The Icelandic Doc's Baby Surprise
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Louisa Heaton
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CHAPTER ONE
DR MERRY BELL shook her head in dismay at the music coming from the taxi driver’s radio. Cheesy Christmas music being played here? In Iceland?
She’d expected it in England. They’d been playing Christmas tunes on the radio since mid-November and she’d stopped listening to the radio in her car just because of that fact. Instead she’d loaded up a few podcasts and listened to those. Or audiobooks. Anything but the false jollity that the season brought with it.
It really was crazy the way people got so idiotic as December crept nearer. There was no appeal in it for her. Christmas only served to remind her of the worst mistake of her life.
Coming here to Iceland, somehow she’d expected something different. Traditional Icelandic music, maybe...
Merry stared resentfully out of the window of the taxi that was making slow progress up a snow-lined mountain pass. Tall banks of snow lay on either side and the white stuff was coming down heavily, in thick, large flakes, silently hitting the windshield before being pushed to one side by wipers that appeared to be struggling in the blizzard that had hit just after her plane had arrived in Reykjavik.
You didn’t get to see snow like this in England.
Maybe I should try to appreciate it?
But she couldn’t. Her mind was on other matters. Her destination, and the man at the centre of that destination—Dr Kristjan Gunnarsson. Now, there was a man who made her feel all hot and bothered. Made her blood pulse at an accelerated pace. A man who could melt all this snow just by sending one searing look its way.
Even now just the thought of seeing him again, of having to stand in front of him and tell him her news, made her thrum with a heat that was triple X-rated.
She thought of the last time they’d met. The last time she’d seen him he’d been naked in her bed, calling her back to him with a twinkle in those ice-blue eyes of his and a little curl of his beckoning finger.
Hawaii.
They’d both got carried away that last night. She’d thrown caution to the non-existent wind and decided to just let go and take a chance—after all, she’d never have to see the man ever again!
That had been the plan, anyway.
Before the medical conference had even started she’d gone for a walk on the beach and seen him emerging from the sea in a pair of trunks that had clung to his muscular thighs, water dripping down his broad, sculptured form.
She’d actually gasped to herself. James Bond and Mr Darcy emerging from the water had nothing on this guy! Watching Kristjan had been like watching the sea god Poseidon himself appearing from the waves. He’d run his hand over his hair, wiped the water from his face, and then he’d stood there, watching her, waiting for her to say something.
She’d wanted to say something cute, something amusing, but the only thing to come out of her mouth had been, ‘The water looks good.’
And he’d replied, ‘Just the water?’ with a charming accent she hadn’t quite been able to distinguish and a smirk that ought to have had a health warning attached to it.
Warning! May cause hot flushes and a racing heart.
That had been the start of it. The flirtation. She’d hoped that maybe he was just a tourist—but, no, he’d been part of the conference. He’d even been one of the speakers...talking about the social determinants of childhood health.
She’d sat in that room, watching him on the podium, his grey suit clinging in all the right places, his long blond hair restrained in a Viking plait down his back, and tried to concentrate on his words. But all she’d been able to think of was that first image she’d had of him...the shape of his well-hewn muscles, the droplets of water that had adhered to his pectorals, the way those trunks of his had clung to his body and what she would have given to run her fingers over his hot flesh...
Merry had never considered herself a lustful person, but looking at him, listening to him, had made her feel that way—naughty and excited, and her body had tingled in all the right places.
When his talk had been over her feet had propelled her towards him, to thank him for an inspiring talk, and he had turned to greet her, those sapphire eyes looking into her own molten brown ones, and she had felt like melting into a puddle under the intense heat of his gaze.
He’d bought her a drink. And then another. And she’d learned that they were both parentless. She’d been abandoned in a cardboard box outside the local vicar’s house before some carol singers had arrived and found her there. That was how she’d got her name—Merry. And the paramedic who had been called out to her, who’d held her in the ambulance, his surname had been Bell. It had seemed apt, what with it being Christmas...
It hadn’t been a great name for going through school, though. The jokes had never ended.
Kristjan’s start in life had not been so terrible. He’d started out with a family but had lost his parents at an early age and ended up in the care system.
But sitting in that bar, sharing stories, had bonded them in a way she’d not expected. Before she’d known what she was doing she had told him her room number, and that had been the end—the beginning?—of that.
