Teach Me Your Ways Chapter 1

Grab Your Copy Here Chapter OneGrady

Halfway up the east face of a Mayan pyramid in a Guatemalan jungle, the machete slipped out of my hand and clattered against the stone. Sweat poured off me. The humidity hugged me like a wet blanket. I could barely see the sky through the canopy of strangler figs and ceiba trees, but I knew it was already turning that unforgiving shade of blue that meant we were in for a scorcher.

Again.

“This one’s a beast,” I muttered, crouching to retrieve the blade. My knees cracked. At thirty-seven, I didn’t feel old, but I knew the students on this latest archeological discovery were basically kids. All eager and nimble in their early twenties.

“She’s magnificent,” came a voice just behind me, sultry and smooth like warm honey poured over whiskey.

Dr. Yelena Rios.

She stood two steps below me. Her black braid was coiled neatly at the nape of her neck, not a strand out of place despite the jungle being in full-on war mode against anyone with hair. The gorgeous woman didn’t sweat. She glistened.

“Her?” I echoed. “I didn’t know we were gendering the pyramid now.”

“Everything beautiful is a woman,” Yelena said, arching one brow. “Don’t you agree?”

“Hmm, I can’t argue with that.”

I loved women in all shapes and sizes. Variety was what made them magic. There were few women I didn’t want to bend over and have my way with. But Yelena? She was fucking mesmerizing.

But she was my coworker and hooking up with coworkers was a bad idea, even if we lived in different countries. I generally avoided it. I also had a strict rule against dating students. And considering how much time I spent working on digs or teaching at Zebulon University in South Carolina, it meant a lot of amazing women were off limits to me.

Despite that, I never had a shortage of women to take to bed. So while Dr. Rios was tempting enough to make most men beg, I could control myself. It was best to focus on the important work we were doing out here in the jungle.

I started chopping again. Carefully. The vines had been covering the pyramid for hundreds of years. Nature tried to reclaim the majesty of the ancient site. Some of the vines were as thick as my forearm.

If we weren’t precise, we could damage the stones beneath. Every scratch we made was a story lost forever, and I wasn’t about to be the jackass archaeologist who turned history into mulch because I couldn’t show a little patience. Control was everything, and I knew how to stay in control.

We’d only known about this particular pyramid for six months. The scanner had lit up the Petén Basin like a fucking Christmas tree, and I had thought the damn computer was broken. But after an exploratory journey into the Guatemalan jungle, no one could deny it. There had been three thousand new structures, give or take a hundred.

Entire cities that had been lost beneath the green sea for centuries. The step pyramid we were currently trying to free was the tallest so far. It peeked above the treetops, demanding to be remembered.

We were slowly returning the structure to its old glory. It was going to take a long time, but anything worth having took time. I had dreams of what it would look like once the overgrowth was removed. Leaves and soil had created their own mini ecosystem around the foundation. We’d need to excavate at least ten feet down to see the full scope of what we were dealing with.

“Professor Stone,” came another voice from below. This one belonged to Madison, one of my graduate students. Twenty, blonde, and completely convinced that batting her eyelashes at me would get her in my sleeping bag. Sorry, kiddo.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“The new scan is showing some kind of chamber about thirty feet down from where you’re standing.” Her eyes were wide and shiny with excitement. She was holding the ground-penetrating radar unit proudly.

I had to give it to her; she also made jungle-chic look good. Whoever was staffing these trips needed to find less attractive people. If she wasn’t a student and if she was a little older, those batted lashes might have cracked my resolve. But I stayed strong.

“Define ‘some kind of chamber,’ Madison.”

“Well, it’s… a big empty space?” She giggled nervously. “To me it looks chamber-y. Maybe you should come look?”

Yelena snorted softly beside me. “Chamber-y. Very technical. Did you teach her that?”

“If you want pretty words, go be a literature professor,” I said to her quietly, not wanting Madison to hear. Although I had to admit Madison’s vocabulary left something to be desired.

I clambered down the pyramid, my boots finding purchase on stones that had been stepped on by priests and kings a thousand years ago. The thought never got old. Every dig was like shaking hands with ghosts.

Madison thrust the GPR unit at me like it might bite her. The screen showed a clear void about the size of a small room, maybe fifteen by twenty feet. The edges were too clean, too deliberate, to be natural. I’d seen similar chambers on other digs.

“I was doing the grid sweep like you taught us, and boom. There it is.” Madison lifted her chin and shot me a smile, digging for a compliment.

“Excellent work,” I said.

Yelena appeared at my shoulder, close enough that I caught a whiff of her shampoo. Something fruity that I wanted to breathe in forever. Was she really a coworker? Technically, we worked at different universities. This was just a joint project. Still, it would complicate things if I gave in to her constant advances.

“Burial chamber?” she asked, studying the readout. Her breast pressed against my arm and I wondered if she was doing it on purpose. Almost certainly.

“Maybe. Or storage. Could be ceremonial.” I handed the unit back to Madison and took a big step away from my touchy-feely colleague. “Mark the coordinates and set up a perimeter. Nobody digs until we know what we’re dealing with.”

Madison nodded and took off to get the team moving. Yelena continued to hover nearby and I ignored her and headed back to where I was clearing vines. She resumed her nearby spot as well and we got back to work.

A few minutes later, I heard a gasp.

