Saffron (4 page)

“Yes.”

“This is why you have come?”

“Partially.”

“And the rest?”

“I’m here because this blasting site is dangerously near to a fault line of the Somalia Plate.” She glanced up at him to find an uncertain look on his face. “The earth is covered by tectonic plates, right?” He nodded. “Okay, well the African Plate comprises two parts, the Nubian and the Somali Plates.”

Saffron put the case farther back towards the wall and took his hands, positioning them palm down and out before him. “The African Plate.” She put a small space between them. “This one is the Nubian Plate,” she touched his left hand, “and this one represents the Somali Plate,” she said touching his right. “The space between them is known as the East African Rift Zone. There are historically active volcanoes along this rift and if you blast in the wrong spot there is no telling what could happen. I’m here to ensure the worst case scenario doesn’t occur.”

Shade stared at her, his dark brown eyes holding hers prisoner. “Is that the only reason you are here?”

“If you’re asking me if I want to stop your drilling, the answer is no. But, make no doubt, if that is the only way to ensure we don’t expose a mantle plume which could devastate the area, then I will shut you down.”

“You are honest, Saffron.” He took her hand and squeezed it gently.

“If the two of you are done playing kissy face do you think we could get going?” Kenric’s disapproving tone skated across the air.

She looked up to see a dangerous expression on his face. He was pissed off. In her peripheral she saw Shade wink and stifled a laugh. She was well aware of what Shade was doing now.

“I don’t think we are. Can you leave us? There’s seven minutes yet before we have to leave.” Shade’s voice mocked him.

“Out!” Kenric barked.

Shade rose and bowed over the hand he still held. “I would love to hear more about this, Saffron. Perhaps we can talk on the ride down.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

“See you soon then.” He grinned and left the room, leaving her alone with an angry Kenric.

She got to her feet and grabbed her bag only to find that he’d moved like lightning and was standing inches from her. His eyes were harder than diamonds.

“I thought I told you to have your stuff in my room.”

“I heard you bark an order, but, like I told you before, I don’t answer to you. I’ll be keeping this room.” She trailed her index finger along his lower lip. “However, if you want to bunk in here with me, I have no problem with that. And, just so you know, I don’t like boots in bed either.” She walked out and headed to the main door.

She knew she shouldn’t tease him, shouldn’t antagonise him, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted him again. Thrusting deep. Hell, she wanted his cock in her mouth. She wanted to take him away from all this and sequester him in a place of her own choosing and keep him there for as long as she wished.

He was on her heels and joined her as she grabbed some food to take with her. Just before they stepped from the dark corridor to the morning sun, he grabbed her and pressed her back into the wall.

“What game are you playing, Doc?”

“Unlike you, I don’t play games. I have a job to do. As do you, and it seems like you have a new problem. You can’t seem to keep your hands off me. So I should ask you what game you’re playing.”

He took her mouth in a bruising kiss, jerking away before she had got enough. “I’m not the only one with the hand problem. You know you’re wet with need and it’s going to drive you crazy all day wanting me to shove my cock into you and relieve the ache.”

With that he shouldered through the door and went outside. She shuddered as his words sank in. He was right. She craved him more than anything. And, given what she was and who he was, that could be a problem.

Chapter Three

Kenric wiped the back of his hand across his brow and rolled his shoulders to get the kinks out. Before he knew what had happened he’d sought out Saffron. She hadn’t complained once about being down here. Hadn’t got in the way, either. She did her thing and left them to do theirs.

Right now, she stood by Shade, talking. Jealousy rose within him and he did his best to ignore it. He didn’t understand why he was jealous. She shouldn’t mean anything to him, but she did. Something had been born between them as he took her in his room. He’d not meant to. Hell, he’d wanted to keep as much distance from her as possible but every time she sassed him he wanted to kiss her.

He despised the cool, indifferent look her eyes held ninety-eight per cent of the time. He wanted the passion-filled gaze he had seen after the kiss and after they’d done what they did in his bed.
Made love? Fucked?
He wasn’t quite sure what to call it. All he knew was that he wanted more.

