‘Is this where we kiss and make up?’ He moved closer to her.
A slight tremor belied the calm of her appearance. ‘Over my dead body.’
He couldn’t help laughing out loud. ‘Stop taking everything so seriously, Gem.’ He chucked her under the chin. ‘I was kidding.’
Her smile back was a bit too bright. ‘So was I.’
Though he recognised more than a little bravado in the comment, he decided not to pursue her meaning.
Her gaze moved beyond him. ‘What is this place?’ she asked in obvious awe.
As he followed her line of sight he could appreciate her sense of wonder. ‘It’s called a ballroom.’ She quizzed him with her eyes so he continued. ‘When a promising seam of opal is found the entire layer of dirt is removed, often ending up as a huge room like this. Big enough for a ball. Hence the name.’
‘So this is an old mine?’
‘No, a working mine.’ At her continuing puzzled expression he explained, ‘The motel and this mine are part of the same claim. They’re connected by that door you just came through, although the entrance to the mine proper is on the other side of the hill. Harry and I own and work them both.’
‘Okay.’ She nodded her understanding. ‘So what are you doing here now?’
He would have thought that was obvious. ‘Digging.’ He used his hands to indicate his semi-clad state.
She eyed him dubiously. ‘This late?’
He glanced at his watch. ‘It’s only nine o’clock. Day or night makes no difference to the total darkness back there.’ He gestured over his shoulder to where the tunnels began.
Gem’s blue eyes, alive with curiosity, flickered past him. Her interest was impossible to resist. ‘Want to take a look?’ he asked.
* * *
Did she ever! This had to be where Jamie had discovered the fossil, and maybe the skeleton was still on site. But—she glanced down at herself. Still in her good dress and heels, she was hardly prepared for underground exploration.
‘It’s not difficult,’ he said, as if reading her thoughts. ‘But it is dirty so if you’d rather leave—’
‘No!’ she jumped in before he changed his mind. ‘Now’s as good a time as any.’
Jamie crossed to a tunnel entrance where pieces of equipment lay among the uneven piles of dirt on the cavern floor. He passed her a hard hat with a torch attached to the front. ‘You’ll need this.’
The tunnel was about two metres wide and barely tall enough for Jamie to stand upright. He led the way, Gemma sticking close behind him. Every few metres more openings branched off into the darkness. Soft piles of dirt at one of the intersections caught her heel and she stumbled heavily into his back.
He turned in the confined space and pulled her to him. Her body flattened itself to his, her hands clinging to his upper arms. His bare skin felt warm and sweaty and solid beneath her palms. He smelled of good hard work. Silently she marvelled at the iron-hard mass of his broad chest; the underlying muscles were firm to the touch, the fine black hair covering them, soft.
He held her for a second or two longer than necessary before grasping her shoulders between his large hands and setting her up straight.
‘You okay?’ he demanded.
He peered at her from under the torch on his hard hat, his gaze travelling over her face, then wiped something from her cheek. His fingers were gentle and she trembled at the contact. Somehow she managed a nod; she’d be a whole lot better if he’d just stop touching her.
‘Damn stilettos.’ She turned away from the relentless blue of his stare to examine the snapped-off heel.
He let her go. ‘Here’s as good a place as any to show you how a mine operates.’
Her head swivelled in all directions. ‘But there’s nothing here,’ she protested, disappointed to note not one thing even remotely resembling a skeleton.
‘Yeah, look.’ He pointed to a clear delineation on the wall beside them. ‘See the line here—,’ he moved his finger several inches lower, ‘—and here?’
She nodded peevishly, unable to suppress her irritation.
‘The section in between is the opal-bearing layer. If any opals are to be found, that’s where they’ll be.’
He removed a small pick from the pouch around his waist, gouged out a piece of the clay and handed it to her. It was soft and crumbly, not at all what she’d expected, and crushed to slush in her hands.
‘Where’s the opal?’
He laughed. ‘If every clod of dirt contained opal I’d be a millionaire by now. Sadly, the exact location of those little buried treasures is nature’s secret. We mere mortals just need to keep searching.’
