Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis (3 page)

“
Down boy! I don’t care how
glad he is to see me, I’m not shaking hands!”

His expression became
quizzical.

“
Never mind!” She turned
away, surveying the area, and realized they were standing on what
appeared to be a stone pier. Steps led upwards to a beautiful stone
house that looked very Mediterranean.

A wave of dizziness washed over her
and she swayed, grasping his arm for support. “Where are we?” she
demanded.

He scooped her into his arms and
jogged up the stone steps to a verandah. Without pausing, he opened
the door and stepped inside.

“
My home.”

“
I gathered that,” she said
dryly as set her on her feet, steadying her by pulling her close
against his side. Finding her land legs at last, Alexis pulled
away, looking around the marble tiled foyer, her gaze skating over
beautifully carved tables, chests … vases made of gold … none in a
style she recognized. “But where is your home? And who are you? You
never did tell me your name.”

“
I am known as Adonis,” he
said, and bowed in a quaint old world way that looked oddly
gallant, given the fact that he was naked.

Alexis suppressed an urge to
giggle—nerves or embarrassment, she wasn’t sure-- resolutely
refusing to look at anything below his neck. “I wouldn’t doubt it
in the least, but don’t let it go to your head. Pretty is as pretty
does,” she added primly. “And we are where?”

“
Atalantium.”

Chapter Two

Alex stared at him.
“Atlantis?”

He shrugged. “Outworlders call it
that.”

Slowly, Alexis wilted to the floor,
dropped her head in her hands and gave up the effort to remain
stoic and logical. As much as she hated women who wept at the
slightest provocation, or yielded to hysterics when anyone with any
sense would be trying to keep their wits about them, she couldn’t
seem to prevent herself from behaving like a weakling. She
cried.

She didn’t understand any of this. She
strongly suspected she was either dead, or her husband--the
snake!--had had her locked in a mental hospital and she’d been
given some sort of mind altering drug.

But all she could really think about
was that her daddy was dead, she’d married the snake that had
killed him, and nobody was going to come looking for
her.

He touched her before she realized
he’d knelt in front of her. Oddly, the moment she felt the touch of
his hand on her head, a strange calm came over her. It took an
amazing effort to lift her head to stare at him. He smiled, scooped
her into his arms once more and carried her up the flight of stairs
that led off of the entrance hall.

The small room he took her to looked
like a bathroom—except not. It was tiled, beautifully, in mosaics
that looked very old world. But the fixtures only bore a passing
resemblance to those she was familiar with.

The ‘throne’ looked … well, like a
throne, not a toilet. She saw nothing that even resembled a
lavatory, but wondered if the small cavity in one wall might pass
for one.

There was no tub, but, taking up one
whole end of the room, was what appeared to be a smaller chamber.
Adonis stepped inside of it with her still cradled in his arms and
finally settled her on a bench that ran the width of the stall.
There was no curtain that she could see, no shower head, no knobs,
and yet almost the moment they entered they were pelted by
something that felt a lot like soothingly hot water, but
wasn’t.

Still strangely lethargic, she was
aware of being bathed, as if she was no more than a helpless child.
The next thing she knew, she was lying, naked, on a vast bed,
covered in satin sheets and filled with pillows of every shape and
size.

The bed was covered. To her
consternation, she discovered she was sprawled atop the sheets as
if she’d hadn’t an ounce of modesty.

Struggling, she managed to turn her
head and discovered that Adonis was sitting beside her, pouring
something into his hands. The smell of jasmine wafted past her
nostrils. Oil?

He moved to her feet, lifted one and
began rubbing it—wonderful man—massaging each foot in turn until
she almost felt like purring. Bending her knees, he scooted
forward, settling a foot on each of his thighs, then began working
her calves, kneading each one thoroughly until the painfully tensed
muscles began to feel soft and pliant.

She didn’t really want to think. She
wanted to just enjoy the wonderfully relaxing effects of the
massage—except that she was far too relaxed already. In a way, it
was almost the feeling of being inebriated—she felt completely
relaxed, felt no real surprise about anything that was happening,
felt no discomfort about the fact that she was naked in a strange
man’s bed. Her judgment was definitely impaired.

And yet, not only had she not drank
anything that might produce this effect, she also didn’t feel woozy
in the least, just unable to do anything, and uncaring that she
wasn’t able to.

Her attention returned abruptly to his
hands when she realized he’d moved from her calves to her thighs.
Heat started in her belly the moment his hands began sliding up and
down her thighs from groin to knee.

She frowned, struggling now against
the strange lethargy that prevented her from protesting, struggling
against the stirring of passion.

The heat built as he moved to her
belly and then her bare breasts.

Despite her best efforts, a moan of
pleasure escaped her.

He smiled, lifting each of her arms in
turn, massaging it, then placing her arms carefully on either side
of the pillow that supported her head.

She wanted to demand to know what he
was doing, but found she couldn’t speak.

“
It’s all right,” he said,
as if he’d read her mind. “Just relax. You’ll enjoy it.”

That’s what they all say, she thought
dryly, but she rarely did.

Anyway, she barely knew this guy! How
dare he take liberties with her!

“
Shhh!” He murmured, placing
a finger to her lips. “Don’t think.”

She frowned, realizing he was no
longer kneeling between her spread legs, that he’d moved and was
lying beside her now, stretched out, his body just barely touching
hers. When had that happened? Had she dozed?

He turned away, lifting a small bunch
of grapes from a bowl beside the bed. For a moment, he dangled the
fruit over her, then slowly lowered it, brushing it lightly over
first one nipple and then the other. The chill of the grapes, the
feather light touch, brought her nipples erect, sent a new surge of
heat curling through her belly.

