Atlantis Rising

and leave, but Ven wasn't much for subtlety.

'Aren't you going to introduce me, brother?' Ven stood there, no sign of movement, grinning at him like a fool.

Conlan opened his mouth to smack him down, but Riley surprised him by stepping out from behind his back. 'Look, Tarzan, I may be embarrassed, but it's not like you need to protect me from your own brother, right?'

She walked toward Ven, who'd snorted out a laugh at 'Tarzan.' She walked to him, shoulders squared, as if trying to act nonchalant. 'I'm Riley.'

When she held out her hand toward his brother, Conlan took an involuntary step forward, a growl starting low in his throat, before he caught himself.

He snapped his head up and stared at Ven, shocked by his own reaction. From the look on Ven's face, Conlan had surprised his brother, too.

Conlan dug his fingers into his thighs, fighting for control. What was happening to him?

Expression wary, Ven glanced away from Conlan and took Riley's hand and gently shook it. 'You can call me Ven.'

Then Ven did something that surprised the hell out of Conlan. He bowed deeply, unsheathing his daggers in a flowing motion and crossing them over his chest. 'My service and my honor are yours, Lady Sunlight, for your defense of my brother and prince.'

Riley snapped her head around to stare at Conlan, horror in her eyes. 'Prince? Did he say prince!'

Ven straightened. 'Oops. I thought you told her, Conlan, since we're taking her home to study.'

The sparkle of Riley's emotions sharpened and then snapped shut inside of Conlan's head.

She fisted her hands on her hips. 'Prince?' she repeated, voice going dangerously low. 'Taking who home to Atlantis? And study what, exactly?'

Ven's lips quivered, as he evidently tried to keep from laughing. Conlan grimly vowed to make him pay, in a large and serious way. The King's Vengeance wasn't above getting his ass kicked by his brother, even now.

'Oops again,' Ven repeated. 'Later, dude. I can see you two have things to talk about.'

As Ven backed out of the room and closed the door behind him, Conlan sighed with real regret. 'Any chance we can go back to the kissing part?' he asked, trying for his best innocent expression.

She narrowed her eyes. 'Start. Talking.'

He sighed again. 'Yeah. I didn't think so.'

Chapter 14

Riley backed around the bed again, needing to put space between herself and Conlan. Or, should she say, Prince Conlan.

Prince Conlan. Holy Atlantean royalty. What had she gotten herself into this time? And why did he have to smell so good? Like spices and ocean and pure, unadulterated man?

Between his delicious scent, that unbelievable body, and his sensual voice, she should have known he was too good to be human. Heck, her last date had been a lawyer who had way more brains than muscles.

Not that she didn't think Conlan had brains. She'd been inside his mind and caught a glimpse of fierce intelligence. Most of what he said demonstrated logic and an analytical aptitude. But when he touched her, well, logic went right out the window. Right out both of their windows, to stretch a metaphor clear out of shape.

'After a decade of living with shape-shifters and vampires who pretty much walked right out of the myths and legends and into me streets—heck, into Congress—the idea of Atlantis isn't as hard to believe as it might have been,' she admitted. 'Plus, there's that nifty trick you did with the water. Makes sense that an Atlantean would have power over water, right?'

He smiled that slow, dangerous smile, and she rushed on before she could get distracted. 'So, do you talk to fish? And what about the gills? Got 'em? If yes, where? I mean, are you… um, do you have… normal parts?'

He blinked, then started laughing again as the burn climbed up her chest to her face. 'You never say the expected, do you?' he asked.

Then he smiled and raised his hands, palms up. A glowy blue-green light emanated from both of them and sparkled up and out, around and around, spiraling in a cascade of light around the room and then through the door into the bathroom.

In seconds, the leading edge of the spiral of light returned to the bedroom, but with one startling difference. The light swirled in a whirling tunnel of water. The tube of liquid—maybe three or four inches thick—curved and swooped around the room. Around her, where she stood, frozen, her mouth hanging open.

Then it returned to Conlan and surrounded him, seeming to caress his body for a moment and then vanish into his skin.

Except he wasn't wet at all.

She snapped her mouth shut, sure she looked like an idiot, especially when his smile turned into a laugh.

Damn, but he was seriously hot when he laughed. Her nerves, frayed already from the overdose of testosterone and, okay, the sheer sexual tension in the room, shredded even further.

She leaned back against the wall and rubbed her arms with her hands, trying to get rid of the goose bumps. 'No, I don't usually do the expected,' she said, trying to return to the normality of their previous conversation. 'You should hear the things my sister used to do to me to keep me from blurting out her secrets in front of boys. Neat trick with the water, by the way.'

He eased himself back down in the chair, keeping his distance, clearly trying to put her at ease. 'Thanks. I can do balloon animals, too.'

'I just bet you can.'

He grinned at her. 'I never had a sister. It was just me and Ven. Do you have any other sisters? Or brothers?'

'No, just the two of us. Mom and Dad died when we were young, and we developed an 'us against the world' mentality. The foster homes…' She bit her lip. 'We learned not to love people. You love somebody and they leave.'

She shook off the melancholy. It's not like he wanted to hear this stuff. Except, he looked interested. He felt like he was interested.

'Quinn is—well, she's kind of fragile. I always took care of her, even though she was a little older.' It didn't really make sense to share her family history while backed against the wall, so she cautiously took a step forward and perched on the edge of the bed.

Ready to jump away from him if he came near her.

Or was that ready to jump on him if he came near her?

She ruthlessly shoved the thought out of her mind. No thinking about sex, no thinking about sex, no—

'Thinking about sex,' he said.

'What?' she gasped, stunned to hear him speak her thoughts. Except maybe she shouldn't be surprised, given how they'd shared each other's emotions. Still, she could feel her face flaming again. One of the joys of being a redhead was the tendency to blush like a house on fire. Didn't exactly make for a poker face.

He clasped his hands, resting them on his lap, then looked up to meet her gaze. 'We need to talk about this. The intensity. Of the attraction between us, which is intense. It's really…' He paused, cleared his throat. 'Intense.'

She laughed a little. 'Yeah. I get that you think it's intense. Well, it's not like I go around jumping every hunky foreign prince who comes my way. Not that any royalty hangs around my neighborhood, but you know what I mean.