Jocelyn Kelley - Time Raiders - The Greek Lover

Suddenly her out-of-body experience ended as she felt herself being splashed with water.

“What the—?” Zoe swallowed her words as she stared at the man whose face was a bare inch away. Did his lips vibrate, too, from their kiss? His expression was identical to when they’d been in the water, but more angry.

“You!” the man’s voice was a low, dangerous growl.

“Me what?” She blinked several times. Hard. Trying to refocus. What in hell had happened?

“You! Who are you?”

Zoe flinched at the question. His silvery stare—no, make that his glare—became icy, but the heat inside her refused to be extinguished. In spite of using her usual centering meditation, she couldn’t stop staring at him, following the sculptured contours of his muscles along his stomach to where the draping of the fabric left the rest to her imagination. And, oh, was her imagination ready to party!

She was panting as she tore her gaze from the man to look around the temple. In the room’s center, surrounded by a shallow pool, was a huge statue of a man holding a trident. A dolphin curled around his right foot. She’d hate to tell Poseidon that he was the runner-up in the Greek god category. The man beside her put even the sea god to shame.

“Who are you?”

“Zoe.” She’d been relieved she could use her own name. Now she was doubly glad because being around this guy threatened to turn her brain to mush.

Strange. Usually only her psychic ability left her with this wrung-out feeling in her head. But she’d shut down those neurons after making a mess of her last JAG case. She didn’t trust her ability—or herself—any longer.

Wait a minute… The water, the kiss, the images that had filled her head…

A vision of two lovers. Their faces hidden from her. Their bodies entangled. She’d heard uneven breaths, soft cries of delight, eager moans as they moved together intimately. She felt like a voyeur in her own mind.

Dammit! How had those images entered her head? She wasn’t sure how, but she had a very good idea who had put them there.

“Who are you?” Zoe asked, scooting away awkwardly. She needed to put some space between her and Mr. Greek god. “What did you do to me?”

“My name is Drakon, and I did nothing to you. You should not be in this temple. Or kissing me.”

Zoe stood, frowning at the stains on her chiton. The linen was thin, and the water made it transparent. A damp imprint matched his pec and revealed too much of her right breast. Just what she needed. An ancient Greek wet T-shirt contest. She folded her arms in front of her.

“Look, Drakon, I don’t know what you’re up to, but stay out of my head and away from my lips.”

“You kissed me.” His gaze roamed up and down her.

“Yeah, right.” She put all her derision in those two words. “I need some directions, then you can get back to admiring your reflection.”

“That is not what I was doing.” His eyes became silver sparks as he stood and grabbed her right arm while balancing the bowl in his other hand. He was so tall that he loomed over her like Poseidon’s statue.

“Let me go,” she ordered. Guys had tried to use their height to intimidate her before. They’d learned it was a waste of time. Drakon needed to learn that, as well.

“I will release you when you tell me who you are.” His voice remained low and menacing. “Tell me why you are in danger.”

No way was she going to spill the truth. She grasped his wrist to dig her nails in. She didn’t as her mind filled with fiery sensation. The lovers. She wasn’t watching this time. The man’s hands were on her, eager to entice her as they lay close together. She tried, but couldn’t see his face. Who was he?

Then she didn’t think anymore. She ceded herself to sensation. His tongue as he explored her mouth. The knot of muscles across his chest pressing into her breasts. The hardness of him even lower.

Rising to one elbow, he ran his fingertips down her. Lightly and with a restraint that was incredibly sexy. She quivered. Her mouth slanted across his as their fingers wove together. He raised her hands over her head and held her captive. When he bent to run his lips along her neck, his rough skin burnished her naked thighs.

The moist meanderings of his tongue down her body became a delight, then a torment as he kept her beneath him. She wasn’t used to being controlled. She hated it and loved it at the same time. Each quick lick tantalized her.

As he slipped along her, he drew her hands down with him, but didn’t release them. She wriggled when his mouth found the slick heat between her legs. His tongue delved within her. She needed to touch him, but he wouldn’t release her hands. She was completely under his spell.

A low moan resonated. Had she moaned or had he? She didn’t care as waves of pleasure began to build within her. A tsunami rose, higher…higher…hot and hotter… Ecstasy began to consume her.

The scene splintered with a distant crash.

Zoe rocked on her feet, her knees barely holding her. Wait! She shouldn’t be on her feet, and the only thing that should be rocking was her world.

She looked around, trying to orient herself. Poseidon’s temple. How many times had she wished she could go to her ancestors’ homeland? She’d just never imagined a trip like this to Greece.

“Can you stand alone?” Drakon’s voice startled her.

Omigod! Had it been Drakon in that fantasy? She’d surrendered to a man without seeing his face. Had she left her brain in the twenty-first century?

Releasing her arm, Drakon cursed. His bowl was broken on the stone floor. Had its shattering torn apart the vision?

Zoe stared at him. “Did you do that? Putting…” She almost said movie. “Putting pictures in my head?”

“If you saw something, it was without my help.” He stretched to pick up the largest chunk of pottery. “I cannot see anything out of the ordinary now. Not even the danger to you.”

He ran a finger along the inside of the bowl. He must have been trying to scry in the water. That made sense in a temple dedicated to the god of the sea.

“Why,” she asked quietly, “do you think I’m in danger?”

“I have seen it in my visions.” His gaze was a mixture of ice and fire. “You are in the agora. You shout something wordless. A shadow rises behind you, ready to consume you. I am there, too, because it is my fate to defend you from that shadow.”

Her breath hissed between her teeth. She hadn’t expected him to say that. From other Time Raiders, she’d learned that myth was often based on fact. Had Poseidon sent Drakon a true vision?

As if she’d asked aloud, Drakon said, “I serve Poseidon, telling men who sail his seas when it is too perilous to sail. I know the signs pointing to danger, and they surround you. You must let me hide you in my brother-in-law’s house. In addition to my sister Charis, there are at least a half dozen women in the household. No one will notice you among them. You can stay there until Poseidon tells me it is safe for you again.”

“No.”

“What?” Anger tightened his face’s stern lines. “You will ignore a warning from a god?”

Zoe was tempted to say she could take care of herself. It’d be fun to take him down a peg or two by telling him that she was a former army captain, trained on multiple weapons and hand-to-hand self-defense. She couldn’t risk her mission. “I’ve got my own reasons to be in Athens, and if you don’t want to help me…”

He seized her arm again. “I am trying to help you. The danger to you is real, and it is deadly.”

Zoe drew her arm out of Drakon’s grip, wary of being tossed back into his vision. Her body quaked with unreleased need. If he hadn’t dropped the bowl just then…