Stolen Fury
“Wow, what a roller coaster ride! Naughton nails her debut with a hot hero, a sassy heroine and a plot with more twists than a pretzel! Well done!”
—Karin Tabke, author of
Jaded
“You couldn’t stop what happened that night any more than I could.” Rafe trailed a finger down the long, sexy line of her neck. “Then or now.”
“I don’t get involved with people I’m working with, Slick.”
Lisa’s skin was soft, like silk beneath his palms. He wanted to taste that delectable neck, work his way down her body, savor every square inch of her. “I hate to break this to you,
querida
, but I think we’re already involved.”
She stiffened. Then turned and looked up, those emeralds shifting from soft green pools to rock-hard stones in the length of time it took for his words to register. But lurking just behind the shield, he saw the desire brewing deep inside. She wanted him, dammit. She couldn’t hide it any more than he could. She was just a lot better at fighting it.
“We’re partners now, Sullivan. You made that choice all on your own. And I have strict rules about colleagues. Those rules don’t bend for anyone. Especially you.”
He braced his hands on the counter, trapping her between his body and the cupboards as he leaned closer. She tensed. That heady scent of hers made the blood rush to his head.
“Never?” He knew that was a lie. His lips curled as his gaze ran over her face and hovered on that oh-so-scrumptious mouth. God, he wanted her. She was teetering on the edge, despite all her sanctimonious words and ideas. One brush of his lips and he could rock her right to her knees. One taste and she could take him with her.
E
LISABETH
N
AUGHTON
S
TOLEN
F
URY
LOVE SPELL
For Dan, because he always believed.
Babe, you get all the credit for making me
think like a guy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The floor was still at least twenty feet below her.
Surrounded by utter blackness, Lisa Maxwell tipped her head so the cone light from her helmet could slide over the interior of the cave. Then wondered what the heck she’d gotten herself into.
“You okay down there?”
The man’s voice echoing from above drew her back to reality, and she shook off strange feelings of self-doubt as she continued her descent into darkness. Her hand slid down the rope as she let out slack inch by inch. When her boots hit the slippery rocks at the bottom, she unhooked the rope from her harness and stepped back. “Off belay,” she called.
“Belay off,” the voice yelled back.
She rested her hands on her hips and drew a breath of damp air. Mildew and the rich scent of earth filled her nostrils.
The ray from her carbide lantern bounced off thin, pointed stalactites hanging from the ceiling, orange and red sediments swirling through the fragile structures. Scattered throughout the room, large columns covered in white residue flowed from floor to ceiling, and everywhere, dripping water echoed through the vast dark space.
A shiver raced down her spine, so she pulled up the zipper on her coveralls. It might be nine million degrees outside in
the Jamaican sun, but underneath all this limestone rock, it was downright cold.
Metal scraped against rock above, and she glanced up while her brawny guide descended the rope and dropped to the floor next to her. He unhooked his harness, letting the rope hang from the small hole in the ceiling they’d just come through.
“This room is bigger than the maps indicate.” His thick Jamaican accent hung in the air.
As she turned to get a better look, her light swept over the darkness, landing on a translucent structure suspended from the ceiling. Though she’d have liked to spend more time examining that drapery, there were more pressing issues at hand. She gestured to the left. “You start over there, Simeon. I’ll look to the right. Be sure to note any tunnels or passageways.”
“Ay, mon.”
He disappeared into the darkness, his light bouncing off structures he passed, his feet shuffling along the rock floor. Lisa began her own in-depth search while he worked. As she moved, she checked her watch periodically, calculating how long they’d been below the surface, as was her habit whenever she was caving.
Simeon wasn’t one for talking, and today she was thankful for the quiet. She skirted a small rimstone pool filled with murky water, picked her way around columns, careful not to touch any in the process. A gypsum flower jutted out of the wall, the presence of the curling, rosette-shaped calcium-sulfite structure indicating this cave was more stable than she’d thought. The knowledge calmed her.
“Anything?” she asked after they’d been searching nearly fifteen minutes.
“A couple small tunnels. None big enough for a man.”
Damn. She wasn’t going to get discouraged yet. They’d only been in this cavern a few hours. There were lots of rooms left to check.
She resumed her search. When she reached the far side
of the room, she glanced up and a stream of light from her helmet spilled over the cave. The undulating drapery now hung above her, the banded structure blocking her view of the opposite wall.
She needed a wider perspective. Without looking behind her, she took a step back. A loud crack resounded through the quiet, followed by the rush of flowing water. Lisa lost her balance, and her arms flew out to the side to steady herself, but it was already too late. She managed one shrill scream before the floor dropped out from under her.
“Dr. Maxwell!”
Brisk air whooshed around her as she plummeted with the falling rock into a tunnel below. She hit the ground with a thud. Her light went out when her helmet cracked against the rocks. Pain ricocheted through her torso just as a surge of icy water washed over her body, pulling her through the darkness.
