“You can be very distracting.”
He straightened and shrugged. “It was one of my many jobs as a child—the distraction.” Ed frowned at the mention of Max’s less-than-ideal childhood. There was quite a bit he’d like to say to his remaining family members. He also wouldn’t mind digging up Max’s father’s corpse and giving him a piece of his mind. And maybe a live grenade.
Max immediately shook his head and squeezed his cheeks. “Don’t. Yes, my family sucks, but I learned a long time ago that you’ve got to let that shit go. Hanging on to it? Being angry about it? That gets in the way of doing cool stuff, like digging up mummies and uncovering treasure. And which would you rather do?”
“You may have a good point.”
“Exactly. So I need to get to work. The faster I find the tomb, the faster we can get all those assholes off our back, and we can get to fun stuff.”
That perked Ed right up. “Fun stuff?” he repeated, lifting an eyebrow. He liked fun stuff. It usually incorporated fast cars and explosions, but there was a chance that Max had a different kind of explosion in mind.
“Yeah, fun stuff. Kissing stuff. Maybe other stuff, if you’re interested.”
Ed tightened his arms around Max, drawing him in closer. “I could be enticed.” He began to lean in for another kiss, but Max laughed and pushed him away.
“Later!” He giggled. “Later! If we start that again, I’ll never get to my work. Besides, I’m sure your friends are all waiting for full details on my sister and the new mess that we’re in.”
With a pouty huff, Ed released Max and retreated. This was more fun than the teasing that was awaiting him downstairs, but the archeologist was right. He needed to finish his work. The team also had a job to do—dig up all they could on Mironov and Rive. It was the only way they were going to keep Max, and possibly Kairo’s mother, safe.
As he was about to head for the door, Ed stopped as one question that had been teasing his brain returned. He needed an answer.
“Max? Why did you pick me at the airport?” Ed inquired.
Max’s shoulders instantly slumped. He hopped down to the floor and dropped his butt to the edge of the mattress. His features were all scrunched up and he sort of huddled in on himself as if he were embarrassed. This was not the reaction Ed had been expecting.
“Are you really going to make me say it?” Max whined.
“I would like to know. I’ve been wondering about it since that day, and I can’t think of an appropriate answer.” He wanted to sit next to him on the bed and wrap an arm about his shoulders, but he was afraid that maybe Max needed some space.
A low groan escaped Max, and he covered his face with one hand. “Please don’t hate me. You gotta remember that I’d been running for several days at that point. Little food. Almost no sleep. I was operating on pure adrenaline and desperation.”
“I understand,” Ed mumbled, his heart sinking. He’d thought there had been some special reason, something that Max saw in him that he didn’t see in anyone else.
“I remember hurrying through the crowded airport and spotting you. My brain just screamed that you were the biggest, strongest, toughest marshmallow that I’d ever seen. It said that you were a good, honest person who would send the scarab to Janet, but most importantly, no one would fuck with you. If I gave you the scarab, you wouldn’t get hurt. You also wouldn’t hurt me.” Max lifted his head to look at Ed, his fingers twisting in the blanket under him.
“A tough marshmallow?” Ed repeated, trying very hard not to laugh.
“Yeah. I mean, anyone can see the tough part. That’s easy. But it takes the discerning eye of someone practiced in the art of locating treasure.” As Max spoke, he lifted one finger and placed it next to his right eye. “I know treasure when I see it. A marshmallow wrapped in a hard outer shell is pure gold.”
Max was pure gold, too, whether or not the man knew it. Ed leaned down and pressed a sweet kiss to his lips. His assessment of Ed was one hundred percent accurate, but Ed could probably count on his fingers the number of people who knew that about him. Max had taken one look at him in a busy airport and read him perfectly. That was something special.
And Ed was determined to keep him safe.
After one more kiss…
Okay, after three more kisses, Ed escaped the bedroom, leaving Max to sort through his notes and dig for the lost tomb. He’d have Kairo bring him the new laptop he’d configured for him along with the scarab so Max could work.