The Cinderella Mission (Family Secrets #1)(31)
Author: Catherine Mann

“The necklace was passed on to her son to give to his wife. A wife who also mysteriously died. Three generations of bumped-off brides later, this one savvy queen-to-be decided she didn’t want any part of that cursed stone. She sold it to a merchant who wanted to exchange his older model spouse for an eighteenth-century trophy wife. The stone disappeared. No one knows for sure what kind of gem it was, but its power over life and death became legendary.”

Ethan snorted. “What a load of crap.”

Clyde waggled half a finger in Ethan’s face. “Don’t dismiss it out of hand. Even if you don’t believe it, other people do and that gives it power. Think about it, son. Leaders have been screwing with people’s minds, twisting core beliefs and cultural customs into propaganda since the beginning of time. Take a starving group of peasants and play on that, and the mix is rife for an uprising.”

“Valid point,” Kelly interjected before Ethan could dismiss the mystical implications out of hand again. “So jewels collected for any number of purposes could be useless if there isn’t someone on hand to assess or cut them.”

Clyde nodded. “Exactly.”

Which gave cause for nabbing Morrow, a geologist with a renowned interest in gems.

Kelly and Ethan exchanged glances before Ethan tugged a second round of bills free as payment for information received. “Thanks for your time, Clyde. You know how to find me if you think of anything else.”

“Stay awhile.” Clyde crunched a candy cane that was wrapped in his three-fingered grip. “Look around if you want. The mine’s closed to the public for the winter, but I can fire up the generators. My handyman, Johnny, is out back. He can show you around some if you’d like. Just follow the fluorescent arrows painted along the wall. Stay clear of roped-off areas and you’ll be fine.”

Kelly hesitated. The warmth of Ethan’s hand earlier and the weight of his gift lured her into wanting to steal more from this day. A stroll through the mine would give her the perfect chance to get closer to him. “Ethan?”

“Sure.” He nodded to the door. “We can play tourist, soak up some more of your woo-hoo stuff about crystals.”

Kelly jabbed a finger in his arm. “Better watch it, big guy. Don’t diss the crystals.” She tugged the zipper up on her jacket and pulled on her gloves. “Thanks, Clyde.”

“You bet,” he called as they stepped back into the blustery cold. “And listen to the lady, son.”

The door swung shut behind them.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Ethan palmed her back down the stairs.

“You’ll be sorry,” she warned, smiling back at him.

He scooped his gloved hand along the rail. “I’ll show you who’s gonna be sorry.”

“Hey? What are you doing?” She inched away from the growing mound of snow in the palm of his glove. “Don’t even consider it, Williams. I’ll drop you again.”

“I’m scared.” He packed the snow as he stalked toward her.

“No!” Kelly squealed in protest, already reaching behind her to make her own retaliatory snow bomb. He’d warned her to use whatever she could. Too bad for him if he didn’t prepare.

He advanced the last seven feet between them, his every crunching step launching a delicious thrill of anticipation through her.

Nose-to-cold-nose, he stopped in front of her. Goosebumps sprinkled her skin beneath her parka as she waited for him to shove the snowball down her jacket.

He raised his hand.

She clenched her fingers around the packed snow in the palm of her glove.

Ethan lifted his snowball higher, chest level, face level, and—

—took a bite. “Always loved this stuff as a kid.”

She watched him down another bite. Ethan as a kid, now there was an enchanting image full of motion and mischief.

Although he looked a hundred percent adult male at the moment.

Kelly wrapped her fingers around his wrist, urged his arm toward her face until the snowball reached her mouth. As deliberately as Eve taking a bite from the apple, she nipped a section of the packed ice free, swirling her tongue out to catch the crumbling flakes.

She could have sworn Ethan’s hand shook in her grip. But that wasn’t possible. Not from something so simple.

From her.

His eyes dilated. Her breath puffed clouds between them. Ethan dropped his snowball to the ground and gripped her arms. Her hand slipped around his neck.

He startled under her touch. “What the—”

Snow cascaded down his jacket from her forgotten snowball. Kelly looked at her glove, compacted crystallized snow gleamed back at her like tiny diamonds.

He dusted powder off his neck. “Guess you got me, Taylor.”

Yes, she had. But she knew it would only be for a short time, a much safer prospect than risking some broken heart of legendary proportions yearning for anything more.

She turned away from the tempting image of Ethan smiling at her. Only her. “Let’s go find that Johnny fellow and see the mine.”

Lights lined the narrow tunnel, carved earth with jagged holes winding ahead of them. After spending just ten minutes alone with Kelly since Johnny pointed them on their way and went back to work, Ethan questioned his own intelligence in going along with the impromptu tourist gig. Sure, he wanted to show Kelly a good time, help her relax and enjoy life the way he had with piloting the plane.

But not at the expense of his sanity.

He sidestepped a decorative mining cart. The shadowy recesses of the mine felt too much like total solitude. He and Kelly—alone. Completely.

Kelly strode across a planked observation deck and pressed her gloved hand to the chiseled earth, pulling her parka taut across her br**sts. Her fingers explored embedded crystal chips. “How depressing to think of the hours, days, months people spent in here away from the sun.”

An image of her at her cubicle flashed to mind. Windows weren’t allowed in the deeper bowels of ARIES for security reasons. Did she yearn for light?

If only he could make her understand there wasn’t any light to be found outside her ARIES office. Just a deeper darkness that sometimes swallowed the soul. “People do what they have to do to survive.”

“I guess so.” She turned to face him, leaning a hip against the metal railing. The yellow glow from the strips of light overhead cast shadows along her perfect cheekbones. “Well, partner, what do you really think of Clyde’s insights on the mindsets in the region?”

He thought he wanted to listen to her talk some more, those sultry Kelly-tones echoing all around him in triplicate. “What’s your take on it?”