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That stung. Badly. But Shaye forced herself to smile. “Why don’t you go find your new husband and let him calm you down? This kind of upset will only cause you to shrivel up like a raisin.”
Gasping in horror, her mom patted the skin around her eyes, feeling for crow’s feet. “I just had Botox. I shouldn’t have a single line or crease. Do you see a wrinkle? Do you see a goddamn wrinkle? I can’t lift my brows to find out—the muscles won’t work.”
Shaye rolled her eyes. “Are we done here?”
Her mom stomped her foot and ground out, “I’ve finally found the love of my life. Why can’t you understand that and be happy for me?”
“Uh, hello. This is the sixth love of your life.”
“So the hell what? I’ve made mistakes in the past. That’s better than cutting myself off from relationships like you’ve done, just to avoid getting hurt.” She paused, raised her chin. “You spurn everything male, Shaye. You never date.”
No, she didn’t. Not anymore. She’d always been leery of the roads she would have to travel to obtain the fabled happily-ever-after. At one point, however, she had tried the dating thing. She’d quickly discovered that men never called when they said they were going to call. They weren’t interested in her as a person; they were interested in getting her out of her clothing. They admired other women when they were supposed to woo her.
They lied, they used, they cheated. And they weren’t worth the trouble.
Shaye twirled a strand of grass around her finger. “I wish you all the best with your new husband, Mother.” No reason to rehash everything. Again. “Now, I’m going home.”
“You’re not going anywhere until you’ve apologized to Preston.” A finger was shoved in her face. “You treated him shabbily, and I won’t have it. I won’t have it, do you hear me?”
She had treated him shabbily, and she felt bad for it. But she wouldn’t apologize. That would invite conversation. Conversation would invite friendship, and friendship would invite emotion. Emotion, ultimately, would invite everything she’d worked so hard to avoid. “Do you truly expect me to obey a parental command from you? Now? After a childhood of being raised by nannies?”
“Well, yes” was the hesitant response.
“You’re forgetting something. I’m the Ice Princess of Bitterslovakia, the Grand Duchess of Bitterstonia and the Queen of Bitterland. Isn’t that what you’ve called me over the years?”
A gentle roll of waves splashed in the distance.
“I should have known you’d act this way,” her mom snapped. With an angry flip of her wrist, she tossed a dark tress over her shoulder and glared out at the water. “All I’ve ever wanted was a nice, normal daughter. Instead I’m stuck with you. You won’t be happy until you’ve ruined my wedding.”
“Which one?” Shaye asked dryly, pushing aside her hurt. She much preferred the icy numbness she usually surrounded herself with. That numbness had saved her during childhood, sweeping her away from depression and desolation and into a life of satisfaction, if not contentment.
“All of them, damn it.” Tamara didn’t face her, but continued to stare out at the pristine water. Another splash sounded, this one closer. “You’re jealous of me, and because of that you’ve never wanted me to be happy. Every time I’m close, you do something to hurt me.”
Of all the things her mother had said, that cut the most. After all, Shaye was here because she wanted her mom to be happy. She’d never shoved the woman from her life, because, despite everything, she did care. It was something she’d fought against and hated, but there it was. The girl who wouldn’t let herself care for anything or anyone else still wanted her mommy’s approval. Ugh. “Don’t blame me for your misery. You alone are responsible.”
“Conner and I wanted this day to be perf—” Tamara’s eyes widened, glazing with lust as her words jammed to an abrupt halt. “Perfect.” She sighed dreamily. “Hmm. So perfect.”
The way her voice dropped to a husky purr, as if she wanted to peel off her dress and dance naked in the moonlight, had Shaye blinking in confusion. “Um, hello. Arguing here.”
“Man.” There was a hypnotized quality to the word, an entrancement that spoke of passion and secret fantasies. “My man.”
“What are you talking about?” Shaye dragged her gaze to the ocean. Her mouth fell open in shock.
There, rising from the water like primitive sea gods, were six gloriously tall and muscled barbarians. The moon settled reverently behind them, enveloping them in a golden halo. Each of them carried a sword, an honest to God, I’ll-slice-you-into-a-million-pieces sword, but she couldn’t seem to make herself care. They also carried unconscious scuba-clad men, some anchored under their arms, others draped over their backs. Again, she couldn’t make herself care.
The warriors were shirtless, and all of them possessed sinewy washboard abs, skin so tanned it resembled liquid gold poured over steel, and faces any male supermodel would have envied. Only better. So much better.
