Licked by the Flame (4 page)

It was just as well. A relationship would have weighed her down. She had too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it in. Her father’s idea of sending her to Iceland came at the perfect moment and she’d been happy to dive in. Geo-Diagnostics had a vision for a world built on renewable resources and clean energy.
This
is what she did,
this
is who she was, and
this
would make her life meaningful.

She’d come here to fix things and leave some kind of mark. Nicolai Vladik was an egotistical chimpanzee if he thought he could stand in the way of that.

“The numbers just don’t match up with your recommendations,” she announced, pulling a dog-eared stack of pages out of the file folder she’d been carrying around. “Look, I’ve charted them all the way back to our start-up here and, to be honest, the variance is well within usual tolerances.”

“You’ve not charted the spikes, though, have you?” he asked.

“Spikes?”

“They occur randomly, and our instrumentation has found it difficult to adequately record them.”

“Our instrumentation is state of the art.”

“Then you should be able to chart the spikes.”

“What spikes? How can I chart something that my reports tell me isn’t happening?”

“They are happening. All the time.”

“Based on what? A few unsupported readings from a few malfunctioning sensors?”

“They aren’t malfunctioning,” he said. “I’ve been trying to tell everyone. The readings are inconsistent because the mountain is unstable.”

“The mountain could be sitting on top of the most powerful cache of geothermal energy ever located to date,” she insisted. “You think our company should just walk away because of some inconsistencies? I’m not leaving until I know for certain the mountain is unstable.”

“If you want to know if this mountain is unstable—and I assure you that it is—you need to stop looking at reports.”

“What, and just take your word for things?”

“No. Take the mountain’s word for things.”‘

Oh good God. He was one of
those
people? How could she not have picked up on that? Every jobsite seemed to have one of them, some closeted new-age earth lover claiming Mother Nature spoke to him and begging them all to form a drum circle, or whatever. She’d never in a million years pegged Nic to be that guy, though.

“So the mountain talks to you, does it?” she asked.

He frowned at her. “You believe mountains speak, Ms. McGowan? Well, I suppose that makes as much sense as relying on a bunch of outdated, irrelevant data to tell you what’s going on out there.”

“You have a better way to gather reliable information?”

“Yeah, I do. I study the mountain—the
whole
mountain.”

“And what exactly does that mean?”

“It means I don’t sit here with charts and lopsided numbers. I’ve gone out there.”

“You went out there, onto the mountain?”

“Yes.”

“But we don’t have permits for that.”

“I know.”

“Damn it, Nic! You mean to tell me you’ve gone out there, onto that so-called unstable mountain with no permit or authorization? That can jeopardize our whole operation here!”

“The mountain
is
what’s jeopardizing your operation. Your data is incomplete because your view of the mountain is incomplete.”

“Look, we had to pull every string we could get our hands on just to be allowed as much access as we got. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but there’s a huge, untouched glacier rolling along right next to our mountain. It represents years and years of pristine and uninterrupted climate study. We aren’t allowed to go anywhere near it. We can’t touch it or even breathe on it while we’re here. That’s why we set up our jobsite and our instruments way the hell over here on this side of the mountain, and not on the freaking glacier.”

“And that’s why you can’t pick up on the instabilities. I’m telling you, if Geo-Diagnostics gets the okay for more-intrusive exploration in this area, you’re going to regret it.”

“Is that some kind of a threat?”

“No. It’s a statement of fact.”

“Well, my data doesn’t support your so-called fact, Mr. Vladik. Drilling a few holes and installing subterranean sensors won’t cause a dormant volcano to erupt, if that’s what you’re implying. The fault lines here are just not that extensive. Now until you’ve got some hard, solid figures that you can give me, I’m going to have to proceed with what I know. And what I know is that reporting at this site has been sloppy and inconsistent. If I hear you’ve been outside the permit zone, you will be off this job and most likely you’ll never work in the industry again. Got it?”

She could tell that he wasn’t the least bit intimidated by her, but he did have the good sense not to laugh in her face. He merely sat back in his chair, folded his arms, and smiled.

“I understand completely, Ms. McGowan.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. Clearly you are going to need some convincing.”

“And just what, exactly, do you need to convince me of, Mr. Vladik?”

For half a heartbeat she thought she knew exactly what he was going to say. It was written all over his face, blatant in his smirk and the smoldering stare. However, he surprised her when he spoke.

“I will convince you that your concerns about this jobsite are every bit as valid as you believe, deep down, that they are. That’s why you came here, after all. You could have sent anyone else; your father has lots of henchmen who could have come, twisted a few arms, and gotten these guys off their asses. But you didn’t send them. You came yourself.”

