Making him desire her beyond a point where all rational thoughts converged.
It would have taken a stronger man than he to resist, to hold back indefinitely. Feeling the pressure, the demands of his weakening body, he took hold of her shoulders and gently drew her back to him.
He was stopping her. Her lips were throbbing, her eyes not quite able to focus as she looked at him. Had she done it wrong? “Don’t you like it?”
“That’s just the trouble,” he breathed. “I like it too much.”
His lips crushed against hers as Luc tightened his arms around her, holding her to him, kissing her to a state of senselessness as he reversed their positions.
And then he entered her. Entered before the explosion that was threatening to unleash racked his body. Using the last of his control, he began the rhythm slowly. But the urgency that had shadowed their every movement was here, as well, and strong. The final pleasure was not long in coming.
It held him tightly in its grip before allowing him to slowly regain his foothold on earth. Contentment circled around him like papal white smoke, signifying peace and a new beginning.
He loved her.
Like words written across the sky, riding on a lightning bolt, it came to him.
He loved her.
In keeping his feelings safe within this charade, he’d been free to let them come. To grow. He’d allowed himself to pretend to go through the motions of everything he longed for. He played the part with conviction—until the player had become lost in the role and the lines between reality and make-believe had become completely blurred.
Reality had superseded make-believe.
He loved her and he hadn’t a clue what to do about it. Because the last time he’d loved, it had been snatched away from him, leaving him standing with nothing but his heart in his hands. Empty.
He didn’t want that happening again, didn’t want that feeling to become part of his life again.
He loved her.
He wasn’t going to think about that now, Luc told himself. For now it was enough just to hold her in his arms, to breathe in the scent of her and know that she was his for this space of time. It was more than he had a right to ask.
The warmth around her didn’t abate, even after the contentment of lovemaking had faded into a cottony presence. She wanted to thank him for making the shadows go away. Wanted to tell him just how grateful she was for this liberation he’d provided.
She wanted to tell him how he made her feel. That he made her feel. And there was such a wealth of feelings within her. Especially happiness. It ricocheted through her like a specially crafted ball that went to unimaginable heights with each bounce.
But she knew how he’d felt about Janice, knew that Luc wasn’t looking to be entangled with anyone. To tell him would be to take the magic away from both of them and bring only emptiness.
So she remained lying next to him, content to be held by this man who had liberated her. Content to feel his steady breath along her skin and to let the night, such as it was, come.
Because she wasn’t afraid anymore. He was with her and she couldn’t ask for more than that.
She was gone.
The place beside him was empty. Cool to the touch when he reached for her. Just like the first morning after he’d spent with her. His eyes flew open even as the thought penetrated.
Memories of another time, another empty bed, came flooding back to him.
“Alison?” he called. Not waiting for a reply, he got up and quickly pulled on his jeans. He ignored his shoes. “Alison?”
There was no answer. It was unreasonable, but he couldn’t shake the concern that was gripping his heart. He hurried out into the hall. “Alison?”
Jacob opened the door of the room he was sharing with Janice. Confused, he looked at Luc, bleary-eyed. “Who’s Alison?”
Distracted, telling himself that this wasn’t déja` vu and that he had nothing to worry about, Luc turned toward Jacob. Explanations that were nothing more than coated lies came to his tongue, but then he thought better of them. The time for lies had passed.
“Jake, I’ve got something to tell you.”
Jacob sat at the kitchen table, nursing the mug of inky black coffee Luc had poured for him. Some of it was already in his veins so that he was able to comprehend what was being said to him.
Hearing Luc out, he could only shake his head. “Well, if she’s not your wife, then what the hell are you waiting for?”
The question had nothing to do with the confession he’d just given him. Luc had expected humor, or even a question as to why he’d felt the deception necessary to undertake. He set down his own empty mug on the counter and picked up the pot of freshly brewed coffee. He was still trying to set his fears to rest.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, ask her to marry you.” Jacob saw the startled look on Luc’s face and couldn’t believe the thought hadn’t crossed his friend’s mind. “Any woman who’d follow you up to this godforsaken wilderness—and you know it is, for the most part—and then pretend to be your wife just so that you could supposedly save face, well, it has to mean she cares about you. Marry the woman already.”
Luc sighed. Jacob always had a habit of plowing into the center of things without regards to the perimeters. “It’s not that simple.” He poured the coffee, then took a drink. “There’re complications.”
Jacob pushed his mug forward on the counter, silently asking for it to be topped off. “Get rid of them.”
Luc laughed shortly as he did the honors. Same old Jacob. “Easy for you to say.”
“Yeah, easy, because I live by it.” He raised his mug in a silent toast to the edict that had governed most of his adult life. “I want something, I find a way to get it. I’m hell to live with until I do. Ask Janice.” He took a long swig of his coffee. “The way I see it, the woman loves you.”
Maybe he had even nurtured that hope himself, but hearing it said out loud showed Luc how ludicrous that thought was. Especially in light of what she had told him last night. She was afraid to love.
So what was last night about?
