Page 74 of Blossoms of the Heart
Chapter 15
Phoebe
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It was my fault for the way I felt.
Definitely not Tai’s.
I came here for business but so far, I was acting like I was a teenager let loose on vacation.
I couldn’t pretend that I wasn’t upset about last night but I was actually more upset with myself. I’d had eleven years to get over Tai and I never took the opportunity time gave me.
While Scott showed me the most beautiful limestone formation which was totally pink with a shimmer like my gloss I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about Tai.
I knew from the first day when Scott drove all the way to the other side of town to get me a Starbucks hot chocolate with hazelnut syrup that he was into me.
He was absolutely of the hot variety, and charming. Maybe I could have given him more of a chance if a certain exotic-looking man didn’t keep popping into my head.
It was harder even to concentrate within the confined spaces of the cave.
I’d been to Akiyoshido before but not from this side. I was walking on new paths we were perhaps the first to use in centuries. At least today I could get lost in some of the beauty Japan had to offer.
The main part of the cave was completely different to where we were. It had more open spaces that displayed the intriguing and uniquely beautiful limestone formations. Nature’s artwork that bordered on fantasy.
A lovely river ran through it. There were terraces of limestone pools filled with water and underground waterfalls that could mesmerize you for hours.
The total length of the cave was around nine kilometers, but it was only one kilometer that was open to the public. Usually you’d enter through the Akiyoshido entrance, walk through the main part of the cave, turn back at the Kurotani entrance, and then exit through the elevator.
We went through an entrance that was close to Kurotani that was of course closed to the public. It was actually usually boarded up and fenced off with several warning signs to say keep out. The entry was made clear for them for our investigation into the eight kilometers that hardly anyone had ever ventured into.
It would be a very interesting trip.
I followed behind Scott with the two research assistants that accompanied them. Tai was ahead of us talking to Kenny.
Despite my indifference towards him, I had to say he’d done a very good job so far of keeping everyone together and well informed. The work version of Tai was completely different to knowing him on a personal level. In fact, I couldn’t put the two versions together in my mind—they weren’t one and the same.
Everyone carried a headlight and flashlights. As there was no public access in these parts, there weren’t any lights placed on the ceiling.
Occasionally there was some illumination from daylight that trickled through the cracks in the cave, lighting up the area, but everywhere was pretty much dark.
I just hoped there were no bats inside. I hated the damn things. I always had a horrific gruesome image of having my eyes clawed out like in the filmThe Birds, but in my case it would be bats.
“We divert here,” Tai instructed up ahead. He shone his flashlight over an extremely dangerous-looking path that was covered in rocks. From the look of it, I guessed that the earthquake must have done that. “Guys, be very, very careful. This is an entrance that isn’t on the map. It looks like one that could have been there years ago but may have been sealed off the same way it was unveiled.”
I guessed, too, that an earthquake must have sealed the samurai in.
Tai hung back and allowed Scott and Kenny to pass by. He caught my arm as I was about to go and pulled me towards him.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Making sure I don’t lose you,” Tai replied. His headlight on his hard hat cast a shadow over his face but made it light enough so that I could see the hint of his sexy smile.
“I have done this before, you know.” It didn’t escape me that it was sweet of him to want to take care of me, but I’d put that aside in keeping with my plan to ignore him.
“We don’t know what the terrain is like. It’s already slippery enough as it is. You can get all cozy with Scott when we get out of here, but the only person I trust to take care of you in here is me.”
I didn’t know what highlighted to me more. His get cozy with Scott comment, or him saying he only trusted himself to take care of me.