She bit her lip as he stroked her,
slowly, tantalizingly, trailing the grapes from her nearest breast,
down over her belly and back up to her other breast.

Alexis closed her eyes, fighting the
desire to yield to her body’s urges.

Abruptly, the door burst open,
slamming against the wall.

Dreamily, Alexis opened her eyes,
struggled and finally managed to lift her head, feeling strangely
unmoved by the intrusion, neither frightened, nor relieved, always
supposing this was a rescue.

Adonis rolled off the bed and came to
his feet in an instant, facing the intruder furiously.

Alexis was only vaguely aware of his
reaction, however. She was mesmerized by the angry warrior who
stood on the threshold, surveying her as if she was no more than an
insect.

He was, in a word, magnificent. And as
naked as Adonis.

My goodness, he’s a manly man, she
thought, her gaze drawn like a magnet to his member as it grew
proudly erect under her unwavering stare. She wondered a little
doubtfully, however, if it was, perhaps, a little more than she
could handle.

Huge was always impressive, and mighty
tempting, but a girl could risk serious injury with that
thing!

After a moment, she tore her gaze from
his trophy, surveying him dreamily, in a leisurely manner that
missed nothing.

His features—high cheekbones, narrow
blade of a nose, squared jaw—made her think ‘Indian Chief’,
particularly since he had long, dark hair. But, even from across
the room she could see that his eyes were blue.

His mouth was hard, straight and made
her stomach muscles flutter pleasantly.

He was tall, taller even than Adonis,
who must have been six feet tall.

His chest was massive with muscle …
his whole body, but he didn’t have the veined, obscenely unnatural
mass of a bodybuilder. His legs were particularly nice, mostly
because she wasn’t used to seeing nicely shaped legs on a man. Body
builders bulked up their leg muscles until their legs no longer fit
together properly, and most of the rest looked as if their legs
were atrophied.

The desire Adonis had been trying to
awaken surged through her veins like fire as her gaze wandered over
him and her mind conjured images of his big, hard, powerful hands
stroking her … his big, hard, powerful everything making love to
her. Her gaze returned to his face, lingering longingly on his
mouth, as images of his mouth replacing his hands with caresses
danced through her head.

The room reeked of
testosterone.

She knew then that she HAD to be
dreaming.

“
Thor! How did you…?” Adonis
growled angrily.

He couldn’t be Thor, Alex thought with
contemptuous amusement. Thor was a Norse god for chrissake! He
would’ve had acres of beautiful, golden hair. This guy looked huge
enough, and powerful enough, to be a Thor, but his hair was
dark.

The man Adonis had called Thor, lifted
what looked amazingly like a sword and pointed it at Adonis. “I am
the guardian. You cannot hide your thoughts from me. You have
broken the first law,” he thundered angrily.

Alexis giggled.

He looked startled, turned to glare at
her for a moment—as if he was certain it could take no more than
that to properly subdue her—then returned his attention to
Adonis.

“
The council
decreed….”

“
The council decreed that
THEY would judge outworlders.”

“
She would have
died.”

Thor lifted his brows, turned to study
Alexis for a long moment. She could see nothing in his eyes that
indicated more than mild curiosity, however, certainly not
compassion for her plight. “The affairs of the outworlders are of
no interest to the council.”

Adonis took a step forward, furious.
“What about you?”

“
I am guardian of the laws.
I obey the laws. I ensure that everyone obeys the laws. Without
them, we would have no order, only chaos.”

“
If you feel nothing, then
you have no humanity left and you are not fit to be
guardian.”

For a moment, Alexis thought the man
called Thor was going to attack Adonis. Maybe that had been Adonis’
intention, to provoke a fight? If it had been, he was out of his
mind. This fellow looked like he could make mincemeat out of
him.

After a moment, to Alexis’ relief, he
seemed to regain control of his anger. “You should have returned
her to her people, not brought her here. You know it is forbidden
to bring outworlders here.”

“
She was attacked, thrown in
the sea to die. If I had taken her back the man would have killed
her.”

Thor’s lips tightened. “You must
present this to the council … as you should have done to start
with. Come. They wait.”

Adonis turned to look at Alexis. He
seemed torn.

“
Release her to
me.”

Adonis’ head snapped around. He glared
at Thor suspiciously. “Why?”

Thor’s face hardened. “If you do not
release her, I will take her.”

Adonis looked taken aback. “You would
kill her.”

“
No. You would.”

Alexis didn’t understand what they
were talking about, but after a moment Adonis turned to her,
touched her gently on the forehead.

It was as if she’d suddenly come wide
awake. Alexis sat up on the bed, gathering the sheets to her,
looking wildly around.

“
What is going on here!” she
demanded, watching, bemused, as Adonis stalked over to a wardrobe,
removed something that looked oddly like a cross between one of
those hard plastic headbands and a headset, except that it was made
of filigreed metal, and placed it on his head. Almost
instantaneously, he was fully clothed--or at least appeared to be
fully clothed, in some sort of short, white robe. He threw her one
last glance, looked as if he would speak and then, without a word,
stalked angrily from the room.

The man Adonis had called Thor
approached the bed, studied her for a long moment and finally
extended his hand. “Come. I must take you before the
council.”

She was relieved to see he was wearing
a loincloth and wondered what had made her think he was naked.
Relief aside, however, she felt no inclination to oblige
him.

“
Not on your life, buddy! I
don’t know who the hell you think you are, but I’m not going
anywhere with you!”