Magenta Mine: An Invertary Novella (5 page)

Magenta choked on her cookie.

7

Harry could have sworn he heard a muffled cheer. He would have investigated, but he didn’t care about the strange noises in the mine. He cared about Magenta. He grabbed a bottle of water and thrust it at her. He patted her back and hoped he wouldn’t have to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre. At last she had seemed to bring herself under control.

“That wasn’t funny,” she said.

“I wasn’t joking.”

There was silence while Magenta stared at him and Harry tried to figure out what she was thinking. His whole world telescoped to include just her. She was beautiful. With her wide eyes, heart-shaped face and skin as smooth as cream. No. Beautiful wasn’t the right word. Unfortunately, he didn’t know of a better one. She was the walking, talking version of Einstein’s equation for general relativity. That’s how perfect she was.

At last she put her hand on his arm, licked her full bottom lip and blinked up at him.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think about you that way.”

If he hadn’t been prepared for that response, it would have felt like a punch to the gut.

“No, you probably don’t
consciously
think about me like that. But you
are
attracted to me. That’s why I planned to seduce you. I want to
make
you think of me that way.”

Her hand fell away. She stood and paced away from him.

“Stop messing around, Harry. I’m not attracted to you. I don’t even want to talk to you.” The fact she blushed and couldn’t look him in the eye spoke volumes. She was lying. He just wasn’t sure why.

“Your pupils dilate with desire when I’m near you.” He stood slowly, his focus on Magenta. “You lick your lips when you talk to me. As though you’re getting ready for me to taste them.” He prowled slowly towards her. In his mind she was prey. His prey. And she wasn’t getting away. Not this time. Not ever. He lowered his voice, making his tone a caress. Watching her shiver in response. “You cross your arms in an attempt to barricade yourself from me, but it never lasts long. Instead you stroke the inside of your wrist, as though you want me to touch you there. You tuck your hair behind your ear when you look at me. It’s an unconscious show of your femininity. An attempt to make yourself more desirable to me.” He kept her in his sights. “You can’t make yourself more desirable to me. It’s impossible. The desire I feel already consumes me.”

She retreated from him until her back hit the wall behind her. She held out her hand, palm facing him, and all he could think about was kissing it. Or making a circle with his tongue. How would she taste? Sweet? Spicy?

He moved steadily towards her. “Your cheeks flush when you’re near me. I wonder what other parts of your body flush for me too.” At last he was in her space. They weren’t touching, but he was close enough to feel the heat coming from her much smaller body. Without her usual platform boots the top of her head came to under his chin, and he knew that she would tuck against him perfectly.

“Your heart beats faster when I’m around.” He ran a finger down her jaw line. A faint sigh of a touch. Her breathing stuttered. “I see it pounding here.” He gently caressed the vein at the curve of her jaw that always betrayed her desire. “Your stomach clenches when you try to dismiss me.” The backs of his fingers brushed her cheek. Skin so smooth it was porcelain under his touch. “Your hand often flattens on your stomach, as though you’re trying to ease the tension.”

She put a hand on his chest to stop him. It seared.

“I’m not some body-language test case from a book you read.” Her voice was breathless.

“Am I wrong, though?”

She let out a grumpy-sounding sigh. “Okay, you win. I’ll admit, I think you look good. I’d have to be blind not to notice the way you’ve turned out. Half the women in town are drooling over you. Even if I did find you attractive, it doesn’t mean I want to do anything about it. I find Lake attractive, but he’s marrying Kirsty. See? Attraction doesn’t mean anything.”

As his hand softly, gently moved to clasp the back of her neck, he leaned towards her ear. His voice a whisper against her skin. Her breathing strained now. “You want me as much as I want you. And I want you more than I want my next breath.”

“I don’t want you.” She didn’t sound convinced.

“Are you sure? Wouldn’t you like to touch just this once? Kiss one time? If only to see what would happen. I bet it would be explosive. Every time you’re around me I feel the air ionise. I know touching you, being touched by you, will blow my mind. Don’t you want to see if I’m right?”

“We’re not even friends,” she whispered. Her golden eyes were wide, beseeching him to understand.

“We’ve always been much more than friends.” His words feathered across her cheek to her lips. “We were meant for each other, Magenta mine. We just lost our way.”

Her fingers fisted in his T-shirt. “We didn’t lose our way. You went to university. You left me.”

“I’m here now.”

Gently, softly, he touched his lips to Magenta’s mouth.

8

Time froze for Magenta. She found herself paralysed by Harry’s touch. As his sensual mouth teased her lips, she felt the tightly sealed box within her crack. Teenage memories of wanting Harry seeped through the gap. She’d been thirteen and desperate for him to notice her as a girl. Desperate for him to touch her. But he never did. Instead he’d left Invertary. Left her behind to defend herself at school. Left her alone without him. Aching for him.

