LITMIR.BIZ

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crowd, right at the front, stood a man she wouldn’t mind seeing naked.

      He was tall, easily over six feet, and his shoulders were broad and his chest solid, yet he seemed to balance lightly on his feet. Despite his size he looked calm and centred and relaxed and she wished she had a tenth of his composure.

      His dark hair was closely cropped and a designer two-day growth accentuated his oval face. He had a strong jaw and full lips beneath a narrow nose. His forehead was smooth and there was a slight furrow of concentration between his eyebrows that belied his relaxed stance. His dark eyes looked brooding and serious but that didn’t detract from his looks in the slightest. He was incredibly handsome but that wasn’t the only thing that had captured her attention. It was the contrast between him and everyone else around him. It was more than his height and his perfectly shaped face and symmetrical features. All of this was enhanced by his coffee-coloured skin, making him different enough to stand out from the crowd.

      He wore a steel-blue suit with a white shirt that highlighted his complexion. His suit fitted perfectly and was impeccably tailored and pressed. He looked like he took pride in his appearance, and when you looked that good, why wouldn’t you? He was delicious.

      There was something vaguely familiar about him but surely that was just her imagination? She’d remember if she’d met him before, he was not someone who would be easily forgotten. It must be one of those déjà vu things, she decided as a flutter of lust rolled in her belly, competing with the butterflies.

      She ran her gaze down the length of his suit jacket, taking note of his lean hips and powerful thighs. He was definitely someone she wouldn’t mind seeing naked. She pictured him shrugging out of his jacket and loosening the buttons on his shirt, her mind completely absorbed by the mental image she was painting until she realised she couldn’t recall a word of her speech.

      Focus, focus, she told herself, but it was impossible to picture him getting naked and remember her speech.

      She averted her gaze and caught Lola grinning at her, eyebrows raised. She dropped her eyes before her friend could make her laugh and focused on her breathing, hoping no one else had caught her ogling this glorious stranger.

      * * *

      Marcus could scarcely believe his good fortune. He’d arrived at Kirribilli General Hospital on an exchange programme from Western Australia to spend twelve weeks as a visiting specialist with the transplant unit and found that he was just in time to take part in a multiple paired kidney exchange operation. This was exactly why he was here. He’d always avoided returning to the east coast but Kirribilli General was the leading hospital in renal transplants and had pioneered the paired kidney exchange programme.

      He’d been in two minds about whether to accept this posting before finally deciding that it was something he needed to do. The opportunity had been too good to pass up, given that he was advocating for the Queen Victoria Hospital in Perth to become involved in the programme too. It stood to reason that he should spend some time in Sydney getting first-hand knowledge.

      He looked around at the media throng that was gathered in front of the hospital. He realised that this was a big news story and he appreciated the fact that the hospital’s PR division and the transplant team wanted to grab the opportunity for promotion but he could do without the circus. He itched to get going. He wanted to be in the operating theatre, with a scalpel in his hand. That was the one place where he always felt in control. Any surprises could be dealt with in a calm and clinical manner. He knew he had the skills to handle anything that could be thrown his way in Theatre. He’d spent years honing his skills. He liked to have control and being a surgeon afforded him that. Control and respect.

      Elliot Martin, the head of the renal transplant unit, was speaking. Marcus knew he would be introducing the surgical teams soon and he returned his attention to his new boss, not wanting to miss his introduction.

      He was excited. This was exactly the sort of opportunity he’d hoped to establish on his return to Perth and to get to be involved so early on was ideal.

      He appreciated his good fortune and hoped that, rather than just observing the kidney exchanges, his surgical skills would be required due to the number of operations that were being scheduled. He breathed deeply as he thought of how it would feel to be offered the opportunity to conduct one of the surgeries himself. If it happened, it would most likely be one of the retrievals but he didn’t mind. He just wanted to be involved. Just wanted a chance to showcase his ability. It was one of the few things he knew he excelled at. And a retrieval was still a surgical procedure. It was a little more routine than a transplant but the margins for error were small and it was still an important process.

      Doing a retrieval meant he would be removing a healthy kidney from a healthy person, which really contradicted the medical charter of ‘Do no harm’ but, in this case, he believed in the cause, in the greater good such a procedure would mean. He believed in this case that the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. The improved quality of life the selfless donor was offering to an unknown recipient was an amazing gift, although he still found it incredible that people were willing to sacrifice one of their organs, to offer it to a stranger, in return for one of their own loved ones receiving the same gift.

      He couldn’t imagine loving someone that much.

      He refocused, tuning back in to Elliot’s speech just in time to hear his introduction.

      ‘I would like to introduce you all to Dr Janet Hosking and Dr Marcus Washington from the Queen Victoria Hospital in Western Australia, who are joining the Kirribilli General renal unit for the next three months.’

      He stepped forward as his name was announced and his gaze landed on a petite redhead who was standing to Elliot’s left but had previously been hidden from view behind someone else’s shoulder. She was staring at him with her mouth open. Her heart-shaped face was pale, her skin smooth and creamy but her lips were painted a bright red, almost the same colour as her fiery copper hair. He’d only seen hair that colour once before in his life.

      That couldn’t be right. There had to be millions of people with that colour hair in the world.

      Maybe he was mistaken. It had been twenty years ago after all. His memory had to be misleading him. Surely this couldn’t be the same girl? What were the chances of that?

      But the coil of fear in his gut told him that the chances were high. It was just his luck.

       CHAPTER TWO

      THE GORGEOUS MAN with amazing bone structure stepped forward and Grace’s heart skipped a beat and her mouth dropped open.

      Marcus Washington.

      She could not believe it.

      It had to be him. Even though he no longer resembled the twelve-year-old boy she’d once known, it had to be him. There couldn’t be two of him.

      He was a doctor? A nephrologist?

      She hadn’t thought about him for years but if she had she never would have imagined he would become a doctor. She knew that sounded harsh and judgemental but what she remembered of Marcus did not fit with her image of someone who had clearly ended up in a position of responsibility and service to others.

      But what did she really know about him? She had only been seven years old. What had she known about anything?

      Her father was a doctor and, at the age of seven, everything she’d known or thought had been influenced by what and who she’d seen around her. Particularly by her own family. And Marcus’s family had been about as different from hers as a seven-year-old could have imagined. But she knew enough now to understand that it wasn’t about where you came from or what opportunities you were handed in life, but about what you did with those opportunities, those chances. It was about the choices you made. The drive and the desire to be the best that you could be.

      She would never have pictured Marcus as a doctor but now here he was, standing in front of her looking polished, professional

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