Heart of the Gods Read Online Free PDF Page B

places, the top just low enough to reveal full cleavage, the hem fluttering around her shapely thighs.
    To Ky’s surprise a sharp burst of sheer lust went through him.
    All the boys perked up as well as she bent over the table, holding her abundant hair back with one hand to study the fragment of papyrus and his own laborious translation next to it.
    They weren’t the only ones to perk up. The little skirt rode up a little, tantalizingly, as she bent.
    For a moment she hesitated as she looked at the papyrus at his translation and then she took a breath. To Ky’s amusement he realized that she recognized whose work it probably was and she was trying to be kind.
    He looked at her. “I need a correct translation. Don’t worry about politeness.”
    Those blue eyes met his directly and then she inclined her head, in both respect and acknowledgement.
    “All right then. You are close,” she said, and pointed. “It’s easy to mistake the ligature here as being part of the character because of the hand that drew it, changing the meaning…it’s more closely true written this way…and here…this will help.”
    Ky was hardly concentrating any better than the boys, with a quite firm female bottom pointed in his direction.
    The rest of her was easily as attractive, with a trim waist and nicely rounded curves in all the places that counted and none of the ones that didn’t. Bending to lean over the desk, with one slender hand holding back her hair, only emphasized her considerable attributes. Having an attractive female around would have its benefits and its distractions, obviously. Given the circumstances and location, it had been some time since any of them had spent any time with an attractive female.
    Any of them.
    Including himself.
    Shaking himself mentally, Ky joined her at his desk, looking where she pointed.
    That wasn’t helping, he could smell the scent rising from her skin, something soft, just a little spicy, exotic and lovely.
    “This is also done in a book hand so the man was likely a professional, a builder or an architect,” she said, her fingers tracing lightly above the fragile papyrus. “He had his own particular shorthand for some things as such people do.”
    Her eyes met his.
    “Where did you find this, if you don’t mind my asking? You are working on the site of the old fort?”
    Almost every archeologist and anthropologist around the small town was. It was no secret he was, too, but where exactly this particular fragment had come from was a well-kept secret. Already Ky was having a problem keeping his areas of the site preserved. As it was a joint effort between universities there were other archaeologists on site. Security was a problem for everyone. Even hiring a guard hadn’t prevented thieves from entering at night to wander about with metal detectors searching for gold, coins, old weapons. No one knew how much they were losing to them.
    He had only her word her previous employer was dead.
    Those very lovely blue eyes met his. She saw far too much for all her youth, seeing the caution in his eyes quite clearly.
    Inclining her head, she smiled a little. “Ah. So. Perhaps I should simply translate?”
    “I’m sorry,” Ky said.
    He’d looked for this for far too long to take the risk.
    She shrugged, grinned engagingly. “I understand your concern, all things considered. No offense taken.”
    Moving her hand above the text, careful not to touch the fragile papyrus too much, she pointed to one place and then another. “Here and here, he notes building materials…fine marble, gold…but also more common materials like mud bricks, iron…a great deal of iron.”
    Her voice was puzzled, but she moved on.
    Lightly she ticked off on his handwritten translation where his errors had been or where he hadn’t completed it for gaps in the text she filled in for context and content.
    “If you’d like surely there is someone you can send this to for verification,” she said, “to confirm my