Rapturous Love

'Fucking really?! You are all believing this?! I've had enough, bedtime for me.' She said testily.

'Calm down Camilla it's a legend. Every culture has legends, no need to be a jerk about it!' Gavin said with a look of distaste on her face.

Great, now she had pissed him off.

'Sorry, I'm just tired and it's been a really draining day. My head isn't hurting anymore but I don't think I can stay awake any longer.' She replied softly. Then turning to Sansao she said 'I'm sorry, really.' He looked at her warily then nodded once. She nodded back and without anyone saying anything else, they watched her turn from them and leave the circle of warm light the fire was making.

In her tent Camilla didn't even have time to get under the covers before she was dead to the world.

Early the next morning Camilla was woken by the smell of coffee. She didn't know who brought it or how they were making it but in an instant she was wide awake and scrambling to get dressed and out to claim some before it was gone.

'Morning Camilla!' said Greg, greeting her cheerily.

'Hey Greg, this coffee yours?' Camilla asked already scouring the utility packs for a cup. 'Yep, help yourself, if you're anything like me you can't live without it!' Greg answered.

'You're a lifesaver...' Camilla gulped fast and poured a second. 'Where is everyone else?'

'Sasha is still asleep and Gavin when to find the river to wash.'

'Oh want me to wake up Sasha, it is getting late?' Camilla asked hopefully with a sly grin on her face.

'Depends, are you going to wake her up with gasoline and a match?' Greg asked with a grin on his face. Obviously, Camilla's dislike of Sasha wasn't being very well hidden.

Camilla walked over to Sasha's tent mulling over how to wake her when the bushes behind her rustled. Startled Camilla let out a small squeal. Out of the bushes stepped Gavin, shirtless, a small towel over his shoulders, with a few stray droplets of water still making their way down between his pecs. She was right; he did have a good body. No, good wasn't the word. Fucking fantastic. She could see now how strong he truly was, it was obvious but he didn't look overly muscular. Just masculine. A fine sprinkling of dark chest hair trailed down towards his belly button then kept on going. Without thinking, Camilla's eyes followed the hair all the way to the button of his khakis and the bulge in his crotch.

'Ahem...' coughed Gavin.

Camilla realised how obviously she was eye fucking him and how openly she was now staring at his crotch. She gulped and her eyes looked everywhere but at his. 'Good morning Camilla, did you sleep well?' Gavin asked. 'Yes...thanks...' Camilla stammered.

'How's your head?' Gavin asked

Before she could answer he was reaching out to check the bandages and the lump on her temple. He was inches away inspecting her head and she snuck a look up at him. Goddamn he smelt good! Like fresh rain, mixed with a small amount of sweat and the sexy smell men have when they don't cover themselves in cologne. She breathed in his smell deeply and continued to watch him. Then he looked down into her eyes. Everything else around them stopped. There was no sound, no movement, just them. His eyes were the perfect shade of golden green hazel. They stared at each other for what felt to Camilla like an eternity but must have only been a few seconds.

'Good morning Gavin!' Sasha said perkily as she almost leapt between them. Camilla stood back quickly and resumed looking at the ground. 'Hi Sasha, how did you sleep?' Gavin asked her.

Camilla took the opportunity to slink away and catch her breath. She still could not get the lingering smell of man out of her nostrils.

An hour later and everyone was ready to begin the short walk to the dig site. Excited to be finally on the way to do what they came for, Camilla walked up the front of the group with Sansao. The group walked quickly, wanting to get as much work done in before dark as they could.

After half an hour they reached a sunken rocky plain and Sansao implied that this was the spot . Immediately Gavin asked everyone to be patient while he scouted out the area so he could assign people jobs. As he was looking he was talking to himself, 'yes...looks like an old river bank...probably late cretaceous...' he murmured.

'Camilla, over here please.' Gavin called. Of course Camilla obeyed walking quickly as she could whilst being careful of where she was treading. As soon as Camilla reached Gavin she knew exactly what he wanted her to see. 'What do you think?' he asked her.

