Grandfather and had stolen all of his lands and money, they didn’t care about a couple of kids all that much, I guess.”
“Where was your mother?” Christophe’s voice was unbearably gentle.
“She died when Declan was born.” She saw a reflection of her own grief in his eyes and realized that his empathy and sympathy ran far deeper than the surface, since his own past had been visited by the same horrible tragedy. “She left the house in trust for us through Hopkins. She knew enough before she died to realize that Grandfather would find a way to steal it out from underneath us if she didn’t.”
“So you became the Scarlet Ninja, and you’ve spent your lifetime stealing back everything they took from you,” Christophe said, touching her cheek. “But you give it all away. How can you possibly be real?”
She looked deep into his eyes, and everyone else in the room vanished from her awareness. Only he and she remained, captured in a crystalline moment of perfectly shared understanding. “I feel that way about you,” she whispered. “It’s like you stepped out of my dream of a hero and came to life just for me.”
Someone cleared his throat and the moment was broken. She raised her chin and looked, in turn, into every pair of eyes at the table. “I have made a name for the Scarlet Ninja. A thief, true, but one who preys on the evil and the vile. Well, to be honest, occasionally, I borrow things just for fun and to keep the authorities guessing.”
“The Raphael?” Christophe grinned at her.
“Yes.” She sighed. “It’s on the schedule to be returned next month. I’m really going to miss that painting. Saint George is a kind of hero to me.”
“We have a painting of his dragon around here somewhere,” Alaric said casually. “I think the dragon lived a very long life.”
Fiona opened her mouth, but then closed it again. No. Later. She was
“But the sword, Vanquish? You planned to return that?”
“No, actually. I have some guilt about that, but I did plan to provide a perfect copy, or at least the best I could devise, for the display. It might not even have been noticed for a very long time. But so many people are starving right now, thanks to the worst unemployment rate we’ve ever had. So many are homeless, thanks to the vampires claiming ancient homesteads and tangling property up in the courts. People need help, and the sale of that sword was going to fund a huge number of programs.”
“Including the whales,” Christophe reminded her.
She blushed. “No, that was my personal money, remember? I only use the Scarlet Ninja’s money for humanitarian causes. I have several animal charities that Fiona’s Friends, my personal charity, supports.”
“Fiona is a very successful children’s book author,” Christophe told the rest of them.
Riley smiled. “I know. She’s going to autograph a book for His Royal Drooliness. I’m so excited to have her paint in the gardens here.”
Alaric groaned for some reason, but said nothing.
“Thank you. I’m very honored and hope to have the chance to do that someday. But right now, I need to focus on getting my name cleared. The Scarlet Ninja stands for something. I’ve been a symbol of hope to a lot of hopeless people. I’m not going to let these thieves destroy that by portraying me as a murderer.”
“We’ll help ,” Christophe said.
“If it doesn’t interfere with our retrieval of the Siren. That is our clear priority,” Alaric said.
Christophe slowly shook his head. “My priorities seem to have shifted. I will retrieve the Siren, but I will also help Fiona clear her name. I hope you’ll all help me, but I’m doing this no matter what your decision.”
“We cannot let you have the Siren, Fiona,” Conlan said. “Your English queen only had the gem on loan, whether or not she knew it. The gem has waited more than eleven thousand years to return to us, and so it shall.”
“I understand,” she said hastily. “I wouldn’t do anything that might harm you or Atlantis. Anyway, the diamond Christophe gave me will certainly fund my programs for more than a year.”
“The diamond?” Conlan’s face was twitching, as if he was trying not to laugh. “You gave her a diamond?”
“It was mine to give,” Christophe muttered.
“Oh, my friend. It’s going to be an interesting journey for you.” Conlan lost the battle with himself and started laughing.
“It won’t be easy,” Christophe warned her, ignoring his prince.
“I hate to sound like a walking cliché, but nothing worthwhile ever is,” she replied.
“Then we’re done here,” Conlan said, rising. “Riley and I have a baby to feed. Christophe, why don’t you show our guest some of Atlantis before you have to return?”
“Just what I was thinking,” Christophe said.
“Thank you. All of you,” Fiona told them. “It’s good to feel like I finally have allies.”
“Oh, the more the merrier, certainly,” Alaric said darkly. “Will there be more diapers? I love diapers.”
Riley burst out laughing. “Ignore him. He gets a little moody sometimes.”
As they all filed out of the room, Christophe pulled Fiona to him for a hug. “It’s all going to work out.”
She looked into his lovely green eyes and smiled. “I know. After all, what could defeat a team made up of an Atlantean warrior and a Scottish ninja?”
Chapter 26
Christophe watched Fiona as she wandered through the palace and the grounds, exclaiming over and over in wonder like a child. His facial muscles felt strained from the unfamiliar smiles. Everything held for her the joy of discovery, from the tapestries on the walls to the throne room to the kitchens. Even the taste of her first Atlantean blushberries, which she savored so sensuously that it made his cock harden in his pants.
He could tell by the way her eyes flew open and her cheeks turned pink that she remembered exactly where she’d heard the fruit’s name before.
“Oh! You said—”
“Yes, I said,” he agreed, stalking her around one of the smaller garden fountains. “I’d like to say it again. Would you like to make love in Atlantis?”
“Here?” She looked around, almost as if she were considering it, but then she shook her head. “No, of course not. What if someone came along and saw us?”
“They’d be jealous?”
Her lips curved. “Funny, but no.”
“I was thinking my rooms, Princess.”
“Don’t call me that. There are too many princesses in our lives. Riley and now Maeve. It’s just odd.”
“Neither of them are
“Your rooms.”
They didn’t run, as much as he would have liked to, but walked at a barely more than normal rate of speed up the staircase and through the hallways of the palace, until they came to the warriors’ wing and threw open the door to Christophe’s suite of rooms.
“What do you think?” He figured it wouldn’t be very impressive to her. After all, she lived in a mansion, and he only had a few rooms. But they were pretty nice rooms, after all. He did live in a palace. The view from the balcony was stupendous.
She ran across the room and opened the glass-and-crystal-paned doors. “Oh, Christophe. This is absolutely magnificent.”
He followed more slowly, enjoying the view of her lovely round bottom as she bent over the waist-high barrier and looked down. “The gardens are lovely from here, too. What a wonderful place to live. You are so lucky.”
He fitted his body against hers from behind and put his arms around her. “You live in a mansion, my ninja. You’re pretty lucky yourself.”
“We survived a vampire attack, too,” she reminded him. “We’re both pretty lucky.”
