Demon Bound

reduce him to tears on a daily basis. I hope, however, that he did cry every day.” She fell silent, thinking. After a few minutes, she asked, “How do you suppose anyone could choose England over Egypt?”
    Jake shrugged. “Beats me.”

    Alice was describing the excitement that had surrounded the discovery of the Amarna Letters when Jake lost his focus again.
    She pursed her lips, waved her hand. “How often do you do that?”
    Despite her tone, she was not irritated—she was amazed. Surely his mental stamina was unmatched among mortals and immortals alike.
    “Think about banging you? Once a minute or so,” he said. “But this wasn’t about that.”
    “Oh?”
    “Nope. I was thinking about making a Gate.”
    She blinked, surprised by her disappointment that it hadn’t been about her. And intrigued, as well. Hell’s Gates had been formed through sacrifices and rituals, death and negative psychic energy—but there was no indication in the Scrolls as to how a Gate to Caelum was made.
    “Go on,” she said.
    Jake crammed his hands into his pockets, his gaze intent on her face, his expression thoughtful. “Well, maybe we could just draw a circle in the sand, scribble a few symbols around it, and then have sex in the middle.”
    It took a heroic effort to maintain her composure. “What position would we have to take?”
    His lips didn’t even twitch. “I dunno. We could run the gamut. Eventually, we’d hit on the right one.”
    “Oh, yes. Excellent idea, Hawkins. And while we are both facing the same direction in an animal position, the hellhound puppies will surprise us from behind.”
    “Yeah, and my hot ass would go first. So that’s out.”
    “It would have to be the Lotus position,” she determined. “We could keep watch over each other’s shoulders.”
    She met his eyes. They should have been laughing, she thought. Instead, she was only imagining herself sitting with him, her legs around his waist, her mouth against his. Rocking slowly, with Jake deep inside her.
    Oh, dear. She wanted to stop walking. Wanted to lie very still, with her thighs pressed tightly together.
    And she would not look away first.
    Jake’s sword appeared in his hand.
    Alice swiftly glanced around them, saw nothing. “What is it?”
    He dragged the tip of his sword through the sand, drawing a circle. When she laughed his name, he raised his brows at her. “No? Dammit,” he said, straightening. “Okay, so you aren’t gungho for opening-a-portal sex. What about saving-the-world sex?”
    “Would that require the missionary position?”
    “However you like it.”
    She feared she might be agreeable to any he had in mind. “If it would save the world, I would likely say yes.”
    “Hot damn.” He vanished his sword. “When we get back, I’m going to put the world in danger.”
    Her small, self-contained world was already in danger of cracking apart. He hadn’t battered her defenses, but snuck through them. Just as now, he was walking backward directly in front of her, but slowing, slowing until her next step would bring her up against him.
    Her gaze felt weighted; she couldn’t lift it above his lips. Sense made her say, “This is not the wisest course to take now. Not with hellhounds behind us.”
    “Is there a Lotus kiss?”
    “No. And you have a habit of jumping when we attempt one.” She flattened her hand against his chest—touching him, holding herself back. His heart was pounding. Did she produce that intense reaction? “You did not even need a spider the last time.”
    “Hey,” he said in a wry tone, but beneath it she felt the sharp point of his self-reproach. “That got us down here, didn’t it? Started this fun little vacation?”
    She looked up into his eyes. Oh, that had come out very badly. She shouldn’t have said anything—should have just kissed him. “I didn’t mean—”
    “I freaked out over something.” He lifted his hand to rub at the back of his neck. “Not over you. Well, not over kissing you.”
    “Oh.” But somehow, she’d produced that intense fear in him? Uncertainty slipped into her, stiffened the muscles along her spine. She pulled her hand back. “When I returned to Earth after finishing my training, I thought my Gift would drive me mad. I was overwhelmed with senses that were not my own—and I had no idea where they originated.” And when she did realize, she didn’t use her Gift again for a year—until Irena had shamed her for her cowardice. “Then I