Chapter Three
Katherine disappeared from view.
Lukas just wanted to be done with the day. Time alone would be welcome, but Katherine having walked away left him feeling uneasy.
He felt the direction of the wind change.
Knew there was a storm incoming that night.
They should all be away from there by the time it happened but then he thought of that ridiculous jacket Katherine was wearing and cursed.
She should be safe…but the mountains he’d grown up around should have been safe too, and he still remembered careless tourists perishing while trying to explore.
They weren’t in Austria now. Nor were they in London. Storming off was a stupid thing for Katherine to do and try as he might, Lukas’s conscience wouldn’t let him leave without knowing she was okay.
He cursed once more for good measure and walked in the direction that Katherine had gone, then stopped.
A rope, coiled loosely, sat in the snow.
Someone from the production team must have dropped it there with the intention of fetching it later.
Instinct from living so close to the mountains took over and he picked it up, draping it over his shoulder, then set off to look for the woman he hated more than anyone else.
‘Katherine!’ he called, after walking for ages and seeing no sign of her. The wind had picked up speed and glancing overhead, he saw that dark, ominous clouds had gathered. The storm was coming in much faster than they had anticipated and by the looks of it, would be worse too.
‘Katherine!’ he called again. Louder. He needed to find her soon because they wouldn’t have much time to find shelter.
Then he thought, what if she wasn’t answering because it was him who was calling?
He could see her being that petty. Everyone else on the shoot had called her ‘Kat.’ Even in the paddock hardly anyone used her full name. But Lukas did. He always did.
So as he walked a little farther, he shouted ‘Kat!’ as loud as he could manage.
‘I’m here!’ came a soft, strained response and his body simultaneously sagged in relief and went on high alert.
‘I’m coming! Keep talking!’
‘I’m in a crevasse. I fell.’
Lukas’s body went cold. Those were the last words he wanted to hear. He ran in the direction of her voice, sliding to a stop as snow sprayed over the edge of a narrow gap like a powdery waterfall.
Lukas lay on his stomach, flattening himself on the snow and crawling slowly to the edge. Peering in, he saw Katherine on a ledge.
‘Lu-Lu-Lukas?’ she could barely get his name out for how badly she was shivering. Her skin was bright red. The edges of her lips where she had bitten off her lipstick were starting to turn slightly blue. He needed to get her out now.
‘Are you hurt?’
‘I hurt my ankle when I fell but otherwise, I’m okay.’
That was a relief to hear. ‘Hang on, I’ll get you out.
’ Lukas looked around. There were no trees where they had come.
Nothing but snow in all directions. This was less than ideal.
He would have to be the anchor to pull Katherine up.
He couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong.
How ironic it was that he hadn’t wanted Katherine to drive, because he didn’t trust her in a car on a safe track, and yet now, if anything went wrong it could be the end of them both.
Lukas grabbed the rope, tying a figure eight knot like his father had taught him, ensuring the loop at the end was big enough to go around Katherine, and made his way back to the edge.
‘Put the loop around you,’ he instructed as he lowered the rope down. Once it was around her torso and her shoulders free, he gave her the next set of instructions. ‘Hold on to the rope tightly. Don’t try to climb it, I will pull you up. Got it?’
Katherine nodded.
‘Yes or no. I need to know you understand.’
‘Yes,’ she said, through chattering teeth.
Once he was satisfied that she was following his instructions, he moved away from the edge lest he fall too, and pulled.
One hand over the other. The rope burned his palms but he didn’t care.
He was singularly focussed. He pulled, and kept pulling until he saw hands and the top of a jacket hood emerge.
Lukas, keeping tension with one hand, lunged with his other and grabbed ahold of Katherine’s forearm, pulling her out of the crevasse and placing her safely on the snowy ground.
‘Th-th-thank y-y-you,’ she stuttered through chattering teeth. Lukas knew he had to get her warm immediately.
He ignored her thanks. Instead he looked her over for any signs of injury. Anything that could complicate their next mission: finding refuge from the storm. The wind was already whipping around them.
‘Can you stand?’ he asked as he helped her to her feet.
‘I think so,’ Katherine replied but struggled to keep her balance as she hobbled two steps in the snow.
The wind was picking up the snow on the surface and curling it around them.
They didn’t have time to hobble. And with her shaking so badly, progress would be slow.
Lukas had only one choice. He placed his arms around her back and under her knees, then lifted her against his chest. His body came to life as if he’d been struck with a bolt of electricity the moment he held her to him.
He ignored the feeling, not willing to analyse it when there were more important things at hand.
Her body, racked by shivers, trembled in his arms and he cursed her ridiculous jacket.
There was nothing he could do about it now except fight his way through the storm that was already upon them.
And as hard as it was to struggle through the wind and snow that was stinging his face, it was nowhere close to as bad as it would get.
Lukas noticed Katherine’s eyes starting to droop.
‘Don’t sleep,’ he instructed.
‘I’m so tired,’ she slurred.
That wasn’t good.
‘Talk to me.’ He needed to keep her awake.
