"Okay ladies, let's roll," he declared.
When Kristan walked past him he grabbed her arm and squeezed gently. He gave her a silent thumbs up and a warm smile, and this time Kristan knew he was serious and not joking. His reaction made her feel ten feet tall.
“The first thing you need to know about helicopters is to always approach them from the front,” Kristan told Liz as they walked closer to it. “The tail rotor is invisible when it’s on. You won’t be able to see it and it’s easy to forget. And it will slice your head off nice and clean if you’re not careful.”
Liz nodded, frowning a little.
Kristan noticed the serious look on her face and she backtracked a little.
“Sorry,” she apologised with a smile. “Bit of a stern warning, but if you’re going to be around helicopters you should know.”
“Yes, definitely,” Liz replied, “you’re right, I do want to know.”
She was glad that Kristan was not treating her like any other client, and when Kristan glanced at her briefly she realised that if anything, Liz looked even more interested than she had been before. She took her own seat and Liz sat on her left, and Kristan buckled her seat belt for her and adjusted her headphones.
Liz watched her do all this with a little smile.
“Thanks for taking such good care of me,” she said softly.
“No problem. I want you to enjoy your first time,” Kristan explained, and then she looked away quickly when she realised what she had said.
She was immensely glad that her partner had not been there to hear it because she suspected he would not have let her get away with it.
“Ready?” she asked.
Liz smiled.
“Yes, I’m ready,” she said expectantly.
Kristan nodded, glancing behind her to make sure their passengers were all in and ready to go.
“Everybody okay back there?” she asked.
“Yep. Let’s go, Kris.”
Kristan glanced at Liz, noting the excited look in her eyes. She was so beautiful it was hard for her to concentrate, and so it was lucky she could have flown to the glacier and back with her eyes closed.
"And we’re off…" she said.
Liz gave her a thumbs up and a grin, and Kristan pulled the heavy machine off the ground, smiling when she heard the delighted giggle coming from her left.
The first time she took off with new clients on board she was always careful and slow. But she wanted Liz to experience the real thing, so she took off hard, and when she glanced at her again the woman looked so happy and enthralled it was all Kristan could do not to lean over and kiss her.
She climbed up quickly, leaving the lake and the forest behind, headed fast toward the mountains.
Liz's mouth dropped open when they approached the glacier. She stared in amazement at the huge expanse of ice in front of them, encased in between two walls of rock. The glacier was not at all smooth as she had expected it to be, but rough and jagged.
On its surface the ice was dirty and grey, and yet just underneath it Liz could see the second layer, this one a very clear, pure shade of blue.
Kristan's eyes, she thought immediately. She glanced at her briefly and nodded. Yes. Glacier blue; that was it. Grabbing her camera, she leaned forward to take a couple of shots.
“Okay, doc?” Kristan enquired over the headphones.
Liz glanced at her, catching those amazing blue eyes on her again.
"Yes. This is wonderful," she exclaimed.
Kristan pointed ahead of them with a smile and Liz held her breath as the helicopter approached the top of a ledge, covered in snow and lost in clouds and mist. She held her breath as Kristan flew them fast and low over the edge, laughing as the ground seemed to fall off below them as soon as they cleared the snowy peak.
Then Kristan banked sharply to the right, and a few seconds later they landed smoothly on top of an icy open field surrounded by mountain tops.
Liz was silent for a moment. She took a deep breath, caught in the beauty of everything in front of her.
Kristan killed the engine and pulled her helmet off.
"Did you enjoy that, Liz?" she asked softly.
She already knew the answer to that of course. She had caught Liz's every smile on the way up, noticed the way she held on to her seat a couple of times, and enjoyed her laughter as she flew them delicately over dangerous crevasses and hidden rocky peaks.
"I loved it," Liz replied, gripping Kristan's wrist as she talked. "This is just amazing. It is so..."
She waved her hand toward the vast expanse of snow and ice bathed in late afternoon sunshine.
"Beautiful?" Kristan finished for her, not really talking about the mountains.
Liz simply smiled at her and nodded.
"Beautiful, indeed," she murmured, and she also was not talking about the scenery anymore.
Kristan tore her gaze from her because she had a job to do.
"Let's unload these guys, and then we can take a little walk around," she said.
The mountain guide and her client quickly got their kit together, shook hands with their pilot, and were on their way.
Liz gazed after them with interest.
"Where are they going?" she asked, and she sounded fascinated.
"They're going to spend the night a little further up the glacier. Tomorrow they'll do some ice climbing, before we pick them up and bring them back later in the day."
"It must be amazing up here at night," Liz reflected.
“It is, yes.”
"Have you’ve slept on the glacier before?"
Kristan nodded as she grabbed a heavy fleece off the back seat and gave it to Liz. She put one on too, and they both walked out a little bit farther onto the snow-covered ice. It was chiseled softly and looked just like underwater sand sculpted by waves.
"I’ve been up a few times,” Kristan explained. “On New Year’s Eve last year one of the mountain guides I work with wanted to come up. Her name’s Pam, you’ll probably meet her at some point. We flew up with her and a couple of the other guys. We parked the helo in the corner, had some food and spent the night."
