Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis (19 page)

Alexis, almost unconsciously, treated
Thor to a taste of his own medicine when he returned. She was angry
with him for knowing her unguarded thoughts, and embarrassed about
her own thoughts and actions. She didn’t decide to repay in kind
for the cold shoulder he’d treated her to before the attack. She
simply could not bring herself to speak to him, and she was too
busy guarding her thoughts from him to allow for much else
anyway.

After the third night of staring at
her back, Thor rolled onto his side, grasped her and hauled her
against him. She resisted, for all the good it did. She fumed about
it for several minutes, but she realized fairly quickly that she
had missed the sense of security she felt when she was cuddled
close to him. She relaxed after a few minutes, drifting toward
sleep.

“
You are angry with
me?”

Alexis roused, trying to make sense of
the question. “An understatement if I ever heard one,” she said
finally.

“
Because I broke my word and
failed to protect you.”

“
Dolt,” Alexis said
succinctly.

Thor was silent for several minutes.
Alexis sensed he was wrestling with confusion. “Not because of
that?” he asked tentatively.

“
No.”

“
Why then?”

Alexis did not want to bring it up.
She wanted to forget it had ever happened.

She felt his lips brush her shoulder.
They were curled in a smile.

“
If you say another word,”
Alexis threatened, “I swear I’ll choke you.”

A chuckle rumbled from his chest. “You
could not.”

“
Try me.”

He nipped her shoulder with his teeth.
“You would strangle the man you adore?”

Alexis flopped onto her back, glaring
up at him as he came up on one elbow, supporting his head with his
hand so that he could look down at her. “I do NOT adore you! You
are the most … the most annoying man I have ever known in my
life!”

He reached up to brush her hair from
her cheek, caressing her lightly with his fingers. “I thought … It
seemed to me that you cared for me a little.”

Alexis’ lips pursed, she tried to roll
back over on her side.

Thor stopped her.

Alexis stared up at him, feeling her
anger dissolve into nothingness at the barely concealed anxiety in
his expression. A knot of emotion formed in her throat, making it
difficult to swallow, or to speak. “I love you,” she said finally.
“I know you probably don’t believe me after … after, but I
do.”

Thor touched her lips. “Shhh. I was …
wounded, and angry because it caused me such pain, but I have loved
you from the first moment that I saw you. I do not think that I
could withhold forgiveness even if I desired to do so. In truth, it
has caused more pain even to try.”

“
Really?” Alexis said
doubtfully. “From the first?”

Thor nodded.

“
Even though….”

Thor frowned. “Perhaps not the very
first moment.”

Alexis sighed deeply. “I didn’t think
so.”

Thor studied her a moment.
“Truthfully, I thought that you were the most beautiful creature
that I had ever seen in my life the first time I looked upon you.
In that moment, I wanted you. I was—jealous that Adonis had
you.”

Alexis blushed, pleased but still
doubtful. It would have been a little easier to believe if he
hadn’t laid it on so thick.

He touched her face, made her look at
him. “Heart, mind, body, soul, the most beautiful. On my life, I
swear it.”

Alexis squirmed uncomfortably. “So
when did you really fall in love with me?”

“
When you defied me,” Thor
responded, grinning.

Alexis’ brows rose. “Which
time?”

“
The first time, when I
commanded you to come with me and you spoke foul words to
me.”

Alexis laughed. “You’re
joking.”

He shook his head solemnly.

“
You were
smitten?”

“
To be honest, I thought for
several moments that you had put a mind hold upon me. I could not
think clearly at all.”

Alexis knew he had to be teasing her,
but it sounded good. “Even after what I did at the
coliseum?”

“
Even after you stunned me
by kicking me in the head,” Thor said, laughing.

“
I am sorry. I didn’t really
want to hurt you. I just wanted to get away.”

Thor seemed to debate with himself a
moment. “You did not stun me, at least not in the way that you
thought.”

“
Liar!”

He smiled faintly. “It is the truth. I
swear it.”

Alexis frowned. “Then how, exactly, do
you mean?”

“
I had never seen the like
of it … that jump and kick. If my reflexes had been a little
slower, I think you might, truly, have felled me, but you only
grazed me. I was more stunned by what you had tried to do. I could
only stare after you in wonder as you took flight.”

Alexis was indignant, not the least
because he sounded as if he was teasing. “You’re saying you LET
me?”

“
Not …
precisely.”

“
That was low, really low.
Letting me think I had a chance.”

Thor frowned. “Now you are angry with
me again. I will begin to fear to speak.”

Despite her irritation, Alexis
couldn’t help but be amused. “Right.”

“
Truly,” Thor said, almost
with complete sincerity.

“
I don’t believe you’re
afraid of anything. You’ve no reason to be, after all.”

Thor shook his head. “I do not fear
death. I do not fear physical injury. But I do fear the pain only
you can inflict.”

“
Me?”

“
You. Only you can break my
heart. I love you.”

Chapter Thirteen

Alexis lifted her hand, cupping the
back of his head and pulling him down so that his lips met hers. He
teased her, resisting her effort to deepen the kiss, merely
brushing his lips tantalizingly over hers.

“
Make love to me,” she
whispered against his lips.

Thor lifted his head. “I dare
not.”

Alexis looked at him blankly, certain,
at first, that he must be joking. “Why?”

“
You are not healed, Alexis.
I could hurt you. I could hurt our babe,” he said
quietly.

“
Oh,” Alexis said,
disconcerted that she hadn’t thought of that herself, but then her
mind had been elsewhere, and she hadn’t felt so much as a twinge of
pain in the past day or two. “You wouldn’t,” she insisted after a
moment.