‘About what?’ Snowflakes landed on her lashes and he had to fight the urge to brush them away. He had to keep walking. The cabins weren’t far from the track. He just had to keep going and he would get them there.
‘Eyes open,’ he commanded, and she obeyed. Blue irises peered at him through half-closed lids. His heart rate sped up, which was ridiculous. He wasn’t exerting himself enough for it to do so this frantically. ‘Anything.’
‘I like polar bears.’
‘There are no polars bears here.’
‘That’s a shame.’
There were no polar bears but there were trees. Trees he recognised and as Lukas made his way through them, he saw the cabins come into view.
Cabins that were dark even though the vehicles were out front. It made sense for his cabin, there was no one there, but not the other.
Lukas climbed up the front steps to the small porch that was already covered in a layer of snow and, balancing Katherine’s body against his, managed to open the door.
When he stepped inside, he saw that nothing had been packed up.
Items that belonged to the crew lay on several surfaces but there was no fire in the fireplace. No lights switched on.
‘Hello?’ Lukas called but no answer returned.
The crew were gone.
They were alone.
When they realised how close the storm was, they would have likely been airlifted out.
And Lukas was annoyed. Annoyed that the production team had been operating on outdated information.
Annoyed that Katherine had stormed off because no one had seen them walk away.
The evacuation would likely have been chaotic.
Lukas was certain both teams would have just assumed that he and Katherine were with the other.
Their absence would only have been noticed once everyone was together.
And now, with no one on the team having any idea where they could be, they would be deemed missing.
No one would come looking for them in a blizzard. No rescue would risk more lives for the chance of finding them.
‘I hope you’re happy now,’ he grumbled but Katherine’s response was unintelligible. Her skin getting a bluish tinge.
‘Dammit!’ He placed Katherine gently on one of the couches and raced to the closest room where he ripped a thick duvet from the bed and returned to her. ‘I need to get you out of these clothes.’ A sentence he never thought he’d say.
The snow had dampened them, making them a hazard.
He removed her jacket first, flinging it across the room as if it was to blame for all that had befallen them.
He took off her shoes then stripped off her socks, blouse, jeans and lastly her thermals, exposing her fair skin.
Her toned body. Soft dips and peaks of her abdominals that she obviously worked hard for.
Lukas had never thought he would ever be in this position: exposing Katherine like this.
Once maybe, for a fleeting moment when he first saw her in the paddock and was struck by her absolute beauty.
But he hadn’t spoken to her. He hadn’t wanted to.
He hadn’t wanted to be attracted to someone he would never allow in his life.
Not when he was already in a vulnerable place.
And now here he was, wanting to run the backs of his fingers down her face, along her body.
But he couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t. Not when they hated each other so much.
Not when he knew she wouldn’t want him to touch her at all if they weren’t in this emergency.
This want was a physical reaction and he was able to control his body.
So he checked that her underwear was dry and when he was satisfied that it was, he wrapped her in the duvet.
He cradled her face, forcing her to look at him. ‘I need you to stay awake. Can you do that for me?’
She nodded her head yes, then shook her head no.
‘Try.’
He left her on the couch and went to the fireplace. Thankfully there were dry logs stacked beside it and he quickly got a roaring flame burning.
‘That should do it.’ He stood and stripped his own clothes, then picked up Katherine and sat with her on the rug in front of the fire with his back against the sofa. Her skin scalded his despite how cold she was. And with tense muscles, he wrapped the duvet around them both.
‘You’re freezing,’ he said, wrapping his warm legs around her cold ones and rubbing her chest, trying his best to get warmth into her.
But the contact of her skin on his made him tingle everywhere they touched.
He ignored it. It was just the temperature difference that made him feel that way.
Nothing more. She was the reason they were in this situation at all but when he looked down at her half-open eyes that looked like they were barely seeing anything, some of that anger melted away.
He just needed her to warm up. To get her fire back.
Why do you care?
Lukas had no answer. All he knew was that he needed her to be okay.
That he would only feel relief once she was bickering with him again.
He didn’t want to recognise how good he felt having her in his arms. This embrace, while it wracked him with worry, also calmed him.
His mind had been going a million miles an hour since his contract hadn’t been renewed, but right now, he didn’t think about how he had been wronged. All he thought about was Katherine.
He could feel her slowly warming up, so it was probably safe to leave her long enough to make her a hot tea.
‘Are you still with me?’ he asked softly over her shoulder.
‘Hmm’ was all the reply he got.
‘Can you sit here by yourself for a bit?’ He tried to push off the warm rug, but Katherine’s weak grip tightened around his wrist.
‘No. Please don’t go.’
Lukas could feel the shock on his face. Here was the woman who hated him asking him to stay. That look of vulnerability on her face, lit only by the fire in the dark cabin, was difficult to bear.
‘I’m just going to get you some tea.’
‘Stay with me,’ she begged. ‘Please.’
And against his better judgement, he sat back down, adjusting both their bodies so they were lying on the rug. Warm.
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he promised, knowing how temporary a promise it was because as soon as she was back to normal, as soon as it was safe, he would very definitely go back to keeping his distance from her. This reporter who—no matter how beautiful she was—was as unscrupulous as they came.