Hunter’s body went still, then one hand slipped away from her. He found new flesh to touch, to caress. Her breath came in with a small whimper of pleasure and need.
“You want to find the artifacts,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Will it be safe?”
“The villagers could have killed me at any time while we climbed out of the cenote and walked back to the compound,” she said simply. “We were watched every step of the way.”
“I know.” The memory still could make his skin crawl.
“Philip was right about the cult of Kawa’il. It existed. It exists now. There is a sixth codex. I can’t just walk away from that.”
“I didn’t think you would.” Hunter’s voice was neutral.
“After we’re married—”
He turned her swiftly and kissed her like a man desperate for warmth.
“What?” she asked when she could talk again. “You asked me to marry you when we were climbing out of the cenote and I said yes.”
“All I heard was a cussword when you stubbed your toe.”
“Which time?”
He smiled.
“Just for the record,” she said, “yes”—she kissed his chin—“and yes”—she nipped the corner of his mouth—“and yes”—she licked his lips—“and—”
Whatever she was going to say was lost in a long, sensual tangle of tongues and breath and need.
Finally he lifted his mouth just enough to say, “Good and good and good and good.”
“Can you spend part of your time on the Reyes Balam lands with me? Celia agreed to fund the digs and pay me more than enough for—”
He shut her up by kissing her again. “I already talked to my uncles. I can work from the estate or from the moon, so long as they don’t lose their Mexico expert. And they expect to meet you real soon.”
Squirming until she could reach his shirt and begin unbuttoning it, Lina murmured in his ear, “Are you actually volunteering to be my bodyguard and site artist?”
“I’ll guard every sweet inch of your body.”
She smiled. “How about the artist part?”
“Can I draw you naked?”
“Only if mosquito netting is involved.”
He laughed softly. “I can work with that.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
THE WRITTEN, PHONETIC VERSION OF THE MAYAN LANGUAGE is a work in progress. Scholars disagree about when or whether to use apostrophes to indicate a vocal hitch in a word. C and K are often used interchangeably. Names are spelled one way by one expert source and a different way by the next. About all I could find consistent agreement on was that “Maya” refers to the people, their customs, their artifacts, everything but their language. That is called “Mayan.”
I also was confronted with many choices as to accent marks. If a word is commonly understood and printed in the United States without any accents—for example, Mexico, Cancun, the Yucatan—I didn’t use accents, even though they are used in Mexico.
Some Maya scholars agree there is a God K. Some don’t.
Kawa’il, his cult, and his artifacts are my own invention.
About the Author
ELIZABETH LOWELL’s acclaimed suspense novels include the New York Times bestsellers Death Echo, Blue Smoke and Murder, Innocent as Sin, The Wrong Hostage, Always Time to Die, The Color of Death, Die in Plain Sight, Running Scared, and Moving Target, as well as four books featuring the Donovan family: Amber Beach, Jade Island, Pearl Cove, and Midnight in Ruby Bayou. Lowell has more than thirty million books in print. She lives in Nevada with her husband, with whom she writes mystery novels under a pseudonym.
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Also by Elizabeth Lowell
Death Echo
Blue Smoke and Murder
Innocent as Sin
The Wrong Hostage
Whirlpool
Always Time to Die
The Secret Sister
The Color of Death
Death Is Forever
Die in Plain Sight
Running Scared
Moving Target
Midnight in Ruby Bayou
Pearl Cove
Jade Island
Amber Beach
Credits
Cover design by Mary Schuck
Cover photographs by Marta Bevacqua/Trevillion Images
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BEAUTIFUL SACRIFICE. Copyright © 2012 by Two of a Kind, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-162986-0
EPub Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780062101228
12 13 14 15 16 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Author’s Note
About the Author
Also by Elizabeth Lowell
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
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