He leaned forward and kissed the woman in his bed. The woman who didn’t know what he was and yet wanted him anyway. The woman who saw his scars and kissed them instead of turning her back. The woman who’d made himfeelagain.
He cradled her face as he kissed her. Last night had been frantic and urgent. Today, he wanted more. He raised his head. “If you need to eat, call the office, use the bathroom, or anything else, better do so now, because I intend to take my time this morning. You just told me I have until noon.” He glanced at the clock. “Four hours sounds about right.”
Audrey didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt for blowing off work that morning. She’d even decided that instead of wasting time driving and hiking out to the site for a short workday, she’d stay in the lodge and do paperwork and catch up on the reports she had to review. The park would get her labor hours, she was just rearranging the schedule, and she wouldn’t collect per diem for the hotel room she hadn’t paid for anyway.
The nice thing about being head of the department was she could set her own hours, and often workdays were shifted to weekends as needed for interpretive events or fieldwork, as yesterday had been.
If Xavier were staying the full day, she’d probably have ditched work all together. So it was with disappointment that she walked him to his rental car at twelve fifteen. He dropped his bags in the trunk, then turned and pulled her to him for a deep kiss.
They stood in the shadows under a large cedar that shaded the side lot of the lodge. Not private, but there was no one around and she wanted this moment with him. She wasn’t in her park uniform or in any way representing the National Park Service right then. Odds were, she’d never see Xavier again. She would savor his goodbye as much as she’d savored the last eighteen hours with him.
He nibbled at her neck, then nipped her bottom lip before he raised his head. He cradled her head in one hand and brushed aside her hair with the other. “Thank you,” he said as he held her gaze.
Her belly fluttered at his intent, burning look. There was something that had been forged in these last hours. More than recreational sex. She wanted more of this man, even though it violated the ground rules they’d set.
He wanted it too. Every touch, every kiss, every stroke he’d given her today had telegraphed something more intimate passing between them than body fluids.
She cleared her throat. Licked her lips. Tried to find a way to say what she was thinking without overstepping their rules. Finally, she said, “If you’re ever back in the Pacific Northwest, look me up. Jae can give you—”
He pressed a finger to her lips before she could finish. He kissed her again and released her. “Goodbye, Audrey. It’s been…more than a pleasure.”
And like that, tears sprang to her eyes. She’d ruined the moment, and now he was rejecting her. She should just have let him leave. Said nothing. Said goodbye first and walked away.
She held her breath to keep the tears from falling. She would not let him see her cry. Would not taint the memory of the night they’d shared.
It was just sex.
Wild, amazing, incredible sex. But still, sex. A physical joining of bodies that resulted in multiple orgasms.
The guy was talented. That was all.
She stepped back from the vehicle as he climbed inside. “Bye,” she said, her voice flat.
“Audrey—”
“Take care of yourself,” she said, cutting him off. Then she turned and marched back into the lodge. Her room wouldn’t be ready for a few hours, but she’d sit in a dark corner of the great room and work. Or drink. Or look up cat memes on her phone. What she wouldn’t do was give this crushing disappointment any space in her heart.
Xavier Rivera was nothing more than a fun and done.
Chapter Three
Olympic National Park
Two weeks later
Audrey stared in horror at the freshly backfilled pit smack dab in the center of the thousand-year-old burial ground. She lifted her head to block out the disturbing sight, only to meet tribal elder George Shaw’s disapproving gaze.
His look cut her to the core.
“No one knew this is where the burial ground was located. That information isn’t on any accessible computer system. I promise, George, the park didn’t release the data.”
She pressed a hand to her belly as her stomach churned. She was going to be sick, and not in an overstated, drama queen kind of way. Her stomach had knotted the moment she eyed the damage. Even if this wasn’t her fault, it was her responsibility. A tribal burial ground had been desecrated under her watch.
She’d discovered the burial ground four years ago when the field school she’d run had excavated the village site, and test pits in this area had revealed bones. They’d immediately stopped digging and notified the tribe. The bones were returned to their rightful place, and no public-access records gave the location. The students understood the need to protect the remains. She’d done everything she could.
But clearly, it hadn’t been enough.
Today was, officially, her one-year anniversary as park archaeologist. It also would go down in her mental journal as the single worst day she’d had on the job.