200 Harley Street: The Tortured Hero Read online

  Reunited with his past…

  Running the Hunter Clinic’s charity operation has given surgeon and ex-soldier Ethan Hunter a new lease of life. His reconstructive work with wounded soldiers and civilians helps block out his army traumas. But when Ethan learns that he’ll be working alongside beautiful surgeon Olivia Fairchild—the woman whose heart he regretfully broke—he can’t help but remember the passion they once shared…and he’s surprised by the sinfully delicious sparks her touch still ignites! Is Olivia the only woman to finally provide peace for this long-tortured hero?

  200 HARLEY STREET

  Welcome to the luxurious premises of the exclusive Hunter Clinic, world renowned in plastic and reconstructive surgery, set right on Harley Street, the centre of elite clinical excellence, in the heart of London’s glittering West End!

  Owned by two very different brothers, Leo and Ethan Hunter, the Hunter Clinic undertakes both cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. Playboy Leo handles the rich and famous clients, enjoying the red-carpet glamour of London’s A-list social scene, while brooding ex-army doc Ethan focuses his time on his passion—transforming the lives of injured war heroes and civilian casualties of war.

  Emotion and drama abound against the backdrop of one of Europe’s most glamorous cities, as Leo and Ethan work through their tensions and find women who will change their lives forever!

  200 HARLEY STREET

  Glamour, intensity, desire—the lives and loves of London’s hottest team of surgeons!

  Dear Reader,

  It seems I’ve been doing a lot of continuities lately, and I seem to have made a bit of a specialty out of writing the final book in the series. Some people think it’s difficult to pull off, but I kind of like it. I like it when the two main continuity characters finally get together after the tease of eight or so books, after I’ve been emotionally invested in their slow-burn relationship. I think, as readers, these are often the characters we most want to see get together. So giving them a happy-ever-after is always kind of special.

  Giving Ethan and Olivia their HEA was even more so!

  Many years ago, when I lived in the U.K., I made a special trip to Harley Street. I even have a picture of the street sign, because it’s one of those famous London Streets that everyone has heard of—like Fleet Street, Oxford Street or Park Lane. And it was exciting to be able to immerse myself in that world of top-notch, upper-class medical facilities again through the power of the written word. A world that, because I’d walked Harley Street, I felt I knew a little bit about.

  It was especially fun to be working with seven other amazing authors to create such wonderful stories that overlapped and intertwined and are so much stronger for all our individual voices. I felt, as the stories progressed, that we’d all been hanging out at Drake’s together and I couldn’t think of a better crowd to drink British ale with!

  I hope you enjoy the final book in the 200 Harley Street series. It was an absolute pleasure to write!

  Love,

  Amy

  Recent titles by Amy Andrews

  GOLD COAST ANGELS: HOW TO RESIST TEMPTATION+

  ONE NIGHT SHE WOULD NEVER FORGET

  SYDNEY HARBOR HOSPITAL: EVIE’S BOMBSHELL*

  HOW TO MEND A BROKEN HEART

  SYDNEY HARBOR HOSPITAL: LUCA’S BAD GIRL*

  WAKING UP WITH DR. OFF-LIMITS

  JUST ONE LAST NIGHT…

  RESCUED BY THE DREAMY DOC

  VALENTINO’S PREGNANCY BOMBSHELL

  ALESSANDRO AND THE CHEERY NANNY

  Gold Coast Angels

  *Sydney Harbor Hospital

  These books are also available in ebook format

  visit www.Harlequin.com.

  200 Harley Street: The Tortured Hero

  Amy Andrews

  Dedication

  For Carol, Scarlet, Alison, Lynne, Kate, Annie and Louisa.

  It was fun working with you ladies—let’s do it again sometime!

  200 HARLEY STREET

  Glamour, intensity, desire—the lives and loves of London’s hottest team of surgeons!

  For the next four months enter the world of London’s elite surgeons as they transform the lives of their patients and find love amid a sea of passions and tensions!

  In April, renowned plastic surgeon and legendary playboy Leo Hunter can’t resist the challenge of unbuttoning the intriguing new head nurse, Lizzie Birch!

  200 HARLEY STREET: SURGEON IN A TUX by Carol Marinelli

  And glamorous Head of PR Lexi Robbins is determined to make gruff, grieving and supersexy Scottish surgeon Iain MacKenzie her Hunter Clinic star!

  200 HARLEY STREET: GIRL FROM THE RED CARPET by Scarlet Wilson

  In May, top-notch surgeons and estranged spouses Rafael and Abbie de Luca find being forced to work together again tough as their passion is as incendiary as ever!

  200 HARLEY STREET: THE PROUD ITALIAN by Alison Roberts

  And one night with new colleague surgeon Grace Turner sees former Hollywood plastic surgeon Mitchell Cooper daring to live again…

  200 HARLEY STREET: AMERICAN SURGEON IN LONDON by Lynne Marshall

  Then, in June, injured war hero Prince Marco meets physical therapist Becca Anderson—the woman he once shared a magical forbidden summer romance with long ago…

  200 HARLEY STREET: THE SOLDIER PRINCE by Kate Hardy

  When genius microsurgeon Edward North meets single mom nurse Charlotte King she opens his eyes to a whole new world…

  200 HARLEY STREET: THE ENIGMATIC SURGEON by Annie Claydon

  Finally join us in July, when junior surgeon Kara must work with hot-shot Irish surgeon Declan Underwood—the man she kissed at the hospital ball!