Unbelievable…surreal…magnificent.
Shaye gulped, and her heart skipped a beat. Heated air snagged in her lungs, burning and licking her with white-hot flames. All six of the warriors were suddenly looking at her as if she’d make a tasty meal, no silverware required. Strangely enough, she wanted to splay herself on a table, naked, offering her body as the dinner buffet. All you can eat. No charge.
She moistened her lips, her mouth watering, her skin tingling, her stomach clenching. I’m turned on. Why the hell am I turned on? More important, why wasn’t she running?
Closer and closer they came. So close now she could see the silvery water droplets sliding down their hairless chests and gathering in their sexy navels. The water slid lower, lower still…
Snap out of this, dummy, she thought dazedly. Her gaze snagged on the man in the middle, and for a moment she forgot to move. Forgot to breathe. Dangerous, her mind supplied. Lethal. He was taller than the rest, his dark-blond hair hanging in a wet tangle around his wickedly mesmerizing features. His eyes…Oh, Lord. His eyes. They were blue-green, neither color blending with the other but standing alone, and so erotically seductive she felt the pull of his gaze all the way to her bones. Her nipples hardened, and an ache throbbed between her legs.
There was something wild about him, something untamed and savage, a deceptively calm glint in his expression that said he did whatever the hell he pleased, whenever the hell he wanted. And as she stared at him, he stared at her. He studied her face, searing arousal flickering in those magnificent eyes of his, deepening and mixing the blue-green to a smoldering turquoise. But the arousal was quickly followed by a glint of anger.
Anger? Was he mad? At her?
“Mine,” her mom said on a wispy catch of breath, still lost in some sort of trance. “All mine.”
Never ceasing their confident swaggers, the warriors exited the water and dropped the still-unconscious scuba-men on the beach. Arms now free, the warrior in the middle cocked his finger, beckoning Shaye over to him. Shivering, drowning in his maleness, she somehow managed to shake her head no. Go to him, her naughty mind beseeched. She shook her head again, violently this time.
The man’s smooth chin canted to the side, and he frowned. “Come here,” he said, his voice a husky whisper that drifted over the small distance, as intoxicating and heady as an erotic caress.
Another shiver slipped down her spine, so intense she almost fell to her knees. What would happen if he actually touched her? What would happen if he trailed those luscious pink lips along her every curve and hollow?
Stop, Shaye, a small, rational voice inside her commanded. Just stop.
“Come here,” he repeated.
“Yes,” her mom said, already stepping toward them. The dreamy glaze in her eyes darkened with eagerness. “I need to touch you. Please let me touch you.”
The part of Shaye that acknowledged these men were dangerous also acknowledged there was something wrong with her mom—and with herself—but she still couldn’t seem to care. A stunningly intense sensual fog was weaving through her mind, and nothing else mattered.
“Fight this,” she told herself. “Fight this, whatever it is.” Waging a mental war, she kicked and shoved at the sudden images of herself and that man, naked and straining together, his mouth on her breasts, his fingers slipping inside her, her legs parting, giving him better access…
“No. No!” she ground out. Even as she spoke, a blanket of calm settled over her thoughts. A familiar, icy wall encased her emotions, pushing away everything but the need to escape.
These men, whoever—whatever—they were, were dangerous, their intentions obviously malicious. They had swords, for God’s sake, and they radiated lust. Blood lust, sexual lust, she didn’t know.
They were almost upon her.
Scowling, fear cresting, she reached out and latched on to her mom’s arm, jerking Tamara to a halt. “Don’t go near them.”
“Must…touch.”
“We have to get help, warn the others. Something!”
“Let me go.” She struggled against Shaye’s hold, desperate to free herself. “I have to—”
“We have to go back to the tent. Now move!” Dragging her flailing mother behind her, Shaye raced toward the reception area, toward the laughing voices, soft music and unsuspecting guests.
As she ran, she dared a glance behind her. The men hadn’t slowed, hadn’t turned away. Lust and hunger intensified in their features as they followed her.
“Help us,” she shouted, kicking sand with every step. She swept the curtain aside and entered the tent. “Someone call 911!”
No one heard her. They were too busy dancing and drinking themselves into oblivion, thanks to the open bar.
“Let me go,” her mom continued to shout. When that failed to gain her freedom, she sank her sharp little teeth into Shaye’s arm.
