The Texan's Diamond Bride (3 page)

“I’m not sure,” his gutsy explorer said, not sounding nearly as confident as she had been a moment ago.

He swore, feeling every bit of that distance between him and the surface. “Let’s get out of here. Now.”

She took off for the top, seeming to know her way in the dark a heck of a lot better than Travis did. He went scrambling after her. When he made it to the horizontal shaft near the surface, she found his hand, grabbed it and pulled him along behind her.

The eerie howling got louder with every step they took and at every moment, Travis still expected to have rocks come hurling down on him, but they never did.

He bashed his head a couple of times on the way out, not able to see that well in the tunnel and moving faster than a man of his size should in a shaft of that size.

Near the entrance, she was sure she smelled rain. But there was no way rain would account for the other sound she heard.

The space around them opened up, but it was still oddly dark, and then Travis realized they’d made it out
of the mine, to the long, deep rock overhang that created a covered area sheltered from the elements.

Good thing, too, because outside the sky was nearly black, the world around them a gloomy gray. Out in the open, he saw what looked like miniature, eerily white golf balls bouncing off the ground.

Hail.

It was coming down something fierce, pounding into the ground and then bouncing around until it settled for good. The wind sounded absolutely furious, his horse long gone, no doubt realizing weather was coming long before Travis did and taking off for home.

Travis and the woman backed up against the rock wall as far under the overhang as they could get and still stand up. He was breathing hard, bleeding a bit from the gash he’d just gotten on his head, adrenaline still zinging through his whole body.

Looking at her through the grayish light, he felt a little bit foolish for coming near panic back there, a little bit mad at her for putting them both in that situation and very, very grateful to be out of it and safe.

They weren’t buried under tons of rocks.

They weren’t dying or already dead.

Just in the middle of a nasty storm. Hail or not, it was just a storm.

He shook his head, trying to clear it, then chuckled, then started laughing.

Maybe because it was the last thing he’d expected to be a part of his day. Descending into an old abandoned silver mine shaft chasing a determined, passionate, half-crazy woman, and then seeing his life flash before his
eyes for a moment, only to see a moment later that he wasn’t in any danger at all.

He wished he could really see her face. The gloom that had descended was like looking through a thick fog, and she’d clicked off her helmet light, which hadn’t shown them anything but rain, and nearly blinded him every time she turned in his direction. He had more of an impression of her than anything else, but he knew she was grinning, too.

A moment later, she was laughing. “It’s easy to get spooked down there,” she admitted.

“I think I was way past spooked,” Travis admitted. “And at the speed you climbed out of that hellhole, I’d say you were, too.”

“Well,” she shrugged. “Yeah. I guess…I mean, I’m really glad I wasn’t down there alone when the storm hit.”

“Me, too,” he said, thinking, scared or not, it was the most excitement he’d had in his life in months, which was surely a sad commentary on his life right now.

So he couldn’t really say he was sorry to have found her sneaking into his mine today, and he wasn’t sorry he’d gone in after her, either.

Or even that there was a helluva storm raging around them, lightning crackling loud enough that it seemed like it could split the ground wide open in front of them at any moment.

Storms came big in Texas. He used to love storms on the ranch when he was a kid, so wild and loud, like coming over the top of the biggest hill on a roller coaster and then feeling like he was going to come flying out of his seat at any moment.

Feeling like anything could happen in the next instant, and that no one was really safe.

A man needed to feel like that every now and then, no matter how much he loved the solitude and serenity of his land.

He stared at her, again wishing he could really see her, that he had more than those fleeting moments when he’d watched her climb down the rise and disappear into the mine. Unfortunately, then he’d been concentrating on figuring out what she was up to, not what she looked like. He just remembered noticing a tall, slender body and a dark reddish-brown braid of hair hanging down her back. And he wasn’t going to ask her to turn on her helmet light just so he could see her better. They needed to save the batteries, anyway.

She went still, then backed up a bit, and he had to catch her before she went too far.

“You’re gonna bump your head if you take another step backward,” he said, holding her by the arms, and then putting a hand at the back of her head, between her and the rock overhang. “Right there.”

She touched his right temple, her fingers cool and soft against his skin. “You already bumped yours. It’s bleeding.”

He kept hold of her head and leaned into her touch, too, gentle as could be.

