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  “I’m going to have you again,” he said.

  “Yes, yes.”

  “Tell me you want me.”

  “I do. I want you.”

  “Tell me you need me.”

  “So much I’ll die without you.”

  “Tell me you love me.”

  “I do. I love you.”

  She was living passion in his arms, Darius thought, and she was all his.

  “Kiss me. And don’t ever stop kissing me,” she said.

  He did more than kiss her. He gifted her with sweet nips and erotic licks, then proceeded to suck every drop of water from her body. He invaded her senses until all she could see, all she could feel, all she could taste was him. She shivered when the tip of his tongue swirled along the edge of her ear.

  Suddenly he paused. A slow, suspended moment dragged by. “Help me forget the past,” he whispered brokenly.

  She nuzzled his neck and dipped her hand over his ridged abdomen. When she clasped his thick erection, he hissed in a breath. She didn’t hold him long, just long enough to stroke him up and down. Then she released him, granting him one last fleeting, teasing caress before cupping the heavy sac of his testicles.

  While her fingers gently tugged, she swirled her tongue around his nipples. They felt like little spikes in her mouth, and she lapped at the masculine taste of him mingled with the water.

  “How am I doing so far?”

  “I need more time to decide,” he said roughly, raggedly. His fingers tangled in her hair, then massaged her neck…her breasts.

  The sight of his strong, bronze hands on her soft, white flesh proved the most erotic thing she’d ever seen. Once more she curled her fingers around his length. He was so hot and big, so hard. Up and down, she tormented him. She wanted so badly to fill his days with happiness, to help him “forget” his pain, as he’d said. No, not forget, but heal. She would do whatever was necessary to give him the peace he craved.

  “What’s your naughtiest fantasy?” she murmured against his collarbone. She bit down, not hard enough to break the skin, but hard enough to leave her mark. “Perhaps I can make it come true.”

  “You are my fantasy, Grace.” His hands cupped her jaw, and he forced her to look up at him. “Only you.”

  If she hadn’t already loved him, she would have fallen just then. “I have a fantasy,” she whispered. She licked the seam of his lips. “Want to hear?”

  He trailed his hands down her back, making her shiver, then cupped her bottom and jerked her into him for deeper contact. “Tell me.”

  “Well, I like to read books about big, strong warriors who love as fiercely as they fight, and I’ve always wanted one for my very own.”

  His lips twitched. “Now you have one.”

  “Oh, yes.” The warm water made their skin slick and she rubbed against him, letting the peaks of her nipples abrade his chest, letting the plump head of his penis catch between her legs. “What I fantasize about is my big, strong warrior lifting me up, pressing my back into the shower tile and filling me.”

  He pressed her back against the cool tile and shoved inside her, deep and hard and scorching. Steam billowed around them, but it was the spicy scent of dragon and soap that filled her nostrils. He felt so good inside her, more exciting than climbing a mountain or bungee jumping from a bridge.

  He pumped in and out of her, and she wound her arms around him. His strength beneath her palms filled her with heady power. He bit her neck, making her shiver. He spread her knees wider and pounded harder. She panted his name. Moaned his name. Gasped his name.

  “Grace,” he growled. “Mine.”

  And she was. Completely.

  * * *

  DARIUS HELD A sleeping Grace in the tight clasp of his arms.

  She possessed inner strength, a giving heart and a deep capacity for love. Her smile gleamed brighter than the sun. Her laughter healed him. Actually healed him.

  As he lay in the stillness of the night, with hazy moonlight enveloping him, he remained weak and sated from their loving. Long forgotten memories finally resurfaced, bits and pieces of his past, pieces he’d thought buried so deeply they’d remain lost forever. He didn’t fight them, but closed his eyes, saw his mother laugh down at him, her smile as gentle and beautiful as the pristine waters that surrounded their city. Her golden eyes flashed merrily.

