Chapter 3
The late afternoon sun cast long shadows across the rugged cliffs as Alex rappelled the last twenty feet to the ground. She’d already lowered the larger bag of camera gear, but the pack she’d kept with her dragged at her shoulders, a lead weight grown heavier as the hours passed. When her feet finally touched the uneven surface at the base of the cliff, she would have fallen if a pair of strong arms hadn’t quickly grabbed and supported her.
“Thank you,” she said, embarrassed when she realized she was actually panting like a dog on a hot day. “I think my legs quit before the rest of me.” Was it the difficulty of the climb or his touch that affected her this way? Or was she feeling the aftereffects of the strange energy that seemed to pulse about the odd carvings in the rock?
Nate hadn’t been kidding when he’d described the sensation earlier this morning, but Alex hadn’t expected she’d experience it herself.
But she had.
A deep throbbing sense of life holding her fast against the rough wall, a sense that something more than peregrine falcons and weathered shrubs lived on or within the mysterious rock.
To say it had been an unusual day would be a massive understatement. Each oddly carved symbol Nathan guided her to appeared to speak in a silent voice. She couldn’t ignore the strange shiver that traveled along her spine as she carefully photographed every single one.
Neither could she ignore the man working steadily beside her.
She hadn’t spoken of the odd power she’d sensed, wondering if, instead of ancient ghosts, it was merely her libido making itself known. There was no denying that Nate touched Alex on levels she’d not only never encountered but had never even considered. His totally innocent contact throughout the day had left her aroused and unsettled.
Now she clutched his solid shoulder and welcomed his help. Inhaled the male smell of sweat and rock dust that clung to him as she silently accepted his assistance. She managed to get her heavy pack almost to the ground before it fell from her numbed fingers.
Thank goodness everything was well-padded.
“Let me help,” he said and, without waiting for her to agree or argue, he unfastened her climbing harness and hardware sling. Alex fumbled with scraped fingers at the nylon chin strap on her helmet. Nate’s hands were none too steady, brushing softly against her waist as he lifted the heavy sling away to set it on the hard-packed earth.
“You did a good job today.” He sounded tired, his voice gravelly and subdued. He looked away and almost grudgingly added, “I really did underestimate you.”
Alex started to say “Most men do” but they were both exhausted, and it didn’t seem worth the effort to give him a bad time. Instead, she managed a polite, “Thank you.” Nathan had treated her as more than an equal, had even deferred to her regarding the choice of climbing routes on a number of occasions. In fact, he’d given her the lead most of the day.
Or had she merely taken it?
Hell, did it really matter?
Her hair was damp and matted against her scalp, the long braid loose and hanging in curled tendrils around her face. She brushed the sticky strands back from her eyes. When she raised her head Nate was smiling at her again, an odd little half smile, as if he wanted to say something.
Alex waited.
Shaking his head, still smiling, Nate turned away and picked up most of her gear as well as his own.
He paused briefly, as if waiting for her to say something sarcastic. Perversely, she wondered if he was disappointed when, without comment, she reached for the remainder of her things and followed him down the rocky trail to camp.
God, she was so tired. She hadn’t done any serious climbing for much too long, and she was woefully out of shape. Her arms and legs ached. She could barely open her cramped and blistered hands. Her shoulders were on fire—and she couldn’t stop grinning.
She’d never felt better in her life.
Nate had tested her today.
Alex knew she’d passed with flying colors.
Another thing had happened today. Something truly awesome. There was something here, something special that even now was calling her.
She wasn’t certain what it was. Had Nathan caused her heightened senses? Or had something, maybe the unknown spirit in the cliffs, touched her?
The truly odd thing about it was that she didn’t worry about finding answers. Alex knew she would eventually find out. Today she had followed Nate’s lead, and the two of them had worked in relative silence. Nate had guided Alex to the various petroglyphs located on one section of the cliff, and she’d recorded them with still shots, as well as video when Nate took precise rubbings of many of them.
