Warriors of Poseidon 06 - Atlantis Betrayed

Poseidon 06
    Page 32 of 188
    So she did, leaving out the flirting part and the kissing part. But what she did disclose was bad enough, judging by the expression on her butler’s face and the apparent inability of her baby brother to make actual words, since sputtering noises kept coming from his general direction.
    “You let a common criminal get close enough to you that he could have harmed you? He could have ripped off your mask? He could have murdered you and left you lying in a pool of your own blood in the middle of the Jewel House?” Hopkins bit off each word as precisely as a cutter following the shape of an octahedral raw diamond crystal.
    Bloody damn precisely, in other words.
    Fiona sighed, but before she could respond, the air in the room changed and flames chased ice through her in a blaze of sensation that brought her up and out of her chair so fast she knocked the cup of chocolate to the floor. She whipped around to face the door, and it was him.
    Her mystery man.
    In her office, leaning against the door frame, arms crossed on that amazing chest and a cocky grin on that gorgeous face.
    “Hey, I take exception to that remark,” he said. “I’m not at all common.”
    Christophe couldn’t believe it. She was freaking gorgeous. Even in faded jeans and an ordinary top, her hair simple and mostly pulled back from her face, she was as beautiful as the priceless art that adorned every wall in the room.
    More beautiful. Paintings couldn’t blush, after all, and the faint staining of pink on those porcelain cheeks made him think of strawberry jam, Atlantean blushberry tarts, and other luscious, delectable treats.
    “Common or not, you are a trespasser, sir,” said the well-dressed elderly man with the very large gun.
    He was dressed like a butler or an undertaker, and yet he held that gun with the relaxed ease of a man who knew exactly what he was doing. Majordomo via MI6, perhaps? Where James Bond types went when they retired?
    “Oh, no, I was invited,” Christophe replied. “Ask the ninja.”
    She moved suddenly, shaking her silky white-blond hair out of her face in what he was sure was a deliberate distraction, since she now stood exactly in his line of sight to the younger man in the room.
    Shielding him from the intruder.
    Good instincts. He spared a moment to wonder why it made him want to growl. She was protecting another man from him, and he didn’t like it, for some reason that didn’t come from his brain but from a more primal part of himself.
    Christophe didn’t like that either, nor the possible implications of his not liking it.
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
    Page 33 of 188
    “I am sure I have no idea what you’re talking about, sir, but let’s just call the authorities and sort this all out, shall we?” Her Scottish accent was still there but blurred, as if she were attempting to hide it from him. She crossed to the desk and picked up her phone.
    He smiled again, showing his teeth. “Yes, why don’t we? That should be a fun conversation. Especially the part where I tell them you’re the Scarlet Ninja.”
    The boy—he could see now that it was a boy, not a man, which calmed him down for some reason—behind her gasped.
    “Fee! He knows? Is this him? The man from the Jewel House?”
    She sighed and her shoulders slumped, which did very interesting things to the generous curve of her breasts, and Christophe’s body hardened in sudden, aggressive readiness. Ninjas apparently aroused him, something he’d not known before. He laughed out loud.
    The sound of the gun’s hammer cocking back tempered his amusement. The dangerous-looking man still held the gun trained on him.
    “Did something strike you as funny, sir? Your impending demise, perhaps?” The dry tone only underscored the promise of death in the man’s eyes. This one was a warrior, too, underneath that fancy suit.
    “Are you going to shoot me? It would be the second time tonight, which isn’t my record, but it would serve to piss me off,” Christophe said, letting all emotion drain out of his face until he knew that what they saw was nothing more than a cold, deadly killer. “I’d prefer a more friendly solution.”
    He turned to the ninja, who still held the phone in one hand, forgotten. “We’re after the same thing.
    Why not partner up?”
    She dropped the phone and then fumbled it onto the cradle, those huge eyes of hers widening even further. “Are you mad?”
    “Nope.” He paused to