At His Service: Her Boss the Hero: One Night With Her Boss / Her Very Special Boss / The Surgeon's Marriage Proposal. Alison Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ gave up trying to squash his curiosity when he emerged to share a drink of water and a muesli bar from Mikki’s pack.

      ‘At least your dad didn’t blame you,’ he found himself saying out of the blue. ‘Or he wouldn’t have been so over-protective.’

      ‘That came later,’ Mikki said. ‘After the car accident when I was sixteen.’

      Ah, yes. That accident. He’d been curious about that when she’d mentioned it the day of that physical assessment. It had been so easy to stay away from stepping onto personal ground back then. Not so easy now.

      ‘You were hurt?’ The mental image of Mikki lying badly injured in the kind of scenes he often attended was disturbing enough to give him a kick in the gut.

      ‘Amazingly, no, but the other three teenagers in the car were hurt. One of them died. I was the front-seat passenger and … I got lucky, I guess.’

      ‘They were your friends?’

      ‘Yeah …’ She didn’t sound sure.

      ‘A boyfriend was one of them?’

      ‘No.’ Mikki’s tone told him it was time to stop prying. Clearly, she didn’t want to talk about it.

      That was fine. Good, even. They could really get away from this personal stuff. He could dismiss his curiosity about those intervening years. The ones between her mother’s death and the accident that had made her father so over-protective. Had he not cared much until then? Been so focussed on a sick wife and then too broken-hearted to really notice his kid? She must have been incredibly lonely if that had been the case. Not that he was going to ask but he didn’t like the idea of her being a lonely child any more than being injured.

      Mikki broke into his thoughts. ‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘Were you an only child?’

      Maybe they couldn’t stay away from this personal stuff after all. He’d brought this on himself, though, hadn’t he?

      ‘Yes and no,’ Tama answered reluctantly. He pushed the top of his water bottle shut with a snap, shoved it back into the pack and turned to climb back into the tunnel. Then he caught Mikki watching him and sighed inwardly.

      ‘Yeah, OK. It’s just not something I tell people.’ Ever. So why did it feel like the time to break that ironclad rule? Because Mikki had experienced something that might give her insight into how it had really been? There was something there. A connection. A kind of force that pulled the words from his mouth. ‘Yes, I was an only child. I didn’t have a dad that I knew about. I got sent to live with my uncle and aunt and eleven cousins.’

      Tama ducked his head into the tunnel. He’d said enough. Too much.

      Mikki’s voice floated into the tunnel with him. ‘How old were you?’

      ‘About six,’ Tama growled. He wriggled further into the mound. This conversation was over.

      Mikki crouched at the neck of the tunnel, ready to scoop the snow that came towards her and spread it away from the opening.

      She had barely heard Tama’s muttered response to her question but it resonated in her head as loudly as if he’d shouted it.

      He’d been six. A small child.

      For whatever reason, his mother had given him up and sent him to live with relatives. To be one of a huge family where one more mouth to feed probably hadn’t been noticed. He might not have been noticed.

      Just like her, he’d lost his mother.

      And he’d blamed himself, hadn’t he? That was why those words had been so heartfelt.

      As a little boy, Tama had felt unloved and possibly very lonely, and he’d believed it was his own fault. That somehow, unknowingly, he’d done something so wrong he’d had to be severely punished.

      Mikki’s heart ached. For Tama. For herself. For the children they had been and for what had been taken from them. No wonder she felt so drawn to this man. Was it the similarity of their pasts that attracted them both to this kind of work? This unique combination of risking yourself to care for others?

      Was the reason she felt Tama was a soulmate as simple as that?

      Maybe.

      Except that there was another factor in this attraction.

      A very physical one.

      The inside of the snow mound had a wide platform against one side and a narrower one against the other.

      ‘We sleep there,’ Tama explained, pointing to the wider platform. ‘And we cook on this one.’

      ‘Cook?’

      ‘Didn’t I tell you I can cook?’ Tama was using a tiny bright light that was remarkably effective in the confines of this small space. ‘Watch this.’

      He produced a tiny primus stove from his pack and a small, lightweight, aluminium pan. Mikki found the water and the packages of dehydrated food he requested and then did as instructed and watched, increasingly aware of how intimate this situation was.

      Here they were, in a tiny cocoon, so isolated that the rest of the world might as well have ceased to exist.

      Just herself and Tama. In a space small enough to be warmed by the combination of their body heat and the small stove. When an absolutely delicious smell began to emanate from the pan, it felt—ridiculously—like home.

      Mikki cast an anxious glance upwards a moment later, however.

      ‘Won’t the heat from the flames melt the roof?’

      ‘A bit, but it won’t drip on us. That’s the beauty of making a good arch shape. It won’t cave in either, so don’t worry.’

      Mikki smiled. ‘I’m so hungry I don’t care. It would be worth it.’

      They both had a spoon and they took turns eating the hot mixture of pasta, meat and vegetables. A muesli bar stuffed with chocolate chips was dessert.

      ‘Still hungry?’ Tama asked as Mikki washed down her last mouthful with a swig of water.

      ‘No. And I’m heaps warmer. I feel great.’

      The warmth from Tama’s approving gaze made her feel even better. Mikki liked it that they didn’t need to wear the goggles in here. She loved being able to see Tama’s eyes. To try and read his expressions. She just wished she knew more of what was going on behind those dark eyes. Maybe she was still hungry. Just not for food.

      ‘I’m warm, too,’ Tama said. ‘Amazingly effective shelter, isn’t it? Put your gloves back on, though. We don’t want to risk frostbite while we sleep.’

      Mikki pulled on woollen gloves and then her waterproof, thermal mittens as Tama opened a small package that contained a foil sheet. He spread it on the sleeping platform as she pulled her woollen hat on more securely and made sure her anorak was zipped up. She stepped into the sleeping bag Tama handed her from the pack and pulled it up to her waist.

      ‘I’m СКАЧАТЬ