They didn’t discuss the carvings. Neither of them mentioned the powerful sense of something
other
when they were close to the carvings. Nor had either of them mentioned this morning’s incident by the creek.
With each photo Alex took, the mystery had deepened.
And each time Nate touched her shoulder to point out a new carving, her awareness of him had grown.
“You look beat,” he said. “I’ll fix dinner. Why don’t you take a minute to wash up and I’ll take my turn later. I have some notes to copy down.” He glanced at her. “I promise not to bring you any coffee.” He smiled a tired, lopsided grin at her.
“Sounds good. You’re right, I am beat. And, Nathan—” She paused. “I wasn’t worried about the coffee, because if you’re as exhausted as I am . . .” She let the thought dangle, then flashed him a quick smile and crawled into her tent to find a clean pair of sweats. It was a lot easier to prove a point after a bath.
But what was the point? He hadn’t acted the least bit condescending while they’d worked, no matter how critical she wanted to be of his kindness.
Sometimes she had to remind herself that not everyone’s words contained hidden meanings or insults. With that thought in mind, she merely flashed him a tired grin and headed to the creek.
The cold water felt wonderful. After Alex stripped down, she drifted in a deep pool among the rocks for longer than she had intended, and the sky was taking on the purple hue of dusk before she finally returned to camp. Nate had already eaten and was looking through his notes, heavy tortoiseshell glasses perched halfway down his nose. The glasses made him look more like the college professor he was.
Still, he was a damned sexy professor.
“Stew’s in the pot,” he said, startling her out of her tired musings. “Hope you don’t mind freeze-dried.” He pulled the glasses down his nose to peer over the rims at Alex and she realized he looked absolutely exhausted. “It’s boring glop, but I tried to keep everything as quick and easy as possible.”
“No, it’s fine. It even smells like stew.”
“Surprise, surprise.” He was grinning when he went back to his notes.
Alex scooped a spoonful of the lumpy brownish stuff onto her plate and grabbed a couple of warm biscuits from a second pan. Cool water from a nearby spring was stored in a plastic thermos next to Nate’s tent. She reached over and nabbed it without disturbing him.
“It’s getting too dark for this.” He took his glasses off and put the papers away, then pulled a small nylon pack out of his tent. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, if I don’t fall asleep in the creek.” He chuckled ruefully. “I didn’t think I was this out of shape, but after climbing all day yesterday and today, I have a feeling I’ll have discovered even more new muscles by tomorrow morning.”
Alex waved him off with mixed feelings. She was enjoying his company, enjoying her awareness of him, so much that she kept forgetting how rude he’d been this morning.
Typical male behavior, she thought, his sneaking up on her at the creek. Well, she’d already forgiven him for that. He had, after all, merely acted like a man.
It wasn’t as easy to forgive his reaction when he learned he’d hired a woman. Except that wasn’t it at all. She had to be honest with herself—she was still pissed off that he’d wanted to hire her father. That he’d acted as if she’d cheated him by being A. Martin.
But he didn’t act like it once they got to work. She had to give him that much. They’d worked well together. Comfortably, with a minimum of conversation, almost as if each knew what the other was thinking, what each of them needed.
And that, she realized, was the problem.
She didn’t trust his quick acceptance of her. Once Nate realized Alex was indeed the one he’d hired, he’d apparently gotten over it. No hassles, no complaints, and he was ready to work. He’d appeared honestly impressed with her abilities. All day she’d waited for the usual condescending comments she generally got from men, but he never made them.
Now she watched him walk down the trail to the creek, aware, in spite of her exhaustion, of a hunger that had nothing to do with food. Nate moved with a steady grace, a comfortable swing of broad shoulders, strong arms and long legs. He’d changed out of his climbing pants into tight jeans that molded the hard muscles of his thighs and that much-too-perfect ass.
Alex watched him until he disappeared around a bend in the trail. Once he was out of sight, she had to mentally shake herself to remove his image from her mind.
It didn’t make sense, the awareness she felt, the need she barely understood. The man didn’t even want her here. He was stuck with her, but she was practically obsessing over him.
