Page 21 of Suddenly Tempted
“Good,” replied Devlin, nodding. They were turning out to be a fairly good team. He started to go, then hesitated. He didn’t remember much about last night — he’d been so exhausted he’d pretty much passed out. But he had a vague memory in his head, something that might just have been a dream. “Darcy, did I say anything to you while I was asleep?”
Darcy laughed, but she shook her head.
“You were as quiet as a mouse,” she said, but she was smiling in a way that made him unsure whether he believed her or not.
“That’s a relief,” he said, with a little smile of his own. “By the way, you cuddle like a python when you’re asleep. I thought you were trying to crush me.”
Her mouth dropped open in embarrassment, and she picked up a cushion and hurled it at him.
“I do not!” she yelled.
Devlin laughed, escaping out of the room as a second cushion came flying towards him. He was still laughing as he walked into the small bedroom. He laid the map on one of the stripped beds, and double-checked the route he’d drawn in pencil. It was going to be a tough climb up the mountain to the ranger’s station, especially with his arm out of action, and especially with Darcy in tow, but he was almost 100 percent sure they could manage it. They didn’t have a choice. If they stayed here, with no way of contacting the world, then they risked never being found.
Besides, heading up the mountain was where he needed to go to finish what he’d started. It was the whole reason he was here in the first place.
He heard Darcy humming to herself as she walked out of the living room and past the door. She had such a sweet voice, even when she was hurling insults at him. It hurt his heart a little bit to hear her singing — in a good way. Although he’d deny this in front of the world’s press, who all thought he was a devilish womaniser, it had been a long, long time since he’d woken up with a woman beside him. The last time it had happened, in fact, was the morning he’d split up with his last girlfriend — nearly a year ago.
The memory of it, of Claudia packing her things and walking out of the door, was still painful — not because he regretted her leaving, but because he regretted so much of the time they had spent together, the time he had wasted on her. Devlin focused instead on the soft and gentle voice he could hear from the other room. Darcy was everything that Claudia wasn’t. Claudia had been a model, as beautiful as they came, but her beauty had felt so artificial. Claudia had been cold, and selfish, and unkind, whereas Darcy was compassionate and considerate and generous.
Come on, he said to himself.You don’t even know her.
That was true. They’d met just over twelve hours ago, and the circumstances weren’t exactly normal. But maybe that was it — strange things happened under extreme conditions. It was pressure that turned trees into diamonds, after all.
He folded the map and slotted it into his pocket, then he tore a page from one of the textbooks they’d found and scribbled a note onto it, struggling to shape the letters with his injured arm.
This is Devlin Storm. Me and the girl are alive. We spent the night here and are now en route to the ranger station via the pass. Look for us there.
He added the coordinates of the station, then gave it one last read through, feeling something twang in his stomach. He quickly crossed out where he’d writtenthe girland added Darcy’s name instead. Feeling better about it, he left the note where anyone entering the research cabin would see it. Walking back to the living room, he found Darcy there. She was pulling her jacket over her thick sweater and doing a good job of tying herself in knots.
“Need a little help?” he asked. She stopped, her arms out like a scarecrow, then nodded.
“I don’t think I’ve ever worn so many clothes in my life,” she said.
“You’ll need them,” he replied, walking to her. He held the jacket while she pushed her arms into the sleeves, then he zipped it up for her. “It’ll be pushing minus ten in the shade, but it will warm up later in the day.”
She shuffled, trying to pull her loose trousers back into place.
“Shall I . . . ?” he asked.
“What?” she said.
“Your trousers.”
“What about them?” she replied.
“You know, shall I fix them.”
“You want to fix my pants?” she asked, and her cheeks turned the most delightful shade of pink. “Do they need fixing? Is there something wrong with them?”
“Not if you want them to drop to the ground halfway up the mountain,” he said, and her blush deepened even further. “That didn’t come out quite the way I intended it to,” he went on, feeling his own cheeks heat a little as well. “But when you’re climbing an ice shelf, the last thing you want is to lose your trousers. May I?”
“Uh . . . I guess so,” she said, lifting her arms. Devlin grabbed the waistline of her trousers and, ignoring the pain in his arm, folded it over, then again, tying the drawstring as tight as he could. He knotted it twice more, then stood back, noting she’d swapped out her dress shoes for the boots she’d found.
“Better?” he asked. She nodded, doing a little jig.
“Much,” she said. “Although I probably should have used the loo first.”
They laughed together, their eyes grazing each other’s, snagging and holding for a beat, then another. Devlin’s mind went completely blank, like an untouched field of heavy snow. All he could think about was those huge eyes, those full lips, and that sweet, innocent voice. His brain was caught in a hamster wheel of where it had gone last night, flashes of his indecent thoughts making him buzz. Thoughts of a hand on her waist and his fingers tracing her curves, and he felt his trousers tighten across his groin. She was something else.
