An irresistible attraction...
That won’t be denied!
Paramedic Cooper Sinclair’s carefully planned first day at New Zealand’s Aratika Rescue Base goes awry when he joins forces with fiery Felicity “Fizz” Wilson to rescue a car crash victim from the sea! The stunning adrenaline junkie should be off-limits to a brooding, guarded man like him, but her skill and vitality are undeniable. Cooper’s avoided love for so long, but can he ignore his attraction to Fizz?
Cooper had gently pushed her hand away, had a look at the cut on her thumb and was now applying pressure to the wound himself.
“It might take a few minutes,” he murmured. “It’s quite deep, but I don’t think it needs a stitch. We just need to stop it bleeding.”
Fizz stared down at her thumb because she didn’t dare look up at Cooper again. She hadn’t been this aware of the sheer size of him since he’d been holding her hand that day they’d first met, to help her keep her balance on those rocks. It was something deeper than being made to feel feminine, wasn’t it? It was almost as if there was a much younger Fizz still inside. A child who needed her hand held sometimes.
It actually brought a lump to her throat, along with a swirl of something like confusion. Fear, almost...and that was enough for her gaze to flick upward again.
She found that same steady gaze on her own.
“Almost there,” he said softly.
Fizz knew she should break that eye contact. She should also pull her hand away from his and look after her injury herself, but she did neither, and that was undoing.
Resisting Her Rescue Doc
Alison Roberts
Books by Alison Roberts
Harlequin Medical Romance
Hope Children’s Hospital
Their Newborn Baby Gift
Bondi Bay Heroes
The Shy Nurse’s Rebel Doc
Rescued by Her Mr. Right
Rescued Hearts
The Doctor’s Wife for Keeps
Twin Surprise for the Italian Doc
Christmas in Manhattan
Sleigh Ride with the Single Dad
Paddington Children’s Hospital
A Life-Saving Reunion
The Surrogate’s Unexpected Miracle
Twins on Her Doorstep
Harlequin Romance
The Baby Who Saved Christmas
The Forbidden Prince
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Praise for Alison Roberts
“The emotional connection I had to this story was strong and unique, it squeezed my heart, captured my mind, and will stay with me for a while.”
—Goodreads on Their First Family Christmas
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM THE PRINCE'S CINDERELLA DOC BY LOUISA HEATON
CHAPTER ONE
HOW ANNOYING WAS THIS?
Apart from a large motorbike that forced its way down the centre of the road, traffic on this coastal route into New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, had suddenly slowed and then come to a complete halt for no obvious reason.
Cooper Sinclair was due to meet his colleagues at the city’s rescue helicopter base in just over an hour before he started his new job there tomorrow. He had, of course, planned for any contingencies that could have delayed his arrival, but that window of time had been used up by a flat tyre way back near Lake Taupo in the middle of the north island. A few minutes later, when the traffic showed no signs of beginning to move again, he followed the example of someone he could see nearer the brow of this hill, who was getting out of his car to try and find out what was going on.
‘What’s happening?’ he called.
‘Accident,’ the stranger yelled back. ‘Someone’s driven off the road and gone down the bank just on the other side of this hill.’
The ‘bank’, from what Cooper could see, was more like a small cliff with a rocky beach at the bottom of the steep slope. From the top of this hill, or just over its brow, it could have been a drop of over fifteen metres and a vehicle landing on a hard surface like that from even a much smaller distance could be badly damaged with its occupants in real trouble. Turning swiftly, Cooper opened the back of his SUV to extract a small backpack. He tossed his keys to the stranger he’d been speaking to as he ran past.
‘Get someone to move my car off the road if it’s needed,’ he said. ‘I’m a paramedic. I’m going to see if I can help.’
‘Good on ya, mate.’ The stranger nodded. ‘I’ll keep an eye on your car.’
A small crowd was gathering on the side of the road and, as Cooper got closer, he could see why some people were looking so shocked. The car must have gone off the road with some speed to have buckled and then broken through the metal safety barrier like that. It had careened down the steep bank, carving a path through the undergrowth, and had come to rest, teetering on a low outcrop of rocks with waves breaking around it.
He might not be on duty but it was automatic for Cooper to go into scene assessment mode. To be looking for what extra help was going to be needed and what apparent dangers there were for any responding crews—and the public.
‘Stand back,’ he told people as he moved through the crowd. ‘The edge of this bank doesn’t look that stable. Has anyone called the emergency services?’
‘I think an ambulance is on its way,’ someone told him.
Cooper pulled out his own phone to punch in the three-digit emergency number. They needed more than an ambulance here. Police would be needed to control traffic and spectators. The fire service was needed urgently to stabilise this car with winch lines or something to prevent it getting dislodged by the waves and ending up completely underwater. Even if there were injured people inside the vehicle, it was too dangerous for anyone to try and approach it until it could be secured somehow. Would the hooks and lines from the fire trucks be enough? Maybe they needed to get a crane on the way...
