Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

was no need to continue to test it.
    She started walking, then stopped suddenly and laughed. “I guess it would help if you told me which way we‟re headed. Also, when it comes to those water bottles, be careful not to teleport them from the packs of some poor, unsuspecting hikers or tourists who will be left freaking out, wondering what in the heck happened to their water.”
    He pointed toward the faint beacon of magic that still flickered faintly in his mind. “The Star lies in that direction. As to the other, I will do my best,” he said, wondering when the sound of her laughter had become more beautiful to him than any music. He surreptitiously adjusted his pants so walking would be less uncomfortable and started forward, resolutely pushing all thoughts of Keely, naked, out of his mind.
    He glanced back at her, and caught his breath at the excitement glowing in her green eyes.
    Okay, he‟d at least try to push most thoughts of Keely, naked, out of his mind.
    As he‟d told her before, he was a guy, after all.
     
    Three hours later, Keely called a halt. She was tough, and she‟d vowed to herself to keep up without complaint, but hiking any farther with no water was suicidal and she was no idiot. In the fierce, furnace-room heat of the jungle, moisture was being lost from their bodies at a rapid rate. Maybe Atlanteans, being sort of water people, could handle it better than mere humans, but she needed a rest.
    Also, she was tired of staring at his backside as he led the way through the thick vegetation.
    Not that he didn‟t have a very fine backside. Broad shoulders tapered down to his narrow waist, not to mention that tantalizing braid of his that she really, really wanted to loosen so she could run her fingers through those long strands of silky hair. His butt was so firm and muscular that she‟d entertained brief fantasies of biting it, about an hour or so back, when she‟d still had the energy for that sort of thing.
    Wonder how the tough Atlantean warrior would have responded to that? She laughed out loud, and he whirled around with one of those bursts of inhuman speed and stared at her.
    “What is it?”
    “Justice, I need a break. In the shade, preferably.”
    “Why is that funny?” He stared at her suspiciously. “What are you plotting?”
    She clamped her lips together, but the laughter escaped anyway. “Oh, trust me, you don‟t want to know. Anyway, we need to stop. I can tell I‟m getting dehydrated, and we‟re walking through the hottest part of the day. I recommend we find some shade and wait out the afternoon until it‟s cooler this evening.”
    He moved again in another blurred flash of speed and suddenly he was standing near inches away from her. “I‟m so sorry. I was lost in contemplation of our options and our ultimate goal and didn‟t spare a thought for how you were faring. Please accept my apologies for my thoughtlessness.”
    But his nearness played havoc with her wits, and she didn‟t really catch the meaning of his words, just stood there staring up at him wishing foolish things. Wishing her life hadn‟t turned into an adventure novel. Wishing he would just kiss her.
    Wishing she was the type of woman brave enough to just kiss him.
    “I . . . you . . . what?”
    “Sorry. We Atlanteans tend to drop back into formal speak in tense situations,” he said wryly.
    “Translation: I‟m an idiot. We should‟ve stopped sooner. There seems to be some shade up ahead under that overhang.”
    Keely gave herself a mental slap and nodded briskly. “Right. Shade. Ahead. Great.” She took off at a determined march, and he fell into step beside her.
    A grin quirked at the edges of those beautifully sculpted lips of his. “Is there any reason you seem to have lost the use of verbs?”
    The low, husky tone of his voice sizzled across her nerve endings, and suddenly the jungle was a whole lot hotter than before. “I have a strict „no verbs in jungles‟ policy, of course. If we stay here much longer, adjectives will go by the wayside next,” she said, flashing an innocent smile. The kind of smile that said “nobody here wants to rip your shirt off and lick your bare chest.”
    She hoped.
    What was wrong with her? It must be some weird kind of jungle pheromones. Mix one Atlantean with one crushingly hot jungle and you get mad sexual desire. Of course it didn‟t hurt that he was the hottest man she‟d ever seen in her life. The memory of Justice in the cavern, naked and