“We all spent the night in the hospital. I woke up screaming. Too much stress; I didn’t sleep well for several weeks. It took days until I would go through my dive gear. When I did, I found this. She extended her left leg.â€�
Xerxes knew she wore an ankle bracelet but he hadn’t really looked at it. Now he did. “Where did you find that?â€� He sat next to her, instinctively putting his arm protectively around her.
“On the dive site only a few minutes before the accident, the day you rescued us. After I started wearing it, I was fine. I never had another nightmare or bad dream until just before I found the Pyramid. Almost like subconsciously I knew I was going to find the Pyramid and then possibly, I knew you would find me again.�
“Do you know what it is?� Xerxes asked her, looking into her eyes.
“I do now. When I first found it, we - my parents and I, thought it was a relic from the shipwreck, now I know now it belonged to Cleopatra. It’s from here isn’t it?â€�
“Yes. You are lucky to have found it. I had it in my pocket and lost it. I had taken it from the archives. I was going to have it cleaned and the latch repaired by a jeweler in West Palm Beach as a gift for my stepmother. I used that as a reason to go to West Palm that day and for my dive.â€� Xerxes looked like a small boy who’d been caught stealing. In a manner of speaking he had been. “I had to convince the Curator of that Department to allow me to have it as a gift for her. He was not happy that I had lost it. In fact I don’t think he has ever forgiven me.â€� Xerxes thought about Councilman Marcus who was the Head of the Archaeology Department.
“We had a jeweler we have always dealt with and know we can trust clean it. I don’t think he knew what it was.â€� She shrugged, “How often since then have you watched me?â€� Jessica asked, and leaned closer to him, feeling safe in his arms.
“On and off occasionally,â€� Xerxes hugged her then stood, going to the bar and poured them each a glass of brandy. “But why did your bad dreams return after my visit to your tent?â€� Xerxes didn’t want to feel he had caused her pain. He handed her a glass of the strong aged, Napoleon Brandy and rejoined her on the sofa.
“It was before you came to my tent that the dreams returned.â€� she sighed, “Just before I found the Pyramid really, almost like a premonition. Afterwards, your eyes haunted my dreams, mystifying me. After the Aztec thing…â€� Jessica sighed. “I remembered more than I told the FBI, the Sheriff or Bruce. I remembered your face and, of course, your eyes,” her face flushed, “and I remembered your kisses. Your phone calls about drove me nuts.â€� She slugged him playfully in the arm and took a long sip of the brandy.
“I was glad you gave me cause to abduct you, but it has put you in danger too. For that I am sorry, and about your parents. I must admit,� Xerxes looked out the view windows at the beautiful world around Atlantis, “I did not give consideration to that aspect of your removal from the upper-world. Later today, when you do speak with them it will be a short call and you must not, under any circumstance tell them where you are. Tell them you are on assignment for the government, if you wish. However, I do not like you having to lie to them.�
“Xerxes, I am grateful for the call, but that is a short-term, temporary solution.� Jessica made her feelings clear. “I cannot go a lifetime without ever speaking with them in person, or seeing them again. They are my family, I am an only child and I love them.�
“For now, Jessica, it must be this way. I do not propose it will stay this way. Until I can trap this traitor, my options are restricted. I am working on a solution.� Xerxes could plainly see she did not believe him and it hurt him to see she distrusted him. “Would you bring them here to live for the rest of their lives?
“I cannot make that choice, it is enough that my freedom has been compromised, but,� she looked into his eyes, her desire for him clear; “there are compensations for me.�
Xerxes pulled her to him, “Jessica, I know your pain. A way will be found, I swear it to you.� He kissed her and words were not enough to express how he felt. Xerxes found he could no longer deny the desire for his wife, nor the need to comfort the pain he saw in her beautiful brown eyes. He carried her to bed, his desire for her overpowering all else.