She had on a pair of coveralls that hid every bit of her body. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face and tucked inside the coveralls, her face turned up to his, his body shielding hers from the worst of the wind.

“Do you think it’s the hurricane?” she asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Because it’s not supposed to be here. It’s supposed to stay well north of here—”

“You want to try telling the storm that?” he asked her.

“And it wasn’t supposed to get this far inland until tomorrow. I checked.”

“Yeah. I did, too. But the weather out here isn’t always as predictable as we’d like.”

She pouted a bit, and he tried to ignore how cute that little pout looked to him. “I’m just saying…I was careful about everything, and I was watching the weather to make sure it would be okay, and now…well, I guess we’re not going anywhere fast in this.”

“No, we’re not.”

He couldn’t say he actually regretted that, either.

T
ravis tried not to look too eager at the likely prospect of being trapped here all night with her, because he didn’t want to scare her, and a woman caught alone for the night with a man she didn’t know would have to be a little scared.

So he backed up until the rain blowing in on the wind hit his back in a fine spray, then moved to the side, giving her some space to think things through.

A man who spent his life working the land, often long distances from the ranch house, got caught out in the elements. It was just something that happened. If she’d spent any time in the field as a geologist, she’d probably been caught out in storms, too.

No big deal.

They had shelter from the rain and could likely wait out the storm here just fine, at least until morning light.

He gave up studying her as best as he could through the gloom—it wasn’t getting any easier to see—and went with his impressions of her, what he felt she was like. Calm, practical and then…something else.

“You look like you’re up to something,” he said.

She shrugged. “I’m just thinking that…I’m glad we’re out of the rain,” she tried.

“Yes.” He nodded. “And?”

“And…that…I’ve been caught in worse weather than this.”

“Me, too,” he agreed. But that wasn’t it, either.

“My Jeep is just over the ridge, maybe a mile away, just across the boundary into the park. I don’t suppose—”

Lightning crackled across the sky, then landed with a giant boom.

He could swear he saw her flinch as it hit.

Little Ms. No-Fear was actually afraid of lightning? At least a little bit?

“You really don’t want to take a chance on getting hit by lightning,” he said.

“I know,” she said, like a woman who really knew what a lightning strike could do. “I just thought…the Jeep isn’t that far—”

“Even if we didn’t have the lightning to contend with, in a downpour like this, the soil out here turns to the consistency of warm mush.”

She sighed. “I was afraid of that.”

It happened in Texas with its fine, silty soil not ac
customed to this kind of rain. It was like trying to walk through quicksand when it suddenly got wet.

“Hey, what happened to your horse?” she asked.

“Long gone. He doesn’t like lightning, either, wouldn’t leave me for anything but that. Wasn’t much around here to tether him to that could actually hold him, if he decided to run, just some scrawny bushes. He would have uprooted the thing by turning his head.”

“Oh, okay…. So, for us…What about in the morning? Surely the lightning will have stopped, and we can make it to the Jeep then, can’t we?” she said.

“Maybe, although it’s still not easy getting any real traction for a while after this kind of storm passes through. Not off-road. You are off-road there, aren’t you?”

“By a couple of miles,” she admitted.

“Don’t worry. If we can’t get to your car, there’s an old hunting cabin a mile or so from here and high ground between us and it. We’ll go at first light, as long as the lightning’s through, and hold up there. The ranch hands will be out, checking to make sure everything’s okay. Someone from the ranch will find us before long.”

“And this spot where we are? It won’t flood?”

“Not overnight. If it’s still raining like this tomorrow during the day, tomorrow night it might. But don’t worry. I’ve lived on this ranch for the better part of twenty years, know every inch of the place. I know how to keep you safe here, Red, and I’ll do it, too.”

“Red?”

He grinned. “It is red, isn’t it? I can’t be sure in this light, but I thought when I watched you walk down to the mine entrance—”

“Yes, my hair is red,” she admitted.

“Thought so.” He didn’t say she had the fiery temperament to go along with it. “So, is this a problem? Spending the night here? Because there really isn’t anything else to do—”

“I know. I believe you,” she claimed. “So, I guess we should probably…get comfortable. Since we’ll be here for the night. Right?”

He nodded. “Are you afraid of me, Red?”

