Free Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis by Madelaine Montague

out.
    At her cry, he groaned as if in agony,
sinking deeply inside her, quickly now, plunging deep and hard,
faster and faster. Each thrust sent another spasm of pleasure
through her, building upon the climax she’d only just experienced
until she felt herself climbing toward yet another, higher, peak.
When at last he cried out in ultimate pleasure, Alexis climaxed
with him, harder than before. She bit down on his shoulder to
prevent herself from screaming as, spent, he collapsed against her,
gasping, murmuring something to her in a foreign tongue that she
couldn’t understand.
    Alexis barely heard him. Her body was
wracked with pleasure so acute she almost blacked out. Sated, she
welcomed his weight as he melted bonelessly against her.
    She felt wonderfully
depleted.
    Finally, he rolled to his side, caught
his breath and pulled her snugly against him.
    Alexis was too weak even to
protest.
    * * * *
    When Alexis woke, the gray of early
morning had begun to filter into the room. Two logs lay across her,
one on her chest, the other across her hips. The logs resolved
themselves into Thor’s massive arm and leg.
    With an effort, she tossed them off
and rolled to the opposite side of the bed.
    She sat there a moment, her face in
her hands as the cobwebs of sleep crept slowly away, leaving total
consciousness in their place.
    Thor snored.
    Relief flooded her.
    If he was asleep, it was surely safe
to allow herself the luxury of thought—and deep regret.
    What had possessed her to allow—no
urge—Thor to have sex with her? She barely knew him. She wasn’t
altogether certain she even liked him.
    She was not ‘in’ to casual sex, never
had been.
    Casual sex might work for some, and
she wasn’t one to judge, but the hard fact was she simply could not
enjoy sex unless she was emotionally involved.
    She had known the moment he touched
her, sleep or not, that it was definitely not Eric. She couldn’t
use the excuse, even to herself, that she had been groggy with
sleep and had reacted in the belief that it was her husband—or even
a boyfriend.
    She had known the moment he kissed her
that it could be no one but Thor.
    And she hadn’t cared. She had wanted
him to do just what he’d done. She had thoroughly enjoyed what he’d
done, participated, encouraged—it made her hot all over again even
thinking about it.
    The ramifications of her self-analysis
suddenly dawned upon her, freezing her to the spot.
    She glanced at the man sleeping in her
bed. Her heart performed a funny little flip flop that had little
to do with the fact that she thought of him as a hot bod and
fabulous sex toy.
    Dismay filled her. She simply could
not allow herself to become emotionally involved with him … with
anyone from this place. She didn’t belong here. She couldn’t stay.
Even considering a brief affair purely for enjoyment was begging
for trouble.
    She calmed herself. It was the
circumstances, she told herself. She’d been thrown together with a
man few women could’ve turned down and lived with themselves
afterward. She had merely succumbed to her animal instincts. There
was always a first time for everything and last night had been her
first completely casual and emotionally uninvolved sexual
encounter.
    That was her story, and she was
sticking to it.
    Resolutely, she shook it off. She
couldn’t afford the luxury of further self-examination anyway. He
was liable to wake at any moment and she still hadn’t decided how
to behave after the way she’d already behaved.
    She stood up as she heard him
stirring, firmly closing her mind to thoughts. Focusing on finding
something to cover herself with, she moved to the armoire where
Moira had found the gown.
    There was little, she saw, to choose
from, most of it as sheer as the gown she’d worn, that she had
thought was for sleeping, that Thor had ripped off of her. Holding
the pieces up now, she had to wonder.
    She finally decided on something that
looked vaguely like a skirt. In actuality, it was