Atlantis Allure

by eXtasy's Collective Mind

  At last she pulled her new gown over her head, letting the rough towel fall to the floor. “Merilee,” she said, pointing at herself, when they were back in the main room. Then she turned her finger towards her guest and spread her hands in a silent question. “Haln,” her visitor said.

  “I assume you want to serve your new sister-in-law breakfast,” her uncle said. “We still have some food and wine left in this cupboard.”

  “Don’t you want to eat with us?” she asked hastily, as her eyes silently begged him not to abandon her to this strange visitor.

  “I have had breakfast already,” he answered calmly. “I will leave you two ladies alone so you can get to know each other.”

  She stared desperately at the door as he made his way around it. Then she forced herself to turn back to her guest. Doing her best to smile, she gestured Haln towards the wooden table and busied herself serving her.

  Apparently Haln, too, had already eaten her breakfast and was hungry for something else entirely. Before her hostess could sit down, the woman stepped quickly towards her, grasped her arm and kissed her hard on the lips.

  Then the guest pulled down her sister-in-law’s bodice and ran her tongue across each of her nipples in turn. At the same time, she pressed her lower body against Merilee’s, through its sheer white draperies.

  To her own horror, Merilee could feel her nipples growing hard in response as a flame of desire shot through her down to her very core. Still, she struggled furiously until she pushed the other woman away. Then she shook her head violently. Obviously, her guest had gotten her message, because she strode out angrily. Her relief soon turned to dismay as the frowning woman returned with Uncle Hubert in tow.

  “It seems you have made her angry,” he said mildly.

  “I have made her angry! What do you think she did to me? I’ll have you know she tried to kiss me and not in any sisterly way.”

  “No,” he answered, with a faint smile. “I would not think so. But I believe you have realized by now that their ways are not like yours.”

  “Or like anyone’s on Earth!” she gasped. “I believe they must be space aliens. No wonder they are so attractive…those must be masks they wear. Who knows what they look like underneath?”

  To her surprise, he laughed. “Well, that is one theory,” he told her. “But wherever they came from, you have insulted your sister-in-law.”

  “I have insulted her?”

  “Yes, and I think you had better make it up to her. One kiss won’t hurt, will it?”

  In fact, it did not hurt at all. As Merilee forced herself to approach the other woman, she saw Haln close those bright blue eyes that were so like her brother’s. When she pressed her own thin lips against her husband’s sister’s open mouth, she felt another flood of longing. She would have forced herself to pull away if her sister-in-law had not wound her arms around her and pulled her close. Pressed against those full, firm breasts, she felt a longing she had never known before.

  It is only because I am lonely for my husband, who looks like his sister, she assured herself. Otherwise, no woman could ever arouse me, no matter how beautiful she was. That thought gave her the strength to free herself gently from the other woman’s grasp. To her relief, Haln seemed satisfied…for the moment, at least. When her sister-in-law reached out for her hand, she did not take it away. Instead, she let the other woman lead her out into the bright daylight.

  As they walked down the wooden path, they saw men and women reaching up to pick berries off the trees. Wearing only coarse garments that reached their knees, these workers kept their gazes turned carefully upward as the two women passed. Their eyes flickered down towards the two women though, until a sharp rebuke from Haln made them quickly turn away.

  They are afraid of us, Merilee realized. They want only to look at us, yet we have made them too terrified to do it. What kind of people am I living with? Where on Earth could they come from?

  From nowhere on Earth, she realized. The thought stopped her dead in her tracks. Just as I suspected, my hosts must be aliens from another world. They have abducted these poor people to serve as their slaves. That is why the men live together in their barracks…to keep the Earthlings under control. I must be careful to show that I accept their ways, or they will force me into slavery, too.

  So she kept following Haln obediently, smiling at everything the other woman pointed out to her…which was usually another work gang. It was a welcome relief when her sister-in-law led her into her own house, which was very much like Merilee’s own.

  Two little girls were playing with women who were dressed like the other servants. The children stopped their game when Haln and Merilee entered and ran to greet them. As their mother lifted the smaller child into her arms, her guest realized there were no boys here. In such a warlike society, Marilee suspected that they probably started their training at an early age.

  She could barely wait for their day to end when she could tell her uncle what she had discovered.

  “Very good,” he told her.

  “So you think I am right?”

  Again, he smiled faintly. “Half right, at least.” Despite her urging, he refused to reveal which half that was.

  * * * *

  She forgot her annoying uncle when her new husband came to her that night. She even forgot to wonder what kind of space monster he might really be. But when she reached out her arms to him eagerly, he gently took them from around his neck and led her outside. Her uncle followed behind him.

  Hek and Haln were waiting from them there. From the eager way Hurk led them, often turning back to be sure they were following, they were obviously headed for some sort of amusement.

  Merilee smiled and nodded as eagerly as she could, hiding her disappointment. She had been hoping for an entirely different pastime that night. She was even less pleased when the two men left her alone with Haln in the stone amphitheater and went off to join the other soldiers.

  Still, the event promised to be entertaining. She could tell that from the excitement the Atlanteans showed as they took their places on the wooden benches. “Do you think we are going to see a play?” she asked her uncle. He smiled in his usual infuriating way.

