Her Secret Miracle

Can their miracle baby...

...bind them—forever?

Dr. Michi Sato will never forget the night of incredible passion she shared with lone-wolf billionaire and surgeon Eric Hart. Especially as it resulted in the baby she never thought she’d have. Her son’s heart condition has meant Michi’s always put him first, but now she must fly him to New York for treatment...and tell guarded bachelor Eric that he’s a father!

Starting with non-fiction, DIANNE DRAKE penned hundreds of articles and seven books under the name JJ Despain. In 2001 she began her romance-writing career with The Doctor Dilemma. In 2005 Dianne’s first Medical Romance, Nurse in Recovery, was published, and with more than twenty novels to her credit she has enjoyed writing ever since.

Also by Dianne Drake

Tortured by Her Touch

Doctor, Mummy…Wife?

The Nurse and the Single Dad

Saved by Doctor Dreamy

Bachelor Doc, Unexpected Dad

Second Chance with Her Army Doc

Sinclair Hospital Surgeons miniseries

Reunited with Her Army Doc

Healing Her Boss’s Heart

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Her Secret Miracle

Dianne Drake

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09001-8

HER SECRET MIRACLE

© 2019 Dianne Despain

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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To all my open-heart patients.

You were my inspiration to be the best nurse I could be.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

AS NIGHTS WENT, this was a beautiful one: still warm enough to enjoy being outside, with only a faint wind and the nip of a chill settling in. In the distance, Sapporo’s snowcapped mountains stood tall and inviting, giving Eric that feeling that he could stay here, someplace different, someplace else. Someplace where there was time for this...for daydreaming, thinking about a future, having fun in his life. But it was up to him to let it in. Unfortunately, he’d never quite discovered how. But someday...

“Are you enjoying the seminar, Dr. Hart?” asked Dr. Michiko Sato, stepping up to the balcony rail next to him. Her seductiveness nearly blended into the night. Dark skin, black dress. All woman. He’d spent two days listening to her lectures, the dulcet tones that made the field of physiatry sound almost as sexy as she was. There were other lecturers, of course. But he only had ears for Michi. And eyes. Especially eyes. And he, as well as other experts in attendance, couldn’t get enough of her smile, the way she turned her gaze downward as if she was shy...and her body to die for. But, most of all, her dedication and intelligence.

Dear lord, perfection in his view for only a few short days. Michiko Sato was a woman who interested him in so many ways, and for a man who couldn’t let himself be interested it was damned frustrating. Especially since he’d caught her staring at him a time or two, and it had not been a professional stare. Well, damn it. He’d done this to himself, hadn’t he? Drawn his boundaries and stayed behind them. Lived a life without the interruption of real pleasure. And now here was real pleasure standing next to him and it was all he could do to keep his hands from shaking.

“It’s a very good seminar. And call me Eric, please.” He twisted to see the full length of her, and the sight of Dr. Sato in something more than her professional garb—white lab coat—caught him off guard, even though he’d been watching her for nearly an hour now. Tonight, she was stunning in her black sleeveless dress with its low-cut neckline and a side slit nearly up to her hip. The dress was not too tight to be indecent, but tight enough to show her curves. And what fine curves they were. Curves that would fit him so well if ever he got the chance.

“Eric. And I’m Michi.” She moved closer to him, brushed against his arm, and stayed there rather than stepping away. “You’ve been sitting in the front row, I’ve noticed. Every lecture, every day. Should I be flattered?”

“I have.” He chuckled. “All the better to see you.” That was a bold statement, but a coziness was settling in around them, and it seemed to be calling for a bold move. Especially since after tomorrow he’d be gone, and she’d be on to her next lecture group or back to her medical practice.

“Did you like what you saw, Eric? And what you see right now?” She stepped away ever so slightly, to give him a better look.

“If I didn’t, I’d have been sitting in the back row. The front row was never my style.” She stepped into him a little more, and seemed so innocent doing it. But this wasn’t innocent. They both knew where it was heading. He’d known it the instant he’d walked into her lecture hall and made eye contact with the most beautiful woman he’d ever encountered. There was destiny here. Maybe not one that would go beyond tonight, but it was inevitable. She knew it as well as he did.

“I’m glad you weren’t. I think I was enjoying my view as much as you were enjoying yours.”

