Billionaire Doctor (House of Kolovsky) - Carol Marinelli Page 0,1

in the department, finding beds, gurneys, staff and often transport.

‘Hey, Annie,’ came a few calls. Walking into the staffroom was as familiar and welcoming as walking into her own living room.

Midday was the busiest time—staff coming in for the late shift, doctors who were waiting for results and whoever had been allocated an early lunch—and seating was at a premium. But, after placing her salad in the fridge and swigging on her water bottle, Annie saw that for once her favorite comfy chair was free and she collapsed with a loud groan and put her feet up on one of the coffee-tables.

‘I’m exhausted,’ she grumbled to her audience. ‘It took an hour to get my nails done, then I had two painful hours at the gym, and... ’ Her voice sort of stopped, just for the teeniest, tiniest fraction of a second as she took in the unfamiliar face among her regular colleagues. ‘I’m ready to drop. Is Jackie on today?’

‘Is she ever?’ Louise, a fellow associate charge nurse, rolled her eyes. There were two consultants—Marshall, who was winding down for retirement, and Jackie, who was winding up for a nervous breakdown. And currently everyone wanted to be working with Marshall. ‘I’ll be glad when this wedding is over,’ Louise carried on. ‘Everything, and I mean everything, ends up being about the wedding. I was setting up to put in a catheter and moaning that we were low on packs and somehow...’ Annie wasn’t really listening. She looked, no doubt, as if she was listening, nodding in all the right places and adding little ‘I know’s’ to the conversation. But instead her eyes were wandering, sort of casually drifting around the room, coming to rest on the clock so she could be sure she wouldn’t be late for handover but sneaking a quick glimpse of the stranger who had caused her to falter.

Tall and dark, he was stretched out on a chair and he was stunning. Dark hair, worn just a hint too long, framed a sculpted face, a full, very sulky mouth was moving to yawn and perhaps the reason she hadn’t noticed him at first was because he didn’t seem new.

New members of staff, whether porter or consultant, had that sort of anxious-to-fit-in look—and were either nodding furiously at the conversation or had their heads buried in their phones, trying to pretend they weren’t there.

This delicious specimen, though, was scratching a rather unshaven chin and listening with vague interest to what everyone had to say.

And he’d caught her looking.

Slate-grey, almost black, and rather reprobate eyes held hers for just a second, that tiny second where you looked and he looked and it was just a tiny bit too long to be called polite, just that tiny fraction long enough to know that you were definitely female and he was definitely male—and both of you have noticed.

Her heart rate had only just recovered from her workout and now here it was edging over the 100 mark again.

Most of the staff in the room stood, draping stethoscopes round necks, checking paperwork or begging for a pen, while the early lunches remained sitting along with... Who was he?

‘Hey, Iosef—you’ve got those blood gases to do.’ Beth, one of her colleagues, addressed him.

‘I’ll be there soon.’ There was just a smudge of an accent that Annie couldn’t identify as Beth carried on talking.

‘What time are you on until, then?’

‘Ten,’ came the surly reply.

Iosef.

Annie stayed with the pack as they all headed out to the floor and though two of Annie’s most pressing questions had already been answered—his name was Iosef and he was here till ten—it just led to another. What sort of a name was Iosef?

‘Gorgeous, isn’t he?’ Beth nudged Annie as they made their way to Section A, which was the main hub of activity in Emergency.

‘Who?’ Annie attempted, but Beth just grinned. ‘Don’t even pretend you don’t know who I’m talking about—the new senior registrar. Well, he’s made it clear that he doesn’t intend to stay a senior registrar for very long—he wants to be made a consultant, preferably before Marshall retires.’

‘He’s only just started here.’

‘Oh, but he knows where he’s finishing. I hope he gets it,’ Beth added. ‘He’s just gorgeous—not that any of us mere mortals stand a chance. You know who he is, don’t you?’

‘You just said.’ Annie frowned as they arrived at the nurses’ station and waited for Cheryl, the charge nurse, to appear, ready to receive handover. ‘He’s the new senior registrar.’

‘He’s a Kolovsky!’