Luca's Bad Girl - By Amy Andrews Page 0,50

going to be there for a while …

He leaned across and dragged a pack out from under the stretcher, locating the stash of space blankets folded neatly into playing-card-sized packaging.

‘Here,’ he said, passing her one. Then he opened another and unfolded it. The thin, metallic, foil material crinkled noisily, like a chocolate wrapper, as he proceeded to scrunch it up.

‘What are you doing?’ Mia asked as she unfolded hers and stood so she could wrap it around her entire body.

‘I’m going to plug the hole with it,’ Luca murmured.

‘Ah … good thinking,’ she said as she moved aside to give him more room to manoeuvre.

Luca carefully leaned over Brian’s seat and gingerly stuffed the whistling hole with the scrunched-up foil blanket. ‘That should do it,’ he said, standing back to admire his handiwork.

‘Sounds like it,’ Mia agreed as the whistling magically stopped.

He smiled down at her and in the confines of the helicopter a hunched Luca seemed to take up all the space. She hadn’t had time to think about her startling revelation from earlier, but now it was all she could think about.

She was in love with Luca di Angelo.

For better or worse. And surely this had to be the worst?

‘It’s going to be okay,’ Luca murmured, lifting his hand to cup her cheek. ‘You’re going to be okay.’

Mia wasn’t sure if she’d ever be okay again. She’d gone and done something she’d sworn she never would—fallen in love. How could life ever be okay? How could it ever be the same?

The air seemed to thicken as they stood hunched over in the middle of the helicopter, staring at each other. The howl of the wind and the steady beeping of the heart-rate monitor twirled around them like a symphony.

Brian chose that moment to stir, crinkling the space blanket and setting off the monitor alarm. Luca’s hand dropped as he started guiltily and immediately switched his attention to the stretcher.

Luca placed his hand on the pilot’s shoulder. ‘Hurting, Brian?’

Brian’s eyes drifted open and he gave them a goofy smile. ‘Nope. Everything ish wonderfullll,’ he slurred. ‘That morphine is gooood stuff.’ And his eyes drifted shut again.

Mia, who was once again checking Brian’s foot pulses, smiled. Obviously the pain relief was working.

‘How are they?’ Luca asked.

‘The same, I think. The foot seems a little cooler, though.’

They resumed their seats, Luca wrapping himself in a space blanket as well. He checked his watch. ‘Nearly four-thirty,’ he said as he peered out the rain-spattered window.

They sat in silence for some minutes, both looking out at the watery blackness. ‘This wasn’t quite how I imagined my first visit to the Blue Mountains would pan out,’ Luca murmured.

Mia’s gaze slid from the window to his profile. ‘I recommend driving next time.’

There was a pause as their eyes met and then they both laughed. Mia’s stomach rumbled. ‘Are you hungry?’ She grabbed her backpack from its hidey-hole. The foil of the space blanket crinkled with her every movement. ‘There’s usually some exceedingly fattening, sugar-loaded snacks in here.’

She gave a triumphant whoop when she located two chocolate bars and handed him one. She tore off her wrapper and sighed as she savoured that first sinful bite. ‘To think, this could be the last chocolate I ever eat.’

Luca glanced at her sharply. ‘Don’t talk like that.’

Mia shrugged as the other lasts competed for equal placing. Last time smelling eucalyptus. Last time seeing rain.

Last time being with Luca.

She wondered if she confessed to these crazy new feelings whether Luca would pretend that he reciprocated. He could renege when they were safely back in Sydney, she wouldn’t hold him to it, but if she was about to meet her fate then … why not utter the words?

Because she didn’t want her last moments filled with an awkward silence and an even more awkward Luca trying to figure out how to let her down gently before they crashed to a fiery death.

Or worse—watch him lie to her.

Yes, he wanted her. But that was different from love. And, faced with her own mortality, nothing less would do.

She sighed again. ‘Just being realistic.’

Luca shook his head. ‘We’re in a stable position. Air Control has our ELT signal. We just need to wait out the weather and then they’ll get us out of here as soon as they can.’

Mia nodded. Listening to the sure, steady note in his voice, she believed him. ‘I know.’

They finished their chocolate serenaded by the moaning wind and the rhythmic beeping of the monitor. Luca shut his eyes