The hottest night of her life—and not just because they’d been in the tropics.
When she’d been married, sex had been quick and perfunctory and only for her husband’s pleasure—and then he would fall asleep. With Kristjan it had been completely different, and he had made her body sing. Had shown her that her pleasure was just as important as his own.
Just thinking, even now, of how he had made her body feel, she experienced a feeling of heat and a blush stemming up from her very core. Thank goodness it was night-time, and the driver couldn’t see the colour in her cheeks. Couldn’t see as she shifted in her seat to try and pretend that she was just making herself more comfortable.
What would Kristjan say when he saw her? Would he be happy to see her? Or was she about to find out that the man she’d thought was impossibly single was actually married, with a wife he’d forgotten to tell her about? A life that she was about to turn upside down?
Because how could a man like that be single? It wasn’t possible, was it? Unless he was one of those men who enjoyed his many conquests of women without any of the complications of a committed relationship?
Either way, he was about to get the news of a lifetime. Once she got to her B&B she’d change, shower, have something to eat and get an early night. Tomorrow she would see him. Tomorrow she would tell him and then be on her way.
She would have done the right thing. The moral thing. She neither wanted nor needed his interference in the matter, and if this was just about her she wouldn’t be here at all.
Merry frowned, trying to see beyond the blizzard outside, trying to make some sense of the lights she saw in the distance. The taxi driver had collected her from the airport and told her that the trip to Snowy Peak was about two hours. All this time she’d seen nothing outside the window but a dark whiteness.
She only knew where he worked. He’d told her as they’d lain facing each other on soft white pillows, as his hand slid down her side into the dip of her stomach and then over the swell of her hip and thigh, before pulling her close, pressing her against him and beginning again.
She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to keep it. But she didn’t need him. She didn’t need anyone and was more than happy to be everything this baby needed. Her child would not be left in a cardboard box, the way she had been. The only cardboard boxes her child would get close to would be the ones they used to play with. To make forts out of...or dens...or castles.
She suddenly became aware that the taxi had come to a stop. Merry frowned and leant forward. ‘Something wrong?’ Because it didn’t look as if they’d arrived anywhere! The road ahead was hidden by the still falling snow and all around them it was dark.
‘The road is too dangerous now. You must walk from here.’
She looked out at the snow, and then down at her trainers. All her luggage was in the boot of the car. It had been bad enough manhandling it through an airport, never mind up a mountain. Surely he wasn’t serious?
‘You are joking?’
The dark-haired driver turned around in his seat to face her. ‘I do not joke. I am serious. I turn around here. Go back before road is impassable.’
‘But...we’re in the middle of nowhere!’
‘Snowy Peak is top of this mountain. Ten minutes.’
‘If it’s just ten minutes then you can take me! I’m paying you to take me there.’
‘Too steep like this. Snow too thick. Very dangerous. You must go on foot.’
Merry was exasperated. ‘Seriously?’
‘You want to crash? Fall down mountain? We do that if I drive you.’
She could see he was serious. She hadn’t noticed the slow, steady climb of the car because she’d been so busy thinking about meeting up with Kristjan. But now she could see they were at an upward angle and that the road ahead, though thick with snow, looked sloped.
She could see a glow at the crest of the hill. Lights? From Snowy Peak? She knew the main hospital was there. Somewhere, anyway. And if it was only ten minutes...
She reluctantly thrust some money at the driver and he got out to help her get her bags from the boot.
The snow was coming down even more strongly, cold and wet, hitting her face. And, now she was out in it, it didn’t seem as pretty as it had from inside the nice warm car. She was wearing the wrong shoes, the wrong clothes. And her suitcase wheels would be useless in the snow!
‘Are you sure about this?’ she yelled at the driver above the sound of the whistling wind.
‘Yes. You go. Soon it will be too heavy.’
This wasn’t too heavy already?
Merry slung one bag over her shoulder and tried to drag her suitcase behind her as she made her way up the road. The ice and snow beat against her face and hair and she could feel the cold soaking into her toes and clothes as she made slow headway through the storm. The thick tights she wore underneath her dress might as well have been the very lowest denier, because her legs felt bare in this intense cold.
Behind her, she saw the taillights of the taxi disappearing into the darkness of the night, and she swore before turning once again and plodding her way through the knee-high snow. She wanted to blame the driver, but even she could see how deep the snow was getting. Without a snowplough on the front of his vehicle, it was amazing that he’d been able to get this far as it was.
