"Yes. Well." She added hesitantly, "ninety percent positive, at least."
"What!" He grabbed her wrist, surprised momentarily by the delicacy of her bones, and stilled her hand. "That ten percent of uncertainty could mean you're massaging disease straight into my bloodstream. My neck could rot off, for all you know."
A booming laugh escaped her. "I was teasing. Only teasing. You need not fear the sand."
"You are a cruel, cruel woman." His grip loosened by small degrees, more from wonder at her laugh than relief at her words. Unlike when she chuckled, her all-out laugh had been raw and new, as if she rarely gave way to such unabashed amusement. She'd uttered the same sound while they'd been in the water, swimming to shore. It had affected him then, and it affected him now, warming his every cell.
"I'm the one who cracks jokes in this relationship. You just stick to caring for my every need." "May I return to my work now?" she asked with a grin.
"No."
"Baby." Her fingers probed at the edges of the wound. As she worked, her nail accidentally scraped a particularly sensitive spot on his ear, and a sharp pain rebounded through him. He gave no outward reaction, however. He didn't want her to pull away. God knew he'd let her slap, punch and pinch him if it meant her hands would be on him.
Wait. If he didn't want her to know she'd hurt him, he had to stop thinking about it. She would read his mind—if she hadn't already.
He studied her more closely, and his brow furrowed. As he continued to watch her, she gave no indication that she knew what he was thinking. Gave no indication she knew she'd scratched him.
Interesting.
In fact, she'd given no indication she'd heard any of his thoughts since he'd woken up, and he'd had some pretty heated ones.
I want to strip you naked, he projected, still watching her.
No reaction. Her fingers remained steady.
I want to crawl over your body, lick every inch of you, and savor your taste. Still no reaction.
I'll start with your lips, then work my way down, and I won't stop until you're writhing in pleasure and screaming for God to deliver you from my tongue.
Again, nothing.
Interesting, he thought again. Very interesting. Could she no longer read his mind? During their escape from the demon palace, she'd mentioned that there were times she was unable to get inside his head. What prevented her from doing so? Less and less, he liked the idea of this woman knowing his every thought.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked. "Your body has gone stiff."
"Can't you read my mind?" His gaze probed her.
She paused. She drew back and stared down at him. "You sound upset by the very idea. I can't help what I am, Gray. You were thankful for my ability only a few days ago."
On a sigh of regret, he anchored one of his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "I know."
"If it makes you feel any better," she said grudgingly, "I'm having trouble getting into your head. It's like your mind built up an immunity to me when—" She stopped abruptly.
"When?" he prompted, then his eyelids popped open as her words confirmed his suspicions. "You can't read my mind anymore? Not at all?"
"No." She sounded both annoyed and shocked. "And believe me, I've tried."
He decided to test her one more time. I won't rest until I've had you in every position possible. And when I'm done with you, your naked, sweaty body will be so sated you'll never again be able to think of sex without picturing my face.
Nope. Nothing.
"Finally." He sighed with pleasure. "We're on equal footing."
"Then why do I always feel off balance with you?" she asked, resuming her doctoring. When she finished bandaging his wound, she sat back and eyed the results. "You'll be sore and weak for several more days, and I'm sorry for that but there's no help for it. The important thing is that you will heal." As she spoke, her stomach growled.
His grin spread as quickly as the color in her cheeks. "Hungry?" "Yes." She nodded, rubbing her belly. "Very."
"I have energy bars in my pack."
"Energy bars?"
"Tasteless morsels packed with everything our bodies need to survive."
"Sounds... delicious." Her nose wrinkled, but she leaned over him, meshing her breasts into his chest.
His blood heated as desire rushed through him.
She rooted through the backpack. "I have bread in my satchel."
"Grab that, too. The bars will help us keep up our strength, but they won't do much to fill us up."
"Is this what I'm looking for?" she asked, holding up a brown-packaged rectangle.
"Yes," he said, his voice more hoarse than he would have liked. She started to pull away.
