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

‘I … I’m happy if Tama’s happy,’ Mikki said slowly. She caught Tama’s gaze, knowing that her questions would be written on her face.

You really want this? You trust me to be your partner?

The dark eyes were steady on hers. Warm.

Yes, they said. You can do this. We can do this.

‘I’m happy,’ was all Tama said.

Andy gave a nod. ‘Let’s see how it goes, then.’ He smiled at Mikki. ‘Tama tells me he wants to accelerate your training to include winching, but don’t go getting any ideas that you’ll be allowed to do anything in the near future.’ He was looking at Tama. ‘Safety first, remember?’

Tama cleared his throat. ‘How could I forget?’ he muttered. Then he smiled at Mikki. ‘No time like the present, is there? Good thing you got to work early, Mouse.’

It was and it wasn’t.

One frustration faded only to be replaced by a new one.

An unexpectedly fierce and potentially problematic one.

It started with Tama’s first words when Andy had gone back to his office.

‘Let’s get a nappy on you, then,’ he said.

‘The harness, I hope.’ Mikki hoped the light response would hide something more than embarrassment at the terminology. The very idea of Tama touching her in places that a nappy would cover was more than enough to send a flood of colour to her cheeks.

‘We use a nappy harness by preference.’ Tama was sorting through a box of gear in the corner of the hangar. ‘Much more dangerous winching someone in a stretcher. Get a good spin or something going and it can be hard to control. Here.’ He was holding out a collection of straps and fasteners. ‘We’ll pretend you’re the patient. I’ll just put my harness on first.’

The moment his hands touched Mikki’s waist to put her harness in place she knew she was in trouble. She actually had to close her eyes as he reached for the wide strap that went between her legs and his hands brushed the insides of her thighs.

‘Don’t mind me.’ She could hear the grin in his voice.

She tried to smile back. To appear as nonchalant as Tama sounded, but her heart was hammering and her lips felt frozen.

She knew this sensation. Kind of. She’d only ever experienced a pale imitation of this, however. Lust, pure and simple.

She didn’t mind. Far, far from it.

She wanted more.

Heaven help her, but she wanted that touch on her thighs without the barrier of clothing, and she wanted it as fiercely as she had ever wanted anything in her life.

‘Now I clip your harness to mine,’ Tama was saying.

‘Like this. And I tell you to put your arms around my neck.’

He was holding her steady. The way he would be holding a patient so that they could both be winched up to a hovering helicopter.

So close Mikki could feel the whole, hard length of Tama’s body.

Could feel a strange, humming sensation that went through the layers of clothing and then skin and muscle to settle in her bones with a liquid warmth so exquisite Mikki had to bite her lip to prevent the escape of a soft, appreciative sigh.

Tama stood very still. Silent. For just a heartbeat too long.

Long enough for the undercurrents to be shining like neon lamps.

There was no way out of this unless Mikki could pull back far enough to see Tama’s face and then say something. Anything. A stupid question about the carabiners linking their harnesses would do the trick. Something that sounded professional enough to diffuse this tension.

Mikki managed the first part of the plan but then the words failed to form and she found herself staring into Tama’s eyes and the tension rocketed up. They were so close.

Way too close. When Tama’s gaze dropped from her eyes to her lips, she knew he was thinking about kissing her. It was like that moment in the diving pool, with the major difference that they were alone here. No audience. Nobody would know.

No way could Mikki produce a single word now. Neither could she move enough to even take a new breath. She didn’t want to break the spell.

She wanted Tama to kiss her.

Any resolutions about avoiding the pull of an attraction that could cost her this career opportunity were relentlessly crushed. There was no way she could resist this man. If he wanted her, she was here. A more than willing partner.

And he did want her. She knew it. Maybe it had always been a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’, and the moment had arrived.

How long had they been like that? Staring at each other? Not long enough for Mikki to feel a desperate need for a new supply of oxygen but it was long enough to feel like for ever.

Long enough to provide a background where the slamming of a side hangar door had all the effect of a gunshot.

Steve had arrived for work and, as the sound of the metal door closing faded away, their pagers sounded.

It hung between them. That almost kiss.

Like a strand of something solid. A connection Mikki could feel with varying degrees of intensity from that moment on.

So strong to begin with as she climbed into the helicopter with the adrenaline rush of her first callout, having been promoted to second crew member but fading as they arrived at a medical centre an hour’s drive from the city where an eleven-year-old was suffering a life threatening asthma attack.

She would not have expected to notice it with the full on effort of keeping this child alive until they reached the hospital. The aggressive drug therapy they instigated was still not enough and in mid-flight the panicked child went into respiratory arrest.

The back of a helicopter had never seemed so cramped or their supplies so awkwardly packed and hard to access. Mikki was at the head of the stretcher, with her arms around their seated patient, her hands on his small rib cage, helping the exhausted boy in his efforts to expel air. Tama was doing his best to secure a second IV line. They both felt the exact moment the child gave up the struggle to breathe and for just a heartbeat the two medics made eye contact with each other.

The boy needed intubation and Mikki couldn’t stop herself remembering her failure in a situation that had been this urgent. The first time she had been under Tama’s critical evaluation for her clinical skills. They would have to swap positions if Tama was to do this intubation and it would take time they didn’t have if they wanted to save this child.

And there was that connection again. Not remotely sexual. It was deeper. Stronger.

It told Mikki that she didn’t need to move. That he trusted her. That he was here and would assist but this was something she could do. That she needed to do.

He was right on both counts. Five minutes before they landed on the rooftop helipad of the biggest hospital in town, Mikki had secured the tube that would keep the boy’s airway open and she was carefully ventilating him to avoid damaging lungs that were still far from being able to function normally. The paediatric team, including an anaesthetist, was waiting for them in the emergency department and Mikki watched as they adjusted settings on the machine that would take over his breathing, put monitoring lines in place and arranged transfer to the paediatric intensive care unit.

Tama stood beside her and when the admitting team finally nodded their satisfaction at the stability of their patient’s condition, Tama looked down and smiled at Mikki and she could feel the strength of that connection all over again.

‘Shall we go and visit Josh before we head back to station?’

‘Of course.’ Concern for their colleague came back in a rush and Mikki realised what an emotional roller-coaster this day was presenting. No wonder she was feeling a little strange.