Settler's Mine 2: The Lovers

by Mechele Armstrong

  “I’m back, Amory. I brought my good shovel. I sure appr ‑‑” The man broke off. “Bren.”

  Bren nodded to the man. “Amory’s helping you out?”

  The man nodded, a hopeful look on his dingy face. “I think there’s a heartstone right beyond that rock. But my arm…”

  “Dusty. Give me that shovel, will you?” Amory reached out a hand for the tool with a pissed-off glare at Bren. “I got work to do.”

  The day had passed by when Amory returned to his own dig site, tools clutched tightly, a look of tiredness sweeping his face.

  Bren approached with a cup of water in his outstretched hand.

  After a moment, Amory took the beverage. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” Bren looked around the site, before his gaze settled on Amory. “Did Dusty find his stone?”

  “Yeah. It was in that spot.” Amory’s voice sounded resigned. His face pinched up with fatigue and worry.

  Bren patted the other man’s shoulder. Who’d have thought a touch of such a nonessential body part would trigger an electrical pulse? The current flagged straight down to Bren’s still rigid cock. “Nice of you to help him out.” More than nice. Amory had wasted a day of his own digging to help a man who couldn’t dig well on his own. Not many would have done that for anyone, especially a stranger. The act would cost him a day of digging. And a day he’d still pay for with his own cash to the mine for his site.

  “It was nothing. I happened by this morning. He was having problems.” Amory crushed the cup in his hands. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get busy.” He picked up the hammer and swung with vigor into the rock.

  The act was something. Not anything Bren saw every day. And Amory didn’t know what he’d done was special. How inviting.

  This was why Bren had interest in the man. The things he sensed deep down in Amory kept him coming back even when Amory’s bristly attitude said to stay away. Sort of like a chocota cactus. Full of spikes on the outside, but with a sweet treasure contained within. That the description matched Zelda as well wasn’t lost on Bren.

  Bren watched him a moment longer before heading up the cavern path. So much more existed to the man than the pissy front he put out for the world to see. Or at least for Bren and Zelda to see. Were they making him question vows he never should have made? Good. Amory needed to question what he’d gotten himself into.

  Zelda stood at the top of the path. Watching Amory.

  Her eyes took in every nuance of Amory’s body as he strained with the hammer.

  Bren walked up to her and her eyes never left Amory. He should be jealous. He shouldn’t like that his mate couldn’t take her eyes from another man. But, her actions didn’t elicit anything like that in him. Instead, they upped his own carnal desires.

  “Morning been OK?” Her gaze broke from Amory to look at Bren.

  “Yeah. Yours?”

  “Broke up a fight in the bar. Sent two people off station.” She didn’t have a scratch on her.

  Bren shook his head. His woman could take care of herself. “Any trouble with it?”

  “Fuck, no. They never knew what hit them.” She looked down where the clangs echoed throughout the mine. “He find it yet?”

  Bren shook his head. “He helped an injured man find his. He was having trouble digging.”

  Her eyes widened as she turned to walk down the path. “Well, fuck.” Her voice reflected surprise. They saw so many out for themselves, to find out someone had done something like that for a stranger was the oddity.

  “Yeah.” Bren didn’t have to say any more than that.

  Zelda reached out to take his hand.

  He grasped hers tightly.

  Moments like these, when they needed no words, were Bren’s favorites of the day.

  Linking arms, they walked together back up to their rooms, leaving Amory to dig, probably making up for his lost day well into the night.

  * * * * *

  Gemini sauntered up behind Swill and Tenack, who stood at the small bar in the mine they’d met at several times earlier in the week. “How goes it?” The bartender looked at him expectantly from across the bar, awaiting his order. “I’ll have Tenaglian whisky, please. Can I buy you two a round?”

  “Ayep.” Tenack nodded eagerly. The man always welcomed free alcohol.

  Swill grimaced, then winced in pain. “I t’ink I’ll stick wit’ t’is.” His lips had blisters all over them. Probably the inside of his mouth did, too. Stupid bastard. They looked better than they had, but would still take a long time to heal. Oh, well, he’d learned an important lesson. Never trust Gemini. Now would he carry that lesson through to everything? Gemini doubted it. Most never did. It made it easy to go on alone once he had what he wanted.