"Maybe you should dig one out for me, too."
"Of course."
"Just make sure you dig real deep." He wriggled his eyebrows at her.
Her lips twitched, a smile clinging to the edges. She reached deep inside the bag and withdrew another energy bar.
"Oh, yeah. Just like that."
"I suppose this is where I demand payment?" She slid away from him, leaving a trail of heat, and grabbed two pieces of hard, slightly crumbling bread. "I did warn you that I planned to start charging you for your naughty invitations."
He allowed his gaze to sweep over her. The hem of her robe was noticeably shorter where she'd torn the strips for his wounds, revealing the peaches-and-cream perfection of her calves. Smooth and lean, slightly muscled. All traces of amusement abandoned him. Though she'd moved away, he felt the imprint of her nipples all the way to the marrow of his bones.
"I did warn you that I planned to pay with kisses," he said, willing her to close the rest of the distance between them. He needed her tongue in his mouth. Weakened body be damned.
She lost her amusement, too. Her smile disappeared. Desire lit her features, swirling in her eyes. "Yes, you did warn me," she said, breathless.
"Com'ere."
Slowly she moved her face toward his, so close the sweetness of her breath fanned his chin. "I shouldn't." "You should."
"You're hurt."
"Not too hurt. Kiss me."
"Yes, I—no." She blinked and straightened her back, widening the distance between them. "No. We need to eat," she said, giving no other reason for her sudden refusal.
What had changed her mind? He wanted to demand an answer, but his pride wouldn't allow him. A woman had never pulled away from him before, and he didn't like that one had now—one he wanted more and more as the seconds passed. One he wanted more than he'd ever wanted another.
He ate the bread first, relishing the familiar taste, then tore into his energy bar, eating half in one bite. Jewel, too, ate her bread, then nibbled on the bar, wrinkling her pixie nose in distaste.
The wind kicked up, rustling leaves and gusting tendrils of her hair over her shoulders, onto his chest It felt like a caress of her hand.
He gulped. "We really should get moving soon. The longer we stay here, the more likely the demons are to find us."
"They'll never find us here. In fact, we're safer here than we would be anywhere else."
"How do you know?"
"Marina fears the owner of this land."
He considered that and nodded. "So tell me, Prudence. Where will I find the Jewel of Dunamis?"
Her cheeks paled, leaving her skin pallid. "You need rest. There is no reason to worry about that now." "You swore to take me to it. Are you planning to renege on me?" He spoke quietly. Deceptively calm.
"No, of course not." The thunderous look Gray was giving her now was the look he usually reserved for his enemies. Ominous. Deadly. "I have every intention of revealing exactly where Dunamis is."
His shoulders relaxed. "So where is it?"
She turned to him, meeting his gaze and holding his stare. The fact that she was still fighting her need to kiss him didn't help matters. But run, she would not.
Kiss him, she would not. He might not remember what had happened inside his
consciousness last night, but she did. She remembered how he'd thought of her as "not for him." Remembered that he'd intended to push her away if she hadn't done it herself.
If she kissed him now, she wouldn't have the strength to pull away from him, even if she heard him curse her to Hades in his mind. She'd spent the entire night caring for him, bathing him when his fever raged, pouring water down his throat. Sleep had been impossible when his survival depended on her, so shards of fatigue rode her hard, weakening her resolve to remain distanced from him.
"Where is it?" he demanded again.
She pushed out a breath and prayed he took her next words as the answer. "I need you to escort me to the Temple of Cronus." A sense of foreboding swept over her. For her? For Gray? Or the temple? She closed her eyes, trying to center the sensation, to study it, but it slipped out of reach.
Gray bared his teeth in a scowl. "That wasn't the deal, babe."
He hadn't taken it the way she'd hoped; instead, he'd heard the hesitation in her voice, the wistful catch. She couldn't lie to him, but now she'd have to utter a distorted truth he would assume meant one thing, when in fact, it meant another. It's what she had done with Marina, and she hated to do it to Gray, but she had to reach the temple.
