How could things have changed so much?
It was a puzzle that Maggie didn’t even want to think about and it was more than easy enough to forget thanks to the adrenaline rush of this job. The ride on the rough sea was awesome but the challenge of getting alongside the larger fishing vessel, catching the ladder that swung against the hull and getting themselves and their equipment in through the narrow door needed absolute concentration. That they completed that part of this challenge successfully was enough to have Maggie grinning from ear to ear as Joe and some of the ship’s crew helped to pull her inside and out of the wind.
‘Well done. That wasn’t easy.’
The fishermen were grinning back at her but Joe wasn’t. He almost looked irritated as he picked up one end of the stretcher that had their pack strapped onto it.
‘Let’s go. Where’s our patient?’
‘Follow us. He’s going to be happy to see you guys. He’s in a hell of a lot of pain.’
‘He’s had a fall, yes?’
‘Yeah. He lost his footing on a ladder and he was hanging on with one arm but then he fell when we hit another wave. Looks like he’s broken something. His arm, or his shoulder, maybe.’
There was a strong smell of fish on this lower deck of the ship and it was rolling enough to make the combination a little nauseating. Maggie breathed through her mouth to lessen the impact.
‘Did he get knocked out?’ she asked.
‘Don’t think so. Not judging by the amount of noise he was making as soon as it happened, anyway. Listen...that’s him you can hear now.’
Fishermen were tough but a complete dislocation and possible fracture of an elbow joint was a very painful injury. It was also urgent that it be relocated as quickly as possible because of the danger of damage to the brachial artery and nerves.
‘Hang in there, mate,’ Joe told him, as soon as he’d introduced himself and Maggie. ‘We’re going to get some pain relief on board for you asap and try and sort that elbow out for you. Are you allergic to anything that you know of?’
The injured man, who had turned out to be the ship’s chef, shook his head. Even that movement made him cry out in pain as he tried to hold his arm still.
Maggie busied herself getting an IV line established as Joe quickly checked the man for any other major injuries and then looked at his limb baselines on the injured arm.
‘Sharp scratch,’ she warned, when she was about to slide the cannula into their patient’s skin. ‘Don’t move...’
With the level of pain the chef was already in, he didn’t even notice the needle going into his arm.
‘Can you wiggle your fingers for me?’ Joe asked. ‘If you close your eyes, can you feel me touching your hand here? And here?’
‘Limb baselines are down,’ Joe told Maggie moments later as she was drawing up the drugs she knew they were going to need. ‘Skin’s cold, capillary refill is slow and I can only get a faint radial pulse.’
‘I’ll get set up for oxygen and SpO2 monitoring.’ Maggie reached for the ECG dots for the life pack and a mask for the oxygen cylinder.
Joe administered the drugs that would sedate their patient deeply enough to make it possible to try and relocate his elbow and then he and Maggie positioned themselves, with Maggie wrapping her hands around his forearm and Joe preparing to provide counter-traction on the upper arm.
‘Ready?’
Maggie caught his gaze. ‘Ready.’
How often had they done this? she mused as they gently began to apply pressure in opposite directions. Worked like this, so closely together, knowing that each of them completely trusted the other. If she was ever sick or injured, Maggie thought, it would be Joe she would want to turn up and look after her. She would trust him with her life, if it ever came to that.
Joe held her gaze for a moment longer.
‘Even if this doesn’t work,’ Joe said, ‘it should restore circulation enough to be helpful.’
His crew stood in the background, watching.
‘It’s still hurting him, isn’t it?’ one of them muttered.
‘He won’t remember it,’ Joe told them. ‘And...there we go. I think we’ve got it in the right place now. We’re going to splint the arm and get him secured onto our stretcher there. We might need a bit of help from you guys to get him onto the coastguard boat.’
‘Wind’s dropping,’ someone told them. ‘It won’t be quite as bad as it was when you got here.’
It was still a mission. Climbing down that ladder, after the stretcher had been lowered and taken on board, was the scariest thing Maggie had done in a very long time. It didn’t help that a wave broke and soaked her as she reached the lower rungs. With salt water in her eyes and a boat that was a moving target, she was extremely grateful to feel several hands grabbing her arms to pull her safely on board.
It was no surprise to blink the stinging water from her eyes to find that one set of those hands belonged to Joe. But she’d known that already, hadn’t she? She had felt it...
* * *
It was only a skeleton staff that stayed on the Aratika Rescue Base for night shifts. By the time Maggie and Joe got back there, having transferred their patient to a road crew at the coastguard base, the crew on duty were out on a job and they knew the night manager would be manning the radio and probably catching up on paperwork in his office.
They needed to fill him in with any extra details he needed about their mission but there were more important things to do before they went upstairs from the locker room level. Despite the protective clothing that allowed them to get wet and work outside, delaying the development of hypothermia, at a certain point conditions could defeat the fabric technology.
‘You’re frozen,’ Joe told Maggie. ‘Look at how hard you’re shivering. And you smell kind of like a dead fish.’
Maggie beamed at him. ‘I know,’ she said, through chattering teeth. ‘It was great, wasn’t it?’
