Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

what. After the “mate” announcement, she‟d fallen into a shocked silence and then backed away from him, muttering speculations about his need for a nice round of electroshock therapy.
    Half an hour later, she was still mumbling under her breath. From the narrow-eyed glances he‟d shot her way, he probably had an idea that her remarks were far from flattering. He‟d stayed well away, even when she‟d washed up as best as she could in the pool and she‟d caught him staring at her as if he wanted to devour her.
    At least he hadn‟t tried to jump her. She wasn‟t sure how far he was likely to try to go with the “mate” thing. For now, they needed to solve the problem at hand.
    “We‟ve got to get out of here,” she said for probably the twentieth time, but loudly enough to be sure he heard her. “We‟re going to get out of here.”
    Justice didn‟t bother to answer, which didn‟t offend her, since he‟d responded the first dozen or so times she‟d made the same statement. He was undoubtedly as tired of hearing her as she was tired of saying it. Still, she carefully stayed at least ten feet from him at all times, wary of being in reach after that kiss.
    That kiss.
    That rock-the-universe, blow-fireworks-through-the-sky kiss. He‟d set off the aurora borealis inside her skull, and she‟d responded with a growling stomach.
    Perfect. Just perfect. Although she‟d always been a girl too practical for fairy tales, so meeting a fairy-tale prince didn‟t change anything. Not even when he was a prince who had the most amazingly beautiful hair she‟d ever seen on a man.
    Hey, maybe he was insane, Mr. I‟m Your Destiny and all, but at least he was gorgeous.
    Considering what he‟d been through in his life, he deserved to be a little nuts. A tendril of sympathy whispered inside her mind as the memory of her vision surfaced. It‟s a wonder he was anywhere in the same zip code as sanity.
    Speaking of which, how many people had thought she was crazy? Nobody knew better than she did that sanity was a spectrum of relativity. Anyway, it had been so long since she‟d been naked with a man that maybe she needed to lower her standards. Crazy? No problem, so long as he had great hair.
    She sighed and snuck a glance at him from under her lashes. His hair was dry now. Silky, glossy, and gorgeous; it flowed in waves of blue down his back, clear to the top of the finest butt in the history of mankind. Or Atlantean kind. Or whatever.
    He wasn‟t Prince Charming; he was Prince Tall, Dark, and Deadly. Justice was no perfect, plastic prince, but a very real man with a very damaged psyche.
    However, she, as she kept reminding herself, was no shrink. So maybe she should keep her distance, regardless of her hormones playing marching band.
    He finally spoke up from where he was prying at one of the gem-encrusted walls. “I thought this was a hidden door to another passageway, but it‟s nothing. Just another secret compartment that‟s full of a whole lot of nothing helpful.”
    He held something up in his hand, and the light from the lanterns flashed off it like paparazzi flashbulbs on Swarovski crystals. She couldn‟t help herself. She was an archaeologist, after all, and professional curiosity was killing her.
    “What is it?”
    “More gems. Everywhere we turn in here, it‟s more and more and more worthless gemstones,”
    he said, hurling them on the ground.
    She walked over, careful not to get too close. “I‟m not sure worthless is the word I‟d use,”
    she said, bending down to select a sapphire the size of her palm from among the gems littering the floor. “I feel a little bit like Indiana Jones discovering an ancient treasure. This rock alone is probably worth more than a year‟s salary for me.”
    He shrugged carelessly. “Your salary is no longer important, as we will be sure you have everything you need. Take the sapphire if you want to. Take all the gems you want. To us they‟re only stones, as you say. At best, instruments of healing now that we have a gem singer.”
    A bitter taste like rotten grapefruit soured the back of her mouth. He thought she wanted his gemstones. He thought she would raid the most incredible archaeological site she‟d ever set foot on.
    He didn‟t know her very well.
    She decided to take the high road and ignore the comment, and she held the gem up to the light, examining it. “This reminds me of the one that Liam sabotaged me with back in my office. The companion