Instinct took over before she could panic. She kicked frantic legs, gasped for air and lashed out with her hands to grab on to something to slow her descent. Her fingers slipped on the slick rocks as she made useless attempts to stop herself.
The rush of water yanked her over sharp rocks and cave formations. Jagged points stabbed into her back, sliced up her hands and arms. She fought the fear, tried to keep her wits as her body was bruised and beaten. If she could just get one good grip, grab on to one solid rock…
Then the tunnel took a steep drop. A blast of cold air hissed over her, and a terror-filled scream tore from her chest as she fell feet first into the blackness below.
Her boots hit a pool of frigid water. She plunged beneath the surface, wrenched down by the sheer force of gravity. The muscles in her chest constricted while her lungs burned at the lack of oxygen. Kicking as hard as she could, she tried to swim up, but her senses were so disoriented in the darkness, she had no idea if she was heading in the right direction.
Just when she was sure she was going to drown, she broke the surface, gasped and pulled damp air into her blazing lungs. Heart thundering, she tried to slow her breathing. Long minutes passed before she opened her eyes and peered into the darkness.
She couldn’t see a thing. The new room she’d tumbled into was pitch-black, the only sound the fall of water somewhere to her left.
Maybe caving in Jamaica hadn’t been the brightest idea after all.
With unsteady hands, she flipped on her helmet light, praying the whole time that it wasn’t damaged. Her fingers passed over dents in the metal cap, and her breath caught at the realization that without the safety gear, she’d probably be dead now.
As that lovely thought settled in, her light flickered on, and she heaved out a long sigh of relief. Not dead. Not yet anyway. She looked up and took survey of the new room.
The ceiling was at least thirty feet above, the pool surrounding her wide and vast, reflecting stalactites hanging down from above. Large columns and stalagmites jutted out of the cold liquid. A waterfall spilled from a hole in the wall at least twenty feet up and to her left.
She swallowed hard. Had she landed on one of those stalagmites, she’d have knocked herself out, drowned before Simeon figured out where she’d gone.
Don’t think about that now.
Shaking the fog from her head, she swam toward the edge of the pool and hauled herself out of the water, then sucked in a breath and shivered in the cool air.
In the fourteen years she’d been an archaeologist, she’d encountered her fair share of tight scrapes in the field—a mudslide in a trench in Asia when a wall of sediment had caved in after a torrential downpour, a rockslide in Peru that had seriously tested her resolve and almost taken her life, and an underwater accident that had made her wonder why she’d taken up scuba diving in the first place. But in each instance,
she’d gotten back up and kept going, because that’s what she did. She was a woman proving herself in a male-dominated profession, and she was doing it pretty damn well.
And after all that, there was no way she was letting one measly cave in Jamaica do her in. Especially not on her vacation.
She stood on sore, achy legs, tried not to think about the throbbing cuts on her arms and back or the fact hypothermia would set in if she didn’t get out soon. What mattered most was figuring out how the heck she was going to get back up to the top of that waterfall. If she was lucky, Simeon was somewhere up there looking for her.
If, that is, she was paying him enough to stick around and haul her ass out of this dark pit.
“Dr. Maxwell!”
Simeon’s muffled voice echoed from somewhere above. Lisa was sure she’d never been as happy to hear another voice in all her life.
“Down here!”
“Thank God.” His deep voice bounced off rock and limestone. Lisa glanced toward the waterfall just as Simeon’s tense face came into view. He propped dark arms against the wall of the tunnel, kept his feet shoulder-width apart to keep from slipping. “You alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s a big drop. Be careful.”
“I be right down. Sit tight.”
He secured the rope, braced his feet on the wall of the cave and slowly lowered himself into the room. When he was five feet above the water, he kicked his legs to get a good swing in the harness and propelled himself to the ledge of the pool. He dropped onto the flat rocks, unhooked the harness and looped the rope around a nearby stalagmite.
Lisa resisted the urge to lecture him about not touching the structures. Playing teacher wasn’t going to save her life. Instead she shifted unsteady legs forward and wove around stalagmites as she made her way to join him.
“You hurt?” he asked.
More than she was willing to admit, but there was no way she’d let that stop her. “No. I’m fine. Just knocked the wind out of me, that’s all.”
He didn’t look convinced. “I think we done for the day. You freeze in here if we don’t get you out.”
Disappointment flowed through her. He was right, but she hadn’t found what she’d come for. “Since we’re already here, let’s do a quick sweep of this room first, then we’ll go.”
“I don’t think that a good idea.”
“Why not?”
He nodded toward his left and shone his light between a massive column and a broken stalagmite. “Last guy not fare well.”
Lisa’s gaze followed, and her adrenaline spiked first with fear, then with intrigue, as her light illuminated the human remains Simeon had already spotted.
Carefully, she stepped across the slippery rocks and knelt by the remains. The skeleton was leaning against a massive rock formation, pieces of tattered fabric stuck to its bones. Leather boots still covered the feet, and a large knapsack was near the right hand.