And Babies Make Four (12 page)

He fitted the pieces of monitor equipment together, hooking them with such force that he almost broke the fragile latches. He was always breaking small and fragile things, like dreams and souls and trusting hearts. “Get this straight,” he growled, more to himself than to the computer. “The wedding was a farce. There’s nothing between us. There’s never going to
be
anything between us. So you might as well stop all your little games and apologies and whatever
the hell else you’ve got planned, because it’s not going to work. I don’t love Dr. Revere. She’s a bossy, uptight, frigid dictator with about as much sex appeal as an ice cube—”

He stopped as he heard a small, aborted gasp behind him. Whirling, he saw that she’d come up behind him, her light steps making no sound on the dirt path. His gaze swept up to hers, colliding with her wide-eyed, stunned, and horribly betrayed expression. He struggled to his feet, feeling as if he’d just been socked in the gut. “Noel, I didn’t mean—”

“Of course you did,” she interrupted, her icy demeanor returning. “And you’re quite right. I am bossy, uptight, and …”

She swallowed, as if not able to bring herself to say the word. He touched her arm, as if he could physically mend the wound he’d dealt to her pride. “Noel—”

She jumped back as if he’d burned her. “I’d prefer it if you called me Dr. Revere for the rest of our time together. I think it’s best. We’ve still got a lot of work to do in a very short time—including placing these monitors in the caves. Is your unit ready?”

“Almost. But, Noel, listen—”

“
Doctor Revere
,” she reminded him with rigid precision. “You saved my life and I’m grateful, but just for the record, I’d like you to know that I think you’re the most arrogant, self-centered, egotistical jerk I’ve ever met, and I’m counting the hours until I’m rid of you.”

Without another word she spun around and
walked back to her equipment pile, retreating before he could see her confident smile crumble to ruin and her eyes brim briefly with bitter, stinging tears.

The inside of the Eden caves was not what Noel expected. Like so many things on this strange and magical island, the limestone labyrinths were nothing like their dismal, weed-covered exteriors. The moment she stepped out of the sunlight into the cool, still, cathedral cavern she knew she’d entered a special and mysterious world. Switching on her flashlight, she saw foot-long stalactites hanging from the roof, sculptured like graceful plant leaves frozen in a subterranean breeze. Underfoot the cave floor was studded with “pearls” of limestone-coated snail shells. The walls around her changed from towering heights to crawl spaces in a matter of feet, and dark cuts in the porous stone led to passageways that could extend a few inches or a few miles. She rubbed her forearms and glanced around, breathing in the still, unearthly beauty of the underground world, and for an instant lost herself in the black, silent oblivion, where there was no pain, or disappointment, or betrayal.
As much sex appeal as an ice cube.

She set down her monitor in one of the dark alcoves, checking her compass with her flashlight to make certain she’d put it at the exact spot the computers specified. But even as she noted the precisely matched coordinates, her mind wandered. Bossy, uptight,
frigid
, she thought angrily. He had no right to
say those things. Not after the way he held me after my fall. Not after he stroked my hair, and said words that made me believe he cared—

A scrape on the rock behind her jerked her thoughts back to reality.

“I’ve set out all the monitors except for one.” Donovan walked up beside her. “The last goes a few yards up in this passageway.”

“Fine. I’ll take it.” She reached out for the handle of the heavy unit.

He swung it away of her grasp. “No way. This thing is three times as heavy as the ones you set out. I’ll take care of it, so you can go outside and wait—”

“You go outside and wait.” She made another grab for the unit. “I don’t want to argue.”

“Neither do I, considering we’re standing in a seismically unstable cave.” He hoisted the unit on his shoulder and started cautiously down the uneven, rock-strewn passageway. “But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a woman take a risk in my place.”

“Why not? You don’t seem to have any trouble
insulting
them,” she replied, hurrying after him.

“Look, I wasn’t—”

He started to whirl back around, but stopped as he was almost overbalanced by the heavy piece of equipment. Instinctively she reached out to help him, but drew her hand back just in time. Watching his shadowed form competently readjust the monitor, she thought of solitary Atlas shouldering the weight of the world. The image brought a strange lump to her
throat, and she had to remind herself that he neither wanted nor needed her help.

“I didn’t mean what I said while I was unpacking,” he continued when he’d resecured his load. “I was just trying to get Einstein off my back.”

“Probably the first time you ever tried to get
anything
off its back,” she commented frostily.

She couldn’t see his face in the darkness—she didn’t have to. She could feel his anger building like a thunderstorm. “That does it. No amount of money is worth this abuse. Tomorrow morning I’m driving you back down the mountain.”

“But we haven’t finished—”

“We’ve finished, all right. You told me you were counting the hours till you got rid of me. Well, lady, I’m counting the seconds!”

He swung his light around and started down the long tunnel. Noel watched him go, grateful the darkness hid the sheen of tears on her cheeks. She tried to tell herself that she was upset over the Eden Project, but it was a deeper, wider loss that made her heart ache. Her mind told her he wasn’t worth it, not one single tear. But her heart knew that if she let him go now, like this, a part of her soul would stay as dark and empty as the cave around her. She wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand and pointed her flashlight down the corridor, catching the back of his receding figure in its yellow beam. “Donovan, wait. I didn’t mean—”

Her words stopped abruptly as a tremor passed through the floor beneath her. “What the—”

His curse cut her off. “Noel, get the hell out of here.”

“No,” she cried. “Not without you.”

“Jesus, this is no time for heroics! You can still make the entrance. Get out now—”

The world shook. Dust and rubble rained down on Noel, clogging her throat and blurring what was left of her vision. Still, she staggered forward, her single purpose to reach Sam.
I can’t leave him. I don’t think I ever could
.…

Another tremor rocked the cavern. Noel lost her balance and fell to the floor, pinned down by a heavier object. Coughing from the dust, she had just enough time to realize that the object weighing her down was cursing like the devil before she heard a roar like two freight trains colliding and the whole cave came crashing down on top of her.

