“What if I didn’t?”
He’s got his pants fastened and a fresh shirt shrugged over his shoulders almost before she’s finished the question. It’s amazinghow fast he can put clothes on, given how methodically he takes them off.
“Ripley.”
A disappointed ache settles in her chest. “Right. The real world.”
“I’m sorry.” He shakes out his crumpled suit jacket, then gives up on it with an irked sound. “There’s too much at stake. Reputation, livelihood, professional connections. Especially for you.”
“We’re not your parents, James. I’m not your student. If anything, I’m your boss.”
“That you are,” he says with a small smile and a quick adjustment of his pants that Ripley doesn’t miss. “But you saw how J.D. reacted to a simple touch this morning. Others won’t read the fine print before coming to judgment.” He fumbles a button on his shirt, undoes it, tries again. Very Sally Gunderson of him. “I don’t mind if you’d rather skip lunch today. It’s not too late to change your mind about anything, actually, if you’re having second thoughts.”
“I don’t regret last night, if that’s what you mean.”
He stills for a moment, head bowed, then takes two quick strides over to the bed and presses a hard kiss on her mouth. “Neither do I. But we need to put a full stop on this now, before there are deeper feelings involved.”
“Right,” she says slowly. Last night in the research collections, she told him that she had feelings for him. He’s never said he considers her anything more than a friend he wants to get mostly naked with. So if he’s suggesting that one of them should be careful not to fall in love, he means her.
After the way she kept Cara at a distance, Ripley guesses she deserves to know what it’s like to be on the business end of aten-foot pole. It feels a little like her internal organs might be dissolving in acid.
“Okay,” she says, throwing off the covers. “Let’s go to lunch.”
“You were quiet at the restaurant,” James comments as J.D.’s waving figure recedes in the rearview mirror. He touches his pocket, though it’s less the frenetic tap Ripley knows than a brief stroke.
“I was thinking.” Ripley points the Charger away from the picturesque downtown and toward the more industrial outskirts that lead to the highway. “Maybe I should step back from the investigation. From the front-facing side, at least.”
James turns his whole body toward her, his leather seat creaking. “Why?”
Out of respect for his anxiety, she waits until they’re at a red light to send him a look that says,Come on, buddy.“Because fifteen people introduced themselves to you at the café.”
“Only eleven,” he says, all precision and modesty.
“Oh, onlyeleven.And you introduced me to all of them.”
He snorts. “I wasn’t brought up in a barn, Ripley.”
The light turns green. She looks away. “Paleontology is a small world. Sooner or later, somebody’s going to recognize my name and mention us to Will.”
“There’s no reason for anyone to suspect we’re investigating Will. If anything, they’ll think I’m trying to lure you back to the ivory tower.”
“Maybe,” she says. “Actually, no. Charlie knows what we’re doing, thanks to me. And I bet both Charlie and J.D. think we’re sleeping together and I’m leveraging your connections.”
“Obviously, you’re neither leveraging my connections nor sleeping with me,” he says a little testily.
“That second bit is only true in a strictly semantic sense, James.”
“This is science, Ripley. Semantics matter. And for what reason would you care what they think? You keep telling me you’ll never come back to your PhD.”
“It matters foryou,” Ripley says. “For your reputation.”For us,she thinks. For the faint hope of hisI’m not saying never.She can’t move away from her dad while he’s still living, but she’s thought about visiting James at Oxford someday. Would he defend her profession to his scornful colleagues and snooty family? Is there room for her in the place he calls home?
“My reputation can withstand criticism. I’m not currently doing anything wrong.”
Her heart sinks. “Right. The conflict-of-interest form.”
“Precisely. The only reason for you to care about gossip is if you want to come back to academia.” He leans toward her. “Do you ever miss it, Ripley?”
She snorts. “Of course I do.”
