Atlantis Series Complete Collection

by Gena Showalter

  “Perhaps it wasn’t your father who held you.”

  “Zeus,” she said. “It was Zeus. My…brother. He told me he was sorry and I assumed he meant for ignoring me. But Zeus apologized for killing our father. How could I not have realized? It’s so clear now.” She rested her head on his shoulder, and he felt the warm liquid of her tears slide down his arm. “This is so hard. I expected so many things, but not that. Never that.”

  He hugged her to him for more than an hour, simply holding her and letting her cry. He whispered things into her ear, sweet things, loving things, all the things he wanted her to know but would never have another chance to tell her.

  When her tears died, he squeezed his eyes tightly shut. I have to leave. His chest constricted. Now everything was complete. She knew about her past, her greatest enemies were defeated, and she was safe. It was time to tell her goodbye. How he would have loved to spend his life beside her, making her forget her sadness about her father. Comforting her. Simply loving her.

  He must have stiffened or stopped breathing because she suddenly pulled from his touch, not looking his way. “You’re leaving now.”

  How could he live without this woman? She was everything to him, and he wasn’t complete without her. But he forced himself to say, “I have to.”

  Her gaze remained straight ahead. “Take me with you.”

  “No.”

  “Stay here, then.”

  If only he could. “I’ve got to leave. I won’t let you be hunted by another agent. I can’t.”

  “Come back to me.”

  He cupped her jaw and lightly kissed her lips. He felt ripped apart inside. She possessed his heart. To save her, however, he would do whatever was necessary. Even leave her. “I’m going to close the portal, baby. I’m going to make sure no one else ever enters it.”

  And then, before she could say another word, he made love to her one final time, moving in and out of her slowly, savoring everything about her. Her taste. Her scent. Her feel. Branding her essence in his every cell. Afterward, when she fell asleep, he quietly dressed. His stomach felt like a lead weight had taken up residence, churning with nausea.

  Forcing his feet one in front of the other, he walked from the room. Tears filled his eyes. He hadn’t cried since his mom died, but he cried now. And he wasn’t ashamed of his tears. “Goodbye, Pru,” he whispered, and it almost killed him to say it.

  He didn’t allow himself to look back as he hunted down Darius. The dragon king was waiting for him and escorted him to the portal. Gray stepped inside.

  Home.

  Misery.

  * * *

  SURPRISINGLY THE PORTAL he exited did not take him to the same location he’d entered from. Gray found himself in Brazil. OBI didn’t know about this portal, and he planned to keep it that way. For days he worked furiously, blocking the portal entrance with rocks. Afterward, he sneaked his way to Florida and radioed home base to be picked up as if he’d washed up to shore and he did not know how they’d missed him, since they had men posted in the water. When they reached him, he handed his boss the huge sapphire he’d stolen from Darius’s wall and with a straight, deadpan expression said it was Dunamis.

  They asked him about his mission, and he lied. Hooked to a lie detector, he lied his ass off. And he passed. He told them of the monsters, just to keep them from sending someone else inside. But he mentioned nothing about Jewel, nothing about the vast wealth, and nothing about his new vampire tendencies.

  They were so excited about Dunamis, they sent him on his merry way, giving him the vacation he’d been due for the past year.

  His vacation sucked. He never left his house. And now, two weeks into it, he was standing in his basement gym, pounding the hell out of his punching bag.

  He had no life without Jewel. Hell, he didn’t want a life without her. What was she doing? Was she safe? Did she miss him? Did she spend every night lying awake, imagining his hands on her, wishing his lips were all over her?

  “What’s wrong with you, man?”

  Gray stiffened. He pounded a few more punches into the bag. His brothers had descended upon him en masse this morning and refused to leave. “Nothing,” he growled. It was the same answer he’d given them the other thousand times they’d asked.

  They kept at it, though, and several times he’d come close to biting them. He thought his eyes might have turned red once because his brothers had also asked him—a thousand times—if he needed to see a doctor. He still craved blood, yes, but only Jewel’s. Only her sweetness.

  At least he hadn’t levitated. Wouldn’t that have been fun to explain? He’d wondered a few times why he hadn’t weakened since leaving Atlantis, since he now possessed some very Atlantean characteristics, but the only answer he could come up with was that he had been born a human and his greatest ties were here.

  “I believe you,” Nick said. He glanced to Erik. “Do you believe him?”

  “I think it’s woman trouble.”

  “Gotta be,” Denver said. “Nothing else could shake him like this.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Well, finally he says something other than nothing.”

  Gray couldn’t tell them. They knew nothing about OBI. As much as he wanted to describe every detail about Jewel’s loveliness, he couldn’t.

  He had to get her back.

