Warriors of Poseidon 01 - Atlantis Rising

wasn't the type to lose control all that much.
    She'd seen inside his mind, after all. Rigid control, duty, and honor. Not a lot of spontaneity or footloose happiness.
     
    And the pain. Oh, she'd never forget the pain.
     
    "Conlan, not that I encourage this tree swinging and chest beating, but I think—I think it's not a problem," she ventured. "After all, I kinda forgot that your brother was just in the room. He even looks like you, and he must have a lot of the same superpowered Atlantean DNA, right?"
     
    Conlan smiled a little and nodded, still clenching his hands together.
     
    "Well, there was nothing. Zip," she said, shrugging. "I mean, he's great-looking and all—"
     
    Conlan made that strange growling noise low in his throat again, and she held up her hands, palms out. "I meant to say that he's okay-looking and all, but I didn't have any urge to strip his clothes off and lick him all over or anything," she finished, smiling.
     
    Then she realized what she'd just said, by implication.
     
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    Oh, crap.
     
    Conlan hadn't missed it, either, if the expression on his face was anything to go by. The look that said he wanted to lick her right back.
     
    Heat spiked through her center, making her actually clench her legs together against the wetness that threatened to spill out.
     
    Okay, this is bad. Thoughts of hunky prince licking anybody—er, anything—are off-limits.
     
    He shoved a hand through that delicious black hair of his and shot up out of the chair.
    Then he started doing a little pacing of his own. "Riley, until we understand why we're reacting like this to each other, it's perhaps better if we stay away from each other."
     
    "Yeah, okay, that's fine. In fact, why don't you take me back to my house—or just call me a cab, a cab would be good, and I'll get out of your hair," she said, inexplicably hurt by his having voiced the same thing she'd been thinking only moments before.
     
    He stopped pacing and turned to stare down at her. "I'm sorry, but you're not going anywhere."
     
    Hurt changed in a flash to pissed off. "What do you mean? Look, buddy, you may have the right to order your Atlantean flunkies around, but I'm an American citizen. You've got zero rights where I'm concerned."
     
    He strode over to the bed and sat next to her before she could move. "It's not about rights, aknasha. It's about your own protection. The vampires who attacked us at your house—why were they there? Were they after us? I suspect so, given the nature of the attack."
     
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    Taking her hands in his, he continued. "But now they know you live in that house.
    They're going to be wondering what connection you have to us. You won't be safe there anymore."
     
    She looked down at their hands, wondering if he even realized that his thumb was caressing the back of her hand. Wondering how such a small gesture could make her bones turn to liquid.
     
    Suddenly afraid that he was using some sort of Atlantean version of mind control on her.
     
    She yanked her hands away from his. "So what you're saying is that you've ruined my life."
     
    "No," he said softly. "I think what I'm saying is that you've complicated mine."
     
    Scooting back from him on the bed, she tried to be rational. "All right. Let's back up. Tell me what I need to know about Atlantis. Tell me why these vampires are after you. Tell me what aknasha means, and why you're so freaked out that I might be one. I work better with information, so give me some already."
     
    Conlan smiled, and some of the tension seemed to leave his shoulders. "Information is definitely something I can give you. You deserve it. First, my homeland. Atlantis. It would take years for me to tell you about Atlantis. Much of the myth, some of the legend, and even some of the fantasy is true."
     
    "But no gills?" Riley couldn't help but return his smile, her own a little mischievous.
     
    "Definitely no gills. We are much like you."
     
    "So, human, then, with special powers?"
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    He shook his head. "No, not human. A cousin to your species, certainly. Closer to humankind than to the shapeshifters. Far different from the undead. We lived in harmony with your kind for many thousands of years."
     
    "And then you sank below the water, and now you live in a bubble, right?" Riley knew she was being flippant,