  “I doubt it very much, he answered. “For one thing, if I am right about these people, they do not approve of the theater at all. For another, look at those nine posts in the arena. That suggests some kind of athletic contest to me.”

  “Do you have any idea what it is?”

  “Actually, I do. But I’d rather wait until you can see it for yourself.”

  A burst of cheering told her she would not have to wait long. Eight young men were marching proudly onto the field. Their bare chests glittered above their leather skirts in the light from the torches that surrounded the arena.

  “What do you think their sport will be?” she asked uneasily.

  “Not really a sport as we know it,” he answered, with his faint smile. “Probably more like a graduation ceremony from military training to the army because they have just reached the traditional age of manhood, which is twenty-one. Don’t worry though—there won’t be any boring commencement speeches.” He grinned more broadly as he patted her hand.

  In horror, she saw that the eight were walking up to face the posts and gripping them hard. She could imagine only one reason they could have for doing so. Soon she realized she was right when eight older men approached them, clutching thick leather whips in their brawny hands.

  The audience was silent now, leaning forward anxiously. Beside her, she could see Haln’s bosom heaving with excitement. She thought she knew what they were listening for…the victims’ screams. To her amazement, the men stayed silent, even as the lashes struck their bare backs. Again and again the leather whistled through the air and fell with a crash, raising angry red streaks on the lean, tanned flesh. Still they did not cry out.

  Counting the whip strokes in her mind, she was astonished when the tally reached twenty-fine and the men were still silent. A
t thirty, one of them finally uttered a short, sharp cry. The punishment stopped as he slowly walked with his head lowered back to the waiting area below the ground. Haln shook her head and muttered with disapproval along with the other spectators, but they all soon turned back to the competitors who were left.

  “What kind of people are these?” Merilee asked her uncle, tears filling her own eyes.

  “Don’t you know?” he gently asked.

  “I think I do!” she snapped. “It’s just as I told you. They are not human beings at all, but aliens from outer space. Who knows what they really look like or what kind of monster child I will bear them? Now I will get out of here unless they kill me to stop me.”

  “Dear me, you do sound serious. Very well then, I will tell you the truth. You need not worry about sleeping with a space alien. These people are very human indeed and they were once very famous in our world. They are Spartans who traveled to this island and took their old ways here.”

  “Spartans?” she asked. “From Ancient Greece? But how could you know?”

  “How could I not know? Just to start with, they speak Greek. And look at their names…Hurk for Hercules, Hek for Hector and Haln of course comes from Helen of Troy. They are married, but they also have lovers of their own sex and their young men spend their lives in military service to keep the slaves under control. This famous Spartan whip festival was the last piece of evidence for me. We could say Sparta was the basis for every police state that anyone ever came up with…and they certainly lived on Earth.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded.

  “I was afraid you would inform them and I am not sure they know it themselves. If one of us did tell them the truth, I don’t know how they would respond. They might decide to go back to their own country, which would have no place for them…except perhaps to display them like circus freaks. Right now I am wondering what the effect has been on you.”

  “But they have slaves,” she objected.

  “And since you are here you can do your best to make their lives easier.”

  “So they are the Spartans,” she responded slowly. “I have heard of them. Someone even made a hit movie about them although I didn’t go to see it. Weren’t they very brave?”

  “They were indeed. The women had great freedom and great beauty, too, like Haln. She is lovely, is she not?”

  “She is indeed,” Merilee answered, glancing at her sister-in-law. “No wonder, since she is Hurk’s sister, after all.”

  “And you are attracted to them both.” When she did not deny it, he went on, “Best of all, you have a real family again and not just a mad old man like me. So let us stop this talk about escaping and enjoy the rest of the whip festival. It should not be long now. As you can see, three contestants have dropped out and they have only reached fifty lashes.”

  “They did not drop out,” she retorted. “They cried out despite themselves. No Spartan would ever give up that easily of his own free will.”

  “No indeed,” he answered gently. “We Spartans never would.”

  It was down to the last four contestants now. Haln pressed Merilee’s arm to call her attention to the action when one of them gave in. Merilee nodded and touched the other woman’s shoulder in response, letting her own fingers linger there.

  TO LOVE A MORTAL

  Tonya Ramagos

  He fell in love with her the moment he saw her. Hair of vibrant white flowed around a face with high cheekbones, eyes as green as the plants of the ocean and lips so luscious they made his mouth water. Immortal. She had to be for no mortal he ever saw held such beauty. She stood laughing on the shore with his twin brother, Euryon. Euryon—always the charmer, Phymos thought, always the one to get the lady.

  Not this time, he vowed as he walked up behind the beauty and boldly slid his arms around her slim waist. This time, this one is mine. I might share her for a few, but in the end she will be only mine. And he would see she stayed that way forever.

  * * * *

  Dira felt his warm breath on the side of her neck even as his wide, muscular arms encircled her waist. She didn’t need to turn to know him. She needed only to smell his sweetly masculine scent, feel the power of his presence to know it was Phymos. She waited for him her whole life, wished for him, dreamed of him. She wanted to belong to him, this son of Poseidon, this king of Atlantis. Because of his standing as king she admired him from afar for as a mortal she would be denied him. Of the ten kings of Atlantis, Phymos was one of the few unwed who continued to hold true to the laws of the kingdom set by Poseidon. He would not wed a mortal, would not spare one more than a passing glance.

