Time Raiders: The Greek Lover

Jocelyn Kelley

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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The first thing Zoe Rousakis sees after traveling through time to ancient Greece is a naked man. Drakon, a servant of Poseidon, has a body to rival the gods and a kiss that commands her to surrender every part of herself to him. When she’s with him, Zoe’s psychic powers fill her mind with enticingly erotic images. But her abilities have already cost her one mission, and she can’t risk being distracted by a man this time.

Yet how can she keep Drakon at bay when his own dark visions show him that Zoe is in danger—and that is his destiny to save her?

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Prologue

Fifty thousand years ago, after discovering that human females carried a nascent genetic potential that might one day develop into the ability to star navigate, the Pleiadian Council planted a dozen pieces of a bronze disk across the Earth, hidden in darkness until mankind advanced enough to travel through time and find them.

And then, out of the ashes of the mystery-shrouded Roswell Alien crash in 1947 arose a secret research project called Anasazi. Its improbable goal: learn to use the recovered alien technology for the purposes of time travel. General Beverly Ashton was the last to command this project before a dozen time travelers were inexplicably lost and the project disbanded.

However, the recent discovery of an ancient journal, known as the Ad Astra, has given Professor Athena Carswell the information she needs to begin sending modern time travelers back through human history in search of the twelve pieces of the Pleiadian medallion which, when fully reassembled, will send a signal to the Council indicating mankind is ready to be introduced to the rest of the galactic community.

Project Anasazi has secretly been reactivated, and General Ashton, now retired, and Professor Carswell are continuing the project’s work. They are carefully recruiting and training a team of military men and women to make the dangerous time jumps. But threats loom on the horizon, both from humans, who would see the project ended—or worse, steal the work and use it for nefarious ends—and from the Centauri Federation, which will do anything to stop humans from learning how to navigate the stars….

Chapter One

The first thing Zoe Rousakis saw when she emerged through time into a Grecian temple was the naked man. In the smoky light of the oil lamps, he knelt and cradled a shallow black bowl in his two strong hands. She could see that his sleek skin was pulled taut over firm muscles that literally glistened.

She wished she was that bowl so that she could feel his oiled skin against her own. She longed for his intense gaze to look at her as raptly as he stared into the bowl. Warmth surged through her, unbidden and unwanted.

This wasn’t the time for her hormones to go into overdrive. Zoe was on a mission to find a piece of the star medallion, and she couldn’t mess up. Not again. Not like the last time when an innocent person had suffered and she’d been forced to resign her army commission and give up the law. If she failed now, the whole world would pay.

Once all twelve pieces of the medallion were found, Earth could take its place among other worlds. The Earth women who possessed the Navigator gene would learn to send space ships great distances in little time. It was the galaxy’s only hope against the Centaurians who controlled interstellar trade. Seven pieces had been found so far. The most recently recovered medallion fragment suggested another was connected to Agnodice, an Athenian midwife. But where in the city was Agnodice?

And if the fragment was here, she knew the Centaurians would be, too, determined to halt Earth’s Time Raiders from recovering the pieces that made up the whole medallion.

Zoe wasn’t sweltering, so it must be winter. She glanced past the temple’s huge columns. In the distance, she saw another building ringed with columns. The Parthenon! Not in ruins, but with its friezes brightly painted and aglow in the late afternoon sun.

She wasn’t here to sightsee. The sooner she located Agnodice and the missing fragment, the less chance there was of her polluting the timeline. Professor Carswell could fix small incursions, but Time Raiders needed to be cautious. First things first… She was a woman. She could ask for directions.

“Excuse me, sir?” she called to the man holding the bowl. She thanked the technology that let her speak in ancient Greek and gave her information about her surroundings. Otherwise, she’d be lost in fourth century BC Athens.

He didn’t acknowledge her. He continued to stare into it.

She walked toward him, and her long dress flowed around her ankles. A chiton, her mind supplied. The Greek dress consisted of a square of yellow fabric pinned at the shoulders and belted at the waist with a cloth girdle decorated with embroidered flowers. Her fingers touched the ESC band on her upper left arm, hidden beneath her sleeve. Once she had the fragment, she could push the gem in its center and it was bye-bye, Athens.

