Atlantis Series Complete Collection

by Gena Showalter

  She kept her gaze on his chest, not daring to look down, where he was thick and ready.

  A tremble swept through her. In fear? In yearning?

  “Yes,” she finally whispered. “But—”

  “No buts.” Something inside him lurched. “Do you want my kiss…my touch…?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “No buts.” Triumph bloomed alongside relief. “You look so beautiful on my bed, Moon, with your hair draped over your shoulders, your legs stretched in front of you. But…”

  “No buts,” she said.

  “In this case, I’ll make an exception.” He let his hands and knees fall on the mattress. Slowly he crawled forward.

  Eyes wide, she tried to scoot back even farther. The wall blocked any escape.

  “Did you hate the thought of leaving me?” he asked.

  She scowled at him. “Yes, but—”

  “No buts.”

  She pounded a fist into the mattress.

  “You feel the connection between us, I know you do. Give me one chance to convince you to stay. If I fail, I’ll take you home.”

  She gasped.

  His gaze swept over her, and he suddenly wished he possessed the fire of the dragons so he could burn away her clothing. “I know you’ve never been with a man, but have you ever engaged in love play?”

  Stubborn to the end, she pressed her lips together. “That’s none of your business.”

  He paused, his hands on either side of her knees. The fact that she didn’t try to kick him was more telling than she probably knew.

  Untouched. His mate was untouched by any man. He would be her first. Her only. He’d be careful with her.

  “I like that you’re a virgin, Moon.”

  She flicked a piece of lint off her shirt. “That’s hypocritical, don’t you think? You’ve been with thousands.”

  “I’m sorry that I don’t come to you pure.” Nymphs never saved themselves for their mates; they were too sexual, their needs too great. But now he wished he’d waited for her. “Perhaps every other woman was merely practice for the day I met you.”

  She swallowed, bit her lip. “That’s, like, the corniest line I’ve ever heard.”

  “Is it?”

  “For sure.”

  “Is it, though?”

  “Maybe,” she conceded grudgingly.

  Blood heated to a sizzle inside his veins. Possessiveness and pride stormed him as surely as his army had stormed this palace. No man had ever sneaked past this woman’s cool facade to discover the passion underneath, but Valerian was close.

  I will give her so much pleasure she’ll scream and beg for more.

  He crawled the rest of the way up her body, until they were nose to nose. “You fear the unknown. You fear the pleasure I will give you. You think you’ll become a slave to it. To me. So I’ll dispel your fears or I won’t. There’s a chance I could screw this up. Ruin it for you. Then you can leave Atlantis with a clear conscience. You gave it your best shot, and the blame rests on me.” He placed the softest kiss on her lush mouth. “You want to make an informed decision, don’t you?”

  Her mouth parted on a gasp—perhaps a sigh. “I’m not dumb. You’re working this situation to your favor.”

  “To our favor, Moon. Our.”

  Her eyes narrowed in an attempt to hide the emotion banked in their depths. “Yes. Okay? Yes. But are we going to talk all day or are you actually going to get this seduction routine over with?”

  “So I have your permission to touch you?”

  “You have all the permissions!”

  Trying not to grin, he reached out and palmed the fullness of her breast. Her eyes closed, her hips arched slightly, a look of divine pleasure consuming her features.

  Satisfaction speared him. He plucked at her nipple with his fingertips. “Do you hate me when I do this?”

  A moan shuddered past her lips. “It feels…it feels terrible.” He thought she added, “If terrible is the new word for wonderful,” but he couldn’t be sure.

  He loved seeing her cheeks deepen with rosy color—with arousal. “Just think how much worse it will feel when I suck this hard little morsel into my mouth. I hope you can endure.”

  She groaned, a sound so laden with need he responded on a primal level, his muscles clenching, his bones vibrating. When he removed his hand—only for the barest of seconds—her groan became a growl. He slid his fingers under her shirt, gliding over the smooth skin of her stomach, surely the softest, sweetest flesh he’d ever encountered.

  Rapture glowed from her like a halo, and she trembled.

