The Christmas Marriage Rescue (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 4)

‘But I wanted only you.’

And how about now? she wanted to ask. How about now? Had he grown bored with the person she was? But she didn’t want to risk spoiling a nice evening by hearing something she didn’t want to hear and he was so obviously trying hard to listen to and understand her that she didn’t want to threaten the atmosphere.

‘It is true I am a strong person and that characteristic isn’t helped by the job I do,’ Alessandro confessed, disarmingly honest. ‘In A and E, I don’t operate by consensus. I am not going to stand there with an injured patient and ask everyone for an opinion on the correct treatment protocol. I am used to making snap decisions.’

And those snap decisions saved lives on a daily basis, Christy knew that. He was an incredibly skilled and talented doctor and his decisiveness and confidence was an important contributing factor in his success.

‘When people have a tricky patient, they always want you there,’ she said quietly, knowing that it was true. ‘You never panic.’

‘Panicking helps no one.’ Alessandro reached for a bread roll. ‘And confidence is important to everyone.’

Christy knew that to be true also. It was important to have someone competent in control. ‘If I had an accident, there’s no one I’d rather leading the trauma team,’ she said quietly, and he frowned.

‘You are not going to have an accident, but thank you for the compliment. But I have to learn to be less controlling with you, I can see that, and I will try.’

* * *

And he did.

Over the next few days he asked her opinion on everything and listened carefully, and Christy saw a whole new side to him.

Surely he couldn’t be making this much effort just for the children, she thought to herself. Surely his behaviour was an indication that he still had feelings for her?

The only physical contact they’d had had been the passionate sex they’d shared the night of the Snow Ball. And that hadn’t counted, she told herself miserably, because he’d been provoked.

Why was he still not touching her?

Alessandro had such a high sex drive that never before in their marriage had she found herself in the position of having to initiate sex, but now she was starting to wonder whether she should go down that route.

But what if he rejected her?

She bit back a hysterical giggle as she prepared the children’s lunch and got ready to take them to her mother’s for an afternoon of Christmas shopping. It must be awful being a man, she decided. They faced rejection every time they went near a woman.

She was just pouring coffee into mugs when Alessandro strode into the room, talking into his phone.

She could tell from his responses that he was talking to Sean about a rescue, and when he snapped the phone shut she looked at him expectantly.

‘Trouble?’

‘A party of teenagers were climbing in the gully and it avalanched.’

Christy winced. She knew how dangerous that climb could be because she’d done it herself plenty of times when she’d been younger.

‘How much do we know?’

Alessandro was already hauling equipment out of the utility room where it had been drying. ‘Two of them were above it and managed to get to the top and raise the alarm. The third is stuck on a ledge.’

‘So we’d do best to approach from the south-east ridge and then we’ll be above him. It’s just the best abseil,’ Christy breathed, and Alessandro scowled at her.

‘I always hated you doing that climb.’

She grinned. ‘It was fun.’

‘It was dangerous. And you have two children to think of now.’

Her smile faded. It was true, of course, and she would never take unnecessary risks. But at the same time she wished that sometimes he could think about her, rather than the children.

‘So are we the advance party?’