Stop mooning. Get to work.
Right. Silent, she cleaned and bandaged Joachim’s wounds, glad to see there were no signs of infection.
He should have been able to leave the bed by now, at least for short periods of time, but he was still too weak.
“If you’re going to heal the rest of the way,” she told him, “I think Valerian will need to let you…you know.”
He arched a brow. “Are you offering?”
“No?” She cleared her throat. “No. Definitely not.”
Just as she was finishing up, a new man stepped inside the room. He carried a long, menacing sword; ice crystalized in her veins. She tried to dive under the bed, but Joachim latched on to her and pulled her onto the bed, behind him.
The action surprised and terrified her. Too abrupt! Too suggestive!
A soft whimper escaped her.
“You have nothing to fear, female. Nothing and no one will harm you while I’m with you.”
“You’re needed in the dining hall, Shivawn,” the intruder said.
Shivawn looked at her, then Joachim, ignoring the stranger. He frowned. They weren’t under attack? She crawled to her feet and rubbed her side, where she’d been pressed against Joachim. Her skin tingled.
“Did he hurt you?” Shivawn demanded.
Her mind replayed the entire episode, and she shook her head no. She thought…she thought Joachim might have been using his injured body as a shield.
In doing so, he’d reopened his wound.
“Valerian has summoned you,” the stranger added impatiently. “Now, not later.”
Shivawn flicked the man an irritated glare before closing the distance to give her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “I hate to leave you, but I must obey the king. Do you need to stay here or do you wish to go with me?”
Panic sprouted wings inside her chest. She didn’t want him to go, but she didn’t want to leave Joachim like this, either.
“I’ll stay.” She would be brave. And she wouldn’t allow Joachim to affect or scare her.
Easier said than done.
Shivawn gave the warrior a brief but dark look, gently caressed Brenna’s cheek before striding into the hallway, following the messenger.
Suddenly Brenna and Joachim were alone.
I can do this. I can! Joachim’s too weak to harm me.
Slowly she eased back onto the bed. She was careful not to look into his eyes, those blue, blue eyes that seemed to cut straight to her soul. Her fingers shook as she unwrapped the bandages. New stitches wouldn’t be needed; compression could do the trick.
“I’m Joachim,” he said, breaking the silence.
“I know.” Her voice trembled as much as her hands. “You shouldn’t have challenged the king.” His nostrils flared in fury but still she forged ahead. “Strength lies in compassion not rage.”
A charge thickened the air, and she guessed he would soon be yelling at her. Instead, he changed the subject, admitting grudgingly, “I’ve thought of you all week.” Half pain, half accusation. “I can’t seem to get you out of my mind.”
Her gaze skipped to his, and she gasped at what she saw. Desire. White-hot desire.
Her hands stilled, remaining poised over his thigh. She had a sheet draped over his middle to protect her modesty rather than his, but that sheet began to tent.
“Every time you come near me, there’s fear in your eyes,” he said, still speaking low, his voice heated. “But I also detect interest.”
She bit her lip and shook her head. She wouldn’t admit to any type of interest. That would only encourage him. But…
“Talk to me, Brenna,” he said. “Tell me how I can put you at ease. Tell me what caused this fear in the first place.”
She never would have expected such a quiet beseeching from such a power-hungry warlord. Her throat constricted, making it difficult to speak.
“Better yet,” he added, “tell me everything.”
* * *
JOACHIM TILTED HIS HEAD to regard Brenna more intently. “I want to know everything about you,” he reiterated. Already he knew her smell—the violets and the sunshine he’d encountered too briefly on the surface. He knew her voice—scratchy and harsh but also beautiful.
Now he wanted to know her past. Her likes. Her dislikes. All the things that made her Brenna, the woman who obsessed him more with every second that passed.
Strength lies in compassion, she’d said. He’d wanted to snort but hadn’t. There was truth in her words.
“We’ll begin with something easy,” he said. “What’s your favorite color?”
She glanced at the door, as if wondering if she should stay and talk or run. “Blue,” she finally replied.
If she were his woman, he would give her all the sapphires he owned. “Do you have family?” A family she missed? Wished to return to?
She shook her head. “Dead.”
He shouldn’t have felt relieved. The deaths must have caused her pain. “How did you lose them?”
“Mostly of sickness, though I had two cousins die in a car accident.”
Car? He was intrigued by a “car” that could kill two people at once. “I’m sorry for your loss, little one.”
Features shadowed, she waved a hand through the air. That hand was shaking, he noticed. “Happened a long time ago,” her broken voice stated.
He wanted to grab her and kiss her, anything to wipe away those shadows; he ended up fisting the sheets to keep his hands at his sides. “Do you like this new world? Atlantis?”
Her gaze drifted away from him, landing on the wall behind him. She shook her head.
“Why not?” Disappointment hummed through him. He’d hoped she’d already come to love it as he did.
“Scary,” she admitted softly. She traced a fingertip over the sheet.
“You are frightened of everyone, not just me?”
She merely shrugged.
“I told you. I’ll never hurt you, Brenna.” He made the vow as gently as his fierce timbre would allow. “You have my word.”
