More Than a Fantasy (5 page)

Poseidon lifted his head and grinned at her, then knelt before her on the sandy ground. The movement put his face level with the waistband of her bikini, and he pressed his mouth into her belly and bit the elastic, drawing it down her thigh.

With the bikini at her knees, he pushed her legs apart and thrust his fingers into her soft curls. Mara reveled in the intrusion. She put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself and moaned low in her throat when he slipped two fingers inside her.

“You’re tight,” he breathed, working her with his fingers, drawing her own slick moisture out to coat her trembling thighs. “You’re going to feel so good wrapped around me.”

Mara nodded, panting. This was sex the way she’d dreamed about it. Hot and hard and fast. If only it were with Tiran.

She imagined Poseidon’s brother kneeling in front of her, dragging her bikini to the ground and tossing it aside, nuzzling between her legs and flicking his hot tongue over her clit. “Oh…more!”

His withdrawal left her wanting
. Trembling with unmet need, she held her breath as he rose before her and freed his cock from his jeans.

“Take me in your hand. Feel how hard I am for you.”

She obeyed his command, wrapping her fingers around the swollen rod of flesh. The skin was molten hot and soft as silk. The concentric ridges of flesh that banded him grew as she slid her fisted hand over him.

“Imagine what it will feel like inside you.”

She did and her body responded with a surge of drenching moisture. She parted her slick thighs, but Poseidon shook his head.

“Turn around.”

Once again, she obeyed, eager for anything he would do. She spread her legs wide and braced her arms on the tree trunk, thrusting back toward him as he caressed her.

When she felt him position himself between her legs, she pushed back more, letting his huge erection part the swollen folds of her sex.

He tore her cover-up away from her
,
and her bikini top followed. Naked now, Mara felt completely uninhibited. She moaned as Poseidon pressed her forward, taking her breasts in his hands.

The wide head of his cock pushed upward, and she bent forward to take him inside.

“That’s right,” he urged, his breath hot against her neck. “Open for me.”

“Poseidon!” Tiran’s voice sliced through the heady atmosphere in the grove.

Every taut nerve ending in Mara’s body pulsed with relief. As ready as she had been for Poseidon’s claiming thrust, she wanted Tiran more, even though he hadn’t offered her freedom the way his brother had.

Poseidon’s hands dropped from her breasts. When he retreated from her, so did the heat from his body, leaving Mara leaning against the olive tree, shivering in the encroaching darkness.

She turned to see Tiran grab his brother by the throat and throw him to the ground.

The two men wrestled in the dirt while Mara stood, transfixed. She had imagined this very scene only days ago. How could it be happening exactly as she’d fantasized?

Tiran landed on Poseidon’s chest and levered all his weight on his brother’s windpipe. “How dare you touch her?”

Poseidon’s eyes bulged in anger. With a bellow that rattled the grove,
he threw Tiran aside.
“She agreed to it, brother—eagerly agreed to take me on in exchange for her freedom!”

Tiran’s eyes flickered to Mara, who had bent to retrieve her cover-up. Heat rose to her cheeks. She clutched the thin fabric to her chest, feeling terribly naked.

“You promised her something you couldn’t give,” Tiran said. He lunged at his brother again.

Mara sidestepped the pair as they crashed into the nearest tree trunk, grappling with each other. Her eyes locked on Poseidon. He’d lied to her? Why wasn’t she surprised? It seemed to fit his character. That meant there was no escape for her. She had to get back to the house and destroy the letter she’d written to her father.

While the two Atlanteans fought behind her, she headed for the path that led to the dunes. She’d just passed the tree line when she heard the alarms, distant but audible in the still evening. Her heart plummeted when the shouts of the security guards reached her. Intruders on the island—her dueling Atlanteans had tripped the alarms.

Mara ran back to the center of the grove and tried to pry the brothers away from one another. “Stop it! Stop! They’re coming! Can’t you hear the alarms? They’ll find you here.”

To their credit, the men instantly parted. Both stared at her as though they could not fathom what she meant.

“You have to leave! The guards are armed. They’ll shoot first and ask ques—”

Poseidon grabbed Mara’s arm and dragged her toward him. “I promised you I would take you away from here, and I will. You will pay me later.”

Mara struggled against him, certain now that she didn’t want to go anywhere with him. Even as she tried to squirm out of his embrace, her surroundings faded to pearlescent white and a cool breeze seemed to waft through her body.

Distantly, she heard Tiran cursing his brother. Disoriented and dizzy, Mara rode the tumultuous wave as the battle surged toward the beach.

When she finally felt solid ground beneath her feet, she flung herself away from Poseidon, landing in the wet sand. Before he could reclaim her, Tiran stepped between them. He shoved his brother backward with enough force to knock him down.

“I won’t let you take her away, Poseidon. You’ll only abandon her somewhere when you tire of her.”

“Perhaps, but I’m certain it will be a while before that happens. She’s certainly beginning to amuse me.” Poseidon brushed sand from his hands and regained his feet. His shadow fell on Mara, who glared at him.

“I won’t go with you. Leave me alone!”

Poseidon laughed. “Atlantean males don’t take no for an answer, little sand maiden.” He reached for her just as the Zander security force mounted the dunes and cascaded onto the beach.

Mara took little solace from the knowledge that her two fantasy men were quite real in the eyes of the security guards. The six men took aim at Poseidon and Tiran, barking at them to back away from Mara and lay face
down in the sand.

Poseidon ignored them, but Tiran raised his hands to show he was unarmed. He moved away from Mara, drawing the attention of the armed guards from her.

She stood. “It’s all right. They’re just leaving. No harm done!” She also put up her hands.

