Carol Marinelli - Playboy On Her Christmas List

Making her Christmas dream come true...

Paramedic Holly Jacobs knows that her night of scorching passion with Dr. Daniel Chandler meant more than just lust. And she’ll fix the hospital staff’s Secret Santa to prove it!

Playboy doc Daniel has sworn off love—but he can’t resist Holly! And by the time they get snowed in at a B and B on Christmas Eve, Daniel finds himself wondering if the connection he’s feeling for Holly is for life, not just for Christmas!

She wanted a kiss, Daniel knew, but he was also certain that she wanted a whole lot more than that. Not just sex, but the part of himself he refused to give.

“What?” he said again, and then his face broke into a smile as, very unexpectedly, Holly—sweet Holly—showed another side of herself.

“Are you going to make me invite you in?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not even going to try to persuade me with a kiss?” Holly checked.

“You want me or you don’t.” Daniel shrugged. “There’s no question that I want you. But, Holly, do you get that—”

She knew what was coming and she didn’t need the warning. He had made his position perfectly clear, so she interrupted him. “I don’t need the speech.”

She just needed this.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoy reading about Daniel and Holly as much I did writing about them.

For me, Christmas is such a special time, and I enjoy every moment of the buildup and all the tradition that surrounds it. I know, though, that Christmas can be a difficult time for a lot of people. My hero, Daniel, just wants Christmas to be over and done with, and he has no interest in all the festivities. Certainly the last thing he wants is romance. I love writing opposites attract stories, and my heroine, Holly, not only adores Christmas, she is head over heels in love with Daniel, too!

This is my first story set in The Primary Hospital in London—a busy, modern teaching hospital—and I am looking forward to writing many more.

Happy reading,

Carol x

Playboy on Her Christmas List

Carol Marinelli

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Books by Carol Marinelli

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The Hollywood Hills Clinic

Seduced by the Heart Surgeon

Baby Twins to Bind Them

Just One Night?

The Baby of Their Dreams

The Socialite’s Secret

Mills & Boon Modern Romance

The Billionaire’s Legacy

Di Sione’s Innocent Conquest

The Sheikh’s Baby Scandal

Visit the Author Profile page at www.millsandboon.co.ukfor more titles.

Praise for Carol Marinelli

‘It had me in tears at the beginning, and then again at the end, and I could hardly put it down. A brilliant emotional read by Carol Marinelli!’

—Goodreads on The Baby of Their Dreams

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

Booklist

Praise

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

‘HOLLY, PUT THE decorations back. I’ve already told you that there are quite enough already. This is the emergency department, not the children’s ward.’

Holly, dressed in baggy scrubs and weighted down with tinsel and glittery silver snowmen, jumped when she heard Kay’s strong Irish accent and realised that the nurse unit manager was sitting at the nurses’ station.

Caught!

Holly had also thought that locum registrar Daniel Chandler was on his supper break but, no, he was drinking a coffee at the desk. Holly’s blush spread like spilled red wine across her chest as she stood, dripping glitter, and was scolded in front of the very suave Daniel.

‘I thought that you’d gone home,’ Holly admitted to Kay.

‘I know that you did,’ Kay tartly responded, but then she let out a long sigh. ‘I’m staying back to try and sort out the Christmas roster.’

‘But it’s already done.’ Holly frowned. The last thing she wanted were any alterations to the roster—her plans to be with her family over the festive break had been made weeks ago. But Kay had other ideas and proceeded to tell Holly the reasons that things might have to change.

‘Yes, but since then I’ve had two members of staff go on extended sick leave. Thank goodness for Nora, she’s offered to work Christmas night but things are very tight. Now, put the tinsel back where it belongs, please and, when you’ve done that, tie up your hair.’

‘It’s already tied up.’

‘No, Holly, it’s not.’

Holly’s long, curly brown hair always started the shift in a neat ponytail and then proceeded to work its way out of its confines, curl by wild curl.

* * *

As Holly slunk back to the storeroom Daniel found himself smiling.

He’d only been doing locum shifts at The Primary for a couple of months but it was enough to know that Holly Jacobs took her Christmas decorations very seriously. She had been waiting all afternoon for Kay, who was supposed to have finished at four, to go home so that Holly could, as she put it, ‘Christmas the place up’.

The Primary Hospital was a modern, busy, North London teaching hospital. It was very different in character from the prestigious Royal, where Daniel had started as a medical student and worked his way up to Accident and Emergency Registrar.

Working at The Primary was a step down, his father, an esteemed professor of surgery, would say. Certainly, renowned Professor Marcus Chandler could never fathom why his son was doing locum shifts at various hospitals around London when he could have any hours he chose at the Royal.

For Daniel, though, working at The Primary felt, if not a step up, then a step in the right direction. When he had commenced his first shift here Kay had rolled her eyes at the prospect of giving a tour to yet another temporary doctor but had soon realised Daniel was very good at his job.

More importantly, Daniel was really enjoying his work. Here there was no reputation to uphold; instead, he was slowly making his own.

And it had been noticed.

‘You know there’s a consultant’s position coming up,’ Kay said. She stared at the computer as she spoke.

‘I do,’ Daniel responded, and confirmed that he had been approached. ‘I’ve already told Mr Edwards that I’m not interested.’

‘Are we not good enough for you, Daniel?’

‘There was a consultant’s position at the Royal when I left,’ Daniel pointed out. ‘I wasn’t interested then either.’

‘You’re a mystery,’ Kay said, and gave a soft laugh then brushed from the desk some glitter dust that Holly had left in her wake. ‘Holly would have glitter everywhere,’ she tutted. ‘It’s an emergency department, not Santa’s Grotto. People don’t need festivities waved in their face when they come here. This time of year is often hard enough for our patients. I’m already over Christmas and it’s only the second of December.’