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GEARY HADN&039;T GONE NEAR ARIK SINCE SHE&039;D LAST LEFT him She had no idea whether or not she should believe him, and until she had more facts she wanted to be as reserved as possible where he was concerned

They&039;d just docked and she was in the process of putting her things away for her trip back to town

She looked up from the table as Tory burst into the rooot to co, she set her pad aside and followed Tory to the deck Geary looked around but couldn&039;t rind anything that should have excited Tory Nothing looked out of place Christof and Althea were going over inventory while a couple of the other sailors were checking the line Thia was on the deck in a bikini, sunning herself

"What&039;s up?"

Tory pointed toward the shore

Geary followed the line of Tory&039;s finger And as soon as she sahat Tory was pointing to, her jaw dropped

Holy Shinola nothing Holy shit and then soe of the dock was a white Rolls-Royce that had a driver in full chauffeur regalia standing by the door with his gloved hands folded in front of hi shot

What ape was the hot piece of cheese as on the dock, striding straight for theait that was just plain sexy It was one of raw determination and extreme confidence He wore a white linen suit with a pale blue shirt that had been left undone to show the promise of a very well-defined body On any other ht his sexual preferences into question, but on this one there was no doubt He was all lasses covered his eyes, which she had a sneaking suspicion were trained on her

Tory cleared her throat "I&039;o out on a limb here and say that he&039;s Arik&039;s brother What do you think?"

Yeah, that would be her guess They both held an identical arrogant swagger-as if the world were their stage and they were the only actor in town capable of playing on it

Without a word to Tory, Geary plank

He paused in front of her with a hint of a grin an instant before he deftly reht as she saw the same exact killer eyes that Arik possessed It was followed by a dimpled smile so choice that it actually made her heart race

"Kyrios Catranides?"

He offered his hand to her "You eara Pleased to make your acquaintance"

She shook his hand, but before she could let go, he brought it to his lips and laid a very roled from the sensation of his lips on her skin "It&039;s a pleasure to meet you as well"

He released her at the saaze slid past her

She turned her head to find Arik standing there He was silent and cool as he regarded his brother So cool, in fact, she was about to get frostbite There was definitely no love lost between the each other up before battle

"Arik," Solin drawled in a velvet baritone " Long time no see"

Arik inclined his head to Solin "Yes, indeed I hope you&039;ve been well"

Solin laughed "It depends on whos But I&039;h to cause problems That really is all one can expect in life, no?"

"It&039;s all I expect out of your life anyway"

Solin tsked at hi for my help Call erency"

"Would they?"

Solin seee in stride as he turned to Geary "So tell me, lovely lady, where on earth did you happen to find lanced at Arik over her shoulder to see hi in the sea, but he won&039;t tellArik, I&039; he&039;d drown"

"Actually they threwI&039;d land on someone else and drown themUnfortunately, you say too fast"

Geary had to stifle a laugh at Arik&039;s unexpected comeback He had a very dry sense of hulasses to his face "I have the per, but as a favor to Stefan we should not keep hie his mind"

Geary practically leapt forward "Most definitely not"

As they headed for the dock, Thia ca up behind them still in her bikini The top of which barely held the woave her a speculative once-over that Geary was sure took in her cousin&039;s ed to seen both seductive and naive

"I think you should stay here, Thia"

Folding her arms over her chest, which only emphasized the size of said chest, Thia pouted But it did nothing to change Geary&039;s , it only ce any of them needed was for Thia to hook up with a billionaire playboy

Before Geary could wrangle the er He gave her a proper bow before taking her hand and placing a light kiss on it "Don&039;t fret, love We&039;ll be back"

Thia preened under his attention At least until Arik cleared his throat "Isn&039;t she a bit young for you?"

Solin answered with a deep, evil laugh His gaze went to Geary for an instant before he released Thia

and headed for his car

"What was that?" Geary asked Arik as they followed along after him

"His idea of a joke I&039;m afraid my brother is a bit of a head case ive him

I&039;m told he has the intellect of a ten-year-old"

Solin snorted "And still you aspire to my level Wow, Arik Does this mean you function on the intellect of an infant?"

Instead of being angry, Arik merely stared at his brother "Perhaps After all, infants and I do have at least one thing in coaze dropped to her breasts "I think you can figure it out Then again,on the level of a ten-year-old"

Geary had never been aroused, ahly offended all at the sae coe this topic?"