His assessment and planning came to a crunching halt as he got through the rest of the crowd to get a completely clear view of the bottom of the bank. He didn’t even finish dialling the emergency services number.
‘Hey...’ he yelled as loudly as he could. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
‘She just took off down there,’ someone said from behind him. ‘Seemed like she knew what she was doing...’
‘She’s mad,’ Cooper muttered, staring down at the lone figure on the rocky foreshore a good ten metres beneath him.
The tall, slim woman was standing on top of a rock, a short distance from where the car was teetering on other rocks. She was wearing rolled-up jeans and sneakers, and a white T-shirt that was knotted on one side. Right now, her arms were in the air and she was swiftly winding long dark hair into a knot that she somehow secured easily onto the top of her head. Then she leaned forward, holding her arms out to balance herself, obviously looking for a place to step that would take her closer to the car.
‘Oi...’ Cooper’s shout was even louder this t
ime and he was moving as he made the sound. ‘Get back...’
Sure enough, the ground was crumbling on the edge of the drop and he started a slide that was barely controlled as he aimed for a shrub that had branches big enough to hold his weight. Then he climbed over some rocks and kept going, faster than he knew was safe but he had to get down the bank and into a position where he could stop this crazy bystander from creating yet another problem for the emergency services when they arrived on scene. On top of being concerned about the woman’s well-being, he was not happy that he was being forced to put himself in danger like this. As soon as he could, he yelled again.
‘Stay where you are. Wait...’
She took absolutely no notice of him. With a nimble leap, she landed on another rock and then steadied herself as a wave washed over her feet. Then she moved again to land within reaching distance of the back door of the crashed car. That was when Cooper saw what she was focused on—a small face in the window of that door—a child who looked no more than a couple of years old. He saw her grab the handle of the door and try to open it, almost losing her balance as a larger wave curled around her legs. The door didn’t open.
Nobody else was following Cooper down the bank. For a few seconds, when he reached the bottom, he lost sight of what the woman was doing as he scrambled over the rocks closest to the base of the cliff but then reached the point where she had been when he’d first seen her and he had a clear view of what she was up to. She had managed to open the driver’s door and he could see the shape of an adult slumped forward, apparently unconscious. The rescuer tilted the person’s head back to open the airway, which told Cooper that she did, at least, have some idea of what she was doing, but she didn’t pause to do anything else in the way of assessment or treatment for the driver. She slid her arm between the front seat and the back door, twisting her body to enable her to reach the lock, and both the confidence and elegance of her movements kept Cooper standing on his rock, simply watching.
She got the back door open and must have released a safety belt that allowed her to scoop up the small child who was now screaming with terror.
‘Mummy... Mummy...’
The woman was saying something that Cooper couldn’t hear as she wrapped her arms around the child and turned, looking down to choose both her stepping point and a moment when a new wave was not about to break. Cooper moved at the same time, his long stride taking him to the next outcrop of rocks. Someone needed to see what was going on with the child’s mother and to try and get her out of the car if it was possible to do so without it being too risky. It wasn’t something he would want to try on his own, so it was a relief to hear the sound of sirens getting louder on the road above them. He would make sure this woman and the kid got back safely to shore and then come back to plan the next steps that could be taken the moment the first crews got down the bank.
To his surprise, he found the child being shoved into his arms by the woman. There was nothing he could do but take hold of it.
‘Take her,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to go back.’
‘No... It’s not safe,’ Cooper told her. ‘Wait for the firies. That car’s not stable.’
‘That car has a baby in the back seat,’ she snapped. ‘Keep yourself safe. I’ve got a job to do, here.’
Cooper was left staring at her back, his jaw slack. He was the person who should be doing whatever was needed here. He had years of experience as an advanced paramedic. Qualifications in scene management and dealing with unusual and dangerous situations just like this. Who was this woman? And what was it about her that made him feel as if she really was the person in charge, here? Did it have anything to do with that hint of something like a grin she’d thrown over her shoulder as she’d turned away from him? Or that he was sure he’d heard her say ‘Trust me... I know what I’m doing...’?
The toddler in his arms wriggled and screamed so he held her tightly and carried her carefully out of the water. He could see uniformed fire officers making their way down the bank where a ladder was being positioned. He could also see that the fire truck had been parked so that the winch gear at the back could be deployed. It was going to take a lot more than wedges or chocks to stabilise a car that was rocking on its perch with every wave. There was no sign of an ambulance crew yet. One of the fire officers reached the water’s edge at the same time as Cooper. He held his arms out to take the child.
‘Is she injured?’