  “Why are you two at the bar anyway?” Whenever they’d met, they’d always been sitting at tables so Tenack could leer at the waitresses. The rotund bartender didn’t seem the type for Tenack to ogle. Not and leave Tenack alive anyway.

  “Tenack couldn’t keep ’is ’ands to ’imself.” Swill glared at the other somewhat shorter, squatter man. “’e pinc’ed a waitress’s ass. We can’t sit at t’e tables anymore. ’E’s got to wait on us.” Swill indicated the beefy bartender.

  Tenack shrugged as the bartender set down his drink.

  “He harasses my staff again, I’ll throw you all out on your asses. And have a talk with Zelda.” The barman sat down Gemini’s drink with a loud clink.

  Gemini appraised the wolf-like man, who met his gaze head on. The bartender thought to challenge him. “I’m aghast at my acquaintance’s behavior. I couldn’t agree with you more on their discipline.”

  The bartender blinked. “Damn straight. Just remember that.” He walked over to another customer while scratching his head. Did he have a clue what Gemini had said? Did he have fleas?

  Gemini hid a grin behind his glass as he sloshed back the reddish liquid. Wolfman had expected a confrontation. Nothing like giving them what they didn’t expect. And how many slunk away after being told Zelda would be called in? Probably most. She had quite the reputation. Though the women at the bar should count themselves lucky that Tenack had contented himself with a pat on the rump.

  “You didn’t mean t’at? Agreeing with that faint-’earted fop? T’at we deserve it?” Swill turned to look at Gemini while Tenack glared. “Did ya?”

  “The rules of engagement have begun, my friends.”

  They both stared back at him, no comprehension in their beady eyes.

  He sighed. If only he could afford better minions. Then he wouldn’t have spell out everything he said. “It’s time to play Zelda.” By the time she figured out what was going on, it would be too late. She’d think she had an ally; instead, she’d have an enemy in her ranks. From what he’d seen, she’d been quite distracted with the young miner, Amory. If that continued, she’d never see it coming. And Gemini intended to distract her all he could, all the while ingratiating himself into the mine’s politics. If only the boy would find his heartstone, that would unsettle everyone even more, whether or not Zelda was his heartmate.

  “O’.” Swill picked up his glass again to knock back a sip. The liquid in it was clear. Was that water? That was probably all his tortured lips and mouth could stand. “W’at do you ’ave in mind?”

  “From now on, you and Tenack do not have to keep a low profile. I want you to break rules. Get Zelda’s attention. Do most everything I told you not to do before.”

  “T’at, we’ll ’ave no problems wit’, will we, Tenny?” Swill elbowed the other man. The reason both men had signed on with him was the desire to cause havoc. Both men excelled at it, and together, they could do lots of damage. Reining them in had been difficult. Setting their natural instincts free should be quite easy.

  “Ayep.” Tenack’s eyes drifted to a barmaid. She noticed his appraisal, shuddered, and ducked behind the bar.

  “Once I’m in power, I’ll give you any woman you want, Tenack. Along with the riches for helping me. Bo
th of you will have what’s coming to you. All of it. But I have to take control first. Do enough to get noticed, but not to get thrown out of here.” Tenack’s women sometimes didn’t live past dawn. If he did that, Gemini wouldn’t be able to save him, and Tenack would be of no further use to him. Gemini best spell out that rule now. “No sex with women until I’m in power. But I will get there, mark my words. And then, you’ll have women at your feet.”

  “Now, t’at’s something to c’eer to. You in control of th’is ’ere mine.” Swill raised his glass toward Gemini, who didn’t clink his back. “Women at our feet.” Swill’s glass rested in midair for a few seconds before he pulled his arm back and took a sip.

  “First thing tomorrow, what I want you to do is dig.” Gemini pulled out a rolled up map of the mine. He pointed to a spot. “Set up your equipment there. Dig all you can.”