Sliding his arm around Michi’s waist, he pulled her as tightly to him as she could possibly get. “You don’t mind, do you?” he asked.

“Not at all.” She nudged her foot against his. “Not at all.”

Then he pointed to the evening shadows of the mountains. “There’s a little cabin up there. A very isolated cabin. My father owns it, and when I was a kid, he’d have a personal ski instructor bring me here to teach me how to ski. It was the only time I ever got to do something fun, just for the sake of doing it.”

“So, you’re a good skier.”

“Depends on your definition of good, I suppose. In my day I was.”

Michi laughed. “In your day? From what I’ve been seeing, you’re still in your day, and it’s looking quite good.” She sat her glass of champagne down on the wall surrounding the third-story veranda and turned to Eric. “So, tell me, Eric, what else were you good at, in your day?” She wrinkled her nose and her eyes sparkled with flirtation. “Or night?”

He was good at being a surgeon, day and night, but that wasn’t the way he wanted this conversation to go. Not after listening to her and watching her so intently for what seemed like forever. Memorizing her movements, anticipating her words, trying not to be distracted by her beauty yet being distracted by every little thing about her—the raising of an eyebrow, the slightest hint of a smile meant only for him. “I’m good at picking up your signals.”

“And what are these signals telling you?”

“That tonight’s our last chance. Tomorrow we’ll both be back in our normal lives.” Why was his attraction to her so strong? There’d been other women in his life, other opportunities, but tonight, with Michi...

“And just what would that last chance include?” she asked him.

“We have options,” he said. “Dancing, although I’m not very good at it. We could go for a walk. Or, stay here and talk.”

“Talking’s overrated,” she said. “And these shoes are definitely not made for walking or dancing.”

He glanced down, noticed that her shoes were strappy and spiky, and while he was no expert, he couldn’t imagine that what she was wearing was going to make a walk much fun. Yet while he thought they were probably uncomfortable as hell, they also looked sexy as hell, making her incredibly long legs seem even longer. “Then maybe you’d like to go sit someplace where you can take off those shoes. They’ve got to be killing your feet.”

Michi laughed. “So, you’re a practical man.”

“That’s what my colleagues tell me.”

“That’s what my aunt told me when she recommended you to this seminar. That you’re good at your job, not always as sociable as you could be, and that you’re governed by practicality. But the best in your field.”

“Your aunt?”

“Agnes Blaine.”

He knew Agnes. She worked on the medical end of cardiology while he worked on the surgical end of it. Specifically, pediatric cardiac surgery. “Small world,” he said.

“Not really. I’m trying to grow my practice in different ways, incorporate more physiatry into medical and surgical areas where it’s not yet used. I asked her to send someone who might be able to make use of my specialty. And while I wasn’t specific in terms of what kind of specialty I wanted to approach, she thought cardiac surgery and rehab would be good. Hence...you. So, let’s get back to these shoes. Are you offering a foot massage?”

“For starters.”

“Then what?”

He bent over and whispered something in Michi’s ear that caused her to laugh. “That sounds very naughty,” she said.

“Well, if you think that’s naughty...” He whispered something else in her ear, but this time he grazed her earlobe with his tongue, causing Michi to gasp, then stand on tiptoe and whisper something back to him.

“Will that get me a passing mark in your class?” he asked.

“That, Doctor, will send you straight to the head of the class.”

“My favorite place,” he said, picking up her glass of champagne. “And I’m ready to start doing the homework that will get me there, if you don’t mind being my tutor.”

“I would love to tutor you, Doctor.”

He was already regretting that it could last for only a night but come tomorrow the fantasy of the evening would have worn off, Michi would be back in her white medical coat ready to present the last lecture of the series, and his mind would be back on the list of patients he would be seeing once he was back in New York. But for now, Sapporo, Japan, or New York City were simply places on a map while here, before him, was a place in time he wanted to exploit. “So, can you walk out of this banquet room, or would you like me to carry you?”

“How about you go first and I’ll follow in ten minutes?”

“So, this is to be a clandestine affair?”

“Clandestine and cautious,” she said. “Because we have only tonight. This is just the fantasy. Do you understand? Tonight, the fantasy. Tomorrow, the reality.”

