‘I was until you showed up. A thousand acres of forest and you happen to stumble upon my camp!’ I let out another grunt of frustration before finally admitting defeat. Taking a composing breath, I squared my shoulders and tried to chalk it all down to being part of the adventure. And for goodness’ sake, as mortified as I was that it was Sam, I shuddered to imagine how much worse it would be if it wasn’t him, and some other forest ranger had popped up.

‘I’m tangled up in the guy rope…’ I said, in as dignified a voice as I could muster.

‘Oh. Right,’ Sam replied, still facing away.

There was a potent pause.

‘Do you want some help?’ he eventually offered, his voice sounding strained.

‘Yes. Please.’

‘Are you absolutely sure, can we be completely clear, because I’m on duty right now and I do not want this to be potentially misconstrued by anyone. You want me to turn around, approach you, and untangle you from the guy rope. Myself. With my own hands.’

I swallowed back a flood of I don’t know what. Hormones, probably.

‘Well, there’s a penknife in my rucksack. If you pass me that I could hack myself free.’

‘And ruin your tent?’

‘Okay then. Yes please, I am asking you to please do whatever it was you just said so that I can go inside my tent and get dressed as soon as possible.’

In three ranger-length strides, Sam was crouching by my side, his breath slow and controlled as he deftly worked at the knots, eyes firmly fixed on my ankle, hair dangling over his forehead.

I closed my eyes to avoid seeing his gorgeous face close up, and tried to focus on something other than his fingers brushing my bare skin and the faint warmth of his body heat, despite only wearing a green T-shirt. I caught a hint of his scent, like the depths of the forest spiked with male perspiration, and the breath caught in my throat in response.

Every nerve in my body was taut. It was disturbingly and wonderfully intimate all at the same time, and I wanted him to take forever to get the knots undone, even as I couldn’t bear for the intensity to last another second.

I felt as much as heard him sit back, a sudden emptiness in the atmosphere, as though a huge weight had been lifted.

Sam paused to clear his throat. I opened my eyes to find him a couple of metres away, looking intently at the scrubby grass by his feet. ‘All sorted.’