Digging Deep (Xcite Romance) (9 page)

Chapter Nine

‘How was Sousse?’ Beth stacked away the last of the find trays and ran a critical eye over the deserted bath house site.

‘Fine, thanks.’ Harrison bent over the mosaic at their feet, habit making him brush it gently with the brush he kept in his pocket. ‘Sorry I was so long. It took ages to find what Rosa asked me to buy for her. Have you been OK here?’

‘Great.’ Beth passed him the daily report sheets. ‘The teams have worked well this afternoon, and apart from being half a day behind with the field-walking, we are up to speed.’

Harrison smiled, but seemed distracted as he studied the sheets detailing finds of beautiful beads and a broken strigil in his hand without really seeing them.

‘You OK?’ Beth knelt so she was at eye level with him. ‘You should be beaming from ear to ear. You aren’t going to be bothered by Linda any more. We played into her hands by reacting to her. No more overreacting means no more trouble.’

‘What about you though, doll?’ He looked worried. ‘She could make your life miserable when you get back.’

‘She could try; but as I’m not interested in going beyond the level of doctor, I can’t see why I’m worth her energy.’ Rocking back on her haunches, Beth pocketed her own brush. ‘I still don’t get why Linda was so worried about me. I’m no threat to her at all.’

‘All I can think is that her guilt at how she climbed so high so fast has made her paranoid.’

‘You think she was worried you’d tell me more about her ascent to power than she’d want me to know?’

‘Ironically, if she hadn’t tried to manipulate things via Candida, I wouldn’t have said a word. I’m not exactly proud of being such an idiot where she was concerned.’

Beth placed a warm hand on his bare knee. ‘Well, according to Ryan, Linda barely said a word in response to his call. Stunned silence is all he got, and an occasional squeak of agreement to his demands that we all be left alone. I’ve a feeling she’ll give me a wide berth rather than confront me.’

‘Well, there is another option.’

‘There is?’

‘I called Colorado while I was in Sousse. There’s a vacancy in the department. What do you think? A bit of a change from the Welsh rain.’

Beth flicked her eyes up to his. ‘Seriously? You want me to work with you?’

‘You English! You always ask such stupid questions!’

Beth tilted her head to one side. ‘Can I think it over?’

‘Sure.’

Feeling dizzy from too much sun, Beth rose back to her feet. ‘I think I should eat before I have to cope with anything else today. Come on, it’s time to tackle some of Rosa’s unspecified fish!’

‘Well, actually –’ Harrison slipped his hand into hers ‘– I thought perhaps you’d like a change from the fish and couscous diet.’

‘How?’

Harrison’s lips raised in a suggestive smirk. ‘You’ll see, but first I think it’s time we took advantage of the fact it’s my evening to use that trickle of water that laughingly calls itself a shower.’

The lust that had subsided from a full-on blazing blast to a simmering heat of happy expectancy inside Beth as she’d worked bolted to the surface. ‘But the students …’

‘Are all about to eat and, thanks to my trip to Sousse, enjoy a heap of local delicacies that are in no way fish-related. They’ll not be leaving the dining room for a while.’

Keeping up with Harrison’s silent stride, Beth felt the tingle at her pussy increase when he said, ‘Did you know that you are the only one on this entire site whose knees I haven’t seen?’

Beth laughed. ‘I fear they are not my best feature.’

‘You mean despite being covered all the time, they are covered in bruises and scars from all the kneeling you have to do when you’re digging deep.’

‘Yep.’

‘That is my very favourite type of knee.’

Harrison steered Beth up to the very top of the house, where the shower cubicle took up one small corner of the open roof. Shrouded by some well-placed pot plants, and a rigged-up shower curtain, a sheet of corrugated metal balanced over its top protected the user from the worst of the sun or chill of night.

‘Wait a minute –’ Beth pointed toward her room ‘– I need a towel and stuff.’

‘No, you don’t.’

Beth couldn’t believe it. The rooftop had been swept clean of its usual fine silt of sand, and all the detritus of cleaning and recording the collected artefacts was piled neatly along one wall.

Next to the shower were two brand new fluffy towels and a thick picnic rug, which had been neatly laid out, with a bag of food and drink propped next to it.

‘This is incredible! How did you do this without anyone seeing?’

‘Ryan and Candida.’ Harrison twisted Beth gently at the shoulders so she was facing him. ‘I figured we had no secrets from them now, and as they seriously owe us a favour, they kept everyone away.’

