Warriors of Poseidon 01 - Atlantis Rising

you go."
     
    He clenched his hands together to keep from forcibly keeping her with him, prayed that he'd keep it together until she left. He was a man and had enough dignity to want that.
     
    Not that he wasn't close to begging.
     
    "Once I would have taken. Now, knowing you, I ask. But you need to tell me now. You need to stand up and walk out of this room right now. I'll ask Ven to take you anywhere you want—somewhere safe. But it has to be now."
     
    He finally turned to look at her, his body clenched so tightly he thought he might snap.
    Burning with need, yet icy with fear that she would go. "Because if you stay, I'll take it as a yes. Yes to Atlantis, to our cause, but—most of all—yes to me."
     
    She reached up to touch his face with one trembling hand. "Conlan—"
     
    He yanked his head away from her. "Don't you get it? My self-control is gone," he snarled. "All I've got left is a bare shred of dignity over a furnace of want. You have to get the hell away from me now."
     
    He jumped up off the bed, away from temptation. Away from the woman who was, somehow, everything he'd ever wanted. He closed his eyes and stood, head bent, Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
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    shoulders heaving with the effort it cost him to keep from stretching her out on the bed and taking her mouth with his own.
     
    Taking her body.
     
    Finally, finally, he heard her light footsteps as she began to walk across the floor. The footsteps that would carry her away from him. He flinched as a pain greater than any Anubisa had ever administered washed through him, searing the heart he'd thought gone forever.
     
    Then the footsteps stopped.
     
    And she stood in front of him, her eyes enormous in her pale face.
     
    "I'm not going anywhere, Conlan. My answer is yes."
     
    Riley looked up at Conlan, aware deep in her heart that she'd just made the most important choice of her life. He stared down at her, eyes widening, then threw his head back, muscles in his neck straining, as he gulped in air like a drowning man.
     
    Then he exploded into motion. He wrapped his arms around her and yanked her into his body so quickly she let out a little sound when her breasts pressed into his chest. He tightened one arm around her waist and lifted the other to wrap his palm around the back of her head.
     
    "Thank you, mi amara," he whispered, his lips inches from her own. "Thank you for this gift."
     
    She almost had time to worry—it had been so long, she didn't really know him—and then his mouth came down on hers. And, as his emotions opened to her, she realized that she'd never known any man so well as she knew this one.
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    She wanted him with every ounce of her being. His lips were soft and firm and exactly right, and he kissed with the passion of a man who was starving for her. She pressed closer to him, desperate to feel all of him against her, wanting more and more and more.
     
    Conlan pulled back from her a little, his breathing harsh. He'd known that she tasted like warmth and sunlight and sweet, clean passion. But now she tasted like something even better.
     
    She tasted like she was his.
     
    He crushed his mouth to hers again, needing to feel her compliance. Her surrender. Her acceptance of his desire and his need. "Now," he said, hearing the pleading in his own voice, not caring. "Please. Now."
     
    "Yes," she said, curling her arms around his neck. "Yes, please. Now."
     
    He swept her up off the ground and carried her to the bed, kissing her the entire time. In seconds, he was locking the door and then back at the bed. He stripped off his shirt on the way, desperate to feel her skin on his.
     
    She lay there, her hair spread across the pillows, his fantasy come true. He wanted to weep from the joy of it.
     
    Wanted to roar out his possession to the world.
     
    He did neither. Simply touched her. Finally, finally, touched her.
     
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    Riley trembled when Conlan eased his body down on the bed next to hers. Somehow his chest and shoulders seemed even bigger without his shirt. He was a wall of muscle, but she'd seen past the proud warrior exterior to the man inside.
     
    When he touched her, fingers gently stroking her cheek, then her neck, she noticed that she wasn't the only one trembling.
     
    The realization sent her reeling that final step over the edge of any remaining