Chapter 1

Bambie was a worrier.

Bambie feared lots of things but most of all, she feared Halloween.

Every year, since she was six-years-old, so the last twenty years, in fact, she hid on All Hallows Eve. This year she had decided to go and hide in Australia. She even had come up with an excellent reason for why she should go to the middle of the smallest continent on Earth to hide. She also thought that it was cool that many people thought that it was the largest Island.

Bambie had a secret fascination with Australia. She had watched Crocodile Dundee after seeing the commercials and thought Paul Hogan was just the cutest guy ever, at the time of the movie’s production. She even stopped being scared of alligators after she saw a real crocodile. Well, it was stuffed but it was really, really huge.

When she learnt that Paul Hogan used to paint the Sydney Harbour Bridge, she could understand why he was so fearless, unlike her. However, she didn’t lose her fear of heights, even though she thought his previous job was romantic. Bambie owned an extensive collection of movies that were made in or based on Australia. She particularly liked the way they portrayed romance. It was just so, so un-American.

That was one of Bambie’s problems, too. She was an incurable romantic. Some people would stereotype her as the big busted, blonde bimbo. She stood at 5’ 1” (155cm) high. Her skin was freckle free, and creamy shade of mocha, which became just a little darker when she tanned.

She had large sapphire blue eyes that portrayed her innocence, although, some thought it was proof of her gullibility. Once men got their eyes above her tits, they found a gorgeous face with plush kissable lips and a cute little, slightly upturned nose.

The ends of her straight, naturally pale, honey-blonde hair caressed the top of her pert derrière. The well-toned legs tucked up under those sweet cheeks that also drew many an eye. More than one man had been smacked by his significant other for staring at her arse and legs when she walked away from them.

Most men found that technical details or any conversation about guns, cars or football would make her eyes glaze over. She understood sexually-orientated jokes a week after everyone else did. She was, however, well-practised at laughing when others did even if she never got the joke.

Two beers and she got the giggles and then became accident-prone. This occurrence had ended several of her dates. She also had a delightful habit of stating the truth as she saw it while under the influence. Trying to get into Bambie’s panties by giving her alcohol was a recipe for disaster. Bruising of extremities and egos were often the result.

It wasn’t that she had planned to save herself for marriage; it was just that she couldn’t find a guy who wanted to romance her how she wished to be romanced. So far, every guy she went on a date with had something wrong with him or went about romancing her the wrong way.

Plenty of them wanted to feel her boobs and screw her, but there was a bit more to Bambie than many people realised.

Because Bambie was a worrier, it also made her bloody good at her job.

Three weeks before the start of this story, she had agreed to become Professor Mark Driscoll’s research assistant. She had been Professor Graeme Walters’ assistant for four years, but he had to retire due to an unfortunate accident. You would have to ask his wife how he received the injuries that forced his retirement.

Bambie had liked Graeme a lot, as he had been easy to work for, even if he was absent-minded. He seemed to spend a lot of time lost in his research or going to lunch with his friend Malcolm. It was probably just as well she wasn’t aware of his sexual orientation and love of gay porn as the reason he didn’t lust after her.

After his retirement, four different professors had asked for her to become their assistant, but she didn’t know this at the time. Mark, as the son of one of the directors, got the first choice. Bambie had been a bit reticent at becoming Mark’s new assistant as she had heard things about him. She had good reason to be.

Mark had only asked for her because she was one of the few decent looking unmarried females in the Geological Research Facility that he hadn’t screwed. He was 5’ 11” (180cm) tall, good-looking enough that he did get the girls and light brown was his colour as far as skin, hair and eyes went.

While he did spend a little bit of time trying to keep in shape, he probably wasn’t as fit as he would like or believed himself to be. He had let himself go a little in recent years. He did still look good in a suit, as it can hide a lot. At thirty-five, he hadn’t settled down yet and he was in no hurry too as he wasn’t the faithful type and knew it.

He had seen Bambie around but had found it hard to get anywhere near her. Graeme had worked some odd hours since he was pure research and didn’t teach, as far as Mark knew. Plus, his offices had been on the other side of the building.

Graeme’s speciality had been the history and geology of opals. While Mark was also a geologist, he didn’t have a particular interest in opals.

While he got Bambie as his assistant, things didn’t turn out quite as Mark hoped.

It turned out that Mark’s father had a twisted sense of humour.

You see, Graeme had been doing some wrangling and had managed to secure a research grant from a mining company, before his accident. Towards the end of October, he and Bambie were supposed to go to a mine near Opalton for four weeks.

Opalton was a mining area located one hundred- and twenty-kilometres south-west of the town of Winton, Queensland, Australia. It is considered off the beaten track even by Aussies. A mining interest had recently found some fascinating boulder opals and fossils that the two wished to investigate.

An affiliated American mining company, Arisin Minerals, wished to exploit the new mine despite its remoteness. Opals had become good business, but it would require a significant find for the currently small operation to be expanded. Arisin decided this mine was worth a look.