  “T’at’s rig’t near Zelda’s quarters.” Swill closed one eye, peering closely at the parchment. “Isn’t t’at spot off limits?”

  “Ayep.” Tenack chugalugged his whisky before loudly smacking his lips. He set his glass on the bar and motioned for another.

  Swill licked his own lips, winced, then glared at Tenack. “W’y are we digging t’ere? Besides to break a rule.”

  Perhaps Swill was smarter than Gemini had given him credit for. There was a reason behind where the digging would be, but not one he intended to reveal. “It’s a good place to start, is all. This will be your first bit of trouble. Don’t worry, there will be plenty more to come. Big trouble.”

  “W’at are you going to be doing? W’ile Tenny and I get into trouble? Causing some of your own?” Swill took another sip of the liquid in his glass. Even that made him wince. Did he eat through a straw? Might be the only way to get past his wounded lips.

  Gemini grinned over his glass. “Getting on Zelda’s good side.”

  * * * * *

  Amory rubbed the sweat from his face. Even with the chill always present in the mine, the exertion made him stay hot. Unless he was trying to sleep on his tiny bunk. Then, the chill would rattle into his bones.

  How many heartstones had he found the last two weeks? Plenty. How many had glowed for him? Not a one. Several had been claimed by other people. Once, he’d had a man walk by as he’d excavated, and the stone had glowed. Amory had thought it must be his. Until the man walking had rounded the corner, and the light had gone out. Amory had yelled for the man to come back, he had, and the glow had returned. If only that had been his. Not someone else’s to claim.

  Everyone digging shared heartstones with everyone else. They all had hopes of finding their own.

  The little space he’d been given to dig in was tiny. The dirty bunk he’d been given to sleep in had hardly enough room for him to turn over. He’d spent almost all his platinum on this one bid to find his heartstone. If he didn’t find it, he had no idea what he’d do.

  Zelda and Bren would stop him from digging the instant he ran out of platinum. So unfair was the heartstone trade. Took platinum and luck to find one’s heartstone. And sometimes, the two didn’t coincide.

  He had started to think maybe he wouldn’t find it here.

  In which case, he was fucked. Instead of being fucked.

  “Amory?” A deep, throaty voice called his attention.

  Prickles ran down his neck, as though something poked him.

  Zelda.

  Her voice did something to his insides. And he didn’t like it one bit. She wasn’t Tania; he shouldn’t be reacting to her this way. “What?” His uncontrolled reactions to both Zelda and Bren had him acting snappishly to them both. He needed to get control and stop his actions. Now rather than later.

  “You have a call on the space com. I intercepted it for you when I heard the message come through.” Zelda quirked a brow at him as if challenging him to say more. “Your father.”

  Amory looked down at his grimy hands to avoid meeting her eyes. Dust from the rock covered him with a coat of grit. He had two fathers. As his mother was mated to two blond men, his genetics had never been clarified. They must be checking to see how his search was going. Both of his remaining parents knew what a heartstone and lack of one meant. They’d tried to help him as much as they were able to. “Thank you. I’d like to take it.”

  He lifted his head to meet her gaze. She hadn’t had to bring him the message herself. He’d noticed since his arrival, he had received more personal attention than anyone else at the mine. Most dealt with underlings, not directly with Bren or Zelda, although Zelda was much more involved in the mine than most owners usually were. She held the mine in a tight grip.

  Perhaps his fathers could raise his flagging spirits. The ones that told him he was never going to find what he sought. The ones that told him his platinum would run out before the Fates ever granted him what he needed.

  Zelda held up a hand. “You can’t answer like that.” She shook her head. “Come on. You need to clean up first and then answer the com.”

  “But…” He didn’t want them to wait on him.

  “They’ll wait. I told them you were busy digging.” She took several steps before turning and motioning for him to follow.

  His mouth closed before he turned her way. Refused to let his eyes get drawn in by the sway of her hips. “How did you know that’s where I was?”

  “Because that’s where you always are. Your quarters are on this wing? I can send the com into them. You can take the call there.”

  He nodded.