He was appraising her openly now, and she had to admit she liked that she saw approval in his eyes. The smart thing to do would have been to shut him up and tell him to get the hell back to work, but instead she cocked an eyebrow at him and let him continue.

“You had reasons for traveling halfway around the world, didn’t you?” he asked. “You know there’s something different about this site, that unlocking the secrets here is more than just business as usual. This job is special to you, isn’t it?”

“All you need to know about me or my job here is that I’m highly motivated to get to the truth.”

“Are you? Even if the truth isn’t what your father wants you to find?”

“My father won’t proceed with a project if it’s dangerous. But he won’t be bullied into backing away from a safe, lucrative opportunity, either.”

“And what about you? What opportunity are you really after?”

“I’m doing my job, Mr. Vladik. Which is what you ought to be doing, too.”

“I am, as a matter of fact. But how can I convince you, I wonder?”

“Straight answers and numbers that make sense would be a great start.”

“Very well, then. You will have them. Despite what your father expects of you, Ms. McGowan, I believe you are eager to think for yourself.”

“Are you suggesting my father sent me here as his little puppet?” she asked sharply. “You believe you know me pretty well, don’t you?”

“Not yet. But I will.”

Presumption and arrogance. Total asshole. Damn his smoldering eyes and sexy tattoo.

“I’m not so easy to figure out as you seem to presume,” she assured him.

“Women who use their brains rarely are,” he replied, not even slightly derailed. “But I think for myself, too, Ms. McGowan, and you will find my way of thinking can be very, very persuasive.”

“Your way of thinking might just get you kicked off this job.”

He merely shrugged at her words and laid his fork down next to his half-finished lunch. “Perhaps. But it also just might save your life. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to be doing.”

With that he stood, bowed ever so slightly like he was some kind of diplomat, then took his tray and left. No one else in the modular building that housed the kitchen and dining area seemed to notice anything unusual, but Lianne could have sworn the air around Nic shimmered the way a hot tar road did in the middle of August. She was glad she’d been sitting down, because her insides felt weak—and hot. Damn, but she was hot.

Unfortunately, so was he. This was going to be a problem. Lianne had spent the whole ten-hour flight into Reykjavik psyching herself up for the challenge, forcing herself to pretend to be everything people said that she was: unstoppable, a ballbuster, a steamroller. She gave herself the usual speech, ordering herself to ignore the butterflies inside, to put on her big-girl panties and
want
to accomplish this job. She
wanted
to fix the problems here, she
wanted
to show these guys who was boss, she
wanted
to leave a legacy for herself.

Right now, unfortunately, all she
wanted
was Nicolai Vladik. And to get the hell out of these scalding-hot big-girl panties. For her whole life, no matter how hard she tried, they just never seemed to fit her quite right.

T
he square, impersonal workroom was silent. Lianne rubbed her eyes and wished she could rub away the throbbing behind them. The silence almost made the pain worse. It would have been nice to have some music or a radio or something, but no. There was nothing more than the sound of the tech she’d drafted to work with her tonight as he tapped endless streams of data into the computer and the constant
tick-tick-tick
of the battery-operated clock that hung on their beige wall.

Lianne frowned at both of them. Midnight. No wonder the poor tech had been yawning incessantly. Okay, so he had a right to be tired. They’d been going over the same data for nearly six hours now. No matter how she had him run the reports, the results were the same: incomplete.

Plain and simple, huge chunks of important data were missing. How no one had seen this before, she had no idea. All she knew was they had two weeks to figure out the problem and fill in the gaps or she’d be answering to her father.

Even worse, she’d be answering to herself. She’d never let failure be an option and she wasn’t about to start allowing it now. She could sleep when she got back to the States. Hell, she’d be getting plenty of sleep once she got home. For the next two weeks here she could easily afford to go without.

The tech, however, did not appear able to do that. He’d been drifting on her for a while now, and she could see he had nothing left to give. She’d better let him go get some rest or he’d be useless to her tomorrow. There was a fine line between getting hard work out of the team members and draining them dry.

“All right, Davis, you can log out. I think we’ve exhausted all our options here tonight,” she said and could see him practically rejoice at her words. “Head to your bunk and we’ll hit it again in the morning.”

“I don’t know what other data you can pull from this,” he said, pushing his chair back and stretching. “We’ve run it every way I can think of and still we’re missing parts.”

“I know. We’ve got to figure out why.”

“Faulty equipment is my guess,” he said, letting the machine power down as one by one the little blinking lights on printers, memory banks, and related equipment faded out. “Sandstrom Industries guarantees performance even in harsh environments, but I don’t know. They’ve had a lot of trouble on the westward side of that mountain.”

She puzzled over that. “The westward side? Isn’t that the glaciated side?”

