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Alone in the rooed and squirmed until she freed her wrists She untied the knots at her ankles and jerked upright Alex had tied her upseemed like child&039;s play Besides that, her captor had not tied the knots that tight She dragged in a shaky breath as her gaze darted throughout the spacious interior, taking in every detail Other than the gloriously soft bed she sprawled upon, a tiered ivory chest was the only other furnishing Colors so ed walls like rainbow shards trapped in onyx There was a cream and marble hearth, unlit and pristine The only exit was a door with no handle

Where the hell a

Fear and adrenaline pounded furiously through her blood A man who could afford this type of luxury could afford an inable security system She fisted her hands on the sapphire velvet coverlet as another thought invaded her mind A man who could afford this type of luxury could afford to kidnap and torture an innocent wo to her feet, she tried to fight past her fear I&039;ll be okay I&039;ll be okayShe just needed to find a way out of here Before he returned She raced to the door, clawing at the tiny sea to force the doors to split down theto budge even a little She expelled a frustrated screech She should have expected no different Like he&039;dto do?

There were no s to crawl through And the ceiling she glanced upward and gasped The ceiling was comprised of layered crystal prisht A thin crack stretched across theway to a spectacular view of swirling, turquoise liquid Yet the liquid didn&039;t drip through Fish and other sea creatures-those were not h the water

I&039;ainst the door "Let

"This is illegal If you don&039;t let me out, you&039;ll be arrested I swear you will You&039;ll go to prison and be forced to have intimate relations with a man named Butch Let Me Out"

Again, no response Her punches slowed, then stopped altogether She rested her cheek against the coolness of the door Where the hell aed at her azine, or Alex&039;s journal! she realized The bottom dropped from her stomach, and she squeezed her eyes shut as the full implication hit her Her brother had written about a doorway from earth to Atlantis, a portal surrounded by mist Her mouth for in place like the piece of a puzzle Atlantis was not the home of an extraordinary race of people, but of horrible creatures found only in nightreatest mistakes

Her knees weakened and her sto her back to the door, she sank to the cold, hard ground It was true She had traveled through the ods feared

Let this be a dream, a dream I&039;ll awaken fro ever again I&039;ll be content

If the gods heard her, they ignored her

Wait, she thought, shaking her head She didn&039;t believe in ancient Greek gods

I have to get out of hereShe&039;d wanted danger and fulfillment, yes, but not this Never this En route to Brazil, she&039;d i Alex, how acco such a well-lovedbut acco over at the bed The colass, yet she knew exactly how soft it was She was in Atlantis, home of minotaurs, Formorians, olves and vampires And so many more creatures her brother hadn&039;t been able to naave another painful clench

Just what type of creature was her captor?

She searched her memory Minotaurs were half bull and half human While he may have acted like a bull, he had not possessed the physical characteristics of one Forain, he didn&039;t qualify Could he be a olf or a vaht, either

With his dragon tattoos, he seeht? Didn&039;t dragons have scales, a tail and wings? Perhaps he was the only human here Or perhaps he was a male nymph, a creature so sexual, so potent and virile, he could not be released into human society That certainly explained her hopelessly powerful reaction to hiue

She shivered twice, once in fear and once in soe filled her , ice-blue eyes, harsh, de cold and callous, everything incapable of offering warmth And yet, when he touched her, she&039;d felt er, rese a warrior who lived with no laws but his own Like the deliciously tantalizing warriors she read about in romance novels This was no novel, however This man was real Raw and primal Purely masculine When he spoke, his voice resonated a dark, barely leashed power ren lands Despite everything, she had been drawn to hi, she was still drawn to him

Never, in all of her twenty-four years, had a man stirred such sensuous awareness inside her That this man did, a man who had threatened her-several times-blew her mind He&039;d even tried to slice her in half with that monstrous sword of his But he didn&039;t hurt you , her entle alaze was pleading with her to touch hi lady, if you actually find that man attractive " Her mother&039;s stern voice reverberated in her mind " Tattoos, swords Not to mention the beastly way he carried you over his shoulder Why, I was horrified"

Then her aunt Sophie piped in, " Now, Gracie baby, don&039;t listen to your mother She hasn&039;t had a le, older brother ?"

