The Nymph's Curse: The Collection Read online

  “Kaden, watch your language,” Beau growled.

  Kaden rolled his eyes and continued. “Besides from being old, she’s kinda … well, ya know, boring. Why’d you pick her?”

  Ariadne glanced over at Beau, who was staring slack-jawed at his son. “Well, Kaden,” she started, “sometimes the things we know the least about are the things that most impact our lives.”

  Kaden shrugged. “I don’t get it. I mean I guess she’s great and all, but still.”

  “I think she’s exquisite.” Beau moved his hand toward the goddess and stopped short of touching her. His eyes were bright with wonder and reverence.

  Something shifted inside of Ariadne as she stared at the handsome man, but she tried to force the feelings down.

  Beau walked around the table as he studied the statue. “Do you mind if I ask to see what else you have from the Minoan era? I’m an archeologist. I think this type of thing is fascinating.”

  “An archeologist, huh? Where are you working?” Ariadne turned away in an attempt to hide her face.

  Walking over to the wall, she pulled a bin from the shelf. He would like it, but in it he would find nothing she would worry about him seeing.

  “Gournai.” Beau grabbed the container from her and placed it on the lab table across from the snake goddess.

  “Are you working near the palace of Knossos?” She tried to sound curious, though she knew the answer.

  “No, a bit outside of the palatial zone. I’ve researched the area and, well, I found some interesting peculiarities.” He chewed at the corner of his lip like a guilty child, trying to hide a secret.

  “So how is the dig going, Beau?”

  “Good. Today my assistant is having my students catalog last week’s finds. Normally I head it, but I’m taking a few days off so I can show Kaden around the island a bit.”

  “That’s really sweet.” Ariadne looked over to Kaden, who was picking at his nails.

  “Have you found anything of significant interest?” Her mind wandered to the tiny bones she had held in her hands a few nights before.

  “We’ve found quite a bit. We located a previously unknown villa, but inside we’ve found only ceramics and a few pieces of bronze.”

  It was more than a villa. Was he being vague, or did he really think that it was just a simple home that he had stumbled across?

  Beau looked away from her, picked up a vase from the container and rotated it in his fingers. On its surface was a painting of a bull and woman. He stared at the image and then looked up at her. “This woman looks like you.”

  Ariadne reached over toward the object and touching his hand, pulled the artifact into her view. She couldn’t focus on the image, only on the warmth of his flesh beneath hers. The simple touch made her stomach clench. She dropped her hand. “Oh.”

  Why did I touch him?

  Looking up, he was staring at her, his eyes wide.

  Ariadne looked away. “So, what is, uh, the goal for your project?”

  Beau flushed for a moment and sat the vase back in the container. “I think there’s more to the Minoans than what we’ve found. Everyone talks about the Palace of Knossos, but the Minoan’s left behind legends that there are other places yet to be found. And I think all legends have some basis in fact.”

  Ariadne smiled. “Which legend, exactly?”

  “One that involves your namesake,” he said, looking pleased with himself.

  “The Minotaur and the Labyrinth?”

  His face twitched at her question. Even if she hadn’t already known, his tell was obvious.

  “You know that’s only a myth, right? You can’t believe everything you hear.”

  A half-grin flickered across Beau’s tanned face, making him look incredibly sexy.

  “That’s a nice vase.” He motioned to the container. “We’re finding similar works at the Minoan level, but nothing that well-preserved.”

  Does he really think he is hiding something?

  Ariadne reached over the edge of the container and centered the vase in its cushioning. Her sleeve moved up her arm.

  “Hey.” Kaden peeked over the edge of the container. “Sweet tattoo. When did you get it?”

  She pulled her sleeve down over her wrist. “Thanks. I’ve had it a long time.”

  Kaden looked over at his father. “I think you should let me get a tattoo.” Kaden smiled for the first time since she had met him.

  “Is it a snake?” Beau asked, as he ignored his son’s plea.

  “Uh, yeah.” She tugged her sleeve into her hand and covered the head of the snake in her palm.

  Kaden eyed her with admiration. “You must really like the snake goddess.”

  She leaned in close to the teen and whispered so that only he could hear. “You have no idea.”

  Beau picked up another small vase and compared it to the first.

  “Now, Beau.” Ariadne stepped toward him. “About the Labyrinth. What pointed you in the direction of Gournai?”

  The door behind them flew open. Ariadne turned around. Kat was standing in the doorway. Her mouth was open and her hand rested on her hip. “Ariadne … ” she growled. Her gray eyes flickered with anger.

  Ariadne looked at Beau and Kaden. “Sorry, gentlemen, but I think the behind the scenes tour is over.”

  “Thanks for sharing this with us, Ariadne.” Beau sat the artifact down into the box. “If you want, you’re welcome to come visit my site sometime. You might find something there that’ll spark your interest.”

  “Yeah. You gotta come see it,” Kaden added. “It’s awesome.”

  A sardonic grin flickered on Kat’s face. “Oh, don’t worry, boys. Ariadne has a way of getting around. I’m sure you’ll get a turn.”

