Page 37 of Nikolai
Nick was being really nice, but she knew what he was in for.Immense tedium, in blazing heat.
Well, he was a big boy.If he didn’t want to be here, he wouldn’t be.
He helped her down, though she had on trousers and could have managed on her own.But it was really nice to be helped down.It was really nice having been driven here.It was really nice having someone carry her gear.
She remembered a friend in college who dated a guy her friends just didn’t get.He was incredibly boring…but super reliable.When her friends asked why him, she said life was easier with four hands instead of two.
Lifewaseasier with Nick.Last time she’d been here, she’d arrived stressed because the traffic was its usual hellish Neapolitan self.She’d had to wrangle her gear out of the car and lug it around, never able to leave it because she had expensive gear that was very attractive to thieves.
She did not have to worry about thieves with Nikolai Garin looking after her stuff.
The villa was surrounded by scaffolding, with a small steel corrugated hut, its door secured by a padlock.
“So,” Parker said with a wave of her hand at the square excavation.“Voilà.”
Nick stowed her gear neatly and looked with interest at what, at first view, was a big hole in the ground.“Roman villa, huh?”
She smiled at him.“Two thousand years have added about twenty feet of material to the site.At the bottom is the street level in Roman times.We think it was a villa that was also fortified.That was the entrance.”She cocked her head as she looked at the dig.“Do forts always face the same way?”
“No.”Nick started walking the perimeter and she walked with him.“A fortification always uses surrounding geography, the shape of the site.If there is a hill or raised rocky outcropping, that will be used as one of the walls.Rivers and forests can be used as defense mechanisms.”
“All of southern Italy was covered in forests which were cut down.There was probably a forest or at least woods nearby.Though wood wasn’t used much in construction.The Romans used stone.”
Nick nodded.“Smart.Are you going in?I don’t see any stairs.And I don’t have any rope with me.”
Parker smiled.“I don’t have any rope with me either.But I do have something else.”
They’d walked around the site and were back at the hut.Parker opened the door with her key and waited for her eyes to adjust.
Inside was shelving holding the tools of the archeologists’ trade—shovels and brushes and sifters.And a ladder.
“Let me.”Nick picked up the ladder and placed it into the excavation.“I’ll go down first,” he said and waited.He wanted her approval.
“Okay,” she said.He wanted to go down first?Fine.The ladder wasn’t rickety, but it did rest against friable soil.
“You’re going to need your gear.”His raised eyebrows made it a question.
“Yes.I can get it later.”
“I’ll get it.”And he did.Two satchels, the cooler and a bag were heavy and bulky, but he went down that ladder smooth as cream.She’d had to awkwardly wrangle her way down and it had taken three trips.
She went down smoothly too, since she wasn’t carrying anything, and smiled up at him.“Am I glad you’re here.You’re making everything easier for me.Thanks.”
He waited a beat then ran a long forefinger down the side of her face.He’d done that last night, too, only while he was inside her.The memory of that made her thighs clench.
God, she’d thought herself almost asexual, but she wasn’t.She wasn’t at all.
“Happy to do it,” he said, his voice low.“Happy to be here.”
They stood for a moment inside the hole in the ground that hid a Roman villa, in the shade of a frescoed wall.Everything was in sharp focus for Parker.The bright late morning sun outlined the rocks and low brick walls and remnants of frescoes.The villa smelled of earth and the plants growing out of the walls.They were standing where humans had stood two thousand years ago.Maybe just like this?A man and a woman facing each other, far from home.
The extra focus was all Nick.Clearly, hormonal overload kicked something into gear.It was a good something, and useful, and she planned on using it to the fullest.
She smiled up at him.“Right.You going to be okay?I’m going to take photos and videos and dictate notes.”She pointed to a doorway with wooden lintels.“I’ll be going through that door, there are several other rooms.Don’t freak if you don’t see me.I can hear you if you call out.Please don’t touch anything, including the dirt walls.That’s Roman dirt, two thousand years old.”
There.She’d covered various possibilities.
“Will you be ok?”Parker was still worried he’d be bored.
