Out of the Dark

“Luke. Gaines.” He held out his hand.

She took it. “Celia Henry. What’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” He drank from his bottle of beer, then slid his tongue over his bottom lip.

“I told you—“

“Right, right. Bachelorette party.”

From the dance floor came some loud cheering. Someone had settled Lisa into a chair, and four rednecks were lifting her up and down while she squealed and the rest of the crowd cheered her on. Celia put a hand over her eyes to peek through her fingers.

“Oh, God. If they don’t drop her on her ass, she’s totally going to puke on someone’s head.”

“What sort of bachelorette party would it be if someone didn’t get dropped on their ass?” Luke laughed and pointed toward Lisa with his beer bottle.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

He looked at her. “We ended up here completely by accident. Me and my buddies, we’re heading out tomorrow for a…well…”

He rubbed his hand over his hair to cup the back of his head as he gave her another of those charming “aw shucks, ma’am” looks. “I guess you could call it an expedition.”

“Oh, yeah? What kind of expedition could you be doing around here?” Though the mountains of Lebanon County weren’t more than five minutes’ drive away, they were hardly big enough for more than a few hours’ hike. Certainly nothing that could be called an expedition.

He looked hesitant. “I shouldn’t really say.”

That tickled her interest further, not that she needed any encouragement. “Oooh. Is it something naughty?”

That laugh again, God. The crinkles at the corners of his eyes. He was a purdy, purdy man.

“Umm…”

“C’mon.” Celia touched his forearm lightly. Warm skin. The soft brush of hair on her fingertips. She kept her eyes on his. “You can tell me. I promise not to turn you in.”

“Okay. But it’s not something you’d ever guess. We’re going…spelunking.” Luke tipped his beer again, letting her get a good, long look at the column of his throat as he swallowed.

Another big word, and again with the tongue on his lips. So fucking sexy. Celia mimicked the action, tasting the salt of her sweat. Luke’s gaze snagged the motion and his eyes flared with an interest she was definitely returning.

“Caving,” he added.

“I know what it means.” Celia finished her water and put the empty glass on the bar. She leaned back against it. She tried to think of what she knew about caves, which was just about zilch. “Around here?”

“Yep.” He tipped his bottle toward the front doors. “New cave some farmer just discovered. Well, not a new cave. I mean, caves are millions of years old. And it’s probably just a part of a bigger cave that someone found a long time ago, maybe even one of the big tourist ones.”

“Crystal Cave?” She’d been there once, a long time ago. With Jeremy, as a matter of fact, now that she thought about it. They’d stopped once on their way to New Hampshire to visit his parents. Involuntarily, her lip curled.

“Could be.” Luke’s smile twisted. “You don’t like caves?”

She turned her grimace into a grin. “Nothing against caves. So…how do you and your friends get to be part of this brand-new cave exploration?”

“Oh. I’m a geologist and so’s Pete. Adam’s a speleologist. Terry and Jeff are biologists.” Luke shrugged, pointing with his bottle toward his buddies.

“Wait, what? Really?” Wow. No wonder he used those sexy big words. She swept him up and down again with her gaze. “You don’t look like a geologist.”

Luke snorted with laughter. “I left my pocket protector at home, sorry.”

“So why does it have to be so secret, this trip?” Celia motioned to the bartender and ordered a Coke.

Luke pulled out his wallet before she could stop him, and slid a five across the bar. He shook his head when she tried to protest. “Nope, I owed you a drink. It’s not a secret, exactly. I work for a company that surveys and assesses the value of indigenous resources.”

Celia had no idea what that meant, and it must’ve shown, because Luke laughed. “Rocks. Minerals. Veins of natural gas or coal, petroleum. That sort of thing. We got word of this new find, which I have to tell you is always exciting and pretty rare. I mean, people find new rooms in known caves and stuff all the time, but to discover a new, unexplored cave…that’s a pretty big deal. And the farmer who found it thinks there might be some valuable minerals in it, but he also wants to get bids from our competitor. My boss convinced him to wait until we’d had a chance to check it out, give us the first shot, but that’s why we’re trying to keep it quiet.”

“You’re afraid I might be your competition?” Celia wiggled her brows at him.

Luke looked serious. “It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve tried some unorthodox methods to get the jump on us. Once I had to outrun a pack of Dobermans they’d released at a site.”

“Wow. So, what…you’re kind of like the Indiana Jones of the geology world?”

“You could say that.” He winked. “I have the hat, anyway.”

“What about the whip?”

He snapped his fingers with a look of exaggerated regret. “Left it with the pocket protector, darn.”

A killer smile, big vocabulary and a sense of humor. Twenty minutes into this conversation, and Celia already knew she was a goner. “So, how do you know I’m not working for the other guys?”

“I could see it in your face when I brought up the new cave and the possibility of valuable minerals. That stuff’s a geologist’s wet dream.” He looked chagrined, though Celia couldn’t understand why he would think she cared about a little sexual terminology when she’d cursed in his face a few minutes ago. “Sorry. I get carried away.”

“Sometimes,” Celia said, “it’s good to get carried away.”

They stared at each other for a long, long moment before Lisa stumbled up to them and threw her arm around Celia’s shoulders. She gave Luke a bleary, narrow-eyed look. “Hey. Who’s this?”

“Luke, this is my cousin Lisa. She’s getting married next week.”

“To Denny!” Lisa cried, then tossed both her hands in the air, making rock horns with her fingers. “Wooooooo! Yeah! Fuck yeah! Celia, why aren’t you dancing? C’mon, I love this song, let’s dance.”

Lisa grabbed at Celia’s hand, than Luke’s. “You too! C’mon dance with my pretty cousin, she’s so pretttty. She’s single! Celia’s single!”

Lisa was a loud drunk. Fun, but loud. And not at all subtle. Celia let herself be pulled along and wound up facing Luke on the dance floor while the DJ spun another mash-up. Lisa grabbed Melody and Brit, pushing herself between them as the three began a ridiculously silly bump-n-grind that had everyone on the dance floor cheering. Celia rolled her eyes.

“They are going to be so sad tomorrow morning.” She had to push onto her tiptoes to shout this in Luke’s ear, since the music was so much louder over here.

His hands rested naturally on her hips as he pulled her closer. His lips brushed her ear as he replied, “Poor them.”

Then, they danced.

Luke was an excellent dancer, not the line-dancing sort but with a natural rhythm that kept them both bopping to the beat in perfect time. He spun her out, then in. Her hands settled on his shoulders as they moved together, and Celia forgot about the ache in her toes and the soles of her feet. She never wanted to stop.

Of course, she had to. It wasn’t even near closing time, but the other women in their party were stumbling drunk and Celia still hadn’t managed to catch sight of Dana. That made her nervous, because even though Dana was a grown woman who should be able to take care of herself, Celia had volunteered to be the designated driver and she guessed that meant babysitter too.