  “Does this make you shudder in revulsion?” he asked, his voice strained. His fingertip brushed the underside of her breast.

  “Shudder,” she gasped.

  “Me, too. Oh, me, too.” He held up his hand, his fingers quaking. “I’m disgusted.”

  “Yes, oh, yes. It’s the…worst thing…ever,” she said, panting. “Don’t stop.”

  * * *

  i should so make him stop, Shaye thought. Should make him stop…in just a…little while. This was crazy.

  His fingers were white-hot, searing, and everywhere they touched, a fire kindled below the surface of her skin.

  Her mind blanked; she was consumed only with pleasure as his hand closed over her bare breast. Instinctively she parted her legs, a silent invitation for him to pin her completely.

  He didn’t accept. In fact, he lifted slightly.

  She almost cursed him.

  With his other hand, he inched up the hem of her shirt. “If I cover you, I’ll take you,” he explained. “I need to see you first.”

  “Yes,” she said, wondering who this passionate creature was. Not Shaye, surely. She wasn’t concerned with either of their pasts, or what would happen once the loving was finished; she lifted her hips to give him easier access. His erection rubbed against her belly, and she hissed. He hissed. The absolute pleasure…the wild sensations.

  “Mmm, yes,” she said. “I like. No, hate. I hate. Stroke it against me.”

  “Like this.” He pressed his erection between her legs and stroked uuuup.

  Her stomach tightened, quivered. “Yes.” She arched her hips for another go.

  “That one was free. You want another one, you’re going to have to pay for it.” Valerian pushed the collar of her gown beneath her breasts, baring them to his gaze.

  Cool air around her—and yet the heat in his fingertips burned her.

  “Like this,” he rasped, licking his lips. “So beautiful. So perfect.”

  “Payment through stripping. Got it.” She plumped both breasts. “I think I like my job. Or hate it. Yes, I meant I hate it.”

  His pupils basically exploded. “I have to taste them. Have to have those sweet little beads in my mouth.”

  She had an unquenchable desire to feel him knead her breasts and slide and pump and grind inside her. To know and understand how people became slaves to their emotions over this one act.

  So much better to be informed, just like Valerian had said.

  He closed his fingers over her wrist. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Passion,” she admitted. “Sex.”

  “Look at me. Show me your passion.”

  Her gaze jerked to him, and she stilled, amazed by what she saw. He was drinking in the sight of her as if she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever beheld. As if her too-pale skin and her average-size breasts topped his Christmas list.

  “I’m thinking that I’ve never seen a more wondrous sight. Your loveliness captivates me,” he said, his tone reverent.

  Her mind struggled to believe. “You’ve been with a thousand women,” she reminded him softly. “A thousand times more beautiful than me.” He might want those women again after he’d had her—she was going to be a disappointment, wasn’t she?

  “None are more beautiful than you, love. Now or ever.”

  “I’m nothing,” she insisted. “I’m—”

  “Everything.” O
ne of his hands cupped her jaw, and his thumb caressed the side of her face. He forced her to look at him, to see him. “You are everything to me.”

  “You don’t know…” But he did. He was learning all about her. Her argument that they were strangers no longer held any sway.

  It was just…people didn’t say beautiful things like that to her.

  Tears stung her eyes, and she scrubbed them away. She’d always prided herself on her independence, on her lack of need for another’s approval. And she still didn’t need someone else’s approval; her worth wasn’t based on his opinion. But truth was power and the things Valerian said to her…they were truth to him. They mattered. They empowered.

  He wiped those tears with his thumbs, his touch gentle.

  He was poised above her, his big, hard body illuminated by a golden glow of light. Muscles bunched, strength and arousal exuded from him in mouthwatering waves. His stomach was ripped and hard. His penis stretched toward her center, so thick and hard, reaching for her. A sprinkling of golden hair surrounded the heavy weight of his testicles.

  The sight of him, this god of beauty and sex, made her breathless. “You—” she cleared her throat “—aren’t bad-looking, either,” she said. She’d never given a man a compliment before; she always shoved the opposite sex out of her life as quickly as one entered. And Valerian already had an ego.

