LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER THREE

      COOPER glanced at his watch. It was after five o’clock and his antenatal clinic had just finished. One of his overdue patients had already been in labour when she’d come to her appointment. She hadn’t even realised it and had been shocked when Cooper had sent her along to the labour ward. It had been four hours and he wanted to go and check how she was doing. But going to the labour ward meant there was a good chance that he would run into Missy.

      He’d spent the best part of the last ten days avoiding the labour ward as much as possible. It wasn’t as difficult as it sounded as he had patients to see in the antenatal clinics in the hospital and the community, and he had patients to see in the wards after they had delivered. He really only got called to the labour suite if there was an immediate problem and his registrar wasn’t available to deal with it. The joys of being a consultant.

      On the few occasions he’d attended an emergency in the labour suite, he’d managed to avoid Missy altogether. She wasn’t always on duty, or was sometimes attending to another patient. But today was different. His patient would be in the medical side of the labour suite, where Missy worked. And he had already seen her in one of the corridors a few hours ago when she’d come along to the clinic to pick up some notes for a patient. He was bound to meet her today.

      This was ridiculous. He couldn’t let a one-night stand affect his working practice, he was far too professional for that. He stood up from his chair and strode across the room, collecting his white coat from behind the door.

      His heart stopped. Just for a second. A woman, sitting in a chair, was bent over, pulling something from her bag. Her blonde hair had fallen across her face and as she sat up, she put her hands to her back and arched backwards. She was obviously pregnant, six or seven months, but that wasn’t the problem.