The Magic of Christmas

Her whole body burning with frustration, she ran her tongue over her lips to try and moisten them. ‘Right. I’m sure that’s absolutely the right decision.’

His eyes dropped to her mouth, lingered there for a moment and then he turned sharply and strode out of Resus, shouldering the door open so violently that it crashed against the wall.

Lara flinched and stared after him in helpless frustration.

The chemistry between them was virtually setting fire to the building and he was walking away from it?

She wanted to ask him for a few hints and tips because she wasn’t finding it anywhere near as easy to handle as he clearly was.

Then she looked at the door, which was still swinging from the force of his exit.

Maybe he wasn’t finding it that easy, either.

Deciding that what she needed was to throw herself into her work and stop dreaming about kissing Christian, she walked back round to the main area of the emergency department to start working her way through the steady stream of patients that poured through the doors on a daily basis. All required concentration and focus. But none prevented her from thinking about kissing Christian.

By the end of her shift, she was becoming impatient with herself.

This was completely ridiculous.

She’d never felt this way about a man and she didn’t understand why she was feeling this way now.

It had to be because a relationship just wasn’t possible.

Because she couldn’t have it, she wanted it.

Determined to think about something other than Christian, she wandered through to Reception to talk to Fran, hoping for distraction.

She found her standing on a chair, pinning metres of tinsel around the reception area.

Lara handed her another rope of tinsel. ‘You look unreasonably cheerful for a woman fighting at the front line.’

‘I am cheerful. I met a man last night.’ Fran hugged a piece of

tinsel to her chest and beamed. ‘Oh, Lara, he was gorgeous.’

Lara thought about the psychic’s prediction. ‘Did you use contraception?’

‘Lara!! I can’t believe you just asked me that!’ Fran covered her mouth and started to laugh, and Lara gave a sheepish smile.

‘Sorry.’ She stooped and picked up a pile of mistletoe that was lying on the floor. ‘So tell me all about him.’

‘He’s a fireman. I met him when he brought that little boy in a couple of weeks ago.’

‘The one who had his leg stuck in the bicycle wheel? Oh, yes, I remember him. Are you seeing him again?’

‘Tonight.’

‘Good. Well, I hope you have—Make sure you don’t—’ Deciding that there was no best way to tell someone that a psychic had predicted she’d be pregnant by Christmas, Lara waved the mistletoe. It was all nonsense, anyway. ‘Where are you planning to put this? Not in Reception, surely? It’s asking for trouble. Somebody is bound to eat the berries and sue us.’

‘It’s going in the staffroom.’ Fran jumped down from the chair. ‘I thought it might liven up everyone’s working day.’

Lara looked at the mistletoe in her hand.

Why not?

It might be the only cure for her problem. It had always worked before. ‘Good idea.’ She gave Fran a casual smile. ‘I’ll go and pin it somewhere obvious.’

Lara strolled back down the corridor but instead of turning left to the staffroom, she turned right towards Christian’s office. His door was open and he was on the phone, but the moment he saw her his brows rose questioningly. He swiftly terminated the phone call and rose to his feet. ‘Problems?’