High-Altitude Doctor

She stared into his strong, handsome face and felt her heart beat faster. Frustration at her own unexpected reaction to him made her more irritable than usual. ‘Thanks for your concern but I don’t need your advice on how to handle arrogant men,’ she said, resisting the temptation to scramble to her feet and take refuge inside the lodge. She’d wanted some air and she was going to stay put. No one was going to drive her away. ‘Simon will be fine once he recognises the effects of altitude.’

There was a long pause. ‘I wasn’t referring to his fitness levels, although you and I both know those muscles aren’t going to help him much up here.’ Finn’s tone was even. ‘I was referring to the way he was looking at you. And if you didn’t notice then you’re not the woman I think you are. A woman who thinks she’s smart enough to get herself up Everest should be smart enough to sense a problem when it’s staring her in the face, and that guy is trouble.’

Juliet felt a flicker of unease. She wanted to argue with him but she couldn’t because she knew he was right. Simon was trouble. ‘I can handle it,’ she said calmly, stuffing her hands deep in her pockets to keep them warm. ‘I was brought up dealing with trouble. You don’t need to worry about me.’

She certainly didn’t want him worrying about her.

She wished he’d go inside and leave her to enjoy the cold night alone but he didn’t shift, his broad shoulders planted against the tree, his eyes watchful. She was aware of the hard planes of his handsome face, the steady rhythm of his breathing as his breath clouded the freezing air. Together they shared the darkness and it felt as though they were the only two people in this corner of the world.

The forced intimacy unsettled her, especially as he seemed reluctant to drop the subject.

‘Take my advice,’ he drawled softly. ‘Keep Neil close by at all times.’

She gave a little shiver and her own sense of unease escalated. ‘I don’t need a bodyguard to keep an over-persistent man at a distance. You don’t need to worry about me.’

There was a long silence while he watched her and then he stirred, obviously intending to respond. ‘Dr Adams—’

‘No!’ Juliet lifted a hand and interrupted him hastily, before he could say what she suspected he was going to say. ‘I know that some men are very protective towards women but I don’t need your protection—and I don’t want it. I’m fine on my own. I’m used to being on my own.’

‘Calm down.’ Finn’s tone was level. Neutral. ‘I’m just looking out for a colleague.’

Juliet stared at him for a long moment and felt something stir inside her. Felt something she definitely didn’t want to feel. ‘I’m not in trouble, Dr McEwan, and I’m not your colleague. We’re two strangers who just happen to have our sights set on the same mountain. That doesn’t make us colleagues.’

It was a warning.

Don’t come any closer.

His gaze didn’t shift from her face. ‘Up on that mountain, we’re all part of the same team, you know that as well as I do. The fortunes of one person are inextricably linked with all the others,’ he drawled softly, strolling across to her and pausing only inches away from where she was seated. ‘Which brings me to my next question. What are you doing here, Dr Adams? What the hell are you doing here?’

Her heart beat faster. ‘Why shouldn’t I be here?’ Juliet rose to her feet, flustered and boiling with frustration, and then wished she’d remained seated because standing merely brought her closer to Finn McEwan and closer to Finn McEwan was one place she really, really didn’t want to be.

He stood within touching distance, hard and tough, a man with a strength, maturity and presence that set him apart from other men. It crossed her mind that he made Simon look like an adolescent—over-eager to score with women and then brag of his successes. Still very much a boy despite the outward appearance of manhood.

In contrast, there was nothing of the boy in Finn McEwan. He was all man.

She felt a throb of awareness deep inside her—something sexual that she’d long denied.

‘I’m doing exactly what you’re doing, Dr McEwan.’ In an attempt to halt the slow, insidious curl low in her pelvis, Juliet took several steps backwards, increasing the distance between them. ‘Combining my interest in high-altitude medicine with my love of climbing.’

Finn didn’t comment on her retreat but she knew his eyes had noticed the movement. She saw the sudden narrowing and the silent question in those dark depths.

‘Climbing Everest is hardly an everyday sort of hobby,’ he said mildly, and she tilted her chin, aiming for angry. Angry was so much safer than sexually aware.

‘Do you feel threatened by strong women, Finn?’ Her eyes flashed him a challenge. ‘Are you more comfortable with stereotypes? Do you expect a woman to stay at home and knit and bake cakes while waiting for her man to return from a day’s hunting?’

There was a moment’s silence while he scanned her face, his expression thoughtful. ‘I think a person should be whatever they want to be,’ he said finally, ‘and should travel in whatever direction they wish to travel in life, irrespective of sex or age.’