  Chapter Four

  Beau rubbed his hands together and looked at the place where Ariadne’s fingers had touched his. It felt strange to be haunted by a memory that probably meant nothing to her. It was only an accidental touch. He closed his eyes and thought about her fingers, long and dainty, her skin soft. It would feel so good to have her run them down his skin, around his waist. He stopped himself. He was at work. This wasn’t the time to daydream about some teenage crush.

  The trowel whispered to him from his bucket of supplies.

  “Hey, professor,” his student, Vickie, called from the far side of the site.

  With a quick wave, Beau turned his back on the over-eager young woman. His assistant could get the students running this morning. He needed to get his mind back on task and avoid all women for as long as possible.

  He pulled out the trowel and sharpened the blade with a thick steel file. It was nice to finally be on site and back to work. It had been a solid week of tourist traps and dinners spent in silence, as Kaden looked anywhere but at him.

  He needed this; to get his hands back into the dirt, to follow his dream, and make things happen. This had to be the place to find the Labyrinth, but if Beau didn’t get back to work and find something he would never know … and he’d never have a job again. It was already a tough sell to convince the University of Texas that he was a worthwhile professor. Anthropology wasn’t a field of study that many students were going into since the economy had tanked.

  Not that he could blame the students for following more stable goals. All they had to do was look at Beau to know what a pipedream archeology was — only a few scientists could have ever been considered newsworthy. Most archeologists were just like him, scrimping by, begging for funds, or else working for states on building projects making sure everything was found in an area slated to be destroyed. At least he was on the conservation end of the spectrum.

  There were a few professors back at the university who were doing well, but only thanks to their political ties and play-it-safe attitudes. Right now, they were probabl
y sitting around, guzzling their chardonnays and laughing at what a fool he was for chasing the Labyrinth. No one, not a single professor, had taken him seriously when he had told them he hypothesized that the Labyrinth was real. Most thought it was nothing but a fantasy, like the Ark of the Covenant or Atlantis.

  They didn’t understand all the hours of research Beau had poured into the subject. He had gone over everything, old texts, excavations, and he had even managed to get his hands on a top-secret geophysical survey. Everything pointed to here, to this little point right outside of Gournai.

  When he told his colleagues he was going after a grant from the NSF to find the Labyrinth, Professor Ryan laughed in his face, splattering him with the coffee the fat man had been holding in his mouth. The memory of Ryan made his gut clench. He had to prove them wrong and save his face and his job. The Labyrinth was here. He just knew it. He could feel it in his soul.

  Beau looked out at the site. There were eight open sites, or digs. The students were climbing in and out of their squares, carrying dirt-filled buckets to the screens and filtering out the artifacts. Everything looked routine, even relaxed, but the students didn’t know how close they all were to being shut down and having to go back to Texas with their dirt and sweat-covered hats in their hands. He would probably have to beg the dean to keep his job, and forget tenure.

  He rubbed his hands against his face, trying to push the worries from his mind. He needed to dig; and his dig, dig three, waited for him.

  Kaden was perched on the edge of the stone wall that ran adjacent to the site. “Kaden, do you wanna help me?” He pointed to his 12x8 square with the column by the back wall.

  The boy said nothing. Beau stepped closer to the rock wall where his son was sitting, covered by the hood of his black sweatshirt. Beau looked over the side and followed Kaden’s gaze. A group of teenage girls glanced up the hill and turned back to each other as they noticed him looking.

  A young blonde girl wearing a white T-shirt looked up at Kaden and gave him a quick half-wave.

  It looks like I’ll be on my own today.

  Beau smiled. “Why don’t you go talk to her, Kae?”

  Kaden pushed his arm over his mouth and coughed as he turned his back on the girls. “I don’t think I should be taking dating advice from you; you didn’t even make a move on the lady from the museum.”

  Should he have made a move on the curator? The kid must have seen signs he hadn’t, the woman had treated him with a cold indifference, not a warm ‘come and get me’ vibe. “Fine, kid. But I would think you would take this chance to get a break from your old man for a bit. You have been stuck with me for almost a week. This has to be different from staying with your mother.”

  Kaden turned back around to face the girls. “You’re right,” he said, standing up. “You’re a lot easier.”

  A snort escaped Beau. Easier? Really?

  He thought back to Lynda. Before they had divorced, she was always making promises to the kid when she felt guilty about some shortcoming. When she forgot him at daycare, she had promised him a new baseball mitt; when she missed his school’s holiday performance, she had promised him a pricey video game that he had wanted. But she never followed through. Beau would try to cover for her and get the things she had promised for Kae, but it always seemed like Kaden knew that she had failed him. He couldn’t fail his son in the same ways his ex-wife had.

  Kaden pushed his hood down from his head and jumped from the short ledge, landing with a thump. He started down the hill.

  “When are you going to be back?” Beau called after him.

  Without looking back, Kaden shrugged.

  “Well, we call it quits at five o’clock. Be back before we set to leave.”

  Kaden wandered down the hill toward the girls. When he reached them, Kaden stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared at the ground. The blonde girl twisted her hair in her fingers while she smiled sheepishly at his son.