  He rested his forehead on the punching bag. He’d meant to do something, anything, to block the portal in Florida but he hadn’t been able to do it. Maybe he hadn’t tried. He hadn’t wanted to sever that final tie with Jewel and destroy all hope of ever seeing her again.

  The second day he’d been home he found a rock with her picture on it inside his bag and had punched a hole in his wall. He’d been so filled with longing he’d almost torn his entire house down.

  Screw it, he thought in the next instant. He’d had enough of this torture. He was going back in. He was going back to Jewel. OBI didn’t know about the portal in Brazil; maybe he could find it again. He’d have to be careful, though. They kept a close watch on their employees, always cautious of leaks.

  If he did this, if he went this route, he’d have to say goodbye to his family forever. Could he? Yes. Yes. For Jewel, he’d give up everything. I’m going to do it. I’m going back to her. He smiled for the first time since returning.

  “Will you look at that?” Nick said. “What caused the change?”

  He was just about to answer when a wild-haired seductress burst into his gym.

  “Gray James,” she said, black hair flying behind her. “I’ve been here for two weeks and survived. I can live on the surface.” She saw his brothers, smiled at them weakly, and muttered, “Hello,” before whipping her focus back to Gray. “Now what do you have to say to that?”

  His knees almost buckled as shock pounded through him. Was this a hallucination? “Jewel?” Heart pounding, he raced to her and jerked her into his arms, closing his eyes as her scent surrounded him. She was real. “What do you think you’re doing? You should never have risked your life like that.” He was unable to put any heat behind the admonishment.

  “I told you,” Erik murmured.

  Before she could answer, Gray slathered her face with kisses, happier in that moment than he’d ever been. Praise the Lord for women who rebelled. “I was coming for you, sweetheart. I couldn’t stay away from you.” More kisses. “Now, you have a lot of explaining to do. Where have you been staying? Why didn’t you weaken?”

  “I sneaked through the portal and followed you here. Darius realized what I had done and found me. He took me into the nearest town and rented me a room. He checked on me every couple of days but I never weakened, so he finally transported me here.” She paused for breath. “I’m part of every creature, which makes me part human and must allow me to exist on the surface. And this human wants to be with you.”

  His lips slowly inched upward. How he loved this woman. “How did you follow me without my knowledge?”

  “How do you think? I finally
used my powers for something I wanted.”

  His brothers were muttering about the weirdness of the conversation. Humans? Transported? Powers? They didn’t know their brother-in-law was an alien, either. Gray would have a lot of explaining to do later, but for right now, he had Jewel and that was all that mattered.

  “Marry me.” It wasn’t an order, but it was pretty damn close. It was a prayer.

  “You mean it?” Squealing, she jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Yes, yes, yes! I love you.”

  “And I love you, Jewel, Prudence, Blaze.”

  “That’s Mrs. General Happy to you.”

  He chuckled. “How about Jewel of Atlantis, Jewel of my heart?”

  * * * * *

  ISBN-13: 9781488026751

  Jewel of Atlantis

  Copyright © 2006 by Gena Showalter

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  www.Harlequin.com

  Reread this classic Atlantis tale, now with all-new scenes!

  Females young and old, beautiful and plain crave Valerian’s touch. None can resist his blatant sensuality and potent allure…until he steals Shaye Holling from a Florida beach and holds her prisoner in his underwater kingdom.

  The cynical Shaye wants nothing to do with the mighty warlord, but she’s inexplicably drawn to him. For underneath the warrior’s arrogant beauty lies a complex and powerful man. A man whose caress is like fire…

  Now Valerian must fight for the privilege of claiming her as his own. Because there’s one thing Shaye doesn’t know.…

  Look for the rest of Gena Showalter’s Atlantis series: The Amazon’s Curse, Heart of the Dragon, Jewel of Atlantis and The Vampire’s Bride, available now.

  Originally published in 2007, revised in 2017

  THE NYMPH KING

  Gena Showalter

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  EPILOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  Atlantis

  VALERIAN, KING of the nymphs, lover extraordinaire and greatest leader of the greatest army in the history of Atlantis, untangled from the naked, slumbering woman beside him…only to discover his legs were entwined with two other naked, slumbering women. He truly thought to leave this paradise?

  With a sleep-rough chuckle, he abandoned all efforts to escape and relaxed against the softness of the bed. Satisfaction hummed inside him.

  The females curled closer to him, soft tendrils of hair—a delightful mix of black, brown and red—cascading across the muscle and sinew he worked hard to maintain.

  Did life get any better than this?

  Had he known what awaited him in this massive palace, he would have fought the dragon shape-shifter army for rights to it years ago rather than mere weeks.

