The Seduction Challenge

by Sarah Morgan

  The woman nodded mutely and Lucy gave her shoulder a squeeze.

  ‘Good. Quickly, then…’

  Feeling slightly better, knowing that help would soon be on the way, she ran back towards the car, hoping that she wouldn’t have to hold the fort by herself for long.

  One glance into the car showed her that there was just the driver and one passenger.

  ‘Tell them two in the car,’ she yelled over her shoulder, hoping that the young woman had managed to contact the ambulance service.

  Although the doors had been jammed in the crash, she managed to shout through the windows.

  ‘Get us out! Get us out!’ The woman was clawing frantically at the door and Lucy glanced over her shoulder to the still figure of the motorcyclist, trying to remember what she’d learned about triage. Surely he had to be her priority. The two in the car were conscious. Or was he beyond help? In which case, she needed to rescue the two in the car.

  With a whimper of panic she turned back to the couple in the car and gestured to the sun roof, suggesting that they try and open it. Then she turned her attention to the motorcyclist.

  She had to assess his injuries. If he was dead, then the couple in the car became the priority, but if he wasn’t…

  Oh, please, God, don’t let him be dead.

  Her heart thumping, her feet crunched on the frozen grass and she dropped to her knees next to his body, trying to subdue the panic that was bubbling up inside her. It had been years since she’d done any A and E work and even then it had only been when she’d been training. But she knew the principles, she reminded herself firmly. ABC. Airway, breathing, circulation.

  The cold from the ground oozed up and numbed her knees, but she didn’t even notice.

  ‘The ambulance is on its way.’ The young man was back by her side. ‘Here, let me help you take his helmet off.’

  ‘No!’ Lucy reached out a hand to stop him touching the injured motorcyclist, her voice sharper than she’d intended. ‘You should never remove the helmet unless breathing is compromised. The helmet is supporting his neck and if we take it off…’

  She wasn’t qualified to help this man.

  She was a practice nurse, for goodness’ sake, not a paramedic.

  Airway—she had to check his airway.

  She leaned closer and just at that moment the man groaned and muttered something.

  Lucy let out a long breath. He was talking. Surely that had to be a good sign?

  ‘Hello? Can you tell me where it hurts?’

  She cringed as she listened to herself. What a stupid question to ask someone who’d been thrown from a bike. It probably hurt everywhere…

  ‘Leg.’

  Leg.

  Lucy ran her eyes down his legs and saw the nasty gash in the leathers and the mass of blood gathering there. She wrenched off her gloves and thrust them into her pocket, her fingers shifting the leathers so that she could take a closer look.

  Blood spurted into the air.

  ‘Oh, no!’ She pressed down on the leg hard and turned to the man from the car, noticing that he was looking slightly green. She felt slightly green, too. She’d never seen such a severe laceration. Despite the protection of the leathers, his thigh had been badly torn, presumably because he’d been thrown across the tarmac. ‘You need to go to my car, quickly. Fetch the bag on the back seat.’

  ‘And don’t pass out on me,’ she muttered under her breath as she watched him go.

  The motorcyclist moaned again and tried to move.

  ‘Try and keep still,’ Lucy said urgently, wishing that she could hold his hand to reassure him. Unfortunately, both her hands were occupied in preventing him from bleeding to death. ‘You’re going to be just fine. I’m a nurse and there’s an ambulance on the way. Everything is going to be fine…’

  She said it to reassure herself as much as him, and she reflected briefly on the ridiculous things people said when they were trying to reassure each other.

  Everything was far from fine.

  ‘Here’s your bag.’ The young man was back beside her, looking at her expectantly.

  She almost laughed aloud. Did he expect her bag to contain magic powers?

  Weighed down by the knowledge that everyone was depending on her, she glanced over her shoulder towards the road, desperately praying that the ambulance would arrive quickly, but there was nothing but an eerie winter silence.

  Which meant that the man’s life depended on her and the very inadequate contents of her practice nurse’s bag.

