to be seduced all over again by his skills as a doctor.
‘So—her breathing is much improved.’ Having won the child’s confidence, Nikos addressed his remark to the little girl’s mother. ‘We need to try and establish what might have caused this attack. Her asthma is usually well managed?’
Still jiggling the baby in her arms, the woman nodded. ‘Yes. In the winter she sometimes has problems if she has a chest infection, but nothing like this. We’ve rented a house on the coast with my sister and her family. One minute she was playing happily, the next she couldn’t breathe.’
‘And she is well at the moment? No cold? No temperature?’ As he questioned the mother Nikos carried on examining Tamsin, this time checking her throat and her ears, feeling her glands and doing the same with the mermaid whenever required to do so by the little girl. ‘Nothing different?’
Ella’s heart jerked as her eyes settled on his skilled, bronzed fingers. Fingers that could save a life or drive a woman crazy.
She had so many questions.
Why was a billionaire playing at being a doctor?
Why hadn’t he told her the truth about himself?
The mother was trying to give him the answers he wanted. ‘I can’t think of anything. She hasn’t even been on the beach much because the children have mostly been playing in the house with the puppy.’
Nikos raised an eyebrow. ‘Puppy?’
‘I’m on holiday with my sister. They bought a puppy last week. A little spaniel. Tamsin loves the dog. They’ve been sleeping together.’
Ella exchanged a brief glance with Nikos just as the little girl snatched the mask off her face.
‘Want to see Bruno.’
‘Keep the mask on, Tams. Oh, my goodness.’ Her mother was staring at Nikos. ‘You think it might be the dog? Some sort of allergy? I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘It’s possible.’ Nikos reached for the notes. ‘For the rest of the holiday play with the dog outside, not inside. When you get home, go and see your own doctor and talk it through with him. He might want to rethink your management plan.’
‘Do you want to do a chest X-ray?’ Ella asked. ‘Shall I phone the radiographer?’
Nikos shook his head. ‘Her oxygen