  She went straight to his room without hesitation. She’d remembered where they’d put him.

  Somehow that sent a buzzing around his ears straight down into his stomach. So many came in and out of Settler’s Mine, and she knew where she’d placed him. “Yeah, that’s it.” He fumbled with the key before retrieving it from his pants pocket and opening his door.

  She ushered him into the Spartan room, which had little of his personal effects strewn around it. “I’ll get the call set up while you clean up.” She went over to a com box and began tinkering with it.

  He grabbed a cloth and went into the small bathroom. Wetting it with warm water, he began to run the wet rag over his face and arms.

  The water felt good on his hot skin. The coolness as the rag swept over his body, swiped away the heat emanating from him. He ran his hand with the cloth over his throat before walking back out in the room, still cleaning his face.

  He hadn’t talked to his dads since he’d left home because he’d been so busy digging. Hard to believe so much time had passed since his arrival here.

  Zelda turned to face him. She let out a throaty chuckle, which made him shiver in spite of his resolve not to react to her. “You missed a spot of grime.” Her hand patted her own cheek to indicate the spot he’d left.

  He frowned, trying to swipe it off. The cold rag suddenly wasn’t doing much to take away the heat from his body. When had the mine heated up instead of being chilly? Why did her appraisal make his body want so many things that it never had before? If he could have, an erection surely would have been imminent. Not that he knew what one felt like coming on, but he could anticipate and guess.

  He looked over at her, and in that moment, her eyes held him captive in a gaze that would melt metal. He couldn’t look away. Didn’t want to look away.

  “Here. Let me.” She stepped closer to him, reaching out a hand for the cloth. Her nails were painted red. Such long, slender fingers. Her scent invaded his space. Something wild and fruity. With a backup of musk. “Are all your parents Etruscan?”

  Nostrils flaring, he handed over the now cool, still wet cloth. “OK, you can try. My fathers are. Both of them. They settled on the small settlement of Pania in Etrusca. I guess you knew that already.”

  “Yes.” Gently, she wiped at his cheek. Her long nails scraped lightly across his skin. “Oh. Didn’t mean to do that. Sorry.”

  “It’s fine.” The path where her fingernail had grazed him tingled. The nail hadn’t hurt him.

  Sh
e rubbed the cloth in circular motions over his cheek as if trying to take away a sting. “Better?” Her voice dipped down lower.

  “Yeah.” He raised his head, almost leaning into her heated touch. He shut his eyes, the better to feel her hand.

  Her other hand came up to cup his other cheek. One side was warm and the other chilled from the washcloth. Her hand touched him like gossamer, so soft was her touch. She caressed his cheekbone with the uncovered hand, the warmth of her skin pervading his being. Such smoothness ran across his face. Like being touched by silk.

  He could take her touch for hours. His eyes opened to find her staring at him. Such beautiful eyes. Like liquid pools of brown that he could fall into and never find his way out. He drowned in the look in her eyes. Needed no life raft to get out. Didn’t want to escape her gaze, but instead sink into the feelings they brought about.

  She leaned in close. Her tongue came out to swipe at her glistening, full lips that parted for the pink tip.

  His own mouth opened in anticipation of her lips meeting his. Of tasting her. Would she be ambrosia?

  What the hell was he doing?

  He stiffened as the com beeped, reminding them both he had a call waiting for him to answer. This was crazy. He was about to kiss the boss of Settler’s Mine. And he couldn’t do anything else after that, because he had no damn heartstone. And he didn’t want to kiss her because she wasn’t the woman he wanted.

  Wasn’t she?

  No.

  She stopped leaning into him, but didn’t step back, so he took a step away from her. “Did you get it?”

  Her eyes glittered with something he couldn’t name. “I think I got all the grit off your face.”

  “Thank you.” He straightened. “For putting the call through to my quarters. I can take things from here.” He invited her to leave. Maybe once she left him alone, he’d get his senses screwed on straight. This couldn’t be happening.

  She tossed the cloth into the laundry hamper in one shot. “The com is ready when you are.” Her heels clicked along with the swoosh of the shutting door as she walked out of his room.