  200 HARLEY STREET: THE SHAMELESS MAVERICK by Louisa George

  And brilliant charity surgeon Olivia Fairchild faces the man who once broke her heart—damaged ex-soldier Ethan Hunter. Yet she’s unprepared for his haunted eyes and the shock of his sensual touch…!

  200 HARLEY STREET: THE TORTURED HERO by Amy Andrews

  Experience glamour, tension, heartbreak and emotion at

  200 HARLEY STREET

  in this new eight-book continuity from Harlequin® Medical Romance™.

  These books are also available in ebook format

  from www.Harlequin.com.

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EPILOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  ETHAN HUNTER NEEDED a drink.

  Bad.

  After five hours of complicated surgery his legs ached like a bitch and finding the bottom of a bottle was the only sure-fire way to soothe the fiery path of hot talons tearing from thigh to calf.

  It was that or painkillers, and Ethan refused to be dependent on drugs.

  ‘We’re heading to Drake’s, Ethan,’ a voice with a thick Scottish brogue said from behind. ‘Why don’t you join us?’

  A sudden silence descended into the male change-room as Ethan turned arou
nd to find Jock, the anaesthetist from the surgery, addressing him. He looked around at the four others, who’d all been chatting merrily until now. Clearly none of them were keen on having Ethan join them.

  Jock didn’t look particularly enthused either.

  Not that he could blame them. The longer the surgery had taken, the more his legs had ached, and the more tense and terse he’d become. Accidentally dropping an instrument had been the last straw, and kicking it childishly across the floor until it clanged against the metallic kickboard of the opposite wall hadn’t exactly been his most professional moment.

  He hated prima donna surgeons, but his simmering frustration at his shot concentration and the pain had bubbled over at that point.

  Even so, he didn’t need or want their duty invitation, no matter how much he craved some alcoholic fortification. Ethan was just fine with drinking alone.

  In fact, he preferred it.

  ‘No thanks, Jock,’ he said. ‘I’ve got to get back to the clinic.’

  Which was true. There was an important case file he needed to familiarise himself with on Leo’s desk. And some classy fine malt whisky to go with it.

  He looked around at his colleagues. ‘Thanks for your help in there, everyone. Good job.’

  There was a general murmuring of goodnights and then Ethan was alone. He sank gratefully onto the bench seat just behind him, easing his legs, muscles screaming, out in front of him. He shut his eyes as the pain lessened considerably and sat there for long minutes as the rush of relief anaesthetised the lingering tension in the rest of his body.

  It felt so damn good to be off them!

  But he couldn’t sit here forever. Work called. He reluctantly opened his eyes and reached for his clothes.

  * * *

  The black cab pulled up in front of the imposing white Victorian facade on Harley Street. Like the many clinics and physician’s offices that called Harley Street home, the Hunter Clinic was as exclusive as the address implied.

  Ethan’s father, celebrated plastic surgeon James Hunter, had founded it over three decades ago, and it had gone on to become world-renowned as much for its humanitarian and charity work with civilian and military casualties of war as for its A-list clients.

  Thanks largely to his brother Leo.

  Certainly not thanks to their father and the scandal that had not only resulted in his premature death through a heart attack but had almost caused the closure of the clinic over a decade ago.

  Again, thanks to Leo’s drive and commitment, it had been avoided.

  Not that Ethan gave a rat’s about any of that right at this moment. Thinking about his father and his previously rocky relationship with his brother always got things churned up inside, and tonight he was barely coping with standing upright.

  Ethan paid the driver and hauled himself out of the back through sheer willpower alone. The only thing that kept him putting one foot in front of the other was the lure of Leo’s whisky.

  Ethan grimaced as he limped through the corridors to his brother’s office, holding on to the polished wooden handrails for added support. His badly mangled ankle and knee felt ready to give at any second, and the effort it took for his muscles to support them was bringing him out in a sweat.

  Ethan wished he hadn’t neglected his physio so much, or ignored Lizzie—Leo’s wife and his ex-home visit nurse—when she’d scolded him about not using his stick. He hated the damn stick, and the questions it inevitably aroused, and he didn’t have time in his busy schedule for the intensive physio required—but at this moment in time he was prepared to embrace both.

  Not that it would help him now.

  But what would help beckoned just beyond Leo’s door, and Ethan had never been so glad to get to his brother’s office. It had once belonged to his father, and he’d used to hate being summoned here by the great man himself, in a rage over some imagined slight or other, as his father had slowly spiralled downwards into alcoholic depression.

  Thankfully those days were gone, but it was pleasing to know that a decanter of finest whisky could still be found within the walls of this office—even if it was rarely touched.

