Warriors of Poseidon 01.5 - Wild Hearts in Atlantis

yeah, and the sky had exploded in her brain.
     
    Nothing out of the ordinary. Just an unbelievably passionate interlude with a four-hundred-year-old warrior from the lost continent of Atlantis.
     
    Bastien's voice rumbled in his chest, under her head. "That, my lady, was a passion unmatched in my history."
     
    He sounded as exhausted as she felt. Kat smiled, fiercely glad of it. "Truly?" She turned to look at him. "There had to be a lot of women in so much history."
     
    He raised an eyebrow and reached to pull her up so that her head rested on his shoulder and she fit snug against his side, her leg resting on his thigh. "Not nearly as many as you might think. When one is bound by inexorable duty and mission, one loses the taste for dalliance."
     
    She tried to pull away from him, but his arm tightened around her. "Is that all I am? A dalliance?" She hated the note of uncertainty in her voice even as she heard the words tumble out, so she tried to laugh it off. "Well, that was a pretty terrific dalliance. That should hold us both for a while, until we find somebody else to dally with, right?"
     
    He sat up abruptly, drawing her to sit beside him. "If that is what you think, you are utterly mistaken," he said flatly. "There will be no other dalliance, mi amara, for either of us. Please do not speak of it again."
     
    She blinked. "Okay, that was unexpected. After your brave words in front of Ethan, are you now suggesting that I surrender my independence to you? And what is mi amara?"
     
    "Your surrender, as mine, was not of your independence but of your solitude, I think," he said, pulling the blanket around her when she shivered at the cool currents of air-Wild Hearts In Atlantis – Warriors of Poseidon 1.5
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    conditioned air blowing on her bare skin. He laced his fingers in hers, and she looked down at their joined hands, marveling that she could feel so completely safe and cherished—so right—in the arms of a man she barely knew.
     
    And yet… somehow there had been that moment of knowing. That moment when her soul had seemed to wing its way out of her body and twine its way through Bastien's heart, the same way their fingers were joined together now. She'd known him on a level far deeper than she'd ever known another living soul; known the pain he'd faced, the battles he'd fought, and the black acts he'd been forced to commit on behalf of humanity.
     
    He believed he was damned for it. Damned to the nine hells, whatever that meant.
    Having caught a glimpse of his despair, she could guess, though.
     
    The mere thought of it terrified her. But before she could find words to tell him why the idea was bad, awful, and just wrong in so many ways, he spoke first.
     
    "I am wrong for you." His black eyes were filled with pain as his words echoed her thoughts. "I have done so many things, caused so much death and destruction in the name of my mission—in the name of my god—that I can never undo."
     
    She leaned against him, driven by the despair in his tone to offer comfort instead of rejection. Her heart rebelled at the thought of turning away from him. "What you have done, you have done as part of your duty to protect, haven't you?"
     
    He nodded, caught her hand in his and kissed her fingertips. "Yes, but all Atlanteans have free will, mi amara. It was my choice to serve as a warrior of Poseidon. The sea god marks each of us at our dedication ceremony," he replied, touching a hand to the strange symbol marked high on the right side of his chest.
     
    She traced its outline with her fingers. "What does it mean?"
    Wild Hearts In Atlantis – Warriors of Poseidon 1.5
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    "It offers testimony to my vow to protect mankind. The circle represents all the peoples of the world. Intersecting it is the pyramid of knowledge deeded to them by the ancients.
    The silhouette of Poseidon's Trident bisects them both."
     
    He smiled crookedly. "Even one good only for his strength has the opportunity to serve well in Poseidon's service."
     
    "Why do you do that? Why do you discount your intelligence?" she asked, brows drawing together. "Your strength is not all that you are. Somehow, I have seen inside you to the fierce intelligence you don't admit even to yourself. You plan and question and plo strategy with the best of them, don't you?"
     
    "But—"
     
    She cut him off, nodding sagely. "Oh. Your prince isn't ver) smart, though, is he?"
     
    "What? Prince Conlan is a brilliant leader.