“
You do not know this,” Thor
said gently.

He was right, unfortunately. She
didn’t know. She thought it would be all right, but she couldn’t be
completely certain.

She sighed, deeply regretful. “You’re
right. We should wait until the doctor says it’s safe.”

Thor settled back, pulled her close
and began stroking her back. Several moments passed in silence. “I
could pleasure you,” he said tentatively.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to
figure that out, but Alexis realized that it had little appeal at
the moment. What she really wanted, needed, was to feel him inside
of her, possessing her so that the ugly memory of her rape would
begin to fade.

“
No. We’ll wait.”

He tipped her chin up, brushed his
lips lightly across hers. Alexis felt her lips tingle pleasantly at
his touch, felt a welcome and familiar stirring in her lower belly.
Her lips parted in invitation, her breath catching in her throat as
he plucked lightly at her lower lip, sucking it gently into his
mouth. He released her lower lip, his tongue skating across the
sensitive flesh, then caressing her upper lip.

The pent-up breath Alexis had
forgotten she was holding rushed from her lungs and with it the
tension she hadn’t realized was there, replaced by a far more
pleasant tension of expectancy as he plunged his tongue inside her
mouth to explore the sensitive inner recesses.

His kiss was a slow, gentle caress,
his hand equally gentle as it skated along her back, cupped her
buttock, then traveled down her thigh, moving restlessly,
aimlessly, as if he were a blind man, learning the feel of her
skin, the suppleness of her flesh, each curve and
hollow.

Alexis’ heart thudded into overtime as
he moved his hand up along her thigh and cupped her sex, delving
inside with one finger.

He released her lips, making his way
slowly down the length of her body with mouth and tongue, kindling
a higher and higher fire in her blood as he lingered over her
breasts with a thoroughness that had her struggling to catch her
breath, drunk with desire, boneless and at the same time taut with
building tension.

The muscles of her stomach,
hypersensitive now to his lightest touch, jerked as he moved over
her belly, nipping her with his teeth, lathing her with his tongue.
She waited, breathless with anticipation as his mouth moved over
her lower belly, his teeth gently nipped the ultra sensitive flesh
at the top of her thighs.

He stopped, lifted his head to look at
her. His expression was harsh with desire. His eyes gleamed as he
held her for several heartbeats with his gaze. He grasped her legs,
spreading her thighs and kneeling between them. Sitting back on his
feet, he placed his palm on her belly, hesitated for several
moments, then moved his hand down, parting the folds of flesh in
her sex, rubbing the tiny nub that was her pleasure
center.

Her eyes slumberous, she watched him
as he studied her.

He caught her gaze, held it as he
lowered his head, replacing his hand with his mouth.

Alexis gasped, gripped two handfuls of
the sheets, dug her heels into the mattress at the onslaught of
incredible pleasure emanating from his tongue as he teased her
clit, sucked it.

Pleasure rose inside her like the
tide, higher and higher until she was gasping for air, her mouth
parched, her head swimming. She hovered at the edge of ultimate
pleasure for so long she thought she would die of it. And suddenly
she knew what she needed to take her over the precipice.

She grasped his cheeks, sitting up as
he lifted his head, leaning forward to kiss him. She tasted herself
on his lips. It was wildly erotic, escalating her desire. When she
ended the kiss, she twisted around, lowered herself to the bed and
took his engorged member into her mouth, lavishing it with her
attention. He groaned, leaned over her and began to make love to
her with his mouth once more.

She found as she moved her mouth over
him that she was moving beyond the plateau of pleasure she’d been
hovering on, climbing higher still. She suckled his member as her
climax caught her. She felt him go rigid, trying to hold back. She
wouldn’t have it, catching his buttocks in her hands to hold him to
her, suckling harder as he tried to pull away. He groaned as if he
were being tortured, and then she felt his hot juices against the
back of her throat as he climaxed. She held him until he stopped
shuddering.

When she lifted her head at last, he
fell weakly to his side, gasping.

He was looking at her, his eyes still
glazed with spent passion. “That was … not necessary.”

A faint smile curled Alexis’ lips.
“Oh, but it was.”

He gripped her arms, pulling her down
and tucking her snugly against his body. “I wanted to give you
pleasure.”

“
I wanted to give it in
return,” Alexis said, pleased with herself. She had never done that
before. She hadn’t realized she would enjoy it so much, but the
truth was, feeling his pleasure had heightened her own
considerably.

His hand was still shaking as he began
to rub her back once more.

* * * *

Alexis lived for the moment. She
didn’t realize that she had simply refused to do anything else
until Aurora asked when she and Thor would wed.

Alexis kept her smile with an effort,
glad that Thor was far away—hopefully too far to ‘hear’ her
thoughts—glad that she was wearing her band.

“
We haven’t discussed it
yet,” she said evasively.

“
But--you will not wait
until the child is born, surely?” Aurora demanded. “If you do not
feel strong enough yet to make arrangements, I would do this for
you.”

Alexis could see the hope in the older
woman’s eyes, knew she was trying to hide the fact that it was
something she desperately wanted to do. Alexis would gladly have
given her the task, only to make her happy, except for one major
stumbling block.

As much as Alexis loved Thor, she had
also loved her father. She could not allow his killer to run free.
Eric had stolen her father’s golden years, deprived her of many
years she could have shared with him, deprived her child of the
chance to know a grandfather. Her love for Thor didn’t—couldn’t
change anything. She still had to find a way to go back. She didn’t
know what would happen after that. Maybe she would be allowed to
return—she desperately hoped she would. But, regardless of possible
consequences to herself, it had to be done.