More Than a Fantasy by Bernadette Gardner Read Free Book Online

wanted to reassure Tiran before she passed out. “It’s all right. The guards shouldn’t have fired at him. But Tiran…I have to…I have to…”
    Blackness engulfed her. This time, she felt nothing and saw nothing as she sank into oblivion.
     
    * * * *
     
    On the tiny island, Tiran nodded with satisfaction at the shelter he’d constructed. From all angles, it looked like a pile of boulders, windswept and moss-covered. No human would look twice at it, nor would most Atlanteans—those who bothered to venture above the waves. He’d never built a shelter above the sea before, and his greatest concern was not that it wouldn’t stand against the unforgiving elements, but that Poseidon might be led by his curiosity to investigate and find Mara recovering inside.
    Since he’d brought her here to tend her wound, Tiran had not returned to the city. He expected that his brother and father would both know he was with Mara. It didn’t matter, though. He had no intention of leaving her.
    Once he’d placed the final concealing touches on the outside of the shelter, he let himself back inside through a hidden doorway and found his patient asleep, just as he’d left her.
    She stirred as he settled himself next to the soft bed he’d created. Her eyes fluttered open, gray as a stormy sky and suddenly full of fear. He put his hand on her shoulder where her wound had been.
    “You’re safe. But you need to rest.”
    Her gaze fell to his hand, spread on the perfect expanse of skin next to her collarbone. “What happened?”
    “I healed you. My people can rearrange molecules and change their form. I scattered the damaged cells throughout your body and drew healthy ones from other areas. That’s why you must sleep. Your body is repairing those scattered cells.”
    She nodded, though confusion remained in her eyes. “Where are we?”
    “I built a shelter on the island. No one will see us. You can rest here as long as you need to.”
    “I need to get back to my father. He must think I’ve been kidnapped.”
    Tiran sat back and blinked. After all she had gone through to escape her captivity, why would she want to return? “It’s too soon to go anywhere. You need to complete the healing process.”
    “Then I need to get a message to him and let him know I’m all right.”
    “Soon, but not now.”
    “Tiran—”
    He pushed her back down when she tried to rise. A visible wave of fatigue washed over her, and she slumped into the cushions he’d created. “When you’re well enough to stand, we’ll talk more. Sleep now.”
    She obeyed, though Tiran was certain it was only because she didn’t have the strength to do otherwise.
    While she slept, he settled into a chair to watch her and thought of all the evenings he’d observed her on the beach. From the first moment he saw her, flushed with sexual excitement, windblown and wild, he’d been entranced. It amazed him how her beauty now, relaxed and innocent in a dreamless sleep, surpassed his fantasies of her. If she were Atlantean, he would have chosen her as his mate long ago. But he chose her now, and vowed to do whatever was necessary to give her everything she desired.
     
    * * * *
     
    The next time Mara awoke, she felt better than she ever had. She barely remembered the pain of her wound, though a stab of guilt attacked her when she thought of her father and how worried he must be about her.
    She sat up and took in her surroundings. The room had sand-colored walls that seemed to shimmer with flecks of mother-of-pearl, as though they’d been fashioned of crushed seashells. The floor looked the same, as did the furniture : a free-form bed that perfectly fit the contours of her body, and a chair, also with only a barely recognizable shape.
    She wore only her cover-up, which skimmed her tingling skin as she rose and tested the stability of her legs.
    A warm hand caressed her shoulder. She backed up into Tiran’s embrace.
    “You’re awake. I hope you’re feeling