‘The daylight will fade soon,’ she’d pointed out, but he had dismissed her argument and joined the queue for the ski lift, insisting there was enough time left for a final turn on the slopes.
‘Call Gunther and ask him to drive you back to the chalet. I don’t need a nursemaid.’
He had not hidden his irritation when she’d voiced her concern that it was dangerous to ski off-piste alone.
In fact Holly had not been worried about his physical safety. She’d quickly discovered that he was brilliant on skis—although he took too many risks, in her opinion. She was more concerned that if she left Jarek on the slopes he would be tempted to visit a bar back at the ski resort in order to enjoy the lively après-ski scene, thereby avoiding any in-depth conversation with her, as he had successfully been doing all day.
Her hope that when they took a break from skiing for lunch she would be able to encourage Jarek to talk about his childhood had been thwarted when he’d turned on his effortless charm. The memory of when he had kissed her at breakfast had weakened her resistance to him, and she had found herself responding to his outrageously sexy smile and entertaining conversation—even though she had known his deliberate seduction was a ploy to distract her from asking him questions about his past.
She was getting nowhere with Jarek’s treatment, and Holly felt half inclined to give up with him. It was not part of her remit to chase him down a mountain, and she could not force him to have psychotherapy. But she couldn’t forget the raw pain she had heard in his voice when she’d heard him shouting out in the night.
Clearly Jarek was haunted by the horrors of war that he had witnessed as a child, and he could not run from his past for ever, however much he tried, she brooded as she glanced at him, standing beside her at the top of the ski run. He had told her that he loved the mountains, but admitted that he did not remember where he had learned to ski. It was yet another mystery that she wanted to help him solve, if only he would let her.
She consoled herself with the thought that once they reached the bottom of the slope dusk would not be far off and they would not be able to ski any more that day. All she had to do was keep upright on her skis and pray that her nerve held on this final run.
‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ Jarek lifted up his goggles and scrutinised her face. ‘You look nervous. It’s fine if you want to chicken out.’
Her chin came up. His arrogance infuriated her, but she smiled sweetly and imagined him skiing over the edge of a ravine. ‘I’m ready when you are.’
‘Good.’ He pulled his goggles back down over his eyes. ‘Let’s go.’
Jarek pushed off on his skis and was almost instantly engulfed by a cloud of powdery snow. Holly took a deep breath as she prepared to follow him.
The snow was deeper than she’d expected, and every time she turned snow flew up around her so that she could barely see ahead through the white cloud. She knew that on powder snow it was better to ski fast and establish a rhythm of short, even turns. It was exhilarating, and exhausting, but she dared not slow her pace because she could just see Jarek ahead, speeding away from her.
She concentrated on trying to catch up with him, and did not pay much attention when she heard an odd muffled sound. But moments later she noticed the snow around her starting to break away, and she knew—although she had never experienced it before—that a moving slab of snow was the first sign of an avalanche.
Terrified, Holly pointed her skis straight, desperately hoping she could outrun the avalanche, but then she heard a loud noise and saw a fracture line run across the snow slab as it shattered. Blocks of snow immediately started to slide down the mountain at an incredible speed. It felt as if a rug had been pulled from beneath her, and when she turned her head she saw that the entire side of the mountain had broken away and was hurtling down, ready to take her with it.
‘Jarek!’
Through the cloud of white snow surrounding her she glimpsed his helmet, but she did not know if he had heard her voice. Her heart was pounding with fear as she fought to stay upright on her skis, aware that if she fell she would be swept down the mountainside and buried beneath tons of snow. She saw Jarek look over his shoulder and then point his ski stick over to a group of pine trees.
Holly turned her skis in the direction of the trees, adrenalin and a fierce instinct to survive sharpening her sense of balance as the snow slab beneath her skis swept her relentlessly down the mountain.