  She had caught him with his father’s sword, brandishing the weapon through the air with a dramatic flourish, trying to mimic the warrior strength his father possessed.

  “One day,” she said in that sweet, lyrical voice of hers, “your strength will far surpass that of your father.” She claimed the sword from him and leaned the gleaming silver against the nearest wall. “You will fight beside him and protect each other from harm.”

  That day never came.

  He saw his father, strong and proud and loyal, striding up the cliff that led to their home. He’d just come from a battle with the Formorians, had washed away the blood on his skin, but his clothing still bore traces. When he spied him, his father smiled and opened his arms. Seven-year-old Darius ran to him and threw himself into the waiting embrace.

  “I’ve been gone only three weeks, but look how you’ve grown,” his father said, squeezing him tightly. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you, too.” He fought back a tear.

  His strong, warrior father wiped the moisture from his own eyes. “Come on, son. Let’s go greet your mother and sisters.”

  Together, they walked side by side into the small house. His three sisters danced around a fire, laughing and chanting, their long dark hair bouncing about their shoulders. They each possessed identical features, plump cheeks and such innocence it hurt to gaze at them.

  “Darius,” they called when they saw him, running to him first, though they’d seen him only a few hours ago. They shared a special bond with him that he could not explain. It had always been there, and would always remain.

  He hugged them close, drawing in the sweetness of their scents. “Father has returned. Give him a proper greeting.”

  Their faces lit with their grins and they propelled themselves at the warrior.

  “My precious hatchlings,” he said, laughing through more tears.

  Their mother heard their mingled joy and rushed inside the chamber. They spent the rest of the day together, not a single member of the family straying far.

  How happy they’d been.

  Here, in the present, a lone tear slid from the corner of Darius’s eye. He did not wipe it away, but allowed it to trickle down his cheek and onto his ear.

  As tuned to him as she was, Grace sensed his torment. She shifted to face him, her features alight with concern. “Darius?” she said softly. “It’s okay. Whatever it is, it will be okay.”

  Another tear came, then another. He couldn’t stop them, and wasn’t sure he wanted to. “I miss them,” he said brokenly. “They were my life.”

  She understood immediately. “Tell me about them. Tell me the good things.”

  “My sisters were like sunlight, starlight and moonlight.” Their images filled his mind once again, and this time he nearly choked from pain. And yet…the pain was not the fearsome destroyer he had expected, but a reminder that he lived and loved. “Every night they created a small fire and would dance around the flames. They were so proud of their ability and were determined to one day create the biggest fire Atlantis had ever seen.”

  “They didn’t fear being burned?”

  “Dragons welcome and thrive in such heat. I wish you could have seen them. They were all that is good and right.”

  “What were their names?” she asked softly.

  “Katha, Kandace and Kallia,” he said. With an animalistic growl, he slammed his fist into the side of the mattress. “Why did they have to die? Travelers tortured and killed my sisters as if they were garbage.”

  Grace wrapped her arms around him and laid her head in the hollow of his neck. There was nothing she could say to ease his angui
sh, so she held him more tightly.

  He rubbed at his stinging eyes. “They did not deserve such a death. They did not deserve what they suffered.”

  “I know, I know,” she cooed.

  He buried his face in the hollow of her neck and cried.

  At last, Darius mourned.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  GRACE RIFFLED THROUGH the box of Kevlar vests she’d picked up downstairs. Darius knelt on the other side and pinched one of the heavy black vests between his fingers. His lips curled with distaste.

  She watched him. His eyes shone with vitality, alive with gold, glistening with contentment. They had been like that since last night and hadn’t changed. Hadn’t even flickered with blue. The fine lines around his eyes and mouth had relaxed, as well, and there was an ease about him that warmed her heart. Oh, he still possessed that dangerous aura. Danger would always be a part of him. But the coldness, the hopelessness, were both gone.

  How she loved this man.

  “Try one on,” she said.

