Page 39 of Tour Wars
“He didn’t hurt me. In fact, he barely touched me. Well, no more than usual.” She rubbed her hands along her bare arms. “But he did proposition me. He asked me to come up to his room so we could fulfill our secret desires.”
“That slimeball.” Not that TJ was surprised. For the past two days, he’d suspected the bastard was waiting for the right moment to pounce. “What did you do?”
“I said no, of course.” She pointed to the binder, which she’d set to one side of the bed. “Lucky for me, you forgot to take this tome to the Vatican. I was studying it in the courtyard when he hit on me. All I had to do was show him the page with the rules.”
TJ released a long breath, allowing the tension to ease from his body. “Thank fuck I left it behind. It’s the perfect excuse.”
“Even so, Luca insisted the rules didn’t apply to him since he’s the Robertis’ nephew. He also hinted he was more likely to recommend Buon Viaggio to his father if he enjoyed himself on this tour.”
“Was that a threat? Like, was he implying he’d bad-mouth the company if you didn’t go up to his room? That’s sexual harassment.” TJ was fully aware his voice had risen, but he couldn’t help himself. Luca wasn’t just an entitled prick; his behavior was completely unethical.
“It’s all good. I held him off by convincing him I’m an uptight American prude.”
Now it was TJ’s turn to smile. “Which is nothing like the Emilia Flores I know.”
She gave a short laugh. “Right? Good thing he doesn’t know me as well as you do. He bought into it, but only after he warned me not to break the rules with anyone else here.”
What a dick. “Like who? Most of the single guys on the tour are over sixty. They wouldn’t be anyone’s choice for a steamy hookup.”
“I think he meant Davis. He really hates him.” She looked down, twisting her fingers in the tasseled fringe at the edge of the bedcover. “I should be grateful I got off so easily. It’s not like he threatened to fire me or anything, but he just…”
“Made you uneasy?” With a tentative hand, TJ reached over and touched her shoulder. Lightly. “I’m sorry. That’s awful.”
In all honesty, the outcome was better than he would have expected. Luca hadn’t hurt her, and she’d been able to escape his attentions unscathed. But beneath his touch, she was trembling. While he didn’t want to downplay Luca’s behavior, her reaction hinted at a deeper issue. “Em? Did something else happen? Before this? If you want to talk about it, I’m here for you. If not, that’s okay, too. No pressure.”
When she turned to face him, her eyes had misted over with tears. “I know you think I’m a badass, but…”
“You’re a total badass. You’ve traveled all over the world, you spent three summers digging in the jungles of Mexico, and you don’t hesitate to put assholes in their place. Anything you tell me isn’t going to change that.”
She grabbed a pillow and set it on her lap, curling her arms around it. After a ragged breath, she spoke softly. “Two years ago, I was on a project in Sardinia, and I got involved with the dig director—an American archaeologist named Vincent Barnes. Not a professor, but still my boss. Right from the start, he was very clear about what he wanted. He didn’t just flirt with me; he also filled my head with compliments. He told me he’d never met a grad student so focused and driven. He said my theories were worthy of publication. He even called me brilliant.” She gave a dismissive snort. “Like an idiot, I ate it up with a fucking spoon.”
“Cut yourself some slack. Being a grad student means getting your ego pummeled on a daily basis. A little praise goes a long way.”
“Maybe, but I always thought I had a good bullshit detector. By the third week of the project, he’d won me over, but I refused to go to bed with him. I told him it wasn’t my thing.”
“But you’ve hooked up on other digs, right?” When she frowned, he held up his hands, worried he’d overstepped. “Sorry, not judging or anything. But when we were at Troy, there was that night at the bar when you and Dusty swapped stories about your…um…shenanigans.”
“I forgot about that. We weresodrunk.”
“If anything, I was kind of jealous. I’ve never had much luck on any of my digs.” He rubbed the back of his neck, remembering the times he’d been shot down. “It probably didn’t help that I bragged constantly about what a hard-core archaeologist I was.”
A tiny smile crossed her lips. “Yeah, that might not have been the best approach. But to your point, I fooled around a lot when I was an undergrad. The usual stuff that happens in the field. Butneverwith a professor or a supervisor. Once I started grad school, I was more careful. I didn’t want to make a mistake I’d regret later.” She uncapped her water bottle and took a drink. “With Vince, we flirted a lot, but I had no intention of taking things any further. I liked that we were playing by my rules. Until one night…”
When she paused, TJ’s stomach clenched up. If this creep had assaulted her, he might have to track down the bastard and make him pay.
She continued. “Everyone else was out drinking, but he’d asked me to stay behind to help him in the lab. Even though we were supposed to be working, he brought in a bottle of wine for us to share. Just when I’d relaxed enough to let down my guard, he hit me up with a heartfelt confession—how he was falling for me, how he’d never felt this way about anyone before, and how it was killing him that I wouldn’t give him a chance. None of the guys I’d ever been with had made me feel like that. Like I was something special.”
Her admission just about broke TJ’s heart. Damn those other guys for not treating her like the amazing woman she was. “Em…you are special. Take it from me. I mean, yes, you can be a little prickly sometimes, but I’ve never met anyone like you.”
“Thanks. But anyway…I broke my own code. Went to bed with him. Fell for all his lies. I started sneaking around to be with him, letting him take control, and losing all my self-respect in the process.”
Based on what he knew of Emilia, TJ couldn’t imagine her being that submissive. Then again, love—or lust—could seriously mess with anyone’s head. He’d been there himself, with a woman he’d dated in grad school. A woman who’d gotten him so tied up in knots that he would have done anything to please her. Until she dumped him for someone else.
“The worst part was that he claimed he was in love with me, and I bought into it.” Emilia rubbed her hands over her face. “I sound like a clueless freshman, but he totally played me.”
TJ’s heart ached for her. “It’s okay. We all do stupid things when we’re in love.”
“I don’t even think itwaslove. Because love shouldn’t be that unbalanced. He kept insisting he wanted us to be together, but after the dig ended, he totally ghosted me. I thought it was my fault, that I was acting too needy. When I got the courage to track him down, do you know what he told me? I wasn’t anything special, just another one of his fuckbuddies. Not only that, but he was engaged to be married. Our fling was just a diversion to get him through the summer. It meantnothingto him.”