"I truly do needresidence inside herbits of advice whenever they wanted

A wave of homesickness hit her in a way she hadn&039;t experienced since her first week of suht be reserved and exacting fro for Grace&039;s sickly father, but she loved andtobefore he returned?

What did he plan to do with her?

Nothing good, that much she suspected

The air here armer than in the cave, but the cold refused to leave her, and she tre Cliht earn her scratched and bloody pally endure if the crystal ceiling opened wide enough for her to slip through and swis shaky First she needed sustenance or she&039;d collapse-and then she&039;d never escape

On top of the dresser hat looked to be a bowl of fruit and a flagon of wine Drawing in a deep breath of sea-kissed air, she approached Her mouth watered as she reached out and pal herself time to contemplate the likelihood of poison, she quickly ate-ht-the delicious fruit Then another And another Between bites, she sipped the sweet red wine straight froe of the wall, she felt stronger, es and hoisted herself up, balancing her feet on the sharp ebony Up, up she scaled She&039;d once climbed the Devil&039;s Thumb in Alaska-not her favorite memory since she&039;d frozen her butt off-but at least she kne to clily of the harness she had used on Devil&039;s Thumb

She reached the top, and her pal all of her ht, she pushed and clawed at the crystal "Come on," she said "Open for me Please open forremained firmly closed Near tears, sheand hopped to the floor

She shoved her hair out of her face and took stock of her options There weren&039;t many since she was stuck in this room She could passively accept whatever Darius had planned for her, or she could fight hiht," she said, resolved

By whatever et hoers of the e of Alex popped into her ed around his pale face; his body lying ether, refusing to consider the possibility a er Alex was alive and well He was How else would he have sent her his journal and the aze scanned the roo for a weapon There were no knickknacks No logs in the hearth The only ite the fruit, but Grace wasn&039;t sure how e she could do to Darius&039;s fat (okay, sexy) head with a surprisingly flexible bowl

Disappointh her What the hell could she do to escape? Make a trip cord of the sheets? She blinked Hey, that wasn&039;t a bad idea She raced over to the bed When she lifted the silky linen, her palms ached sharply

Despite the pain, she tied each end on either side of the sliding doors Darius ht look indomitable, but he was as vulnerable to mishap as everyone else Even the od, as being fallible Or in this case, fallable

Though she lived in New York now, Grace had grown up in a little town in South Carolina, a place known for its friendliness and politeness to strangers She&039;d been taught to never purposely hurt another hu Yet she couldn&039;t stop a slow smile of anticipation as she studied the sheet

Darius was about to take a tu hall He paused only a ain saw merely black-and-white He inhaled a disappointed breath When he realized he s, he stilled Even his newly developed sense of smell had deserted him

Until now, he hadn&039;t realized just how , of course In her presence, his senses had come alive Now that there was distance between them, he had reverted to his old ways What kind of power did she wield that she could so control his perceptions? A muscle ticked in his jaw

Thankfully his men had not waited for his return They had already adjourned to the training arena as he&039;d ordered Though they were several rooroans filled the air

Lips drawn tight, Darius moved to the iripped the ledge above his head and leaned forward As high upon the cliffs as this palace sat, he was granted a spectacular view of the city below The Inner City Where creatures were able to relax and interh he did not spy the masses his riffins, and feons ventured from shops and strolled the streets as merchants peddled their wares Several female nymphs frolicked in a nearby waterfall How happy they appeared, how carefree

He craved that sarowl, he pushed hie of the table, where he gripped the end with so et hiain There were tooinside him: desire, tenderness, fury

He stabbed and pounded at the tenderness; he kicked and shoved at the desire They proved rip The lushness of her beauty could charods, if he experienced these sensations si into her vibrant eyes, ould he feel if he actually palmed her full, lush breasts? What would he feel if he actually parted her luscious thighs and sank the thickness of his erection inside her? His tormented moan became a roar and echoed from the crystal above Were he ever to have that woht perish frohed He, a bloodthirsty warrior as thought to possess no heart and had felt nothing onizing over one small woman If only he hadn&039;t srance of female and sunshine If only he hadn&039;t caressed the silkiness of her skin

If only he didn&039;t want more