Page 61 of A Discovery: Love and Other Things
He put his hand on my chest. “You need to take a deep breath.”
“Okay. Okay. Breathe. Right.” I sucked in a sharp breath and forced it out even faster, which didn’t help at all. Instead, I wanted to pass out.
James took my wrists in his hand. “Calm down. Panicking isn’t going to make any of this better.” His touch was careful and not intimate in the least, like he was trying to put distance between us. I could already feel him slipping away.
Tears stung my eyes. “What do we do now?” I said, my voice trembling.
The expression in his eyes was direct. “We face the music.”
My eyes nearly popped out of my skull. “What?! No. We can’t go out there. Please don’t make me go out there.” I couldn’t show my face after this. The humiliation of being known as the slutty intern who’d fucked her mentor behind her team’s back would eat me alive. I wouldn’t be allowed to graduate if the ethics committee found out, nor would another university ever accept me to finish up my degree.
James gently swung my arms in an attempt to break me from my oncoming panic attack. “Sanura. We can’t stay in here forever.”
Sanura.He kept calling me by name, and all I wanted was to hear him say “kitten” with the adoration he’d had only minutes ago, before we’d been discovered. I was already losing everything that I had only just begun to cherish.
He gave my hands a soft squeeze and offered me a tight smile that didn’t quite reach his blue eyes.
He let go of me, and my heart lurched forward, grieving the loss.
I watched through blurry eyes as he bent over and slipped the golden cartouche that bore the name of a queen who had run out of options into a small specimen bag and placed it in his pocket.
He straightened up and stepped closer to the door. One more step over the threshold, and he was no longer mine. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. It wasn’t supposed to end.
“James,” I called out.
He turned back, his brows narrowed as if he were saying his final goodbye. Then he stepped out of the temple.
I swiped at my tears and hurried out behind him. My eyes adjusted to the blaring sun to find the entire team lined up, glaring at James.
Footsteps scurried to my side.Angela.“Oh, babe. Are you okay?” she whispered, throwing her arm around me.
Words wouldn’t form. I just shook my head.
“She told everyone,” she said, referring to Isabella.
I cast my eyes to the ground in shame. Shame that everyone knew the private details of my personal life.
Mo approached James, his face void of its usual jovial expression. He stared his boss in the eye. “Leave now.”
James didn’t flinch. “No.”
Mo stepped closer, invading James’s space. “I have already informed the ministry, and they have ordered you to vacate the site immediately.”
James’s shoulders dropped. This was it. He was no longer world-renowned Egyptologist James Campbell. Isabella had no doubt painted the picture that he was a misogynist who had used his title and power to take advantage of his student. And I was probably the stupid, gullible girl who had stars in my eyes for my professor in her story.
Mo shot him one more look of disgust before turning away for the tent.
But before James could walk away with what little dignity he had left, Felipe stalked forward. He swung his shoulder back and launched his fist into James’s jaw. Screams and gasps echoed around us.
“James,” I cried, moving toward him. Angela pulled me back. I tried to pull away from her, but she wouldn’t let me go.
James held his jaw in his hand, his eyes never leaving Felipe’s hard stare. After a beat, he turned around and flashed me a look so heartbreaking that I nearly died on the spot. “I’m sorry,” he said, before casting his eyes away from me and walking toward his car.
I fell into Angela’s embrace, sobs rattling my body.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated over and over. Sorry for being so careless. Sorry for embarrassing myself. Sorry for ever meeting James Campbell and ruining his life.
Chapter 25