Camilla took her time, knowing that Gavin was testing her knowledge. She looked at the bone exposed; it was definitely that of a Dromaeosaurid. It looked like foot bones- maybe the infamous second digit of the velociraptor with the sickle shaped claw. She wouldn't be able to tell until she dug some of the surrounding rock away and when she told Gavin this, he nodded, almost proudly. 'Excellent', he said 'let's get digging then!'

3 hours later the sun was high in the sky and the dig site was a hive of activity. Everyone was holding some form of tool and covered in dust, even Sasha, whom Camilla was pleasantly surprised to find out she wasn't allergic to getting her hands dirty. Camilla was working right next to Gavin, both of them carefully chipping away, trying to extract the presumed velociraptor from its rocky tomb.

'All right let's break for lunch guys, it's too hot to keep going under this sun. Greg, your turn to sort lunch today, everyone else head to shade, no heatstroke please, I need you all working and to be honest I won't really be damned caring for you when I have my baby here to look after now...' Gavin said as he pointed to the exposed bones in front of him. Camilla really was turned on by how much he loved his work; that was what attracted her so much to him in the first place. She wiped her brow with the back of her hand, the sweat mixing with the dust, smearing her face. As she stood up slowly and carefully her knees cracked from being cramped up, and she stretched her back and looked to the sky, closing her eyes and enjoying the sun on her face. When she opened her eyes again she saw Gavin looking at her with a smile on his face.

'You certainly are a picture, covered in dirt!' he said. Camilla wasn't sure if he was joking. She blushed.

'Yeah well you look no better!' she blurted. He recoiled dramatically feigning offence.

'How dare you talk to your superior that way!' he snarled while smiling and turned laughing to follow the rest of the group making their way to the shade of the trees Camilla felt a wave of heat rush over her and a tingle spread from her belly down between her legs. The thought of Gavin as her superior, her master if you will, was too much for her to handle. Camilla decided to go for a short walk on her own to let herself calm down and to give her flushed cheeks the chance to return to their normal colour.

Whilst the group was headed to some trees leading into the forest on the way back to camp, Camilla turned and walked the opposite direction. There were also some trees about equal distance away and she thought she may as well explore as much of this beautiful, albeit humid, country while she had the chance. As she reached the trees she took off the hat she had borrowed from Greg. This cluster of trees seemed strangely out of place, they didn't thicken into a forest, there was just a group of tall trees and small bushes in the middle of the rocky field. Camilla started walking through them and began to feel like she was entering another world. The sunlight became just dappled beams of light hardly reaching the ground through the canopy of branches and vines. The sound of insects and birds chattering away became louder as she moved through the leaves. Camilla felt like she had stepped back into time; this was surely what it must have been like when the velociraptor she was digging up had been alive, roaming the rainforests and plains looking for its next meal. She heard running water, and realising how thirsty she was, so she pushed through the branches towards the sound. Camilla carefully inched forward not being able to see what was in front of her because of the lush foliage. Suddenly the branches thinned and she stepped into a tiny clearing to find a small creek running through the middle of the clearing. Camilla looked at it thirstily then knelt down and put her hands in the cool water. It was so clear and undisturbed; surely it should be safe to drink. Camilla scooted her feet closer to the creeks edge cupped some water in her hands and brought it swiftly up to her parched lips. It was heavenly, so refreshing and pure! She reached for more and drank this way for a few minutes. The creek was shallow and she could see the bottom the whole way across to the other side. As her thirst was sated she started to look closer into the creek. It was so beautiful. Out of the corner of her eye Camilla saw something dart in between branches on the opposite side of the creek. She stood quickly, taken by surprise wondering what the hell it was.

Camilla shrugged it off and went back to admiring her pleasant surroundings. As her eyes scanned across the cool creek she noticed something shimmering under the surface of the water about an arms length into the river. She kneeled back down and reached into the water trying to fish out what it was that was gleaming under the surface.

'Ouch!' Camilla cried out as she pulled the object out from the water. It had pricked the tip of her finger! She checked her fingertip and seeing that there was only a drop of blood from a tiny pinprick, she inspected the sharp culprit more carefully.

