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“How come you haven’t sat the qualification?”
“Not my thing. Exams never were.” She hoped that would shut the discussion down. The truth was that she would kill to have that certificate, but it wasn’t possible. Not for her. There was silence for a few minutes. Magenta hoped it would last. No such luck.
“When did the caving start?”
“I used to come up here when I skipped school. It was the one place I was sure no one would look for me.” She shrugged even though she knew Harry couldn’t see her. “One day I met a couple who were walking the mine. They were cavers, and through them I got into proper caving.”
They weren’t only cavers. They were lifesavers. She’d met Sally and Graeme when she’d been adrift in life. She couldn’t cope in school, which made her act out all the time. She’d honestly believed she was too stupid to do anything, then, just in time, she’d discovered she had a knack for caving and had clung to it like a lifeline.
“You still see this couple?” Harry’s voice broke her out of her reminiscing.
“Yeah, I’m part of their caving team. We do a few trips a year.”
“Did the photography come from them too?”
“I met up with a group of urban explorers a couple of years ago. They’re like the cavers of man-made things. Not always underground structures, but always abandoned ones. They take pictures and video and post online. I thought of this place and how cool it would be to make a record of it. That’s how the photography started.”
“You’re an urban explorer.” He sounded somewhere between intrigued and amused.
“Mainly I’m a caver. But I like this mine. It’s my own personal caving
system.”
She felt Harry move beside her. He was suddenly closer to her, but she wasn’t sure he was doing it on purpose, so she let it go.
“I don’t like the idea of you down here alone. It’s dangerous.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re doing that macho crap again, but you’re right. The mine is dangerous. Usually I would say you never explore anything underground without there being at least three of you. That’s what cavers do, they go in teams, but this mine is different. I spent years exploring it as a kid. Sure, I was lucky I never got injured or lost, but it means that no one knows this place better than I do. If someone else came in here on their own, I’d blast them for it. But I know what I’m doing. I know this mine. Plus, I always tell the twins where I’m going and when I expect to get back. That way, if something freaky happens, someone can find me.”
“I don’t like it.” She could have guessed Harry would say that even before the words came out of his mouth.
Magenta couldn’t help laughing. “I don’t care what you like and don’t like, Hairy Boil.”
He grunted. “I know, Maggie Fraser.”
Without thinking, she swung her arm and smacked him in the vicinity of his stomach. Harry grabbed her hand and held it tightly. Her thoughts stuttered before she remembered she was annoyed. “Don’t call me that.” She tugged to free her hand. Harry threaded his fingers with hers, and the touch made Magenta hyperaware of her heartbeat.
“Then don’t call me Hairy Boil,” he said with a laugh.
“Imbecile.”
“Tyrant.”
Magenta stopped trying to free her hand and decided instead to pretend Harry wasn’t holding it. She didn’t want to admit to him, or to herself, that she liked it. She liked the feel of his skin against hers. The warmth of his touch. The strength in his hold. She liked it all a little too much.
“You go rock climbing?”
“Yes. Outside. In the air. Where nothing can bury me alive.”
“Drama queen,” she muttered.
“I’ll take you sometime. It utilises some of the same skills as caving, only in daylight.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
“I tell you what. I’ll go caving with you, if you go rock climbing with me.”
She wanted to. She really did. But each step closer to Harry was a step closer to watching him reject her when he discovered her secret. She’d known at thirteen that having Harry judge and reject her would devastate. It would be even worse to have him reject her now that all the potential he’d had as a teenager had been realised. He was sexy, built like a fighter and so freaking confident in his own intelligence that it dazzled. He wasn’t easy to resist, but she knew he would leave her broken beyond repair if she let him get close and then watched him turn away.