“Our permits let us get right up next to the glacier in that area,” the tech explained. “We can’t get out and check them very often, though, since we’re only allowed limited access. I don’t know, but I heard some of the guys talking that maybe there’s a tolerance issue and we’re taking readings too close together or something. You’d have to get one of the engineers to explain it.”

“Thank you, I will. Now go turn in and get some rest.”

She didn’t have to tell him twice. He left and she stifled her own yawn but scanned the latest printout anyway. How could their numbers be so far off, the readings so inconsistent? Equipment failure could explain some of this, but not all of it. There was no pattern, no indication that any one network was acting up, one sensor group sending flawed data, or anything like that.

According to what she saw in front of her, all the sensors they’d placed around the mountain were working within expected parameters. The data stream appeared intact, no obvious holes or failures. Yet as they broke it down into specifics, clearly there were chunks missing. And yes, she did find one incident of an unusual spike, just as Nic had said, but she couldn’t attribute it to anything specific or plot a pattern to try to estimate the occurrence of another.

It was as if the equipment simply did whatever it wanted, magically sending back data in no particular order or frequency. She could not get a handle on this, or guess what could possibly cause it. Had none of it been properly calibrated?

She swiveled her chair around to reach the filing cabinet. Someone must have kept records of installation for each piece of equipment out there. She had to rummage through two drawers of folders, but finally she found the section she wanted. Sure enough, the team had followed procedure and logged careful records of the personnel and procedures at play when things were initially set up on site. Oddly enough, one name kept jumping out at her.

Nicolai Vladik. He seemed to have been involved in this project from day one—no, even before day one. Before the team had arrived here to survey and install the various equipment, Nic was listed as being a consultant. It seemed he hadn’t been in favor of the site study, either. She pored through the folders, scanning for his name and finding it everywhere.

He’d been involved in obtaining their initial permits—and that process had taken far longer than anyone had expected. And here was documentation that Nic had been instrumental in securing the contract with Sandstrom Industries, the firm that customized and manufactured all their detection equipment—the equipment that, so far, had proven to be practically useless.

And now Nic was still here, still on the site, and still acting like he called the shots. Clearly if she wanted to find out what was really going on, Nic was the key. She doubted he’d just come right out and explain everything to her, though.

She was going to confront him, of course, even if she knew he wouldn’t give her a straight answer. Unless maybe he didn’t realize that was what he was doing. Perhaps if the guy was distracted, he might let some information slip, might answer her questions without realizing it. She’d have to find just the right method of distraction.

It took about half a second to imagine what that might be.

He could feel her. She wasn’t asleep, even though it was the middle of the night. Everyone else had gone to their rooms, shut down for some rest. But not Lianne. She was still working. He could sense her, sense the agitation and weariness in her. Something else, too…he could sense that some other emotion surged within her. What was it?

He would have to probe a bit deeper if he wanted to feel it with more clarity. Did he dare? He knew he shouldn’t. His energy was already nearly depleted simply by maintaining his outward appearance, his human behaviors. He really shouldn’t be wasting himself this way, useless mind scans and remote sensing.

But Lianne could help him reclaim his waning energy. One night with her and he’d feel like a new man. He needed her…badly. It would be a simple matter to reach his mind out to hers, to slide inside her thoughts and take control. He had already touched her mind to learn she was tired and vulnerable. She would be easy prey for him tonight.

He was alone, standing in the chilled moonlight just outside the small building that housed the bulk of their work space. Shutting his eyes to the barren landscape around him, he let his mind reach out, stretch itself until he was not only sensing Lianne, but he was with her. He could see her, smell her, feel the conflict that waged inside of her. Carefully, he touched her with his thoughts.

She startled. The feel of her jumbled emotions and the sheer force of her spirit was jarring. He pulled back, lingering just enough to sense her at a distance. She was not quite aware of his presence, yet he sensed that she glanced over her shoulder. Twice. He could feel her tension, her wariness.

Carefully, he probed just a bit deeper—what had she been thinking? Did tempting thoughts of sensual curiosity fill her mind as they did his? He tried to soothe her, keep her calm and submissive, all the while he explored her emotions.

Yes, her thoughts were warm, but not for the reasons he’d hoped. She’d been filled with questions regarding his involvement here on the jobsite, his actions throughout the project. He could feel suspicion—she distrusted him. But something more, too. Attraction was there; yes, he could feel it now, simmering just beyond reach. Her feminine need was very much aware of him, though obviously she was fighting against it.

Instinctively he retreated. She was not willing, even though the first embers of desire for him burned beneath her surface. Would he ignore her wishes? He could make her willing; he knew what to do. His mind was ancient and he’d long ago learned the ways of human passion. His very thoughts held the power to control her yearnings.

