The Magic of Christmas Read Free

eyes were occupied with studying the dark stubble that shaded Christian’s hard, angular jaw.
    â€˜Can we check her sats, please, Lara?’ Christian slid the venflon into the vein and released the tourniquet.
    â€˜Just doing it now.’ Lara adjusted the probe andwatched the machine. ‘Sats are ninety-eight per cent.’
    â€˜Good. These can go to the lab.’ He dropped the blood bottles onto the tray. ‘I’ll do the forms in a minute.’
    Lara handed him some tape so that he could secure the venflon, her eyes still watching the pulse and blood-pressure readings. ‘She’s still tachycardic.’
    Christian’s gaze followed hers and he moved the IV tray, reached for his stethoscope and hooked it into his ears.
    â€˜I’m just going to listen to your chest, Ellen.’
    Ellen lowered her eyelashes in an unmistakably flirtatious gesture. ‘Anytime. I suppose the one good thing about all this is having you leaning over me. I thought doctors as good-looking and sexy as you only appeared on television. Are you real or have they flown you in from Hollywood to perk up everyone’s Christmas?’
    In the process of labelling blood bottles, Lara winced slightly at the patient’s less than subtle approach and glanced towards Christian, anticipating a cool putdown.
    But he chose not to respond to the comment. He was probably used to female adulation, Lara thought to herself as she dropped the bottles into the bag and handed them to another nurse to take to the lab. He was so impossibly attractive he had to have been fending off desperately hopeful women all of his adult life.
    She pulled the ECG machine closer to the trolley and tried to ignore the fact that Ellen was still flirting with Christian.
    â€˜Do you play poker?’ Her voice was husky. ‘I bet you do. You have one of those faces that gives nothing away. Inscrutable. You must win millions. Oh, dear.’ She closed her eyes. ‘I feel horribly, horribly dizzy. And sadly I don’t think it’s anything to do with the fact that a gorgeous man is listening to my chest.’
    Wondering whether she’d even noticed anyone other than Christian, Lara ripped open some pads. ‘I just need to attach these to your chest, Ellen, so that we can get a reading of your heart rate.’
    Ellen didn’t look at her.
    â€˜Pulse is two hundred and twenty,’ Lara said, her eyes flickering to the monitor as she swiftly andcompetently attached the electrodes to the patient. ‘Do you want me to call the cardiologists?’
    Christian looped the stethoscope back around his neck and gave a swift nod. ‘Please.’
    Ellen clutched his arm, her outward appearance of calm slipping. ‘Am I having a heart attack?’
    â€˜We need to perform some tests before we make a diagnosis, but I don’t think you’re having a heart attack, Ellen.’ His gaze flickered to Lara just as she switched on the machine. ‘Are you ready to do a trace?’
    â€˜Coming right up.’
    Ellen gave a whimper and shifted on the trolley. ‘I feel all sweaty and clammy. Oh, God, something awful is happening, isn’t it? I knew I’d been working too hard lately.’
    â€˜Try not to panic,’ Lara murmured, but Ellen didn’t even look in her direction. It was clear that all her hope for the future was fixed on Christian, who was studying the ECG machine. It purred softly as it produced a trace and he watched for a moment, his eyes narrowed. ‘Her ECG is showing regular narrow complex tachycardia with retrograde P waves.’
    Interested, Lara leaned forward to take a closer look. ‘Mmm. There’s a shortened PR interval and a delta wave.’
    Christian glanced at her in astonishment. ‘Yes,’ he murmured, ‘there is.’
    â€˜So…’ Why was he staring at her? ‘Do you want to try adenosine or go straight for cardioversion?’ She knew