by Louise Clark
It occurred to him that he was thinking about Liz a woman, not a paleontologist and colleague. He needed to get that sorted out in his head. They were locked together on this find, for the immediate future and very likely for a lot of time beyond it. Harvey had been practically rubbing his hands with glee tonight. He’d emailed that negotiations were going well and that all of the extreme, outrageous clauses he always included in his initial demands weren’t causing so much as a ripple at the university’s end.
It was Harvey’s policy to include demands he was certain the other side would not be willing to meet. Then, when they protested and insisted those clauses be deleted, Harvey would concede—always with a great show of reluctance. Later, when the opposition wanted other concessions, he’d refuse, citing his earlier compromises, and the other side would back off. That way, he ensured that the really important stuff slipped through under the radar and he ended up with a contract that was tipped in Discovering Dino’s favor. Tonight Harvey said it looked like he was about to get all of his must have clauses included, especially that one, really big, red herring.
Mike tipped his head back and smiled at the black, star spotted sky. If Harvey was right, he would be seeing a great deal of Liz Hamilton over the next months. Should he follow the attraction between them and see if it led to sex and a relationship? Or perhaps just to friendly sex with no ties between them? He mulled that over while the fire gradually die down.
As the flames faded into embers, he decided that casual sex between friendly colleagues was the best idea. No messy possessiveness on either side, so no painful emotional break up at the end of the season, but satisfaction on both sides.
He spread the embers, then dumped the last of the coffee from the urn onto them and added dirt on top for good measure. Then he turned in for the night, ready to deal with whatever the next day threw his way.
Tomorrow morning brought a sleepy-eyed Liz to breakfast and along with her a lot of thoughts about bed and waking up together that told him he needed to step up his plan to move their situation into his friendly colleagues and lovers scenario. He didn’t have a lot of luck at breakfast. She ate quickly and disappeared down into the rift while he was still munching on bacon and eggs. Still, he figured he’d see her down at the excavation and didn’t worry.
Forty-five minutes later he did find her there. He also found Scarr and Zac Doyle. He greeted them both politely. Zac nodded acknowledgement, but Scarr simply glared at him. Well, that was fine. He didn’t care about Alfred Scarr. He went to work with Will on his side of the find.
Scarr shot them both a look, then grabbed Liz’s arm and dragged her deeper into the federal side, away from Will and Mike.
“You’d think we carried the Ebola virus,” Will muttered.
Mike laughed. “Wouldn’t it be fun to find some way to make him catch it?”
Will laughed too, and they continued on, though Mike kept an eye on what Scarr was doing with Liz on the other side of the rift.
Whatever it was, he seemed to be deeply emotional about it. He waved his hands in the air as he talked and occasionally he pointed aggressively. It was that aggressive pointing that Mike worried about. But he stayed where he was and worked on clearing away debris, exposing more and more of the ancient bones that made up the skeleton.
Eventually Scarr nodded to Zac and they both headed down the rift, away from the find. Liz came back to her side of the skeleton and started working on the neck bones.
She was only a few feet away, but Mike couldn’t read her expression. That worried him. She looked closed off, not simply focused on her work. He got a couple of bottles of water from the cooler and went over to offer her one.
She stared at it, then looked at him and smiled. “Thanks.” She drank deeply, then said, “They’ve gone exploring.”
He blinked. This was not what he expected. “Scarr and Doyle?”
She nodded. “Scarr figures that there must be more bones like these in the rift and he wants to be the one to find them.”
While she drank more water, he tried to figure out if she was upset by this. “Shouldn’t Zac be helping you with our dino?”
“Scarr and Zac want a find of their own. Scarr doesn’t like the idea of sharing this one.” She looked at her neck bones, then back at him. “Truth be told, Mike? I’m glad they’re not interested in this creature. If exploring the rift makes them happy and keeps them from interfering in my dig, I’m all for it.”
He laughed. “Me too.”