  His lips twitched. “I’m glad you don’t find me ugly.”

  “Yes. Be very glad.”

  Inch by agonizing inch, he lowered his head, giving her time to protest, but a gasp of anticipation caught in her windpipe. She could say nothing…finally, blessedly his mouth closed over her nipple, surrounding it with moist heat. When his tongue flicked back and forth against the aching bud, her hand tangled in his hair, holding his head in place. He kneaded her other breast, and the double sensation had her hips writhing.

  “Did I not promise you it would feel terrible?”

  “Awful, just awful. Don’t stop.”

  “Stop? Oh, no. You make me feel feverish, as if my very life depends on you.” He sucked hard, and she groaned at the pleasure-pain of it, then he licked away the sting and she moaned at the heady bliss. “When a nymph makes love with his mate, he becomes completely absorbed in the act, ferocious and bestial. Nothing else matters except the woman in his arms.”

  I need him the way he needs me, she thought with a yearning she’d never before experienced. I do. I really do.

  With the admission, something cracked and crumbled inside her. The last vestiges of her resistance? Fear? Doubt? Her anger over her abduction, perhaps? They were suddenly gone, replaced by a need to know him, all of him—in that moment he became more important to her than breathing.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist, locked her ankles and jerked him on top of her. All of his weight suddenly pinned her, and it was pure blissful. She savored, reveled in the exquisite press of him. Basked in her first true taste of capitulation. No more denying her needs, no more ignoring her secret wants.

  “Shaye?” he said, his voice hoarse. He closed his eyes in sweet surrender, his expression entranced, shocked, awed.

  “Valerian.”

  He nipped at her collarbone, licked up and down her neck. His fingers glided under her gown and panties, to the center of her being.

  She nearly screamed as she arched her hips to urge him further.

  “Most women think this is the most pleasure-receptive place on their bodies.” His fingers pinched her drenched core lightly. And with that one touch, she almost reached the gates of paradise. So close to climax…so close…

  “They’d be right,” she managed on a pant.

  “No, they are wrong.” He slid a finger through her damp folds and into the very heat of her. “Small,” he said, his voice strained. Sweat trickled from his temples. “Tight. Wonderful.”

  Had she thought she’d neared paradise before? Not even close. Her feminine walls clamped around him, holding him captive. In and out he moved slowly, and it was sheer torture. She gasped, then gasped his name, then gasped a curse.

  “Some women think this rhythm is the cause of their desire.”

  “Are they…wrong, too?” Oh, my wow. She was on fire. Her cells were traveling through her bloodstream at full speed, scorching everything in their path.

  “Oh, yes. They are wrong.”

  He continued sliding those fingers into her, and her stomach coiled, tensed; her leg muscles quivered around him. Orgasm teetered on the sweet brink of arrival.

  “Valerian,” she beseeched.

  “Oh, but I like my name on your lips.” His thumb brushed her aching core.

  Her head thrashed from side to side. She burned, so hot, nearing explosion. “Show me the most pleasure-receptive place on my body.” She had to come. Had to…would die…soon…

  “For a kiss,” he said, wanting to bargain even now. “I’ll give you the world for a single kiss.”

  “Don’t want the world. Want you.”

  “Shaye. My Shaye.”

  She meshed her lips into his. The moment his tongue collided with hers, his taste filled her mouth. The exquisite sensations between her legs intensified. She unlocked her ankles, letting her knees fall onto the bed, spreading as wide as the hem of her dress allowed, opening herself for whatever he might do.

  Lost in passion like this, she was exactly what she’d feared: a slave to it, desperate for it. But she didn’t care. The kiss was hard and hot and only became harder and hotter. Tongues battled, teeth clashed. Valerian’s fingers continued to pump her, sinking in and out, as frantic and insatiable as the kiss.

  But then, suddenly, he stopped. Stopped the kiss, stopped the motion of his fingers. Her body throbbed, and a sob nearly burst from her lips.