"Wow."
"Yes, it was just that kind of night," Kristan agreed as she remembered. Then she made a face and chuckled a little. "Only I had to share a tent with Mike, so, you know... Kind of killed the romance."
She smiled at Liz.
"I thought perhaps Mike was your partner… as in not just your business partner," the woman blurted out, looking a little bit intense.
Kristan shook her head, looking alarmed at the very thought of it.
“No,” she said immediately. “No, no way. I love Mike, but definitely not like that.”
Liz burst out laughing. She was strangely relieved, and she hoped it did not show too much. She wanted to ask more personal questions but Kristan did not volunteer anything else, so she decided not to push. She surveyed the sea of ice and snow in front of them and she sighed happily.
"Thank you very much for bringing me up here this evening," she said quietly. "It's incredibly beautiful. And I loved every second of the flight over."
"Good,” Kristan said softly. “I was hoping that you would."
The sun was disappearing fast over the peaks and the temperature was dropping. Liz shivered imperceptibly. It was getting late. Mike’s voice on the radio wanted to know if they were planning on coming back any time soon, or was Kristan waiting for the glacier to melt.
"We should go," she said reluctantly.
Chapter 4
A couple of days passed, and life at the Park was busy as ever. Kristan did not have a single second to herself, except for when she was out running, and those were precious moments for her.
On that particular day she left the Park at five-thirty, when it was still dark, and she took the road out toward town. She wanted to do a bit of distance and the road would be good for that. It was a perfect six miler to the edge of town and if she went home a slightly different way she would b
e able to complete the equivalent of a half marathon before breakfast.
She settled into a comfortable pace and let her mind wander. Inevitably her thoughts drifted back to the attractive doctor. They did not often get lone travellers at the Park, but Liz was on her own and happy to be apparently. She had told Kristan she was taking some time out to travel and indulge in her passion for painting, and Kristan had not been able to find out much more. After their flight together the other day her office manager had been waiting to discuss an urgent issue with their booking system, and Kristan once again had been swallowed up by her work.
Liz had been on her mind though, pretty much constantly. So she was pleasantly surprised later on that afternoon when there was a knock on the office door, and she looked up to see Liz standing there, dressed in jeans and a blue t-shirt, smiling and looking absolutely stunning.
“Hey!” Kristan exclaimed.
“Hi, Kris. Can I interrupt you for a minute?”
Kristan stood up quickly from behind her laptops.
“Of course,” she said warmly. “Come on in. How are you?”
“Good. I just wanted to stop by and thank you again for taking me up the other day.”
“It was my pleasure, Liz,” Kristan said, and she meant it. “What’s this?” she asked when her visitor handed her a little parcel.
“Just a little thank you.”
Kristan unwrapped the unexpected gift, and she smiled when she realised it was a painting. One of Liz’s. She had captured perfectly the shimmering waters of the lake, the white beach and the gorgeous dark-green trees in the background. And Kristan raised an interested eyebrow as she narrowed her eyes at the lonely paddler in a red kayak that Liz had added into the scene.
“Is that me?” she asked.
“It is.”
“Wow. Thank you so much,” Kristan exclaimed, and she was blushing a little.
She sounded genuinely delighted with the gift, and that is when Liz realised how much she had wanted to give her something meaningful, something of herself that she could keep.
“Liz, this is beautiful. You are very talented.”
“Thank you. I try, although I don’t always succeed.”
Liz’s gaze drifted around the office and Kristan was glad when she noticed that she seemed to be wanting to hang around a little. The woman seemed very curious about everything connected with her business, she asked a few questions, and Kristan thought that was very cool.
She sat down again and watched as the good-looking doctor explored her space. A couple of pictures pinned to the back wall amongst many others obviously caught Liz’s eye.
In one of them Kristan was standing with Mike in front of a big black and red helicopter, both holding a glass of champagne in their hand, grinning from ear to ear. The photo had obviously been taken on the glacier. Kristan was looking back toward the camera. She had the happiest look on her face and she was laughing.
In the other photo she was sitting in her kayak in what appeared to be a major storm, spray flying all around her, a wave threatening to engulf her. Again that brilliant smile of hers was nearly burning a hole through the picture.
Liz looked up as Kristan came to stand next to her.
"This one was taken three years ago," Kristan explained, pointing at the helicopter shot. "It was the first helicopter I ever bought, and I flew us up to the glacier for the first time to celebrate."
Liz gave her an appraising look.
"So hang on a minute; you don't just run the Activity Centre then, do you?" she pointed out. "You own it?"
"Yes. I do."
Liz nodded, smiling a little.
She said nothing but she looked impressed.
"What about this one?" she asked, indicating the other photo she had been looking at.
Kristan grinned.
"This was last year. Middle of winter. We had a pretty bad storm and we took the kayaks out to the beach for a surfing session."
"Sounds dangerous," Liz pointed out, frowning.
"Not really. Just fun. One of my instructors took this one just before the wave in the back caught me. It flipped me over and I think I swallowed half the ocean in one gulp. Took me by surprise," Kristan added, glancing at Liz and smiling.