“Goddamn it!” Shaye did the only thing she could think of: she hooked her foot behind her mom’s ankles and pushed, sending the bride hurling backward into the dessert table. Food and platters crashed to the ground, but at least her mom remained horizontal, trying to catch her breath.
Several people glanced at Shaye, then at the fallen bride. Their eyes widened, some in confusion, some in horror, but mostly in amusement.
“There are men—” Shaye pointed “—out there. Dangerous men. They have swords. Does anyone have a gun? Did someone call 911?”
Reoriented, her mom jolted to her feet, unconcerned that red-and-white frosting now streaked her ten-thousand-dollar dress. She elbowed her way past the guests. “I need him. Let me go back to him.”
“Tamara?” her new husband asked, incredulous. He rushed toward his bride and locked her in his arms, his expression concerned as she struggled to break free. “What’s wrong with you, kitten?”
“I need…him.” The last word was uttered on a relieved, happy sigh.
The six sea gods had jerked back the tent flap. They stepped inside, consuming every inch of breathable space and blocking the only exit. Immediately the music screeched to a halt. The male guests cowered, as if death had just arrived, and the females gasped in bliss, already moving toward the warriors, reaching out, eager to touch them.
“Get out of here,” Shaye growled. “We have weapons. Guns…and…and other menacing stuff.”
All six sets of eyes scanned the crowd, drinking in every detail…searching…searching…and then locking on her. She trembled, dizzying warmth spearing her. Naked images tried to rush through her again. Sweaty skin, flushed, pink with arousal…
Not again! She forced her mind to remain blank.
Who were these men? How did they do that? How did they make her long to forget who and what she was and simply enjoy the pleasures she somehow knew they could give her?
Fighting a wave of panic, Shaye quickly grabbed the cake knife from the ground and held it in front of her. Icing smeared her hand; her heart thumped erratically in her chest. In high school she’d picked a few fights with her stepsiblings. Yes, it had been her misguided attempt to keep them at a distance so she wouldn’t begin to like them only to lose them a few months later, but she’d actually managed to win some of those fights. Not that any of her brothers and sisters had carried knives or sported more muscles than two body builders fused together.
The warrior in the middle, the exquisitely formed blond giant who had beckoned her over to him on the beach, motioned her over once more. There was still a hint of anger in his eyes, still a too-sensual pull about him. Now, however, he seemed all the more predatory. Sexual. In the well-lit tent, she could see the silver hoop winking at his nipple.
“Come,” he said.
Everything inside her might scream to obey, to go to him, to suck that hoop into her mouth while she ground herself against his erection, but she gulped and shook her head. “No.” Erection. God. She hadn’t even looked there. But she knew, as if the knowledge was imprinted on her every cell, that he was aroused.
His kissable, lickable lips lifted in a slow, wicked smile, as though he’d wanted her to deny him. “I will delight in showing you the error of your ways.”
Yep. He’d wanted.
Chapter Three
MY MATE, VALERIAN thought, incredulous. He’d found his mate.
He hadn’t been looking, hadn’t wanted to find her, but found her he had. As legend claimed, he’d caught the scent of her and had known. Known beyond any doubt. Mine. His every cell had awakened for her, responded to her.
When he and his men had first exited the portal, human sea-warriors clad in strange, tight, black garments had attacked them and tried to drag them onto boats that waited above. There had been a struggle, but the nymphs ultimately won, disposing of both the men and the boats. After that, the nymphs hadn’t cared about the scenery of this surface world they’d only dreamed about. They simply wanted to find some women and sweep them to Atlantis.
One female in particular had caught and held his gaze. She was tall and slender, yet beautifully curved, her stomach flat, her hips slightly rounded. Her legs were long and tapered and climbed straight to the new center of his world.
Her angelic face boasted a luscious little chin, glowing cheeks and a daintily sloped nose. Her eyes were big and brown, a rich brown, almost gold, filled with striking vulnerability and undeniable determination, offset stunningly by pale, gloriously long lashes.
He’d never seen skin as fair and luminous as hers, not even on a vampire. Like the very moon he’d seen shining in the heavens, she was soft and radiant. Ethereal. His hands itched to reach out and caress her slowly, lingering and savoring, making sure she wouldn’t shimmer away, an unattainable dream.