She wondered if he’d thought about her during the day, if he’d imagined her nude, the way he’d seen her this morning. Alex hadn’t been able to get the vision of his naked body out of her mind.
It didn’t seem fair he might have easily dismissed the view he’d had of hers.
At least it was gratifying to know that dear Dr. Murdock was probably just as tired and sore as she was. She felt a little guilty at such a petty thought and couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever get over the need to have to prove herself to everyone she met.
With that thought in mind, she silently finished the rest of her meal, hoping she wouldn’t fall asleep with her face in her plate.
Today had been eye-opening, to say the least. Alex Martin wasn’t anything like his first impression had led him to believe. She was an enigma, an absolute conundrum. Yeah, that was it. A conundrum. He rolled the word around, so exhausted that the word games helped him put one foot in front of the other as he traipsed the short distance to the creek.
Alex wasn’t anything at all like she’d first appeared. Hell, the woman could have stepped right out of the style pages of
Vanity Fair
, but she would have done it on her own terms, and probably with a sarcastic comment or two. Chuckling at the image, trying—with more success than he’d expected—to imagine her on the runway of some high-style fashion show, Nate parked his butt on a flat rock beside the creek, pulled off his stained shirt and untied the thick laces on his leather hiking boots.
Women who looked like Alex Martin generally didn’t have the skills of a professional photographer, much less the abilities of a trained mountaineer. And the way Nate’s luck was running lately, he certainly hadn’t expected one to show up in his wilderness camp dressed in practical clothing that still molded and stretched in all the right places.
Not to mention how she’d looked in her body-hugging climbing gear. The view he’d had earlier in the day of her perfectly well-rounded bottom swaying scant inches above his face on the vertical wall of the cliff made Nathan’s jeans cling and stretch in what, under other circumstances, might be the right place.
“Damned fool,” he muttered, unzipping his jeans to relieve the quick pressure. Who was he trying to kid? She was talented and beautiful and way too young. He had no idea what her age was, but she couldn’t be more than early twenties. He had at least ten years on her. And she was his employee. No, he wasn’t touching that—or her—with a ten-foot pole.
Sighing, he peeled the sweat-dampened denim down over his legs and stepped into the welcome coolness of the stream. As gorgeous as Alex Martin was, there was no way in hell he wanted to get involved with her, even though there could easily be something between them. He’d heard of sexual chemistry before.
Alex was living proof such a thing existed.
Nate wasn’t certain he even liked her, but he couldn’t deny that he wanted her. Even after a full day of climbing, both of them dirty and covered with sweat, his libido had jumped into overdrive when he helped steady her at the bottom of the cliff. He was definitely going to have to keep his reactions under control for the next few weeks, because this project was too important, and Ms. Martin was a bit too touchy.
He’d learned really fast to consider every word before speaking or risk her quick anger at a perceived insult. He’d already had a taste of her temper, and he really didn’t need or want to repeat that kind of confrontation.
Unless, of course, she decided to pull a stunt like she had this morning. Now, that had been some way to start the day. The image of her dusky body framed in a mass of wild black hair would remain, burned forever on his cerebral cortex.
He lay back in the chilly water, scrubbing the dirt and dust off his chest and shoulders, then washing and rinsing his hair. The unwelcome image of Alex invaded his thoughts and he saw her once again, naked here at this spot in the creek when she bathed, her long hair flowing with the gently moving water.
Once again his cock leapt to life.
Damn!
The woman practically flashed a neon “hands off” sign.
It wasn’t going to be easy, lusting after a feminist.
Chilled and tired, Nate waded to the edge of the pool and crawled out on the sun-warmed surface of a large slab of granite, where he stretched out lizard-like to soak up the last of the heat. He lay there a moment, drifting, almost asleep, feeling the warmth against his belly and the cool night air like a soft caress along his back and buttocks.
She was beautiful, but oh so prickly! Women always confused him, but Alex more than most. He wondered why she was so thin-skinned, always on the defensive, constantly looking for hidden meanings in everything Nate said.