He smiled and began singing. To her amazement, he even hummed the intro, mimicking the tune of the brass section—and then she found herself joining in.
They got to the first chorus. ‘One step back,’ he encouraged during the bit where he was meant to sing the ‘woh-ohs’.
Somehow she did it. Took a step backwards.
Everything lurched, but then it was stable again.
And he was still singing. Still keeping her company. Still with her.
She could do this.
Her voice sounded thready, but she was singing back. And she was walking. Not on sunshine, but against brick.
How she actually got down the building was a blur, but at last she was at the bottom. Her legs were shaking, so were her hands, and she could barely unclip the harness and move out of the way so the next person could abseil down the building and land safely.
‘So are you going next?’ the instructor asked.
‘Me?’ It had been a while since Marco had abseiled. But a building in the middle of London was going to be a lot safer than the last abseil he’d done at home, down the cliffs in Capri. Apart from anything else, they didn’t have to worry about the tide coming in and causing problems with landing.
He glanced at his watch. Well, it’d be almost as quick as taking the lift. And nobody was going to notice any creases in his suit caused by the abseil harness once they were in the thick of things in the emergency department. ‘I’m not on your list,’ he warned, ‘so it’s going to put you off schedule.’
‘Not as far off as we would’ve been if you hadn’t talked Sydney down,’ the instructor pointed out. ‘So are you next?’
He wasn’t technically part of the department for another half an hour, and he didn’t have a sponsor form; but that wasn’t a problem. He’d sponsor himself for the same amount as any of the other registrars had raised. He grinned. ‘Yeah, I’m next. Thanks.’
It didn’t take long to buckle on the harness. And going over the edge, he felt the whole adrenalin rush as he stepped backwards into nothing. It was the first time he’d really felt alive since Sienna’s death.
By the time he reached the bottom of the tower, the rush had filled his entire body.
And the first person he saw when his feet touched the ground was Sydney. The woman he’d talked over the edge. The woman who’d been full of fear, and still looked slightly dazed.
He unbuckled the harness. ‘Hey. Are you OK?’ he asked softly.
OK? No. Sydney was still shaking all over. ‘Yes,’ she lied.
Then she made the mistake of looking up. It was him. Mr Gorgeous from the top of the tower. He’d just done exactly what she’d done, and he wasn’t a nervous mess. He wasn’t even breaking a sweat.
Get a grip, she told herself, and took a deep breath. ‘Thanks for talking—well, singing—me down.’
‘No problem.’ He looked concerned. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’
‘I have to be—I’m on duty in a few minutes.’ And she would be OK. She never let anything get in the way of work.
He touched her face gently with the backs of his fingers. ‘I take it this was your first time?’
She nodded. ‘And last. Next time one of our consultants gets a bright idea, I’m paying up and bailing out.’
He smiled. ‘The adrenalin rush hasn’t kicked in yet, then.’
‘What adrenalin?’
‘Look up,’ he said softly.
She did, and saw someone slowly walking backwards over the top of the tower.
‘You just did that,’ he said.
‘And I was stuck. Scared witless. I froze up there.’ She shook her head. ‘I didn’t think I was scared of heights or anything like that. I’ve never frozen like that before.’ Not even when she’d had the MRI scan and they’d told her the bad news. She’d managed to find a bright side. Up there had been simply terrifying.
‘But you still did it. Which makes you amazing, in my book.’
‘Amazing?’ It had been a long, long while since someone had called her amazing.
‘Amazing,’ he confirmed. ‘People like me, who do this for fun—we’re not brave. The ones with real courage are people who do it even when they’re scared, because they’re doing it to make a difference. People like you.’
Sydney wasn’t sure which one of them moved first, but then his hands were cupping her face and his mouth was brushing lightly against hers. Warm and sweet and promising—and then suddenly it spiralled into something completely different. Something hot and sensual and mind-blowing.
Or maybe that was what he’d meant by ‘adrenalin rush’.
When he broke the kiss, she was still shaking—but this time for a different reason. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had made her feel like this. And that in itself was incredibly scary.
‘Now your eyes are sparkling,’ he said softly.
‘That’s the adrenalin rush,’ she said swiftly, not wanting him to think that it was his effect on her.
‘Yeah.’ He laughed. ‘Well. Good to meet you, Sydney. And although I’d love to stay a bit longer and talk, I’d better go, because I’m starting my new job in less than twenty minutes.’
New job? It had to be at the hospital, or he wouldn’t have been up the London Victoria’s tower in the first place.
‘Nice to meet you, too. Good luck with your first shift. Which department are you working in?’ she asked.
‘Emergency.’
‘Me, too.’ It suddenly clicked. Marco. She’d been too frozen with fear to take it in before. ‘You’re Dr Ranieri, our new registrar?’ The guy on secondment from Rome.
He inclined his head. ‘Though I prefer first name terms.’
‘Sydney Collins. And I’m a much better doctor than I am an abseiler. Pleased to meet you—properly, this time.’ She held her hand out for him to shake.
Clearly she was still wobbly from the abseiling, because her knees went weak again at the touch of his skin against hers and the memory of that kiss made her skin burn.
‘So how long have you worked here?’ he asked.
‘Five years—since I qualified and did my two years’ pre-reg training. It’s a really nice department to work in. Everyone’s great. Except possibly Max Fenton, who suggested we did this abseil in the first place.’ She pulled a face. ‘I think I’ve gone off him.’
Marco laughed. ‘No, you haven’t. He’s a nice guy.’
‘His wife’s nice, too—Marina. Have you met her yet? She’s Italian, too. She’s working part time at the moment, and then she’s off on maternity leave again in a couple of months.’ She paused. ‘So you’ve done a lot of climbing and abseiling?’
He shrugged. ‘What can I say? I went through a phase of doing extreme sports.’
‘You did that sort of thing for pleasure? Are you insane?’ She shuddered. ‘I’m going to have nightmares tonight.’
He just laughed, and Sydney looked at him. He really did have lovely eyes. And a beautiful mouth. Not that she should be thinking about that kiss. It hadn’t meant anything; it had just been adrenalin whizzing through her system. She wasn’t in the market for a relationship. Not any more. ‘Do you sing many people