  Lucy glanced down at her hands, which were slippery with the man’s blood. There was no way she could let go.

  ‘Inside the side pockets you’ll find some sterile dressing pads,’ she instructed, noticing that underneath the helmet the injured man was ghostly pale. He was losing a lot of blood and needed some fluids fast.

  And she didn’t have any—what else should she do?

  Elevate the bleeding part—but what with?

  This situation was way beyond her experience. And well beyond a few dressing pads.

  Where on earth was the ambulance?

  Her heart still thudding, Lucy snatched the pads from the young man and pressed down on the wound again.

  ‘There should be a bandage in there, too,’ she muttered. She had to stem the bleeding and she really ought to take another look at the two in the car.

  ‘Do you need help?’

  The deep voice came from behind her and she turned her head, blinking at the raw, male power of the man in front of her. Black leathers outlined broad, muscular shoulders and long, powerful legs. Another motorcyclist?

  He dragged off his helmet, revealing cropped dark hair and a pair of cool blue eyes that took in the situation in one glance. He dropped to his haunches and his face was close enough for her to see the dark growth shadowing the line of his hard jaw. He obviously hadn’t shaved recently. She frowned at her own thoughts and shook herself. Someone’s life was at risk and she was wondering when this man had last shaved?

  Was she going completely mad?

  It must be the shock.

  ‘Did you see it happen?’ His sharp tone brought her quickly back to the present and she shook her head.

  ‘No. But from the damage to the front of the car I guess it must have hit him.’ She tried to stop her teeth chattering. ‘The roads are very icy.’

  Those cool blue eyes flickered to the car, his expression serious. ‘How many in the car?’

  ‘Two.’

  ‘Have you checked them?’

  ‘Briefly.’ Lucy responded without question to the authority in his voice. ‘They were both shouting and yelling so I thought that this man seemed more urgent.’

  Dear God, she hoped she’d done the right thing. Her first aid was very rusty. What if the people in the car died because of her?

  But this motorcyclist would definitely die if she moved her hands.

  She swallowed. ‘This man has got a nasty laceration on his thigh and he’s bleeding from an artery. Oh, God, look…’ She stared helplessly at the pads under her fingers, which were already soaked through with blood. ‘What do we do?’

  ‘You keep pressing while I elevate the limb…’ The man wedged something under the injured leg and then briefly examined the young man with a skill and confidence that left her in no doubt as to his profession.

  ‘You’re a doctor,’ she mumbled with relief, and he gave her a brief smile.

  ‘For my sins.’ His gaze returned to the injured man. ‘This chap needs fluids urgently. How long ago did you call the ambulance?’

  Lucy bit her lip. ‘About five minutes? We phoned immediately.’

  ‘They ought to use the helicopter,’ he muttered, shifting his position slightly. ‘Why don’t you check the couple in the car again?’ He glanced up at the young man, who was still hovering. ‘Can you take over here and press on the wound? That would leave us free to check on the others.’

  Lucy opened her mouth to point out that the man had turned p
ale green at the sight of all the blood, but the doctor was already halfway through demonstrating the first aid for an arterial bleed, his tone brisk and matter-of-fact as he talked. His cool confidence seemed to have a positive effect on the driver and he was soon nodding agreement and preparing to take over from Lucy.

  Relieved that someone who clearly knew what he was doing was now in charge, she swapped places with the other man and looked ruefully down at her hands.

  ‘There’s a water bottle on my bike.’ The blue eyed doctor had noticed her predicament and she smiled at him gratefully.

  Seconds later she had cleaned up as best she could and was dealing with the people in the car.

  The woman passenger had already dragged herself out through the sun roof and was sitting on the grass verge, blood trickling from a wound in her scalp. Judging that she was obviously not in immediate danger, Lucy turned her attentions to the driver.

  After tugging at the door without success, she climbed onto the bonnet and talked to him through the sun roof.

  ‘Can you tell me where it hurts?’

  The man groaned, his face chalk-white. ‘My legs.’