'No way...a claw?!'

Camilla would have sworn on her grave that it was a raptor claw but it was like none she had ever seen before. This one was fresh! It hadn't been turned to fossil over millions of years, it was still sharp and deadly and ...no, it's impossible, she thought, it must have come from some other animal.

Still - she couldn't think of any animal alive that had any claws bearing resemblance to the one she held in her hand. Camilla was confused, excited and scared at the same time. She had to get out of here and show Gavin.

Camilla didn't realise it but when she had entered the clearing the birds and insect noises had petered out. Now she was standing at the edge of the creek in the strange clearing and everything was eerily quiet. Okay, she thought, time to get out of here! She took one more look back to the other side of the river where the mysterious blur had been. There was nothing...

In an attempt to escape her eerie surroundings, Camilla stood quickly and as she did everything started spinning. Black spots where appearing in her vision and she felt a huge wave of nausea overtake her body and then everything went dark.

'Camilla?' 'CAMILLA!' 'Camilla where are you?!'

Camilla woke to her name being called. In her daze she didn't recognize the voice. She looked up opening her eyes slowly. She could see the sun peeking through the canopy of leaves. In a flash she realised where she was and what had happened. She groggily started to sit herself up, with her head pounding at the slightest movements.

'Ugh, yeah I'm in here. Hold on. I passed out.' Camilla cried out to the mystery voice. As she did she winced and grabbed her head. It was only then she noticed her feet were in the creek and just like when you see blood and feel pain, she saw her soaking feet and felt the cold water in her boots. Awesome, she thought to herself, now she had to spend the rest of the day trudging around with wet feet. This trip was going swimmingly. She rolled her eyes and dragged herself up from the creek bed and started to make her way back towards the edge of the clearing. Before she got there though she turned as she realised that she didn't have the claw. Turning and looking all around where she was and where she fell, Camilla searched for the claw but to no avail.

'Where the hell did it go?' Camilla looked in the creek but nothing was shimmering under the surface then expanded her search to all sides of the clearing. The claw just wasn't there.

'Camilla, come on. I'm not waiting any longer!' Camilla heard the voice again and to her dismay she realised it was Sasha.

'Okay I'm coming!' Camilla would just have to return again with the group and everyone could help search, after all, many hands make light work. Taking one last look at the clearing, she turned and started slowly making her way back through the dense shrubbery and out towards Sasha. When Camilla stepped through the last of the branches and out into the field she squinted into the glary sun. The humidity of the air hit her again and she was reminded of her pounding headache. Maybe she have passed out because she hit her head yesterday but she didn't think concussions could last that long.

'What were you doing? Gavin sent me to look for you so you didn't miss out on lunch. Think I want to be wandering around in the heat when I could be sitting in the shade thinking of my bath at home?!' Sasha said derisively.

'Sorry let's just go and then you can sit all you want. I don't even want food, you didn't have to come!' replied Camilla huffily.

'Ugh' Sasha snapped, rolling her eyes. 'Yeah well the professor wants to talk to you too so whatever...' Then without saying another word to each other the girls walked the 200 or so metres back to the group.

Camilla's head pounded for the rest of the day but she didn't let it interfere with her work. She decided not to tell Gavin or he would just wrap her in cotton wool like he did yesterday. Besides, it was just a headache...and some dizziness, not to mention her hot and cold flushes but still, she was a professional and this would not stop her! Camilla's resolve was solid and she worked steadily at digging away at the hard rock surrounding their prize. Just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, Gavin called out that they had done enough for the day.

'Good start everyone! This is going to be massive! Thanks for all your help, this dig site will be all the world is talking about as soon as we excavate!' Gavin sounded ecstatic and she tried to be excited for him but she was starting to get dizzy again. If they didn't get back to camp soon she would have to tell him what was wrong. Luckily the trip back seemed shorter than it was this morning and Camilla was lying in her tent resting before she knew it. Just a short nap before dinner should make her feel better, she thought.