“Yes,” he said, because he wasn’t a greedy man. One night was all he had in him. That was the way he structured his life. “Very good rules to live by. No relationship, no tangles. That’s been my motto for years.” Even though he imagined one night with Michi was more than anything he’d ever hoped for. But even in the fantasy there had to be practicality. That was the story of his life. He didn’t want a real involvement. It was too complicated. Hearts got broken. Someone survived while someone else did not. No, what he did, what he had, worked. A life without those involvements suited him just fine.

“Ten minutes,” he said, brushing a slow, lush kiss to her lips before turning and walking away. Yes, ten minutes before his world would change, even if only for one night. But, for the first time in his life, he felt oddly uncomfortable with that arrangement. To think about why or put thought into it would only ruin the moment, and he wanted this moment like he’d wanted no other before. So, he put it out of his mind as he pushed the elevator button and went to his room on the sixth floor.

* * *

Michi stood in the hall outside his door for several minutes, simply staring. Was she totally out of her head, seducing him the way she’d just done? She paced back and forth for a little while, downed the rest of her champagne, wished she had another glassful. Then finally she drew in a deep breath, bent down and took off her ungodly uncomfortable shoes, stepped up to his door and knocked.

When he opened to her, she simply handed him her shoes on the way in, and it took a full twenty seconds before she realized he’d already rid himself of his shirt. And there he was, the perfect image of the man of her dreams. Interesting, smart, a little intense. The typical tall, dark, handsome hunk. Smoldering. Sexy. Virile. Provocative. Seductive. All those descriptions from her fantasies come to life. All hers for a little while.

“You’re thinking too much,” he said, as he shut the door and tossed the shoes aside.

“Good thoughts,” she said.

“About me, I hope.” He started to walk toward her, but Michi held out her hand to stop him.

“Playing games?” he asked.

“Making memories.”

He chuckled. “We haven’t done anything to make memories of, Michi, and if you’ve changed your mind, it’s not too late for you to turn around and go back downstairs to the reception you’re hosting. That would be the practical thing to do.”

“Maybe I don’t want practical,” she said, moving closer to him, then raising her hand to slide it around his neck. “Maybe I’m always practical and tonight I want something else.” Even though her mind was still a little wobbly, it was made up. One night, one time with one perfect man. The handsome stranger who would come and go in her life and leave her with a memory of the time she’d stepped outside herself to do something daring. No strings, no attachments. Throw caution to the wind this once, because the wind had never thrown anything back that wasn’t painful.

So, no, it wasn’t her style, but she didn’t want it to be. Just once she wanted to know what being bold and reckless would feel like, as being anything else hadn’t gotten her what she wanted. But one night of excitement with Eric and maybe that would be enough before she stepped back into her life and its harsh realities.

And Eric was... He was pure, raw sex and total excitement. And she wanted it all.

CHAPTER ONE

MICHI SATO LOOKED UP at the massive building, wondering how many stories high it was. She guessed somewhere between twenty-five and thirty, all belonging to Eric and, maybe someday, Riku?

She really hadn’t given Eric’s status much of a thought up until now, and simply seeing his name in gold looming over the massive bank of revolving glass doors caused her stomach to churn. Even as outgoing as she was, she wasn’t up to this. Finding herself so close to Eric now, after all this time, caused too many unanswered questions to come to mind.

Her motivation for that night, his motivation as well. Certainly nothing long term had been meant. They’d both made that clear during pillow talk and foreplay. Then look what had happened. Especially after her doctor had told her only weeks before it was an impossibility. That her condition had gone from bad to abandon all hope.

“I’m so glad he was wrong,” she said, kissing Riku on the cheek. “Mommy hasn’t done everything the best way she could have, but that’s all going to change now.” After Eric knew he had a son. After Riku’s surgery. There were so many things weighing her down now, so much guilt she had to come to terms with, she didn’t know where to begin. But she was here to start a new course. At least, that was what she kept telling herself. New course, new direction, new leaf turned over. It sounded good, but in practice...well, that was the part she wasn’t sure about. But the first step was behind her now, and that was good.

Of course, she’d told herself other things, too, that she’d backed away from, hadn’t she? Namely, not telling Eric he was daddy to her two-year-old. She’d tried, had made futile attempts at calling, texting and using any other means of electronic communication available. Then she’d given up. But that didn’t make things better. In fact, in the long run it would make things worse than she could probably even imagine.

