himself leave the room. The room was unisex but it seemed wrong to stand around and chat to her while she was changing when they’d only just met. But when he recalled what she’d been wearing yesterday he’d been tempted to stay. He’d seen plenty of her in her black bikini and he could recall every detail.
Despite the fact they’d been working to stabilise a patient, he was able to recollect every one of her curves. The curve of her waist as it had flared out to her hip. The curve of her bottom at the top of her thigh. The curve of her cleavage where the Lycra of her halter-neck top had pushed her breasts together.
He’d known he couldn’t stand there talking to her while those images had been flashing through his mind, that wouldn’t have been a very professional start to their working relationship. He had no plans to get involved with anyone during his six-month stint; but if there were more women like Georgie Carides in town, his time in Cairns was looking more promising.
Georgie swapped her singlet for a T-shirt with ‘Paramedic’ stencilled across the back and swapped her skirt for her jumpsuit, before pulling on socks and lacing her boots. Her hands were shaking as she tied her laces. She took a deep breath. Although she’d said she didn’t mind working with the new recruit, she was nervous.
But it wasn’t Josh that made her nervous. It was her reaction to Josh.
She knew plenty of cute guys but she’d never had the sense that they could affect her physically. She certainly hadn’t expected to have such a strong reaction to him. Yesterday she’d put it down to adrenaline but today she knew it was more than that. She’d never experienced an instant, powerful physical attraction to a man and now it had happened twice in a matter of hours. It was unexpected and surprising, pleasant but scary—and it was making her nervous.
She wondered how she was going to be able to work with him. Would they work together smoothly? Would their styles be harmonious? Would she be able to concentrate? Questions buzzed through her mind as she zipped up her overalls. There was no way of knowing all the answers.
She’d have to rely on her skills and expertise. She was an experienced intensive care paramedic; Josh was an experienced emergency specialist. In theory she knew they should be fine. But in reality she was the one with experience in pre-hospital emergency medicine. She was the one who would need to take the lead, which meant she needed to be able to concentrate. Josh was used to working in a well-organised hospital environment and she knew, from her days as an emergency unit nurse, that hospitals were a long way from the chaotic, cramped, hot and dusty locations the emergency retrieval team often worked in. She needed to make sure she kept a cool, calm head. She couldn’t afford to be distracted. A lapse in concentration could put her patients at risk. She couldn’t afford to get sidetracked by cute doctors.
She closed her locker and headed out.
Josh was waiting. He held the door for her as they left the building and his stride matched hers as they crossed the tarmac and headed for the helicopter.
‘Are you feeling okay? Ready for this?’ she asked. She wondered if he was nervous, although he certainly didn’t look it. He looked completely at ease. If anything, he looked calmer than she felt.
He nodded his head. ‘Don’t worry. I’m not a complete novice.’
He’d obviously guessed the reason for her question or knew what she was thinking. It would make her job easier if he had a vague idea of what he was in for. ‘This isn’t your first retrieval?’ she queried.
‘I’ve done a couple of transfers before but no primaries and no S&R.’
The most common retrieval for the QMERT team was an inter-hospital transfer or IHT, which was what they were heading to now. Often, but not always, this was a fairly straightforward exercise and Georgie hoped that would be the case today.
Josh’s prior experience of IHTs was a bonus and she was comforted knowing that his confident walk wasn’t just window dressing, but, still, it was probably a good thing that their first callout wasn’t for a search and rescue.
They were almost at the chopper now and she could see Pat in the pilot’s seat, doing his pre-flight checks. Isaac, the air crew officer on duty, was stowing equipment. He closed the final hatch as they approached so it looked as though they were just about ready for take-off. She might just have time to introduce Josh to the rest of the crew but they’d have to check their equipment and run through their procedures in flight. She would have liked a little time to establish some rapport first before they were sent out on a job but, as often happened, the calls dictated their day and they’d just have to get on with it. She prayed it would go smoothly.
‘Have you met Pat and Isaac?’ she asked.
‘Yep, first thing this morning,’ he said as he raised a hand in greeting and Isaac nodded an acknowledgement.
‘G’day, Georgie, Doc,’ Pat greeted them, pointing backwards over his shoulder with his thumb, indicating they should board the chopper.
Georgie let Josh climb in first and she dragged the door shut behind them both, securing it with a flick of the lock. There were four forward-facing seats across the width of the chopper and another two rear-facing seats behind each of the flight deck seats. Josh had taken the third seat across. She could sit beside the door but she preferred one of the middle seats so she slipped into the seat beside him.
‘Baptism by fire,’ she commented as Josh strapped himself in.
She was relieved to see he was able to shrug into his harness, adjust the straps and snap it closed without difficulty. He seemed comfortable enough in the close confines of the chopper and she knew he’d flown before. Yesterday, in fact. She also knew he would have undergone the escape training course. All the rescue crews had to pass HUET—Helicopter Underwater Escape Training—because a lot of their flying could be over water. So transport wasn’t a problem, but what she didn’t know was how much medical experience he’d had outside a hospital situation. A few inter-hospital transfers wasn’t much.
Pat had started the engine and the rotor blades were spinning. The noise made it impossible to continue a conversation until everyone was wearing headsets. She and Josh both grabbed sets and flicked the comms switch on so they could talk to each other and the air crew.
The chopper was lifting off its trolley. It tilted as it left the ground and the movement threw Georgie against Josh. There wasn’t a lot of room to move and she could feel his thigh, firm and muscular, where it rested against hers. His body heat radiated through the fabric of their jumpsuits and into her thigh. She’d never experienced such a visceral reaction to someone before. It was as though her body recognised him despite the fact they were strangers. On some level she knew him. She could feel her knees trembling but she couldn’t break the contact. There was nowhere to go.
There wasn’t much room to move in the back of the chopper. She often felt as though she only just fitted in between all the medical gear and Josh was several inches taller than she was. He was really jammed in. She was five feet six inches. He’d be six feet at least. The stretcher was locked in place in front of them. It ran the width of the helicopter, from one door to the other, between their seats and those opposite. Josh’s knees were crammed between the seat and the stretcher and now he had her practically lying on top of him as well. There was no escape for him, he was well and truly stuck.
‘Sorry,’ she said through the headset as Pat straightened the chopper and she was able to shift back into an upright position and away from Josh’s firm thigh. Perhaps she should have taken a different seat. Squeezed up against him in the back of the chopper, she was a bit too aware of