‘How?’

‘No idea, and frankly, my dear …’

Beth burst out laughing. ‘Let me guess. You don’t give a damn?’

‘You got it, doll.’ As Harrison’s arms wrapped around her, all the bubbles of uncertainty and desire that had been cartwheeling inside Beth over the past few days collided with the fantasies she’d harboured about Dr Harrison Harris ever since she’d first read his book all those years ago, and exploded in the pit of her stomach. She felt like a groupie whose dream of dating her favourite rock star had come true.

Her head swam as Harrison, his methodical pace both gorgeously sensual and frustratingly slow, extracted the layers of cotton from her belted waist. As the first graze of a fingertip met Beth’s hips, she began to give as well as she got. Gripping the bottom of his shirt, Beth yanked it up over his head. Her palms swept over his torso, the rush of pleasure at feeling his taut flesh, gritty with sand, like a supercharged aphrodisiac.

Harrison, his breathing rapid, his lungs feeling as if they were only capable of coping with tiny amounts of air at a time, took hold of Beth’s long-sleeved shirts, and returned the favour.

The chilled evening air that played around their semi-naked bodies went unheeded as the two archaeologists devoured each other with their eyes, their hands moving with equal enquiry over each other. Harrison only stopped the progress of his fingers when he reached the outskirts of Beth’s faded green bra.

Beth’s throat snagged as her partner placed the flats of his hands over each cotton-covered globe. The pressure was far less than during the tense moments of listening outside the hut, yet a million times more arousing. A mewl escaped her mouth, but otherwise she found it impossible to speak as her nipples fought back, the swell of her chest filling every millimetre of her underwear.

She found herself thinking she ought to do something, say something, move faster, but nothing existed in that second but the feel of his hands. When Harrison finally reached around and undid the clasp of her bra, Beth let out a massive exhalation of oxygen she hadn’t realised she’d been holding in.

Harrison’s pupils dilated wider than ever. ‘They’re even on your tits!’

‘I’m sorry?’ Beth peered downwards, expecting to see trapped sand or dirt or, worse, day-old spilt couscous smeared against her chest, but there was nothing there.

‘Freckles. You have freckles on your chest.’

Instantly self-conscious, Beth went to fold her arms over her breasts, but Harrison batted them away. ‘Oh no you don’t, doll. I’ve waited ages to see how far those little beauties go, and you aren’t going to cover up a single one.’ Bringing his face in for a detailed examination of her skin, which was beginning to add goosepimples to its dotty collection, he began to lick Beth’s flesh, the very tip of his tongue joining the generally spattered freckles together.

‘Oh my God … I …’ Liquid gathered at Beth’s nub as her chest received the most loving worship it had ever experienced. Her hands held Harrison’s shoulders as he lowered himself to his knees so his tongue could meander around the underside of her chest.

Dropping a hand, Harrison undid Beth’s belt, clumsily shoving her trousers past her hips. When he lifted a hand to cup the crotch of her panties, she couldn’t hold back. Ever since she’d tasted his length in the olive groves she’d been fantasising about how it would feel if he caressed her between the legs. Now his hand was there, with only a thin strip of fabric separating his flesh from her mound. Beth cried out, ‘Harrison, oh fuck …’ She spoke through clenched teeth, ‘I-if you don’t stop I’m going to come … I … Oh God …’

Instead of slowing, Harrison clenched his hand open and closed, his tongue waltzing up over the round of her right breast.

Beth shuffled nearer, craving more pressure as he fixed his teeth around her nipple, flicking his tongue over the end so rapidly that the sensations engendered tipped her towards a climax. Dragging her knickers down, Harrison dug a single finger deep inside her, while his thumb copied the gesture of his tongue over her clit.

All Beth’s intensions to enjoy the build-up for as long as possible evaporated as her orgasm crashed through her. She slumped forward, her ability to support her own weight impaired by the rainbow of erotic delirium that splashed behind her closed eyelids.

As his lover rested on his shoulder, Harrison eased himself into a sitting position, and tucked Beth onto his lap, his fingers stroking her russet ringlets, his words heavy with unspent lust. ‘You OK, doll?’

‘Umm.’ Beth felt as if her voice was coming from far away as she replied, the presence of Harrison’s solid cock digging into the small of her back, keeping her pussy hungry and slick as she reached up to kiss him.