“Stop it.” Harry’s word rumbled against her lips. “The past is gone. This is now.”

Harry hadn’t lost his knack for reading her mind, and with those words he pulled her back into the present. She felt his large hand span the small of her back, pressing her body flush against him. He was a solid wall of strength, his muscles vibrating with restraint as he held her firmly but gently.

Her brain had short-circuited. Kissing Harry was a teenage dream come true. A dream she found herself indulging in, even though common sense told her to stop before she got hurt. Her hand curled tighter into his T-shirt. His tongue brushed across the seam of her lips, making her weaken. A gasp escaped. Harry took advantage, angling his mouth so that he could taste all of her. Claim all of her.

Her body melted against his as she let him take control. The taste of him was a feast for her senses. She felt the blood rush through her veins and bubble with erotic effervescence. The air swirled around her. Somehow, being in the darkness and stillness of the mine, being in a place she thought of as hers alone, made the intimacy increase tenfold.

His lips moved from her mouth to her neck, teasing kisses down to the curve of her shoulder. He bit her gently before sucking her skin into his mouth. She heard herself whimper and didn’t care.

“You are so freaking delicious.” The words were a vibration against her skin.

He traced his tongue up to her ear before nibbling her earlobe. “I want to eat you all up.” His desire was little more than a low, rumbling breath against her ear that sent shivers rippling through her body.

His scent overwhelmed her, filling her head with romance-novel images of sun-kissed fields and Harry bare-chested in faded jeans. She was losing her mind. Becoming some weak, girly person who ached for a man—and she didn’t care. In fact, she wanted to float away on the feelings he induced in her. Float away and never return.

Harry’s huge hand engulfed her breast and made her ache. There was too much material between them. She wanted it gone. Now. His thumb teased her nipple, and Magenta growled into his mouth. More. She wanted more. Needed more. All thoughts of keeping away from Harry were gone from her head. All that was left were the loud, desperate pleas of her body. And all her body wanted was Harry.

“More,” she ordered.

Harry complied. His hand swept under her T-shirt and back to her breast. She made a noise of complaint. Her bra was still between them.

“You feel better than I ever imagined,” he said against her lips. “I want you in my mouth.”

Yes. She pressed into him. That was what she wanted too. More than she wanted to breathe.

“What’s happening in there? Are you kissing? Please tell me you’re kissing.”

The excited voice of her friend cut through the moment, bringing Magenta back from the warm outdoors and into the dusty mine where Harry was clutching her closely, his fingers teasing her breast. His breathing laboured. His heartbeat a thud against her skin.

“Go away,” he growled at his cousin.

Magenta’s brain was struggling to process the interruption. Part of her couldn’t understand why Harry had stopped kissing her. It was the same part of her that wanted to throw him to the ground and jump on top of him.

“Harry?” one of the twins said. “You sound all He-Man, Master of the Universe.”

“I should never have loaned them those comics,” Harry mumbled against Magenta’s ear, making it tingle.

A cold wave of reality washed over Magenta. She stiffened in Harry’s arms. He softly kissed her cheek, aware the moment was shattered.

“Magenta?” It was one of the twins again. “What’s happening? We need to know.”

Magenta pushed away from him, tugging her T-shirt back down. She kept her eyes from Harry.

“Harry, honey”—that had to be Claire—“what’s going on in there?”

Magenta had pulled herself together enough to glare a threat at him. He’d better not tell anyone anything. He cocked an eyebrow like he was amused by her silent demand. With his eyes still on her, he opened his mouth to speak. Magenta clenched her fists.

“Magenta and I are working out our differences,” he told his cousins. “Not that it’s any of your business, but there was definitely kissing. Great kissing, and there would have been even more if you two hadn’t stuck your noses in.”

As the twins squealed with delight, Magenta clenched her teeth tightly. “There is nothing going on here.” She was pleased her voice didn’t sound breathless and needy. “I don’t know what that was”—she pointed at the wall where he’d held her—“but it wasn’t kissing. I felt nothing.”

“You felt nothing?” Harry gave her a cocky smile. “Well, I need to try harder next time, then.”

“There will be no next time. That was a mistake.”

He gave her a look that said he clearly believed otherwise, and she fought the urge to kick him in the shin.

“What do you mean mistake?” a twin asked. “Did Harry trip over and his lips hit yours? How can you accidentally kiss?”

“Yeah, Magenta, tell dumb and dumber how you accidentally clung to me while I made you moan.” He folded his arms over his wide chest. He was mocking her.