  The last ten paces to the bookshelves behind Leo’s desk were agony, but ultimately worth it as Ethan wrapped his hand around the satisfyingly full decanter. He splashed two fingers of amber liquid into a glass tumbler that sat nearby and threw it straight back.

  Searing heat hit the back of his throat and almost instantly tentacles of warmth unfurled outwards from his belly. He poured himself another one and threw that back too, enjoying how the spread of heat pushed back the relentless creep of pain.

  A third glass was poured, but before Ethan drank it he picked up both it and the decanter in one hand and reached for the back of the plush leather swivel chair with the other. Leaning heavily against the solid piece of furniture, he dragged it towards him, thankful for the wheels that made it easier, throwing himself down into it, groaning as the weight came off his legs.

  He shut his eyes on a deep sigh as screamingly tense muscles found release. Nursing his drink and the decanter against his chest, he flopped his head back into the cushiony leather headrest, tilted the chair backwards and swivelled gently from side to side, enjoying the rush from the twin sensations of heat and relief.

  Ethan wasn’t sure how long he sat there, idly twisting from side to side, his eyes shut, his tired muscles almost jelly now they’d been given permission to relax. He just knew it felt good to be non-weight-bearing.

  Bliss. Ecstasy. Paradise.

  But he was here for a reason—apart from the damn good whisky. He dragged his eyes open, knowing he couldn’t put it off any longer. Finally acknowledging that was exactly what he was doing.

  On Leo’s desk there was a chart. The chart of a child with a terribly disfiguring condition that Ethan could help.

  He could change little Ama’s life.

  He would change her life.

  But Ama’s case was complicated in more ways than one. Her condition was complex and would require multiple surgeries to correct.

  But that wasn’t the issue. Ethan thrived on complex.

  It was the strings attached to the case that were the problem. Big, fat strings involving someone from his past and the unholy mess he’d made in his selfish, juvenile need to hurt his brother.

  Olivia Fairchild.

  Olivia’s charity Fair Go was sponsoring Ama and her mother and an interpreter to travel from sub-Sahara Africa to London and the Hunter Clinic, for surgery and rehabilitation.

  And she would be here—tomorrow.

  Olivia who’d loved him. And he’d thrown it in her face by using her to get back at Leo. Flaunting her in front of his brother, knowing how much Leo had fallen for her, taunting him with the woman he couldn’t have.

  Olivia had been heartbroken when she’d realised. The look in her eyes that terrible, fateful day... He shuddered thinking about it now. The huge row he and Leo had got into, not knowing Olivia was listening to every ugly word. Him admitting that he was only interested in the sexy Aussie doc because Leo wanted her for himself.

  It hadn’t been true—not really. At the beginning, maybe, but not at that point. He’d enjoyed her company and there’d been something about her that had made him forget all his stuff when he was in her arms. The darkness that had been with him from his teenage years. The anguish over his mother’s premature death. His dysfunctional relationship with his father. All had been lifted whenever she’d held him close.

  But the damage had been done and his betrayal, his hurting her, had been unforgivable. Toxic. That was the word she’d used to describe his and Leo’s relationship just before she’d fled back to Australia. And she’d been right. It had been toxic. And a lot of that had been on him.

  But it wasn’t any longer.

  He’d been so
angry and self-destructive back then. Angry at his mother for dying and the ensuing scandal over her infidelities, angry at his father for being weak and taking the easy, boozy way out after Francesca’s death, and angrier at Leo for playing protector.

  Protecting James from himself instead of confronting him over the inept drunk he’d become. And protecting Ethan from his father’s wildly fluctuating mental state—from deep depression to manic rage—denying Ethan the opportunity to vent all his anger, frustration and loss.

  Ethan cringed as he thought about what a bastard he’d been. He’d taken what he’d wanted with no regard for Olivia’s feelings. Just stringing her along, thumbing his nose at her love, knowing how much Leo had had to grit his teeth every time he’d seen them together.

  He’d thought himself so far above love back then—that he was immune to it. What a fool! It had taken a small, fierce, passionate firecracker of a woman from a foreign war-torn land to teach him how wrong he’d been. Maybe that was his punishment for Olivia?

  Learning what love really meant and having it cruelly snatched away.

  Ethan took a deep swallow of his drink, beating back memories of Aaliyah. He didn’t need that guilt on top of his Olivia guilt tonight.

  No whisky bottle would be safe.

  Olivia...

  Had she forgiven him? Did he even deserve her forgiveness?

  He hoped so.

  Or at least that they could put the past behind them. Because not only would he be seeing her tomorrow but he’d be working with her too. As a paediatric reconstructive surgeon, Olivia had been given clearance by Leo not only to assist in Ama’s surgeries but to scrub in on any of the Hunter Clinic’s cases during her stay in London.

  The humanitarian side of the clinic, which was Ethan’s baby, worked with charities from all round the world—Olivia’s charity being just one. Consequently it had a reasonably robust operating schedule—many of the cases were kids. There would be plenty of opportunities for Olivia to keep her skills up to date while she juggled her hosting responsibilities for Ama.

 
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