Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis (8 page)

Thor looked away. Alexis couldn’t tell
anything about his expression except that he had obviously not
understood that she was teasing, and it had not made him
happy.

“
Hey. I was teasing. I
probably won’t be here that long, so what does it matter
anyway?”

“
It matters.”

The simple statement bothered Alexis.
Although she wasn’t certain what to make of it, she had a suspicion
that he wasn’t talking about being ‘just friends’ and she wasn’t
sure what constituted morals here in Atlantis. Would it be even be
acceptable, assuming she wanted to be friends? Or would she become
a ‘scarlet woman’ or something like that? Helen had said she was
his first wife, suggesting they, the men, at least, took more than
one. She did hope he wasn’t angling to catch himself another wife,
because she didn’t care what their traditions were, she didn’t
believe in polygamy.

Thor looked startled, disbelieving,
then annoyed. “My first wife?”

Shaken abruptly from her thoughts, it
took Alexis a moment to catch up. She nodded, realizing he’d read
her thoughts. Which was beginning to confuse the hell out of her
because she was having a hard time remembering what she’d said, and
what she’d only thought. It was like picking up the habit of
talking to oneself, and then discovering you were going around
muttering out loud and everyone could hear you. “Helen.”

“
She told you this?” he said
incredulously.

Alexis stared at him. “Told me
what?”

“
That she was my
wife?”

“
Yes. Where else would I
have heard it?”

Thor’s lips tightened. “We are not
wed.”

“
Uh oh. Guess she won’t be
confiding in me again, huh?”

Chapter Five

Alexis watched Thor stride away, back
in the direction from which they’d come. He didn’t look very
happy.

She shrugged. How was she to know
Helen had blatantly lied to her? Or that it would bother Thor, for
that matter?

Undoubtedly Helen had decided to take
advantage of the fact that Alexis was the only person around who
wasn’t telepathic and therefore would have no way of knowing
whether she was lying or not.

The question was, why? And why that
particular lie?

After a moment, Alexis dismissed it.
Maybe, if she was here a while, she’d figure it out.

She was a lot more interested, though,
in figuring out a way to make certain she wasn’t here for a
while.

Turning, she climbed the steps to the
house and tried the door. It wasn’t locked. Lifting the latch, she
cautiously poked her head inside. “Is anybody home?”

She heard footsteps. A moment later, a
girl entered the foyer from one of the rooms that adjoined it. She
was dressed—in body paint and nothing else. Fortunately for her,
she had a lovely figure. Like most of the Atlantean women Alexis
had seen, she was tall, willowy, attractive and very
blond.

Oddly enough, Alexis didn’t feel
inclined to hold it against her, despite a lifelong antipathy for
tall, willowy blondes.

The girl smiled, gesturing for Alexis
to enter.

Alexis was more inclined to retreat.
She must have gotten the wrong house after all, she
decided.

The girl frowned, moved her lips in a
way that was almost comical and finally managed to speak, beckoning
with her hand at the same time. “Come. Come.”

Alexis still wasn’t certain whether to
go in or not. Somehow the place didn’t look familiar. Of course,
she hadn’t been in any state to pay a great deal of attention to
her surroundings, but it seemed to her that the foyer had been
tiled in white marble, not gray slate as this was.

The girl, who looked to be around
sixteen, bobbed her head, gestured. “Yes. You stay
here.”

Alexis thought that was what she was
saying anyway. She spoke like someone to whom English was a second
language, or like someone who’d never spoken before.

This was going to be fun.

Alexis moved inside, closed the door
behind her and looked around. The impression that she was in the
wrong place continued to tease her.

“
I show room.”

Alexis shrugged. The girl seemed to
have been expecting her. There was no point in arguing anyway,
particularly since the girl didn’t seem to be capable of carrying
on a verbal debate. Undoubtedly, she’d just made the acquaintance
of her first Atlantean who had rarely, if ever, used her vocal
cords.

She was, she realized after a moment,
far too tired to argue anyway. Apparently being reduced to
unconsciousness wasn’t actually as restful as sleeping. She hadn’t
slept in—a while. She found she couldn’t calculate it since she
didn’t even know whether Atlantean days and nights coincided with
the rest of the world, but her body was telling her she’d gone a
long stretch with little sleep.

And just as long without food. Her
stomach began to rumble as she followed the girl upstairs. The girl
giggled. “Food? You have ‘unger?”

Embarrassed, Alexis nodded. “To be
honest, I don’t know whether I’m more tired or more hungry. I
haven’t eaten, or slept in … hours, days maybe.

The girl led her to a room at the top
of the stairs, gestured her inside.

Alexis stopped on the threshold.
Despite the fact that she had been under some sort of mind control,
she was absolutely positive that this was not the bedroom she’d
been in before.

The girl proceeded to turn down the
bed, then moved to a tall armoire and pulled a sheer length of
cloth from one of its drawers. She frowned when she saw that Alexis
was still standing by the door. “Here.” She pointed to the
floor.

Enlightenment dawned. This was to be
her room. That’s why it hadn’t looked familiar. She must be tired
indeed that it hadn’t occurred to her that in a house so huge there
would be many bedrooms, and the servant girl—she assumed the girl
was a servant—would not have taken her to the master
bedroom.

There followed a short battle. The
girl insisted on helping Alexis to change. Alexis insisted upon
doing it herself. Finally, the girl yielded, laid the garment on
the bed and left. Alexis dropped the robe Aurora had loaned her and
picked up the garment, examining it.

She could not only see light through
it, she was fairly certain she could’ve read a newspaper through
it. Talk about sheer! The fabric felt wonderful, however. She
slipped it over her head. There was no mirror in the room, but she
didn’t need one. She could well imagine that she looked positively
indecent.

