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‘No. I’m trying to make you laugh. I’m not trying to seduce you.’
‘I don’t understand you,’ she said. ‘I don’t have a clue what makes you tick.’
‘Snap. So let’s go and have some fun finding out.’
Fun. Zip-lining. The idea of launching herself off a platform and whizzing through space, with only a flimsy harness holding her onto a line to stop her plummeting to the ground… No, that wasn’t fun. It made her palms sweat.
He frowned. ‘Are you scared of heights, Abby?’
She let the diminutive pass without correcting him. ‘No.’
‘But you’re scared of this.’
She swallowed. ‘I work in the emergency department. I see accidents all the time.’
‘And you think you’re going to have an accident here?’ His expression softened. ‘It’s OK, Abby. This is safe. All the staff are trained. All the equipment is tested. Very, very regularly. Your harness isn’t going to break and you’re not going to fall. No broken bones, no concussion, no subdural haematoma. OK?’
How had he known what the pictures were in her head? She blew out a breath. ‘OK.’
‘The first time you do it, I admit, it can be a bit daunting. Hardly anyone jumps off the platform on their first time. The second time, you’ll know what the adrenalin rush feels like and you’ll leap off as if you’ve never been scared.’
She doubted it. A lot. ‘So this is what makes you tick. You’re an adrenalin fiend.’ And that was probably why he worked in the emergency department. Because it was all about speed, about split-second decisions that made the difference between life and death. Real adrenalin stuff.
‘Actually, I’m probably more of an endorphin fiend,’ he corrected. ‘Which is why I usually go for a run before every shift, so I feel great before I start work and I’m ready to face anything.’
She’d never thought of it that way before. ‘That makes sense.’
And of course he made her climb up the ladder before him. ‘Ladies first.’
‘You mean, you want to look at my backside,’ she grumbled.
He grinned. ‘That, too. It’s a very nice backside.’
She gave him what she hoped was a really withering look—no way did she want him to know just how scary she found this—and climbed up the ladder. Stubbornness got her to the top. But when it came to putting the harness on all her nerves came back. With teeth. And could she get the wretched thing on, ready for the adventure centre staff to check? Her fingers had turned into what felt like lumpy balloons.
Way to go, Abigail, she thought bitterly. How to embarrass yourself totally in front of the coolest guy in the hospital. Nothing changed, did it? She just didn’t fit in.
‘Let me help you,’ Lewis said.
He was all ready to go, harness and wide smile both in place. Well, they would be, she thought crossly.
‘And this isn’t an excuse to touch you, by the way. Fastening the harness can be a bit tricky, and I’ve already gone through that learning curve.’
Now she felt like the grumpiest, most horrible person on the planet. Because Lewis was being nice, not sleazy. She’d attributed motives to him that he clearly didn’t have and had thought the worst of him without any evidence to back it up. How mean was that? ‘Thank you,’ she muttered.
He laughed. ‘That sounds more like “I want to kill you”.’
‘I do,’ she admitted. And somehow he’d disarmed her. Somehow his smile didn’t seem cocky and smug any more. He was… Shockingly, she thought, Lewis Gallagher was nice.
Which was dangerous. She didn’t want to get close to a heartbreaker like Lewis Gallagher. She didn’t want to get involved with anyone. She just wanted her nice, quiet—well, busy, she amended mentally—life as an emergency department doctor.
‘OK. Step in.’
And what had seemed like an impossible web was suddenly fitting round her. Lewis’s hands were brushing against her, yes, but that was only because he was checking every single buckle and every single fastening, making doubly sure that everything was done properly and she was safe. There was nothing sexual in the contact.
Which should make her feel relieved.
So why did it make her feel disappointed? Surely she wasn’t so stupid as to let herself get attracted to a good-time guy like Lewis Gallagher?
‘OK. Ready?’ he asked.
No. Far from it. ‘Yes,’ she lied.
The adventure centre staff did a final check on her harness, clipped the carabiners to the zip-lines, and then she and Lewis were both standing on the very edge of the platform. Looking down over trees and a stream and—no, they didn’t seriously expect her just to step off into nothingness, did they?
‘You can step off or jump off,’ the adventure centre guy said.
‘See you at the bottom, Abby. After three,’ Lewis said. ‘One, two, three—whoo-hoo!’
And he jumped. He actually jumped.
‘I hate you, Lewis Gallagher. I really, really hate you,’ she said. Right at that moment she would’ve been happy to give him back the money he’d paid for their date and give double the amount to the hospital fund, as long as she didn’t have to jump.
‘Just step off, love. It’s all right once you get going,’ the adventure centre guy said. ‘It’s fun. Look at that ten-year-old next to you. He’s enjoying it.’
So now the guy thought she was feebler than a kid? Oh, great. Her confidence dipped just a bit more.
But there was no way out of this. She had to do it.
She closed her eyes, silently cursing Lewis. Deep breath. One, two, three…
The speed shocked her into opening her eyes. It felt as if she was flying. Like a bird gliding on the air currents. Totally free, the wind rushing against her face and the sun shining.
By the time she reached the platform at the end of the zip-line, she understood exactly what Lewis had meant. This felt amazing. Like nothing she’d ever experienced.
