She had come to learn he was a man no woman could ever completely possess. His love was an unknown challenge somewhere over the horizon, a mystery that beckoned with a siren only-he could hear. He was a man a woman desired for an impassioned affair but never married. She knew their relationship was fleeting; she fully intended to take advantage of every moment that was left to her until she awoke one day and found him gone in search of the enigma waiting beyond the next hill.
Lily sat against him, head on his shoulder. "What did the tag read?"
"Tag?"
"The one on the scroll you and Al seemed so interested in."
"A tantalizing clue to more artifacts," he said quietly, still staring into the distance.
"Where?"
"Under the sea. The scroll was labeled 'Recorded Shipwrecks with Valuable Cargoes." She looked up at him. "A map to underwater treasure."
"There is always treasure somewhere," he said almost distantly "And you're going to find it?"
He turned and smiled. "Never hurts to look. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam rarely gives me the time. I've yet to search the Brazilian jungles for the golden city of El Dorado."
She gave him an intuitive stare and then lay back, gazing at the fading stars. "I wonder where they're buried."
He slowly shook off the vision of sunken treasure and looked down.
"Who?"
"The ancient adventurers who helped Venator save the Lib collection."
He shook his head. "Junius Venator is a hard man to outguess. He could have buried his Byzantine comrades most anywhere between here and the river-"
She placed her hand gently on his head and drew him down to her level.
Their lips met and pressed tightly for several moments. A hawk spiraled above them in the orange sky, but seeing nothing appetizing, it winged south into Mexico. Lily's eyes opened and she pulled back, smiling coyly.
"Do you think they'd mind?"
Pitt looked at her curiously. "Mind what?"
"If we made love over their grave. They might very well be lying beneath us."
He rolled them both over until she was on her back and he was above, looking down into her eyes. Then his lips curled into a sly grin.
"I don't think they'd care. I know I certainly wouldn't."