“Mommy’s going to make it all better,” she said. How? She didn’t know. But she’d figure it out.

And now, on the second step of her journey—trying to figure out how to tell him—here she was, looking in Eric’s window, holding his son, and so confused her head was spinning. In just a few days Riku’s long-awaited surgery would take place—a surgery Eric should know about as it had been his specialty when he’d been a practicing surgeon.

Of course, that would have meant telling Eric somewhere along the way that he had a son, then also telling him his son had a heart defect. Neither of which she’d done. Yet. Except the yet part was looming like a black raincloud over her. All the good intentions in the world wouldn’t stop it from bursting and pouring down on her. It was up to her to make the plan that would avoid it—step into a doorway or, in this case, Eric’s office.

But, no. Instead, here she was, like a little girl with her nose to the toy-store window, hoping for the prettiest doll inside. Expecting to get it but fearing she wouldn’t. Expecting Eric to overlook that she’d kept his son from him all this time but fearing he would not forgive her. And in some fragmented way, hoping the three of them could become a family on some level. All while the black cloud was getting closer and closer to bursting.

“Be glad you’re too young to know about responsibilities,” she said to Riku, turning so her body would shield his from the slight gust of warm wind whipping up the streets and down the alleys. “Or how to make something right you’ve already made such a mess of.”

Realistically, she wasn’t counting on things turning out well as far as Eric was concerned. Sure, he could walk away from the entire situation, which didn’t seem at all like the man she’d known for little more than a night. Or he might recognize Riku as his son, then want more of Riku in his life than she was prepared to give him. And that seemed the greater possibility. But would he go so far as try for full custody since she’d hidden his sick child from him for two years? Or argue that she was negligent given how he was an expert in the procedure his son needed to have done?

This was what scared her. And why Eric scared her. He might want more of Riku than she could bear to give up. Now, she feared, she was about to find out just how much, and she wasn’t sure what she’d do once she knew. Wasn’t ready for that, wasn’t ready to face the consequences she’d set into motion, whatever they might be.

Still, she had always to remember this was about Riku, not her. Not even Eric. Right now, her son was the only one who counted, and when she did tell Eric about him, she hoped he would be able to see that was the case. At least until after Riku’s surgery.

“Your daddy’s inside that building, Riku,” she said, turning again so the boy bundled in her arms could look through the window. “He’s a very nice man. And kind. A perfect man to be your father. I know you don’t understand what I’m telling you, but you will someday.”

And she prayed he didn’t hate her when he did understand, even when she’d finally gathered the courage to correct her mistakes long before Riku would be old enough to hate her for what she’d done.

That was another fear she had to live with: the possibility that Riku could turn away from her once he was old enough to know what his mother had done. If that day ever came, well...she wouldn’t think about it. The way she hadn’t thought about other consequences.

So, true to form, she wasn’t going to deal with that now, when she was so confused, so angry at herself, and so afraid for her son’s life. Especially not when every ounce of everything inside her was devoted to Riku and what was ahead for him.

“I wish you could tell me what to do,” she told Riku, snuggling him in even closer to her. “Your mommy didn’t make some wise choices and now she’s very discouraged that what she’s done might touch you in ways I never intended to happen.”

Riku’s response was to reach up and grab Michi’s hair, then giggle.

“Do you know how cute you are?” she asked, trying to extricate herself from his playful grip. This child was her world, nothing else mattered. And it still surprised her how much she’d changed in such a short time. “OK, so you’re not going to answer me. But take my word for it, you’re the cutest little boy ever.”

It was a mild November day, the sun was bright, the slight gusts of wind warm enough that people had taken off their jackets to enjoy the unexpected rise in temperature. But Michi tucked Riku’s little fist into the blanket in which he was wrapped. So maybe she was overprotective. What of it? She’d had so much difficulty bringing him into this world.

She’d lost count of how many times she’d almost lost him before his birth; didn’t know how long she’d been hospitalized to prevent a miscarriage early on and a stillbirth later. It had been such a struggle, then afterwards a beautiful baby boy...with a heart defect. All of it had been so much to deal with, the hysterectomy after Riku’s birth being the least of her concerns. That mess with the social worker calling her unfit had been traumatic. So, if she wanted to be overprotective, she had good cause.