He had to smile back. ‘It was a hot one, all right. And what we both need right now is a shower that’s just as hot. You can go first.’ He took the depleted pack of medical supplies to the far corner of the locker room. It would need to be sorted and restocked but that could wait until morning.
‘J-Joe?’
Turning back, he could see Maggie’s head poking out from the door that led to the showers and toilets.
‘What’s up?’
‘Um...’
She sounded embarrassed, Joe decided. Or worried? He was closing the gap between them rapidly.
He saw what the problem was as soon as he stepped through the door to the shower room. Maggie was still shivering and her fingers were obviously too cold to be functioning as well as was needed to cope with all the Velcro fastenings and zips on her flight suit and boots.
She was colder than he’d realised. The need to look after her and treat the problem took over and Joe flipped the handle to get the shower running and warming up. Then he turned back to Maggie.
‘Sit down,’ he ordered. ‘Let’s get those boots off first.’
Maggie sat obediently on the bench seat facing the open shower. Joe’s fingers felt clumsy but were co-operating well enough to unzip the boots and pull them off and then peel off her socks.
‘Okay. Stand up again and we’ll get this flight suit off. You should be able to manage the rest.’
He started undoing all the fastenings as soon as Maggie was on her feet again. This small room was getting warmer by the minute thanks to the steam from the running shower behind them. Joe realised he must have pushed the door shut without noticing when he’d come in to assist Maggie.
He peeled back the top of the flight suit and she grabbed onto his arm to keep her balance as she stepped out of the legs.
‘All good?’
‘Um...’ Maggie held her hands out in front of her. They were still shaking. Sh
e tried to hook her fingers under the hem of the thermal top and then pull it up but she was laughing at the same time. ‘I’ve gone a bit wobbly,’ she said. ‘I had no idea how cold I’d been getting.’
‘Fine.’ Joe was still in professional mode. This was no problem. He took hold of the hem of the long-sleeved shirt and pulled it up over Maggie’s head.
Oh...man... His jaw dropped. How could she not have been wearing a bra under that shirt? The shock made it hard to raise his gaze from somewhere it should not be resting. Every instance of realising how attracted he was to Maggie coalesced in this moment into a desire like nothing he’d ever felt in his life. When he did manage to drag his gaze upwards, he saw something in Maggie’s eyes that was even more of a shock.
Desire...
And it looked as fierce as what was threatening to produce the greatest test his self-control would ever have to deal with.
For a long, long moment, with the steam of the shower billowing gently around them, they held each other’s gaze.
And then, before he’d started trying to analyse whatever was going on here, and without the slightest idea of who had made the first move, Joe was kissing Maggie.
Or Maggie was kissing him...
It didn’t matter. It was rapidly becoming the wildest, most exciting kiss he’d ever had in his life. The moment Maggie’s tongue first touched his, inviting him to deepen that kiss, drove any rational thought behind a door in his brain that he had no immediate incentive to open.
Maggie wanted this. As much as he did.
How astonishing was that?
* * *
Oh...
If being in a steamy environment after getting too cold had made Maggie feel a bit wobbly, it was nothing to how weak this kiss was making her legs feel. She’d thought she’d known how good sex with Joe might be but she’d had no idea...
Maybe it was being enhanced by the adrenaline rush of the sea rescue job they’d both been challenged by. Or maybe her brain wasn’t functioning perfectly thanks to the early stages of hypothermia. Whatever it was, this was an experience like nothing Maggie had ever had and she just knew that whatever alchemy had come together in this moment was never going to happen again.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
Normal rules could not be applied. This was a case of carpe diem if ever there was. Seize the day. Or seize the moment, anyway...
Her fingers seemed to be working a whole lot better now. Enough to be getting past the fastenings of Joe’s flight suit and trying to find some actual skin to touch. The tight fabric of her thermal leggings made it feel as though Joe’s hands were inside them as he cupped her buttocks and pulled her closer. Close enough for her to realise that he was just as into this as she was.
Her groan of need against his lips seemed a signal to finish that blissful meeting of their mouths.
‘Maggie...’ Joe’s voice was raw. ‘We can’t do this...’
She couldn’t pull away. ‘Why not? I... I want this, Joe...’
‘Oh, God...so do I but...’
He pulled back far enough for Maggie to see his eyes. To see that desire had darkened them enough to appear black. How sexy was that?
‘But it’s not a good idea,’ he ground out.
‘Skin-to-skin contact is supposed to be a great way to treat hypothermia.’
Joe closed his eyes. He was clearly struggling. ‘We work together, Maggie. We’re friends...’
She had her hands on his back, beneath his thermal shirt. She could push her fingertips against his bare skin as she pressed herself closer. She didn’t want to think about consequences right now. Whatever they were, they could deal with them later. This was a one-off. They would lose this moment very soon.
‘Stop talking,’ she whispered. ‘Start kissing.’
His lips were on hers again almost instantly. Joe was just as carried away by whatever had ignited between them as Maggie was and that made this only more irresistible.
‘Not safe...’ she heard Joe groan against her lips.
