www.mirabooks.co.uk

      New York Times and USA Today bestselling author GENA SHOWALTER has been praised for her “sizzling page-turners” and “utterly spellbinding stories”. She is the author of more than seventeen novels and anthologies, including breathtaking paranormal and contemporary romances, cutting-edge young adult novels and stunning urban fantasy. Readers can’t get enough of her trademark wit and singular imagination.

      To learn more about Gena and her books, please visit www.genashowalter.com and www.genashowalter blogspot.com.

       Other sexy, steamy reads from Gena Showalter and MIRA Books

       ATlANTIS

      HEART Of THE DRAGON

      JEWEL Of ATLANTIS

      THE NYMPH KING

      THE VAMPIRE’S BRIDE

       LORDS OF THE UNDERWORLD

      THE DARKEST NIGHT

      THE DARKEST KISS

      THE DARKEST PLEASURE

      THE DARKEST WHISPER

      DARK BEGINNINGS

      THE DARKEST PASSION

      THE DARKEST LIE

       More stunning tales from Gena Showalter are coming your way…

      INTERTWINED

      UNRAVELLED

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      To max—my babe.

      To the ladies who help make all my dreams come true—Tracy Farrell, Donna Hayes, Loriana Sacilotto, Dianne Moggy, Margo Lipschultz, Keyren Gerlach, Marleah Stout and the amazing HQN art department. (And everyone else I stupidly omitted. Sorry!)

      To Merline Lovelace—a woman who generously and warmly gives of herself without reservation.

      To Debbie Splawn-Bunch—who wouldn’t let me title this book His (Hard and Shiny) Family Jewels.

      Prologue

      THE GODS NEVER MEANT to create them.

      For centuries they paced throughout the heavens, wailing their need for beings to guide, nurture and rule. They longed fervently for a kingdom overflowing with loyal, grateful, obedient subjects.

      And so, the idea of Man was born.

      The king of gods was sacrificed, his blood melded with land, air, sea and fire; living creatures were formed. But the elements were unstable, the measure of portions flawed, and the outcome atrocious. The beings they created were not what the gods had envisioned, in appearance or temperament. They were not loyal or grateful, least of all obedient. These Dragons, Minotaurs, Vampires, Nymphs, Formorians—and too many others to name—were powerful rivals, potential usurpers to the royal, immortal throne.

      Fear erupted in the heavens.

      In a panic, the gods cursed each ghastly creation to a life under the sea, to live forever bound to a city known as Atlantis. The only reminder of their presence was The Book of Ra Dracas, detailing the creation and weaknesses of each race. But that, too, was lost.

      Centuries passed.

      As it always does, time wrapped the gods in an absolution of forgetfulness, burying the memory of their past mistake. They knew only their ever-growing need for fellowship and attempted once more to create Man.

      This time they succeeded, and the human race was born.

      Soon after, the age of harmony began: the gods meddling in human lives whenever they wished, and Man worshipping the gods. Only one unspoken rule existed. The two vastly different creations, humans and Atlanteans, were never to meet, never to interact, never to fall in love.

      Someone should have told Grayson James.

      Chapter One

      IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE an easy mission. An in-and-out job. A one-day extraction.

      His boss had fed him that line of bullshit, and Grayson James had foolishly believed him. Upon first entering this lushly green, sea-kissed land known as Atlantis, however, Gray realized he would have had better luck trying to sell a Frigidaire to a goddamn Eskimo. At a goddamn jacked-up price.

       Atlantis.

      Not a myth. Damn it. He’d hoped otherwise.

      He