Dr. Zinetti's Snowkissed Bride Read Free Page B

into a haystack. ‘Dino.’ Meg hauled the anger back inside herself. ‘You’re the one who should be afraid. Get out of my tent. I want to go down, now. I can’t stand another five minutes stuck on this rock face with a smooth-talking Italian. You’re more lethal than the weather.’
    To her surprise he didn’t argue with her. Instead, he helped her pack up the equipment with his usual ruthless efficiency and then switched on the headlamp on his helmet.
    Meg was so furious, so tumbled up inside that she barely noticed the steep descent. Dino stayed a metre in front of her all the way down, which gave her plenty of time to glare at his shoulders and plan various methods of revenge. Maybe she’d do something really embarrassing when he was surrounded by a bunch of nurse groupies. Maybe she’d even give him that kiss he’d been teasing her with. She could fry his brain and teach him a lesson. Just because she didn’t paint her nails, it didn’t mean she didn’t know how to kiss, did it?
    They trudged and stumbled through the deep snow and the inky darkness until they reached low ground and all the time Rambo panted alongside her, his shape a reassuring presence in the vicious weather.
    It was only as they were striding across the safety of thevalley floor that the adrenaline ceased to pump round her body and her brain started to work properly. And then she realised what Dino had done.
    She stopped for a moment, cursing herself for being dense and slow.
    Dino turned with a frown. ‘Not a good place to stop, wolf-girl. Something wrong?’
    â€˜You did that on purpose, didn’t you?’ The wind gusted, almost blowing her over. ‘You made me angry, you—’
    With a maddening smile, Dino shrugged and carried on walking.
    Meg glared after him, feeling like a fool. He hadn’t wanted to kiss her. It had just been a ploy to stop her worrying about Harry. She strode after him and caught up with him at the car. ‘There are times when you really drive me mad, Dr Zinetti.’
    â€˜I rely on it. Need any help with that backpack?’ He slid his own off his back and threw it into the boot.
    â€˜I can handle my own backpack.’ She spat the words. ‘And I can handle myself up a mountain. I don’t need you—’ She almost said ‘messing with my head’ but just in time she decided that she didn’t want him to know that the thought of kissing him filled her with anything other than feelings of boredom.
    â€˜You were going to cry, wolf-girl, and I didn’t want a hysterical woman on the mountain with me. I’d rather deal with ten fractured skulls than one hysterical woman.’
    â€˜I was not hysterical and I was not going to cry.’
    â€˜You were getting really wobbly and there’s no way I could have got you down this mountain in that feeble state.’
    â€˜ Feeble! ’ Meg took a breath as the extent of his manipulation sank in. ‘You never intended us to spend the night on the mountain—’
    â€˜I enjoy extreme mountain survival as much as the nextmacho guy…’ he closed the boot ‘…but I was worried about you. You don’t exactly carry much body fat. Keeping warm would have been a challenge. Talking of which, we need to get out of this wind.’
    He’d goaded her and then he’d almost—and she’d almost— ‘I hate you.’
    â€˜No you don’t.’ He placed an arm on either side of her so that her back was pressed against the car, with no opportunity to escape. ‘You’re afraid of what you feel for me, amore , and that’s understandable because it’s very powerful.’ He dragged his gloved hand over her cheek, a thoughtful look on his face. ‘Interesting, isn’t it? Wolf-girl, who never lets a man near her, suddenly feeling the chemistry.’
    For a moment, Meg was transfixed by those night-black