Jessica wanted to deny him, “Xerxes, please!� She begged. “Is this all you think of?� She protested and tried to suppress the small amount of humor that snuck into her voice.
“When I think of you, or I am near you, yes!� He said seriously. “It is one of the best ways I know to comfort the pain I see in your eyes. To hold you close and make love to you, as I have longed to.�
She tried to be cold, but her desire for him was greater. She wanted him too. His slightest glance sent her blood racing, his touch made her weak, and his kisses she could not resist. She didn’t hate him, she couldn’t. For all the years since the rescue on the Mitzpah, that one brief encounter, she had loved him and now she was his. Jessica knew fate meant for Xerxes and her to be together. She thought about the old myths she had studied as part of her education to become an archaeologist. The Fates could be cruel and hard taskmasters, and just like the myths of old, their paths ran together closely, touching repeatedly, too often for mere chance or coincidences. It was Xerxes’ fate to dive on the Mitzpah on the day, as it was for her and her family. It was her fate to find the Pyramid. Jessica’s strange dreams of him and their meeting at the mall where they had just stared at each other could not have been a coincidence. Had Xerxes not been predestined to save her from the Aztecs, she was sure she would have died at their hands.
His kisses on her neck and shoulders were distracting her, sending all logical thought from her mind. His lips teased hers, and her blood heated. Jessica’s lips took his and she became the aggressor. She slipped her hands beneath his shirt, her hands caressing his lean muscles, pushing the shirt up, over his heavy biceps, and over his head. She met his eyes and the desire there reflected in her own eyes.
Xerxes speculated if Jessica knew the moment, her silken, perfumed, muscular arms slipped around him, that he became her captive. He knew he loved her, and had for a long time. Watching her from a distance, praying for the time when their lives would touch. At last that time came. Xerxes’ arms surrounded Jessica and he held her tight to kiss her neck and breasts. With deft fingers, he unbuttoned the simple dress she wore and pushed it from her luscious body, Jessica wasn’t one of the skinny, thin women, so popular with the boys of the upper-world, she was a rounded, muscularly fit woman, comfortable to a man’s hand. He nuzzled each precious nipple until she gasped. With one hand still holding her tightly, his other smoothed over her shapely body to move over her buttocks and slip between her legs, Jessica groaned when Xerxes’ hand found the hot, wet well of her sex. Gently he spread the honey of her body through her nether lips, and the tight curls of her pubic mound. Jessica moved closer, though Xerxes had not thought that possible. Jessica was anxious for his touch, and her mouth found his in a fiery kiss, her tongue seared his. Xerxes became lightheaded and he eased them to the bed.
Since the previous night, her hands had become less shy, and they roamed over his body. She had never touched a man’s body in a lover’s embrace before their wedding night, and his defined muscles were a source of wonder to Jessica. Touching with her hands no longer satisfied her, and she placed kisses along his sculpted physique causing his breath to come in short gasps from her explorations. As Jessica became bolder, her slender, delicate fingers caressed Xerxes’ body and caused a sigh to slip from his lips as he teased her right nipple with his tongue. Xerxes looked into Jessica’s flushed face, his aquamarine eyes becoming a deep sea green of turbulent passion. She marveled at the color his eyes became in his passion for her, and drew his lips to hers.
“I hungered for your lips and didn’t know it after y
ou came to my tent.â€� Jessica whispered, “I didn’t understand the sensations that upset me so badly that night.”
Xerxes covered her lips with his, possessing her entire being. “I will always be at your disposal in the future,” he responded in a hoarse voice full of humor.
Jessica protested when he stopped, but Xerxes lips lightly kissed her throat down over her breast to her tight belly to tease her navel, then lower - his hot breath blowing gently through the tangle of dark red curls where his fingers had pleasured only moments past.
“Xerxes!� Jessica protested as his hands parted her legs and slipped a masculine hand to pleasure her delicate femininity, followed by his kisses.