  “What are you doing?” she said on a moan. She tangled her hands in his hair and tried to force his mouth back to hers.

  Finally she’d allowed herself to enjoy a man, and he stopped?

  “Now I will show you where you are most sensitive, where you will verge on climax every time I touch you.”

  Hmm. Yes. “Hurry.”

  Sweat continued to trickle from his temples. The lines of tension around his eyes had deepened, bracketing his features. He, too, needed relief, she realized. Did he ache with an almost unquenchable ferocity like she did? Was he desperate, eager? Did he feel like he would blast past the stars if he didn’t touch her again?

  His lips brushed her softly, once, twice. “Your taste…it’s like no one else’s, and it’s addictive. I think I would die without it.”

  Darling man.

  Touch me. Make love to me. “Valerian, I’m glad you like how I taste, I am, but I shouldn’t have to remind you that you’ve got a point to prove here.”

  He chuckled. “You’re right. I just need to look at you a moment longer and savor the sight of you. Very soon I will strip you completely. I’ll slide your pants over your legs and feast between them. Until then, I’ll concentrate on—”

  As he spoke, the image he painted consumed her mind. There, in her thoughts, he was stripping her. He was lowering his head to lick her on—

  “Your ankles,” he rasped. “I bring your foot to my mouth and lick—”

  —the arch of her foot, gliding his tongue slowly. His mouth moved up her calf, swirling little hearts over her skin before—

  “I’ll bite your inner thigh. You’ll pant and writhe, like you’re doing now, and you’ll grow even wetter for me. So wet. You’ll bring your own hand between your legs so I can watch you touch yourself. You—”

  —circle her finger over her feminine heart, watching him all the while. In her mind, his eyes lowered to half-mast and his hand curled around the base of his length, moving up and down. He told her how much he wanted her mouth to replace his hand, how much he wanted his mouth to replace hers. Then he kissed her…deep, so deep…but it—

  “—isn’t enough. I crave another taste of you, Moon. A more intimate taste, and talking about it will never be eno
ugh. I’ll lower my head between your legs. Your hands will grasp my hair, pulling roughly because you’re so far gone with need you aren’t able to control your reactions.”

  She couldn’t control her reactions now.

  Shaye writhed, insatiable. She still wore her pants, but the material actually made her feel as if phantom hands were at work between her legs. As if a phantom tongue licked and lapped at her. She groaned, her breath burning her throat.

  “Valerian, Valerian,” she chanted. “Valerian, please.”

  “Please what?” His voice was rough, so rough. Husky, so husky.

  “Please finish me.”

  “But I’m still savoring you.”

  “Savor later. Show me the most erotic place on my body, right this second. I’m considering killing you!”

  “I’m going to die of pleasure anyway.” His voice broke with arousal. He pinched her neediness again, and she nearly jumped off the bed. The decadent sensations were acute, almost painful. “I’m going to taste you here before I love you,” he said. “And when I love you, you’re going to know the most pleasure-receptive place on my body.”

  “Your penis?” she gasped out. She was almost beyond speech. It was too much. He was too much. His words, his actions. His very essence.

  “No, my—”

  “My king,” a voice said urgently.

  Valerian stilled. He growled low in his throat, and it was an animal sound. A killing sound.

  A moment passed before Shaye realized what was going on. There was a warrior standing at the edge of the bed, his eyes on Valerian, his expression concerned.

  Losing her passion haze, she screamed and scrambled for the bedcovers. Mortification bombarded her as she covered her bare breasts. Yet still she ached for Valerian.

  “Turn around, Broderick,” he growled. His teeth bared in a fierce, lethal scowl. “Or lose your eyes.”

  Broderick instantly turned. “My apologies, my lord, but—”

  “Leave us, or lose your head.”

  “Decapitate me if you must, but not until after you’ve heard my news. The dragons,” Broderick said. He didn’t leave as he’d been commanded. “They’re back. They’re back with larger forces, Darius, their king, at the helm. They’re headed for the palace, clearly intent on war.”