“Not at all. We might not see eye-to-eye on running all aspects of this dig, Rush, but I admire your excitement and enthusiasm for your work.”
She was staring at him like he’d shocked her. Her gaze ran over his face. He felt much like the antiquities under her hands. A puzzle for her to decode.
He leaned closer, feeling her shoulder brush his side. “What’s this?”
There were some strange grooves in the center of the scroll where there were no hieroglyphs, except for that strange symbol she’d pointed at.
“I’m honestly not sure. It doesn’t look familiar.”
“You’ll work it out.” He turned his head, and she was watching him. Damn, his gut went hard. “Rush, keep looking at me like that and I’m going to kiss you again.”
She licked her lips and Dec swallowed a groan.
“I won’t deny I’m attracted to you,” she said. “But we have a business arrangement, Declan. And I don’t have time for a man like you.”
“A man like me?”
She waved a hand. “Sexy, potent, attractive.” When Declan grinned she rolled her eyes. “This dig has gotten off to a bad start. I need to ensure it goes smoothly from here. I’m sure the sex would be great…”
“Great? Rush, I assure you, it would be something well above great.”
That made her pause, a flush of color in her cheeks. “I’ve never really experienced anything above good.”
Dec made a pained sound. Oh, he wanted to strip her naked and show her just how amazing it could be. “That makes me want you more, not less. But you have a point.”
She blinked. “I do?”
He reached out and fiddled with the buttons on her shirt. “I’m not the man for you. I don’t do relationships. I’m not a forever kind of guy.” Jesus, for the first time in his life, he seriously regretted that. “You need someone better than me.” He held out his hands. “I’ve done too much, seen too much—” Dec broke off. Hell, he’d never told any woman anything like this before.
Rush cocked her hip. “You’re too big and bad for me, is that it?”
“Yes,” he said warily, her tone setting off warning bells in his head.
“Oh, I’m too innocent, sheltered, and naïve?”
“Ah…that’s not what I said.”
She shook her head at him. “You have no idea what I’ve lived through or experienced. We’ve all suffered horrible things, Declan. It doesn’t give you a free pass to cut yourself off from life.” She waved an angry hand. “Why don’t you just head off and brood in the shadows for a bit, Ward. Maybe find yourself a Batcave. I have work to do.”
When she gave him her back and turned her attention to the scroll, Dec just stared. What horrible things had Layne lived through? What made her voice quiver and her face go pale like that?
“Are you still here?” she asked.
Damn, this woman just loved busting his balls. “Someone will keep an eye on your work tent until you’re finished.” He didn’t tell her he’d shifted the schedule around to make sure he was the one watching her tent. “When you’re done, radio for one of us to walk you back to your tent. Got it?”
She didn’t even look at him. “Got it.”
Dec cleared his throat. He needed some distance between him and the lovely Dr. Rush. “Don’t stay up too late, and that hieroglyph you can’t decipher…”
She lifted her head.
“It stands for fierce protector.” With that, Dec exited the tent.
Chapter Six
The next morning, Layne stomped across the dig site, tucking her shirt into her trousers as she went.
She’d slept in. She knew she shouldn’t be angry at herself, as she’d stayed up way too late working on the scroll and then dreamed about a certain annoying, hard-bodied man, but she’d slept through her alarm and she hated being late.
After she’d gotten back to her tent the night before, escorted by the near-silent and intimidating Morgan, it had taken Layne a long time to fall asleep. Then she’d had strange dreams of golden sarcophagi and scrolls, and running through the desert dunes…then the dream had morphed into something else.
The sexy feel of a certain man’s hands and lips. Declan slowly stripping her naked, his stubble scraping her belly and thighs, her husky cries. She’d woken up with damp panties.
Ugh, why was she thinking about Declan? Mr. I’m-too-dark-and-brooding-for-you. God, he’d gotten her all twisted up inside.
He had been right about the obscure hieroglyph, though. It did mean fierce protector. But no matter how she arranged what she’d decoded on the scroll, none of it made sense.