Her Dirty Archeologists by Mika Lane

9

JONAS KELLER

“Would you like some of my sunscreen?”

Fleur offered me her bottle of something heavily-scented, and most likely higher end than what I had. I shook my head and pulled out the cheap stuff I’d gotten at Target.

“Thanks Fleur. Got my own.”

I slathered my arms and the back of my neck, and called it done.

Meanwhile, Fleur was trying to get the sunscreen on her chest without opening her shirt.

I was dying to volunteer to help.

Yeah, I liked women like Fleur. Young, smart, and eager-to-please. She was totally my type. The only reason I’d never moved on her was that she was in my freaking department. And she was a grad student. Usually, they were too smart to get involved with professors.

Undergrads were another story. They swarmed to their professors like moths to a light. It was unbelievable. I didn’t know how half the guys I worked with resisted. A lot of us didn’t.

And, on the unfortunate occasion, there was a price to pay for that.

I’d… recently gotten into a little hot water with the university—thus, the reason I elbowed my way into this trip. I needed a little time away.

And as I relaxed back into my camp chair and took in the excavation site, the desert landscape, and the tents I was surrounded by, I wondered why I’d ever become part of the university administration, and left behind the amazing work of archaeology.

I was a fucking idiot, that’s why.

Thiswas where I belonged. It was why I’d gotten into archeology. I wanted to get my hands dirty and contribute to the understanding of human history. Who gave a shit about running a department of people?

Drake had the cool job, when it came down to it. Being part of the administration might be prestigious, pay more, and grant me access to other university bigwigs. But it was also mind-numbingly bureaucratic. I was a goddamn paper pusher.

I envied Drake’s freedom to take on projects and develop courses.

My brother would have been a better fit for the university. And I’d have been a better fit for the museum, where he currently was.

There’d been a time when we’d both hoped to join the archeology department as academics. But it turned out there was room for only one of us. We competed fair and square, and I’d always felt a little badly I’d gotten the position and not him. But he seemed happy with his museum career. Or happy enough.

But I’d always wondered if we’d each be a little more content if the roles were reversed.

I watched Fleur trot after Drake on their way to the excavation site. It was hot as hell, so she’d changed into some khaki shorts and a black tank top, the type women wear for yoga. That, with her ankle-high desert boots, made for quite the vision. She was a little hottie.

Actually, she was a fucking major hottie. Her wild red hair was now divided into two long braids, swinging down her back, stopping just below the shorts that hugged her ass so nicely. Her thighs were fleshy but firm and jiggled just the tiniest amount when she took big leaps over rocks and other debris on the way to the site.

She turned around at one point and waved, her tits bouncing under her lycra top.

Fucking A. The last thing I needed right now was to lust after yet another college student. I mean, she might be a graduate student, and certainly above the age of consent, but my dick had already gotten me in enough trouble at the university.

But there was just something about this one…

And since restraining myself was just not something I was going to do, especially since I was in my archeologist element, I wandered over to the excavation site where Fleur and Drake were doing some initial surveying.

Penn had gone over to the other camp, to visit with some folks he knew from past trips.

I crouched down next to Fleur, where she had bent to measure something.

“How’s it going?” I asked, looking right down her top.

Yeah, I was a dick. There was no denying it.

And her tits were luscious, just like I knew they’d be.

“Ow, shit!” I hollered, jerking my hand back from where I’d rested it on the sand.

“Oh my god. What was that?” Fleur asked, gently brushing the dirt away from the print my hand had left in the sand.

“Wow,” she said, pulling something sharp out of the ground. “Someone left behind a knife. Crap. Are you okay?”

I’d wiped my bloody hand down my shirt, hoping to remove as much of the dirt as possible from it, leaving me looking like the victim of a massacre.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Drake asked.

“Cut myself. I’ll be fine.”

I stood to go back to the kitchen area where the first aid box was.

Fleur stood, too. “It’s really bleeding. C’mon.”

Holding me by the upper arm, she directed me back to the camping chair where I’d been hanging out before I’d decided to chat her up.

And where I should have stayed, minding my own business.

“Before I start, which brother are you?” she asked.

Fuck. I could have fun with this. But I was no longer in the mood.

“Jonas,” I said.

Penn strolled back into camp. “Yo. What did you do to yourself?” he asked, looking at the blood down the front of my shirt and dripping from my hand. “Were you attacked by the looters?” he laughed.

