‘Hey!’ protested a voice.

‘How long have you been there?’ she demanded indignantly.

‘Long enough to enjoy the sight of Henry being an idiot,’ Renzo said, coming forward, brushing snow off himself.

‘Shouldn’t you have rushed to my rescue? How about protecting a damsel in distress?’

‘I never saw a damsel less in need of help,’ Renzo said, sitting beside her. ‘It’s enough to make a man go very carefully.’

‘If it was in his nature to go carefully. Some men don’t have the common sense to be afraid.’

Renzo nodded. ‘Except when I’m climbing, I never had any common sense,’ he confirmed. ‘It’s led to me having my face slapped a few times, but it’s also given me some of the best moments of my life.’

She nodded. It was just as she’d supposed.

‘You were pretty gorgeous in that dance,’ he said at last. ‘Enough to make a man enjoy a few fantasies.’

‘Only a twerp like Henry,’ she said firmly.

But Renzo shook his head. ‘Any man,’ he said softly.

‘Is this you doing your duty again?’ she asked, regarding him cynically.

‘Let’s just say that if I wanted to approach you, I wouldn’t go about it like a bull at a gate.’

It was madness to say, ‘Just how would you go about it?’ but she found herself saying it anyway.

‘I’d be quiet for a moment while we both drank in the mountains. Then I’d point out how the moonlight makes them unearthly, so that we almost could be on another planet-just the two of us.’

‘And then you’d say that there was nobody you’d rather have with you than me?’ she conjectured.

‘I think I’d try something more subtle like-you’re so ethereal that you seem to embody the moon. No?’

He’d seen the scepticism in her face.

‘I might laugh at that one,’ she admitted.