She shot him a grin. “Besides, if there’s anything on my side of the line, it’s buried deep and not easy to find. I know. I’ve looked. Thanks for the water. I’ve got to get back to work.”
As he watched her sashay back to her bones, a laugh rumbled deep in his throat. He’d thought she wasn’t up to dealing with Scarr and Doyle, but it seemed there was a lot more to Liz Hamilton than he’d thought.
Chapter 14
“Things are looking good here.” Zac Doyle’s voice was encouraging, as if he actually cared about how the dig was going.
Liz had a soft brush out and was dusting surface debris away from one of the shoulder bones of her beast. Zac was standing to one side watching her work. He was supposed to be crouching beside her, engaged in the delicate work of releasing the fossilized skeleton from the rocks where it had rested for millennia. Instead she was doing the excavation all by herself while he went out and searched for a fabulous find of his own. With only her working on the skeleton, she’d be lucky if she was able to get it free of its burial place before the season was over and the early snows of winter arrived.
She didn’t bother to look up. “Yes, they are.” She kept brushing. Zac breathed and shuffled his feet, waiting for her to say something more.
What did he expect her to do? Beg him to give her a hand? Fat chance she’d do that. It had been over a week since she made the find and for all that time Zac had rarely been around.
“Al has decided we should do a thorough inventory of the area. He thinks this must have been an ancient river bed and he feels there’s tremendous potential here.”
There was. There were signs that other animals were buried here. The trouble was, they seemed to be up water from where her creature had died, on Mike Edmonds land, not Scarr’s.
She kept brushing, focused on her work, ignoring Zac’s shuffling feet and increasingly stressed breathing.
Interesting, that. He evidently wanted her blessing before he went off to do his exploring, even though Scarr—no Al!—had apparently already told him what his expected objective was. She brushed some more. Zac’s feet shuffled, visible at the edge of her vision. She continued to work and eventually Zac went away. That was a relief. Having him hover encroached on her concentration and made her edgy. With him gone she settled in to get as much done as she could before the cool morning gave way to the heat of the afternoon.
Around mid-morning she surfaced for a water break. The sun beat down on her and her dinosaur, warming the pale sandstone walls of the rift, which then trapped the heat in the rift. She stretched, swiped her arm over her forehead, then went to get a bottle of water from the cooler. She was leaning on the boulder Mike had used the other day when she noticed Zac headed her way.
As she drank her water, she watched him idly. He was plodding, his head down as he put one foot in front of the other. His slumped shoulders told her that he hadn’t had any luck finding another bone bed. Whether he was upset because his name wouldn’t be associated with the local finds, or he was worried about how Scarr would react to his lack of success, she didn’t know. Moreover, as she watched him, she realized she didn’t care.
She went to the cooler to get another bottle of water. When he reached her, she handed it to him. He looked surprised, but nodded his thanks.
They drank in silence for a time then he said, “I’m going to have to go back to camp to report to Al.”
There it was again. Al, the chummy short form of Alfred. Liz preferred the more professional, a
nd possibly faintly derogatory, Scarr. “Find anything interesting?”
She saw him start to shake his head, no, then stop. “There are several formations where I’d expect to find bones. Once I report, I expect Al will want me to bring a mapping team in.” He smiled, as if the task not only was of vital importance, but in a conspiratorial way, enlisting Liz’s cooperation to make the mapping team’s process easier.
Liz drank her water and didn’t comment. Zac finished his and pitched the bottle toward the can they were using for recycling. It missed, landing beside and a little behind, but in full view of where she and Zac were both standing.
“Thanks for the water.” He turned toward the path to the surface, ready to head out.
“Hey, Zac,” she said. When he turned toward her, his gaze questioning, she pointed to the stray water bottle. “You missed.”
He stared at her uncomprehending.
“The bottle goes in the can, not beside it.”
He still looked bewildered.