Not that it mattered ... really. She
was alone in the house except for the girl.

She heard footsteps and leapt into the
giant four poster bed, pulling the covers up to her
chin.

The girl bustled in with a tray,
crossed the room and set the tray on the table next to the bed.
Alexis felt a welling of gratitude.

“
Thank you!” she exclaimed,
dropping the cover and scooting to the side of the bed to look at
the tray of assorted fruits, vegetables, cheeses and breads. It all
looked so good she couldn’t decide where to start first and began
to take a bite of first one tidbit then another, barely waiting to
swallow before she grabbed another piece.

The girl nodded, smiled.

She didn’t leave and Alexis began to
feel a little uncomfortable under her unrelenting stare.

“
What’s your name?” she
asked around a bite of apple.

The girl frowned, tilted her head
questioningly.

Alexis pointed to herself. “I’m Alexis
and you are…?”

The girl nodded excitedly.
“Moira.”

“
Moira. Nice name. Very
pretty.”

Moira smiled. “You eat. You
sleep.”

Alexis nodded.

“
Go to council
then.”

Alexis lost her appetite. “Oh. So
soon?”

Moira frowned. Apparently that bit of
conversation was beyond her.

“
Never mind.” Alexis
returned the partially eaten apple to the tray and drained the
glass of water that had been provided.

Moira gathered up the robe she’d
discarded.

“
Do you think you could
launder that and return it to Aurora and tell her thank
you?”

Moira looked confused.

“
Clean?”

Moira nodded. “Clean. Aurora. Thank
you.”

Alexis snuggled beneath the covers,
yawning. She never heard Moira leave.

* * * *

Something tickled her nose. Drowsily,
Alexis rubbed the itch. She heard a deep chuckle and frowned. “Go
‘way,” she murmured in a sleep slurred voice, rolling over and
snuggling deeper into the pillows.

She was just drifting away again when
she felt the warmth of a hand settle lightly on her hip. Her skin
tingled. She experienced a brief inner struggle, torn between the
urge to slide back into sleep and the first stirrings of desire.
Finally, she decided to ignore it.

The hand began to glide slowly down
her hip and along her thigh. Warmth radiated through her. Desire
took the upper hand, replacing the drowsiness of sleep with the
lethargy of budding passion.

The hand stopped when it reached her
knee. She caught her breath, waiting, this time in anticipation.
His hand slipped beneath her gown, touching bare skin, and began to
move upward again, over her hip, his fingertips skimming her belly,
pausing. Her heart executed a little gallop of expectancy, want
flooding her, awakening her flesh to sensation, his touch sending
tremors through her belly and loins.

To her disappointment, after only a
brief pause, as if he was trying to decide whether to slide his
hand over her belly and between her thighs, or continue as he’d
begun, he moved his hand upward, along the curve of her waist, and
finally cupped her breast, kneading it gently.

Heat suffused her, traveling from her
breasts to her belly.

“
Mmm,” Alexis murmured,
unwilling now to rouse herself from her half dream state because
the hand was doing things that felt very pleasant.

His mouth settled against the
sensitive, exposed flesh at her neck, and sent a flight of
goose-flesh down her shoulder and arm. Moisture gathered in her
sex. Anticipation fluttered in her belly.

Almost lazily, she rolled toward the
warmth of his mouth, sought it with her own lips. She felt his
weight settle against her length as his mouth covered hers, his
kiss gentle, seductive.

His scent, his taste, the firm
hardness of his mouth and body flooded her senses like a heady
wine. She lifted her hand, placed it against his chest. His skin
was warm, soft as velvet beneath her fingers, the muscles beneath
rock hard.

Sweet desire gave way to hunger. She
touched her tongue to his lips, slid it inside his mouth, touched
his tongue with her own, beckoning.

His heart leapt beneath her palm, his
breath becoming harsh. He plunged his tongue into her mouth,
answering her invitation with a full scale assault to her senses.
She closed her mouth around his tongue, sucking. He groaned, rolled
until she was flat against the bed beneath him, his mouth ravishing
hers now, hungry, demanding.

Her gown was bunched around her waist,
his sex nudging her belly as he moved against her restlessly. She
lifted her hips, grinding against him, trying to tilt her hips so
that her clit could receive the attention it had begun to
crave.

He rolled to his side once more,
taking her with him. The sound of rending fabric reached her ears
and coolness wafted across her skin. Her nipples stood erect,
growing hard, swollen, almost painfully sensitive.

She resisted when he lifted his lips
from hers but groaned in ecstasy when she felt his mouth skate down
her neck and settle on her breast, felt his tongue flick out to
taste her. She twisted, urging him to caress her nipple. He covered
the nearest with his mouth. She felt the light, teasing scrape of
his teeth and then his tongue was nudging her nipple. She moaned in
pleasure, threading her fingers through his hair, holding him close
while he finessed her, feeling her nether lips growing slippery and
wet with desire.

Her heart had begun to race so that
she was gasping for air, dizzy. She protested when he lifted his
mouth, nuzzled between her breasts.

He cupped her other breast with his
hand and she felt his mouth close around her nipple, sucking, then
teasing with his tongue. She caught his hand, guiding it from her
breast and across her belly until his fingers settled against her
clit.

He rubbed the sensitive nub, pinched
it gently between his knuckles.

Alexis gasped, reached for his
sex.

He was too tall. She couldn’t reach
him.

Frustrated, she skated her hand across
his belly, grasped his hips and urged him to move upwards. He
moved. She wrapped her fingers around his sex, massaging, gripping
him firmly and moving her hand up and down so that he groaned in
pleasure.