Hours later Camilla woke to the sound of night and opening her eyes she realised it was pitch dark. Fumbling around in her tent she finally found the zip to the door. Opening it she felt the cool night air on her skin, and she looked around trying to get an idea of the time. Most people were asleep but over near the dying fire she could see two people huddled together close. Keeping her distance she slowly crept up. Camilla didn't know why she didn't just announce her presence but something about the couple's body language seemed secretive. She could her some of what they were saying but it was muffled.

'...we shouldn't...get in trouble...besides...you're too young for me...'

'shhh...it's fine...you know you want it too...just trust me...let's go..'

The taller figure seemed to nod and the pair turned and walked further away from Camilla towards the outlying tent.

Gavin's tent.

The shorter of the two made a flicking motion and Camilla caught a glimpse of long blonde hair in the light from the fire and she gasped. It was Gavin and Sasha and they were heading into his tent, TOGETHER! Camilla couldn't stop the flush from rising to her cheeks and the nausea that she had staved off all day overtook her. She ran back the way she came hunching over the nearest bush and throwing up the bile from her empty stomach. This was the last thing she wanted to see.

Camilla had had enough; she wasn't sure whether it was the concussion making her irrational but she was furious and she wouldn't tolerate this kind of behaviour, especially not on a professional research trip. Especially not with Sasha, she thought.

'How could he? What is he thinking? What does he see in her?' Camilla huffed back into her tent, her head swimming with thoughts.

'Fuck this! I'm leaving!' Camilla muttered indignantly. She knew her way back to the town. Camilla would hike there and catch an earlier flight home. Hopefully that would show him how unprofessional he was being and that she wasn't willing to put up with this, Camilla hoped. Switching her lantern on, she reached for some paper in her bag and after ruffling around she found and pen and started to scrawl a letter to him.

"Gavin,

I have known you for few years now and I must say I find your treatment of women despicable! One after the other! Do you even think about how they must feel after you have had your fill of them?! I just refuse to work with someone like that anymore."

Camilla paused. She knew why she was really upset. It wasn't Gavin's lack of professionalism; it was his lack of desire for her. She slowly realised that she had nothing left to lose and decided to let him know her true feelings. Besides, she would be gone by the time he read it and she would never have to face him again.

"I can't stay because it should be me in that tent with you. I love you. None of these other girls do. Do you think they care about how intelligent you are? Do you think they notice how you stick your tongue out the side of your mouth when you are concentrating hard on your work, and all those other cute things you do?! They don't and they never will. I do because I know you. And I can't watch you use other girls and hurt them. I can't watch you get your fix with women who know nothing about you when you refuse to have anything to do with the woman right in front of you, who knows you like no one else ever will.

I know you will never look at me in the way I want you to. I am simple looking, and aren't enough to tempt you. So I must go. Please don't come and find me. I just can't watch you all trip with HER. When you get back I will make sure to have moved all my stuff from the office and apply for a different university. I have to leave. Call it self-preservation. Just please... don't break her heart. As much as I don't like her, she doesn't deserve to suffer because you needed to get your rocks off and she was there. I'm sorry I can't finish the research with you. It was a pleasure knowing you,

Camilla Greene"

Camilla hadn't realised at the time but she was crying as she poured her heart out and the paper was dotted with drips, some of them making the ink run. How tragic, she thought. Enough of this moping she thought, time to move on and get out of this hellish situation. She grabbed her backpack and bottle of water and decided she didn't need the tent; she would be back in town before the next night. Picking up the lantern she left her tent and snuck over to Gavin's tent. Doing all she could to ignore the sounds, Camilla spotted a decent sized rock sitting near a bush near his tent and using that to weigh it down, she put the letter in front of the door so he couldn't miss it. Camilla suddenly realised she was still burning up and took a swig of her water. This wasn't going to be a fun walk but it was better than the alternative. Setting off on the long trek, Camilla felt proud of herself and resolved in her decision.

An hour into her walk Camilla was still suffering bad fevers and head spins but she kept moving. She paused for a moment to sit and swapped the flashlight for a lamp. Hopefully she had some painkillers in her pack. As she knelt she looked down at her legs and discovered a rash had developed on her skin. It was red brown and her skin was so dry it felt like scales!