Rescue Heat (3 page)

Then he saw her, jogging down his beach with a black Labrador at her side.

Damn it, what the hell was Brigid doing here?

He could see the moment of tension in her body as she looked up to where he was sitting and recognised him. With nothing else to do, he toasted her, using the bottle in his hand.

“Hey,” Matt called.

Brigid slowly approached, hands on hips. She had changed into white shorts and a singlet, which exposed enough of her body to keep him shifting in his seat.

“Hi,” she replied. She looked to the massive house behind him, “So you’re the American we heard had bought this house.”

She seemed to have read his bewilderment. “Sorry, real estate confidentiality is a bit of a misnomer in this town. Cairns might claim to be an international city, but we really are just a big, gossipy, outback town.”

Matt leant down and stroked Brigid’s Labrador companion. The dog seemed to have decided he was a friend and licked his arm.

“What’s his name?” Matt asked, as he pulled on the ears of the dog in question.

Brigid’s face had softened at the sight of man and dog. “Moby,” she answered.

“So do you and Moby live close?”

“We’re gypsies at the moment. A hospital cardiologist and his wife have gone overseas for six months. So I’m house-sitting for them.” Brigid gestured up the beach. “It’s about six doors down and considerably less grand than this house, but I love the beach.”

“Can I ask you and Moby to be my first guests?” Matt found himself asking, despite his solemn vow to keep his distance. Hell, even his wish for privacy about his family’s wealth seemed to suddenly be out the window.

Brigid hesitated before replying. The moment hung in the air as if she had a similar ambivalence about sharing his company.

However, she replied politely, “I could probably do with a glass of water by the pool and I know Moby wouldn’t say no to a bowl of the stuff.”

They walked up the gravel garden path with Moby enthusiastically sniffing everything in the garden.

“Are you sure you’ll only have water?” said Matt, when they reached the massive blue-tiled pool, complete with waterfall, in front of his house.

“Thank you, water is perfect. Anything else and I will be asleep on your very fashionable pool furniture.”

“Yeah, those days on shift can be long,” Matt, replied.

Back in the house, Matt grabbed some sparkling water for Brigid and filled the nearest bowl for the dog.

Brigid was sitting on a low chaise lounge, eyes closed, relaxing in the warmth of early evening. He could see translucent nature of her pale skin and was able to examine more closely her straight nose and high cheekbones. Being able to look upon her unobserved, with her perfect features softened and her long legs sprawled, gave Matt a rush of adrenaline. This was not a reaction that he cared to examine too closely.

His feet scuffled on the stairs, pulling her out of her quiet contemplation. She opened her eyes. A strong dark brow, contrasted with the delicate colour of her light blue eyes. She had tied her hair at the nape of her neck.

He gave her a glass and put down a brightly coloured, ceramic hand thrown bowl for the dog.

Brigid laughed when she saw what he had done. When she said his name, it was in gently chiding tones, “Matt, I know that potter and I am positive she wouldn’t appreciate the use you’re putting her work to.”

“Well, just think, if he breaks it, you can give me her name and I’ll buy another bowl. It will be good for the economy,” Matt said.

“I’m all for economic renewal but I think I’ll just have to wait anxiously and hope Moby doesn’t disgrace me.”

Brigid looked around them. “This really is beautiful. Are you planning to take up gardening?”

Matt wasn’t sure that he should tell her that his real estate agent had recommended a gardening crew. Instead, he stuck with the half-truth, “I’m going out on Saturday to buy a ride-on mower. But this place might require a few more skills than that.”

“So plant care not a speciality of yours?” she asked, as she reached down and patted her still panting dog.

“I lived in a one bedroom apartment, when I wasn’t in-country,” Matt replied. “So looking after a garden is a new experience.”

Matt didn’t add that his family’s estate and various holiday homes had also housed him at various times.

Brigid bestowed another smile upon Matt. “How did you find your first day with the team?”

“Good,” Matt answered. He was feeling surprisingly relaxed talking to this woman in the half-evening light. “You guys seem like a solid team and the work is interesting.”

“So, why Cairns?”