She was cold, and wet, and her legs were aching. But just when she thought she couldn’t stand another moment in this weather she made the crest of the hill.
Spread out before her were the lights of Snowy Peak, warm yellow and white globes, and to one side a huge building that she saw was called the Snowy Peak Children’s Hospital. She let out an exhausted breath on seeing it and trudged towards it, feeling relief that the taxi driver hadn’t been kidding, even if he had just left her on the side of a snowy mountain at night.
With no idea of how to get to the B&B, she headed towards the hospital, a haven in the cold and the dark.
As she walked through the sliding doors, feeling a welcoming and pleasant gust of warm air from the heater above, she saw all eyes turn to her and realised just what she must look like...
Dr Kristjan Gunnarsson had been more than happy to push Aron’s wheelchair towards the hospital shop. The little boy had waited days since his spinal surgery to get his first taste of a particular chocolate-covered fudge bar that had small bits of black liquorice suspended in its filling.
It wasn’t something that they served on the hospital’s healthy menu, and Kristjan had promised Aron a bar as soon as he was able to transfer himself to a wheelchair and stay in it for one hour without pain. That day had been today, and he’d never been prouder. In fact, Aron wanted to stay in the wheelchair until his mum arrived that night, so she could see him in it, too. He wanted it to be a surprise.
Now, with Aron chewing on his chocolatey snack, Kristjan was wheeling him back through the entrance foyer, towards the lifts that would take them back up to Aron’s floor, when he became aware of the woman who had just trudged through the entrance doors, wheeling a snow-topped suitcase behind her. She’d stopped, propped the suitcase upright and was shaking the snow off her shoulders and her dark brown hair.
She looked miserably cold and wet and she was wearing totally the wrong things for winter in Iceland. Trainers, green tights, a yellow woollen dress and a short jacket. Only one woman he knew wore crazy clothes like that, but the last time he’d seen her she’d been in Hawaii, even though she lived in Brighton, England.
But now it would seem she was here.
Merry. Dr Merry Bell.
She hadn’t spotted him yet, and he took a moment to try and slow his breathing and appraise her. Her hair looked longer. He didn’t remember it being that long the time they’d stood in the shower together, she with her hands up against the tiles and her back to him, when he’d lifted her hair away from her neck to kiss her hot skin...
Longing burned through him at the memory of that night and one morning they had spent together. She’d been unlike any woman he had ever met, and he’d left Hawaii—and her—with fond and extremely hot memories, knowing that it was probably for the best that she lived in another country.
She had been the first woman in his life who had made him yearn for more, but he didn’t do full-on relationships—ever—and committing to more than one night with her would have broken all the rules he held himself accountable to. The rules that kept everyone at a distance—the way he liked them to be. Because then there would be no more pain. If he didn’t get close and emotionally involved, he wouldn’t have to face the losses that would come later.
But Hawaii had been—what? Roughly three months ago? What was she doing here? Was she here to work? There was a vacancy, but as far as he’d understood the hospital had chosen to wait until after Christmas to advertise.
He longed to go over to her and find out why she was here. As if his yearning had called out to her their eyes met and he felt the punch of it hit him in the gut.
And somewhere lower.
Her lips parted slightly, as if she was on the verge of saying something, but then she bit her lip and it was all he could do not to self-implode on the spot. He took a moment to gather himself, and used it to pretend he was just checking the brake on Aron’s wheelchair.
Then he said, ‘Excuse me, Aron, I won’t be a moment.’ And headed over to Merry.
As he got closer he could see the snow crystals still melting in her dark hair, and the way her make-up had smudged around her eyes, making them look smoky and sultry. He slowed as he got closer, taking his time to soak her up. She looked as if she needed a nice hot shower, and he could think of nothing better than taking her upstairs to the staff area, where there was a bathroom, and helping her off with her clothes. But he was on duty, and now was not the time for a seduction.
Was she aware that the outlines of her cold, peaked nipples were showing through her woollen dress?
He raised his eyes back up to her face. ‘Hello, Merry.’
He could see she was just as disturbed by his presence as he was by hers, and it pleased him. He watched her cheeks flush with colour, and she pulled her jacket closed around her, as if it were a suit of armour.
‘Hello, Kristjan.’
