Stranger in my Arms by Rochelle Alers Page A

shirt, wet from sweat, pasted to his body, it had excited her so much that she went inside the house until he completed the chore. The images returned in an erotic dream that left her aching with a desire that threatened to swallow her whole.
    Opening her eyes, she came back to reality. Alex didn’t know where her relationship with Merrick would lead, but she knew it had to be resolved. The two large pieces of luggage sitting in the foyer reminded her that in less than two hours she would be on her way to Mexico City. She stood up and made her way to her bedroom to exchange her boots, wool slacks and sweater for a cotton dress and sandals.
    When she emerged she was ready for Mexico City and her destiny.

Part Two
Lovers

Chapter 8
    A lex found it hard to stay focused. She and the other students in her class had spent the past half hour staring at the image of an Olmec stone figure projected on the screen in the lecture hall.
    The professor, a slight, middle-aged man with thinning black hair and a flair for the dramatic, had waxed eloquent about how the Olmec’s “mother culture” inspired a series of successor cultures, including Maya settlements that began forming in the Mexican-Guatemala border region around 500 BC.
    Move on and change the blasted slide! she fumed inwardly. They were a month into the new term and she’d learned more from reading than she had during her lectures. Alex was enthralled with Mexico’s history and its people, but Professor Riviera was making it increasingly difficult for her to stay awake in his classes, and the downside was that she had him for three Mexican art courses.
    Pretentious prig, she continued in her silent tirade, scowling.
    â€œSeñorita Morris, perhaps you can tell your fellow students the timeline for the rise and fall of the Olmec civilization.”
    Everyone’s attention was directed to Alex as she glared at their professor. There was a pregnant silence as she composed her thoughts.
    â€œRecords show that the first Olmec settlements were established around 1500 BC. In 900 BC the Olmec city of San Lorenzo was destroyed and desecrated. Historians and archaeologists are unsure who or what led to the destruction and the Olmec civilization faded into obscurity.”
    Rivera smiled. “What else can you tell us about this culture?” he asked.
    â€œThey built ceremonial centers rather than cities, which suggests they were governed by a central authority. The Olmecs carved blocks of basalt into figures with massive heads like the one on the screen and other sculptures with stylized feline features. There is evidence they had ceramics, and digs have recovered jade figurines from this civilization.”
    Nodding his approval, the professor of design and art of ancient cultures, pressed his palms together. “ Bien dicho, Señorita Morris. It appears you are quite serious in your endeavor to learn about Mexico’s rich and colorful history.”
    Alex gave him a saccharine grin. “If I weren’t, then I assure you I wouldn’t be here.”
    â€œI told you he has the hots for you,” whispered the student sitting next to her. Alex and Moira Morgan had formed a friendship within days of Alex settling into her room at the centuries-old converted convent she would call home for the semester. Moira, a tall, blond, thin Oklahoman, who spoke fluent Spanish, had ended a yearlong relationship with the son of a Texas oilman to study abroad. Alex cut her eyes at Moira. She’d come to Mexico to earn a degree, not form a relationship with her professor. Her mantra had become: once burned, twice shy.
    â€œSeñores y señoritas.” Hernando Rivera addressed all women, whether married or single, as miss. “I would like to invite all of you to my home Saturday evening. A colleague has deigned to exhibit his private collection of art before donating it to several museums.”
    A chorus of groans and murmurs followed his