Maggie managed to engage one small, rational part of her brain and extracted what she needed to know to give her a wash of relief. That was one normal rule that did need to be applied but it took only a heartbeat to be quite sure she was right. Her cycles were as regular as clockwork and she was close enough to the end to make any risk so small it was insignificant.
‘It’s safe,’ she told Joe. ‘I promise...’
CHAPTER FIVE
STUNNED.
That was the only word for it.
Joe had seen his own bewilderment reflected in Maggie’s eyes in the immediate aftermath of that explosion of passion in the shower room of the Aratika Rescue Base.
He’d even articulated it, although admittedly it wasn’t a particularly eloquent comment.
‘What the hell was that?’ he’d murmured as they were both trying to catch their breath.
Maggie had blinked back at him. She looked as if she was trying to smile but couldn’t quite manage it. ‘So... I guess your other hidden talent isn’t knitting, after all?’
That had defused the sudden, alarmingly awkward tension between them as the reality of their nakedness and the intense lovemaking they had just shared sank in. Joe’s breath had been expelled in a bark of laughter. Shaking his head, he’d dropped a quick kiss on Maggie’s lips, gathered his discarded clothes and left her alone in the room that had been so steamy on far more than a literal level.
He was still bemused, if not shocked, by what had happened by the time he was dressed in a clean uniform and was nursing a cup of coffee in the upstairs staffroom. He had to wait for Maggie to appear. Not that he had any idea of what he was going to say to her but he couldn’t just head home after that extraordinary encounter, could he?
It wasn’t just the fact that what he’d considered for years as being a close friendship with no sexual agenda had just been proven so wrong in such an explosive manner. It was...the sex...
The most exciting—satisfying—sex he’d ever experienced in his life.
Was that due to the unexpectedness of it? he wondered. Or the risk that they could have been discovered by the crew returning to the base? Or perhaps it was the fact that it was the first time he’d ever had unprotected sex?
Oh...help... A bubble of panic rose in Joe’s throat but he took a deep breath and swallowed it away. Maggie had assured him that it was safe and there was no one in the world he trusted more than Maggie.
But...what now?
They were colleagues. They had been friends for years. Neither of them had ever been attracted to each other before and they were the opposite of suitable candidates for anything more than a friendship because they wanted very different things from life. And Joe didn’t want a relationship with Maggie because his relationships always fizzled out in the end and that was the last thing he wanted to happen with a friendship he valued so highly.
Maggie had made a joke about it so maybe it had been no big deal for her. Perhaps they could put it down to a moment of madness and pretend it had never happened. But that would mean it could never happen again. While Joe’s head was telling him that was the sensible way forward here, his body was registering something like rebellion. How could you experience something like that and not want it to happen again—if nothing else, just to find out if it actually had been that good? A knot formed in his gut as he heard the clatter of boots on the stairs because he knew that just seeing Maggie again could be enough to reawaken the flames of the astonishing desire that had blindsided him.
Except it wasn’t Maggie. Or it was, but she was following Cooper and his night shift partner, Jack, who were both carrying take-out containers of food. Maggie swerved without looking at Joe, heading to the kitchen counter to make herself a cup of coffee.
‘Look at you,’ Jack said to Joe. ‘You look like you’ve been out windsurf
ing.’ He sat down at the table. ‘You should have paged us to let us know you were back on base. We could have picked you up some food.’
‘How was the job?’ Cooper pushed his chopsticks out of their paper packet. ‘I’m dead jealous. I’ve been waiting for a coastguard callout since I started working here and there we were stuck in a multi-vehicle pile-up on the motorway.’
‘It was awesome.’ It was Maggie who answered Cooper. ‘I think it might have been one of the most exciting callouts I’ve ever had.’
Joe swallowed hard. Was she referring to that wild boat ride? The experience of treating a patient in a very unusual location...?
Or could she be referring to what had happened when they’d arrived back on base?
Maybe Maggie would also be disappointed if they never got to do that again.
‘How come you’re still here?’ Jack asked. ‘We heard the ambulance being dispatched to meet the coastguards’ boat ages ago.’
‘We got pretty cold and wet,’ Joe told them. ‘Maggie had borderline hypothermia. We both needed a hot shower and a change of clothes.’
‘Skin-to-skin contact might have been quicker,’ Jack said around a mouthful of noodles.
Cooper laughed. ‘And a lot more fun.’
Maggie sat down at the table with them. ‘I’ll remind you of that when you and Jack get sent out into the elements.’
‘Hey...’ Cooper was still grinning. ‘I’m a happily married man.’
‘And we’re just good friends,’ Jack added. ‘Don’t listen to those rumours.’
Maggie was laughing now, too. The atmosphere felt perfectly normal and that was the moment that Maggie finally caught Joe’s gaze.
She looked happy, he realised. Sure, there was a question in her eyes but it was probably exactly the same question that was becoming a chant somewhere in the back of his own head.
Was it going to happen again?
* * *
‘It can’t happen again.’
Maggie needed to say it before Joe did. Because it might feel like less of a disappointment if it was her own decision?
Pregnant with Her Best Friend's Baby Page 7
