Save the Last Dance. Fiona Harper

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       Far from moaning about being cold and damp this morning, she’d hardly said a word. She’d just stared at him with her doll’s eyes, listening intently to every word that had dropped out of his mouth about tinder and kindling and fuel, and then she’d helped him gather exactly the right stuff, no further guidance necessary. And when he’d explained how to build the fire, she’d watched and then reproduced, following his instructions to the letter.

       Far from being a diva, this little ballerina was turning out to be a pleasant surprise.

       The only thing lacking now was a spark.

       She paused her efforts and glanced up at him, a questioning, slightly panic-laced expression in her eyes. It was the first time that morning he’d seen her show any emotion at all.

       ‘In the wild places of this planet, fire is everything,’ he said quietly, and her eyes grew the tiniest bit wider and rounder. ‘Without fire, we couldn’t survive. We need it to purify the water, to cook, to provide protection and warmth. I’ll give you plenty more opportunities to learn, but for now I think we’re cold enough for me to take over.’

       She blinked and her chin rose an almost imperceptible amount.

       Finn let a half-smile pull one side of his mouth upwards. A little bit stubborn, too, this girl. Good. She’d need that if she was going to pass the challenges this week would bring—especially the final surprise challenge he put all his celebrity guests through in the new programme format.

       She handed the knife and flint over to him and he set about starting the fire.

       ‘Actually, there’s one thing that’s even more important than fire in survival situations,’ he said.

       The coconut husk was smoking now. He picked the ball of fluff up and blew on it gently, coaxing the flame to life. Making a fire took practice, but it also took instinct—knowing exactly the right time to trust the almost invisible sparks to do their job, when to blow, how hard and for how long.

       A tiny orange flame sprang from almost nowhere, and he turned the ball of fibres in his hand, letting it grow, and then he placed it gently on the fire pit they’d created and starting stacking the kindling around it. He couldn’t help himself; he had to smile. He always got a kick out of this, no matter how many times he did it. He glanced up at Allegra and found her smiling back at him.

       At least, he thought that was Allegra. The soft, barely-there smile completely transformed her, lighting up her face more than the growing flames could have done.

       Ouch.

       He dropped the twig he’d been holding and sucked at his fingers. The flickering heat had got a little too close for comfort. That didn’t happen very often any more. He obviously hadn’t been paying proper attention. Time to get back to the subject in hand.

       ‘More than anything—more than survival skills, plant knowledge, physical strength or navigational ability—the thing that keeps us alive out here where mankind doesn’t normally dwell is spark.’

       ‘Spark?’ she said, lines in her forehead banishing the curve in her mouth. ‘Isn’t that the same as fire?’

       He shook his head as he shuffled back and reached for some larger branches and put them on the fire. ‘No. I mean the spark inside. That something…that flicker of human spirit that keeps us from giving in, that keeps us struggling for the next breath. If you’ve got that, you can survive against the odds, even if you are stuck in alien territory.’ He shrugged one shoulder. ‘The survival training makes it easier, but with spark nothing is impossible.’

       She nodded, but she didn’t look very happy about what he’d said. In fact, that eager, open look she’d been wearing since they’d crouched down to build the fire disappeared.

       ‘You mean something like soul?’ she said quietly, her eyes fixed on his face.

       ‘That’s it.’

       She looked at the sandy earth beneath their feet. And then she stood up and walked a few paces further down the beach and looked out to sea. Her arms came around her front and she hugged her elbows tightly.

       Hmm. Maybe this compliant-seeming woman had more of the touch of the diva about her than he’d first imagined. He shrugged to himself and chucked another log on the now roaring fire. He wasn’t pandering to it, though. She’d have to learn that quick-smart as well.

       ‘The next important thing to do is to get dry,’ he said over his shoulder. And then, just because he couldn’t resist, ‘It’s a real morale booster.’

       She twisted her neck to look back at him, and then she turned and walked up to the blaze, extending her arms until they were rigid and flexing her palms back.

       Finn gave a chuckle. ‘You’ll spend all day trying to dry those clothes like that.’ And then, as the little ballerina’s eyes grew the roundest and bluest he’d ever seen them, he began to strip off.

      Well, it seemed her prophecy that anything could and would happen when Finn McLeod was around hadn’t been far off the mark. Allegra wasn’t sure whether to pull up a metaphorical chair and enjoy herself, or slink off into the shelter to protect them both from embarrassment.

       A low, rumbling snort from behind her caused her to yank her head round. Dave was finding it all highly amusing as he caught every millisecond of her double-edged reaction with his big zoom lens. Oh, how she was learning to hate that object!

       She turned her back on both man and camera. However, this meant the only other view open to her was Finn and his rapidly diminishing wardrobe. His shirt was already on the ground, revealing a broad and rather finely muscled back, and he had turned his attention to his boot laces. Allegra swallowed. After that the only items left would be his trousers and his—she gulped again—underwear.

       She stood frozen to the spot, unable to move, unable to look away.

       Why was she reacting like this? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen her fair share of unadorned male bodies in her line of work. And she’d certainly watched enough episodes of Fearless Finn to know that he had no compunction about getting naked if the situation called for it, but there had always been a little bit of post-production wizardry that had fuzzied out the…um…essentials. She suddenly missed that fuzzy square very much indeed.

       Finn was out of his boots now and had pulled his trousers down to his knees. The sight of his thighs made Allegra’s mouth go dry.

       He paused and looked up at her. ‘Come on, then.’ His cheeky grin turned her already parched tongue to sandpaper. ‘You’ll go mouldy if you stay in those damp things.’

       He stepped out of his cargo trousers and picked them up, along with his shirt, and then hung them out on one of the large bushes that circled their camp, making sure they were stretched out wide and facing the roaring fire.

       Her heart rate began to slow a little. He was stopping at his underwear—at least that was how it looked for now. Part of her was relieved, but the other part? Well, it just…wasn’t.

       Once Finn had finished СКАЧАТЬ