  Nymphs, once touted eternal wanderers, had desired a permanent home almost as desperately as they desired sex.

  Sex was like air to nymphs. Without it, they suffered, and they died.

  They’d won the palace with only minor losses, expecting to charm and seduce the female dragon shape-shifters still in residence. Within minutes of victory, however, the entire enclosure had emptied, leaving no one to wine, dine and recline.

  Until yesterday.

  Beneath the palace were catacombs. There, Valerian discovered a strange, upright pool—or rather, a portal leading into another world. The human world. Earth, it was called.

  All his life he’d heard rumors about the portal and the topside world. Everyone inside Atlantis had heard, considering there were humans scattered among them. But Valerian had never dreamed he would become the gatekeeper.

  He’d watched, dumbfounded, as the trio of femininity currently occupying his bed stumbled through the pool. A sleek black beauty, a plump redhead and brown-skinned goddess.

  At first, they’d looked at him and panicked.

  “Where are we? Who are you?”

  “What happened?”

  “I can’t…I want to go…”

  “Oh, wow. You’re hot. Take off your clothes.”

  The pheromone Valerian exuded every day…hour…minute was the most powerful in the world and considered a potent aphrodisiac. Pair that aphrodisiac with his angelic face, and who could resist him?

  In the back of his mind, he heard other immortals calling him conceited, narcissistic and boastful. He considered himself honest.

  Besides, he’d never really cared about the reasons why women preferred him over other men. He’d simply enjoyed the end results. Again and again.

  The trio of beauties had basically attacked him, kissing every inch of him while ripping at his clothes. He’d barely gotten the females into his bedroom with his nonexistent virtue in tact.

  Between rounds one and five, he’d finally managed to question his lovers. One moment they’d been swimming in the ocean, the next they’d been sucked through a swirling black hole…the next they were inside the catacombs of the fortress.

  Welcome to Atlantis. Home to creatures you’ve only ever considered myth.

  Vampires, Minotaurs, griffins, Amazons, trolls, centaurs, winged horses, mermaids and more. The Greek gods had trapped the different immortal races in a dome under the sea. Less competition for human adoration, Valerian supposed.

  Peering up at the ceiling, he braced his nape with one hand. The dome had been created with naturally grown crystals and had always protected the fortress from the elements. Now, light uncoiled from the sparkling minerals to caress the chamber he’d claimed as his own.

  The master’s suite. An enormous space with luxuries beyond imagining. A unicorn pelt had been turned into a rug and draped in front of a marble hearth.

  Valerian would rather the unicorn still lived, wild and free.

  Never-ending fires crackled from bejeweled torches that hung along golden brick walls. A dresser forged from a massive diamond pressed against a vanity that had been cut from one of the last trees to grow in the Forest of Wisdom Eternal.

  The bed occupied the center of an island cutout, with three separate bridges leading to and from the rest of the room. In the spaces between each bridge, a dark abyss loomed. One wrong step…

  The perfect precaution against attack.

  “Valerian.” The br
onzed goddess stretched her arms above her head and arched her back, her expression soft from slumber. “You weren’t just a dream.”

  “No. I’m very real.” He caught her hand and lifted her knuckles to his lips, licked. “And I’m very appreciative of your sweet sweetness.”

  Warm breath fanned his pectorals as she chuckled. “I’ve never slept with a man after a two-second introduction, but I find I can’t regret my actions.”

  “Regrets never do anyone any good,” he told her.

  She giggled. “While multiple orgasms do a whole lot of good.”

  She had no idea.

  Need arose, and he considered going for round six. Problem was, good sex required half an hour, at the very least, and his men awaited him in the training arena. He could spare another five minutes, perhaps, but no more.

  The surviving dragon shape-shifters would return and attack; they would be willing to do anything to regain ownership of the fortress.

  He sighed. “I must go.”

  Moans of disappointed erupted.

  “Are you sure?” The black beauty wrapped her fingers around the base of his erection. “Because your body says I want to stay.”

  Three sets of hands and breasts were suddenly all over him. Hot, greedy mouths sucked at him. Wet, needy female cores rubbed against him. The scent of desire enveloped him, and he gnashed his teeth, wanting, needing, to please.

  The blessing and curse of a nymph.

  “Ladies—” he began.

  “Just being near you makes me desperate to come.” The plump redhead with her deliciously ample curves purred at him.

  “I can’t get enough of you.”

  “I’m addicted to you and pretty sure I’ll die without you.”

  He ignored the fiery heat that ignited in his blood. At times, when the need overwhelmed him, he was reduced to an animalistic state, taking his lovers with a savage intensity better suited for the battlefield.

  Valerian leaped from the bed and swept up his leathers. The women pouted as he dressed and strapped on his weapons.