She couldn’t contain her astonishment. ‘So when you buy a claim you can’t even be sure you’ll find any opal?’
‘Chances are you’ll find some trace but whether it’s worth anything ... ’ He shrugged his shoulders dismissively.
The nonchalant attitude nettled her. ‘But that’s crazy. You could squander your whole life in a futile search.’
‘As a great many miners have discovered,’ he agreed. ‘But once you start mining it becomes—’, he stopped, clearly searching for the right words, ‘—an obsession. Every day could be the day you make the big find.’
She gave a brief cynical hmph. Anyone who relied on luck was a fool. Throughout his life her father had instilled in her his own strong belief that you make your own luck, as he had in building up a highly successful hardware business. Sadly, the wealth she’d inherited had all gone to feed Roger’s gambling habit.
Hand on her stomach, she quelled the bubble of bitterness that always rose at the reminder of what her ex’s addiction had resulted in. ‘That makes opal miners no better than gamblers.’ She spat out the last word.
‘That’s a bit harsh. You’re talking about most of my friends,’ Jamie rebuffed her. ‘Opal miners are adventurers. They love a challenge, and if a reward waits at the end of the day then the risks are justified.’
‘I can’t understand that mentality. A steady job. A regular wage—’
‘They’re not after wages,’ he interrupted, a muscle starting to exercise itself in his jaw. ‘I’m—they’re—after a fortune.’
‘So greed drives ... them.’ She hadn’t missed the Freudian slip.
His expression hardened. ‘Not greed. Need.’
She paused, fuming inwardly; he was so obviously in this game for the money. But she had to tread carefully. Her total disillusionment with the man he’d become had to be kept under wraps if she wanted to gain his confidence.
She bit down on her anger. ‘Need for what exactly?’
‘The need to believe in your dreams.’
She forced a nod, not trusting herself to speak. He was crazy enough to believe in dreams? What a fool! As a naive young girl she’d had a dream—of falling in love with a white knight. And she’d actually achieved that dream, only for it to dissolve into dust. The idea of white knights had been irreparably tarnished by Jamie’s precipitate departure.
Dreams were illusions. Dreams were dangerous.
‘And you have to have the strength to follow those dreams. No matter what stands in the way.’ His voice was quietly insistent.
‘Chase rainbows you mean.’ The words were out before she could stop them.
She made her lips curve in a gesture of appeasement. Controlling her exasperation with his over-simplified view of things was difficult but she couldn’t afford to alienate him.
‘What better place to do that than in Rainbow Cliffs?’ His dark eyes sparkled back at her with unexpected humour.
‘I guess.’
He stared at her for a moment as if weighing something up then grabbed her by the hand. ‘Come on. There’s someone you should meet.’
Startled, she offered no resistance as he pulled her back down the tunnel towards the ballroom. Finding it hard to keep up, she wrenched her hand from his.
‘Wait!’ She reached down and removed her other shoe.
He
stopped and frowned down at her before scooping her up in his arms. Instinctively her own arms wrapped about his neck. He felt big and strong and protective and she realised she liked the feel of his bare skin under hers. Through his shoulder she could hear his deep, even breathing. For a few seconds she closed her eyes, drinking in the raw masculine scent of his body.
When she opened them, their faces were only inches apart. She focused on the stubble darkening his jawline and immediately tightened her hold, fighting the sudden desire to touch the rough skin. Her gaze moved up to contemplate his upper lip, now beaded with perspiration. In spite of herself, her heart gave a lurch. It broke the spell.
Ignoring her pounding pulse, she concentrated on steadying her emotions. The power of his physical attraction was disturbing. But that’s all it was—physical attraction. That she could fight, especially with his new persona being so objectionable.
And how dare he presume she’d go along with his wishes without even asking?
‘Stop!’ she commanded. ‘I really don’t want to meet your dad looking like this.’
He didn’t miss a step. ‘I’m not taking you to meet Harry. I’m taking you to meet Gracie.’