Somehow she managed to stay ahead of the line of fast-moving snow until she reached the trees, and she grabbed hold of a branch just as the avalanche slammed into her. The snow still looked pretty and powdery, but it felt like a concrete wall hitting her. And it kept on coming—great slabs of snow crashing down, so that she had to cling to the branch with all her strength and pray that the tree would not be swept away by the tidal wave of snow, taking her with it to almost certain death.
Holly had no idea what had happened to Jarek, and before she could call out to him again a huge slab of snow smashed into her with such force that it felt as if her shoulder had been ripped out of its socket. The pain was indescribable, but she knew that if she fainted she would die, so somehow clung on to the tree branch for what seemed like a lifetime. Until miraculously the roaring noise that filled her ears abated and she realised the avalanche had stopped.
The sudden silence was eerie. Gradually she became aware of a ragged, uneven sound that she realised was her own shallow breathing. So she was alive. But she was unable to move because she discovered that she was buried up to her waist in snow, which was already setting like concrete. If she hadn’t clung on to the branch of the tree Holly knew that she would have been completely engulfed by the avalanche.
The realisation of how close to death she had come wasn’t something she could deal with right now.
She heard cracks and creaks as tree branches began to break under the weight of snow on them. And then a voice, harsh with urgency.
‘Holly! Thank God!’
Jarek appeared from where the pine trees grew more densely and made his way over to where Holly was trapped against a tree trunk by the snow that had piled high around her like an icy straitjacket.
‘I was afraid you’d been swept down the mountain,’ he said unsteadily. ‘But you’re all right, angel-face, you’re alive.’
He pulled a snow shovel from his backpack and started to dig away the snow around her.
‘It’s okay, baby. I’ll get you out and back down the mountain in no time. You’re safe. I’ll take care of you.’
Despite being numb from shock, and the cold that seemed to have turned the blood in her veins to ice, Holly was startled by the raw emotion in Jarek’s voice. He brushed the snow away from her face and his blue eyes glittered with an odd intensity before he bent his head and claimed her mouth in a fierce kiss that stole what was left of her breath.
‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he muttered.
And then she knew she must be suffering from shock because he sounded as though it mattered—she mattered—to him.
It took several more minutes before he finally cleared the snow away from her legs and feet. ‘Luckily you didn’t lose your skis. Do you think you can ski the rest of the way down the mountain?’
‘I’ll have to. How else can we get down?’
Her numb sense of shock was fading, and feeling had returned to her body. She moved her arm and pain shot down from her shoulder all the way to her fingertips. The burning sensation was so agonising that she let out a scream.
‘What’s the matter?’
Jarek swore as her knees gave way and she almost blacked out. He caught her as her legs crumpled beneath her.
‘Holly, are you hurt?’
‘I’ve done something to my shoulder,’ she told him through gritted teeth, trying desperately not to be sick.
The pain was so severe that she wondered how she could possibly ski when every slight movement was excruciating. She began to shiver uncontrollably, and was onl
y partly aware of Jarek removing her skis.
When he took off his own skis, and fitted them into the carry-straps on his backpack, she stared at him. ‘What are you doing?’
‘There is an emergency shelter not far from here. We should be able to find it using the GPS on my phone. Once I’ve got you somewhere safe and warm I’ll call the ski patrol and tell them you need to be airlifted off the mountain.’
‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary.’ Holly hated making a fuss. ‘I’ve probably just pulled a muscle in my shoulder and it will stop hurting soon—at least enough for me to ski down.’
She moved her arm gingerly and could not restrain a gasp of agony.
Jarek was studying a map on his phone’s screen. ‘The shelter is on the other side of the trees and over the next ridge. It should take approximately twenty minutes to walk to it from here.’ He slipped his arm around her waist and leaned down to her. ‘Put your arm round my neck.’
She shook her head when she realised his intention. ‘You can’t carry me. There’s nothing wrong with my legs. I can walk.’
She took a step forward to prove her point, and discovered that the slightest movement made her shoulder hurt even more.
