The Hang Up (First Impressions) Read online

  He led her down a steep incline, taking his time, turning back to check on her every now and then. “Nice and easy,” he said. “Try not to lean back so much. It’ll throw off your center of gravity.”

  “Like this?”

  “That’s good. Don’t be afraid to brace yourself on the rocks. Here, take these.”

  He stopped walking and reached into the back pocket of his jeans to pull out a pair of gloves. She started to protest, knowing there was no way gloves that fit his massive palms could ever work for her hands. Then she noticed they were pink.

  “You brought gloves just for me?”

  “I had those in the car, too,” he said. “I told you I’d provide everything you needed for the cave tour.”

  She pulled on the gloves, noticing they were warm from the heat of his back pocket. “You take your job pretty seriously, huh?”

  “When it comes to taking care of anyone who’s trusted me with their well-being, damn right I do.”

  There was an edge to his voice, something Miriam hadn’t noticed before. She started to ask about it, but stopped herself. It’s not like they were best friends chatting about their personal lives and hang-ups. This was just a business relationship, nothing more.

  You keep telling yourself that.

  Jason flashed her a grin, and she wondered for the second time if he’d read her thoughts. Then he turned and continued deeper into the cave, his footing careful and exact.

  Miriam held back for a moment to watch him, admiring the slow precision of his steps even more than she admired his ass, which was quite a lot. If she was going to go traipsing into the underbelly of the earth, at least she’d chosen to do it with a guy who believed in being cautious.

  Your dad believed that, too, and where did that get him? Dead on the side of a mountain, that’s where.

  Miriam pushed the thought from her mind and pushed onward, trudging deeper into the cave. She shivered a little, grateful Jason had told her to bring a warm coat. It might be summer outside, but it was closer to forty degrees underground. He’d seemed surprised she hadn’t brought some froofy cashmere thing, but a real, honest-to-goodness ski coat. She could credit her dad with that one. He’d given her a nice North Face parka for Christmas the year before he died, so at least she was warm.

  She snuggled deeper into the coat, imagining she could feel her father’s hug again just one more time. Lost in thought, she didn’t notice Jason had stopped walking until she ran right into him.

  “Ooof!”

  “Sorry,” he said as he spun around and caught her by the elbows to hold her steady. “I should have warned you I was stopping.”

  “No problem,” she said, kinda hoping he didn’t take his hands off her anytime soon.

  “I wanted to show you something.”

  “I already saw it back in my bathroom.” She grinned in spite of herself.

  “Very funny. Here, look up.”

  She did as he told her and craned her neck to aim her headlamp overhead. She gasped as the bright beam caught the twinkle of a million sparkling stars. No, not stars, they were in a cave. Gemstones? Silver?

  “What is that?” she breathed.

  “Condensation,” he said. “Water seeping through tiny fissures in the lava tube.”

  “It’s incredible.” She turned in a slow circle to take in the view from different angles. The tiny droplets flashed and sparkled, making her a little dizzy. Jason didn’t say anything at first, and when she dropped her gaze to look at him, she saw him studying her with a surprised smile.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You’re beautiful. Especially when you’re all full of wonder and excitement.”

  She felt herself flushing at his words, but she kept her own words casual. “I’d be full of wonder and excitement over a sale at Nordy’s, too.”

  But even she had to admit she’d never seen anything quite like this.

  “Look down at the ground,” he said, and Miriam obeyed. Her gaze landed on several rounded humps of ice stuck to the floor of the cave and a few scattered boulders around them.

  “What are they?” she asked, stepping closer to one for a better look at the unusual ice formations.

  “Ice boobs.”

  She laughed. “That’s the technical term?”

  “No, but that’s what a lot of people call them.”

  “I can see why,” she said, and rubbed a gloved hand over one.

  “Stop doing that.”

  “Why?” She frowned. “Will it disrupt the ecological systems of the cave?”

  “Well, that, and you’re turning me on.”