  Lucy squinted down into the footwell, but the twisted metal stopped her seeing anything. ‘Can you wiggle your toes? Yes or no?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Well, that was something, but there was still always the risk that he’d damaged his spine.

  ‘How are we doing here?’ The doctor was suddenly by her side, his gaze calm and appraising as he looked at her. How could he be so cool about the whole situation? Her insides were totally knotted.

  ‘His legs are trapped, but he’s got feeling,’ she told him, sliding off the bonnet and straightening her clothes quickly. ‘But I’m worried about his neck and I can’t get the door open. The passenger climbed out through the sun roof.’

  ‘We’ll deal with him first, then,’ the doctor murmured, taking a firm grip of the doorhandle and bracing his broad shoulders. ‘Let’s see what we can do about the door, shall we?’

  Planting his foot on the car to give him extra leverage, he gave the door a powerful yank and it groaned open reluctantly. Noting the swell of muscle under his leathers, Lucy wondered how on earth she would have managed if he hadn’t come along. There was no way she could have opened that door.

  Having sorted out the door, he squatted down beside the injured man, asked a few questions and then straightened up again.

  Lucy looked at him anxiously. ‘Wh—what do you want me to do? Should we get him out?’

  ‘No way.’ The doctor shook his head decisively. ‘We need to immobilise his spine. We’ll leave him there until the ambulance arrives and we can get our hands on a spinal board.’

  Lucy’s gaze skidded towards the car and she lowered her voice. ‘What if the car catches fire?’

  His blue eyes gleamed slightly. ‘You’ve been watching too many movies. It does happen, of course, but very rarely, and the car seems OK in this case. We’ll keep an eye on it but I don’t want to move him until we can get some support on that neck. It’s the only part of him that’s really worrying me.’

  Lucy wondered what it must be like to have so much self-confidence. He didn’t seem at all daunted by the emergency situation they were facing. He just assessed each problem as it came along and dealt with it.

  He pulled back the sleeve of his jacket and glanced at his watch. ‘OK—well, we’ve done just about everything we can with limited equipment. What we need now is an ambulance.’

  Looking at the grim set of his mouth, Lucy gave a little shiver and decided that she wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of him. There was no denying that he was staggeringly handsome, but there was something intimidating about the breadth of his muscular shoulders and the ruthless set of his dark jaw.

  And then they both heard the clack, clack, clack of an approaching helicopter and he glanced towards her and gave her a wink and a smile that made her insides turn over. He had the sexiest smile she’d ever seen and suddenly the rhythm of her breathing was totally disrupted. When he smiled like that it softened his appearance and he no longer looked rough and aggressively male. Just plain handsome.

  Lucy looked away from him, confused by her reaction to him. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d noticed that a man was handsome.

  Maybe it was a good sign.

  Maybe she was slowly starting to recover from everything that had happened.

  Strong fingers gripped her arm and held her firmly. ‘Stay well back while they land.’

  She did as she was told, responding automatically to the cool authority in his tone. She had no intention of arguing with him. As far as she was concerned there’d been no question as to who’d been in charge from the moment he’d stepped off his motorbike.

  Lucy watched in fascination as the helicopter hovered and the pilot landed with breathtaking skill. She’d heard about the air ambulance of course, but this was the first time she’d actually seen it in action.

  Two paramedics ran from the helicopter and one of them grinned in surprise when he saw the doctor.

  ‘Joel? I thought we’d got rid of you, mate!’

  ‘So did I,’ the doctor replied, his tone dry, ‘but someone up there obviously thought differently. The motorcyclist needs a line in fast, Greg. Let’s get some Hartmann’s into him, and for goodness’ sake make it warm or we’ll kill him off. And grab a Hudson mask because he needs ninety percent oxygen. You’d better warn them to have three units of O-neg ready in A and E because he’s going to need blood. He’s our priority. We need to evacuate him before the occupants of the car.’

  The paramedic called Greg nodded. ‘There’s an ambulance on its way—ETA three minutes. They can take the people from the car.’

  ‘Great. Let’s get to work, then.’