‘Don’t argue, Holly,’ he said implacably. ‘You’re injured and shocked. The temperature will drop quickly, now that dusk is falling, and you’re in danger of developing hypothermia.’
Holly didn’t have the strength to disagree, and in truth she doubted she had the energy to walk any distance. She was colder than she had ever been in her life, and every shiver that juddered through her body sent a throb of searing pain to her shoulder.
Jarek carefully lifted her into his arms and she bit down hard on her lip to hold back a cry. He carried her through the snow, and Holly was amazed by his strength and physical fitness. Several times she urged him to let her try to walk, but he refused. He did not even seem out of breath when they eventually arrived at a small wooden hut perched on a rocky outcrop and dwarfed by the towering Alps.
As soon as Jarek had opened the door and gently set her on her feet he pulled his phone out of his backpack. While he called the emergency services Holly looked around the hut. The furniture was basic—a narrow bed, a table and a couple of chairs—and at the far end of the hut was a small kitchen area with a wood-burner stove. She opened a door and found a toilet and a sink. At least the hut was safe and dry, but it felt no less cold inside than outside in the sub-zero temperature.
‘It was lucky that we happened to ski fairly near to this emergency shelter,’ she said to Jarek through her chattering teeth when he’d finished his phone call.
‘Luck played no part in my decision of where to ski. Before we set out this morning I did some research and found out about this shelter—which is funded by donations and managed by the ski club in Arlenwald. I also checked the weather forecast and avalanche risk report—which was low. I certainly wouldn’t have suggested skiing off-piste and putting our lives in danger if I’d thought there was any chance of an avalanche,’ he said grimly.
He frowned as he watched her struggle to unfasten the chin-strap of her ski helmet while her body shook with uncontrollable shivers.
‘Let me help you.’ He came closer to help remove her helmet and swore softly. ‘Your lips are turning blue—which is a sign you’re developing hypothermia.’
‘I think snow got into the top of my ski suit when I was caught in the avalanche. The lining of my jacket is wet,’ Holly mumbled. She was finding it hard to talk coherently, and all she wanted to do was go to sleep.
Jarek moved over to the fireplace, where a pile of logs was stacked against the wall. ‘I’m going to light a fire, and once the hut has warmed up I’ll help you out of your ski gear. I brought some spare clothes in my pack, as well as emergency food supplies. We’re going to have to spend the night in this hut,’ he told her. ‘The ski patrol can’t get to us because they’re dealing with a major incident further down the mountain. The avalanche swept away a group of skiers, and two people are still missing.’
Holly knew that if it had not been for Jarek’s quick thinking she could have been swept away by the avalanche and buried beneath the snow too. She prayed the rescue services would find the missing skiers in time—but it was now dark, and the chances of locating the skiers alive would lessen with every minute they remained buried.
She felt she should offer to help build the fire, but she was so cold that she had lost all sensation in her fingers and toes and she felt sick from the throbbing pain in her shoulder. Snap out of it, she ordered herself when she felt an inexplicable urge to burst into tears. She guessed it was shock that had made her feel helpless and unable to do anything other than slump on a chair.
Within a few minutes Jarek had got a fire going, and the orange flames threw out a cheery glow in the dark hut. He lit the kerosene lamp that was on the table and light flickered over the hard angles of his face as he drew Holly to her feet and tugged the zip of her jacket down.
Pain ricocheted through her shoulder when he began to pull her jacket off. ‘Ow! I’ll have to leave my jacket on. It hurts too much to take it off.’
‘Your body won’t warm up while you’re wearing wet clothes,’ he said firmly. ‘Let’s get this over with. And then I’ve got some painkillers in my pack that you can take.’
He tugged off her boots and socks, and before Holly could argue had pulled down her salopettes and helped her to step out of them. Next he unzipped the thermal fleece she wore beneath her jacket. Her base layer was a sports vest which had an inbuilt support bra, and that too was damp from the snow that had got into her jacket and seeped through the layers of clothes to her skin.
