Atlantis Rising

her.

• Conlan thought he might possibly have died and gone to the mountain of the gods. Riley was setting him on fire, pulling him into her and kissing him like she was starving and he was dessert.

Which gave him ideas.

Really, really great ideas.

He pulled away from her lips and kissed a path across her cheek and down to her neck, where he bit and suckled at her, reveling in her throaty moans. With one hand, he pushed at her shirt, moving it up to bare her warm belly, sliding his fingers further up until he cupped the underside of her breast.

She gasped at the touch and arched into his hand. 'Touch me, please touch me, Conlan.'

He rolled over and pulled her up, yanking her shirt over her head, then kissed her again, his tongue plunging inside to claim her mouth. It was a hard kiss, a branding kiss.

Mine. Mine. Always mine.

The thought came from so far inside him he didn't recognize the source. A primal urge to mark her, to claim her, to carry her off to his palace and never let her go shook his body with the force of it. He knew she could feel it, because her emotions suddenly registered shock through her empathic connection to him.

Then she smiled beneath his lips and sent waves of acceptance to him. She was feeling strong, sure in her uniquely feminine power over him, and she let him know it.

His body tightened at the feeling and the colors of her arousal in his body, in his brain. His cock hardened to the point of pain inside his suddenly too-tight pants. Pulling away from her mouth, he looked at the round and perfect breasts filling out the bits of lace that covered them. He wanted his mouth on them.

With one hand, he worked at the tiny clasp, groaning in frustration when it didn't come undone immediately. She laughed and captured his hand in her own.

'What's the matter? The big, bad warrior can't figure out a simple bra clasp?' she teased, voice husky and warmth shining from her eyes, her happiness sparkling like fairy dust in his mind.

'The big, bad warrior is going to bite it off with his teeth if you don't help,' he replied. Then he bent down and took her nipple in his mouth, right through the fabric, and she arched up off the bed, moaning.

With his other hand, he caressed her other breast, cupping and squeezing it. Rubbing his thumb over her nipple in rhythm with suckling its twin. Her moans grew more frantic, and she clutched at his back while her head whipped back and forth on the pillow. 'Oh, please, oh, please.'

He released her nipple from his mouth, blew warm air on it, and watched the shudder rip through her body. 'Please what, Riley? Say it.'

'Please. I need you.' She put her hands on his head and urged him up toward her mouth. But he wasn't done yet. He moved his mouth to her other breast and replaced his thumb with his mouth. Hardened even more when her body jerked up against his and she rubbed her core against him, wordlessly pleading. He gently bit her nipple and she gasped, then moaned out his name.

'Now, damn you, now. I need you inside me now,' she said, breathing harshly, eddies of passion and sharp, spiking desire flowing from her emotions and through him.

'Yes,' he ground out. 'Yes, I'm going to take you now.'

Riley stared up at the man who'd driven her nearly insane with wanting, almost not recognizing him beneath the ferocious and primal need stamped on his face.

Maybe she wasn't the only one going out of her mind, here.

He rolled over and bent to throw off his boots and socks, then stood and stripped his pants off in one violent motion. When he stood before her, proud and tall and gloriously naked, she caught her breath. 'You're beautiful,' she whispered, reaching out to touch one muscled thigh. His erection, as big as the rest of him, strained, jerking a little, at her touch so near to it.

She wanted to taste it.

He laughed a little. 'I am a warrior. Scarred and worn, definitely not beautiful. But you ... you make the gods themselves weep with envy at your beauty.'

He reached for her hands, pulled her to stand next to him. Then his fingers were at her waist, unfastening her jeans, and she was suddenly as naked as he.

For an instant, she was shy. Then he put his hands on her, and she was frantic with need. 'Touch me, Conlan. Kiss me and touch me everywhere. I want your hands on me.'

It was his turn to groan, and he captured her head in both hands and swooped down to kiss her with such possession and fire that her heart seemed to skip a beat or two. She caught at his shoulders, trying to hold herself up on knees gone weak.

He ran his hands down her body, lightly touching her arms, then her hips, then stroking up the plane of her back. She trembled and pushed against him, loving the feeling of his hardness against her. Wanting it inside her.

As if he could hear her, he ran his hands down the front of her body, cupping her breasts on the way. She moaned again, wanting him to stop torturing her.

Wanting him never to stop.

Wanting more.

His hands continued their path, now stroking down her . belly and then, finally, one traced a path through the curls between her legs and lightly across the heat of her.

He raised his face to look at her, fierce triumph in his smile. 'You're wet for me, Riley. You're drenched for me.'

'I… oh—' Before she could form the words to answer him, he drove two fingers inside her, and she lost the ability to speak.

She clenched around his fingers and nearly cried out at the pleasure of it. 'Oh, yes, Conlan. Yes, please, more.'

Conlan sent a prayer of thanks to whatever gods would hear him. She was so responsive to him, so hot, so wet. As she tightened around his fingers, he thought he might lose all control and ejaculate before he ever entered the sweet wetness of her body.

He'd never felt passion with this crashing force before.

Damaged goods, princeling. The hated voice whispered through him, stopping him, freezing him—but only for an instant.

Then Riley opened her eyes and stared straight into his soul. 'No. No. She's not here—she'll never hurt you again. Don't let her in, Conlan.'

She kissed him, deliberately clenched her warmth around his fingers again. 'Feel me. I'm real. I'm here. Don't let her win.'

Something burst in his heart. 'Yes, yes, mi amara. You are here for me. You are mine. She is less than nothing,' he rasped out, words fervent as a prayer.

He withdrew his fingers, and Riley whimpered a little, but then he swept her up into his arms and dropped her on the bed. She blinked, seemed to come back from some far distance, and shook her head a little. 'We… I… protection. I'm safe, but—'

He understood instantly, since her feelings were open to him. 'No, we are immune. I can't even catch a cold from you, nor you from me, my beautiful one. And we cannot produce children without the ritual of fertility being blessed by Poseidon.'

She nodded, feeling the truth of his words in his emotions. Then she held her arms up to him and smiled with such sensuous promise that his knees turned to water.

As he dove down to cover her body with his own, he opened his heart to her. Threw off any remaining emotional shields, so she could feel the great gift she'd given him.

Then he pulled her knees up on either side of his hips and drove into her all the way to the hilt in one stroke, roaring out his pleasure.

Gasping out her name.

Resting his forehead against hers, he labored for breath. 'Mine, Riley. Say it. You're mine.'

She caught his face in her hands and drew him down to her mouth. 'I'm yours, Conlan.'

She kissed him with all the passion he could feel in her soul. She looked up at him, blue eyes warm and glowing, and smiled at him again. 'And you're mine, too.'