With that, Maeve led them to the way out of the Summer Lands. In a short time, Fiona, Christophe, and Declan were standing on the steps outside of Fairsby Manor, dazed, as Hopkins and the Atlanteans rushed toward them. The sun shone brightly overhead. Christophe gave Justice his sword and the two exchanged nods.
“What in the name of all the gods happened to you?” Bastien demanded. “You were in there for more than two weeks.”
Declan blushed a fiery red. “Um—”
The Atlanteans stared at him, fascinated.
“Nymphs,” Christophe said dryly.
“Ohhhh. Nymphs,” Brennan said. “So will we be going back in around nine months from now on another rescue mission?”
“What?” Fiona rounded on her brother, but then her cheeks flamed red as she realized. “Oh. Ohhhhh.”
Declan hung his head, his cheeks as hot as his sister’s. “Trust me, sis. You don’t want to know the details.”
Justice bowed to Fiona. “My sword, my lady? Did it help?”
“Yes, Just holding it made me braver.”
“I doubt that’s even possible,” Christophe said.
“Can we go home now?” Declan asked. “I really need to go home now.”
“How about we go home now?” Christophe opened a portal, and this time it flared to brilliant life as soon as he called. Interesting, that.
“And never say the word nymph again?” Declan pleaded.
Christophe always claimed, later, that it was one of the others who started laughing first.
Chapter 40
Campbell Manor
When all the tales had been told, the experiences recounted, and the promises made to Declan that he would never, ever, tell anybody else, especially Hopkins or Fiona, the exact details about finding Declan with the nymphs, Christophe knew it was time to go. His friends had gone through a portal hours earlier, but he had been content to sit, holding Fiona as dusk’s shadows claimed the corners of the room.
“I need to return to Atlantis and report in,” he finally said, unable to put it off any longer. He opened his hand and they both looked at the Siren, so innocent and quiet in his hand. “This must be restored to the Trident immediately.”
“You didn’t give it to the others to return,” Fiona said softly. “Why?”
“It’s something I need to do. This mission, from beginning to end. Does that make any sense?”
She kissed him, hard. “It makes a great deal of sense. So call the portal and get it over with, and then come back to me.”
“I’ve never made love to you in your office,” he said, putting the Siren on her desk and filling his hands with her breasts, which were infinitely more pleasant to hold.
“Oh, that is a terrible oversight,” she agreed. She wiggled out of his arms and crossed to the door, locked it, and then turned around to face him.
“What exactly are you going to do about it?”
He leapt across the space separating them and pinned her to the door with his body. “I believe there was a debt owed,” he said solemnly.
“A debt?”
“A spanking.”
Her mouth fell open. “Oh, no, you’re not going to spank me.”
He nodded, trying to keep a straight face. “Oh, yes. Naked.”
She tried to answer, but her mouth got tangled up trying to tell him all the ways he was not going to spank her. He finally gave in and started laughing and she glared at him.
“Oh, you’re going to pay for that, partner,” she threatened him.
“Gladly.” He bent his head and kissed her as if his very life depended on taking her mouth right that moment. Perhaps it did. All he knew was he had to have her. Now.
“On your desk?” he suggested, his voice raspy with desire and a primal need. “On the sofa?”
“How about in the air? On swirling water?” She flashed a wicked smile. “I’m always up for something different.”
He started laughing, and then he called to water. “Yes, my naughty love. Let’s play.”
In seconds, she was naked, her body gleaming in the sunlight pouring through the windows. It was a matter of a thought for him to dispense with his own clothes, and then he lifted her into the air and sent ribbons of water playing around her luscious body. She gasped at the chill and then cried out when he concentrated harder and directed tiny fingers of cool water to toy with every inch of her skin.
“That’s not fair,” she said, gasping.
“Neither is this,” he said, and he let go of her—with his hands. The ribbons of water held her, trapped, in the air, with her arms and legs spread out at her sides. He stepped in closer to her body and licked droplets of water from each tight nipple and then licked his way down her body. Just when he reached the pale blond curls between her thighs, he stopped and straightened before walking around behind her.
“A spanking, naked,” he repeated. He rubbed her lovely, lovely ass with one hand.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, turning to glare at him over her shoulder.
“Ask me not to,” he challenged.
She tightened her mouth, refusing to speak the words. But a delicious gleam in her eyes told him she might not be as reluctant as she pretended.
“You only have to say one tiny word, my princess. Just say no.”
She stuck her tongue out at him but said nothing.
He grinned, and drawing his hand back just a little, lightly smacked her gloriously round ass. Fiona made a noise but it definitely wasn’t a no.
“A lady doesn’t enjoy having her bum smacked,” she said primly.
His heart sank to his feet. Now she would hate him. “Mi amara, I’m so sorry. I was just playing—”
“Lucky for you, I’m not a lady; I’m a ninja,” she said, cutting him off, that deliciously seductive smile back on her face. “Stop with the water. I want you inside me. Now.”
He did as she commanded and in seconds she was flat on her back on the sofa and he drove his cock so far inside her they both cried out. “You belong to me, forever and ever,” he said, barely able to speak through the knot in his throat.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes. Always.”
“And I to you,” he added, plunging into her warm wet heat, over and over, until her body arched up into his and she screamed his name. Then, and only then, he gave in to his own release and collapsed on the sofa next to her. “Forever.”
Some time later, they managed to sit up and he pulled her on his lap and grinned. “So you like spankings?”
She glanced demurely up at him through her lashes. “How about I try it on you this time?” His cock jumped a little against her hip and she laughed. “You naughty, naughty man.”
“Oh, you have no idea the naughty ideas I have for you, Lady Fiona.”
“A true warrior would demonstrate,” she said primly.
And so he did.
It was nearly two hours later before he called the portal.
“I’ll return as soon as I can,” he told her.
“I know.”
He hugged her again, put the Siren in his pocket, and stepped through the portal, knowing that nothing would keep him from her.
“It’s still open, Lady Fiona,” Hopkins observed. “Seems like a sign to me.”
“When will you call me Fiona?”
“When you gather your nerve and go after him,” he said, handing her paint box and a parcel to her. “I’ll handle everything here. Please give this to the Atlantean, if you will.”
“You always do handle everything. I love you, you know. I’ll bring you to visit as soon as I can.” She hugged him tight, and then, gathering her courage in one hand and her paints in the other, she stepped through to Atlantis and landed right on top of the love of her life, knocking him to the grass.
One of the guards, choking suspiciously, held out a hand, and pulled her up when she took it. Christophe just lay there, sprawled in the grass, staring up at her with his mouth hanging open. Through their bond, she could feel his exquisite joy that she’d chosen to follow him.
“Thank you, Marcus,” she said.