“What’s wrong?” I spun around to see what had been found.

Yelena had dropped her machete and was clutching her left hand. “I cut myself.”

A cut in the jungle was serious business. “Shit. Let me see.”

“No, no, there’s no time. I need your shirt.”

“My shirt?”

“To make a bandage,” she said urgently. “Hurry. Please. No time for questions.”

Without thinking, I started unbuttoning my shirt. I’d only gotten halfway when I saw her eyes slide to my chest. She licked her lips.

It wasn’t subtle. Not even remotely. It was the kind of lip-lick that belonged in a bar after midnight, not halfway up a jungle ruin with two grad students nearby shouting about howler monkeys.

I blinked at her, catching on to her little game. “You’re not bleeding, are you?”

“No,” she said, entirely unapologetic. “But I really wanted to see what was under that shirt. You get off on potential burial chambers and old stones. I get off on…” She waved a hand at my body.

I snorted. “You realize I almost stripped in front of the interns.”

“Fine.” She reached for her own buttons. “Then I’ll use my shirt.”

I grabbed her wrist before she could flash the ancient gods. “Whoa there, Doc. We’re not alone up here. Not in front of the children.”

She smiled wickedly. “Let them see. We can teach them a thing or two.”

Yelena didn’t do subtle, and she didn’t do shy. Every look she gave me was a proposition. Every word dripped with suggestion. Which should’ve been flattering. Hell, it was flattering. She was a smoke show. Intelligent, confident, absurdly competent, and if she wasn’t who she was, I would absolutely fuck her until neither of us could walk.

But I couldn’t—wouldn’t—take her up on the offer.

Yelena stepped closer, her breasts pressed against my chest, her lips inches from mine, her hands trailing heat across my abdomen. Fuck me. It would be so easy. And I knew it would be good. My cock stirred to life with a growl like a jungle cat.

We could walk ten feet away and be swallowed by the jungle, plunged into privacy. The monkeys and chirping bugs would drown out any sounds we made.

No. Don’t do it.

Hookups were fine. They had their place. But I’d hit that point where I wanted something more. A tent, at the very least. A private conversation. Someone who laughed at my bad jokes and actually cared what I had to say about glyph translation over breakfast. Also, Yelena and I were co-directing this dig. Mixing business and pleasure was a game with too many traps and not enough escape hatches.

Still, my conviction was wavering. My cock was no longer stirring. The damn thing was trying to take control of my other limbs.

“Grady,” she whispered, lips nearly brushing mine. “You’re thinking too much.”

And I was about to agree when my pants started buzzing.

I groaned and pulled out the satellite phone from my cargo pocket. The screen lit up with a name that made my blood pressure spike.

“Shit.”

Yelena sighed and stepped back, rolling her eyes. “Dean Carver again? She’s been calling all morning.”

“Yeah. This is the fifth call.”

“Tell her to wait her turn,” she said, a pouty look on her face.

“She’s my boss. She doesn’t get a turn.” Not that she had never tried.

“She sounds intense.”

“That’s one word for it.”

“Think she’ll fire you?” Yelena asked. “If you end up tentless, you can crawl into mine. Nice and tight quarters. I might have to sleep on top of you. Or you can sleep on top. I’m flexible.”

Every part of me wanted to throw the phone into the jungle, sweep Yelena off her feet, and take her somewhere no one else existed.

With a grown, I swiped to answer. “Grady Stone.”

“Finally,” barked Dean Joyce Carver. “Do you have any idea what time it is back here?”

“Uh—”

“No, of course you don’t. Because you’re still in the jungle instead of on campus where you’re supposed to be. Your TA orientation is in two days. I’ve booked you on a flight that leaves Flores in four hours. If you miss it, I will pull funding from this project faster than you can blink.”

“I was planning to fly out tomorrow,” I said carefully. “I’ve already packed—”

“No, Professor Stone. You were supposed to be on a flight yesterday. This little stunt of yours has already cost us goodwill with the Board. If your insubordination continues, I’ll bring it up at the next review and recommend disciplinary proceedings. You may have tenure, but you’re not untouchable. Am I clear?”

I had to grit my teeth to keep from telling her to fuck off.

“Yes, you’re clear,” I said instead.

“Good. Get your ass on that plane.” She hung up.

I sighed and lowered the phone. Playtime was over. I knew I had pushed the boundaries. Hell, I fucking blew up the boundaries. I hated being on a leash and fucking Carver thought she had the right to yank it whenever she wanted.

“I have a feeling I’m not going to get the Grady Stone experience,” Yelena said with disappointment.

“I have to go,” I said.

She tilted her head, giving me a slow, catlike smile. “Right this minute?”

“Yeah.”

“I can take you to the airport,” she said. “I’d be happy to give you a ride. Quick and dirty but with AC.”

I laughed despite myself. “You’re relentless.”

“Tenacious. That’s a word used to describe me quite often. It’s how I got on this project.”

I shook my head before gently rubbing my gloved fingers over her cheek. “If I miss that flight, the dean’s going to send a drone strike.”

She popped out her plump bottom lip in a sexy pout. “Then I guess I’ll have to save my seduction techniques for the next tall, sexy archeologist.”

“He will truly be a lucky man,” I said, feeling incredibly unlucky I couldn’t stay just one more day.