Zeke took a step toward her. “Miss Zander, stay down until the intruders have been neutralized.”

“You’re not neutralizing anyone. Leave them alone. They’re leaving peacefully.”

Poseidon gave her a wicked smile. “This is your last chance. Tiran hasn’t got the courage to defy our laws, but I do. Come with me now and you’ll never have to return here.” He thrust out his hand toward her.

The lightning-fast movement spooked one of the guards. A shot rang out, and as it did, Poseidon melted into a pillar of clear liquid. Like a performing dolphin, he arced toward the waves and sank into the surf, the bullet passing harmlessly through his liquefied body to embed itself in Mara’s left shoulder.

* * * *

Tiran caught Mara as she reeled backward, propelled by the force of the projectile. She collapsed into his arms, her eyes wide and her mouth moving soundlessly. He looked up and saw the human men surging over the dunes, weapons aimed, ready to attack even though it had been one of their own who’d injured Mara.

Alone he could not fight them all. He had no choice. He scooped her shivering body into his arms and turned, morphing to stone as he moved. Bullets bounced off his broad back as he trudged with her into the sea, shielding her from further injury.

They submerged completely for a moment, then he morphed their bodies into air. As he did, the bullet dislodged from Mara’s flesh and sank into the sea. They rose together and sailed away, visible to the security guards as nothing more than a whirling patch of fog above the waves.

* * * *

Mara felt nothing. She seemed to exist in a dream state, unable to speak or move her body, yet the vista before her eyes changed rapidly as though she were flowing like water over the land.

She saw the island. It looked so small from above, a crescent-shaped strip of land bordered by pearly stretches of beach on either side. The square buildings of her father’s compound resembled toy building blocks nestled into mounds of green and brown clay. As she drew closer, she saw the dark heads of the security guards. They formed a line, like ants, trudging back to the barracks near the north beach. She followed them, aware that her movements seemed to be controlled by her thoughts alone.

Inside the security building, her father stood clutching the back of a chair as if to hold himself up. He looked thin and pale, and his hands trembled against the vinyl backing of the seat. His fingers made deep indents in the cushion.

When the guards had assembled in front of him, their heads bowed, he asked one simple question. His tone was controlled, even, and his voice low. “Where is my daughter?”

Zeke lifted his head, though he didn’t meet his employer’s gaze. Mara felt as though she was hovering between the two men, and she sensed their emotions. Zeke was angry at the intruders, disappointed in his team and a little bit afraid of Thanatos. Her father was steeped in pure rage; no other emotion clouded his mind except the overwhelming necessity for revenge.

“She was taken, sir.” Zeke’s emotions weighed heavier on the side of fear now. Mara wondered how she knew that. “She may have been injured.”

Injured?

She tried to remember what had happened on the beach. A bullet had hit her, but she felt no pain now. Was she dead? Is that why she was here with her father and yet felt no emotions other than bland curiosity?

Thanatos sagged. He had never been a tall man, even in his youth, but years of failing health and worry had shrunk his frame. His shoulders bowed. “Injured? Or killed?”

“Sir, if she were dead, I doubt the intruders would have taken her with them. I’ve got men gearing up one of our boats to search for her, but…”

Thanatos looked up, but his eyes didn’t seem to focus. “But what?”

“Whoever they were, they went underwater. They may have had a submersible waiting a few yards off shore.”

“She could be anywhere by now.”

“We’re going to monitor all radio bands. We expect a ransom demand.”

Thanatos sank again. One of the guards helped him to sit in the chair. His greatest fear had come true. Mara hovered near her father, wondering if there was some way she could comfort him and let him know she was all right—yet, she wasn’t sure herself if she was all right.

Though she felt nothing, she considered how wrong this had turned out. She’d never wanted her father to believe she’d been kidnapped. She’d never wanted him to suffer like this.

She tried to reach out to him, to reassure him, but at that moment, a cold pressure seemed to flood the empty space where her body should have been. The clarity of the images that surrounded her faded and blurred, and her father’s voice reached her from a great distance.

“I want her found. No one sleeps until she’s been found.”

As her father’s voice faded to a distant echo, Mara gasped. Her lungs filled with warm air, lungs that hadn’t existed a moment ago. A searing pain descended with her next ragged inhalation, and she screamed, flailing at the large pair of hands that held her down.

“You’re all right, Mara! You’re all right now.” Tiran’s face swam into focus above her. He cradled her in his arms, shielding her body from the bright sunlight that beat down on them.

She struggled to sit up, but he held her against him, rocking her to soothe her fear.

“What happened? Where are we?” she managed to ask when her breathing returned to normal. She glanced at her left shoulder, where the white-hot pain radiated down into her chest and her arm. She’d been shot!

“We’re on a neighboring island—a deserted one. We’re alone and you’re safe here. It’s morning.”

“I’m bleeding—”

“Not for long. I revived you, now I’m going to heal your wound.”

Panic gripped her. “Revived me? I died?” The faint memories of her father talking to the security guards seemed like a distant dream. The details that had been so clear slipped away piece by piece. “How?”

“You drowned. I had to take you below the water to escape the men on the island. It was only for an instant. Then we morphed into the air
,
and I brought you here. You were dead when we rematerialized.”

Tiran’s voice was tight, hollow. He’d tried to save her and ended up killing her—if only temporarily. She lifted one hand to caress his face.

He kissed her palm. “I’m sorry. It should not have happened, but combined with the shock of your wound…
Poseidon should have protected you. He knew the bullets would not hurt him.”

Mara shook her head. Though the pain made her weak, she wanted to reassure Tiran before she passed out. “It’s all right. The guards shouldn’t have fired at him. But Tiran…I have to…I have to…”