can endure a separation. Once a warrior has found his soul mate, he will not stop until she accepts his claim.”
A thousand silent signals passed between them. This gorgeous, protective warrior focused on her with his huge, intellectual heart, and a hot current in her blood pounded to his rhythms. She wanted him now just as badly as when they’d first met. Worse, now, because the craving to taste his love had only increased.
You must be safe. Please value yourself as we do.
These pure-hearted warriors deserved all she could give and more. Ciran especially. She needed him to be happy.
She needed him to have a wonderful life.
And that was why she had to put aside her shallow lust and focus on his future. “I am so happy you’ve come back. Are you finally ready to open your heart?”
“Dannika.” His dark gaze stole her breath. “My heart has always been open to you.”
“No, I meant…” She cleared her dry throat. “You’re ready to find the bride you truly deserve?”
“More than ready.”
“I’ll be so happy to guide you to your soul mate.”
“She is right here.”
Her heart throbbed again.
Focus on his happiness. His future. His bride.
“You know…” She cleared her throat again. “You know that I can’t accept.”
“Do I?”
“You should. I’ve told you before.” Dannika rested her hand on the doorknob and inched away from the hard wall of muscle she just wanted to cling to and squeeze. “It’s common for a client to fixate on his first point of contact at a dating agency.”
“I do not fixate on a contact.” His gaze dropped to her chest. A slight smile curved his firm lips. “Your soul glows with my presence.”
Dannika pressed one palm to her chest. “I’ve heard my soul is bright.”
“My warriors see your affinity to the sea. But your soul shines even brighter in my presence.”
“Well…ah, that’s because…uh…you should focus on yourself, not on me.”
“Our souls resonate, Dannika. That is how a warrior recognizes his bride. How I recognized my bride.”
His voice lowered, and the husky tone made her heart squeeze. Rivulets of desire flooded her feminine channel, and need pinched her breasts.
“I will not descend again until she is mine.”
Heat soaked her.
His hard gaze said that he knew everything. Her reactions, her arousal, his effect on her.
Magnetic desire urged her to pull his rock-hard body into her arms, straddle him, meld their lips and kiss him senseless. His hands would clamp her waist and press her against his demanding erection. She’d murmur wild promises to turn him on—that of course she was his bride, and he was always right—and she would throw her head back as he took her the way she’d dreamed—literally dreamed, naked and sweaty in tangled silk, gasping awake with shock and then promising herself never to remember. She'd seen his cock, full and gorgeous, the day he’d first emerged from the water in New York and strode to her with unwavering certainty. She knew exactly what she was missing by keeping her hands to herself.
“That is…one person’s opinion,” she finally said, the doorknob digging into her back.
“Actually, all the warriors agree you are my bride.”
Wait.
What?
“You’ve talked about this to the other warriors?”
“They expect you to accept my claim, leave the surface world behind, and journey to Atlantis. Tonight.”
“Tonight?” She released the door and forced him back a step. “Well, reassure your warriors that I’m not going anywhere. Running MerMatch is my top priority.”
“Your destiny is—”
“My destiny is to find your warriors their soul mates. Everyone deserves true love, and yours, Ciran, is still out there.”
He sighed in frustration. “She is standing in front of me.”
“Do this exercise with me, Ciran. Envision your future bride, believe she’ll come to you, and manifest her.”
“I see your desire.”
“Close your eyes.” She stepped back, around the door, and put it between them. “And don’t worry. I’m perfectly resolved to put your happiness above mine.”
He shifted his weight onto his heels. “I am not.”
“That’s why I have to be strong for the both of us.”
“Dannika—”
“I’ll see you on the beach.” She closed the door on him and rested her back against the warm wood.
Last time, after days of fighting her unexpected attraction to the two-tone warrior, she’d finally sat him down and formally rejected him. He’d taken it hard, refusing her offer to meet any other matches, and stormed to the docks. Instead of the relief she’d expected to feel, her heart had come loose in her chest and felt strangely bereft. Almost…well, not devastated, but she’d spent the next two