‘Relax. I prefer my partners a lot less comatose.’
‘What the hell happened last night?’ She couldn’t remember coming back to the cabin. Scrunching her eyes shut, she tried to piece her memory together. She’d stormed off after their argument and hadn’t noticed the crack in the snow that gave way when she stepped on the edge of it. She’d twisted her ankle.
She shoved the covers off her foot to examine the injury, noting that the joint was only slightly swollen and nowhere near as tender as it had been.
‘It’s not sprained or broken. The muscle tenderness should go away in a day or two,’ Lukas said. He was obviously watching her but she couldn’t look at him. He had pulled her from the crevasse but her memories after that were foggy. She couldn’t remember how they’d gotten back.
‘Why am I almost naked? Where are my clothes? Where is everyone? Why areyouhere?’
‘I’m here,’ Lukas said lowly, ‘because I’m the only one who came to find you. Because everyone else left before the storm hit. You’re almost naked, Katherine, because if I hadn’t removed your clothes, you would have developed hypothermia and I really didn’t want your death on my conscience.’
‘You removed my clothes? You looked at me?’ The thought of being in that vulnerable position with Lukas of all people was horrifying.
‘I’m an Alpha One racing driver. I think I am perfectly capable of removing your clothes without looking.’ His nonchalance was triggering.
‘Turn around,’ she snapped and tossed off the duvet to go in search of her clothes. ‘So you took off my wet clothes and planted me by a fire.’ The thought of having spent the entire night in Lukas’s arms made lava flow through her veins.
Why would the Fates send the man she hated the most to rescue her? Why would he stay with her? He never wanted to be around her. He would never have done this out of the goodness of his heart. The man who got her fired had no heart.
She shoved her legs into her thermals and then into the jeans that were nearby. Why did you stay?’ She hastily put on her blouse but now that she was no longer under the covers with Lukas or close to the embers, her skin erupted in goose bumps. She needed her jacket but it was nowhere to be found.
She heard Lukas’s mirthless laughter. ‘So ungrateful to the one person who kept you alive,’ he spat.
Katherine caught a glimpse of the jacket on the floor, finding it balled up. Obviously having been thrown. Evidence of Lukas’s anger at having helped her. ‘Because why would you? You do nothing without an ulterior motive. The only reason you’re even here in Lapland is because doing publicity suited you. How does helping me suit you?’ She turned around to find Lukas fully dressed. His eyes flashing as they raked over her jacket.
‘It doesn’t suit me,’ he gritted out. ‘But I’m not an animal who would leave someone to die as you seem to be insinuating.’ He turned towards her, grey eyes offended. Angry. An icy fire burning in them. ‘You try to turn the world against me…’ A step towards her. ‘…insult me…’ Another step. The air slowly being sucked out of the room. ‘…could not even bother to thank me for saving your life when it’s your fault we’re in this mess.’ One more step. Why did he loom so large? ‘Your fault the world will be thinking that we’re missing.Iam the reason we made it out of that storm. So push me away.’ He was in front of her now. ‘Slap me across the face for undressing you and tell me to leave you.’ He crowded her against the wall. Katherine wasn’t breathing. An electrical storm brewed in the space between them. ‘But you can’t, can you? Because I’m the only one here.’
He had a point, but she couldn’t give in to him. She couldn’tnotfight him. She couldn’t give him the benefit of the doubt. Not ever. ‘No one asked you to be here and I didn’t turn the world against you. I told the truth, Easton Rivers is the future of that team. You aren’t.’
Lukas shook his head. Katherine could feel the passion of his hate burning in his gaze. ‘You still can’t say “Thank you for saving me, Lukas. Thank you for not letting me succumb to hypothermia and ending my miserable career that way.”’
Maybe he was right about that one point, but she couldn’t get her mouth to form around the words. So she said nothing.
Of course, she said nothing. Lukas expected nothing less. She couldn’t show him gratitude and she couldn’t be apologetic for what she had written even though she knew he was still fully capable of winning another championship.
He pushed off the wall, needing to get away from her. Needing space, but that was secondary totheirmost important need, which was surviving. So whether or not she thanked him, it made no difference to what he had to do.
‘Get a fire going in the kitchen stove.’ He forced himself to be calm. To push aside his anger and frustration. He had to clear head. ‘I’m going to see if I can call for help.’
‘You mean you haven’t tried yet?’ Katherine accused.
‘No, and you should be glad of it because if I had, you’d be dead or comatose.’ How different she was now to the woman who had begged him not to leave her. He could throw that in her face. Tell her how she’d clung to him, but what good would that do?
Lukas left her standing in the open plan living area to search the cabin for anything he could use. If he could just get word out that they were safe, he could get ahead of any crazy stories that might spread through the media. He could get word to Dominic…and his mother. Would she be worried?
He went through each room. Opened every cupboard. Searched every drawer until he found the answer to his prayers. A handheld radio. Lukas turned the device on and the screen lit up in blue. The battery still held some charge. He was about to try calling for help on it, try every frequency he could, but he couldn’t do so alone in that room. Katherine had a right to hear what he found as well. She also wouldn’t believe him no matter what he reported, so he took it into the kitchen and sat at the table. The chair slightly scraping the wooden floor caught Katherine’s attention and she approached the table that now had the radio and Lukas’s cell phone side by side. He tapped his phone screen—the status bar read ‘No service.’ He’d known it would, but he had to see it again anyway.
‘Have you tried it yet?’ There was hope in her voice.
Lukas shook his head. ‘I thought you would like to be present if I managed to get through to anyone. Understand, it’s a long shot.’
Katherine nodded. Lukas picked up the radio, praying it would work, and tried calling out but all he got back was static. He tried a different frequency but it was the same. And another and another.
His stomach sank and he realised how hopeful he’d been that it would work. Hope was dangerous in a situation like this. ‘We just have to wait it out.’
He scrubbed a hand down his face. He had no idea how long the storm would last. It wasn’t blowing as hard now as it had been the night before, but it was still impossible for anyone to be moving around in that weather, which meant he had no idea how long he would be stuck with Katherine. A woman so stubborn that she hadn’t even started the fire in the stove. Certain she was just being difficult, he did it himself with gritted teeth.
‘You need a better jacket and to drink something hot,’ he said curtly as he closed the stove door. The flames beyond the glass licked the fresh logs, scorching the surfaces black.