“Hush!� His voice was a low and husky command, as his short kisses sent waves of delights washing through her body. She moaned in her pleasure, her fingers running through his long blonde hair as he moved once more upward over her belly. “There are many pleasures you have yet to learn, my yet innocent wife.� Xerxes told her, looking down into her half closed eyes. Xerxes took his wife slowly, merging gently with her, watching her eyes become a redder brown as he filled her.
“I love you!� He whispered to her, stopping for a short, sweet moment before he began to propel them both into a secret place, hidden in the treasures of lost paradises, where no other human could ever find but them. For Jessica, their journey was a voyage of heightening ecstasy that left her wrapped safely in Xerxes arms and looking into those wonderful eyes that told her she was safe. Smiling, he kissed her and she slept for a time, knowing again that place of peace she would never have believed possible.
Xerxes had to leave her for a time later that day. When he came back to his suite, he found the salon empty, and an uneasy feeling assaulted him, only to be relieved moments later when he found his wife, clad in her undergarments, surrounded by five gowns laid out over the bed and bedroom chairs.
“Which one,� Jessica asked as she turned.
“What?� he asked unaccustomed to making such decisions.
“Which gown should I wear to the wedding?� Jessica asked him.
Xerxes looked around at the beautiful gowns. For years, he had admired the dresses women wore while they were on and sometimes while they were coming off, but never faced with having to choose while they were off…he found it a difficult decision. “I don’t know, try them on.â€�
“Okay,� she modeled each one, and when she had the last one on, he still could not decide. “Not so easy, is it?�
“It is your decision and I’m sure, from what I have observed that whichever one you pick will be perfect.â€� Xerxes informed her eloquently.
“Diplomat!� Jessica flung at him.
“Thank you!� Xerxes bowed politely. “As a Ruler of State, it helps,� he smiled.
Finally, she chose to wear a turquoise gown of satin. It accented her height in its simplicity. Off the left shoulder in the Hellenic fashion, and gathered at the right shoulder, it fit snuggly and showed her graceful figure. Slit up the right side to her thigh, the gown revealed her tanned and beautifully shaped legs provocatively with each step.
Xerxes had tired quickly of her fussing over her apparel, and gone back into their salon. Only to stand leaning against the doorway to call her to dinner as she tried to see the back in the three-way mirror a little later. “Come to dinner.� he told her. “You will look lovely.�
“Can we go for a swim afterwards?� Jessica asked.
“Possibly,� he smiled.
“Possibly? Why not?� Jessica questioned.
“Come let us eat, I am starving.� After dinner, Xerxes bid her to choose a swimsuit from the collection he purchased for her. “You still have some other of our residents to meet.�
“Are they dangerous,� she asked suspiciously.
“They can be, but generally aren’t.”
“Like that Hammerhead shark that separated Bruce and I,� she quipped, remembering the gray twenty feet of death swimming above her.
“He isn’t dangerous; he is a pet,â€� Xerxes assured her.
“A pet,� Jessica exclaimed in exasperation. “Twenty feet of white teeth that would just as soon eat you for a snack?�
“No, that particular Hammerhead is named Hammer, and is a pet. He was on orders to do just what he did. He would not have harmed either of you. In fact he was having a good time carrying out his orders.�
“Oh great. He scared me out of my wits,� Jessica informed him.
“That was what he was meant to do.� Xerxes laughed at her, not realizing she was getting angry with him. Jessica did not have the type of sense of humor that enjoyed being the object of a trick.
“You’re impossible,â€� Jessica stormed past him.
“Jessica, things are different here; we do not make enemies of our fellow creatures. Hammer has been with me since he was born.�
“Oh! I guess his mother was your nursemaid too.�
“Well if you really want to know.� He was teasing her again. She realized and laughed. Jessica donned a lined lace robe that matched her swimsuit and they walked to the swim area.