‘Time for that shower, I think.’ Harrison assisted Beth to her feet, levering the tangled jeans and panties that had fallen to her ankles.

It didn’t matter that the water coming from the showerhead was more of a trickle than a cascade, or that its temperature was tepid at best. All that mattered to Beth was that she wasn’t in there alone.

She was just thinking she could happily stand and admire his nakedness all day when Harrison hopped out of the cubicle. ‘Stay there; keep warm under the water.’

‘Where are you going?’ Beth watched as he streaked across the roof to their clothes. His back seemed broader than she’d imagined, and although she knew he was very fit, the reality of his naked physique almost took her breath away.

She gulped, her whole being giving a lurch as Harrison waved a small, thinly bristled finds brush in her direction. ‘Now, what sort of archaeologist would I be –’ he stepped back into the small cubicle ‘– if I didn’t have the correct equipment ready when it came to surveying a particularly magnificent specimen?’

Beth’s mouth fell open as he knelt awkwardly in the confided space.

‘Now, let me see your knees.’ The light bristles of the brush she’d seen being so delicately swept over the mosaic earlier wiped over her kneecaps. ‘Oh wow!’

The water barely reached Harrison as he ran the brush over the backs of Beth’s knees, while kissing and licking her patellas. Beth couldn’t keep her feet still. No one had ever treated her knees like an erogenous zone before, and her whole being squirmed.

By the time his investigation of her spotted skin had reached above her knees, Beth was quivering with cold as well as desire. Water droplets were suspended from the tips of her breasts; trickling in tiny brooks on a course towards the V of her pussy.

Harrison could tell it wouldn’t take much more to tip Beth over the edge; but she was also getting very cold. ‘This investigation will resume very soon, but first –’ he picked Beth up and laid her on the picnic rug ‘– let’s make sure you don’t freeze to death.’

Taking a towel, he began to dry Beth down, each rub enflaming her flesh further. As he worked, Harrison gestured to the bag of food to their side. ‘You hungry?’

‘Very.’ Beth, whose knees felt oddly neglected, pulled her fellow archaeologist down on top of her. ‘But not for food.’ Haphazardly tugging the towel from between them, she stared Harrison in the eye. ‘Tell me, Dr Harris, when you saw Candida in the hut, what were you thinking?’

‘That’s easy, Dr Andrews –’ He tucked a stray curl away from her forehead. ‘I wished it was you, and that I was Ryan.’

Somehow ignoring the presence of his shaft as it dug at her thigh, and with a suggestive curl of her lips, Beth got onto all fours, her hair falling over her shoulders, her pulse thumping in her throat. ‘Like this?’

‘Oh, doll!’ Harrison resumed his self-allotted task, and tapped a fingertip over each and every freckle on her exposed back. ‘I’m not going to tie you like Candida was, and I’m not gonna blindfold you, but I do want you to stay still. Promise?’

‘I’ll try.’ Beth giggled, knowing there wasn’t a hope in hell that she’d be able to remain motionless for long.

With her curls draped over her forehead, she didn’t see Harrison pick his find brush back up. ‘I believe I was in the middle of an examination,’ he reminded her. ‘Every single freckle requires a proper look.’

‘But I’ve got thousands of them!’ Beth shivered again, her hands enjoying the texture of the wet brush as the torturously beautiful bristles dabbed and smoothed her skin, sending waves of electricity coursing through her body.

In only seconds, she realised she was losing the fight to stay motionless. The brush was moving so slowly, and the tantalizing touch along her back was making her mound and her chest overwhelmingly jealous for some attention of their own.

As her lover reached the dip of her backside, something in Beth snapped. Remembering how Candida had got Ryan’s attention, she called, ‘Harrison! Please!’

‘Please what, doll?’

‘Fuck me!’

Harrison swept the brush over her buttocks, joining each orange freckle with the next. ‘On one condition.’

‘Anything!’ Beth could feel her arms begin to shake as he inched the brush closer to her clit, circling it between her open legs without actually touching her need.

‘You will apply for the job in Colorado.’

‘I promise.’ Her breath was becoming shallow as she added, her eyes tightly closed, ‘But I might not get it!’

‘You might not, but hey, doll, the world is huge. We could both get posts somewhere new.’

Beth couldn’t keep the joy from her voice. ‘Together?’