Jarek hooked his fingers into the waistband of her thermal leggings and tugged them over her hips and down her legs.
‘I’ll keep my top on,’ Holly said quickly when he moved his hands to the hem of her vest. She felt self-conscious as it was, standing in front of him in her knickers. And the knowledge that she was not wearing a bra brought a flush to her cheeks that had nothing to do with the heat from the fire.
‘It’s wet, so it comes off.’
He ignored her attempt to slap his hands away and tugged her top up and over her head.
‘I don’t know why you are acting so shy,’ he said when she crossed her arms over her bare breasts and tried to stifle the gasp of pain caused by sudden movement.
Holly reassured herself that her nipples were as hard as pebbles because she was cold, and not because of the hot gleam in Jarek’s eyes.
‘I saw your breasts when you came to my room last night, and very pretty they are, too,’ he drawled. ‘But you can put this on to protect your modesty.’ He handed her a shirt that he had taken out of his backpack. ‘Do you want me to help you put it on?’
‘I want you to go to hell,’ she told him, anger and embarrassment overriding the pain in her shoulder for a moment as she turned away from him and pulled the shirt on, before fastening the buttons over her breasts.
Jarek’s shirt was much too big for her, and came down to her mid-thighs, but although her body was mostly covered Holly was very aware that she was nearly naked beneath the shirt, and trapped in an isolated mountain shelter with the sexiest man on the planet.
His mocking grin infuriated her even more. ‘Your temper is back so you must be feeling better, angel-face.’
‘I wish you wouldn’t call me that,’ she snapped, hating the way her heart flipped when he pushed his hair back from his face, drawing her attention to the chiselled beauty of his hard features.
He was so tall that his head almost brushed against the roof of the hut, and his mane of thick blond hair and the darker blond stubble on his jaw added to Holly’s impression of him as a Viking invader who was a dangerous threat to her heart.
‘But it’s true...’ His tone was suddenly serious. ‘You have the face of an angel.’ He moved away to the far end of the hut and murmured, just loud enough for Holly to hear him, ‘Not to mention a body that
would tempt a saint.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
HOLLY JERKED HER eyes away from Jarek as he began to strip off his ski jacket and salopettes. She knelt in front of the fire, and when he joined her a few minutes later she silently cursed her accelerated heart-rate when she saw he had changed into a pair of sweatpants that sat low on his hips. She guessed he had only brought one spare shirt, which she was wearing. In the firelight the whorls of hair that covered his chest and arrowed down over his flat stomach were pure gold.
He dumped a pile of blankets on the floor. ‘I found these in a storage box. We’ll stay close to the fire and keep it burning through the night. You’ll soon warm up,’ he assured her, wrapping a blanket around her.’
He moved away to the kitchen and a short while later came back and handed her a steaming mug of hot chocolate.
Holly stared at him. ‘How on earth...?’
‘I brought packets of instant chocolate powder in my backpack, as well as bottled water which I boiled on the stove,’ he explained. He gave her a foil blister-pack of pills. ‘These are just non-prescription painkillers, but they might help dull the pain in your shoulder. As soon as we get off the mountain tomorrow you’ll need to have it X-rayed.’
Jarek dropped down to sit on the floor beside her and put another log on the fire. They sipped their drinks in an oddly companionable silence. Holly felt relieved, and grateful to be safe after her terror in the avalanche. The overly sweet hot chocolate tasted better than anything she had ever drunk, and sitting in front of the fire, she was finally starting to feel warm again.
It was a novelty to have someone take care of her, she mused. She had moved away from her family when she was eighteen and she valued her independence—especially since Stuart had ended his relationship with her when she’d told him she could not give him a child. She’d had to accept that she might always be alone and had told herself she was fine with that. Today on the mountain she had felt more vulnerable than she had ever felt in her life, but she hadn’t doubted that she could rely on Jarek to save her. Once again he had shown her a different side to him than the careless playboy image portrayed by the tabloids.
The Throne He Must Take Page 9