  Lucy stood to one side, assuming that if he wanted her help he’d ask for it. He reeled off several other instructions and then strode off to deal with the motorcyclist while the second paramedic hurried up to her.

  ‘What’s the story with the guy in the car?’

  ‘It’s his neck, or at least that’s what he—Joel.’ She stumbled over the name. ‘Joel is worried about. He thinks it should be immobilised before he’s moved.’

  The paramedic nodded. ‘Let’s do it then. I’ve never known Joel be wrong.’

  So the self-confidence was justified.

  Lucy glanced in the direction of the doctor, who was now on his knees beside the motorcyclist, squeezing fluid into him from an IV bag. ‘I can’t understand how he can be so cool. I was in a total panic before he turned up.’

  The paramedic gave her a sympathetic smile. ‘So at a guess I’d say you’re not a trauma doctor. He is.’

  A trauma doctor? Well, that would explain the unshakable self-confidence.

  ‘So that’s why he wasn’t fazed.’

  The paramedic gave a short laugh as he handed her some equipment. ‘Never seen him fazed by anything, to be honest, but some people are just like that, aren’t they? We used to call him Joe Cool. One thing’s for sure. If I was ever in a pile-up and I saw him hovering over me I’d know I was going to be OK. He’s one hell of a clever doctor and a big loss, if you ask me.’

  ‘Loss?’ Lucy obediently held the equipment he gave her and waited to be given instructions.

  ‘Yeah. He was working with us until two weeks ago. Then he left for pastures new. Bloody waste. Best trauma doctor I’ve ever seen.’

  ‘So why did he leave?’

  The paramedic shrugged. ‘He wanted a change. Fed up with being in the news, I suppose. Anyway, let’s get this guy out.’

  In the news?

  Why was the doctor in the news?

  Lucy stared at the paramedic, who gave her a friendly grin and went back to the car.

  Behind her she heard the helicopter taking off again and realised that the motorcyclist was already on his way to hospital.

  Her eyes widened as she realised how quickly they must have worked.

>   The doctor sprinted back to the car and helped the paramedic stabilise the driver while Lucy checked on his passenger.

  A fire engine and an ambulance arrived and suddenly there were people everywhere. In no time at all the man was freed and he and his companion were on their way to hospital.

  Suddenly Lucy found herself alone with the blue-eyed doctor.

  ‘Well, that livened up the lunch-hour,’ he drawled as they watched the ambulance race away, siren blaring.

  Lucy gave a rueful smile and pushed a thick strand of dark hair out of her eyes with trembling fingers. Now that it was all over she felt slightly sick.

  In fact, she felt dizzy.

  The doctor must have noticed because he frowned suddenly. ‘Are you OK? Damn, you’re white as a sheet. Sit down fast—that’s it. Head down.’

  He pushed her down onto the grassy bank and guided her head between her knees with a strong hand. She took several deep breaths and waited for the swimmy feeling to pass.

  ‘Sorry.’ She lifted her head and gave him an embarrassed look. ‘I don’t—’

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said softly, his hand still lingering on the back of her neck. ‘It’s the shock. You’re all right while it’s happening, and then when the crisis has passed it hits you. It happens to everyone.’

  She was willing to bet that it had never happened to him, but she was grateful to him for trying to make her feel better.

  She gave him a shaky smile, relieved that he’d forced her to sit down. She didn’t think her legs were capable of holding her.

  ‘I’m not used to dealing with emergencies by the roadside,’ she confessed, her breath clouding the frozen air. ‘I felt totally helpless. I hope I didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve never panicked so much in my life. I just didn’t know who to deal with first, and my first aid is so—’

  ‘You did a good job,’ he said, interrupting her gently, his eyes sharply observant as they scanned her pale features.

  Shy and uncomfortable under his scrutiny, she dipped her head and her dark hair tumbled forward over her face. ‘Well, I’m a nurse,’ she muttered, and the man threw back his head and laughed. A rich, masculine sound that made her stomach flip over.