Zoe saw, as she got closer, that the man wasn’t completely naked. He wore an undyed garment wrapped around his waist. It dropped to his thighs, leaving his muscular legs and feet bare. Disappointment pulsed through her.

“Excuse me?” she asked, a bit louder. Then a lot louder.

He ignored her.

Hey, she wanted to shout, I’m trying to save the world here.

She squatted beside him. Now so near to him that she could smell the clean fragrance of his skin, she was awed by the breadth of his shoulders.

Focus! she told herself.

He hadn’t stopped staring at that bowl. What was he looking at?

Zoe shifted to see what he found so fascinating. It put her at an odd angle. She started to tip over and had to put her hand out to steady herself. Her fingers touched his and the bowl.

There was no transition. One second, she was trying not to fall on her face; the next, she was falling through water. She couldn’t tell up from down. Images flashed into her head, like underwater lightning. Where was the surface? She felt like she was drowning.

Zoe flung out her arms and felt herself being tugged against a hard chest. The man who’d been looking into the bowl. Now his silver-gray eyes were aimed at her. He looked astonished and annoyed at the same time.

He pressed his mouth over hers. If she’d had any breath left, his kiss would have taken it away. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was a command that she surrender every part of herself—body and soul. His touch drew in the watery storm so it surged around them.

She no longer needed air. She needed him. Her fingers slid across his face, savoring his unyielding jaw as she pressed her hips to his. He explored every inch of her lips, but that was not enough. Not for her, and clearly not for him. His tongue parted her lips, then slid into her mouth to explore its secrets. Each touch awakened a desire that seemed to be both new and familiar at the same time. Like she’d longed for this man all her life. As her fingers threaded up into his silken curls, she wondered if she could drown in pleasure.

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.

Chapter Two

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…

Focus!

“Thanks for the warning,” she said, backing away. “Gotta go and—”

Something crunched under her foot. Sorrow flickered across Drakon’s face, and she knew what she’d stepped on. A piece of his scrying bowl. She reached down. The second her fingers closed around the piece of broken pottery, another image began to form in her mind. She recognized the feeling of a door silently opening. This vision came from her own psychometric ability that allowed her to see someone else just by touching what they’d touched. She’d promised Professor Carswell that she would allow her ability to come forward, but the thought had been disturbing. What if she made another mistake by misunderstanding what she saw?

But she couldn’t be confused this time. A woman cried out in the pain of childbirth. Her eyes turned toward Zoe. They were the same odd color as Drakon’s. Was she part of his family or was it coincidence?

A tall woman, calm and assured, crouched by the bed and gripped the pregnant woman’s hand. When the pregnant woman’s face contorted with pain, the tall woman held a shallow bowl to her lips. Drakon’s black bowl! The pregnant woman drank, clutching the bowl like a lifeline, and the tall woman moved to help guide the baby out.

Drakon grabbed the pottery shard. Again their hands touched. His rugged, warm fingers surrounded hers. Before she could savor his touch, the women’s voices became distinct.

“Charis, push,” the small woman murmured. “Let your son be born.”

Zoe yelped as Drakon yanked the piece from her hand. The vision vanished. His scowl suggested he wished she would, too.

Charis was the woman giving birth. Charis was the name of his sister, the one he wanted her to hide her with? Maybe this connection explained why Zoe had landed in Poseidon’s temple.

“Are you sure Charis will be willing to have a guest,” Zoe asked carefully, “when she’s just had a baby?”

“How do you know that?” His frown dug ruts into his forehead.

“News of a healthy son spreads quickly.” She hoped she’d chosen the right answer.

She must have because Drakon nodded. “My sister is generous of heart, and she heeds the gods. Tonight, the family is celebrating the baby’s arrival. Nobody will take note of you going in, but not coming out.”

Zoe wasn’t going to let him lock her away like a princess in a tower, but she needed to talk with Charis. The tall woman in the vision was a midwife. If that wasn’t Agnodice, maybe Charis could help Zoe find her.

“All right,” she said. “I’ll go to your sister’s house.”

He gripped her chin. Any warmth had disappeared from his face. “Why are you changing your mind?”

“Isn’t it a woman’s prerogative?”

His frown warned that he didn’t believe her. Why should he when she was lying?

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