Anne Fraser - The Playboy of Harley Street

‘I did a trip on a riverboat with my parents when I was a little girl. It was wonderful. I loved it. It was so much fun. I remember my brother and I had to keep getting on and off to open the locks.’

At the memory, a stab of pain shot through her and her eyes filled. She was glad Lucy was lying on her stomach and wouldn’t see the tears threatening to spill. Would she ever be able to think of Richard without wanting to howl? She doubted it. She breathed deeply, trying to keep her voice level.

‘Okay, that’s you.’ Katie helped Lucy sit up.

‘That was quick,’ Lucy said. ‘You’re much better than the person who normally does my physio.’

Kate smiled. ‘Maybe because I’ve had lots of practice. My young cousin has cystic fibrosis too. I used to do her physio when they lived near me.’

‘Want another shot at my game?’ Lucy asked when they were seated again. ‘I don’t mind sharing.’

She really was an extremely likeable little girl. ‘No, thanks, sweetheart, but it’s kind of you to offer. I think I’ll read for a little while.’

Katie tried to concentrate on the magazine she’d bought in Departures, but somehow her eyes kept on straying over towards her colleague as he chatted to Lucy. Dr Fabio Lineham was the most extraordinarily gorgeous man she’d ever set eyes on. And she bet he knew it too. No doubt he had a phone full of women’s phone numbers. She started guiltily when he caught her flicking a glance at him and she made a show of being deeply engrossed in reading an article. Until she noticed the title—'How to Entice Your Man into Your Heart and Between the Sheets'. She slapped the pages shut when Fabio left Lucy playing her game and sat down beside her.

‘So, Katie, I think we should get to know each other, seeing as we’ll be working together.’

He smelled divine. A mixture of spice and lemons. Her heart gave a little run of beats and for some reason she felt the air had been sucked from the atmosphere, leaving her feeling breathless.

‘What would you like to know?’ Katie asked, relieved that her voice didn’t give her odd reaction away.

‘Everything.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘We’ve a couple of hours to go yet.’

‘There’s not much to tell, really.’ At least, there wasn’t much she wanted to tell him. She liked to keep her professional and personal lives separate.

‘I’ve been working as a physio for four years. I specialised in sports injuries before moving to paediatrics.’ There. Keep it to work. That was safe ground.

‘I know that. It was all on your pretty impressive CV. By the way, well done on that paper you contributed to the British Medical Journal.’

The paper wasn’t listed on her CV and she was surprised he knew about it.

‘I enjoyed reading about bioethics and physiotherapy. It’s not something I knew much about.’

So, he hadn’t just glanced at it but read it. She looked at him more closely. Perhaps she shouldn’t make up her mind so quickly? Didn’t she hate it when other people did that? Just because he was good looking—strike that, amazing looking—it didn’t mean he wasn’t a good doctor. She relaxed a little.

‘I’d like to know about you,’ he added. ‘Not just your professional résumé.’

She stiffened. Perhaps she should trust her instincts after all? She was right about one thing. He was the kind of man who couldn’t bear to pass up a chance to flirt with anyone of the opposite sex. He was gorgeous and knew it. She distrusted men like that. Not that she had any experience of his kind of man.

‘Not much to tell, really,’ she said.

‘Ah, I’m sure there is. What do you like to do in your spare time?’

Katie looked at him out of the corner of her eye. ‘I exercise when I can. Swimming mostly. And I go out occasionally.’

‘No boyfriend?’

It was none of his business. This was taking polite interest a step too far.

‘No,’ she replied shortly. ‘Tell me about you.’ It was a safe ploy. Men like him liked nothing better than to talk about themselves.

To her surprise, he shook his head. ‘Oh, no, you don’t. I asked first.’ He smiled and her pulse did another little run of beats. ‘Tell me about the swimming. Do you go often? What else do you do to keep fit?’

The approval as his dark green eyes swept across her body brought a flush to her cheeks. Really, if she hadn’t just met him, and he wasn’t her boss, she’d be tempted to … What? Tell him to stop looking at her? It wasn’t necessarily his fault her body was behaving in this disconcerting, alien manner.

‘I swim almost every day. It’s a habit I got into as a child and have somehow managed to keep up. I find it relaxing. Nothing to do except think about finishing the lengths. No noise. Just mindless rhythm.’ At least, that was how it used to be. These days any silence was filled with memories of Richard and terrible, overwhelming pain, loss and guilt. No matter how hard she pushed herself, no matter how many times she pounded up and down the length of the pool, she could never exhaust herself enough to sleep without having stomach-churning, terrifying nightmares.

She forced herself to concentrate on the present. ‘What about you?’ This was more like it. Two colleagues exchanging polite small talk. ‘I take it you’re into the party scene?’ She couldn’t resist it.

Fabio leant over, his warm breath fanning her neck. It took every ounce of her willpower not to instinctively pull away from him as sparks danced down her spine. ‘Don’t tell Lucy—she likes to think I lead an exciting life of parties and balls, but …’ he dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper ‘… actually, I had to attend a formal dinner last night but was called out in the middle of it to attend to a patient. I had to admit her to hospital and we were there most of the night. I didn’t have time to go home and change.’

‘Oh.’ So she had got him all wrong. She felt a tell-tale flush colour her cheeks.

He resumed his normal tone. ‘But to answer your initial question, I love all sports.’

‘He goes BASE jumping,’ Lucy interjected from across the way. She’d obviously been listening to their conversation while playing her game. ‘It’s how he met my dad. Dad used to do it too but Mum made him give it up. She said it was too dangerous and that it was bad enough him being a racing driver without that as well.’

What could be more dangerous than driving a racing car?

‘What’s BASE jumping?’ Katie asked. ‘I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it.’

‘It stands for Buildings Antenna Spans and Earth. I looked it up in a book,’ Lucy replied.

Katie was none the wiser.

‘Earth actually stands for cliffs,’ Fabio said. ‘You find a cliff with sheer sides and jump off it.’

‘You jump off cliffs?’ Katie couldn’t keep the incredulity from her voice.

Fabio shrugged. ‘It’s not as dangerous as it sounds. I do wear a parachute.’

‘I couldn’t imagine in my wildest dreams throwing myself off a mountain with nothing but a flimsy bit of material strapped to my back.’ Katie shivered. ‘Bit of an extreme way to get a high, isn’t it?’

‘Some people get their thrills from a bottle. I guess I get mine at the top of a mountain.’

It was the way he said it that made Katie look more closely at him. There was a far-away look in his eyes, a sudden seriousness that intrigued her. Suddenly she wanted to know what attracted him to such a dangerous sport.

Fabio seemed to give himself a mental shake.

‘But we were talking about you. Where do you live? And what about your family? Are they nearby?’

Katie swallowed. ‘I stay in North London, not far from where I was brought up. Dad was an accountant. Mum used to work as a nurse in the local hospital.’