Atlantis Unleashed (38 page)

Keely cried out as the spasms of aftershocks continued to rip through her body. She'd never had an orgasm so powerful or one that had lasted so long and she was almost afraid of the intensity of it. It was too fierce, too strong; it opened her up too much. She knew better.

Opening up only gave someone the opportunity to reject her.

Justice's big body shook with the force of his release and she came again from the feel of it, clinging to him, holding him. Wanting him never to let her go. She felt wetness on her cheeks and realized she was crying, not from pain or sadness but from the power of the moment. She started to say something—anything—to try to find her way back from the earth-shattering intimacy, but then the ground opened up beneath her and she fell into the stars.

It was as if a door in his soul opened up and ushered her into his very essence. Everything she'd seen before in her visions of him—and much, much more—enveloped and enfolded her until she was bathing in the stream of his consciousness. She saw his fierce honor and pride, and his love for his family, even though it was a love he'd never allowed himself to feel. But, more than anything else, she felt his emotion for her.

It was love, and lust, and need, all wrapped up together and blazing in flaming blues and silver. A conflagration of emotion, all of it directed toward her. And, almost unnoticeable, a darker hue in the center. A dangerous presence inside the colors of his soul.

The Nereid.

Is that you?
she hesitantly thought the question.
You are part of him, you know
.

Am I?
came the sardonic response.
Yet you love him and fear me.

Love? She wanted to protest but the soul allowed for no prevarication. Only for the barest of unvarnished truths.

Yes, love,
she admitted.
You are part of him, so I love you, too.

A hesitation flowed through the colors toward her, but then a sense of denial.
No. You could not love me, for I don't deal in love. I will eventually overpower him, and I will take you in every way that I like.

He flashed scenes at her, scenes of raw, furious sex. Images of her submitting to him in every way possible.

She recoiled, but then the warmth of Justice's colors surrounded her and supported her again and she sent back images of her own to the Nereid part of his soul.
I will take you, as well,
she told him and sent him thoughts of warm and gentle lovemaking, interspersed with deliberately provocative scenes of wild and unrestrained passion.

His aggression changed, tumbled into fierce desire, and then became joy.

Yes, we will have each other,
the Nereid said.

Yes, I am yours as much as you are mine,
Justice said.

Their voices swirled together in the colors of Justice's soul, and Keely laughed and cried and crashed through her last fragile bit of hesitation into love.

Finally, finally coming back to some sense of reality, she realized she was still clasped in his arms and his penis was still inside her. She lifted her head from his shoulder and started laughing. “We're stark naked in the middle of the jungle. This is something that has never happened to me before on any expedition. Not to mention that I have no idea how your legs are still holding both of us up.”

He gently lifted her just a little ways and she felt his penis hardening again as he slid her back down his shaft. “Strong legs from long years of warrior training will serve me well, because I find I need you again.”

She laughed again and pulled off her gloves. “I kind of forgot these before.”

He bent his head and stared intently at her breasts, and heat rose in Keely again, shocking her since she would have guessed she wouldn't have the strength to feel desire again for at least a week.

“How is it that I did not take the time to taste these lovely breasts?” he murmured, and then lifted her high enough that only the very tip of him was still inside her. As she squirmed, wanting him, needing him back, he caught her nipple in his mouth and sucked hard.

Keely cried out, and her hot cream bathed the head of his cock. He needed her again and again and again; he would never have enough. He lifted his head long enough to spot a pile of their clothes and strode over to it, still holding her, his cock thrusting deeper with every step. Then he pulled out just long enough to lay her gently down on the clothes, rearranging them so that her delicate skin wasn't touching the vegetation. She stared up at him, her lovely emerald eyes glazed with passion, and he wondered for an instant if he were caught in some magical spell where every dream he'd ever had was coming true in the form of this lovely human.

If dream or fantasy, he decided he didn't care. She'd touched his very soul and tamed the Nereid side of him, and he needed no reality except the one where he was so far inside her she could never forget him.

He lifted her knees, positioned the head of his cock at her glistening entrance, and drove himself home, sheathing himself to the hilt until his sac smacked into her lovely ass and she cried out. Resting his weight on one forearm, he reached between their bodies and touched her, rubbed her own slickness against the center of her nerve endings until she cried out again. “I can't take any more,” she said, panting and whipping her head from side to side. “Justice, it's too much. Too much pleasure.”

“Never,” he said, entranced by the way her nipples had hardened into two rosy peaks. “Never too much.”

She lifted her hips, matching every stroke, making delicious moaning sounds that drove him insane with hunger, and he rode her—they rode each other—in a frenzied rhythm. He felt the exact moment her body tightened around his and knew she was on the edge, so he thrust harder and faster, murmuring endearments to her in a stream of frantic Atlantean. She had to know how much he wanted her.

How much he needed her.

