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It had sounded fascinating to her—the chance to learn so new at his exclusive private island clinic—and she hadn’t hesitated to hand in her notice at the London hospital

Indonesia was surely bound to be a far nicer setting than an overwhelmed city hospital or a military hospital in the Middle East She was done with all that She’d coe of pace, even if it was only temporary

She couldn’t even recall what Dr Sebastian Becker looked like, or the name of the TV show he’d so briefly starred in She’d never had much time for TV, and she didn’t ever bother with social reeable, at least; they’d be working in pretty close proximity

Mila smoothed her red sundress and held her hair back as the restled with it She wished she could have asked Annabel what to expect frouy she’d met when she had been here What had she said his na like that?

Sebastian Becker hauled the last re his way He reached down to help the first of his dive group back onto the boat Getting them all on board before the next intake of tourists whipped up the water was i in opposite directions within seconds

‘Give me your hand’

Gabby, a British woman in her early twenties, pushed her rinned up at hiive you whatever you need’

He helped her up the ladder and she fell against his chest, heavy and wet in her tank and vest

‘Sorry,’ she muttered, so close to his face he could feel her breath on his skin

She wasn’t sorry This girl had been flirting with hi

He helped the others up Checking his students were seated and had disposed of their flippers in the right place, he yelled, ‘Ketut, start the engine!’ and bounded up the three s to the roof

Alone, he unzipped his wetsuit, letting the thick wet fabric unfold around his middle The sun sizzled on his skin

Maybe tonight, when the last scheduled surgery was done, he’d take Gabby out for a drink, soone in a day or two Why not give her so to talk about, once her plane deposited her back into her boring existence?

Those had been her words this , not his

‘My life is so boring co all day with youwhat do you think?’

He hadn’t encouraged her Why tell a stranger that he wasn’t only a scuba diver, either? Why tell a tourist he would never see again that he was actually living here because he’d pioneered a way of operating on the facial scarring of accident victims which minimised their scars often to near invisibility?

He thought back to last week, satisfied Lasers were incredible things Trevor Nolan, a forty-two-year-old wedding singer fro son to prevent a firework going off in his face and the poor guy had taken the hit hi by his friends he come to hi ‘revolutionary treatment’

Trevor had left with his chin almost the shade of the rest of his face, instead of raw red and stretched in scars Best of all, he could sing for people again without it hurting

‘Mr Diver Man, come down here!’

Gabby was calling him from below He stayed put The sun at this time of the day was perfect Not too hot He liked to soak it up while he could, before he put his hospital scrubs back on

Sebastian assu the island’s clubs and bars and dive shops didn’t even know the MAC was on the other side of it, and if they did most of them didn’t knohat happened there

He always let word ofhis clients in now He wasn’t fanised It was too small an island and he was too out of context, he supposed—a world away froo and all those cameras

He still had to be careful on the h

He’d left the hugely successful Faces of Chicago show back ho his brow at the horizon Now all thataway looking and feeling better than when they’d arrived

The speedboat was close now A few faces stood out—locals, friends And lots of new arrivals But none for the MAC His staff came in on his boat

All but Dr Ricci, he reh his hair She’d missed her transfer, which wasn’t uncohtmare

He stood, scanning the other boats around the bay He’d been too swamped at work to search online and put a face to the name of his latest employee, but he knew she’d worked in trauhanistan, so she was likely looking to add a new scar treat to her bow

He considered what itsoldiers with their liunshot wounds, severed bones and bo

Sos he’d had to fix himself had been far worse than Trevor Nolan’s chin after his battle with a rocket in his backyard But to be in a war zone—that was so else

The boat jolted and he heard a tank flip downstairs He shot back down the ladder This woman, Dr Ricci,for, exactly, here on such a remote island?