“There was moaning?” Megan wailed.

“Get away from there,” Matt said. “This unhealthy interest you have in your cousin’s sex life is disturbing.”

“There is no sex,” Magenta shouted. “And if Harry comes near me again, there will be no life either.”

He laughed at her threat.

Magenta stomped over to where she’d left her flashlight. “I’m going to get supplies for tonight.” She pointed at Harry. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Don’t worry. This is exactly where I want to be.”

Magenta wanted to smack the smug smile off his face. She growled with frustration as she headed into the mine, to where she kept a locked trunk full of equipment. Part of her wanted to run back through the mine to the tunnel entrance and leave Harry to deal with things on his own. A bigger part of her, the more sensible, responsible part, couldn’t do that to him.

She told herself that her resolve to stay with him had absolutely nothing to do with the fact her heart still raced and her lips were still swollen from his touch. It also had nothing to do with how needy her body felt. Or how desperate her skin was to be touched again.

No, her decision to stay had nothing to do with any of that.

Nothing at all.

9

Harry whistled happily while Magenta disappeared into the mine.

“Magenta, Harry?” His cousin’s voice broke through Harry’s cheer. “I hate to break up the party, but I have good news and bad news.”

Harry turned towards the voice. “Magenta’s gone into the mine to get her gear. Tell me. Bad news first.”

“Actually, it’s only one piece of news. It’s good and bad.”

“Okay, genius, give me the
only
news.”

“The council engineer has arrived and he’s brought a new piece of equipment with him. It looks like a huge motorised jack. He says he can get the door open now. He’ll use the jack to prop up the entrance beams until he’s had a chance to look at it properly tomorrow.”

Harry’s heart stopped beating. He was technically dead. And he was in hell.

“Did you hear me?” Matt said. “We can have you out of there within the hour. Your time to seduce Magenta by playing the damsel in distress is over. Sorry, cuz.”

Harry’s huge brain went into overdrive. “It’s starting to get dark—wouldn’t it be better to try this tomorrow, when the guy can see properly?”

“He’s come with floodlights. Plus he told me he was out here a couple of weeks ago, did a thorough inspection of the entrance and he’s certain it won’t collapse when the door opens. He only brought the jack thing as a precaution.”

“Tell him I’ll spring him a night at the hotel, and pay his tab at the bar while he’s there, if he waits until morning.”

He definitely heard a cheer this time. He shook his head in wonder.

“I like the way you think, son,” Betty called.

“Back off, Betty,” Matt said. “This is police business.”

Harry heard Betty’s grumbling become faint as she uncharacteristically did as she was told.

“How many people are out there?” Harry said.

“There’s a crowd. The twins went home for a tent. They’re parking here for the night because they don’t want to miss anything. Looks like others are going to do the same. Every noise you make is coming out of the mine loud and clear. And I mean
every
noise. You sure you want to stay in there for the night? You won’t get much privacy.”

Harry thought it through. Magenta was scared as a rabbit at the dog track. If he let her get away from him now, he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to corner her again. He weighed the odds in his head. Missing his chance by leaving the mine straight away, or dealing with a furious Magenta when she found out everyone heard her personal business. He picked a night with Magenta. Although he did hope she didn’t chase him with a shotgun when she found out they’d spent the night in the mine needlessly.

“We’re staying here,” he told Matt.

There was definitely a cheer this time.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Matt wasn’t convinced.

“Yeah. I’m sure. I’m not leaving here until Magenta knows she’s mine.”

“You are seriously deranged. She’s going to take a rusty knife to your balls when she finds out.”

Without conscious thought, Harry’s hand shot down to protect his fly. That sounded way worse than a shotgun.

“Can you do something to the vent, give us a bit more privacy?”

There was booing.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Matt sounded resigned. “You realise you’ve grabbed a tiger by its tail?”

Harry grinned. “Don’t worry. I plan to play with the whole cat.” He heard footsteps echo through the tunnel behind him. “She’s coming back. Talk to the engineer. Buy us the night.”

“It’s your funeral. The engineer will be back first thing in the morning. I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“Don’t freak out on me. This isn’t illegal. You’re still a good cop.”

“Yeah, but as a cousin I need to have my head examined for letting you talk me into this.”

“When you find your soul mate, I’ll help you out.”

“Not going to happen.” Matt’s words had such finality that they made Harry laugh.

“Who are you talking to?” Magenta said behind him.

Harry turned towards her and, as usual, the rightness of seeing her slammed him in the chest. “Matt. There’s good news. The engineer can get us out in the morning.”

Her shoulders relaxed slightly. “Good. That’s good. One night is more than enough.”

“I hope so,” Harry said under his breath.