A shiver stole through her. “You might not mean to, but—”
“No. To me, never means never.”
Shivawn strode back into the room. “What are you saying to her, Joachim?”
Brenna jolted to her feet, looking between them with a resurgence of fear in her eyes.
“Watch your tone, boy,” Joachim snapped. “You’re frightening her.”
Shivawn’s features instantly softened. “I’m sorry,” he said to her. “Valerian asked me to oversee a search party for oranges, but I’m here now. I’m not angry, I promise you.”
* * *
BRENNA GAZED BETWEEN the two men, her eyes as wide as saucers. Her…suitors? They were doing everything in their power to comfort her, and they were actually succeeding!
They wanted to kill each other, but her fear was dissipating.
How are they doing this to me?
An image of naked, straining bodies flashed through her mind, and she gasped. Once again, she couldn’t see her lover’s face; however, the image was so lifelike she could hear the pleasure moans rising from the couple. Nerve endings long forgotten began to stir with new life.
Joachim bared his teeth as he hissed in a breath. “You’re aroused. I can smell it on you.”
Her cheeks heated to a blazing inferno. He could truly smell it?
“I can, too,” Shivawn said with a groan. “Brenna…”
He took a step toward her, but again, there was no fear inside her. What’s wrong with me? What’s happening to me? This wasn’t like her. At all!
Joachim eased to a sitting position, and he appeared stronger than he had all week. “You are in need of a man, Brenna, but you are afraid of your desire, yes? You must be, to resist.”
“Yes,” Shivawn answered for her. “She is afraid.”
“Have you ever been with a man?” Joachim asked her.
Unable to breathe, she nodded. Run. She should run.
“Did you like
it?” Shivawn asked.
Another nod. She should run and never look back, but part of her was strangely relieved to have this out in the open.
“The man who hurt you and damaged your voice,” Joachim persisted. “Did he make you afraid of sex?”
She hesitated for a long while, finally opting for the truth. “Yes.”
Both men growled low in their throats, as if they wanted to kill Ethan with their bare hands. Still the fear did not return.
“I understand now,” Shivawn said. “Once a woman has been forced, any new experience can be difficult for her.”
“Yes,” Joachim said. “I, too, understand.” His voice sounded far away, a lot weaker. The strength he’d rallied had already drained.
“Joachim?” she said, concern for him making her forget all else.
He fell back onto the bed, and his head lolled onto the pillow, his skin draining of color.
She hurried to him to check his vitals. “You’ll be okay.” She placed a glass at his lips and helped him sip the water.
“Dizzy. Weak,” he admitted, the condition clearly enraging him. “Shouldn’t have moved.”
She could tell the lack of strength did more than enrage him; it also unnerved him. As a fighter, he was probably used to absolute control. Hadn’t he admitted to liking and respecting the king, but not wanting to take orders anymore?
At last, bits of her fear returned. Control was something she valued, as well. She couldn’t relinquish a speck of hers, no matter how aroused she became. And to be with either one of these men she’d have to give up all control.
She beat feet to the door.
When he realized she intended to leave, Joachim uttered an abrupt, “Stay.”
A command. Oh, yes, he expected absolute obedience from her. He was to be master and commander and she the slave.
She ignored him, continuing on.
“Brenna,” he said. He tried to sit up again, despite his deplorable condition, but strength abandoned him. “I won’t always be so weak.” There was a warning in his tone. “One day I’ll come for you.”
She stopped. Just stopped. She stood beside Shivawn. Her gaze swept over him before returning to Joachim. Both males were so beautiful it almost hurt to look at them. For a moment, she actually wished someone would reach for her…touch her…kiss her…sink inside her.
No, not someone. Shivawn. Only Shivawn. He could give her back everything she’d lost. Hope. Companionship. Passion. But it wasn’t green eyes she spied inside her mind, staring down at her.
Her mystery lover’s eyes were blue.
She scrubbed a hand over her face, trying to block the image.
How could someone like Joachim arouse her like this when no man had been able to do so for years?
“I won’t hurt you,” Shivawn said. He held up his hands, all innocence.
“Come to me, Brenna,” Joachim intoned.
“No,” she told Shivawn, and Joachim grinned.
“No,” she told Joachim, wiping away his smugness. Better to be without both of them.
“I want to know you,” Shivawn said. His voice was gentle. “I’ll keep you safe. I won’t let anyone else hurt you.”
“Don’t allow your need for safety destroy your love of life. I can teach you to conquer your fear and live again,” Joachim told her.
Shivawn faced Joachim, and the two squared off. “I can teach her to conquer her fear, too.”
“Maybe. But you’ll never make her happy,” Joachim snapped. “This, I know.”
Perhaps neither of them could make her happy. The knowledge overwhelmed her with a keen sense of disappointment. For with the return of his anger, Joachim had reminded her of exactly why she would never give herself to him. If he ever directed that anger at her, he would kill her.
Control, she reminded herself.
Brenna raced out of the room before she did something stupid. Like cry.
* * *
SHIVAWN DIDN’T FOLLOW her but remained in the room. For a long while he and Joachim didn’t speak.
