Hidden Fire by Alexis Fleming

night in the mine. She thought Charlie would come back for her. Her mouth quirked. Seems Charlie had his own agenda.
    And now here she was, stranded with the one man who could make her seriously question everything she stood for and believed in. She plucked at her sweaty top. To make it worse, she didn’t even have a fresh change of clothes with her. In fact, she didn’t have any clothes at all, except for the shorts, top and underwear she’d left at the station.
    A bubble of hysterical laughter burst to life, but she bit it back. All this didn’t matter a damn right now. Her priority was to find the opal and get her father off the hook. But first, she had to get through the night.
    Her arms shook as she clambered to her knees on the thin blanket she’d earlier wrapped around herself. A glance at the luminous dial of her watch showed she’d only been asleep for a couple of hours. She groaned. It would probably be better if she didn’t sleep at all. Maybe then she’d avoid the weird dreams and the voices she’d heard in her head.
    â€œI did warn you that sleeping with just a blanket wasn’t going to be enough. Better if you’d shared my sleeping bag.”
    Gili yelped. “Morgan! You scared the living daylights out of me.”
    The campfire Morgan had built just outside the mine had died down to a cluster of red coals, casting very little light beyond the entrance. Gili peered across the expanse of the tunnel, relying on her memory to work out where Morgan had bunked down for the night.
    A shadow, darker than the surrounding area, moved, elongated. The clang of metallic items caught her ears. A bitten-off curse as Morgan kicked something over.
    â€œHang on, I’ll get some light going,” he muttered. “I’ve got a carbide lantern here somewhere.”
    â€œN-no, it’s alright. I’ll just curl up again and go back to sleep.”
    She couldn’t let him see her like this. She ran her hand over her chest. Her nipples were hard, throbbing. She tweaked at one and felt the pull shoot through her body and center at the juncture of her thighs, intensifying the ache already there. She moaned, biting her lip to try to keep the sound inside, but to no avail.
    A hissing noise from the opposite side of the mine drew her attention. Pushing herself to her feet, she reached down for the blanket and twitched it about her shoulders. Her thigh muscles quivered and a burst of sensation rolled through her. Biting off another fevered moan, she pressed her legs together even harder and tried to gain control of her libido. She drew in a deep breath to dispel the tension gnawing at her belly and all she could smell was the musky scent of sexual excitement. Hers! God help her, it wouldn’t take much to drag her back to the edge of a thundering orgasm.
    Even before she’d arrived in Australia, she’d known that being around Morgan Hunt would be hard, just not this damned difficult.
    The striking of a match pulled her across the tunnel, feet shuffling so she wouldn’t fall. Morgan applied the flame to a curious, jug-like structure on the ground in front of him. The hissing stopped and the area around the campsite lit up.
    Gili moved closer, wrinkling her nose. “It stinks.”
    â€œAcetylene gas, created by mixing water with calcium carbide crystals. Far better than relying on batteries.” He adjusted the reflector shield behind the flame and set the lantern aside. “So, you joining me or not?”
    She swallowed the groan that surfaced as he disappeared back inside the sleeping bag. Morgan’s muscled body in nothing but a tight black t-shirt and briefs was enough to turn any girl into a screaming heap of need.
    â€œCome on, woman, make up your mind. I want to get some sleep. I’ve got work to do tomorrow.” Morgan flipped one side of the sleeping bag up, silently inviting her in.
    â€œI, ah…it doesn’t look big