The only memory she had of her father was inside that temple. His face was a blur to her, but she remembered how he'd descended the long, white steps, coming straight for her, his arms wide.
"I sprang you from prison," Gray snapped. "You take me to Dunamis. That was the deal, and you know it."
"What if I told you that you will discover Dunamis at the temple?"
"Will I?" he asked, suspicious.
"I wouldn't have said so otherwise, would I?"
He remained silent for a long, protracted moment, then relaxed. "If Dunamis is in the temple, that's where we're going. Geez. For a minute you made it sound like they were entirely separate things."
She blinked innocently. It had taken Marina over a year to even suspect that when Jewel responded with a question, the real truth did not lie in the answer. Gray was well on his way to that realization after only a few days.
"Is anyone or thing guarding it?" he asked. "Dunamis, I mean?"
"It does have one protector, yes."
When she said no more, he added, "You want to tell me what I'll be up against?"
How did she explain without lying? "The protector is strong and brave, but he will let you do whatever you wish with Dunamis."
Gray's eyes narrowed. "Just like that?" He snapped his fingers. "The man will give it up just like that?" "Answer a question for me first. Why do you want it so badly? The jewel, I mean."
"You mean you don't know?"
"All I know is that you do not wish to conquer and rule the surface world, nor do you plan to use it to destroy an enemy."
His silver gaze pierced her all the way to her core. Jewel didn't think a man had ever looked at her the way Gray did, as if she were a platter of some unknown, but delicious smelling dessert.
"Will my reason affect your willingness to take me to it?"
"No," she said, and it was the truth. No distortion. No dancing around the issue.
He nodded, deciding to trust her. "I want Dunamis because it's dangerous. In the wrong hands, millions of people could be annihilated. I want Dunamis," he added carefully, "because it needs to be guarded by the right people or be destroyed."
Her stomach knotted, sadness mixing with her dread. She'd had to hear that, hadn't she? What would he do or say if he knew that destroying the jewel would destroy her? Would he hesitate in his determination, perhaps change his mind? Or would he act without reservation?
"I will answer your question now," she said, forcing the words out. "The protector of Dunamis will let you destroy it. Just like that." She snapped her fingers.
"Why?" Incredulity radiated from him.
"He believes as you do, that it needs to be destroyed."
Gray's brow furrowed. "Then why the hell does he protect it?" "That is a question you will have to ask him yourself."
He opened his mouth, his eyes thoughtful, then he closed his mouth with a snap. Opened, closed. Finally, he growled, "What do you have on under that robe?"
Confused, she blinked over at him. What kind of question was that? He knew what she wore under her robe: a thin white chemise. He'd seen it. Had he planned to ask her something else, then changed his mind?
She sighed. She might have watched this man her entire life, but she doubted she'd ever understand him. Or maybe it was just men she didn't understand. All the other male minds she'd ever read had been focused only on their survival. Some hoping to block her out so that whoever owned her at the time wouldn't know of their crimes. Others had merely been nervous, wanting her to see the truth so she could send them on their way. But for all of that, she'd never taken time to truly explore the male thought process.
"You want to know what I'm wearing under my robe?"
"That's right."
"But—why?" She wished to the gods she could read his mind right now.
"Instead of answering me, why don't you show me?" Gray let out a heavy breath. Damn it. For a moment, when they'd been discussing the destruction of Dunamis, Jewel had looked so lost, so sad, and he hadn't known what caused the transformation. He'd only known he had to fix it.
Thankfully, he had. Color bloomed bright in her cheeks, and her take-me-to-bed eyes sparkled. Desire flared to life, but it couldn't beat past the sudden sense of lethargy racing through him. He gently stretched his arms over his head, arching his back. His mouth widened in a yawn.
