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Harrison nodded. “Of course.”

“We’ll take him straight in.”

“Uniform will follow you.”

Jake raised an eyebrow.

The paramedic angled his head at Jake. “He that important?”

“He is to me.”

Jake glanced away before he could embarrass himself.

The paramedic looked between them, clearly reaching a conclusion. “Right. Well, I’ll give you a minute.” He then climbed out of the ambulance and headed for the cab.

Once he was gone, Harrison stepped inside and pulled the doors mostly closed behind him, muting some of the noise from outside.

He folded his arms. “You charming paramedics now?”

“Don’t get jealous. I’m only doing it for the drugs.”

A reluctant smile tugged at Harrison’s mouth. Then he stepped forward, between Jake’s legs dangling off the bed, and gently lifted the oxygen mask away from his face. Jake slipped his hands instinctively onto Harrison’s hips. Natural. Comfortable.

As if they’d been doing it for years.

Then Harrison bent down and kissed him. God, yeah, that was better than oxygen. Even the good oxygen.

When Harrison pulled back, he rested his forehead on Jake’s and closed his eyes. “You absolute disaster of a man.”

Jake smiled. “Funny. The paramedic said summat similar. Might put that as the quote on my business cards.”

Harrison laughed, and the sound eased its way deep inside Jake’s chest.

Jake tapped his fingers on Harrison’s hips. “You know, I think this technically counts as a date.”

Harrison opened his eyes. “No.”

“It does. You came and rescued me.”

“That’s not a date.”

“Is in Yorkshire. Look at the scenery. Just need to whip out a pork pie.”

A smile broke across Harrison’s face despite his obvious effort to suppress it. “You’re impossible.”

Jake grinned.

Harrison shook his head and brushed his thumb across Jake’s cheek. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

The humour disappeared immediately, and Jake suddenly realised what those missing hours might have looked like from Harrison’s side. The frantic phone calls. The growing certainty that something was wrong. The possibility of arriving too late.

Again.

So Jake slipped his hands fully around Harrison’s waist and dragged him closer. “Don’t plan to.”

It wasn’t a promise.

They both knew it.