Saffron had taken her shirt off and tied it around her waist, leaving her in only her tank top. He stared at her smooth skin and felt his cock respond. With a muttered curse, he headed towards them. The closer he drew, the more obvious the tattoo on the upper part of her well-defined arm became.

The tattoo depicted a male lion holding a flower in its mouth. The lion stood on a row of symbols he didn’t understand, and a snake sat at each end of the markings. The detail was amazingly intricate and he swore the creature was looking directly at him.

“I need a word with the doc,” he said to Shade.

“Sure thing.” Shade walked off after giving him a smirk.

“Come with me, I have something to show you.”

She fell into step with him and they walked away from the main site, down a different tunnel. He had to stop himself from reaching for her. Even covered in sweat and dirt she had to be the loveliest thing he’d ever seen.

“What can I do for you, Kenric?” she asked.

“I can think of many things, darlin’.” He shook his head at himself.

“I’m sure you can.” She stepped back farther and glanced around. “What did you need?”

“Were you serious about the whole rift and stuff?”

“Deadly serious.”

He ran a hand over his stubbled chin. “Are my men in immediate danger?” If they were he would run with the bare minimum of staff.

“I can’t say for sure. I’ve not seen everything I—”

“Boss!” The radio at his side squawked. “We got trouble up here!” The sound of an explosion and gunfire rippled through the speaker.

“Kuami! Damn it, answer me!”

He spun around and ran back towards the lift, all the while shouting out for the men below. The amount of relief he felt when he turned around and saw Saffron on his heels couldn’t be measured.

He paused at the lift and faced her. “Stay down here, away from the shaft. I don’t know what’s up there and I don’t need you in danger. Cole, stay with her.”

His man nodded. Her agreement came immediately and he grabbed her by the waist, hauled her in close and kissed her like his life depended on it. Her eyes were hazy with desire when he pulled back and winked. “Be right back, darlin’.”

The elevator lurched and headed up, with the men checking their weapons before they were plunged into darkness. He watched her until he could no longer see her, then he, too, readied his weapon, not needing any light to do that.

Topside was a mess. Men lay dead and dying and he ran over to Kuami and knelt by his body. His friend’s dark skin was covered in blood and his eyes stared sightlessly up at the sky. Rage grew within the pit of his stomach. He was tired of them coming and picking off his men like this.

“Goodbye, my friend,” he whispered, as he gently closed the unseeing eyes.

“Boss, come look at this.”

He swallowed his anger and headed to where Shade knelt. “Whaddya got?”

Shade held up a book and Kenric frowned. “Call your brother and have them come out and get these men. They deserve better than lying here and cooking in the afternoon sun. I’m going back down. Cole and I will finish up for the day—then we need to figure something else out.”

“I should go with you,” Shade protested.

“We won’t be long. Then we’ll take care of the families these men had.”

Shade nodded, his dislike of the situation obvious, but he didn’t argue further. Soon Kenric was alone in the lift heading back down and when he got to the bottom he was relieved to find Cole there, weapon ready, peering from around a corner. Saffron was behind him. She hung back as he explained what had transpired above ground.

The three of them walked back down the tunnel, to where they had been drilling most recently. “I’m sorry for your losses,” she said simply.

“It happens,” he replied, more gruffly than he’d intended.

“Death is common.” She walked in silence a little bit farther. “Do you know who did it?”

“Muslim extremists.”

“What?”

“We found a Qur’an on one of the dead men.” He shrugged. “Perhaps the rumour of us having found emeralds, sapphires and garnets started up again.”

“I doubt it.”

He paused and looked at her in the low light from their flashlights. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, the gems mentioned most in the Holy Qur’an are pearls, rubies and coral. So I find it doubtful they would want the stones you speak of, especially if the size of the mine wasn’t yet determined. It’s well known you are looking for deposits of petroleum and natural gas—maybe they want that. I would guess the book was left to throw you off. Just because someone carries the Qur’an doesn’t make them a Muslim extremist.”

