‘Stay where you are! Don’t move. I’m coming to get you.’
‘Luc?’ Relief engulfed her.
‘I said, stay where you are.’
His voice was harsh, imperative, quashing her relief, and turning it to exasperation that of course it had to be Luc who found her.
‘Stacey? You have to keep shouting so I can find you.’
The wind tossed his voice around so it was impossible to tell which direction he was calling from. ‘Hello! Hello!’ she called out in desperation. ‘I’m over here.’
‘Don’t move. I can hear you. Keep shouting…’
But his voice sounded fainter as he was walking away from her. ‘I’m overhere,’ she yelled, frantic with fear that he might walk straight past her. ‘Please…’ Her voice broke with sheer terror that, having been found, she might be abandoned again. And then, quite suddenly, they were standing face to face. Regardless of anything that had gone before, she catapulted herself into his arms. ‘Thank God you found me!’
‘Dios!Thank God I did. What on earth are you doing up here?’
‘Researching.’
‘Couldn’t that have waited until tomorrow?’
‘I like to be prepared.’
‘But you’ve only just arrived,’ Luc pointed out. ‘My people gave me your schedule,’ he explained.
‘The team is resting,’ she confirmed, ‘but I want to be informed, ready to brief them in the morning.’
Luc frowned down at her. ‘There’s dedication to duty, and then there’s obsession,’ he observed. ‘Didn’t it occur to you that you should be resting too?’
‘Pot, kettle, black?’ she suggested. ‘Do you hang around when an important deal is on the table? No. I didn’t think so. And I wouldn’t be here at all if I hadn’t checked first that the gondolas would be running in spite of the weather.’
‘In fairness, no one could have predicted this,’ Luc agreed, driving forward. ‘The gondola station has only just closed.’
‘Closed?’ Stacey exclaimed. ‘How do I get down the mountain?’
‘You won’t—not tonight, at least.’
‘A hotel, then,’ she said hopefully, looking about.
‘All the hotels are full of people who are stranded,’ Luc explained.
‘So whereareyou taking me?’
‘Does it matter?’ Grabbing hold of her arm, he urged her along. ‘Come on, we’ll freeze if we stay here.’
Against her better judgement where Luc was concerned, she felt safe for the first time since coming up the mountain. And optimistic for some reason. She felt way too much of everything, Stacey concluded as she admitted, ‘This is not how I expected us to meet.’
‘I’m sure not,’ Luc agreed, forced to shout as he drove them both on against the battering snow. ‘You’re lucky I was checking the progress of evacuating skiers, and making sure the slopes were clear, or we wouldn’t be here.’
‘Where exactlyarewe?’ she asked. ‘How do you even know where we’re going?’ Having stared about, she couldn’t be sure of anything but an unrelieved vista of white.
‘I just know where I am,’ Luc said with confidence. ‘In-built GPS, I guess.’
She wouldn’t put anything past him. ‘I’m sorry to have caused you so much trouble.’
‘Not your fault,’ he said brusquely. ‘It’s been called the freak storm of the century. No one saw this coming.’
Reassured that he didn’t think her completely reckless in venturing up the mountain, she asked another question. ‘Do you have a phone signal at your chalet? I need to reassure the team I’m okay.’