He was there to meet her. ‘OK?’ he asked, his eyes filled with concern.
She blew out a breath. ‘Yes.’
‘Sure? You didn’t look too happy when you were standing on the platform.’
‘Probably because I wanted to kill you.’
‘Uh-huh. And now?’
‘You’ll live,’ she said.
He smiled, and she felt a weird sensation in her chest, as if her heart had just done a flip. Which was totally ridiculous. Number one, it wasn’t physically possible and, number two, Lewis Gallagher wasn’t her type. He really wasn’t.
‘So you enjoyed it.’ He brushed her cheek gently with the backs of his fingers, and all her nerve-endings sat up and begged for more. ‘Good. We get three turns. Ready for another?’
She nodded, not quite trusting her voice not to wobble and not wanting him to have any idea of how much he was affecting her.
The second time, the ladder was easier, and so was standing on the platform This time she stepped off without hesitation.
The third time, she turned to Lewis and lifted her chin. She could do this every bit as well as he could. ‘After three? One, two, three.’ And she jumped, yelling, ‘Whoo-hoo!’
With her customary reserve broken, Abigail Smith was beautiful, Lewis realised. Her grey eyes were shining, her cheeks were rosy with pleasure, and he suddenly desperately wanted to haul her into his arms and kiss her.
Except she was already off into space, waving her arms and striking poses as she slid down the zip-line.
If someone had told him two days ago that the ice princess of the hospital would let herself go and enjoy herself this much, he would’ve scoffed. He’d brought her here as much to rattle her as anything else.
But he’d been hoist with his own petard, because she didn’t seem rattled at all.
Unlike him. Abigail Smith had managed to rattle him, big time.
He jumped off the platform and followed her down; he was far enough behind for her to be already taking off the safety harness when he reached the landing platform.
‘So are you going to admit it?’ he asked when he’d removed his own harness and handed it to the assistant at the bottom of the zip-line.
‘What?’
‘That you enjoyed it.’
She nodded. ‘If you’d told me earlier that this was where we were going, I would’ve made an excuse. I would’ve paid back your money and given the same amount to the hospital, so nobody lost out.’
‘But you would’ve lost out.’ He held her gaze. ‘And I don’t mean just the money.’
‘Yes. You’re right.’
He liked the fact that she could admit it when she was wrong. ‘That’s why I didn’t tell you.’
‘Thank you for bringing me here. I never would’ve thought I’d enjoy something like this. But—yes, it was fun.’
Oh, help. She had dimples when she smiled. Who would’ve thought that the serious, keep-herself-to-herself doctor would be this gorgeous when her reserve was down? He hadn’t expected her to be anything like this. And he was horribly aware that Abigail Smith could really get under his skin.
‘Let’s go exploring,’ he said. He needed to move, distract himself from her before he said something stupid. Or did something worse—like giving in to the temptation to lean over and kiss her.
CHAPTER TWO
ABIGAIL AND LEWIS spent the next couple of hours exploring every activity at the centre, including the almost vertical slides and the climbing wall. Abigail didn’t even seem to mind when they got a bit wet on the water chute, though Lewis’s pulse spiked as he imagined how she’d look with her skin still damp from showering with him.
‘Penny for them?’ she asked.
No way. If he told her, she’d either slap his face or go silent on him, and he wanted to get to know more of this playful side of her. ‘Time for lunch,’ he said instead.
‘Only on condition you let me pay. Because you’ve paid for everything else today.’
‘And you don’t like being beholden.’
‘Exactly.’
Someone had hurt her, he thought. Broken her trust. Maybe that was why she kept herself to herself so much: to protect herself from being hurt again. ‘Then thank you. I would love you to buy me lunch.’
She looked faintly surprised, as if she’d expected him to argue, and then looked relieved.
‘There really aren’t any strings to today, Abby,’ he said softly. ‘This is all about having fun.’
‘And I am having fun.’
Although her smile was a little bit too bright. What was she hiding?
There was no point in asking; he knew she didn’t trust him enough to tell him and she’d make up some anodyne excuse or change the subject. So he simply smiled back and led her to the cafeteria.
‘What would you like?’ she asked.
He glanced at the board behind the counter. ‘A burger, chips and a cola, please.’
‘Junk food. Tut. And you a health professional,’ she teased.
‘Hey, I’m burning every bit of it off,’ he protested.
She smiled. ‘Go and find us a table and I’ll queue up.’
When she joined him at the table with a tray of food, Lewis noticed that she’d chosen a jacket potato with salad and cottage cheese, and a bottle of mineral water. ‘Super-healthy. Now I feel guilty for eating junk.’
She looked anxious. ‘I was only teasing you.’
‘Yeah. I was teasing, too.’ He gave her a reassuring smile. ‘Thank you. That looks good.’
He kept the conversation light during lunch, and then they went back to exploring the park.
‘Do you want to do the zip-line again?’ he asked.
‘Can we?’
‘Sure.’
And, as well as his usual adrenalin rush, Lewis got an extra kick from the fact that she was so clearly enjoying something they’d both thought was well outside her comfort zone.
‘Thank you. I’ve had a really nice time,’ she said when they got back to his car.
‘The date’s not over yet.’
She blinked. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘I thought we could have dinner,’ he said.