Her eyes clashed with his and held for a long, breathless moment. Her heart stumbled in her chest. ‘So why don’t you think a woman like me should be on the mountain?’

‘I suppose I’m just wondering whether you’re doing what you want to do or whether something else entirely is driving you.’ He looked at her with that lazy, masculine scrutiny that she found so unsettling. ‘What exactly are you doing here, Dr Adams?’

This wasn’t a conversation that she wanted to have. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘No?’ His gaze didn’t shift from hers. ‘Mountains are harsh and unforgiving. They make man feel strong and invincible and then reveal him as puny. They force you to take risks and then make you pay, possibly the ultimate price. Is that what you want? Are those the risks you truly want to take?’

Her heart beat a little faster. ‘I don’t take risks, Dr McEwan.’

His mouth curved into a faint smile. ‘Just being here is a risk, and you know that as well as I do. You could get seriously hurt, or worse.’

‘Maybe we have a different definition of risk. I happen to call this living.’ As if to illustrate her point, she breathed in deeply and glanced around her, her green eyes shining in the semi-darkness. ‘And as for hurt…’ She gave a tiny shrug. ‘It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do in life, you can’t avoid being hurt. I can play it safe and still manage to get hurt. I can be hit by a bus, stabbed by a patient and I can get my heart broken by a man.’

There was the briefest of pauses and when Finn spoke his voice sounded strangely harsh in the cold night air. ‘And is that what happened to you, Dr Adams? Did you get your heart broken by a man?’

Tension throbbed between them and for a moment Juliet couldn’t find the breath to speak. She pushed the memories back into the past and reminded herself that climbing a mountain was all about moving forward in slow steps. And life was like a mountain. ‘It was just a phrase. Hearts don’t break, Dr McEwan.’ She tilted her head, ignoring the fact that her pulse was dancing a jig. It was the altitude, she told herself. Just the altitude. ‘Arteries get clogged, valves degenerate and muscles weaken and die, but hearts don’t break. You’re a doctor. You should know that.’

He inhaled sharply. ‘I know that there’s a great deal about the human body we don’t understand.’

‘And never will. A bit like life.’ She gave a little shiver and wrapped her arms around her waist. ‘It’s getting cold. I’m going back inside. Goodnight, Dr McEwan.’

Finn’s hesitation was barely perceptible. ‘Goodnight, Dr Adams. Sleep well.’

She knew she wouldn’t and she suspected he knew that, too.

As she walked away, she thought she heard him mutter, ‘And if there’s a lock on your door, use it.’ But she decided that she must have imagined it.

Finn stood still in the dark and the cold and watched Juliet go. He wanted to call her back, wanted to make her stay and talk long into the night until he’d got right inside her head, but instead he kept silent and watched the door swing closed behind her, his last glimpse of her focused on the blonde plait that hung down her back.

The man in him saw soft curves, creamy skin and green eyes that sparked and teased. He saw temptation and seduction in every graceful movement of those long limbs. He saw guts mingled with a vulnerability that could cut a man off at the knees.

The doctor in him wondered whether she had enough body fat to make the strenuous assault on the world’s highest mountain. He knew that about fifteen per cent of body weight was lost after three months at high altitude. He had a better than fair experience of women’s bodies and he was willing to bet money that Dr Adams couldn’t afford to lose fifteen per cent.

Would she make it to the top of Everest?

With a soft curse he reminded himself that her fitness wasn’t his problem.

The fact that she was trekking to one of the most inhospitable places on earth wasn’t his problem.

Finn was used to climbing with strong women and he would never have dreamed of offering assistance unless it was requested. So why was she different? Why did he suddenly have a need to switch teams and anchor himself firmly to her side for the duration of the expedition?

Why did he have a powerful urge to bundle her straight back on that terrifying flight and deliver her safely back to Kathmandu?

Finn let out a vicious curse and reminded himself that feeling over-protective was his problem. She’d made it clear enough that she wouldn’t welcome his interference or his protection.

And he had no right to offer it.

‘Climb, Jules, Climb!’

Juliet was eight years old and clinging to a rockface in frozen terror while her big brother grinned down at her from above. Daniel Adams. Daredevil and wild boy. To her he was a god. Fourteen years old and totally fearless, whereas she could hardly breathe for fear. It gripped her in its jaws like a wild beast, preventing movement, and now she was stuck, clinging to the exposed rockface, paralysed by the enormity of the risk she was taking. ‘I’m going to fall!’