“Smart,” Ed murmured. He’d adopted much of the same mentality for his own things over the years, thanks to all the traveling he did with Charlie and the team. The only time he got a touch huffy was when it came to their gear. He was nowhere near as anal about gear as Kairo was, though. Each microchip, surveillance camera, and laptop were treated like a child he’d personally given birth to. God help the airport worker or shipping personnel who might have temporarily misplaced one of his children.
“You know, I’ve never heard exactly how an archeologist locates a lost city or tomb. What do you do now?” Ed inquired.
A strange mix of emotions flashed across Max’s face before he seemed to settle on self-deprecation and amusement. A warm wind blew in through the open window, moving Max’s longish hair across his forehead. Max really was a handsome guy in a soft, subtle sort of way. He didn’t have the sharp, classic lines that made Isidore attractive. No, he was more of the roguish good looks of a young Harrison Ford, which only made him laugh at himself because Max would probably hit him with another pillow if he dared to compare him to Indiana Jones. But he also had the soft eyes and little smirk of Chris Pine. And Ed was such a sucker for those big green eyes.
The sun was setting deeper in the west, elongating the shadows cast by the tall buildings they passed while lights began popping on here and there. A lingering hint of spices and cooked meat mingled with car fumes, giving the city her own unique flavor that embedded itself in Ed’s mind so that it now accompanied all his memories of Max.
“You’ve likely never heard of it because finding lost cities and tombs is relatively rare,” Max murmured. “It’s a stupidly long process that starts when you’re studying for your degree. The first thing you do is read everything about the period when the place existed. All the research. All the stories—both fictional and nonfictional. Then you read everything before it, because these are the people who influenced the people you’re interested in. And then you read everything that came after your time period, because they were the ones influenced by your people.”
Ed grunted. “You’re trying to build as complete a picture as possible based on the limited data that’s been found, forcing you to extrapolate possible decisions the society made. That’s got to be made even more difficult when you’re not sure if your sources of information are trustworthy or even if the translations are accurate. Does each archeologist have to come up with a personal data weighting system so that their final hypothesis is not too heavily skewed by incomplete or potentially erroneous information?”
Max stared at him with wide eyes for several heartbeats, forcing Ed to replay in his head the words tumbling from his mouth. Fuck. That was a lot. He probably shouldn’t have said that. Most people couldn’t handle the idea he had a sharp mind. They looked at his size and relegated him to walking tank. It was a label they could deal with.
Tank with a brain was too frightening.
A shiver ran through Max’s entire body, and his shoulder pressed even more against his. “Sexy and smart. If I were a woman, I would be begging to have your babies right now. You need to tell me if you’re really not attempting to seduce me, because it’s mean if you’re just teasing.”
His mouth kind of hung open, words crashing around in his head. What the fuck was he supposed to say to that? Was he smart? He definitely didn’t feel smart now.
“I-I-you think I’m sexy?” Ed stammered out.
Max snorted. “Uh, yeah. My first name for you was Big ‘n’ Sexy. Now I think I’m upgrading that to Sexy Smart.” Max winced. “Sorry. This is me flirting. It’s not smooth. I don’t get a lot of practice at it, so it kind of comes off…aggressive.”
“No!” Ed shouted. Of course, it was now his turn to wince. He hadn’t meant to shout in a cab. “No, I like your style. I thought maybe you were the type to make flirty comments with everyone, to be friendly. But you…don’t. At least, you haven’t been with the other guys.”
A loud cackle exploded from Max, forcing him to curl partially into a ball. “Oh, my God! No way! You’re totally the hottest of the group. Besides, the only other single one is a grouchy sniper man. And I’d be too scared of the boyfriends to even wink at the other guys.”
Ed’s brows snapped together as he tried to sort through that last comment. “Scared of the boyfriends? Like Charlie, Kairo, and Soren?”
Max laughed again. “Fuck, no. I mean Alexei, Will, and Izzie.”
Alexei made sense. There was no missing that under Alexei’s silly, carefree personality, he was a bit bloodthirsty and had zero problem taking down someone who was a threat to his relationship with Soren.