Warriors of Poseidon 01 - Atlantis Rising

emanated from both of them and sparkled up and out, around and around, spiraling in a cascade of light around the room and then through the door into the bathroom.
     
    In seconds, the leading edge of the spiral of light returned to the bedroom, but with one startling difference. The light swirled in a whirling tunnel of water. The tube of liquid—maybe three or four inches thick—curved and swooped around the room. Around her, where she stood, frozen, her mouth hanging open.
     
    Then it returned to Conlan and surrounded him, seeming to caress his body for a moment and then vanish into his skin.
     
    Except he wasn't wet at all.
     
    She snapped her mouth shut, sure she looked like an idiot, especially when his smile turned into a laugh.
     
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    Damn, but he was seriously hot when he laughed. Her nerves, frayed already from the overdose of testosterone and, okay, the sheer sexual tension in the room, shredded even further.
     
    She leaned back against the wall and rubbed her arms with her hands, trying to get rid of the goose bumps. "No, I don't usually do the expected," she said, trying to return to the normality of their previous conversation. "You should hear the things my sister used to do to me to keep me from blurting out her secrets in front of boys. Neat trick with the water, by the way."
     
    He eased himself back down in the chair, keeping his distance, clearly trying to put her at ease. "Thanks. I can do balloon animals, too."
     
    "I just bet you can."
     
    He grinned at her. "I never had a sister. It was just me and Ven. Do you have any other sisters? Or brothers?"
     
    "No, just the two of us. Mom and Dad died when we were young, and we developed an 'us against the world' mentality. The foster homes…" She bit her lip. "We learned not to love people. You love somebody and they leave."
     
    She shook off the melancholy. It's not like he wanted to hear this stuff. Except, he looked interested. He felt like he was interested.
     
    "Quinn is—well, she's kind of fragile. I always took care of her, even though she was a little older." It didn't really make sense to share her family history while backed against the wall, so she cautiously took a step forward and perched on the edge of the bed.
     
    Ready to jump away from him if he came near her.
     
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    Or was that ready to jump on him if he came near her?
     
    She ruthlessly shoved the thought out of her mind. No thinking about sex, no thinking about sex, no—
    "Thinking about sex," he said.
     
    "What?" she gasped, stunned to hear him speak her thoughts. Except maybe she shouldn't be surprised, given how they'd shared each other's emotions. Still, she could feel her face flaming again. One of the joys of being a redhead was the tendency to blush like a house on fire. Didn't exactly make for a poker face.
     
    He clasped his hands, resting them on his lap, then looked up to meet her gaze. "We need to talk about this. The intensity. Of the attraction between us, which is intense. It's really…" He paused, cleared his throat. "Intense."
     
    She laughed a little. "Yeah. I get that you think it's intense. Well, it's not like I go around jumping every hunky foreign prince who comes my way. Not that any royalty hangs around my neighborhood, but you know what I mean. Intense."
     
    That smug, all-male smile returned to his face, which, in spite of every feminist principle she'd ever known, somehow made her want to put her mouth on him.
     
    All over him.
     
    A wave of heat washed over her, and she groaned. "Conlan, I don't know what this is about. Could it be—could it be some kind of side effect of reading your emotions?
    Maybe I'll react this way to every Atlantean I meet."
     
    He immediately tensed in his chair, leaning forward, the hands clasped in his lap going white-knuckled. "For whatever reason, Riley," he ground out through gritted teeth, "I Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
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    don't seem to be able to handle the thought of you reacting this way to any other male, Atlantean or otherwise."
     
    She watched him as he visibly fought for control, his nostrils flaring as he breathed deeply, white lines deepening at the corners of his mouth. The thought that she did that to him—made him lose control, even a little—was, oddly enough, turning her on.
     
    A lot.
     
    Especially since she had the feeling he