Perfect Specimen: Brietta Read Online Free PDF

be working.”
    “It’s working,” she assured him, trying not to notice how close his body was. Almost intimate. Definitely protective. Maybe even seductive. Edging away, she murmured, “It just takes time. Aren’t you the guy who claimed to be patient?”
    “Actually, I said I’m im patient.”
    “Whatever.” She licked her lips, torn between a need to insult him and an equally strong urge to touch his suntanned cheek. To thank him for bringing her to this amazing spot. To—
    The sound of hoofbeats in the distance distracted her from dangerous thoughts, and she turned to see a magnificent figure galloping toward them on a beautiful chestnut horse with a flaxen mane and tail. “Wow.”
    “That’s Hannan.”
    The bodyguard? Yum .
    He was at least six feet seven. Probably more. Broad shoulders, bulging muscles, bright red headband holding back shoulder-length black hair. Jeans and a tan leather vest—but no shirt to obscure his glistening chest.
    And the widest, most engaging smile Brietta had ever seen, telling her he knew he was making a dramatic entrance designed to intimidate men and make women weak in the knees.
    “He looks like Rambo on steroids,” she murmured without thinking as she stood to welcome the newcomer. “Where did you find him?”
    “You’re drooling,” Taggert informed her cheerfully. “Try not to embarrass me, okay?”
    “Huh?” She turned back to him and laughed in embarrassment. “He’s just so big.”
    “Yeah, I get it.” His tone now dripped with sarcasm. “Pull yourself together.”
    “It’s nothing like that. He’s just so—”
    “Big?”
    “Shut up. ” She laughed at herself then assured her employer teasingly, “You’ve got good taste in hiring, that’s for sure.”
    “I do my best.” He jumped to his feet. “Want to meet him?”
    “In a minute.” She watched as Hannan dismounted and strode over to the four security guards. After greeting each in turn by slapping them on the backs, he handed them envelopes and motioned to a vehicle in the distance—another SUV, even more beaten up than the one Taggert had driven. Within seconds, the guards were speeding away, leaving just one vehicle, a horse, Taggert’s team, and a valley full of ancient bones.
    “And so it begins,” she murmured.
    “Exactly. He’ll take good care of us. That’s why I hired him.”
    “You made the right decision. About all of us, I mean. I can’t wait to get my grid on with this cemetery.” She touched his forearm. “I know I haven’t thanked you, Taggert, so let me do it now. We’re going to make history together. I just know it.”

Chapter Three
     
    As the day wore on, it became clearer and clearer to Taggert that his assistant was suffering from some sort of bizarre sinus infection, and while he felt sorry for her, it also annoyed the hell out of him. She should have stayed home. Or in Istanbul. Or at least she should have allowed a village doctor to take a look up her nose, or down her throat, or however the hell they diagnosed these things.
    But she was too stubborn for any of that. Even when he tried to pamper her by offering up the largest tent, she just glared at him as though he’d either insulted her or hit on her. It was all he could do to get her to take the second-largest one, and she only agreed to that when he implied it had been originally intended for “the paleontologist.”
    Fortunately, Hannan established a rapport with her right from the start, so Tagg left it to the big man to convince her to take it easy until she adjusted to the altitude; to eat some stew, even though she clearly had no appetite; and to settle down early that first evening at the fire pit Tagg had dug for them. She had wanted to do some test digging around the presumed perimeter of the graveyard, but Hannan tempted her with a promise to share legends that had been handed down on this plateau— his plateau—for millennia.
    Taggert forced himself to sit and listen too, even though