  She rolled her eyes and drew her hand back. “You’re such a guy.”

  “Guilty as charged.” He grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s keep going. I want to show you the next room.”

  He trudged ahead of her, letting go of her hand, and Miriam tried not to feel disappointed. At least from this angle she could stare at his ass again, which was becoming deliciously familiar to her.

  He led her down a narrow corridor that got progressively smaller. He had to duck his head to continue, though she was still able to walk upright. The guy had to be six two or six three, in contrast to herself, at closer to five three without her heels.

  Soon, though, she was ducking as well. She kept following him, tamping down the panic she felt as the space grew narrower and narrower. She ordered herself to breathe, not to think about creepy-crawlies or closed spaces or anything but the awe-inspiring backside of the man walking in front of her. She ran her fingers over the cave walls, reassuring herself with the solidness of the rock.

  “You doing okay?” he called over his shoulder.

  “I think so,” she murmured.

  He stopped moving and turned to look at her, probably making sure she wasn’t bleeding to death or missing a limb. She tried to give him a smile, but she could tell it was weak.

  His smile was more reassuring. “A little claustrophobic?”

  “Maybe just a tiny bit.”

  “It’s okay. I’ve got you. I promise this will be worth it.”

  Somehow, she believed him.

  “Okay,” he said, pulling on his own pair of gloves. “It’s going to get really narrow here and we’re going to have to crawl for a bit. Would you feel more comfortable crawling in first, or following after me?”

  She considered it for a moment, not sure which would be less scary. “I want you behind me,” she decided at last.

  A glint of something flickered in his eyes, but he held his tongue. “Whatever you want.”

  He gestured her toward the opening. Miriam crawled through but struggled to keep her breathing even. She banged her knee on a rock, but kept going, contorting her body to maneuver through the narrow passageway.

  “Nice and easy,” Jason murmured behind her. “Take it slow, we’ve got plenty of time.”

  “Okay,” Miriam squeaked, appreciating that the soft timbre of his voice seemed to slow her pulse. “How much farther?”

  “About another ten feet. You’re going to hit a really sharp turn in just a second. Just follow it to the left.”

  “Right,” she breathed as she squeezed herself through the passageway. “How are you doing this? You’re like a foot taller than me, and your feet have to be a size eleven or twelve.”

  “Thirteen, actually,” he said, grunting a little as he followed close behind her. “I’ve had a lot of practice squeezing into tight spaces.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to make a suggestive comment, but she held back. This was a professional relationship, after all, and they were here for business purposes.

  The feel of his hand on her ass gave her a moment to reconsider that.

  “Oh,” she gasped.

  “Sorry about that,” he said. “I was reaching for that rock behind you and you moved.”

  “It’s okay,” she said, kinda wishing he’d do it again.

  “Almost there,” he said. “You see the opening?”

 
Miriam nodded, which was dumb, since he couldn’t possibly see her. “I think so.”

  “As you start to emerge, you’ll see a big boulder to your right. Grab on to that and boost yourself up onto the narrow rock ledge below that.”

  “Got it,” Miriam said, grateful for his gentle coaching and his warm hand and pretty much everything else about him right now. She caught hold of the rock he’d described and pulled her body up and out of the narrow tunnel. The top of her helmet bonked a low-hanging rock, but she kept going until her butt touched the rock ledge.

  Then she scooted off to the side, making room for him to get out, too. “What now?” she asked.

  Jason’s arms emerged first from the tunnel, impressively chiseled even beneath the puffy arms of his winter coat. He braced himself on either side of the opening, then pulled himself out and into the larger cavern where Miriam now found herself.

  He hopped to his feet, dusted himself off, and grinned at her. “Kinda like being born, huh?”

  Miriam glanced back at the hole they’d just emerged from. “If that’s supposed to be the birth canal, it’s the sharpest hoo-ha I’ve ever seen.”

  He laughed and peeled his gloves off. He stuffed them into his coat pocket, turned, and strode deeper into the cave. “Come on, this is my favorite part.”

