Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

her breath away and muddled her neatly ordered, scientific thoughts.
    She should be more afraid, especially after what he‟d admitted to her, but somehow she trusted Justice enough to feel safe.
    Kneeling down across from her, he retied the loosened piece of leather cord at the end of his braid. The cord probably came from one of the compartments, used to tie off yet another bag of gems. She shook her head, amused at herself. Here she was, sitting inside a treasure trove that would be a jewel thief‟s wet dream, and all she could think about was escape.
    Practical, pragmatic Keely.
    Except, staring at Justice, wishing his strong hands had been on her skin instead of in his hair, she didn‟t feel at all practical.
    “If you continue to look at me like that, I will allow myself to entertain fantasies of what I would like to do with the remaining maple syrup and your lovely, lovely body,” he said, voice husky and nearly growling. His smile was strained and a muscle jumped in his clenched jaw. “There is much difference between a forcible taking and a willing surrender.”
    As the hated blush swept up from her chest to her cheeks, she bit her lip and tried not to do it.
    She really tried, but she couldn‟t help it. She just couldn‟t.
    She looked at the syrup.
    This time he really did growl, and the primal ferocity of the sound unleashed a primitive yearning in Keely. Liquid heat spread from the center of her body, and she had to fight against squirming where she sat. Suddenly her pants were too tight and the lace of her bra rubbed unbearably against her sensitive nipples.
    If he could do all that to her from a growl, she was in trouble if she ever got him naked.
    “Focus,” she gasped out, deciding to put it out on the table. Or floor. Whatever. “I don‟t know what this crazy attraction is between us, but we need to focus. I don‟t want to trigger your . . . your problem, either.”
    He froze and then carefully changed position to sit, cross-legged, a cautious distance away.
    She took a deep breath, lifted her chin, and confronted the issue directly. Ready to discuss the problem logically.
    But his dangerously potent smile and the sheer masculine arrogance that shone from his eyes played havoc with her intentions. “You admit it, then,” he said calmly. “The attraction, as you call it, though I would name that a very tame word. This has nothing to do with the Other inside me, Keely. This is the desire that surges like a tidal wave between destined mates.”
    She caught her breath at the heat his words evoked. “I‟d have to be a fool or a liar to deny it.
    At least the desire part.
    But it‟s simply a reaction to a stressful situation. An adrenaline-based hormonal reaction.”
    He raised an eyebrow, and those fascinatingly changeable eyes flashed from black to palest green. “I think not, my Keely. I will prove it to you. Count on it.”
    Trying to ignore the heat that sizzled through her at his deliberately provocative words, she asked the question she‟d been wondering about for some time. “Your eyes. Liam‟s did that, too, the eye-color-change thing. Does Atlantean eye color correlate to your emotions? Like a physiological mood ring?”
    He stared at her for a long moment before answering. “Perhaps. What colors have you seen in my eyes?”
    She shrugged. “I haven‟t exactly been cataloging, but they‟ve gone from black to midnight blue to a glowing teal, and now they‟re this beautiful pale green that reminds me of spring.
    Oh, and sometimes when they‟re black, they have an intriguing little blue-green flame at the very centers of your pupils.”
    His mouth dropped open a little before clamping shut into a thin line. The irises of his eyes darkened to black as she watched, like night falling suddenly on a lovely spring day. She nearly smiled at her own whimsy. Maybe she should have taken more poetry classes. She could write “Ode to an Atlantean‟s Eyes.”
    “Just now, for example,” she pointed out, trying to suppress her grin. “They changed from a vivid green to black when I made that comment about the flames.”
    “Well, do not panic or jump up and pace the cavern again, please, but it would appear that you have been claimed by both halves of my nature, Keely,” he said, drawing the words out slowly as if she‟d torn them out of him. “You may be in more trouble than I thought.”
    She opened her mouth to make some wisecrack, but then she realized that in no way was