  The necklace she wore, a string of the finest pearls and stones of the ocean gifted to her by Euryon, would change that. As long as she wore the necklace, Phymos would sense her as immortal. As payment for such a gift, she had only to have sex with Euryon. Not a hardship, she mused as she looked now into his eyes—eyes the color of sapphires. Eyes the same color and shape as those of the man who stood behind her, held her. The hair, long and shimmering blond, would be the same also as were the oval facial features, broad shoulders and trim hips. Identical twins, Euryon and Phymos, but for the sly look of amusement always found in Euryon’s eyes and the dimple she knew appeared in Phymos’s cheek when he smiled.

  No. It wouldn’t be a hardship to repay Euryon for the necklace. If she played the game right, she might even convince Phymos to join them.

  “Marry me,” Phymos whispered in her ear and nipped her lobe with his teeth.

  Oh, if only he meant that, she thought wistfully as goose pimples rose to cover her flesh. Could the necklace have more power than Euryon told her? She wanted Phymos to love her with his true heart not because of some spell. “Such an offer from a handsome king is hard to resist,” she said and turned her head to look at him. The movement put them nearly nose-to-nose, lips almost touching.

  “Then don’t refuse,” he said, his voice low and seductive. “We can be wed tomorrow.”

  “Your brother has invited me to his palace,” she told him. Her heart hammered in her chest. She wanted nothing more than to accept his offer of marriage, but first a debt must be paid and true feelings must be explored.

  “You are welcome to join us, of course,” Euryon said. His lips tilted in a mocking grin.

  Phymos’s features hardened, his own lips setting in a thin line. Dira thought he would refuse.

  Instead, he nodded slightly and, in a resigned tone, said, “If the lady wishes. Though I would prefer my palace instead. She should see where she will live once we are wed, after all.”

  Alarm made her blood slow in her veins. Could his proposal of marriage really come from a true heart? She wanted so desperately to believe, but the suddenness coupled with the spell of the necklace left her in doubt. She gazed into his eyes and hoped he could see the love in her eyes that ran so deep within her. “Take me where you wish, my Lord.”

  * * * *

  Phymos took her to his chambers in the palace at the northern point of the island mere miles from the temple of Poseidon. He left her to stand beside a huge four-poster bed draped with a curtain canopy of white as he set around the room to light candles.

  Euryon drew the curtain on one side of the bed.

  She turned to him and caught his arm. “You said the necklace would only make him sense me immortal,” she whispered.

  “That is all it will do.”

  Dira looked at him through narrowed, disbelieving eyes. “Then he is serious. This marriage proposal is true?”

  “Most likely so,” he said with an unconcerned shrug. “The kings of Atlantis often fall in love on sight. It is my guess that is what happened here. The necklace makes him believe, but his heart is true. It is up to you too hold on to both.”

  She understood what he meant. If…when, she corrected herself, Phymos found out she was truly mortal she could lose him. She couldn’t wear the necklace forever, wouldn’t keep up this charade. Only long enough to make him love h
er, she promised herself. Then she would tell him the truth.

  “Secrets between a man’s brother and his soon-to-be-wife are not very proper,” Phymos said as he joined Dira and Euryon at the bed.

  Though his words sounded scolding, she saw the glimmer in his eyes and the slight tilt to his lips. Phymos stopped mere inches from her and she felt Euryon move behind her, close in at her back. The brothers seemed to meet each other’s gaze over her head for a long moment and she wondered if they ever did this before. Did they make a habit of sharing women?

  Phymos lifted a finger, touched it lightly to her jaw just below her ear and let it slide down. Like a delicate feather on her flesh, his finger moved down her face, her throat, her neck and dipped to her cleavage displayed by the dress she wore. She shuddered—her gaze locked with his and she saw a fire spark to life in his eyes. Behind her, Euryon gathered her hair in his hands and pushed it to one side to expose her neck and shoulder. His lips brushed over her skin in a kiss so light it made her tingle all the way to her sandaled feet.

  Phymos traced the low cut neckline of her dress, still with only that one finger that seemed intent to drive her mad. When his finger reached her shoulder, he eased one side of the dress down. She felt Euryon mirror the move behind her, sliding the dress off her other shoulder even as he continued to trail kisses along the back of her neck, her shoulder blades. Her hands fisted at her sides, nerves and anticipation tangling in her belly as together Phymos and Euryon peeled the top of her dress down to her waist.

  A sigh of appreciation broke the silence of the chamber as Phymos gazed down at her naked breasts. “Beautiful,” he whispered as he cupped both of her breasts in his hands. “Absolutely beautiful.”

  Euryon’s hands skimmed her sides. When he met with the dress bunched at her waist, he pushed it down and let it fall in a pool of cloth around her feet. His hands returned to her body, one gliding up and down her spine in slow, lazy caresses while the other flattened on her ass to massage her butt cheeks.