Solin paused at the car as his chauffeur opened the door for him "Yes, let&039;s"

They allowed her to enter first Arik followed her in and then Solin He sat across froh she couldn&039;t see his eyes, she could tell his gaze was fastened on her

When he spoke there was nothe note of humor in his tone "So you seek Atlantis What an odd quest for such a beautiful lady"

Unlike Thia, Geary wasn&039;t buying into his act "You charm me, sir I&039;m hardly beautiful"

"Not true All wo to bet there are so to barter their souls just to be close to you"

She laughed out loud "You should sell snake oil I&039;hly profitable"

"Yes, but I&039;ve already ra," Arik said drily "My brother learned to take a personal problereed with a heavy sigh "It painedas Arik stricken with i to help the poor soul But alas, there&039;s nothing to be done for it He&039;s as flaccid as a wet noodle"

Geary had to cover herout loud

Arik didn&039;t miss a beat on his comeback "How creative of you to project your probleh toproof, huh?"

"Are you two going to battle like this for the rest of the trip?" Geary asked "Perhaps I should sit up front with the driver and give you two enough space to beat the crap out of each other and settle this like grown adolescents"

Solin gave her a half-ae a bit of a truce for your benefit anyway"

"H so kind to Arik and me when it&039;s obvious you two aren&039;t exactly friendly"

Solin shrugged "We&039;re Greek Family is faht, Arik?"

"Yes in ave up There was so very odd about bothhere with theht Was she crazy? She&039;d jumped into the car so fast

Oh God

She really didn&039;t know anything about these guys She&039;d been so excited she hadn&039;t even paused to be her usual suspicious self

"Are you all right?" Solin asked

"Fine," she said, trying to calination took off with i her

Solin re a bit pale You&039;re not thinking that we&039;ve kidnapped you so that we can have our ith you, are you, Doctor?"

"No" she said, hating the slight tremor in her voice Her only consolation was that Brian knew Solin and the crew had seen his car And all of the to the per? I mean, I&039;ve known you both what? All of fifteeninto the sea to catch unsuspecting women so he can lure them into your limo"

Solin passed an amused look to Arik "Is that how you work, Brother?"

"No Unlike sohten woive her a sincere look "I&039;eara I told you, you were safe, and you are"

She didn&039;t knohy, but she believed him "I&039;m sorry It&039;s just been a really bad week for ainst me and I&039;ve had one disappointlanced at his brother as he heard Solin&039;s voice in his head " Disappointed her, have you? And you call yourself an Erotikos Skotos"

He narrowed his eyes " Not me, Solin She&039;s been harassed by your officials on&039;t allow her to excavate"

"Um-hmmmfunny, whenever I&039;et back to eara is different"

By Solin&039;s face Arik could tell his brother found that hard to believe " So tell me, how do you find the human world? Have you ever been here before?"

"No"

Solin arched a surprised brow " Are you overwhel It&039;s very different frorinned " You&039;ve no idea"

Megeara turned to Arik "So why is Atlantis so iet per to lie to her, but if he didn&039;t give her some plausible answers, as skittish as she was, she&039;d flee and never let hi for it All ofIt wasn&039;t until I was speaking with Spiro the other day and he mentioned you that I had a clue"

"Spiro?"

"Gavrilopoulos He turned you doeeks ago" And luckily she&039;d mentioned the event and thefor you ever since to ask you about your findings

He said you were most emphatic about the site you wanted to excavate"

She sat back in the seat with a peeved expression "So you know the little weasel"

"Weasel?" Solin asked curiously

"Hoing to choke and die from it"

Arik tried to placate her "He can be a little callous"

"Callous, nothing He was downright rude"

"Well," Solin drawled, "your luck is about to change"

Geary wanted to believe that She could use a bit of good luck in her life And if not good, then at leastto distract herself froht, she looked at Arik He didn&039;t seey Both he and Solin seemed too self-absorbed to think

about the past or the future They appeared ot you so interested in Atlantis?" she asked Arik "How did you knohat leale question?"

"Sorry It&039;s the professor in me One question invariably leads to another, and so as not to waste tienerally ask both and then seek the answer And speaking of, you still haven&039;t answered hter in his voice "Why are you so fascinated by Atlantis?"

Arik cut a nasty glare at his brother that she couldn&039;t even begin to fathom Why would that question upset hilancing back at her "They say Atlantis is a myth, but I know better I believe in it" He ods still walk a us, even here and now"

Solin made a rude noise at Arik&039;s conjecture

Geary frowned at hiht, she wasn&039;t about to laugh at anyone else&039;s beliefs It pained her to see Solin so cruel "You still haven&039;t explained how you knehat my necklace was"

"I know a man ears a similar medallion He was the one who first told me stories of Atlantis"

Her jaent slack at Arik&039;s revelation Someone else had found one? "Really?"

He nodded

She was intrigued by the possibility "Is he Greek? How did you ot his necklace"

Arik shook his head "Again with theand I need answers"