  Miriam followed behind him, shaking a few pebbles out of her hair. She was feeling more sure-footed now, even a little excited by this adventure.

  It’s not like we’re BASE jumping off a mountain or something, she reasoned. As far as adventures go, this is a tame one.

  Still, it teetered dangerously close to her threshold of outdoorsy pursuits. The one she’d pledged never to cross. Why was that so exhilarating?

  “Here,” he said, warning her this time so she wouldn’t go crashing into his back again. “Now look up.”

  She half expected to see another series of twinkling lights or maybe a giant octopus. Anything seemed possible at this point.

  “Where’s the ceiling?” she asked, blinking to clear her vision.

  “About two hundred feet up,” he said. “This is the largest part of the lava tube. Right now we’re standing directly under the highway.”

  “No kidding?” She kept staring upward, though she still couldn’t make out the roof of the cave.

  “If you look over there, you’ll see some really cool mineral deposits.”

  She followed the direction of his finger, letting her gaze drop to the iridescent white patterns on the wall. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It’s the same stuff that makes up opals. That’s what gives it the iridescent quality.”

  Her hands felt hot now, so she peeled off her gloves and shoved them into the pocket of her coat. She traced a finger over the pattern on the cave wall, noticing the way the formations twisted together like delicate lace.

  “Ready for the coolest part?”

  “Cooler than this?”

  “Cooler than this,” he repeated.

  Something in his voice made her tear her gaze off the cave wall to look him in the eye. Jason stared back, unblinking, his eyes molten in the beam of her headlamp. Her pulse kicked up, thrumming in her ears as those bright blue eyes studied her with an intensity that made her dizzy.

  He smiled then and pulled something from his pocket. Miriam looked down at his hand, her eyes registering condom as her libido telegraphed let’s go!

  It took a few beats for her brain to catch up with the parade and point out she was getting hot and bothered over a Life Saver.

  She watched him unwrap the breath mint and slip it into his mouth. As his lips parted, her pulse sped up again. He smiled and reached for her hand.

  “You ready for this?”

  Miriam nodded numbly, though she had no idea what she was agreeing to.

  Okay, maybe she had some idea what she was agreeing to. His lips looked soft and inviting and she could have sworn they were closer now to hers than they’d been mere seconds ago. Holy hell, was he going to kiss her?

  “I’m ready,” she breathed, savoring the sturdy grip of his warm fingers entwined with hers. She was fixated on his mouth, drawn to him by the scent of wintergreen and the desire pooling in her belly.

  Jason’s hand tightened around hers, and she tipped her head back a tiny bit, braced for the kiss.

  “Get ready to see sparks,” he murmured.

  “Okay.”

  Then he reached out and switched off her headlamp.

  Chapter Four

  Jason felt Miriam sway a little as he plunged them into darkness with the flip of a switch. He dropped his hand from his own headlamp, his other hand still holding hers. He gripped it tighter, letting her know he had her, that he wouldn’t let her fall.

  “Ready?” he asked, his voice echoing off the cave walls.

  “Uh-huh.”

  The breathiness of her reply reminded him that he hadn’t told her what to be ready for, and the fact that she’d said yes without hesitation gave him the titillating sense that he’d severely underestimated Miriam Ashley.

  He knew what she was thinking. Hell, he was thinking it, too. He’d been thinking it ever since she’d come sashaying out to his car in those ridiculous shoes with her dark curls bouncing and her eyes bright and her lips so plump and kissable he’d nearly driven off the road a dozen times just thinking about claiming that delectable mouth for himself.

  Picturing those lips now in the darkness, he ached to pull her closer, to find out if they were really as soft as they looked.

  But that wasn’t what he planned to do. Not yet, anyway.

  “So this is total darkness,” he said, giving her hand another squeeze. “Where we are right now, this deep into the cave, there’s not even a trace of light that can reach us. Let’s give our eyes just a few seconds to adjust.”

