Atlantis Rising

that you were forced into this rude awakening to the ugly reality of what's going on now.'

She pulled away and turned to face him, hands fisted on her hips. 'Ugly reality? You want to talk to me about ugly reality? My clients routinely kill each other in their homes. Their babies are born addicted to crack and then sometimes starve to death before I can get them any help at all, thanks to Senator 'I'm a master vampire' Barnes and his slash-and-burn job on social services for humans. So don't tell me about ugly reality.'

He leaned against the wall, forcing himself to stay back from her, in spite of his body's demands that he pull her close again. 'Children are often the first casualties of war.'

She spun on her heel and walked away from him, then sank down to sit on the bed. Putting her head in her hands, she moaned. Then she looked him in the eyes. 'When did it become a war? Nobody declared a war, not that I know of, and yet suddenly I'm on the front lines.'

He crossed to her, sat next to her. Everything in him rebelled against the words that he forced out, but she'd earned his respect with her courage.

She deserved her freedom.

'If you want out, just say the word. I believe that your empath power may be enormously helpful to us in our battle to protect your people. That is the truth.'

She said nothing, merely gazed at him, unmoving. Her emotions shielded from him.

'But this is also the truth,' he rasped. 'Somehow, I have feelings for you beyond anything I ever dreamed possible. Even now, my body is raging at me to take you. To strip you bare and have you underneath me on this bed.'

She gasped a little, but didn't move away. Conlan chose to take that as a hopeful sign.

'I need you, Riley. Yes, Atlantis needs you. We need to study this power you have and see if we can duplicate it. If Quinn hadn't convinced us that her mission was so urgent, I would have tried to persuade her to come with us, too.'

'She felt emotions from Brennan, Conlan. That has to give him hope.'

'May it not be false hope. Brennan deserves better than what life has doled out to him.'

He tried to focus. Tried not to be distracted by the scent of her. By the desire swamping him. 'The aknasha ability—we hope to discover if it can be used against us. Or maybe used for us. But, in spite of this need—both of these needs—in spite of my duty as future king of the Seven Isles, I would let you go.'

He clenched his hands together to keep from forcibly keeping her with him, prayed that he'd keep it together until she left. He was a man and had enough dignity to want that.

Not that he wasn't close to begging.

'Once I would have taken. Now, knowing you, I ask. But you need to tell me now. You need to stand up and walk out of this room right now. I'll ask Ven to take you anywhere you want—somewhere safe. But it has to be now.'

He finally turned to look at her, his body clenched so tightly he thought he might snap. Burning with need, yet icy with fear that she would go. 'Because if you stay, I'll take it as a yes. Yes to Atlantis, to our cause, but—most of all—yes to me.'

She reached up to touch his face with one trembling hand. 'Conlan—'

He yanked his head away from her. 'Don't you get it? My self-control is gone,' he snarled. 'All I've got left is a bare shred of dignity over a furnace of want. You have to get the hell away from me now.'

He jumped up off the bed, away from temptation. Away from the woman who was, somehow, everything he'd ever wanted. He closed his eyes and stood, head bent, shoulders heaving with the effort it cost him to keep from stretching her out on the bed and taking her mouth with his own.

Taking her body.

Finally, finally, he heard her light footsteps as she began to walk across the floor. The footsteps that would carry her away from him. He flinched as a pain greater than any Anubisa had ever administered washed through him, searing the heart he'd thought gone forever.

Then the footsteps stopped.

And she stood in front of him, her eyes enormous in her pale face.

'I'm not going anywhere, Conlan. My answer is yes.'

Riley looked up at Conlan, aware deep in her heart that she'd just made the most important choice of her life. He stared down at her, eyes widening, then threw his head back, muscles in his neck straining, as he gulped in air like a drowning man.

Then he exploded into motion. He wrapped his arms around her and yanked her into his body so quickly she let out a little sound when her breasts pressed into his chest. He tightened one arm around her waist and lifted the other to wrap his palm around the back of her head.

'Thank you, mi amara,' he whispered, his lips inches from her own. 'Thank you for this gift.'

She almost had time to worry—it had been so long, she didn't really know him—and then his mouth came down on hers. And, as his emotions opened to her, she realized that she'd never known any man so well as she knew this one.

She wanted him with every ounce of her being. His lips were soft and firm and exactly right, and he kissed with the passion of a man who was starving for her. She pressed closer to him, desperate to feel all of him against her, wanting more and more and more.

Conlan pulled back from her a little, his breathing harsh. He'd known that she tasted like warmth and sunlight and sweet, clean passion. But now she tasted like something even better.

She tasted like she was his.

He crushed his mouth to hers again, needing to feel her compliance. Her surrender. Her acceptance of his desire and his need. 'Now,' he said, hearing the pleading in his own voice, not caring. 'Please. Now.'

'Yes,' she said, curling her arms around his neck. 'Yes, please. Now.'

He swept her up off the ground and carried her to the bed, kissing her the entire time. In seconds, he was locking the door and then back at the bed. He stripped off his shirt on the way, desperate to feel her skin on his.

She lay there, her hair spread across the pillows, his fantasy come true. He wanted to weep from the joy of it.

Wanted to roar out his possession to the world.

He did neither. Simply touched her. Finally, finally, touched her.

Riley trembled when Conlan eased his body down on the bed next to hers. Somehow his chest and shoulders seemed even bigger without his shirt. He was a wall of muscle, but she'd seen past the proud warrior exterior to the man inside.

When he touched her, fingers gently stroking her cheek, then her neck, she noticed that she wasn't the only one trembling.

The realization sent her reeling that final step over the edge of any remaining inhibition. This big, tough warrior who could stand and battle vampires and shape-shifters and anything else that went bump in the night wanted her so badly his hands were shaking.

She pulled his head down to hers and smiled. 'Kiss me. Kiss me and make me feel safe again,' she whispered.

The heat of the blue-green flame burning in his eyes scorched her nerve endings, sending warmth and wetness straight to her center. Her breasts felt fuller, tighter, as though they wanted the weight of him against them.

She arched up against him and, before he had a chance to obey her request, she took control.

She kissed him. Softly, gently.

His scent surrounded her. Spicy and warm and male, and suddenly gentle was not on the agenda.

She moaned and kissed him, lips capturing his, tongue diving into his mouth. She wrapped one leg around his legs and pulled him down to her, wanting, craving, needing to feel his hardness against