He thought about that for a moment. “How do you know so much about the Qur’an?”

“I read, Mr Annson, I study, and I learn.” She gave him a small smile before pressing closer to the wall and staring as they progressed.

The rest of the afternoon he laid charges for blasting, after the sexy doc double-checked and ensured him it was okay to place them there. They were all hot and sweaty at the end of the day when they dragged themselves back to the lift waiting to take them topside.

He stood near her in the lift, chatting easily with Cole as they ascended. She still managed to smell so clean, he hadn’t a clue how. The motor ground slowly to a stop, leaving them submerged in the basket.

“Shade?” he asked in the radio. “What’s going on?”

“Motor’s overheated, Boss. It’ll be a bit before we get you up. Hang on, we’re working on it.”

He bit off a curse even as he reached out to bring Saffron closer, not caring one whit that Cole was there and could see. She didn’t protest, but he did see the questioning glance she sent him. His hand curled about her waist as he leaned his head down to her ear.

“You okay?”

“Fine,” she responded. “Your man Cole doesn’t look so good, though. Maybe you should engage him in conversation so he keeps his mind off being suspended in the air.”

Sliding his gaze to his friend and co-worker, he found that his face had a pasty sheen to it. Sweat beaded along his brow and his throat worked as he swallowed over and over.

“Hang in there, Cole. We’ll be up in no time.”

“Sorry, Boss. I… I’m fine so long as we keep moving.”

“Nothing to apologise for. Talk to me, man.”

He watched Cole sink to the floor of the lift and do his best to hide the tremors flowing through him. Kenric sat as well and smiled when Saffron followed suit, brushing their knees together.

Saffron left her physical likeness there in the semi-dark with the two men and took herself back down to the tunnels. She ran swiftly along until she reached the fissure she’d seen before. She slipped through and followed it down into a large cavern. Hovering in the air, she frowned as she spotted all the magma down there. Many more blasts and this would be allowed to escape up even sooner than nature intended.

She took herself to the cavern that held the natural gas they were after—they were off the mark by a good bit. At the rate they were digging and blasting, they would do much more damage before they found what they were after.

Saffron picked up on the sound of the lift moving and blinked herself back into her likeness in time to hear Kenric speak.

“You okay, Doc? Come on, we’re moving. Stand up.”

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed while she’d done what she’d been doing so she just got to her feet and said, “I must have dozed off.”

The look he gave her told her he didn’t fully believe that. Luckily he didn’t pursue her statement. When they reached the surface, she discovered that most of the men from the compound had arrived. Flare had brought her stuff from her room and she thanked him before heading to her provided tent. Once there she looked over her maps while they took care of the murdered men.

She marked the place she’d seen the magma and the spot where she’d seen the gas. It would be a tricky extraction or one hell of a big explosion. She’d just closed the map when the tent flap opened and Kenric stepped through, a bedroll in one hand. He tossed it to the floor and stared at her, his gaze a mixture of desire and pain and loss.

Biting back her abrasive attitude she asked, “Is there anything I can do to help out?”

He raked a hand through his hair and sighed with exhaustion. “Can you help them fix some food?”

“Of course,” she replied. She stood and waited for him to move out of her way. He didn’t. “Something else?”

“What happened to you in the lift? Don’t tell me you were sleeping. I nudged you a few times and got nothing. It’s like you had turned to stone.”

Shit!
“Perhaps I am like that when I sleep.”

His eyes flashed. “I don’t think so, darlin’. You forget I’ve slept with you in my arms. There was nothing like that then. So I’ll ask again. What the hell happened?”

She didn’t know what to do. It’s not like she could tell him the truth—that she was a goddess who’d once been known as Qetesh. Could she? Tell him she knew his thoughts, witnessed the passion he had for her in his dreams? That she had powers and could do many things that would be beyond the human scope of possibility. No. She couldn’t do that.

“I’m waiting, darlin’.”

Her stomach gave a little flip at the use of that endearment. She’d never liked them before, but, from his lips to her ears, she couldn’t find a problem with it.