The cavern was silent. Cautiously, Noel opened her eyes and glanced at the ruin around her. Stone and rubble were everywhere, and gravel dust lay two inches thick on her arm. She saw one flashlight smashed to bits, but the other was still working, its cockeyed beam shining on the wall of rock that blocked the cave entrance. She lifted her head, coming to grips with the fact that she wasn’t dead—at least not yet.

She craned her neck, trying to look into the face of the man lying on top of her, who’d used his body to shield hers.
Trust me, I’m no hero
, he’d told her. Then he’d gone and risked his life to save her own. “Sam, I’m okay,” she said, a reluctant smile playing on her lips. “At least I will be, once you move your carcass off me.”

He didn’t answer. Instead he lay sprawled on top of her, his warm breath tickling her ear. She shivered,
exquisitely aware of his body’s weight and strength, and her own body’s instinctive sexual response. Honestly, didn’t the man
ever
stop? “Come on, Donovan. This is neither the time nor the place for—”

She stopped, suddenly aware that he hadn’t moved for minutes—not a curse or a smile, not even a sneeze. He might be faking it—Lord knows she wouldn’t put it past the scoundrel. But if he wasn’t …

“Donovan? Say something, will you?”

No response. Not even a flicker of an eyelash. She scooted out from beneath him, trying to remember what she’d learned in her long-ago first-aid course. Pulse, check the pulse. Kneeling beside him, she laid her fingers against his throat, and almost shouted with relief when she discovered a strong, steady heartbeat.

Relief turned to panic when she lifted her hand and found it wet with warm, sticky blood.

“Sam!” She gripped his shirt and turned him over on his back, an effort that left her breathless and sweating. He lay still as death. She grabbed the flashlight and shone it on his face—and almost dropped it again when she saw the gash near his temple. “Oh no,” she moaned. “Please, God, no.”

Think, Noel. Think.
She unwound the bandanna from her throat and dabbed the cut, straddling his chest for a better reach. It didn’t look serious, but that meant nothing. Maybe he was bleeding internally. Maybe he was dying.

“No, you can’t die.” She’d never felt so helpless. Years of college, and she couldn’t even remember how
to treat a simple concussion. But then, she could barely remember her name at the moment. Other thoughts filled her mind, things she wished she’d said to him, needed to say to him. He was everything she thought she hated in a man. But he was also the man who’d won the hearts of the islanders, and shared the beauty of his valley with her, and sacrificed his own safety to shield her from the cave-in.

She didn’t understand him. He was a complicated man, an impossible man, a man that any sensible woman would avoid like the plague. But apparently she wasn’t very sensible when it came to Sam Donovan, because in the few days they’d been together she’d come to care more for the scoundrel than she’d ever thought possible.

“Please, don’t die,” she pleaded, her voice raw with emotion. “I couldn’t bear it. Help me, Sam. I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, for starters,” he suggested as he opened his eyes and winked at her, “you can get your knee off of my chest.”

Loving distress erupted into white-hot rage. She leaped and stood over him, shaking with fury. “You, you … ooh, I can’t even think of a word vile enough to describe you! Were you awake the whole time?”

“Most of it.” He propped himself up on his elbows and stared back at her without an ounce of remorse. “You know, they used to call me Lucky Irish in the service. But this is the first time in years that I felt like I deserved the nickname.”

If that was supposed to be a compliment, it fell well short of the mark. “You shouldn’t have done it. I was very worried about you!”

His smile sobered. “Were you, sweetheart?” he asked huskily. “Were you really?”

His gaze absorbed her. The unnatural stillness crept under her skin, unsettling her, making her keenly aware of the male animal beside her—of his strength, passion, and the barely restrained violence that flowed through him like an electric current. Suddenly she felt hot and breathless, as if all the air had been sucked out of the cave along with the light and sound. It was insane. A minute ago she was frantic because she thought he was dying. Now all she could think about was how much she wanted to sink down beside him in the anonymous darkness, and do all the things she’d dreamed about in her deepest, most secret fantasies—

She turned away, grateful that the darkness hid her blush. “We’d better start exploring some of these side passages. We’ve still got to find a way out of here.”

If there
was
a way out

“Damn,” Donovan cursed as he shone the flashlight on the pile of rock and rubble that blocked the passageway. “Another dead end.”

He heard a soft crunch of gravel beside him. “I guess that the third time isn’t always a charm after all.”

Her words were calm to the point of indifference, but he wasn’t fooled. He’d heard the ragged edge in her breathing, and saw the exhausted slump of her shoulders when she thought he wasn’t watching. The kid was scared to death. “Noel, we
are
going to get out of here. That’s a promise.”

“Well, of course we are,” she answered, too brightly. “Now, we’d better get started down another tunnel. Maybe we can try that one on the left?”

He nodded, and headed back toward the next tunnel. Considering it was their last option, he didn’t have much choice. He pointed his light into the opening, letting the yellow beam search out the scored ceilings and walls of the cavern. It looked promising—but then, so had all the others. Maybe his Irish luck was running out after all.

But if it is, it’s almost worth it, he thought, his mind returning to the way he’d felt when he’d first regained consciousness after the cave-in. He’d thought he was having another dream—where she was bent over him in the darkness, her hands roaming his skin with a touch that was at once angelically innocent and maddeningly erotic. For years he’d felt empty, used up, and useless. But her healing touch renewed him, pouring strength, hope, and purpose into his heart and mind. And into other less prosaic parts of his anatomy …