But he would not. He wanted Lianne, but she wanted something, too. He would find out what that was and then use it to redirect her efforts on the project, among other things. Gently he let his mind embrace hers, wrap her in his own energy and allow the heat of his desire to seep in and join hers. She would share her secrets.

He breathed in her emotions. So much of her was still hidden to him, but he touched enough of her soul to spark the embers smoldering there. He wanted her, and soon she would want him. His mind caressed hers and he felt her soften.

“What are you doing to me, Nicolai Vladik?”

She was speaking to him? His thoughts were frozen. How could a human know that he had invaded her mind? They did not communicate this way; they did not possess abilities to speak between minds. Yet he had felt her words just as clearly as if he stood next to her.

“I’ve got work to do and problems to solve,” she went on. Her thoughts rambled and he could feel the turmoil inside her. “Why can’t I keep my mind off of you?”

“Because you want me,” he sent back a reply.

“Yeah. I guess I do.”

“And you know I want you,” he replied, keeping his touch gentle yet sending enough heat that she could not deny the truth.

Emotion churned inside her, making her mind hard to discern. He could make enough sense of her to understand what she felt, though. She
did
want him. Her thoughts, though, weren’t directed to him. She had no idea he had strayed into the privacy of her mind. This internal dialogue Lianne carried on was meant for herself alone.

“Great,” she said to herself. “Now I’m hearing his voice inside my head. Just what I need right now.”

She might think he was not what she needed right now, but he knew for a fact
he
needed her. He simply had to convince her to feel the same way. Fortunately, she was making the task easier for him. As he caressed her mind, he could sense when her heart rate began to change. Yes, she was responding to him. He concentrated, pouring his desire over her, drenching her in his heat. It became easier and easier to reach just a little bit deeper into her mind.

Her thoughts were wide open to him. It was as if she spoke directly to him.

“You think you are so damn irresistible, don’t you? I know all about guys like you. You expect women to fall at your feet. Hell, if it wasn’t for this job I probably would.”

“At my feet is not where I want you,” he intimated.

He could feel her laughing response. “No, it’s not your feet I’m interested in, either. Damn it, but why can’t we have a little fun while I’m here? I know you want it, and I sure as hell don’t have anything to lose.”

Her thoughts and desire pounded inside him. He could feel her growing want and the empty abandon that went with it. His human form responded, his cock growing hard and his emotions becoming as tumultuous as hers. She was letting go of her resistance and he realized he was the one falling under her spell.

“I need you, Lianne. I need to fill you and make you cry out my name. I need to soak up your passion and burn with your heat.”

He hadn’t meant to share his thoughts so blatantly with her but they came tumbling out, spilling into her consciousness. Heat burned within him as her need mingled with his. He found himself struggling to breathe.

“I dare you, Vladik,” she responded. “I dare you to get me into your bed and prove you’re hotter than all those other assholes.”

It was a challenge he wouldn’t refuse. She invited his touch, invited his heat. He would show her just exactly how hot he could burn, then he’d take her into the flame with him. This mental connection was more than enough to get her stoked and ready for him. She’d thrown down the gauntlet and he took it up with eager fervor.

She was like no one he’d encountered before; the raw energy churning inside her intoxicated him. Having his way with Lianne would be a rare delight. In his mind he touched her skin, traced scorching lines over her shoulders and along the enticing length of her arms. Her nipples puckered when he focused on them. There was sweetness on her lips and temptation in her soul. He could feel how she enjoyed the fantasy. Soon he would make it reality for her.

Numbers and columns and statistics had been nearly swimming in front of her eyes. It was late and she ought to be in her bed. She had pushed herself to concentrate, to make sense of this data, but hadn’t made much headway.

Nic.
Why the hell couldn’t she quit thinking of him? Because he was wild and sexy and she wanted to do nasty things with him, that’s why. Damn it, but she hoped he’d give her the chance. After she got a few more answers from him, of course.

He was at the heart of all her questions as she’d gone over the readings and reports tonight. Everything always seemed to come back to him. She’d obviously have to confront him tomorrow. She would go to him…she would ask him about…about his shoulders, and that tattoo, and…no, damn it. That wasn’t it. What would she ask him?

Hell, she could hardly think straight right now. She must be more exhausted than she realized, although her mind was far from shutting down. Her thoughts were a torrent of images, emotions.
Nic.
She couldn’t concentrate on anything but Nic. His face, his arms, his perfectly cut clothing, everything he had under that clothing…for a moment she thought she even heard his voice.

She was clearly alone here, though. Of course she was thinking of Nic. He wasn’t just uber-attractive, but he was involved in every questionable aspect of this disorganized project. To find any answers, she had to go through him. It only made sense that he should be on her mind. She just needed to quit thinking about how to get him naked and start thinking up how to get him to give her the truth.

It wasn’t truth she wanted right now, though.