“After the desert, the rainforest seemed like a good idea.” Matt gestured to the scene around them. The colours of the dying sun were reflected in the sea, and the palm tree fronds were swaying gently in the light breeze. “Tonight, this place is hard to argue with.”

Wanting to jettison any follow up questions, Matt decided it was time to put the focus back on Brigid.

“So what about you, did you grow up here?”

“No. You’ll quickly find Cairns is a town full of outsiders.” As if like him she wanted to avoid further discussion, Brigid finished her drink and chose that moment to rise.

Clicking for her dog, she said, “Thanks for both waters. I’d better get home and leave you to recover from your first day. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Brigid only got a half step away before she turned back towards him but when she spoke, there was no hesitation in her voice.

“Matt, something happened in the air today that I wanted to talk to you about,” she said.

He immediately knew, from the expression on her face, that what she was about to say was not going to be a compliment on his skills.

“On the wire you turned to take the brunt of wind gusts. I can appreciate you meant it as a chivalrous gesture, but I wouldn’t want to see it happen again.”

“Getting you safely to the helicopter is my job,” Matt interjected.

“Getting us into the helicopter safely is your job, but protecting me from the occasional bruise isn’t. I’m not breakable and if we’re going to work efficiently as a team you’re going to have to respect that.”

Brigid didn’t give him time to reply to her comment. With a half-smile to his rapidly disappearing one, she walked away into the darkening dusk.

Was it really the second time today that this woman had admonished him? Matt had at one time signed up for a hail of bullets but he didn’t remember signing up for this. Her words reminded him that an evening spent with this particular woman and her cute dog was dangerous. She was not a woman to trifle with.

Even if Brigid was a different kind of woman, he still had to adhere to the very wise adage, “Don’t screw the crew.” Besides, after seeing the protective way Chris and Dave treated Brigid, he knew his success with Cairns Rescue One depended on him keeping his hands off her.

Brigid cursed as she gulped yet another lungful of water. At this time each year, she questioned why she had insisted on becoming rescue crew certified. This year, her regrets were strengthened by the shouts from the over-confident, ex-military tormentor who was yelling from the boat.

“Come-on guys, I expected more from Australians. I thought you guys could swim fast,” Matt’s voice projected loudly across the water.

Normally Brigid would have enjoyed the clear blue sea and tropical temperature. However, if Brigid were swimming for pleasure, she would not be doing a five hundred metre timed swim, all the while being dragged down by a waterlogged flight suit and heavy boots.

Completing the swim under a set time limit was mandatory. Brigid could see Chris and Dave surging on ahead in the open water. Their brute strength was certainly an asset in this test.

“Yo Brigid, you’ve got ten minutes to make it to the finish line. Well at least you’ve got your medical degree as back up. The rest of you boys have no excuse.”

Another shout from Matt spurred Brigid on. She might have been half-heartedly thinking along similar lines, but hearing it verbalized only reinforced her determination. Her surgeon father used those kinds of words and reasoning. She was not going to be patronized, first by a notorious womanizer and now an ex-army hotshot. She continued to plough through the water, arm over tired arm.

“Not so much dolphins as baby turtles. You’re looking like people who haven’t learnt to swim.”

That taunt was probably actually semi true; gracefulness had long gone out the window.

Finally, she reached the aluminium boat and was pulled on-board. When she got her bearings, she could see the other rescue crewmembers were also doubled over gasping for each breath.

Matt’s voice confidently sounded through the audible signs of physical distress. “At least I can report back that you all made it with twelve minutes to spare.”

“Hey you told us we had less than ten minutes before we lost certification,” Brigid said, trying to decide whether to laugh or belt his smug face.

“Well, I was starting to get bored here in the boat on my own.”

Brigid happily joined in the derision that greeted that comment. Wuss, liar and even smug bastard were some of the labels bandied around.

Only the voice of Rescue Base’s Commander Pete Haughton caused pause. “Matt, I’m sure everyone will be glad to know you’ll be less bored in the next exercise. We have a great role for you. You get to play the body.”

Brigid couldn’t restrain a girly giggle at the slightly stunned look on Matt’s face.