With Jessica’s hand firmly clasped in his, Xerxes led her from his palace and unlike a monarch in an upper-world kingdom, mingled freely, and without fear, with the citizens of Atlantis. Xerxes, in truth, considered himself little more than an average citizen. It was his responsibility, and duty, to guide Atlantis. For this added obligation went added incentives, and advantages. In this way, he had been, just as had his father and mother had been; he would raise his children to regard their duties, and privileges, in the same manner. He listened to his people. He cared, and he put their interests, security, and well-being first. That was why Xerxes was so incensed, and determined, to stop the traitor that was putting Atlantis’ security at risk. Atlantis, fabled as a perfect society, and it soon became apparent the myth, as with most myths, held some basis in truth. Children, unafraid, ran to Xerxes, who would throw their balls or laugh with them, or he would swing them around. He proudly introduced Jessica, as his new wife, to their parents.
“Who was that?� Jessica asked after one such introduction.
“They are two of our Water Controllers.� Xerxes explained. It was soon clear his people loved and trusted him.
“You told me Pericles was part of your military, how big is Atlantis’ military?â€� Jessica asked, as she looked around at the secure and beautiful world.
“I will explain,â€� Xerxes said as they walked. “Each City-State maintains their own military, coordinated to the size of the population they serve. Atlantis and Pacifica, my brother’s City, are the largest.â€�
“You have a brother?� Jessica asked, surprised. “Is he older, or younger?�
“Yes, he is younger, his name is Ainu and you will meet him at Pericles and Alena’s wedding. He is the High Lord of Pacifica.â€� Xerxes smiled at the surprise on her face, looking forward to his big surprise of her meeting with her parents. “Now as I was explaining.â€� Xerxes nodded to another group of people as they passed. “Each City-State relies on their sister States for support. Our interests are security from detection from the upper-world. We do not make war on each other. Though the numbers of underworld soldiers are much lower than upper-world soldiers, our weaponry and technology is greatly advanced.â€�
“As I have already seen,� Jessica commented dryly, having remembered more about her rescue from the Aztecs after seeing the advancements around her.
“Our smaller City-States, as we do, know we can also depend on our other allies, should the need arise.�
“What other allies?� Jessica asked with slow caution.
“I’ll get to that in a moment, my love,â€� Xerxes said with a sly smile. “Jessica, you must remember, we have existed for many millennia, and our technology has become advanced because we worked together, and because when the off-worlders made first contact, we welcomed them, instead of becoming paranoid, as the upper-worlders have.â€�
“Off-worlders?â€� Jessica’s eyes grew large, her voice soft.
“Yes, we have had trade established for several centuries. We have Ambassadors who make regular visits and we have our Ambassadors who visit with them.�
“Who is…them?� Jessica asked.
“You will meet several of them at the wedding. One reason you have not met my sister, Alena, is that she is off-world now. Alena is our Ambassador to Alpha-Centauri and will arrive with their Ambassador, the day after tomorrow. A minor problem as to why the wedding was delayed.â€� Xerxes laughed at Jessica’s expression. “It is amazing to finally learn, isn’t it, that there is life out there?â€�
“I always knew, but to have it confirmed. Yes, it is amazing.� Jessica agreed.
Xerxes was pleased to have finally gotten Jessica’s mind off her parents, maybe, just maybe, he could keep her busy until after the phone call, and then arrange to get her to the meeting place. “Now,” he continued, “back to our military. Should the upper-world detect us, and decide to attack, they would quickly find that, although we are not as large as they are, we are capable of self-defense. However, their biggest surprise would come in how we would defend ourselves. By use of stealth and utter surprise, we have a weapon that is able to neutralize their most fearsome weapons, totally neutralizing them. Thanks to the Alpha-Centaurians, we can immobilize large numbers of troops without loss of life. Killing is abhorrent to us. We truly want to live in security and peace.â€� Xerxes explained. “We will; however, defend ourselves, as you have seen.â€� In this way, Xerxes presented his World to his wife.
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