Page 15 of Close Pursuit

Or maybe he’d just slept with a lot of women and had a lot of practice. Lord knew he was attractive. Strike that. He was a hunk.Smexy—smart and sexy.

She didn’t usually go for the dangerous, brooding types. But she had to admit he wasn’t so bad to be around. Exuberant guys had a tendency to exhaust her with their noisy drama.

Sure, she was the exuberant type, herself, but at the end of the day, drama wasn’t her thing. At least Alex was predictable… when he wasn’t making shockingly inappropriate bets with his co-worker, that was. He was predictably brilliant. Predictably clueless about women. And predictably, sometimes infuriatingly, enigmatic.

She gave up on sleep and decided to get a little exercise. She did a modified yoga routine in the tiny open floorspace between their cots and the medical gear, then paced between the door of the tent and her cot for close to an hour.

Eventually, Alex muttered, “Lie down, Katie. You’re keeping me awake with all your fretting. Get some sleep.

She did lie back down, but the shelling resumed soon and kept her wide awake for much of the night.

Around four a.m., the shelling finally wound down. No women had come to the tent asking for the baby doctor. With the bet’s end looming, she seriously considered heading for the next village and going door-to-door looking for women in labor. Okay, she wasn’t serious about canvassing the neighborhood for business. But shewantedto do it.

As the first hint of dawn touched the peaks at the opposite rim of the valley, she reluctantly admitted defeat and burrowed deeper into her sleeping bag.

What had she done?

Why did she have a feeling deep down in her gut that she’d jumped off a cliff and just didn’t know it, yet?

* * *

Katie woke with a jolt and was startled to see sunlight streaming in the open tent door. “What time is it?” she mumbled, disoriented.

No one answered, and she came fully awake, alarmed. The tent was empty.Where’s Alex?

“It’s after noon,” he answered from outside.

She leaped out of the sleeping bag, shocked. Her feet hit the icy cold oiled canvas floor and she hopped uncomfortably from foot to foot until she could slip on her hiking boots. She gathered her hair up in a high ponytail. Today was hair washing day, and she already dreaded dousing her head in ice water. But it was better than having greasy hair.

Alex ducked inside the tent and handed her a steaming mug of coffee. She inhaled the bitter, roasted aroma with relish. She wasn’t the world’s biggest fan of coffee, but it was the smell of home. Of the civilized world beyond this isolated valley. Of life’s little indulgences.

“Thank you,” she murmured. Alex didn’t reply as he moved past her to the back of the tent.

She took an appreciative sip of the strong coffee and asked him, “Why don’t you ever say, ‘you’re welcome’ or something to that effect?”

“It’s redundant. I’ve already done something polite or thoughtful and the recipient has acknowledged it. There’s no need for further exchange.”

“Are you always so…cold-blooded in your approach to human interactions?” she followed up curiously.

He moved shockingly fast to stand right behind her. Her pulse leaped at his proximity. Was he going to collect on the bet right now? She started to feel light-headed, and her legs trembled so badly with an urge to bolt that they barely supported her weight.

“No, Katie.” His whisper slid across her skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake. “I’m not cold-blooded about everything.”

Her breath hitched.

A single finger touched the nape of her neck right and drew a path down her spine to the top of her t-shirt. “For the record, I’m not going to fall on you and ravish you like some clumsy American college co-ed.”

She turned sharply to escape that disturbingly sensual touch “You’re American, aren’t you?”

“I’m a citizen, yes.”

“But?”

“But my father didn’t raise me to act American.”

“How do you feel about that?”

He shrugged. “I would never have fit in anyway. I was too smart ever to be normal.”

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