‘This will hold you secure,’ she explained, as they pumped up the mattress and strapped it to the stretcher. ‘I expect I’ll see you at the hospital. Good luck.’
‘Thanks.’ The man closed his eyes, choosing not to look as he was winched into the hovering helicopter.
As the aircraft became a dot in the distance, Dino turned to her. ‘The team have found the rest of his party on the other side of the ridge, so they’re going to walk them back down the other track. We’ll go back together. Although frankly this isn’t a great place to be walking. There’s a lot of loose powder snow up there just waiting to bury someone stupid enough to walk beneath it. Watch yourself.’
Meg glanced up at the pile of snow that had almost claimed a life. ‘I have to confess I’m not an expert on avalanches.’
‘It isn’t hard to spot dangerous slopes when you know what you’re looking for.’ He drew her to one side and pointed, his breath clouding the air. ‘Look up there.’
Trying to block out the fact that he was standing within kissing distance, Meg looked at the snow-covered gully. ‘I’m looking.’ But it was hard to concentrate. She was breathlessly conscious of him. Unable to help herself, she turned her head and glanced at his profile. It was an unmistakeably masculine face—eyelashes thick and dark, his jaw shadowed by stubble. Meg felt something elemental uncurl inside her.
‘Can you see where the wind slab fractured above him?’ His head turned and his gaze sharpened as he caught her looking at him.
Meg immediately whipped her head back towards the slope, feeling her face turn scarlet. ‘Yes,’ she croaked, ‘I can see.’ For a moment she thought she’d got away with it. And then she felt his gloved hand brush against her cheek. He turned her head so that she had no choice but to look at him.
‘How long are you going to carry on pretending last night never happened?’
Trapped by his gaze, Meg stared up at him and he slid his hand behind her head and drew her towards him. The blood throbbed in her veins and a delicious, thrilling feeling of inevitability gripped her. As if in slow motion he lowered his head. His eyes held hers until the last moment. And then he claimed her mouth and sent her brain spinning.
Excitement, almost agonising in its intensity, speared her body. Her eyes closed, the world ceased to be grey and white and became a multicoloured kaleidoscope of feelings and emotions. And suddenly there was no doubt left in her head.
Standing in this wild, beautiful place, being kissed by this man, felt completely right. She knew what she wanted. Him. She knew that if he wanted to make love to her here, her answer was going to be yes.
Meg closed her gloved hands on the front of his jacket and leaned into him. His hands were in her hair then on her shoulders and down her back. She tugged at him and he lowered her onto the soft snow, pillowing her head with his arm as he kissed her. And it felt incredible. The skilled brush of his fingers against her face, the warmth of his breath against her mouth as he nudged her lips apart and, finally, the seductive stroke of his tongue as the kiss turned deeper and more explicit.
She’d had no idea, Meg thought dizzily. No idea that a kiss could feel like this.
With the snow pressing against her back, she should have felt cold. The air around them was freezing and a few stray flakes had started to fall, but she fel
t nothing but scorching heat and burning need. Without disconnecting the kiss, Dino drew down the zip of her jacket. Meg gasped as cold air brushed against her flesh and then moaned as he pressed his mouth to the sensitive flesh of her throat. She murmured his name and slid her hands around his neck, her fingers encountering the collar of his jacket as she tried to get closer to him. She wanted to touch—she needed to feel—but their outdoor clothing prevented them from anything but the most minimal contact. With a sob of desperation, she twisted against him, feeling the fingers of cold penetrate the neck of her jacket where he’d exposed her flesh. She started to shiver and instantly Dino hauled himself away from her and dragged her to her feet. ‘Mi dispiace, I’m sorry.’ His voice hoarse, he yanked her zip back up to her throat and rubbed her arms to warm her. ‘I can’t believe I did that. I don’t know what I was thinking. You are going to get hypothermia. We shouldn’t be doing this here. It isn’t the time and it isn’t the place.’ As if reorienting himself, he glanced around and gave an exasperated shake of his head. ‘Can you walk or are you too cold?’
Meg felt numb, but she knew it had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with the way he made her feel. ‘I’m fine. Really.’ Or she would be once she’d got herself home and talked some sense into herself. She had a child. She had a life she liked. Why, after all these years, was she risking all that?
Misinterpreting her silence, Dino dragged her against him and held her close, warming her. ‘You must be freezing. I can’t believe I lost control like that. It’s you—the way you make me feel…’
Despite the warning bells in her head, his words caused a buzz inside her and she pressed her lips to his cold cheek. ‘You smell good, have I told you that?’
He turned his head to capture her mouth. ‘Unless you want to find yourself flat on your back in the snow again, you’d better not say things like that. All these months I’ve been feeling as though I need to take a cold shower when you walk into the room, and suddenly I discover that even freezing ice isn’t going to work.’
Months?
He’d felt like this for months? She’d had no idea. Seriously unsettled by how much that frank confession disturbed her equilibrium, Meg stooped and picked up a handful of snow. ‘Want me to help you out with that problem of yours, macho man?’
Laughing, he caught her wrist in an iron grip. ‘Put that anywhere near my trousers and we won’t be able to take this any further.’
Did she want to take it further?
Confused by the feelings fluttering inside her, she dropped the snow and stepped close to him. ‘Dino—’
He smothered her words with a kiss and then stepped back and held up his hands. ‘Accidenti, enough! We need to get going before we are buried in another avalanche or it grows dark.’
It came as a surprise to realise that she really didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to leave this place. If he hadn’t pulled her to her feet, she never would have stopped. She’d been willing to risk frostbite in order to claw her way closer to him. She hadn’t wanted the kiss to end. She would have happily gone on kissing him for the rest of her life, rather than confronting just how dangerous falling under Dino Zinetti’s spell could be for her.
Looking around, Meg realised just how isolated they were. The sky was a threatening shade of grey. At some point while they’d been generating heat with each other, it had started snowing again.
Dino hauled his backpack onto his shoulders and secured the waist strap. ‘Are you all right to walk?’
Refusing to reveal how shaken she was, Meg gave a mocking smile. ‘You may be a good kisser, Zinetti, but even you’re not so good I can’t put one foot in front of the other.’