really. He went into VF while we were waiting for the plane and we had to shock him twice to get him back.’
Felicity pressed her hand to her mouth, a hot spike of concern needling her. ‘I was worried something was going down. You were gone so long.’
‘I stuck around and helped them stabilise him for transport.’
‘Of course.’ They’d have wanted to have everything as controlled as possible before they loaded him on the chopper to avoid any chance of midair deterioration. ‘What are his chances, do you think?’ she asked, folding her arms.
‘I don’t know. He’s not very stable at the moment. It’s a forty-minute chopper flight to Dubbo hospital and by that time he’ll be about ninety minutes post–cardiac tissue injury. He’s inside the window, so fingers crossed, with some tertiary management he should be okay. I’ll check on him when we get into Adelaide tomorrow.’
Felicity nodded. ‘I guess we’re going to be kind of late into Adelaide.’
‘I guess we are. Although Donald reckons they’ll be able to make up a lot of the time.’
‘I’m in no hurry,’ she said, and gave him a smile because she could stay on this train and look at him for a decade and it probably still wouldn’t be long enough.
He smiled back, his gaze locking with hers. ‘Neither am I.’
There was silence for a beat or two while they just stood and smiled at each other in some weird moment of shared intimacy as only two people who’d been through such a high-stakes ordeal could.
The train moved forward unexpectedly and jostled him inside the compartment, bringing him a step closer. He ducked his head down to glance out the window. ‘Looks like we’re off.’
‘Yes,’ Felicity said, as she half turned to find the darkened station platform appearing to slowly move.
When she turned back he was staring at her with heat in his eyes. They’d been flirty earlier but now they were just plain frank. His gaze dropped to her mouth as he took a step towards her. Her breath hitched. The atmosphere thickened and pulsed with promise.
She’d resigned herself to this not happening but suddenly it was on again.
‘So...’ She swallowed to moisten her suddenly parched throat as he loomed big and broad and close enough to reach out and touch. ‘Not a technical writer, huh?’
He cocked an eyebrow. ‘Not a public servant?’
She shrugged. ‘I didn’t want to be regaled with a dozen different medical stories or be canonised as some kind of saint.’
‘You’re forgetting about the lectures on the state of the health-care system.’
She laughed. ‘Those too.’
Felicity supposed she should ask him more about his medical background but right now she didn’t care. Not with her pulse fluttering madly at her temple and warmth suffusing her belly. ‘You were great out there.’
‘So were you.’
‘Not quite what I expected would happen tonight.’
He smiled. ‘Me neither.’ And then, ‘Are you...okay? It was kind of intense. The adrenaline was flowing.’
‘Sure, steady as a rock.’ Felicity held up a hand horizontally. It betrayed her completely by trembling.
‘So I see.’
Felicity glanced from it to him, conscious of the sway of the train. Conscious that she was far away from Vickers Hill.
It emboldened her.
‘That’s not from the accident.’
Her hand was trembling for reasons that were far more primal.
He regarded her for long moments before turning slightly and reaching for the door behind him to shut it. He turned the lock with a resounding click, the noise slithering with wicked intent to all her secret places.
They were truly alone now.
Darkness pressed in on her, the only light entering from the strip at the bottom of the door and the moonlight pushing in through the window. It was enough to allow her eyes to adjust quickly.
Enough to see Callum.
He turned to face her, stepped closer, so close his breath warmed her forehead. He reached for her hand, which had fallen by her side. ‘Maybe you just need to...’ he slid her hand onto his chest, flattening it over his heart, his big hand holding hers in place ‘...grab hold of something solid?’
Felicity dropped her gaze to their joined hands. Each thud of his heart reverberated through her palm, scattering awareness to every cell of her body. She’d never had a one-night stand or done anything so spontaneous. But on a night when she’d been reminded how precarious life could be she needed it.
She needed this. She needed him.
The clickety-clack of the wheels on the track faded. ‘Maybe I do,’ she murmured, the scent from his citrusy cologne filling her senses until she was dizzy with wanting him.
Like a slice of lime after a shot of tequila.
His kiss, when it came, was gentle. So gentle it almost made her cry. It was long and slow and sweet. It was everything she hadn’t known she needed in this moment.
Earlier, if she’d been asked how this would go down, she would have said fast and furious. But this was infinitely better. Burning slow and bright, building in increments that piled on top of the next, making her yearn and ache and want even as it soothed and sated.
His hands slid around her waist. Her arms snaked around his neck. He drew her closer. She lifted up onto tiptoe.
Their hearts thundered together.
When he finally pulled away, they were both breathing hard. His eyes roved over her face, glittering with the kind of fever that also burned in her. What was he looking for?
Permission. Submission?
He had it.
‘I knew you’d taste this good,’ he muttered, the low, husky rumble stroking right between her legs.
His next kiss wasn’t long and sweet and slow. It was hot and fast and dirty. Just as she’d imagined it would be. His lips were firm and insistent, his tongue seeking entry, which she gave him on a greedy moan. His hands slid under her T-shirt, tightening her belly and heating her blood to well past boiling.
She was so damn hot and horny she could barely see. She certainly couldn’t think. All she could do was feel. And surrender.
Her bra snapped open and she gasped and pressed into his palm when his hand cupped a breast.
‘God,’ he murmured against her mouth. ‘You feel good.’
Felicity moaned as his thumb taunted her erect