As to the clothing she wore, well, he vowed to keep her dressed exactly so for the rest of her life. The many strips of green grass hanging from her waist parted with her every breath, revealing succulent glimpses of her thighs. No, he hadn’t wanted to find his mate—and a human, no less—and he was angry that he had. But beneath the anger was a possessive hunger he couldn’t deny. Didn’t want to deny.
He’d been pleasured by women (many, many women) for so many years he’d forgotten what it felt like to desire one on his own. To simply look and crave. Already his blood heated with a seemingly unquenchable fire, and his skin tightened. Mine. His muscles hardened. Mine.
Obviously she hadn’t yet recognized him as her mate. In fact, she seemed to want only his disappearance. Humans, he inwardly scoffed. Standing as she was, she appeared untouchable, this mate of his, but touch her he would. He would die if he didn’t.
Valerian paused, blinked, the words echoing through his mind. He would die if he didn’t. How many times had a woman said something similar to him? That she would die if he didn’t touch her? That she would die if he didn’t fuck her? He’d never understood that until just now, this moment, studying the little moonbeam.
She was essential to his being. Hate that fact, he might, but there it was.
As he drank her in, her lips parted slightly, as if she couldn’t decide whether to suck in a breath or belt out a scream. Valerian wanted her to do both. Wanted to hear his name roll from her tongue as she panted and screamed in climax.
She was his mate—his woman—and he would prove it to anyone who said otherwise. Even her. Oh, yes. His every cell knew it, knew she belonged to him. Never again would he be able to enjoy another woman. Enjoy? he thought. He almost laughed. Had he ever truly enjoyed a woman until now?
He wanted the moonbeam, with her ghostly hair and frosty skin. The moment he had seen her, bathed so prettily by the moonlight, he’d wanted her. The world around him had faded, and he’d seen only her. She radiated an untouchable veneer his every warrior instinct responded to and relished.
Gods, he wanted her. Just looking at her now, his body forgot about the day’s excesses. He was starved for a taste of her.
But she had told him no. Several times. She’d run from him, too. Valerian hadn’t yet tamped down his shock over that fact. Or his arousal. The warrior in him delighted in the challenge of changing her mind and making her desperate to have him.
His gaze flicked to the small dagger she held, upraised and ready, and the corners of his mouth twitched. Did she really think to keep him from her with such a puny blade?
Oh, but she had a lot to learn about a determined nymph warrior.
“Gather all the unmated females,” he told his men, speaking in his native tongue, never taking his gaze from the object of his fascination.
She retreated a step. When she realized what she’d done, she stilled. She straightened her shoulders, raised the blade higher and stepped back into place. Ah, a woman of courage. One who would fight to the death. He grinned, desiring her all the more.
“What do you want with us?” she demanded, using the same language the other surface females had used.
He barely heard her words; he was too entranced by the way her soft-as-petals lips moved so sensuously. By the pink little tongue he’d glimpsed inside. His cock jerked in reaction.
A female suddenly brushed her fingertips over his arm. He tore his gaze from the moonbeam—surely one of the most difficult things he’d ever done—and glanced down. Not just one female, he noticed, but several surrounded him. They had already worked their way to him and his men and were running their hands over them, oohing and aahing, some even rubbing their breasts against them.
Valerian bit back a gasp of shock when he noticed one of the human males trying to kiss Dorian. Dorian wore an expression of utter horror and pushed the determined male away.
“Only the unmated ones?” Broderick asked, his eyes closing in surrender as a pretty brunette licked his collarbone.
“Only the unmated ones,” he confirmed. The nymphs would be able to smell another man on the women, and those women with permanent lovers would be left here. If the pale little moonbeam who held him so enraptured had already been mated, he would have taken her anyway. Without reservation. But he knew from her sweet, entrancing scent that she belonged to no man save himself.
Not needing any more encouragement, his men leaped into action, beckoning the unmated females to line up. Of course, these women obeyed without hesitation, their feminine instincts instructing them to obey a nymph’s every edict. The mated ones cried in distress because they weren’t chosen and tried to shove their way into the line, anyway. Even the male who desired Dorian tried to take a place in line.
When a human man protested the happenings, he was quickly subdued: a hard fist to the temple that swept him straight into slumber. Most were too frightened to do anything and remained hunched and shaking at the edges of the tent. What puny men, Valerian thought. Had they never engaged in battle before? He could not imagine acting in such a way.
He returned his attention to the moonbeam. “Do you know who I am?” he asked her.
“What do you want with us?” she demanded a second time, ignoring his question.