He waved a hand at Jacob. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“None so blind as those who refuse to see,” he murmured. “As for me, I’ve got eyes, don’t I? I see the way that woman looks at you. With affection—and something more.” He paused, wrestling with the wisdom of what he wanted to say. Deciding it was for the best, he forged ahead. “Janice never looked at you like that, you know.” He saw the surprise in Luc’s eyes and nodded. “Yes, I used to watch the two of you, too. She was the one thing I never went out for—until I was sure I wasn’t breaking the two of you up.”
Luc leaned across the counter. This was something he hadn’t realized before. “But you were in love with her.”
“From the third grade.” He grinned, finishing his coffee. “I’ve got a sense about these things. Just like I have a sense about you and—what’s her name, Alison?” Luc nodded. “Pretty name. Prettier girl. Want my advice, put your marker down, Jean-Luc, before one of those scruffy miners beats you to it. Gold doesn’t get passed up around here. And that woman’s pure gold.”
He’d never been a coward about anything before. This wouldn’t be the time to start, Luc told himself. He finished his own coffee before answering. “First I’ve got to find her.”
No-brainer, Jacob thought. “She’s probably at work. She said something to Janice yesterday about feeling guilty, leaving all those files piling up at the clinic.” He smiled in admiration. “She’s got a powerful work ethic. If I wasn’t already married, I’d go after her myself.”
“Oh, no, not this time.”
It was a joke, but Jacob didn’t kid himself. There was an underlying steel wire of truth in the warning. “Don’t worry. Janice and I have our ups and downs, but as far as I can tell, we’re perfect for each other. Just like you and Suzanne—I mean Alison.”
The sudden pounding on the front do
or interrupted anything further that could have been said.
Considering her lack of sleep, she was incredibly energetic.
She’d hardly slept at all.
Alison had felt too wired, too happy to fall asleep last night. It had been all she could do to keep from singing.
This morning, though, was another story. She hadn’t stopped humming and singing under her breath since she’d left the house. She’d crept out of bed early, careful not to wake Luc. Careful not to mar the aura that last night had created.
Determined to catch up on the work she’d allowed to pile up, Alison had arrived at the clinic before Shayne. She was going to need more time off and she didn’t want to feel badly about it, even though Shayne had told her that she could take all the time she needed. Visitors weren’t exactly commonplace in Hades.
Maybe that would change with the hotel. Jacob had given every indication of wanting to utilize her idea. Even Janice had come around, as long as she knew she didn’t have to remain in Hades to see the project through.
She didn’t see why the woman hated it so. Hades had a lot going for it if one’s main focus in life wasn’t getting all the latest cable channels.
Picking up another armload of files, she moved to the next filing bin. Janice and Jacob were leaving tomorrow and she wanted to go with Luc to see them off.
Leaving. The thought brought a slight frown to her lips, halting the song she was singing. This was going to be her last night with Luc as his “wife.” Tomorrow, Jacob and Janice would be gone and with them the need for any kind of pretense.
Would Luc still want to see her after this? Would what had been started behind closed bedroom doors abruptly end, as well? She wished she knew. She’d opened her heart to him last night and now she didn’t want that to change.
But she couldn’t very well come out and talk to him about that even though she didn’t like hanging back. She’d always taken the proverbial bull by the horns rather than adopt a wait-and-see attitude. But she couldn’t ask him what the future held for them after his friends boarded the plane. That would be putting pressure on him and she knew how men were about pressure.
This was going to be frustrating as hell, she thought, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Maybe he was even glad the charade was going to be over. He’d already mentioned that he didn’t like carrying on the pretense. Another man would have used it to his benefit, to keep her in his bed.
But Luc wasn’t another man and that was why she loved him.
“What are you doing here so early?”
She didn’t jump, she realized a second after she turned around to look at Shayne in the doorway. Feeling like a person in the throes of a magical cure, she indicated the files. “I thought I’d catch up on what I left behind yesterday.”
Woman was one in a million, he thought. Shayne slipped on his lab jacket. “Remind me to thank Luc again.”
She paused, her fingers holding her place between Smythe and Smurmir. “For what?”
“For you.” He unlocked the cabinet where he kept his supply of prescription medication. “All those endless months of beating the bushes, trying to find a nurse to come up here, all I can say is, you were certainly worth waiting for.”
She’d always been a hard worker, but she’d never been one to garner praise. Maybe because she’d never been one to know how to accept it graciously. That, too, was about to change, she told herself. “You make it hard to think about leaving.”
The words froze him in his tracks. “Are you? Thinking about leaving?”
She slipped Esra Poole’s file into its place. “Well, when my internship is over, I’d have to decide if—”
Shayne didn’t let her get any further. Experience had taught him to nip things in the bud. “I’ve never resorted to bribery before, but whatever it takes to keep you here, I’ll get it for you or steal it for you. And if I can’t, Ike can. I’d ask Luc to do it since you two are closer, but if they ever created a man more honest than him, I’ve never met him.”
