‘Prita?’
***
‘Flynn!’ She pulled the oxygen mask off her face, coughed and put it back again. Damn, her lungs were on fire. But she couldn’t stop, couldn’t lie down like she longed to do until she was certain Flynn was okay and the fire in her clinic—her home—hadn’t spread to the neighbouring houses or the bush. Fighting off a bout of dizziness, she stroked the side of his face. She could have sworn he’d muttered her name. ‘Flynn? Come back to me.’ Oh hell, that sounded like something a lover would say to another lover. Hopefully, he wouldn’t remember it.
His lips moved behind the mask. ‘Flynn?’
His eyes—those gorgeous hazel eyes that glowed in sunlight with flecks of green and amber—fluttered open. ‘Prita.’
His voice, hoarse and painful sounding, was loud enough this time that she made it out clearly enough despite the noise going on behind them. ‘Oh god, Flynn. You gave me such a fright.’
‘Me?’ He mumbled something but all she heard was the word, ‘stupid’ in there.
Flynn admitting to being stupid? Not something she’d ever thought she’d hear.
He lifted a shaky hand and pushed the oxygen mask to the side. He looked horribly pale under the grime. He coughed, gaze capturing hers even in the dark red glow of the fire, boring into her with accusation. Accusation? ‘Why the hell did you go inside to fight a fire by yourself?’
She pushed aside her own mask again, coughing a little as she managed to say, ‘I had to stop it from taking my home.’ Not to mention the houses and bush nearby.
‘Stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.’ She opened her mouth to respond, but he hadn’t finished. ‘You ran in there with a hose. A hose! What the hell did you think you were going to do with that?’
‘Save my house and the ones next to it.’
‘Good job with that.’ He gestured at the smoking inferno behind them that the firemen were just getting under control now. ‘You haven’t saved anything.’
Hurt blazed through her, almost as bad as when he’d accused her of cheating, but she was too tired, her throat too raw, her lungs burning with every inhalation, her limbs too heavy to say anything more than a lame, ‘I’m saving you.’
‘You wouldn’t have had to if you hadn’t run in there first.’ He rammed his fingers through his hair, gaze blazing into hers. ‘I thought I’d lost you.’
She blinked rapidly through the tears that suddenly flooded her eyes, every bit of anger that had poked through evaporating with those few, simple words. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. At least, she tried to say it, but instead of words, only coughing came out.
Flynn swore and pushed himself upright, swayed, grabbed onto the water tank and used it for support.
She reached out to help steady him, but ended up steadying herself, fingers gripping into the dry grass and soil underneath as her head swum, sparks of darkness intruding on her vision. She lifted a suddenly shaky hand and shoved the oxygen mask back into place.
‘Don’t try to get up,’ she wheezed through the mask, her words almost unintelligible around the spasm of coughing. She really needed to stop talking—it was making it worse. Trouble was, there was more to say. ‘You fell hard. I think you hit your head.’
He glared at her. ‘You could have been killed.’
He was back to that again? ‘I was coming out when you arrived.’
‘You collapsed on the back steps. What if I hadn’t been here to help you? What would I have told Carter? Or your dad. Or your husband?’
Icy coldness shivered through her, despite the heat of the night and the blaze at her back. Chandra would care if she died, despite the way they left things. And her dad? It would have devastated him. She was all he had of family aside from Carter. And what about Carter? He was her everything and she was his everything. They were a team now. She’d promised herself to always be there for him, that she would be there to help him grow into the fine adult she knew he was going to be. And in one stupid action, she’d almost broken her promise. As it was, she was probably going to end up in hospital for at least a few hours while they assessed her lungs for CO2 poisoning and acute lung injury and decided whether to ventilate or put her in hyperbaric unit. Which she hoped wouldn’t be the case because where would Carter go while she was in the hospital? Who could he stay with?
‘Barb will take him. Or Nat and Reid.’
Had she spoken out loud? She looked at Flynn. ‘I couldn’t …’ More coughing. She could barely get a word out. ‘Ask that of them.’
‘They wouldn’t take no for an answer.’
‘Too kind.’ She could barely keep upright, her head hanging between her shoulders, fingers digging tighter into the earth, desperate to ground herself, to stop the dizziness and shaking, her lungs on fire.
‘Bullshit. You’re family.’
Her head jerked up. The movement was too much. Darkness rushed in on her and the last thing she was aware of was Flynn’s arms going around her as he called her name.
Prita woke with a start, her eyes snapping open. Bright light stabbed into them, a flashing pain ricocheting around her head. She squeezed her eyes closed again, a moan escaping her dry throat. The light was so bright it was almost too much even through her closed eyelids.
‘Prita?’
‘Curtains. Light.’ Her throat felt as dry and crumbling as the old fence post at the back of her home. The light dimmed around her as the curtains were closed with a swish and she sighed in relief. ‘Thank you.’ Warm hands grabbed hers, lips pressing against her knuckles.
‘You’re awake.’
‘Yes.’ Just. She felt so tired. But she didn’t want to go back to sleep yet. She wanted to know what the hell Flynn was doing in her bedroom. Although, was it her