  A few hours later, Beau’s back was sore from bending over and his knuckles were open and bleeding, but the pain felt good. He stood up to stretch just as a black town car roared up and parked next to the crew’s rented vans.

  A tall, athletic man in a gray suit stepped out. His black patent leather shoes glimmered in the sun. Slamming the door shut, the man looked in the side mirror, adjusted his suit jacket and tie, and patted his hair. When he looked up, he nodded at Beau. “Hello, Dr. Morris.”

  Beau squinted and moved closer to the businessman. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

  The man smiled. “I’m Governor Stavros Kakos. I’ve been hearing about your site and thought I’d come take a look for myself.”

  A blonde woman stepped out from the passenger side of the car. Her skirt was a red so bright it almost hurt Beau’s eyes.

  Governor Kakos pointed at the woman. “This is my personal assistant, Ms. Dover. You can call her ‘Bunny.’”

  Beau nodded a curt welcome. “Is there something wrong, governor?”

  “No, no, no.” The man smiled.

  The woman walked up to them and touched the governor’s arm. Governor Kakos glowered at her for a split-second, and then moved away from her hand. He looked up and smirked at Beau. Something about the way he looked at Beau, with a mixture of superiority and derision, made Beau’s stomach sour.

  “Actually, I’ve come here to speak to you about an issue we’ve been having. There’ve been some complaints about some of your students being a little disorderly in Gournai. Especially a Ms. Woods. There’s been talk about her and some unseemly behavior.” The governor’s distasteful gaze never wavered.

  Beau’s blood pressure rose. His students were young and they liked to drink, but he hadn’t heard of any “unseemly” behavior aside from the window, but that had been an accident.

  But what if the NSF hears I’m having problems with my field crew?

  “I’m sorry, governor. I’ll have a talk with them. You won’t have any more problems. I guarantee it.” He looked over to the redheaded Vickie Woods, who was perched on the edge of her dig. She glanced back at them, as if she could hear what they were talking about.

  “Glad to hear … ” The man stepped around him and the woman trailed behind as they walked to the edge of his dig. “On another subject, I was hoping to find out when you would be done with your little excavation.”

  The man annoyed him more by the second. If the man were anyone other than the governor of the region, he would have been back in his car along with his plaything.

  “I’ll be done when I find what I’m looking for,” Beau answered, his voice sparked with unintentional malice.

  The man’s habitual smile flickered. “And what is it that you are looking for exactly?”

  The governor must’ve known. He had signed the paperwork months ago that allowed the dig. If he wanted answers, he could get his girl to find them out for him.

  Then again, this was the man with the power to shut him down.

  “We are hoping to find the Labyrinth, or a tangible indicator that it exists.”

  Bunny looked up at the man with a curious look on her face. Like a true politician, the man smiled placidly as he digested the information. “Crete is in need of tourism and tourism dollars — the protests are getting worse. If you find what you’re searching for, you can greatly impact this island.”

  Of course the man would care about the money, not the cultural or historical impact of his team’s work.

  Beau mimicked the man’s fake smile. “I hope so.”

  “As such, I’ll let this dig continue.” The man paused. “But if there are any more problems or complaints, I will be forced to reconsider my decision.”

  One more thing going wrong, how convenient …

  The man began to stride away, but after a few steps, he stopped and turned back. “If you find anythi
ng of importance, I want you to contact me immediately.” The man stuck out his hand and flipped a card on the ground at Beau’s feet.

  “Sure thing.” Beau looked down at the card. Turning his back on the man, he walked to the main tent that stood at the far end of the site and held all of their catalogued finds. He didn’t look back until he heard the car roar to life and drive off.

  Just what I need — another person to answer to.

  After checking on the students, he walked to dig three. When Beau jumped down, he caught sight of something blue from the far corner of the dig, behind the column. He walked over. Heaped in the corner was a pile of women’s clothing with a blue latex glove poking out of the back pocket of the jeans.

  He stooped down and picked up the clothes and stuffed them under his arm. The students bustled around him as he made his way to the dumpster. No one seemed to notice as he lifted the clothes and dropped them inside.

  Maybe this was evidence of some of the “unseemly behavior” the governor had mentioned. But having a conversation with his students about who left the site naked didn’t sound like Beau’s idea of fun. Nor was talking to Ms. Woods about the governor’s accusations, but he would have to. Hopefully it wasn’t her who had left the clothes.

  He searched for anything else out of order, or some evidence of looting, but everything was in order. Something didn’t feel right, but he pushed the feelings aside. There was work to be done.

  Sweat dripped down Beau’s face as the afternoon wore on. He scraped away the soil and dumped it into the five-gallon bucket, making notes as he worked deeper. When the bucket was finally filled, he lugged it to the sifting screens. Vickie was bent over the mesh square beneath the wooden A-frame supports. Her red hair was pulled into a ponytail that stuck out the back of a University of Texas baseball hat. A dribble of sweat beaded on the back of her tan neck.

  The day was getting hot, and having to talk to the woman the governor had labeled as having “unseemly behavior” only made the heat more sweltering. Confrontation twice in one day was wearing, but hopefully the governor had misunderstood — Vickie didn’t seem like the type who would act out.