‘Haven’t checked. Her airway’s certainly clear.’ And children who were crying that loudly were generally not badly injured. It was more likely to be the quiet ones you had to worry about. ‘Are there any medics on scene yet?’
‘Not yet. Traffic’s snarled up badly for miles. They’ll deploy a chopper soon, if it’s needed.’ The fire officer stared past Cooper. ‘How many others are in the car, do you know?’
‘Apparently there’s a baby in the back. There’s a crazy woman who’s trying to get her out.’ Cooper turned his head but all he could see was an undeniably shapely, denim-clad bottom poking out of the back door of the car. Wriggling, as she moved backwards and then turned, a baby’s car seat in her arms.
‘Good grief...is that Fizz?’ Another fire officer had joined his senior colleague and was shading his eyes against the glint of the afternoon sun on the sea, trying to assess what they were about to deal with.
‘Trust her to be first on the scene.’ The older fireman shook his head, heading into the water to help rescue the baby. ‘Why doesn’t it even surprise me?’
‘Fizz?’ This was getting even weirder, Cooper decided. Who had a name like some sort of party drink?
‘She’s an ED doc,’ he was told. ‘But give her a chance to get out in an ambulance or helicopter and she’s in, boots ’n all. Everybody in this business knows Fizz.’ His tone was admiring. ‘Don’t worry, she knows what she’s doing.’ But he was watching the handover of the baby seat to the fire officer. ‘Uh-oh...’
‘Oh, no...’ Cooper couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There were experts on scene now. Equipment to make any further rescue attempts a lot safer. This woman with the odd name and an unbelievable attitude had already saved two children but it seemed that that wasn’t enough. She was heading back to the car yet again.
‘Fizz!’ the younger fire officer yelled. ‘Hold your horses. We need to get a cable onto that car, at least.’
Either she didn’t hear him or—and this seemed more likely to Cooper by now—she was choosing not to hear him. He wasn’t the only person to be appalled by her recklessness and, as he automatically moved to try and prevent another casualty, he found himself part of a group of rescue workers, armed with ropes and tools and protective clothing. There were police officers here now, as well as the fire crews, but he still couldn’t see any paramedics arriving.
‘Stay back, mate,’ one of them told him. ‘This isn’t a spectator sport.’
‘I’m a paramedic,’ Cooper replied. ‘With specialty training in disaster and scene management.’
And this looked like it was about to become a disaster, on a small scale, anyway. A wave large enough to reach his waist rolled in and one of the firemen lost his footing. The crashed car also lost its grip on the rocks beneath it, tipping and then sliding sideways with a chilling, metallic screech. A second wave rolled right over the top of its roof.
Where was that adrenaline junkie emergency department doctor?
Cooper couldn’t see her anywhere and, just for a heartbeat, he was aware of something that felt like...grief?
He didn’t even know this woman and she had taken stupid risks here, so if she was injured or had been killed—perhaps knocked out and then pinned underwater by the car—everybody would know it was her own fault but...
But how incredible a person was she? Cooper had met a lot of courageous people in his lifetime, both as his colleagues and amongst the patients he had treated, but this woman stood
out as being something quite astonishing. Fearless. Concerned only about people other than herself.
Or maybe it was something much deeper than that. Much darker. A flashback to a moment in time he could never undo and would never forgive himself for. A moment that he could have used to try harder to stop someone doing something foolhardy. A moment that could have meant he wouldn’t have lost the person who’d been everything to him.
A chain of people was in the water now and a plastic basket stretcher was being carried towards where the car had settled, but Cooper was ahead of them and he could see that the driver’s door had stayed open as the car had been washed sideways. He could see movement as the foam of a wave cleared. The doctor was still alive...but she was inside the vehicle and it looked like she was struggling to release the catch of the safety belt.
Cooper had a cutting device on his multi-tool that was in a pocket of the first-aid kit he kept in the small backpack but he’d left that back on the beach before he’d climbed that first rock. Because he’d known he wouldn’t be able to treat anybody until they were out of the sea. Not that he spared more than a split second of thought to how useful that device would be right now. In fact, he wasn’t thinking anything particularly coherent. If he had been, he’d never have done what he did right then, which was to take a deep breath, reach down to take hold of the car door and pull himself beneath the surface of the water.
It was useful to have the outline of the door as a guide because it took more than a second to be able to see past the sting of salt water in his eyes. And it kept him from being washed away by the swirling current of the waves coming past. The car was more stable now than it had been on top of the rocks but it was still moving. How long had it been since the first wave had rolled over its roof and started to fill the interior? How long had it been since this mysterious woman had taken a breath of her own? Her hair had come undone from its knot and was now floating around her head, making her look like a mermaid and probably obscuring her vision as she wrestled with the seat-belt catch.
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