Don’t let your emotions get involved,she lectured herself.Concentrate on the job he’s hired you to do.
Having explored the caverns before, she knew the present underground passage connected three separate caverns. They’d searched the first two and found nothing; now they were on their way to the third. Here in the final stretch the tunnel would reach its narrowest point.
“You may have to duck and walk sideways to fit through the next section of the tunnel,” she advised. “We’ll be coming upon the last vestibule soon.”
“Capital.”
Something in his tone made her look more closely at him. The flickering light of the lamp revealed the sheen of perspiration on his face. He looked…queasy?
“Is everything all right?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” he muttered. “Let’s move on.”
“If you’re not feeling well, we can head back—”
“We’re not going back.” His jaw clenched. “I’m not traversing this blasted tunnel again.”
It dawned on her. “Do you have a fear of closed spaces?”
“They’re not my favorite places.” Lines of unease deepened on his forehead.
She thought back to their escape from the excise men. “You didn’t seem to have a problem when we spent the night in a cave.”
“I didn’t have time to have a problem. We were running for our lives through that tunnel. The cave didn’t bother me because the ceiling was high. And you distracted me.” He quirked a brow. “Care to do so again?”
Her belly fluttered. At his flirtatiousness, yes, but more so at the fact that this big, confident fellow had a weakness. The fact that he was trying to hide his unease behind a devil-may-care façade was rather endearing.
She couldn’t resist teasing him. “Wecouldmake love right now, but we might run out of air. And one doesn’t want to make excessive movements due to possible avalanches. Being buried in rock would be a terrible way to go.”
Above his cravat, his throat worked. “Unfair, sweeting. Bloody unfair.”
She hid a grin. On impulse, she took his hand.
“Come along, dear,” she said in the manner she would use with a frightened child. “I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.”
His hand engulfed hers, squeezing hard. “Have your fun now, pet. But know that I’m a man whose personal motto isquid pro quo.”
She tugged him forward, continuing the conversation to distract him. “Quid pro…what?”
“It means tit for tat.”
“You won’t be able to scare me with closed spaces.” She turned sideways to fit, and with a grimace, he followed suit. “I’ve spent too much time in places like this.”
“You have an unusual passion.” His hand gripped hers like a lifeline.
“It’s not a passion. It’s my livelihood.”
“You don’t enjoy collecting fossils?”
“I don’tdislikeit. There are worse jobs one could have, and trust me, I’ve had a few of those. Fossil finding has its merits. But is it my life’s dream to scavenge for old bones and preserved fecal matter?” Her shoulders hitched against rock as they continued to walk sideways through the tight channel. “Not really.”
“When you put it that way.” Amusement colored his voice. “Tell me, what is your passion?”
Their lovemaking blazed in her memory. She bit her lip.
His husky laugh echoed through the passageway. “Besides that, you lusty wench. What I meant was, if you had the freedom to choose, what would you most enjoy doing?”
She glanced at him. “I’d open a flower shop.”