“No.” She vehemently denied it.

“Because there’s no reason for you to be. I’m not gonna hurt you. Or do anything to you. We’re just in this together now, and really, it’s a little bit of nothing. One slightly uncomfortable night. That’s all. Might as well make the best of it.”

He was right. Paige knew he was. No way she could argue the point.

It was just…well, the lightning, for one thing. She hated lightning.

And spending the night with him.

She’d been daydreaming about that very thing when she watched him with his horse by the stream earlier, and she’d felt perfectly safe doing that. Fantasizing about being the kind of woman to just let herself go for a night with a perfect stranger.

She’d never been the kind of woman to let herself do that. A girl growing up with money in a very public way…Well, her father had warned her and her sister early on that there would be boys who wanted her for her money, and she, of course, hadn’t listened. It was
one lesson she’d learned the hard way, and it had hurt. She’d always been a bit cautious around men since then, a bit distrustful of their motives when they claimed to want her, and she just couldn’t be sure they didn’t really want a rich woman.

Still, it was a little disconcerting, the way she’d been thinking of him, and to now find herself about to get one night alone with him.

Almost like the world had heard her longing for a man—this man—and delivered him to her.

Paige didn’t think the world worked that way.

At least, it never had for her.

She shook her head to clear it of such foolish thoughts, and then started emptying her pockets, taking inventory as she went.

“Let’s see what we’ve got. Extra flashlight, extra batteries for the flashlights, a couple of power bars, some high-energy granola mix, a small bottle of water, a small notebook and a camera. And I hiked in with a backpack, stashed it under the bushes by the…” Her voice trailed off as she saw that he was already headed in that direction. “You were watching me earlier?”

“Yes, I was,” he admitted, going right to the spot where she’d left her backpack, finding it with no hesitation at all and bringing it back to her.

She wanted to protest, but how could she? She’d done the same thing, spied on him.

She took the pack from him and started pulling things out. A bigger bottle of water, some more granola, some matches, a survival blanket, which he took and looked over appreciatively.

“That will come in handy tonight.”

Then she pulled out her satellite phone.

He shot her a pointed look.

“I’m not stupid. I didn’t go in without telling someone what I was doing. If my brother doesn’t hear from me by 6:00 a.m., he’ll be here soon after that to get me out.” She hesitated with the phone, then looked out into the storm. “Do you think—”

“No way,” he said. “Not in this.”

She tried anyway. “I have to,” she told her cowboy. “My brother will go nuts before this storm is over.”

Of course, he was right.

No signal.

She put the phone away and hoped she could reach her brother by morning, because he would be frantic otherwise and if the flooding kept him from getting here to her…Well, it would not be pretty.

Her brother thought he could move mountains. And he would to get to her if he thought she was in trouble, and then their whole plan to find the diamond would come out. If the Foleys knew what Paige was up to, she’d have to fight to set foot on this land again.

Yeah, she had to reach Blake by first light, if not sooner.

Paige made herself keep going with her unpacking, until she came to a thick, warm sweater and a fitted pair of sweatpants. She unbuttoned her coveralls and slid out of them, pulling on a second layer of clothes over her jeans and tank top, in favor of the coveralls, which were grimy and dusty from the old mine.

She and Travis shared some granola and water, watched the storm for a bit and then he suggested they
might as well bed down for the night. It was early, but the sooner they slept, the sooner they’d wake up and could try to get out of here.

Paige looked over their options. “That spot’s the most sheltered, the farthest out of the rain.”

He nodded.

She took her coveralls and spread them out on the cold ground right against the back wall of the overhang and motioned for him to make himself comfortable.

As she suspected, he planned to sit up and watch the storm, settling himself with his back to one wall, facing out toward the gloomy night.

“You’re sure this area isn’t going to flood that quickly?” she asked.

“Reasonably sure, but I’m not taking any chances,” he said. “I’m going to watch and make sure.”

She sat down beside him, thinking to watch the storm herself.

“There’s no reason for both of us to stay up all night,” he said. “Or for both of us to be uncomfortable. Come on, Red. I won’t bite.”

He held out an arm to her and she settled against his side, finding a welcome heat and a body that was hard-muscled, but not as hard as the ground.

He put the survival blanket over her and still had enough left over to cover about half of him, and soon she was toasty warm, her head on his chest, her whole side plastered to his.

