Wednesday morning, Lydia stared at the pile of photocopies on her desk, closed her eyes and counted to ten. When she opened them again, the papers were still there. Damn it. One of her first assignments as curator was to inventory the collection and compare it to the official catalog provided by the Kroner estate. It seemed everyone knew Professor Kroner had gotten a bit dotty in his old age, except her. The man had already been retired by the time Lydia came to SMU, so she'd only met him once at a fundraiser. None of the selection committee who'd hired her had bothered to inform her that the collection might be a little messed up.Messed up was an understatement. Not only had the old guy created his own unique filing system that she was just beginning to decipher but there were more books and scrolls in the boxes than could be accounted for on the list. So lucky, her, she had to figure out the provenance and value of all the leftovers before she could have the fun of really digging
He didn't know if she'd want to see him tonight or not. She'd sounded pretty miserable on the phone which is why he'd thought the flowers might cheer her up. He'd grown up with two sisters and been married, though briefly and long ago. While he knew he never stood a chance in hell of understanding the female mind, one thing he'd learned was that when it came to feminine functions every woman was different.In the end, the magnetic pull of seeing Lydia proved too strong for Galen to resist. By seven o'clock he found himself standing on her porch. He lifted his hand to knock, then realized that only the screen was closed and he could see her stretched out on the couch. "Lydia?""Galen?" She lifted what looked like a miniature satin pillow off of one of her eyes. "Haven't you learned just to come in yet?""Are you all right?""Define all right." She dropped the eye pillow on the floor as she sat up. "I'll survive and I'm not contagious.""You look like hell." He regretted the words t
Even when the baseball game was over Galen showed no inclination to rush out the door. "Do you play cards?" he asked.Lydia shrugged. "I can but I don't think I have any in the apartment. Except for my Tarot deck.""Tarot cards?" He raised one eyebrow in that skeptical expression she loved. "You're kidding. When have you had time to get into the New-Age stuff?" "When I was about three." Lydia stuck her tongue out. "The cards belonged to my grandmother. She used to do readings for the neighbor ladies over cookies and tea." She scrambled off the couch. "Don't move!"Galen was still watching with indulgent amusement when she returned from the bedroom carrying her silk-wrapped deck. Let him laugh. She knew that the cards could work, if the reader's mind and spirit were open to them. He might have forgotten more about history than she would ever know but when it came to this, she could probably teach him a thing or two.She sat cross-legged on the couch and cleared a space on the coff
The conference food was as crappy as usual, the talks were boring, and Galen wished desperately to be home. He grabbed a soda out of the machine to take back up to his room at the end of the night, just because he was sick of iced tea and bad coffee. There was a candy machine next to the drink dispenser that made him think of Lydia and her request for a candy bar when he'd presented his open ended offer. Nobody could say she was in the relationship for his money. He'd have fetched champagne and caviar if she'd wanted it. She hadn't even asked for it to be king-sized.He was crabby and out of sorts after two days away from her, three without sex. Since he'd gone more than three years before meeting Lydia, it made no sense at all to feel deprived after less than a week. But damn it, he did."Hey, Galen, how was that panel on the Crusades?"Oh shit, it was his department chair. Rawlings was an American historian who wouldn't know medieval history if it bit him on the ass but he'd gotten i
Lydia locked up her office and stopped in the lab to return the scroll to its case. She couldn't resist taking the ring out of its secret compartment and looking at it again. It was such a beautiful work of art it was a shame that it had been hidden away all these years. She turned it over and over in her gloved fingers. Who had worn it? Had it been a gift of love? A wedding ring? The symbol of some office or title? It was definitely feminine, though the serpent was usually a masculine symbol.If anyone had seen what she did next, Lydia's career would have been over as soon as it had begun. But she just couldn't resist. She slipped the gloves off her hands and touched the ancient gold carvings on the ring with her bare fingertips. She knew better, knew she could be damaging a valuable historical artifact but it was as if she were compelled, unable to resist. It was almost as if there was a voice in her head urging her to try it on.She studied the inside looking for an inscription. Not
"The card is the key."What the hell was that supposed to mean?Lydia had been able to think about little else all day.Once again she was working late in her office. No big surprise. The campus library was still pretty active, even at six o'clock on a Monday evening. Plenty of people took summer classes or used the summer to work on research projects."All I see is red."She'd gone home and done a reading for herself but all she'd been able to see was the Hierophant. Yeah, like it took the cards to tell her Galen was a major complicating factor in her life right now. The weird thing was she'd gotten what looked like three conflicting outcomes. And she didn't know which was scarier - Death, the lonely sorrowful Queen of Swords, or the visibly pregnant Empress. That one made her shudder and reminded her to make a doctor's appointment. She'd come to the conclusion that her own internal turmoil was messing with her reading and that she wouldn't get a straight answer from the cards un
He groaned, using one hand to fondle her clit while the other positioned his cock at the entrance to her channel. She could hear the wet squelch as he rubbed the head against her mons. "It will but not without some work. We'll save that for another day. Right now I just want to get inside that snug little pussy I've been missing all week." He shoved deep, holding himself still inside her as if savoring the moment."Works for me." She ground her pelvis against him taking him as deep as she could. It was starting to be an effort to murmur to keep her voice down but that only added to the excitement. "Fuck me hard and fast, Galen.""That's not going to be a problem, sweetheart." He pulled back then thrust in so hard her elbows were forced a couple inches up the desk. His finger strummed on her clit, driving her higher and higher while his hips pistoned against her ass. His other hand slid up inside her sweater and clamped onto a breast. He rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefin
Lydia could have sworn Galen flushed at her gentle teasing. "Sorry. I guess my brain just wasn't changing gears fast enough. I'd blame jet lag but I think it has more to do with you. For some reason when I'm around you all the blood drains out of my brain into my pants.""What a lovely thing to say." Oddly enough, coming from Galen, it was a uniquely touching compliment. He was so smart, so tuned into the intellectual side of his nature that being able to rattle that was a powerful feeling indeed."Pizza it is then," he said, running a hand through his hair. "Is pepperoni okay?"She smiled at him. He really was adorable. "That would be fine. I'll make a salad to go with it."Apparently that was acceptable, since he changed the subject and started eyeing the scattered photocopies on her desk. "So the catalog is all done? You've got everything accounted for?"She shook her head, slid the copy of the scroll across the blotter. "There are a few I can't figure out - like this one. What