  The slight hesitation that followed told him he’d surprised her, and his brain strayed back to the thought of kissing her. But he felt her shift a little, and he wondered if she was nodding in the darkness.

  “Okay,” she said. “Total darkness. Got it.”

  “Now watch.”

  Before she could point out the silliness of him telling her to watch when they’d just established they were in total darkness, he opened his mouth wide, then cracked the wintergreen Life Saver between his teeth.

  “Oh!”

  Miriam’s gasp told him the stunt had worked, but he chomped the candy a few more times, just to make sure.

  “See the sparks?” he asked, swallowing the tiny bits of Life Saver as he reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out two more cellophane-wrapped candies.

  “Oh my God, what was that?”

  “Triboluminescence,” he said, grinning in the darkness at the delight in her voice.

  “Say what?”

  “Triboluminescence,” he repeated. “It’s what happens when the molecules of crystalline sugar are forced out of their atomic fields. The free electrons collide with nitrogen molecules in the air, which causes them to vibrate.”

  “I can’t tell if you’re talking dirty or talking geeky, but either way, I like the way it sounds.”

  He laughed and pressed one of the Life Savers into her hand. “Here. Unwrap it carefully and stick the wrapper in your pocket so we don’t leave litter behind. Got it?”

  “Yes.” He heard the crinkling of the wrapper and the sound of her popping the candy into her mouth. “It’s wintergreen.”

  “Yes. Methyl salicylate or oil of wintergreen is fluorescent,” he said. “It absorbs light of a shorter wavelength and emits it as light of a longer wavelength, so it produces light on the visible spectrum.”

  “The sparks looked blue when you did it.”

  “Yes. Blue light. That’s part of the visible spectrum. Go ahead, try it.”

  He heard the crunch of the candy between her teeth, and he watched the crackle of blue sparks in the darkness.

  “Did I do it?” she asked, her voice oddly giddy. “I can’t see if I’m doing it ri
ght.”

  “You’re doing it right.” He popped a second piece of candy into his mouth. “Here’s another one.”

  He slid another Life Saver into her warm palm as he bit down on his own candy, rewarded by the sound of her giggling in the darkness. “Wow! That’s so cool!”

  “I’m glad you like it.”

  Glad and surprised. He’d expected her to be polite, maybe even mildly amused, but the excitement in her voice was something altogether different. He’d led tours with bored city kids before who’d dismissed this little blue spark phenomenon as “like, so lame.”

  But Miriam’s enthusiasm made him want to stand here cracking Life Savers between his molars all day long.

  Something clicked in the darkness, and he wondered what she was fiddling with. He could have sworn he smelled something perfumy, like his sister’s makeup drawer, but maybe that was just Miriam’s hair.

  He heard the crack of a Life Saver, followed by a soft squeal. “It worked!” She crunched again. “I see it in the mirror. I see sparks in my mouth!”

  “You have a mirror? On a cave tour?”

  “Of course. I always have a compact in my pocket.”

  Jason snorted. “I carry a pocketknife, you carry a mirror.”

  “You’re just jealous you can’t see your own sparks.”

  “You’re kind of right,” he said, nudging closer to her. “I’ve been doing this on cave tours for ten years and I never thought to bring a mirror. Let me see.”

  He moved closer, shoulder to shoulder with her now. He couldn’t see anything in the darkness, but he leaned close so his cheek brushed hers. He reached out in front of him and caught hold of the hand that held the compact.

  “It’s right here in front of us,” she said, steadying the mirror—and his hand—about five inches from their faces. He heard her crunch down on a Life Saver, and she laughed again as blue sparks flashed in the small mirror.

  Jason unwrapped another candy and stuck it in his mouth. He bit down on it, rewarded by another flash of blue in the mirror.

  “This is so cool!” Miriam gushed.

  “It is,” he agreed, though it had never seemed quite this cool before. Something about her childlike delight made the whole experience like the first time he’d ever done this.