“Don’t worry, playing dead is easy,” she said.

Brigid went to the stern of the boat and started tugging off her soaked clothes. Underneath her clothes, she had a short wetsuit and she was glad to expose her limbs to the warm sun.

As she dropped her bundle of clothes onto the deck, she looked up to see Matt had joined her.

“Preparing to rescue me from the horrors of the deep?” he asked, propping himself on the vessel’s metal side.

“After some of your comments during the swim, if I didn’t have to get certified, I’d strongly consider leaving you there,” Brigid quipped.

“I’m a gentle, wise man compared to my drill-sergeant during training.” Matt gave a wry smile. “That doesn’t mean I wasn’t grateful that I passed my test a month ago. At least I have another year before my next clothes-on swim.”

Brigid showed him her crossed fingers, “That’s if Dave doesn’t land us in the drink before then.”

Looking up at Matt, as he laughed, she was amazed at the conundrum he presented. When she worked with him yesterday, she would have sworn that he was battle-hardened paramedic who had come to Cairns for a new life. However, seeing his lavish house, on a million-dollar street, put her previous impressions into doubt.

Brigid couldn’t help but feel a sneaking suspicion about his commitment to rescue work given his obvious wealth. Maybe he was just a thrill-seeking cowboy in rescue for the buzz.

She even found her reaction to his physical presence confusing. She was not into the action-man type, preferring her men to be more cerebral. Although, even men of the cerebral variety had been thin on the ground lately. Her demanding work and single-minded focus on it seemed to dominate her whole life. Maybe this was why she was so compelled by the physicality of this tall, long-limbed man who seemed so at home in his body.

A gentle wave rocked the boat and Matt moved to stand beside her.

“I’m sure that hellish swim is slightly made up for by this great weather out on the water. People pay a lot for a boat ride,” Matt said as he looked out on the postcard perfect ocean horizon.

“We’ll see how you feel about the relative advantages of a free day out, once we have had a go at pulling you on-board, using any means necessary.”

One hour later, Matt was looking a lot less content. Chris and Dave had individually yanked and almost drowned the man, while getting him on the rescue platform. Pete had given Matt a snorkel, so he could lie face down in the water, playing unconscious. However, a snorkel only worked as long as the pipe stayed in the air and Matt’s new workmates seemed to pay little attention to this fact. The swearing of all parties, during each attempt, testified to this fact.

Now it was Brigid’s turn. God, she disliked this challenge. Even with extra gym time, her slim body wasn’t naturally inclined to easily haul a heavily muscled man. Last year, the ‘victim’ they had chosen certainly had been lighter.

In the water, Brigid took a moment to enjoy the sensation of freedom, now she had rid herself of water heavy clothes. The theory was simple, push him from below and then get on the platform and pull.

Putting her hands on Matt was harder in practice. As a doctor, Brigid was used to seeing bodies in an impersonal way, as parts, or symptoms, or something she could heal. Today, her hands on Matt’s obviously healthy body, felt very personal. At least he was wearing a wetsuit. Touching skin-to-skin would make it very hard to maintain a professional distance.

Scoffing came from above, over her first tentative movements.

“Come on Brigid, that’s not going to be enough. Push harder,” ordered Pete.

“Move his bony arse,” called Dave.

Putting her hands to his shoulders, Brigid gave an aggressive shove. The solid muscle, proved as unyielding as she had feared. The traction finally came when she used the kicking of her legs to propel her forward. When she got first the side of his shoulders, and then his face and chest on the platform, she felt like cheering. Quickly she clambered aboard, and locked her forearms under his arms. One, two, three. On the final heave, she got his remaining weight on the platform.

“That’s it big boy,” she muttered.

She could have sworn she heard a chuckle and shake from Matt’s still supposedly inert body.

“Done,” she called, as she turned him over for the win.

His dark eyes opened before Brigid had a chance to pull herself back. For one intimate moment, she was close enough to see one delicate jewel of water in his eyelash.

Only the congratulations from the rest of the men on the boat grounded her back in reality. This was normal, she told herself; it was just that she hadn’t been physically close to a non-sick new man in a while.