Hour of the Dragon - Heather Killough-Walden Page 0,133

none of the greenery was plastic. She just – knew.

She also knew without a doubt that she and Ares were alone in this magnificent underground palace. Completely and totally alone.

Annaleia winced when she felt the pendant that was still clutched tightly in the palm of her hand bite into her palm just a little. She blinked and uncurled her fingers to glance down at the small medallion of white gold.

She had meant to simply look around, find out where she was, and then hit Antares with the boat load of questions she’d had boiling in her brain. Like, what the hell this pendant was for, and what was in the other pouch, and what the spell Jarrod had so obviously given to Antares was meant to do.

But it was basic common sense that when you were taken some place new against your will, or relatively anyway, you gained your bearings first. You did a quick scan to look for weapons and escape routes and locked doors and breakable glass, and then you took it from there.

So she looked around and saved her questions.

But she wasn’t expecting… this. The sound of the waterfall, so soothing and relaxing, was like a salve on her frayed nerves. As was the soft recessed lighting everywhere, their shed warmth as mesmerizing as Ares’ candy closet. And now Anna was feeling rather distracted.

She was disheveled, and she knew she had something very important to deal with. But that hot tub down there was admittedly pulling on her in a nearly inexorable way. And of course it would be so easy to just fix herself a drink there in that water-immersed bar in that little nook in the pool she hadn’t seen before. Then she could saunter on over to the hot, therapeutic water and slowly sink in, letting it glide and ripple its healing way all over her naked body….

From right behind her with his lips to her ear, Ares said, “I knew you would find that appealing, Raindrop.”

Anna flushed warm. She was still feeling weak, and she knew that inside – deep inside – something bad was happening to her. It was fatal. Fatal. It was just that at that very moment, she just couldn’t seem to care. Something else was happening to her. She felt for lack of a better word, unaccountably uninhibited. She felt sensual. And suddenly it didn’t bother her at all that she still felt weak. If anything, that hint of helplessness somehow only added to the prurience of whatever was waking up inside her.

“Where are we, Ares?” she asked softly, all anger at his unfair attack against Sterling completely dissipated and replaced with awe-inspired breathlessness.

“This is my home,” he told her, again his words whispering across her ear. She felt his presence behind her, tall and solid and warm.

She flushed again, and this time the effect reached lower. She swallowed when moisture gathered on her tongue. “I thought your home in the mortal realm was in Greece.”

“One of them is,” he said and she could hear the smile in his voice. “I have more than twenty homes in the mortal realm.”

She thought about that, her glassy eyes still raking over everything in the cave, constantly finding something new to admire. However, she did not fail to recognize that he never said they were in the mortal realm right now. She could have asked. But right now, it was yet another thing she couldn’t care about.

It wasn’t like her to let such details slide, she knew. But it was happening anyway.

Another little pang in her palm reminded her once more of the pendants, and before she could forget again, Anna asked, “Ares, what is the spell Jarrod gave you?” Will it save me? That was what she had wanted to ask, but she was having a hard time pushing the words past her lips. Saying them out loud meant they were real. She really needed saving.

She’d been expecting Sterling to explain the pendants. She’d been waiting for any one of the three men with her to tell her that they had a plan and that it was going to save her life. Everything was going to be okay.

But then Ares had punched Sterling, and… the conversation had been effectively over. Ares had once again grabbed Annaleia and absconded with her, this time through a wordless transport.

It doesn’t matter, Anna, she told herself firmly, a smidge of her old resolve returning. Ask the important question!

He hadn’t answered her initial question anyway, so