Guarded Treasure

by Mae Lovette

he mustered all the formality of a stray dog. He was certainly no gentleman.

Though she seemed slight sitting there, the impact she had on Ben was colossal.

“Even you just said working with me would make you a nanny, which means as far as you’re concerned, I’m nothing more than a child.”

“Well, that’s just another thing you’ve got wrong,” he said, letting his gaze roam over her. “I’m more than aware you’re a grown woman.”

As if I’d let any woman on earth pay for a meal with me. I’ve got quicker ways to get you into bed, believe me. I wouldn’t have to pay for it.”

“The ambitious librarian with something to prove and the petty scoundrel with nothing to lose.”

There might be nothing on earth he could bring himself to deny her. If she asked for the moon, he’d search for a ladder.

“Ben, have you told the crew not to look at me? Why on earth would you say such a thing?”

“I didn’t tell them not to look at you. I told them what would happen if they did. It sounds like they chose to conduct themselves wisely.”

The Medjai were an order of royal guardians that went back as far as the Pharaohs themselves.

When the Egyptian empire fell from power, the band of desert rangers went from being the official royal army to a band of vigilantes.

“What do you want, Edith?” “I just want what every librarian wants.” “Quiet?”

“You better believe I’ll shoot anything that comes near you, without hesitation. I don’t care if I blast the Rosetta Stone to gravel in the crossfire.”

“Well, I already knew you liked me. I was just waiting for you to figure it out.”

“Uptight, ambitious, gorgeous librarians who don’t like me became my type the day I met you.”

“You asked why I never mentioned George,” she said,

the other drifted back down over his chest again.“I forgot he existed”

“All I think about is what I wanted to do to you last night,” he said.

“They’d need a battering ram to get in,” he said, slipping his hands beneath her skirt

“... and I promise you’d finish before they did.”

“And when you fuck English gentlemen, do they not make you come?” he said, his hand becoming rough between her legs.

“You didn’t let me freshen up. Please don’t stop, there’s a bathroom down the hall, I can be back—”

lean in bracing his arm on the ladder above her, and lift his hand, wet from pleasuring her, to his mouth and drew them slowly between his lips, tasting her like she was dessert.

“I hope that puts to rest the idea that I would ever be put off by how untidy I’ve made you.”

“telling me that I make you so wet that you’re confused is the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“Tell me I’m the only one who makes it feel like this.”

“Say it,” he growled. “Only you,” she panted.

“The Didia family were guardians of heka, ancient Egyptian magic.”

“Don’t lie, Edith. It isn’t ladylike. We both know what I am.” “A scholar?” “A criminal.” “The only man who’s ever truly satisfied me?” “The only man who ever will.” he said,

“If the men you’ve been with have never gotten you off properly, your pretty little mouth should be nowhere near their pants. That’s just … ah… ungentlemanly,”

“If I see her name in your newspaper — if I even see her initials in your newspaper — I won’t even let you rot in jail for the rest of your natural life… I’ll kill you.”

“You’re the treasure I found in the Cursed Tomb of Argo. All I need to get safely out of this place… is you.”

She was wearing an engagement ring. A peridot surrounded by diamonds.

“Edie…” he said, as she looked back at the ring, and then back to him. “Will you be… the Mrs. First Rate Criminal?”

“Professor Edith Taylor; Director of the Griffith School of Egyptology and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford…”