Demon Bound

it.”
    “You were drinking?”
    “Yep.” He glanced over his shoulder. “I forget about it most of the time; I can’t see it.”
    “Oh,” Alice said, and firmed her lips. “Then you haven’t made certain the translation is correct?”
    “No. Why?”
    “It says, ‘Only simpletons ask for tattoos they can’t read.’ ”
    “ What? ” His psychic scent shot arrows of disbelief, and Jake turned around and around, looking over his shoulder, as if he turned far enough about he would see it.
    Then he froze, straightened, and pointed at her. “You.”
    She lifted her brows.
    “I love you.”
    “Oh,” she said, her hands flying to her chest to keep her heart within it.
    “That’s right. And we’ve got about ten minutes before the sun sets in Turkey. We’ll be fast.”
    “No,” she said as he strode toward her, and he stopped. “Let me . . . do this.”
    Her fingers found the buttons at her neck.
    “Alice,” he breathed, and then surprised her by pressing a kiss to her throat.
    Why had she been certain he would only stand and watch? Had she assumed he would look at her like he had his pinup girls?
    She should have known better. With every inch she exposed, he was there, worshipping it with his mouth. He replaced every button with his lips, followed silk with his hands.
    And by the time he pinned her to the wall and told her she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, she believed him.

CHAPTER 22
    Even a dress of spider silk did not make for easy swimming. When her legs tangled in her skirts for the third time, Alice exchanged it for a short black chemise, but kept her drawers and stockings.
    Jake glanced over, the glow from his eyes illuminating the sediment clouding the water. This should clear out when we hit the lower current, he signed. Then, How would you have managed if you were here with Drifter?
    Though she would have worn her swimming trousers, Alice sent him an image of a swimsuit she’d once seen on a Brazilian beach.
    Then he’s never coming treasure hunting with us. Okay, see anything?
    She shook her head, and held out her hand.
    He teleported them deeper. The visibility was better; she could see the bedrock now, stones worn smooth. Ship debris gathered in front of uneven shelves and the odd protruding boulder, and was held in place by the current.
    The strait was narrow, and relatively shallow—and had been heavily traveled for thousands of years, strategically important for both military and commercial interests. Any temple of size and distinction wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. Perhaps before the technological advances of the past century—but not after submarines and side-scan sonar had been developed. And because of the history of the strait, maritime archaeologists and salvagers had combed the seafloor extensively, searching for wreckage and jetsam.
    Alice turned to Jake. How near are we to the estimated location?
    Right on top of it. Should we jump around this area, take a look from a few different angles?
    Her nod started them on a dizzying trek though the water, but after fifteen jumps that had taken them from one bank of the strait to the other, still nothing had appeared to her as out of the ordinary. They began a searching pattern, moving with the current—then against it—all without success.
    The night had half-gone when Jake teleported back to their starting point. He floated on his stomach, staring at the seafloor with his brows drawn.
    He turned his head to look at her. Do you know what? he signed. I’m an idiot.
    His Gift pulsed once, twice. He didn’t vanish, and Alice had just begun to frown when he pulsed it rapidly again, twelve, thirteen times—
    And disappeared.
    A second later, she almost sucked in a lungful of water when he reappeared in front of her, grinning. He smashed his lips to hers, and then she was wobbling, dripping water onto a damp white floor, dragging in a breath of freezing stale air. The temple spun around her as Jake swept her up, his deep laugh echoing off the decorated marble walls.
    This time, she kissed him back.
    But they didn’t linger over it; he was just as eager to explore as she.
    It was remarkably like the enormous chamber in Tunisia, but of white marble instead of black granite. A dais and the black sarcophagus stood where the statue had been, but the colonnade around the room was similar, as were the friezes lining the walls. For a long moment, Alice simply turned in a circle, taking it all in.
    She looked over