An astonishing despondency flooded through her as his words sank in. Stupidly, the thought of Jamie being involved hadn’t crossed her mind. Although Lou had hinted at him not lacking female attention she’d neglected to mention that he had someone special in his life. Something twisted her insides.
Jealousy?
No way! Jealousy smacked of emotional involvement and she refused to acknowledge any personal feelings for him.
‘I’m not interested in meeting your girlfriend at the moment, either.’
‘You have to meet Gracie.’
‘I don’t have to do anything.’ They were back in the huge cavern. ‘Put me down!’
He let her go, slowly sliding her down his body. ‘You’re right, you don’t have to,’ he conceded agreeably. ‘But you’ll regret it if you don’t.’ He grabbed a t-shirt from the ground, dragged it over his head, and turned for the door. ‘Coming?’
The look he threw her was a challenge. He must know he had her over a barrel. If she did go, she appeared to be doing his bidding. If she didn’t, who knew what she’d be missing out on.
Curiosity won out. She gave a curt nod.
His mouth curved into that easy grin of his. He looked like a kid about to play the best trick ever.
‘Let’s go.’ He removed his hard hat then undid hers, the touch of his fingers on her neck spreading warm tingles through her.
Out in the motel hallway she followed his sure-footed stride, determined not to admire the unconscious animal grace with which he moved. He stopped outside a door marked ‘Cellar’, unlocked it and stepped to one side to usher her in.
This was getting a bit weird. Sudden doubt about what she might be letting herself in for made her hesitant. ‘Why are we going in here?’
His eyes glittered. ‘Gracie lives here.’
‘Your girlfriend’s a troglodyte?’ she deadpanned.
Jamie roared out a laugh. ‘Jealousy’s a curse.’
‘You wish,’ was all she could manage.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her inside after him. As her eyes adjusted to the dimness a large room lined with semi-filled wooden wine racks emerged. Against the far wall, raised to about hip level on four sturdy legs, stood a horizontal timber display case. A glass lid reflected the light, making the contents invisible.
Jamie tugged her forward insistently. ‘Gem, meet Gracie.’
Chapter 5
Gemma gasped. On a black cloth inside the glass cabinet lay the almost complete skeleton of a large sea reptile. Gracie was the plesiosaur Jamie had unearthed.
Two metres or so, end to end, it was the most superb specimen she’d ever seen. The tail was flat and tapered with four paddles rather than limbs attached to a squat body. The neck was incongruously long. The head was still covered by clay but sharp teeth were discernible in the open mouth. She could have sworn it was grimacing at her.
Jamie moved behind her, distracting her momentarily by hanging a bare globe from a hook above the cabinet. In the sudden glare, she caught the excitement in his dark-blue eyes.
‘Isn’t she a beauty?’ His deep voice was filled with pride, his self-satisfied smile uncontainable.
She looked down. The bright light shining over her shoulder created a fairyland. The hairs on the back of her neck rose as a rainbow of riotous colour leapt from the surface of the skeleton, dazzling her with brilliance. Ribbons of peacock green, flashes of royal blue, warm sparks of blood-crimson; the fossil was alive with an electrifying iridescence of the richest colours imaginable. Drawn irresistibly closer, she could see every bone exposed so far was either completely opalised or ringed with opal.
She almost stopped breathing. She’d had hopes of the fossil being outstanding but this ...
‘This is the most staggeringly beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.’
She wrenched her gaze away from the case to meet his eyes. His elation matched her feelings so exactly her pulse jumped. Here was the Jamie of old: the romantic idealist, everything a young girl could wish for—the Jamie she’d fallen in love with.
He grinned at her and for the briefest moment she enjoyed having him hold her heart as helpless as he once had. Until the ever-present warning bell sounded in her head.
The Jamie she’d known would never, ever consider destroying something as uniquely beautiful as this. She had to swallow down the resentment welling inside; nothing to be gained by dwelling on the betrayal of his once high-held ideals. For now, at least.
She turned her mind to more immediate concerns. ‘How did you find her?’ Her words emerged in a whisper.
