Jewel of Atlantis

doesn't actually exist? Not the way you think, at least.'

Now he stiffened, his entire body tightening around her. 'What do you mean?' His tone wasn't angry, merely hardened with curiosity.

The darkness was so thick, she didn't try to turn and glimpse his expression. 'What if it's not a gemstone?'

He remained silent for a long while, and his hand began kneading her hip, sending ripples of pleasure through her blood. 'You wouldn't be asking me these questions without reason,' he said. 'So, let me ask you a question. If Dunamis isn't a gemstone, what is it?'

A cold sweat broke over her body. She'd just had to get her mind off Gray, hadn't she? Now look what she'd done. How could she answer him without admitting the very thing she didn't want him to know? 'I wish everyone would leave it alone. Perhaps any hands, even those of your government, are the wrong hands to own it.'

'That's a chance I'm willing to take.'

How she'd feared, and still feared, that very answer. 'You never answered me,' she said softly. 'Would you still destroy it?'

'I can't answer your question until you answer mine.' He kissed the back of her neck, his lips lingering over the sensitized cord of her shoulder.

She almost cried out in relief and need at the first brush of his lips, everything forgotten except him. Except Gray. There was no reason to keep her mind off his loving if he planned to give it to her. 'Do that again,' she whispered.

'I shouldn't. I've tried not to. But I can smell you, smell your sweetness, and I'm tired of trying to keep myself in check. Tired of thinking all the reasons not to.' Lightning brightened their tent for the briefest of seconds, blending light with shadows. 'You lied to me earlier, you know,' he said, his fingers inching up and cupping her breast.

Her nipples hardened. She arched her back, arched into him. 'Mmm, I most assuredly did not.' 'You most assuredly did lie to me, Prudence.'

'I didn't.' She groaned as he licked the edge of her ear. 'I swear I didn't.'

'You didn't bathe naked. Don't worry, though,' he said, his voice husky and rich. 'I can help you fix that.'

'Right now?' she asked breathlessly, trying not to beg. 'You're going to touch me? Like before?' 'Do you want me to?'

'Yes. Please.' Her tongue flicked out in an attempt to lave her parched lips with moisture.

'I've been meaning to ask.' He slid his hand lower, lower still, until his fingertips played at the hem of her shirt. 'Why are you still a virgin, sweetheart? What were you waiting for? Marriage?'

'You,' she admitted on a moan. 'I was waiting for you.'

Gray's cock jerked in reaction to her words. For hours, he'd been waging a desperate war—touch her/don't touch her.

Guess who won?

He'd been hyperaware of her every move, every sigh. Desire hammered through him. Hell, when had it ever left? He craved her like a drug, and he was helpless to resist. He was becoming addicted to her, wanting her constantly, needing to mark her as his, to watch her when she came. To hear his name on her lips.

Every male instinct he possessed wanted every man who came into contact with her to know that she belonged to him.

Being with this woman right now was a mistake. He'd told himself a thousand times. If it weren't for the storm, they'd be out in the forest right now, headed for the Temple of Cronus. But it was storming, they weren't in the forest, and at last sinking inside her would be the most pleasurable mistake of his life.

He wouldn't bite her. He wouldn't let himself. If the need came upon him, he'd control it, no matter how uncontrollable it seemed. At least, that's what he told himself to ease his conscience.

'If you don't want me to finish this, say so now.' He ground himself against the cleft of her ass. 'Once I start, I'm not going to stop. Not this time.'

'I want you more than I've ever wanted anything else in my life. I won't let you stop.'

He flipped her over, sucking in a breath of salt, foliage and aroused woman, and meshed his lips against hers. She opened her mouth and his tongue dove inside, their teeth clashing together with the force of his entry. He cupped her jawline, forcing himself to be gentle when all he wanted to do was brand her. Hard. Fast.

His need for her grew with every second that passed, intensifying dangerously. Her palms caressed his naked chest, flattened against his nipples, then locked around his neck.

'I love your heat and hardness,' she gasped out. 'Do you think I'll ever get enough?'

'No, never. You taste so good.' Sweat dripped from his brow, and his skin pulled tight, urging him to do more. Begging him to increase their pace. He traced his hands over her shoulders, her back, her breasts, pinching her nipples.

She moaned in pleasure-pain and hooked her legs around his waist, cradling his erection as intimately as possible while still dressed. Her tongue continued its battle with his. Her fingers traveled all over him.

'I want to be naked,' she panted.

'I want you that way, too.' He nipped at her chin, at the corner of her mouth, all the while rubbing against her. 'How do you do this to me? How do you make me need you so badly?'

Sheer pleasure sizzled in her veins when he hit the exact place she needed him. 'Again,' she gasped. 'There.'

He drew back, pushed forward. This time they both gasped at the headiness.

'Sometimes... when I saw you in my visions with other women... ' She lifted her head and sucked one of his nipples, reveling in the male taste of his skin. 'I pretended you were—' she licked her way to the other side and sucked '—with me instead.'

A raw moan tore from him. Another beam of lightning exploded in the sky, chasing away the darkness for a split second, and in that second, their eyes met. Blue ocean water against warrior steel. Fire and passion blazed from his expression.

He stared down at her, and his brow furrowed. 'We've kissed like this before,' he said, his voice strained. 'Not in the tub, but—'

'In your mind. Yes.' She reached for him, wanting to jerk his mouth back to hers, but he gripped her hands and pinned them over her head.

'I thought I'd dreamed it, but you were actually there. We fought a demon and a vampire, and then we kissed. It really happened.'

'Yes,' she said, never breaking their gaze. What did any of this matter now? She needed him desperately and didn't know if she could stand it if he refused her. In these last few days she'd been aroused one too many times without reaching fulfillment. 'Does that upset you?'

'Hell, no. I just—thank you.'

A shiver raced through her, vibrating into him. 'You're welcome.'

'You're the most beautiful thing, sweetheart.' She loved him, he realized, shock still hammering through him. He'd known she desired him but had failed to realize she'd given him her heart. Until now. When she'd entered his mind that day he'd been injured, he'd read her thoughts and she'd been unable to hide her love for him.

Love... Far from making him want to leave her, Gray found himself irrevocably drawn to her, needing her so much more.

He wanted to hear her say it. He had to hear her say it.

He bent his head to kiss her neck when the scent of her sweet, sweet blood wafted to his nostrils. He gulped. The need for blood, her blood, had awoken.

He needed to slow things down, bring it to a controllable level while he pleasured her so thoroughly that loving him was the only thing she knew. The only thing he knew.

He delved his hand along the curve of her hip, along the length of her long leg, then up her thigh until he reached the hem of her shirt. Up... up... he lifted the material. Slowly—it nearly killed him to go slow. He tantalized her nerve endings with barely there touches, and when the material was bunched at her waist, he paused. Silence