Vampire in Atlantis

transgression, so she would hate him and not thank him. Clearly, he was the stupidest man on the planet.
    “It was the first step of a blood bond. I will be able to feel what you feel and know where you are forever now.” He caught her chin in his hand. “Do you get that? I invaded your privacy.”
    “You saved my life,” she shot back at him. “Do you expect me to be angry for that?”
    He blinked, realizing that yes, he’d expected just that. “Uh, well—”
    She touched his face so gently he almost didn’t feel it. “You saved my life . The Emperor was draining me, because the witch discovered a way to use the local magic, some kind of vortex magic, in coordination with channeling the gem. I was dying .”
    She kissed him, slowly, gently, and with such tenderness that he thought he might die from it.
    “You saved my life, Daniel. I only have one request.”
    He looked into her eyes, glowing in the moonlight, and realized he would gladly die for this woman. “Anything. Anything . You only need ask.”
    She took a deep breath and put her arms around his neck. “I want you to make love to me. Now.”

     
    Serai was astonished at her own boldness, but she’d nearly died. Nearly died , after eleven thousand years of living a kind of death, imprisoned in a crystal cage. Nearly died after never having lived. Never having joined with the man she loved.
    That ended here and now.
    She would gladly give her life, such as it was, to the pursuit of the Emperor. She would find it, retrieve it, and return it to Atlantis. She would save the other maidens. But right now, right here, she wanted something for herself.
    She tightened her arms around him and leaned in toward that sinfully seductive mouth of his. “Kiss me,” she said against his lips. “Kiss me.”
    He sat, still as a statue, unmoving in her arms, for so long she was afraid he was thinking of a polite, gentlemanly way to turn her down, although he’d claimed to be no gentleman at all. She was on the edge of losing her nerve when he wrapped his arms around her waist and sprang up, pulling her to her feet so fast she nearly got dizzy again.
    “You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed of hearing you say just that,” he said roughly. “You want me to kiss you? To make love to you? Are you sure?”
    She didn’t have the words to convince him; they’d vanished in her dry throat, victim of nerves and shyness. But she knew another way. She raised slightly trembling fingers to her shirt and unbuttoned the first button, and then the second, and then the third, before daring to glance back up at him. His dark eyes were trained on the pale skin she was revealing, and a muscle in his jaw jumped as he watched her clumsy attempts at seduction.
    “That would be a yes?” he said, part question, part command. “If so, be very sure. I want you more than I want to take my next breath, and I will not let you go.”
    She nodded, then decided that wouldn’t suffice. “Yes,” she whispered. “Please, yes.”
    He flashed an almost-feral smile at her and she saw the tips of his fangs, but rather than scaring her, they excited her. He’d healed her with his blood, but he hadn’t tasted hers, and she knew that doing so would be aphrodisiac to a nightwalker during lovemaking. His control was too perfect. He held himself back.
    She wanted to shatter his control.
    She wanted him crazy for her.
    She ran her tongue over her lips, tasting a tiny bit of the blood he’d donated to her, and she shivered. Not from cold, but from the thrill of holding this man, being held by him, preparing to fly into the unknown arena of sensuality with Daniel, the one she’d dreamed of for so very long.
    He made a deep growling noise, low in his throat, his eyes fixed on her lips as she licked them again, and then he yanked her against him and leaned forward, bending her back a little over one steel-banded arm.
    “Now. Need you now,” he said, and then he took her mouth with his and showed her just how much he’d been holding back before. She gasped, but he swallowed her gasp, swallowed her breath, took all that she was into himself, claiming every bit of her—even the very oxygen she breathed—as his own.
    His hands roamed all over her, stroking her arms and back and bottom before he took the edge of her shirt in one hand and ripped it aside, scattering her remaining buttons, and a couple of them hit the stones on the ground. The sound of buttons clattering on stone seemed to