"You've already seen exactly what I'm wearing under the robe. Soaking wet, no less." "Maybe I've forgotten." His eyelids were growing heavy. "Maybe I need to see again." "No, you do not," she said primly. "What would Katie say about your behavior?"
Hearing her speak his sister's name so easily was disconcerting. Strange and surreal. "How do you know Katie?" His question held curiosity and surprise as he fought to stay awake. "I haven't thought about her since I met you."
"I'm sorry." Jewel nibbled on her bottom lip. "I shouldn't have mentioned her." "It's okay." He yawned again. "Really. I'm just curious how you know about her."
Agitated, Jewel eased to her feet, but he was unable to read her expression, unable to figure out what she was thinking. "I don't want to talk about this," she said quietly.
He wanted to push her for an answer, but didn't think that would be wise. She looked ready to bolt and never return. He didn't understand this... or what it meant. "Jewel," he said.
"Sleep," she interjected, cutting off whatever he'd been about to say. He felt oddly compelled to do so. "I'm going to the river to fish. If I never eat another energy bar, I will die complete."
CHAPTER NINE
Jewel stood at the edge of the river, her robe tucked into her waist, liquid lapping at her ankles, her hands wrapped around a long, sharp stick. She'd removed her shoes, and moss-covered rocks supported her feet. The dome above stretched hot fingers over the land, making her sweat through the thin material of her clothing. She stared down at the clear, dappled water, watching, waiting for a plump fish to swim past She'd never done this, had never lived off the land before. She only prayed she was successful.
Soon a long, fat swirl of iridescent color darted between her ankles. Her heart skipped a beat. Finally! Her hand tightened around the stick as the fish continued to swim around her, nipping at her ankles. When it tired of playing with her nonresponsive legs, its rainbow fins spanned and flapped, ready to bolt.
She threw the spear.
And missed.
The succulent thing darted away to safety. "Damn it," she growled, sounding very much like Gray.
Over the next half hour, four more delicious-looking fish swam past her, and she missed each one of them, her spear falling uselessly into the water.
"I can do this. I can."
Another fifteen minutes passed. Finally, a plump, incandescent beauty came within her sights. Sh
e stilled, even her breathing grinding to a halt. One, two, she mentally counted. He was about to swim... three! She tossed the spear.
Success! The tip of her spear cut into the target.
"I did it," she said, jumping up and down, splashing water in every direction. "I did it!" She grinned, holding the stick up for inspection, feeling proud and accomplished as she eyed the flopping treat. No more energy bars today, thank you very much.
She skipped back into camp and leaned her stick against a tree. Gray was still sleeping. His features were relaxed, giving him a boyish quality that warmed her. His pale hair fell over his forehead, and he had one arm over his head; the other rested over his bare chest.
Her hands itched to reach out and trace the hard planes of his abdomen, the ropes of muscles that led down, down—she gulped, forcing herself to gather twigs and grass. After building a sufficient mound, she used Gray's lighter to create a fire. Once the flames crackled with heat, she cleaned the fish as best she could and held out the stick, cooking the meat until it flaked into her hands. Unfortunately the outside charred.
A little while later, Gray yawned and stretched, grimacing as his wounds protested the sudden movement.
Then he stiffened, his eyes darting in every direction before settling on her. He pulled himself to a sitting position.
"I didn't mean to fall asleep. Sorry."
"You needed the rest. You look better already."
"I feel better. What's that?" he said with a chin tilt to the fish.
"I've never cooked before, but I have seen it done, so you'll have to tell me how I did." Using a large, firm leaf as a plate, she scooped some of the fish on top, and handed it to Gray.
He accepted with a raised brow. "What if I'm not hungry?"
"You'll eat it anyway, because you don't want to hurt my feelings after I went to the trouble of catching and cooking it."
"Good answer." He took a tentative bite, chewing slowly, his expression unreadable.
She was just about to ask him what he thought, when something in his backpack started speaking. A real, human voice. Jewel jumped, her gaze going impossibly wide.
Jewel of Atlantis a-2 Page 10