Full Circle. Shannon Hollis

      “Don’t you hate that?” He pushed his chair back and stretched, the fabric of his shirt pulling taut over compact abs and the kind of chest that a woman could fall on in complete bliss. “With my work at the digs, I get the ones who are convinced the clay pot somebody’s kid made in the forties is an example of primitive art.”

      “Pre-Columbian, at that.”

      “At least. If not Precambrian.”

      To her surprise, Cate found herself laughing along with him.

      “I can’t blame people, though,” he said thoughtfully after a moment. “Isn’t buried treasure a fantasy we have as kids? Look at me. I’ve never lost that fascination.”

      “I supposed I haven’t, either,” she confessed.

      “That’s why I wrote what I did when I signed your book,” he said quietly. “Some things haven’t changed.”

      Cate closed her briefcase and set it in the closet, taking her time about sliding the door shut. “A lot of things have,” she said. “Most things, in fact.”

      “Have they?” His gaze changed from professional to speculative with one lazy blink. “You’re more beautiful. You didn’t have cheekbones like that at twenty. And there’s more confidence in your eyes. Makes me wonder if it’s all those publications that put it there, or some adoring stockbroker.”

      Cate felt the hot blood seething under her skin. Was it from irritation at his personal remarks, or something darker and more dangerous? Was he flirting with her? And if he was, how was she going to respond?

      She hovered in the middle of the room, uncertain whether to take her seat opposite him at the little table, where he’d probably think she was dying for more personal observations, or to remain standing in the middle of the room, where maybe he’d take a hint and find a lecture to go to.

      “Cate.” His eyes laughed at her, though his face remained serious. “Come and sit down. We were going to catch up, remember?”

      She couldn’t sit down. She couldn’t trust herself not to reach out and stroke his hand, or run her fingers up his sleeve. That same sexual magnetism that had enthralled her eight years ago hadn’t lost any of its potency, and if she got too close she just might lose it and become another one of his…what was that word Anne had coined? Oh yes—archaeologroupies.

      With a mental shudder, Cate forced herself to ignore the siren call of his pheromones and be sensible.

      “I’m afraid not, Daniel,” she said as steadily as she could. “The ten o’clock seminar starts in a few minutes and I don’t want to miss it.”

      “You’re not going to listen to old Andy Hogbreath? How much more do you need to know about fossils?”

      Was that who the ten o’clock speaker was? “Dr. Hoogbeck is highly respected in his field,” she said stiffly. “And I happen to be interested in the fossil beds I find when I’m excavating.”

      “Suit yourself.” He shrugged, then shot her a wicked glance. “But when you feel like thinking about any other kind of bed, fossil or not, you know where to find me.”

      She didn’t bother to reply as, laughing, he let himself out. She didn’t need to. Because her scarlet face had given everything away.

      DANIEL HAD NO INTENTION of taking in Dr. Hoogbeck’s seminar, or of returning yet another persistent call from a think tank in New Mexico, or even of returning to his cottage to tackle some of the logistics for the Asia Minor expedition. Instead, he stopped by the dining room to refill his mug of coffee and took an unhurried stroll down the nearest walking trail. It led through a stand of live oaks, their holly-like leaves spiky and rustling above him. Long native grasses nodded on either side, and a small stand of redwoods gave a bit of dark contrast at the bottom of the slope.

      Daniel couldn’t remember the last time he’d been completely alone out in the woods. You’d think that at this point in his career, he could say at any time, “Hey, all you hangers-on, get outta here,” and he’d have some peace. But no. The problem was, no one was hanging on. His students, his fellow academics, his crews—even Stacy Mills, his publicist—all of them had a job to do. He was like the well at which they all drew, to use a simile from the ancient world where his brain spent half its time. He provided the water, and they let their jars down, filled them and then took off to do what they needed to do.

      It was bloody exhausting is what it was.

      And here was Cate Wells, who couldn’t wait to see the backside of him going out the door. Never let it be said she wanted to fill her jar at his expense—no, she had her own well, thank you very much, and she was quite happy standing in front of it so nobody else could come near.

      Or was she?

      He’d thrown out those little innuendos on purpose. A woman who was comfortable with her sexuality would have taken him on and tossed them back—but Cate hadn’t. She’d been exactly the same way in Mexico. She hadn’t had the same experience that he’d found most women had by their sophomore year. In fact, the first time he’d kissed her, he’d wondered if it was her first time, period. It hadn’t been—that much she’d confessed in one of their late-night conversations on the cliff—but it hadn’t been the kiss of a woman who enjoyed doing the wild thing at every chance she got, either.

      Far from it.

      Had things changed? Except for a very interesting ring he’d swear was Georgian on the right fourth finger, she wore nothing on her hands. And that sense of self-awareness, of the knowledge that she was both desirable and desired, that some women wore like an ermine robe when they were committed in a loving relationship—well, that didn’t seem to be there, either.

      But who was he kidding? He was used to reading soil matrices. The women he came into contact with were usually totally up-front and wide open about what they wanted. There was none of the reserve and mystery that was so intriguing in Cate. That reserve had challenged him back when and it was challenging him now. It was the same way with a new site. Just the presence of ancient clay walls with the wind whistling through them, silently keeping their secrets, drove him mad until he could gently tease their stories out of them.

      He’d only been half kidding about the beds when he’d left her room. Now he wasn’t so sure he was kidding at all. The truth was he’d never gotten over Cate. Had never forgotten that last night, in the cave.

      So yeah, she’d run out on him, taking her secrets with her. But that was then.

      This, he thought, as he turned back up the path, away from the river he could hear behind the trees… this was now.

      6

      DR. HOOGBECK HAD THE GIFT of being able to send an audience into a state of complete catatonia, even after multiple cups of breakfast coffee.

      Cate had told Daniel she was going to this presentation, so here she was, even though geologic fossilization processes were enough to put her out even without Dr. Hoogbeck’s soothing monotone. But instead of making her fall asleep, his voice sent her to that beta zone where she could think.

      Unfortunately, she wasn’t thinking about useful things like feminine imagery in animal cults or the demise of desert kingdoms. No, she was thinking about Daniel.

      Because the simple truth was that Julia had been right and Cate had unfinished business with him. She wasn’t a quitter. You start a degree program and you get a certificate. You start a paper and you reach a publishable conclusion. You start a relationship and you expect it to go somewhere.

      Okay, so that last was something over which she didn’t have all the control, but the point was you couldn’t just drop something and run away and not have it bug you for years.

      At least, she couldn’t.

      Because she was now in her ninth year of wondering what sex with Daniel would have been like, and, to put it quite