This time, he yelled
her
name as he came, shuddering with her in a blinding explosion of power and heat and color that drove him to the edge of consciousness. As he collapsed, careful to roll to the side a little and avoid crushing her, he started laughing. “I think you may have accomplished what no enemy has been able to do in all these centuries. I think you've killed me.”

She lay panting, holding him tightly. Finally she caught her breath and she, too, started laughing. “That makes two of us. If it's always like this, we're in trouble.”

Her laughter faded and she turned her head to look into his eyes. “What was that with the colors? Justice, I . . . I felt like I was inside your soul.”

“It was the soul-meld, Keely. The soul-meld is a gift from Poseidon and allows an Atlantean and his true mate to see inside each other's souls. When you said you saw the flame of Poseidon—the blue-green flame—in my eyes, I knew. The soul-meld brands a warrior's heart as permanently as the mark of Poseidon marks our bodies.”

She traced the brand on his arm. “This? What does it mean?”

“Poseidon's Trident bisects the circle representing all the peoples of the world. The triangle is for the pyramid of knowledge from the ancients. All of Poseidon's warriors bear this mark as testimony to our vow to serve Poseidon and protect humanity.”

She kissed the mark and then his chest, nestling against him for a moment. Then she pulled away from him and sat up.

“You know, I hate to be mundane at a time like this, but we're in the jungle with no clothes on, and there are bugs. I really, really don't want bug bites on my butt.”

He blinked at her, stunned by her matter-of-fact practicality, then started laughing again. “Not to mention any moment your stomach is going to rumble, isn't it?”

She grinned. “Well, now that you mention it . . .”

He called water again and they showered, unable to keep from touching each other. Keely knew from what she'd seen in Justice's soul that the truce with the Nereid was temporary. He'd have to find a more permanent way to incorporate both sides of himself into a cohesive whole. Maybe the Star of Artemis really could help with that.

She felt like she was pinning all her hopes on a magic rock, which was way out there in fairy-tale land. But, as she kept reminding herself, she'd just traveled through space and time to the Guatemalan jungle with an Atlantean. Hard to stay in denial after that.

“We need to go,” she said finally, after they were both dressed.

He kissed her until she was breathless and then released her, a look of grim resolve on his face. “Yes, we do. We need to find the Star of Artemis for far greater reasons than merely my own. Although I do feel some hope for the future since the glory of your lovemaking has tamed even the Nereid inside me.”

She felt the heat climb into her cheeks. “You're pretty glorious yourself, but if we start talking about lovemaking, we'll never get out of this patch of jungle.”

He closed his eyes and held his hands up into the air, and she knew he was using his senses to reach out and try to feel the Star of Artemis again. It only took a few seconds.

“I feel it. Its call is stronger now. I must be gaining strength.” He pointed in a northeast direction. “It's coming from there.”

She nodded, hoping her shaky legs would carry her on another long walk. Her entire body felt limp and sore in unusual places after their intense lovemaking. She just hoped there wouldn't be chafing.

She laughed out loud. Practical Keely was right. Justice would crack up if he heard her thoughts now. He turned and raised a quizzical eyebrow, which only made her laugh harder. “Nothing. Just a random thought. Lead on, then. It's going to be a long, hot walk.”

“We're not walking,” he said, beckoning to her. “We're traveling in style. Atlantean style.”

She could only watch, dazzled, as he transformed into a sparkling rainbow of mist that somehow had form and substance enough to lift her into the air.

We're going to fly,
he said in her mind, and she soared up through the canopy of trees on a magical carpet of water droplets that contained the shape and consciousness of the man she'd just held inside her body.

Magic rocks would seem mundane after this.

They flew over the jungle, skimming the treetops like a child's fantasy of flight. Keely gasped at the sight of fiercely scolding monkeys and laughed in delight at the brightly colored birds who flew along with them, clearly wondering what kind of new strange cousin shared their skies.

“Archaeology was never as much fun as this before,” she sang out, hoping he could understand her in that state, somehow sure that he could. She couldn't take in everything fast enough, and her head whipped back and forth on her neck so rapidly as she gazed around that she'd probably give herself whiplash.

We're very nearly there
.

She nodded absently, staring down through an opening between treetops at a sleek jaguar pair crossing the ground, fluid muscles moving under their dappled coats. “They're so beautiful.”

Beautiful and deadly,
he said in her mind.

“Rather like you,” she replied, smiling.

In retaliation, he tossed her into the air so that for a moment she was falling, unsupported, shrieking with surprise, but he caught her again so quickly she never had a chance to become afraid. “Now that's just mean,” she scolded. “Wait till I get a chance to—”

The sight of the smoke stopped her midsentence. Thick clouds of rolling, ominous black smoke a little ways in front of them. Finding the Star might not be as simple as they'd hoped.

The jungle was burning.