She felt his hand at the side of her face, covering her eyes and blocking the lightning, at least a bit.

“Go to sleep,” he said. “I won’t let anything hurt you.”

She tried. Really tried.

But the wind slowly and steadily picked up, the fierceness of the storm growing with every moment. Every bolt of lightning had her struggling more and more to cover her fears, to stay still, to keep breathing easily and deeply, when all she wanted to do was get as close to him as possible and beg him to make it all stop.

It was a foolish thing, being afraid of something as simple as a storm, and yet, there it was. Caught in this eerily dark world, she was afraid.

And there was so little in life she truly feared.

She worked her face deeper into the curve between his shoulder and his neck and closed her eyes. “It is the hurricane, isn’t it? The way the winds keep building. It’s…That’s what hurricane winds do.”

“Yeah, it looks like we got the hurricane,” he told her, arms holding her tight.

“So we just sit here and see how much worse it gets?” That seemed completely unreasonable.

“Not much else to do, Red.”

“I mean, we don’t know how much worse it’s going to get or when its going to stop—”

“No, we don’t.”

“Tornadoes spring up from these storms when they’re over land—”

“Sometimes,” he admitted.

“Tornadoes, lightning, flooding. Perfect night—”

She broke off with a gasp as a huge clap of thunder drowned out her words.

He scooped her up and deposited her sideways on his lap, even closer than she had been to him, draped
the blanket around her and grinned as he looked down into her eyes.

“You know, I could make you forget,” he said.

“What?”

“The storm. That you’re afraid—”

She sputtered, surprised and furious. “I am not afraid!”

“Red, you flinch every time a bolt of lightning strikes. Not a lot, and I know you’re fighting it, but you do. And that’s fine. I mean, it’s no big deal. We’re all afraid of something, and I’m just saying, I’m here. I’m happy to be of help, to get you through the night. Whatever it takes.”

Paige shook her head, having a hard time thinking, between being on guard about when and where the next bit of lightning might strike and trying to hide her fears and then having this man…this altogether tempting specimen of man make her an offer of…what, exactly?

“Are you saying, you’ll…that you’ll—”

“Whatever you want,” he said smoothly, a hint of amusement and, she thought, sheer wickedness in his tone.

“You think I would be so caught up in you and whatever you were doing to me, that I’d forget all about the storm and being afraid? You think you’re that good?”

“I’m saying I’m willing to try, that I’d certainly give it my best shot. I mean…I managed to distract you for the last few moments, didn’t I?”

“I—I—I can’t believe you—”

“You haven’t flinched over the last two lightning strikes, in case you didn’t notice. So from where I sit, it seems to be working.”

From where he sat!

Well, from where she sat, she was…She was on top of him, all lean muscles and heat and…and…

She had pushed herself upright at one point, wasn’t snuggled against him as she had been at first, but she was still sitting on his lap, her hands pressed against his chest for balance and to keep her from getting any closer.

“I don’t…I just…I don’t do this.”

“Do what? Snuggle? Kiss? Play around a little?”

Play around a little?

“That’s what you’re offering to do?” she asked.

He shrugged easily. “I’m saying I’m open to the possibilities.”

He made it sound so innocent, like nothing of consequence at all. Like passing the time in casual conversation or something.

“Actually,” he said. “Now that I think about it, not absolutely anything. We couldn’t actually have sex. No condoms. I don’t generally ride around the ranch prepared in that particular way.”

“Not an opportunity that normally presents itself during a normal workday at the ranch?” she quipped.

“No, Red. I have to say, it just doesn’t happen. Damned shame, don’t you think? I love working this ranch. Something like that happened every now and then…Well, I’d have to say the job would be just about perfect then.”

“Get lonely out here, Cowboy?”

He nodded.

She shook her head. “I can’t decide what to make of you. If you were half-serious about that or just…just—”

“I was going to kiss you,” he admitted, laughing
beautifully, that rich, deep voice of his wrapping around her like a spell in the dark. “Although I am up for just about anything you’d like. I mean…a man needs to take care of a woman. It’s just…what a man does.”

“Make the sacrifice? Since I’m afraid and everything?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Is this some cowboy code you live by? You’re honor bound to offer your body to a woman in distress—”