  Frowning, he tugged the material over his shoulders. She leaned over and worked the Velcro for him. “It’s too tight,” he said.

  “If a bullet smacks into you, you’ll wish it was even tighter.”

  He snorted. “How can these do any good?”

  “Maybe you’ll understand better after I show you how to use a gun.” She raced to her kitchen and dug out the gun she’d stuffed into one of the drawers. She doubled-checked to make sure no bullets rested in the cylinder.

  “This is a revolver,” she explained when she stood behind Darius. Wrapping her arms around him, she placed the cold metal in his hands and curled his fingers in the correct places. “Hold it just like this.”

  His shaking fingers squeezed.

  “Gently,” she said, noticing how unsteady he suddenly seemed.

  He tossed her a glance over his shoulder. “Who taught you these skills?”

  “Alex. He said a woman should know how to protect herself.” Fighting a wave of sadness, Grace steadied Darius’s wrists by locking her palms underneath them. He might be more relaxed and at ease than ever before, but he battled that damn weakness and she didn’t like it. The only time he seemed to recover his full strength was when he was sexually excited.

  Grace wet her lips and purposefully meshed her breasts into the hard ridges of his back. “You want to keep your finger on the trigger and pick a target. Any target. Do you have one?”

  “Oh, yes.” His voice grew stronger and deeper. If she allowed her hands to slide inside his pants, she knew she would find him hard and thick.

  “Good,” she said. “Aim down the sight on the barrel.”

  Pause. Then, “What?”

  She blew on his neck. “Aim down the sight on the barrel,” she repeated.

  Another pause. “How can I concentrate when your body is pressed to mine?”

  In response, her fingers tickled up his arms. If sexual arousal kept him strong, she’d use everything in her power to arouse him. “Do you want to learn how to shoot or not?” she whispered huskily.

  “I do,” he ground out.

  “Is your target in sight?”

  He felt the heat of her, Darius thought, the sizzle of her, throughout his entire body. Yes, he had his target in sight. The couch. Exactly where he wanted her, naked and open.

  He flicked a glance to the window. The sun arrived hours ago, vanquishing the binding spell. He should have left for his homeland. He possessed everything he needed from the surface. Atlantis called him, and it was long past time he destroyed her invaders.

  But he wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Grace.

  He couldn’t take her with him. She would be safest here, and her safety mattered more to him than anything else.

  When this whole mess with the Argonauts ended, he would come back for her. He would whisk this woman, his woman, his wife to Atlantis. His wife. How he liked the sound of that. They were going to stay in bed for days, weeks, perhaps months, and they were going to make love every way possible, then invent some new ways.

  “Target in sight,” he said.

  “Squeeze the trigger,” she said.

  He easily recalled how she had squeezed him. How her inquisitive fingers had slipped beneath the hem of his shirt and skimmed the taut flesh of his lower abdomen. He ground his teeth together.

  “Darius?”

  “Hmm?” he bit out.

  “Squeeze the trigger.” She blew in his ear.

  He squeezed. He heard a click.

  “If the couch were human, and this a loaded gun, a bullet would have shot out and punctured skin, causing grave injury,” Grace the temptress said. The woman who had sneaked past his defenses and infiltrated his senses. The woman who had captured his heart. “The lining inside these vests stops bullets and keeps them from entering bodies.”

  Darius spun, keeping her arms locked around him. The gun fell from his hands. He wrapped his fingers around her wrists and directed her aim lower.

  “I have another target in mind,” he said. And he kept his “target” busy for the next hour.

  * * *

  SATED AND REDRESSED, Grace tucked her gun in the waist of her jeans, filled her pockets with bullets and helped Darius gather the remaining vests. With that done, they squared off, facing each other. Neither moved.

  “It’s time to go,” he finally said.

  “I’m ready,” she said with false confidence. She raised her chin, not removing her gaze from him, but daring him to contradict her.

  He regarded her silently for an inexorable moment, his expression blank. “You will remain here, Grace.”

