Dammit – she didn’t regret learning what her body could do. Though she did feel like she’d been dreadfully uninhibited. Luckily, she supposed, nobody else knew. But they would. They always found things out. Her mother would be horrified. Her sister-in-law would be thrilled to hear of Ava’s escapades. And her grandmother ecstatic. The thought of her family’s input, which was inevitable because they dragged everything out of her, made her mouth kink upwards. Oh my.

And, regrettably, she remained mightily attracted to the man in an I-could-wake-up-next-to-him-for-the-next-millennium way. She couldn’t help feeling depressed about the waste of what could have been an amazing, if only short-term, relationship. But, if the secrecy he’d asked for was an indication of their lack of future together, that was that.

She peeked quickly back across at him and their eyes met. He smiled at her with a tired little waggle of his determined brows, the relief of another life saved between them. Although the deep chocolate eyes swirled with other emotions that baffled her.

She was used to being able to peg people – her job depended on it – but Zac resisted all efforts to peg him, and she really hated that. And it now seemed unlikely she’d get the chance to know the real man.

‘We really have to stop meeting like this,’ he mouthed quietly.

She half laughed. That was the most ironic understatement in the world. ‘I know.’

Then he looked away, pushed himself upright off the wall and nodded to the room in general. ‘Right. Good job, team. You’re all amazing. I’ll go type some notes and then head back to ED.’ And with that he walked out, his shoulders slumped.

Ava narrowed her eyes. When you were the only medically trained person in a remote town – which she often was – you learned to be observant. Her instincts said this guy, this absolute champion of a doctor who’d done as good a job at triage as anyone she’d worked with, one whom she’d incidentally spent most of the last twenty-four hours with, was on the edge of collapse. And she didn’t think it was her newly awakened libido that was killing him.

Despite the fact that they’d spent hours wrapped together in the same bed – not that they’d slept a lot – she didn’t have any right to nag him about looking unwell. Mostly because of that big ‘keep out’ sign she kept running into. Nope, she was not going there without an invitation, and he obviously thought the craziness of yesterday had to burn itself out.

Except – judging by the fresh sparks between them overnight at work – the fire still had some fuel in it.