I shot him a dirty look. Fortunately, his smart-ass remark went right over Fleur’s head. There had been issues with robberies, and we didn’t want her to worry. Yet.

“I rested my hand on the ground and this was just under the surface in the sand.”

I held up what some idiot from a previous dig had carelessly left behind.

But my attention quickly shifted from my brother and back to Fleur, who was dabbing at my wound with a towel she’d just sprinkled clean water on.

While she played nurse, I had the chance to see her up close. Very up close. Her blue eyes were fringed by light eyelashes, nearly lighter than her hair. Her flawless complexion was highlighted by a spray of freckles, and her perfectly symmetrical lips were a deep pink.

And she smelled good. How did anyone smell good in the desert?

I was sorry I’d never paid her much attention. She was beautiful, sure, but even better, her touch was having quite the… impact on me. I wanted more.

And that wasn’t a good thing. Right?

At least I kept telling myself that

But now that we were in close proximity, I realized I might have a problem on my hands. Literally.

I pulled out of her grip. “Hey, I think I’m going to be fine. I’m just going to put a bandage on this and call it done.” I wrapped the towel she’d been using, now almost completely soaked with blood, around my hand.

She frowned. “Prof—I mean, Jonas, that was a deep cut and with a dirty blade. If you got an infection out here, which is very likely because you know, just look around, this place is about the furthest thing from sterile you’ll ever see. You could lose your hand.”

Cripes, I knew I had to take care of my hand, but she sounded like it was going to fall off tomorrow.

I started to walk away.

“But Jonas—”

I turned to face her. “I’m fine,” I snapped.

Shit. I hadn’t meant to do that.

Surprised by my outburst, she studied me for a moment. Then she shrugged. “Fine. Suit yourself,” and walked off.

“Jesus, bro. Think you could be a bigger douche?” Penn hissed.

I reached into the first aid kit to finish treating my hand. “I know. I know. I… have some things on my mind.”

Penn got in my face. “Well, don’t take them out on her.”

“Hey, why don’t you not joke about things like looters?” I said.

He nodded. “Yeah. That was a slip. In fact, I was just talking about them with the folks the next camp over. Let me go get Drake. We can discuss them while Fleur is busy.”

The three of us took seats in our camp chairs, facing the excavation site so we could keep an eye on Fleur. This was not a conversation she needed to be part of.

“What did you learn?” Drake asked.

Penn shook his head. “The guys over there were hit a couple weeks back.”

Fuck me.

“Drake, you said the threat was minimal. That we had nothing to worry about.”

He puffed up in his chair. The man had never liked being challenged, which, as his boss, I had every right to do.

“Look, guys,” he said, leaning his elbows on his knees, “I have it from a reliable authority that one, what we are going after, they don’t want, and two, that the shootout at the last robbery scared the shit out of them. We’re fine. Really. They’re not coming back.”

Having convinced himself, he sat back in his chair, satisfied with himself.

Problem was, he hadn’t convinced me. Or my brother.

“And we’re keeping this quiet, right? I don’t want Fleur to take on any more than she already has,” he added.

We nodded. At least there was one thing we agreed on.

I waited until after dinner when everyone was in their tent to go power up the sat phone. I had some contacts who could shed light on the looter problem. I wasn’t going to just wait for shit to happen like a sitting duck.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked, having run smack into Fleur. “Still practicing your first aid skills? Thanks for your help, by the way. I appreciate it.”

She took a step back, and in the dim light, I could have sworn she looked upset. “Oh. Hey. Just getting something for my fly bites.”

She sniffled.

Okay. All was not well. And I knew my behavior probably hadn’t make things any better. Time to see if I could redeem myself.

“What’s going on, Fleur?”

“Nuthin’.”

“I know something’s going on. I’m not an idiot. No matter how much I might act like one.”

Laughing, she shrugged. “It’s just that, you know, there have been some challenges, and these fly bites are really freaking itchy.”

Looking down at her feet, she sniffled again, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

“Hey,” I said, crooking a finger under her chin. “You’re going to be okay. Everyone’s first dig is a clusterfuck. You don’t know what to expect, and it’s all new and overwhelming.”

I knew I should have moved my hand off her face, but I didn’t.

I couldn’t. She’d placed her hand over mine to hold it there.

So, I bent to kiss her, good judgment be damned. We were a long way from home, and if this was the sort of comfort she craved, who was I to deny her?

I knew I shouldn’t.

But that didn’t stop me from kissing her more deeply. As if anything could.

* * *