to trickle down his cheek and onto his ear.
As tuned to him as she was, Grace sensed his torment. She shifted to face him, her features alight with concern. 'Darius?' she said softly. 'It's okay. Whatever it is, it will be okay.'
Another tear came, then another. He couldn't stop them, and wasn't sure he wanted to. 'I miss them,' he said brokenly. 'They were my life.'
She understood immediately. 'Tell me about them. Tell me the good things.'
'My sisters were like sunlight, starlight and moonlight.' Their images filled his mind once again, and this time he nearly choked from pain. And yet… the pain was not the fearsome destroyer he had expected, but a reminder that he lived and loved. 'Every night they created a small fire and would dance around the flames. They were so proud of their ability and were determined to one day create the biggest fire Atlantis had ever seen.'
'They didn't fear being burned?'
'Dragons welcome and thrive in such heat. I wish you could have seen them. They were all that is good and right.'
'What were their names?' she asked softly.
'Katha, Kandace and Kallia,' he said. With an animalistic growl, he slammed his fist into the side of the mattress. 'Why did they have to die? Travelers tortured and killed my sisters as if they were garbage.'
Grace wrapped her arms around him and laid her head in the hollow of his neck. There was nothing she could say to ease his anguish, so she held him more tightly.
He rubbed at his stinging eyes. 'They did not deserve such a death. They did not deserve what they suffered.'
'I know, I know,' she cooed.
He buried his face in the hollow of her neck and cried.
At last, Darius mourned.
CHAPTER 20
Grace riffled through the box of Kevlar vests she'd picked up downstairs. Darius knelt on the other side and pinched one of the heavy black vests between his fingers. His lips curled with distaste.
She watched him. His eyes shone with vitality, alive with gold, glistening with contentment. They had been like that since last night and hadn't changed. Hadn't even flickered with blue. The fine lines around his eyes and mouth had relaxed, as well, and there was an ease about him that warmed her heart. Oh, he still possessed that dangerous aura. Danger would always be a part of him. But the coldness, the hopelessness, were both gone.
How she loved this man.
'Try one on,' she said.
Frowning, he tugged the material over his shoulders. She leaned over and worked the Velcro for him. 'It's too tight,' he said.
'If a bullet smacks into you, you'll wish it was even tighter.'
He snorted. 'How can these do any good?'
'Maybe you'll understand better after I show you how to use a gun.' She raced to her kitchen and dug out the gun she'd stuffed into one of the drawers. She doubled-checked to make sure no bullets rested in the cylinder.
'This is a revolver,' she explained when she stood behind Darius. Wrapping her arms around him, she placed the cold metal in his hands and curled his fingers in the correct places. 'Hold it just like this.'
His shaking fingers squeezed.
'Gently,' she said, noticing how unsteady he suddenly seemed.
He tossed her a glance over his shoulder. 'Who taught you these skills?'
'Alex. He said a woman should know how to protect herself.' Fighting a wave of sadness, Grace steadied Darius's wrists by locking her palms underneath them. He might be more relaxed and at ease than ever before, but he battled that damn weakness and she didn't like it. The only time he seemed to recover his full strength was when he was sexually excited.
Grace wet her lips and purposefully meshed her breasts into the hard ridges of his back. 'You want to keep your finger on the trigger and pick a target. Any target. Do you have one?'
'Oh, yes.' His voice grew stronger and deeper. If she allowed her hands to slide inside his pants, she knew she would find him hard and thick.
'Good,' she said. 'Aim down the sight on the barrel.'
Pause. Then, 'What?'
She blew on his neck. 'Aim down the sight on the barrel,' she repeated.
Another pause. 'How can I concentrate when your body is pressed to mine?'
In response, her fingers tickled up his arms. If sexual arousal kept him strong, she'd use everything in her power to arouse him. 'Do you want to learn how to shoot or not?' she whispered huskily.
'I do,' he ground out.
'Is your target in sight?'
He felt the heat of her, Darius thought, the sizzle of her, throughout his entire body. Yes, he had his target in sight. The couch. Exactly where he wanted her, naked and open.
He flicked a glance to the window. The sun arrived hours ago, vanquishing the binding spell. He should have left for his homeland. He possessed everything he needed from the surface. Atlantis called him, and it was long past time he destroyed her invaders.
But he wasn't ready to say goodbye to Grace.
He couldn't take her with him. She would be safest here, and her safety mattered more to him than anything else.
When this whole mess with the Argonauts ended, he would come back for her. He would whisk this woman, his woman, his wife -gods, he liked the sound of that-to Atlantis. They were going to stay in bed for days, weeks, perhaps months, and they were going to make love every way possible, then invent some new ways.
'Target in sight,' he said.
'Squeeze the trigger,' she said.
He easily recalled how she had squeezed him. How her inquisitive fingers had slipped beneath the hem of his shirt and skimmed the taut flesh of his lower abdomen. He ground his teeth together.
'Darius?'
'Hmm?' he bit out.
'Squeeze the trigger.' She blew in his ear.
He squeezed. He heard a click .
'If the couch were human, and this a loaded gun, a bullet would have shot out and punctured skin, causing grave injury,' Grace the temptress said. The woman who had sneaked past his defenses and infiltrated his senses. The woman who had captured his heart. 'The lining inside these vests stops bullets and keeps them from entering bodies.'
Darius spun, keeping her arms locked around him. The gun fell from his hands. He wrapped his fingers around her wrists and directed her aim lower.
'I have another target in mind,' he said. And he kept his 'target' busy for the next hour.
Sated and redressed, Grace tucked her gun in the waist of her jeans, filled her pockets with bullets and helped Darius gather the remaining vests. With that done, they squared off, facing each other. Neither moved.
'It's time to go,' he finally said.
'I'm ready,' she said with false confidence. She raised her chin, not removing her gaze from him, but daring him to contradict her.
He regarded her silently for an inexorable moment, his expression blank. 'You will remain here, Grace.'
She bit back a scowl. She'd known he would do this, but knowing didn't stop the anger, the hurt. 'Wrong,' she said. 'Alex is my brother, and I'll help find him.'
'Your safety comes first.'
'I'm safest with you.' Her eyes narrowed, showing him the first sign of her increasing ire. 'Besides, I'm your