Not that she wasn’t about to sing his praises, but it seemed that Shayne was overlooking something very basic here. “He lied about being married.”
Shayne knew all about that. Ike had told him the circumstances surrounding the lie. Now that he thought of it, it was fortunate for all of them that Luc had lied. Otherwise, she might never have come here to them.
“That was just an unfortunate misunderstanding.” Shayne took his instruments out of the container where he sterilized them. “He did it under the influence of a few drinks too many.”
She thought of her own first foray into lovemaking with Luc. “I guess things happen when we let our guard down.”
There was something in her voice that gave Shayne pause. As private as Luc, perhaps even more so, he debated how far to venture. These were friends and the rules changed for friends.
“You know, Sydney says I have to be hit over the head with a moose before I notice the oncoming, stampeding herd. But if it’s not butting in too much, I would like to say that I’ve noticed a change in Luc lately. This charade the two of you have been caught up in seems to have taken root.”
Her brows drew together in confusion. “What do you mean?”
How did he put this? “There’s a certain spring to Luc’s step whenever you’re around.” The assessment sounded incredibly corny to his ear, but it was true.
Alison stopped filing. The edge of Jason Evers’s file wrinkled as she clutched it between her thumb and forefinger. “Do you think?”
“I think.”
And then the front door of the clinic slammed against the opposite wall as someone pushed it open. “Shayne!”
“Back here, Ike.”
Alison caught her breath when she saw him. Ike was dirty, with dust and soot on his clothes and face.
“What the hell happened to you?”
The answer wasn’t direct. “Shayne, bring your medical bag. There’s been a cave-in at the mine. At least fifteen men have been hurt and there’re still some trapped inside. I’ve sent out the alarm for every able-bodied male in the area.”
A single thought came to Alison. Luc!
Chapter Sixteen
It amazed her how quickly her heart could launch itself into her throat. Alison was at Ike’s side instantly. “Is Luc there?”
“Probably by now. I sent Yuri to get him. Yuri’s pretty shook up,” Ike told Shayne. He was talking to the latter’s back as Shayne quickly went to the medical supply cabinet and gathered together what he felt he’d need at the site. “He was supposed to go in today, but he was sleeping off a hangover in the back room when we heard about the cave-in. We figure a minor earthquake might have triggered it.”
Shayne turned around, closing his bag. “How bad is it?”
“Bad.” It was the first time Alison had ever seen a grim expression on Ike’s face and it chilled her down to the bone. “I don’t know if we can dig them all out. It looks like one of the main bracing structures just gave way. We won’t know until we clear everything and get inside. But that could be days.”
Or longer, Alison thought.
Ready to leave, Shayne looked at Alison. “Think you can handle the clinic on your own?”
Shayne’s question pulled her up short. It hadn’t occurred to her that she’d be remaining behind. The clinic wasn’t due to open for at least half an hour yet. “Couldn’t I go with you? You might need the help,” she tagged on, hoping it would sway him.
In response, Shayne glanced at Ike. Ike nodded grimly. “Couldn’t hurt.”
Shayne opened the front door for her. “All right, Alison, let’s go.”
She didn’t remember crossing the floor.
She didn’t remember the trip there, either. It was as if she was suspended above time and space. Nothing registered. All she could think of was what if somehow, something happened to Luc while he was trying to help rescue the miners. She knew he wouldn’t hang back or put his own safety above that of oth
ers. That wasn’t in his nature.
She wanted to tell him things, so many things, pour out the contents of her heart. But there was no time.
Oh, please let there be time.
She sat on the edge of her seat the entire way.
The Halliday Mine was located five miles out of the center of town. Close enough for a determined miner to walk to the Salty if his thirst was strong enough, far away enough so most of the noise involved in running a mine didn’t bother the local residents who lived in the town proper.
The scene at the mine looked like the heart of a storm. Chaos was ensuing as men were hurrying to and fro, trying their best to handle this unexpected curve that nature had thrown them. There hadn’t been a cave-in at the mine for over ten years.
More than fifteen injured men lay on the ground, made as comfortable as possible under the circumstances by their comrades. The ones who had gotten out in one piece were trying to dig out the others who hadn’t been so lucky. The cave-in had been destructively thorough, taking out the gaping mouth of the cave and reducing it to barely a leering crack.
Quickly climbing out of the vehicle, her heart pounding, Alison lost no time in looking for Luc. Ike was right behind her.
She found Luc, along with Jacob, trying to clear the entrance.
It looked almost impossible without machinery to help them, but the Bobcat used to shovel large rocks away, Ike had told her, was down and inoperable.
Relief washed over her when she saw Luc. She saw surprise in his eyes. “What are you doing here? Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”
“I could say the same thing to you.”
There was no time to waste arguing. All he could do was shake his head.
“Can’t you blast them away?” Alison gestured toward the haphazard wall of rocks.
Luc raked his hand through his hair, frustrated. “Not without knowing what it’s like inside the mine. Any kind of blast might cause more cave-ins. Hennessey says the powder man’s inside.” He nodded toward the man for Ike’s benefit.
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