Liz huffed out a breath and said, “Zac, take a moment and put the bottle in the can before you go.” She felt a little petty saying that, until she saw the flash of annoyance in his eyes. Then she felt better. Zac was used to having others do his clean up for him. Being called on his skimpy performance was something he definitely didn’t like. She was rather pleased she’d struck a nerve.
He stalked over to the can, picked up the bottle and ostentatiously crumpled it, before dropping it inside. Liz grinned and saluted him with her bottle. “Awesome, Zac. Thanks.”
He nodded curtly, then made his way up the path. She wondered if he’d catch the underlying meaning to her little stunt over the bottle. That she knew he hadn’t found anything significant when he went bone bed hunting down the rift and was just stringing her a line. She doubted it.
She finished up her water. As she dropped her own crumpled bottle into the bin, she heard the roar of an engine. It was coming from Scarr’s side of the ruined highway. Zac was on his way back to Scarr’s camp.
Time to get back to work.
She glanced up at the sky as she moved back into the sunlight. Not a cloud in sight. She’d have another hour and a half or two hours before it became too hot to work and she had to retreat to the Discovering Dinos camp.
As if her thoughts of Discovering Dinos had conjured him up, Mike Edmonds’ voice sounded nearby.
“Nice move.” His tone was approving.
She knew he was talking about the water bottle, but she raised her brows anyway. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about Mike Edmonds. He was good to look at and sexy in the extreme, and she was definitely attracted to him, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to see where that attraction went. Who knew? It might go nowhere. He might not be attracted to her.
“Do you think he really believes he’s found some good potential sites?” Mike said.
He wasn’t going to let this go. She shrugged. “Zac wants me to think he has. There’s a difference.”
“In the real world, yeah. For Zac Doyle? Maybe not.”
That made her laugh. “You don’t believe in bullshit, do you, Mike?”
His mouth quirked up into a half smile. “Not worth my time.”
She raised her brows. “Is that why you’re not in academia?”
He stared at her for a minute without answering. His eyes were covered by the dark sunglasses, so she couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but she saw his mouth harden, then ease into a smile. “No. My cousin died.” He pointed to the neck bones she’d exposed before her water break. “Want some help?”
She looked over his shoulder. Will was talking to the summer students, Justin and Maggy, giving them direction. Probably telling one of them to come over here to help her. That was sweet, but… “Scarr would go nuts if he knew I was accepting help from someone at Discovering Dinos.”
Mike’s smile broadened. “So don’t tell him.”
Liz’s first instinct was to refuse, politely, but firmly. Then she looked at her massive dinosaur and thought about natural deadlines and the need to get the bones out of the ground before the short autumn turned into winter. She needed help. Usually she’d have a team of several diggers working with her. Scarr wasn’t pulling anyone from his other site though, and Zac wasn’t putting in any time.
Scarr wanted her to fail and on her own she probably would. Mike Edmonds was offering her a way out. “If Zac comes back I’ll be in deep trouble.”
“Do you think he will?”
“This afternoon maybe. Not before.” Mike’s eyebrows rose above his sunglasses. She felt her mouth twist into a rueful smile in response. “Yeah, okay, you’re right. I’ll be able to hear the sound of his engine if he comes back long before he sees anything. Okay, thanks, I accept your offer.”
Was there approval in his smile? Or was she imagining it? Liz hoped it wasn’t her imagination, because his expression made her feel warm all over. She went back to her neck bones and Mike followed.
She cocked her head. “Shouldn’t you tell Will what’s up?”
“Why?”
“So he can send Justin or Maggy over.”
Mike looked down at her. “You’d prefer one of the kids to me?”
“What? No, of course not. I mean… I didn’t think…” She shut her teeth over her babbling and willed herself to settle down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect this.” At his raised eyebrows, she said defensively, “You’re the boss. I assumed you had other charges on your time.”