"Easily done it seems," Liz teased.
She wanted to stay, but it was getting late and Kristan had two laptops open and paperwork spread all over her desk. She had obviously been in the middle of something, and Liz did not want to take up too much of her time.
"Well, I guess I'd better leave you to it," she said. “I’m glad you like the painting.”
“I love it.”
“All right. I’ll see you when I do then…”
Liz started to go but Kristan stood in front of her, and it was as if she had been reading her mind.
"I was just about to call it a day myself,” she said. “Have you eaten yet?"
Liz shook her head no, her eyes locked onto Kristan’s, fascinated by the way the evening light made her eyes sparkle and dance. She bit her lip, all of a sudden quite unable to take her eyes off her.
Kristan was slightly taller than her but not by much, and they were almost eye to eye, standing close. The white shirt that Kristan was wearing was open to reveal a flash of black bra and muscled shoulder underneath. All of a sudden Liz started to wonder what it would feel like to touch her, to run her fingers over her skin, underneath the shirt, until she could make those blue eyes darken, until she could make her tremble. And it frightened her a little to realise how much she wanted to do it now.
“Doc?”
Kristan was waiting, a soft smile dancing on her lips.
“I’m a vegetarian,” Liz blurted out, immensely grateful that Kristan could not read the crazy thoughts running through her head right now.
“Really? Cool. That’s good.”
“You too?” Liz asked, looking hopeful.
“I’m a vegan,” Kristan said with a soft chuckle. “So anyway. How about I order us a VG Supreme and some cranberry juice. Would that be okay?”
“It would be perfect.”
Kristan smiled, thrilled that she would get to spend a little bit longer with this woman, who she found so beautiful and so captivating. And she was even happier that the feeling seemed to be mutual.
When they reached Kristan’s cottage and Liz spotted the table and chairs on the beach a little way away she burst out laughing.
“Oh, I see," she said, touching Kristan's arm briefly. "Very slick. I like your style."
“Well, I have a beach," Kristan replied innocently. "Why not make the most of it?”
Liz’s eyes widened.
“You own the beach?” she exclaimed.
Kristan gave a soft laugh.
“Yeah. Came with the Park."
“You own the Park too?”
“I do.”
Liz shot her a piercing look.
“Well," she murmured. "You don't look old enough to be so accomplished. A helicopter pilot, a successful business woman, a kayak instructor..."
She glanced toward Kristan and noticed that she was blushing again. Once more this had a definite effect on Liz. She was finding it difficult to keep her hands off Kristan, and she touched her hand lightly again.
"Anything else I should know about you?" she teased.
Kristan chuckled a little.
"Yeah. I’m a really lousy cook. You’ve been warned."
Liz nodded, smiling.
“No problem, I’ll keep that in mind.”
She sat down and leaned her elbows on the table, glancing at the lake and then turning back to look at the cottage, just visible on the edge of the rainforest.
She shook her head a little in wonder.
"This whole setting is simply amazing,” she remarked. “I don't think I have ever seen a more beautiful place in all my life."
Kristan sat down next to her, feeling happy. For some insane reason she could not really figure out, Liz's heartfelt comment made her feel incredibly go
od.
“You should let me take you out on the lake sometime," she offered.
"I'd really like that," Liz said softly, meeting her eyes.
"Cool." Kristan smiled. "We'll do it soon. Will you be staying with us this autumn, Liz?"
It was a very innocent question, but the woman looked startled by it. Her smile faded, her eyes lost their focus. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
Taken aback by her reaction, Kristan immediately rested a hand on her arm.
“Sorry," she said quickly. "I didn't mean to, uh... Did I say something wrong?”
Tears welled up in Liz's eyes and she blinked them away quickly, but not quickly enough.
"Liz, what's wrong?" Kristan asked, and she leaned forward, worried now.
"Nothing. It’s okay. You didn’t say anything wrong."
Liz smiled through her tears and did her best to pretend that she was fine.
"I'm sorry. I just... I don't know how long I'll be staying," she blurted out, and fresh tears came to her eyes. She brushed them off angrily. “Sorry,” she apologised again.
"Okay. Don’t worry about it."
Kristan was about to pull back but Liz covered her hand with hers and held her in place, and Kristan twitched involuntarily. Every time Liz touched her, and she was doing that a lot, she felt like a jolt of electricity shooting straight through her. She waited, watching as a cascade of emotions flashed through the most expressive black eyes she had ever seen.
“Bloody hell,” Liz murmured, feeling embarrassed now when she caught the concern in Kristan's eyes. "I’m sorry. I don't know where that came from, I guess I’m just tired. Sorry."
She jumped at the sound of a motorbike approaching, looking as if she might run off any second.
“It's okay, that’s our meal,” Kristan said quickly. "I'll go get it. Okay?"
"Yes."
"Sure?"
"Of course. I'm fine, don't worry."
Kristan nodded, looking far from convinced.
She stood up and walked briskly toward the bike, keen to give Liz a minute on her own to gather herself. She did not really understand what had just happened. Looking back toward her she noticed the woman run her hands through her hair, breathe deeply and roll her shoulders a couple of times.
Unbroken Page 4