His dark eyes lit up. ‘A few months back I came across a seam of opal like nothing I’d ever seen before and—it’s hard to explain—I had this feeling.’
Gemma shivered and, despite not wanting to, found herself smiling at his sheer enthusiasm, fully identifying with the thrill of the discovery.
‘Usually with a find I extract the opal piece by piece but this time I decided to move the dirt from above and below the seam. Bit by bit I could see the ribcage and neck bones emerging.’ He shook his head. ‘I had no idea she’d be this magnificent. When I finally unearthed all of her I moved her in here. I’ve been cleaning her up little by little ever since.’
‘Why haven’t you exposed the head yet?’
‘It’s too fragile to clean completely and I didn’t want to do any damage.’
‘I think you should leave it like that,’ she suggested. ‘The difference between the original skeleton and how spectacular it is when it’s cleaned up is fascinating.’
She gazed down again, her eye caught by something she hadn’t originally noticed, and the pulse in her throat accelerated. Molecule by molecule, opal had replaced bone, preserving all the amazing details of the plesiosaur’s internal anatomy.
‘This here,’ she said, pointing with trembling fingers to a cluster of tiny, glittery bones in the region of the plesiosaur’s stomach, ‘did you realise it’s an embryonic skeleton? Your Gracie was pregnant.’
Jamie nodded. ‘Yeah, I know. Kinda sad, isn’t it?’
Sad? God, yes. But it also made this specimen an unparalleled discovery.
Her pulse quickened and her words escaped in a rush. ‘Gracie’s very special, Jamie. There’s only one other pregnant plesiosaur fossil in existence.’
‘Is that right?’ He seemed genuinely interested.
A tiny glimmer of hope beckoned. If she could just calm down and take things slow, continue working away at his conscience, she might actually be able to get through to him.
‘It was unearthed in America a few years back. The man who found it sold it to a museum in Kansas. He wanted it to remain in the same state it was discovered.’
Subtle enough? Jamie’s response was a flippant ‘Yeah?’ Apparently not.
He gestured grandly
at his fossil. ‘Bet it’s not as beautiful as mine, though.’
‘The other plesiosaur is larger but it isn’t opalised. You do realise what that means, don’t you? It makes Gracie one of a kind. She’s totally unique, Jamie.’
He shook his head at her. ‘Do you honestly think I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, Gem?’
Her heart plummeted; he knew her too well.
Suddenly it was all too much. ‘Please don’t dismantle her.’ The pleading note in her voice made her cringe inside but she plunged on regardless. ‘Gracie’s irreplaceable. A ... a miracle.’
He opened his mouth, no doubt to cut her down, then a change came over his features. She held his gaze and for the first time thought she detected lines of self-doubt around his eyes. Had she managed to prick his conscience?
‘I don’t want to argue with you anymore,’ he said at last. ‘We should go.’ He reached up to remove the hanging globe.
No. She couldn’t leave it like this. He was obviously battling something within himself and she needed to keep him talking, needed to keep the lines of communication open between them until she worked out a way to make him accept the enormous importance of his discovery.
‘One last look. Please.’
Her body sagged in relief at his reluctant nod. She spaced her fingers on the edge of the display case and leaned over it, drinking in the beauty of the stunning relic inside, this priceless glimpse of life from the ancient past. How privileged she was to have seen it. How unutterably sad to never have the chance to see it again.
‘Why have you called her Gracie?’ she asked, shifting her gaze from the fossil to him.
‘I named her after my mother.’ His smile was sad around the edges and unexpectedly tugged at her heart.
‘I remember you talking about her,’ she said softly. ‘You were just a kid when she ... passed away.’
‘Fourteen. She may have died a long time ago, but I can still see her.’ His hands rested possessively on the glass case.
‘What was she like, your mum?’
‘She laughed a lot. And she was beautiful ... before she got so sick.’ He coughed into a hand. ‘Chemo’s brutal. I wanted to keep her safe but ... ’ He gazed down at his find.
Falling In Love Again Page 5