“Will is supervising my side of the beast. My assistant has me listed as out-of-the-office, and she can handle pretty much anything that comes up, anyway.” He shrugged. “My time is yours.”
“You planned this,” she said. She wasn’t sure if she liked that idea or not. Part of her did. The part that liked the knowledge that he was noticing what she was doing. The other part wondered if there was an ulterior motive to his offer.
“I’ve been watching Doyle,” he said. “And you. Doyle flits in, stands around the skeleton for a half an hour or so, then disappears on his own business. You work steadily, usually until long after you should be taking a break. From what I’ve seen you’re careful and thorough. I respect that. I want to help.”
His voice deepened as he said the last few words, sliding across her senses like an unexpected touch. Liz felt that change in tone like a caress that slid all the way down her body. She swallowed and said, “Thank you. I accept your offer.” Her voice had softened in response to his and she knew she was replying to more than the simple words.
They got to work. Mike took direction from her, but added his own observations when he thought they were useful. They worked as a team, with surprisingly little conflict. Liz became absorbed in the work, hardly noticing the time passing. She was aware, though, of Mike’s presence in a way that seemed remarkably natural. She liked having him beside her, focused on the same dino bones she was, intent, meticulous, and driven. Their conversation didn’t stray far from a discussion of the state of the skeleton and what they found, but Liz felt as if they were speaking a deep emotional language just their own. There was absolutely no practical reason for her reasoning. It was all based on an emotional response.
When he put his hand on her shoulder sometime later, she didn’t jump, though she felt the touch sizzle through her. She looked up, into his face. He was frowning. Her heart twisted. “What the matter?”
“It’s well past noon. The sun’s high and you’re flushed. Time to break for lunch.”
That little twist blossomed into a flight full of shy butterflies absurdly excited at being the focus of this man’s caring. She sat back on her heels, then stretched, absurdly certain that his eyes were following her movements, even though his gaze was hidden by the dark glasses.
He turned away abruptly and she stood, suddenly feeling adrift. He’d just gone to the cooler to get them water, though, and those butterflies did a happy dance inside her as she watched him return. He twisted the cap loose, then handed her a bottl
e. She drank, tipping her head back, again feeling the warmth of his gaze as he studied her. The water slid down her throat, cool and refreshing as she swallowed. She lowered the bottle and smiled. Slowly. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
His voice was rough. The edge of hoarseness told her that he was paying attention to every little move she made and the pleasure of it shivered through her. He turned away to pack tools neatly until they returned from the lunch break.
She took another drink, then capped the bottle and went to help him. They were very close, their shoulders almost touching, their hands brushing each other as they stored the tools. Each time they touched, they would smile. On the surface, the looks were an apology. In reality it was because the slightest caress was igniting new sensations.
At least, that was how it was for Liz. She hoped he was experiencing the same pleasurable feelings.
Too soon the area was tidied away and they were on their way up the path to the camp. They’d reached the crest of the ridge, and were back up at ground level when she asked, “Earlier you said you weren’t a paleontologist because your cousin died. If you don’t mind my asking, what happened?”
He stopped and stared out onto the prairie. Will and the students, Justin and Maggy, were already at the camp, moving around, organizing lunch. Liz thought Mike wasn’t going to answer, then he said, “My uncle owns this land. Originally it was a cattle ranch, but when my cousin entered the army, my uncle turned it into a dude ranch. Less work, more stable annual income. From the time I was ten I worked here during the summer. I knew every inch of this place, and I was dino mad. After Uncle Ted turned it into a dude ranch I spent my summers leading trail rides to those places where the fossils were on the surface and easy to see. When I finished my Bachelor of Science degree I enrolled in a masters level paleontology program, but that summer my cousin died in Afghanistan. My aunt and uncle fell apart. They asked me to stay on that fall and help.” He shrugged, and looked down at her. “He was their only son and their daughters had moved away and had lives of their own. They didn’t have anyone else. I stayed.”
