Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

for a matter of days.
     
    Actually, he wasn't sure he was prepared to ever reach the soul-meld, he thought, faint strains of another Elvis song singing a fading farewell in his mind. The soul-meld was not a prison, however. Free will still ruled all choice. A brief thought of Erin choosing another man flashed through his mind and his gut wrenched with nausea and rage.
     
    Free will sucked.
     
    He drew in a deep breath and forced his mind away from anything to do with the soul-meld. "Poseidon burns that symbol into each of his Warriors when we swear our oath of service to him. How did you sleep, mi amara?" He twined his hand through the silken waves of her hair, amazed that it was real—that she was real and still with him in the bed.
     
    She was still naked, too, which was always a plus.
     
    Erin leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss on his lips, smiling but with a hint of shyness in her expression. "I slept fine. I was pretty much unconscious, to be honest.
    After the… um. Well. We can talk about that later."
     
    He started to speak, not knowing what the hells he was going to say, but she held a finger to his lips. "Shh. Tell me about this symbol, for now."
     
    She removed her finger from his lips and tapped it on his chest. "What does it mean?"
     
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    "The circle represents all the peoples of the world, and the triangle is the pyramid of knowledge handed down to your kind by our ancient ones," he explained. "Poseidon's Trident encompasses and protects them both—humanity and knowledge—to hold in trust for the future. As the sworn Warriors of Poseidon, we carry out this duty."
     
    "So, is that what you're doing with me?" she asked, suddenly not meeting his eyes.
    "Your duty?"
     
    He grinned and tumbled her onto her back and rolled on top of her. "Oh, no, trust me, duty has never been this much fun. But if you feel it's my duty to make love to you all day long, I can certainly—"
     
    Loud pounding on the door cut him off midsentence and he jumped up and out of the bed, leaning down to snatch his daggers out of their sheaths from his discarded pants as he did so, and bit off a sharp command. "Identify yourself!"
     
    He glanced back at Erin. She'd scooted backward up to the teak headboard of the bed and sat with the sheet tucked under her arms, covering her chest and body but keeping her arms free and her hands held out, palms up, clearly ready to call her magic. She didn't look the least bit frightened.
     
    Which ticked him off.
     
    "Maybe you ought to be a little more concerned for your safety," he said to her, then turned back to the door and shouted out a repeat of his earlier command. "I said, identify yourself!"
     
    "Really? Am I in danger even in Atlantis?" Erin shot back at him. It was a reasonable question, and that ticked him off even more. But his instincts were shouting at him to protect and defend, and he was damn well going to do it.
     
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    Christophe's voice came through the door, and he sounded irritated. "Sorry, sorry.
    Alaric's warding knocked me on my ass for a minute. It's Christophe here. Conlan wants you to know that Alaric called a meeting. We're all supposed to gather at the Nereid Temple in about twenty minutes. Especially you and the witch."
     
    Ven strode over to the door and pulled it open just far enough that he could see out, but Christophe could not see into the room. "Her name is Erin."
     
    "Uh, huh," Christophe said, jerking his head up and staring at the ceiling over the door so that he was looking anywhere but at what Ven had forgotten was his entirely naked body. "Maybe you could get dressed before you head over. I know I speak for us all when I say you're ugly enough with your clotheson."
     
    Ven slammed the door shut as Christophe stalked down the hall, laughing his damn fool ass off.
     
    Erin looked like she couldn't decide whether to laugh or yell at him. Unfortunately for him, laughter lost out. She jumped out of the bed and started grabbing for her clothes.
    Ven spent about two seconds wondering what she was mad at him about and then lost his train of thought when she bent over and he got a perfect view of her extremely delectable ass.
     
    "By the gods, you're beautiful," he said, his body hardening at the sight of her flawless skin.
     
    She abruptly stood up, her chest, neck, and face flushing red, and held her clothes in