  She bit back a scowl. She’d known he would do this, but knowing didn’t stop the anger, the hurt. “Wrong,” she said. “Alex is my brother, and I’ll help find him.”

  “Your safety comes first.”

  “I’m safest with you.” Her eyes narrowed, showing him the first sign of her increasing ire. “Besides, I’m your wife. Where you go, I go.”

  “I’ll return for you and bring back your brother.”

  She gripped his shirt, tugging him close. “I can help you, and we both know it.”

  Pain flashed in his eyes, but was quickly overshadowed by determination. “This is the only way. I must lead my dragons into war, and I will not allow my woman near battlegrounds.”

  “What about the binding spell?” Ha! She watched him with almost smug expectation. “I can’t leave your presence.”

  “The spell broke when the moon disappeared.”

  Her shoulders dropped. She racked her brain, searching for anything, anything at all, that might change his mind. When the answer arose, she smiled slowly. “Perhaps you’re forgetting the Argonauts. That they had me followed.”

  Arching a brow, he crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you saying?”

  “They could have me followed again. They could try to hurt me this time, instead of simply watching me.”

  He stroked his jaw as he considered her words. “You are right,” he admitted darkly.

  She relaxed, thinking she finally convinced him of her point—until he next opened his mouth.

  “I will simply lock you inside my palace.”

  Her earlier scowl broke free, and she poked him in the chest. “I like this macho thing you’ve got going on. I really do. But I won’t stand for it.”

  Without a word he clasped her wrist with one hand and held the handle of the suitcase with the other. The air around them began to swirl. Bright-colored sparks flickered like dying lightbulbs, then quickly sped past them. The temperature never changed, the wind never kicked up, but suddenly the cave closed around her.

  Grace didn’t have time to catch her bearings. Never breaking his momentum, Darius pulled her inside the mist. The moment she realized exactly where she was, she threw herself into his arms.

  “I’ve got you,” he said.

  His voice soothed her racing heartbeat. Only a minute or two passed before Darius unhooked her hands from h
is neck, gave her a quick kiss and ushered her into another cave.

  Not even slightly dizzy, she cataloged her newest surroundings. A man—Brand, she recalled—stood off to the side. He held a sword above his head, and there was a deadly gleam in his eyes as he stared at her. Before she could utter a protest, Grace found herself shoved behind Darius.

  “Brand,” Darius barked.

  At the sound of his voice, Brand’s gaze finally flicked away from her. He glanced at Darius and relaxed. He even lowered his sword. “Why does the woman still live?” he demanded.

  “Touch her and I will kill you.”

  “She is from the surface,” he spat.

  “She is my mate.”

  “She is—”

  “My mate,” he said firmly. “Therefore, she is one of us.”

  A childish part of Grace wanted to stick her tongue out at Brand. She hadn’t forgotten that he’d once called her a whore.

  Brand considered those words, and his fierce expression softened. He even grinned. “Tell me what you learned.”

  “Gather the others and meet me in the dining hall. I will tell you when I tell them.”

  Brand nodded, and with a final glance in her direction, he rushed off.

  “I am glad to be home,” Darius said. His strength had returned in its entirety the moment he’d stepped through the mist, and now he breathed deeply of its familiar essence. “I need you to demonstrate the gun and vests to my warriors.”

  She shook her head. “Not unless you’re willing to compromise with me.”

  “I do not compromise.” His tone was as stern as his expression. “Come.”

  She glared at him the entire way to the dining hall. The dragon warriors were gathered around the table, standing with their arms locked behind their backs and their feet braced apart. When they spotted her, they each glanced to Brand who wore a smug, I-told-you-so frown. The youngest of the group offered her a smile, if you could call baring of teeth a smile. She waved nervously.

  “Hi, again,” she said.

  Darius squeezed her hand. “Do not be scared,” he told her, then glanced pointedly at each man present. “They will not muss a single hair on your head.”