“I want her,” Joachim admitted softly.
Shivawn’s hands tightened into fists. He’d known that, but hearing the words… “I want her, too, and she’s my woman. Who do you think will get her?”
“I’ll challenge you for her,” Joachim grated.
“Challenge not accepted. She looked at me with desire, and I find I crave that look again.”
“That desire was for me, boy. Me. Anything you saw was merely a reflection of that.”
Shivawn frowned. Yes, she had looked at Joachim with desire. More desire than a woman had ever projected at him, and the realization didn’t settle well.
Frustrated, he tossed his arms in the air. “So where does that leave us?”
“Give her to me, and it leaves you alive and well.”
“No.”
Joachim stroked his chin with two fingers. “I’ll not give up. I’ll pursue her.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Merely a warning. I want her, and I will do anything to win her.”
Anger pricked, Shivawn nearly drew his sword. He felt protective of Brenna, wanted her to be happy, and couldn’t stand to think of such a delicate creature bonded to this power-hungry warrior. “If you scare her, I’ll kill you. Do you understand me? Unlike Valerian, I’ll show you no mercy.”
A dark cloud descended over Joachim’s face. “I would never scare her.”
“Ha! You scared her with your forcefulness. That’s why she ran.”
“Don’t try to pretend you know her or her reasons, and don’t pretend you know what she needs. You scared her just as badly or she would have given herself to you by now.”
“Perhaps she will. Tonight,” Shivawn taunted.
Fury exploded in Joachim’s eyes. “No. She’ll never give herself to you. That, I also know, because you’ll never understand her the way I do.”
His teeth clenched. “You? How do you think to understand her?”
“That you have to ask proves my point for me.”
* * *
JOACHIM CLOSED his eyes, bringing Brenna’s innocent face to the forefront of his mind. Someone had hurt her during sex—someone who would feel the end of his sword one day soon. If he had to travel to the surface, he would.
He would stake his life on the fact that Brenna had once been a woman of passion and vitality. There was a spark in her eyes she just couldn’t hide. Deep inside, no matter how strong her fears, she had to crave that type of life again.
The more time he’d spent with her, the more he’d looked at her, the more he’d scented her, the more he’d wanted her. Today he’d begun to suspect…
She was his mate.
No, impossible. He would have known right away. At a glance. A sniff. Yes? She couldn’t be his.
Unlike other nymphs, he’d never wanted to find his one and only. Relying on a specific person for his strength? Abhorrent! But…he hadn’t realized he would like the idea of the woman being reliant on him, as well. Or that she would be his partner. She would always support him. Would choose him above all others. She would love him even when everyone else hated him.
Suddenly he understood the appeal.
He could win her from Shivawn; he knew he could. She’d looked at Joachim with the first tendrils of passion, and he knew she wouldn’t be happy with anyone else. He just needed time to prove it to her.
When she’d looked at Shivawn, there’d been no passion. Desire, yes, but it hadn’t been sexual. It had been…grateful, like a child with her mother.
She felt safe with the other male—safer than she felt with Joachim.
He wouldn’t be able to claim her until he’d reversed the situation. And he would. Whatever proved necessary, he would do.
More than he wanted his own satisfaction, he wanted hers.
Perhaps she was his mate. But how could he have missed her importance to him, even for a second? Her fear of him?
Yes. Of course. Had he known what sh
e was to him, he would have pounced immediately. She wouldn’t have been ready for him, and he would have frightened her beyond repair. His instincts to protect her had hidden the truth from him.
Strength lies in compassion. Again her words played through his mind. Compassion…something she clearly valued.
Because she herself hadn’t received any?
Once he was healed, there would be no stopping his pursuit of her.
“I will have her, Shivawn,” he said. “It’s me she will always crave in her bed.”
A muscle ticked in Shivawn’s jaw. “You’re wrong. She wants safety. To her, I am calm and you are the storm.”
“A man can change.”
“Not easily.”
No. Not easily.
* * *
POSEIDON HUMMED with relish. Waves whirled and crashed against him, their cerulean beauty lethal to mere mortals. He tasted salt in his mouth, smelled it in his nose—the scent mixed with terror.
No Atlantean was permitted to enter the surface world. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. A guardian of the portal could enter, but only to kill anyone who’d escaped the underwater city. None of the nymphs were guardians—and they had entered anyway, it seemed.
Now Poseidon would have to punish them.
“Let me get this straight. You saw nymphs steal human women from the surface world and bring them into Atlantis?” he said, his voice booming across the ocean floor. Sand jumped, floating high in the water; pink and white coral vibrated. Colorful fish darted in every direction, desperate to escape his vicinity.
Two mermaids bowed their heads. Both possessed hair as inky black as the night, the tresses blending together, floating around their delicate shoulders.
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“Through the portal?” he insisted. He slammed the end of his trident into the marble base he stood upon, cracking it from one end to the other. This was the most excitement he’d experienced in ages.
“Yes,” both women repeated, now trembling.
Poseidon’s lips lifted slowly as he stepped from the dais, his white robe dancing around his ankles. From where he stood, he could see the huge crystal dome encompassing the cursed city.
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