Swept Away: A Krinar Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

table—which had also come out of a wall.
    “What kind of ship is this?” Delia asked when she was full. She didn’t understand Arus’s magic, but it didn’t terrify her quite as much anymore. It was clear to her that he didn’t intend her any harm—and that he had to have come from Mount Olympus, despite his earlier protestations.
    “It’s a ship that carries us between distant worlds,” Arus said, and his answer solidified her conviction. “The stars you see are not just little lights in the sky; they’re suns, like the one giving Earth heat and light. Those suns have planets like Earth orbiting around them, and I come from one of those planets.” He paused, waiting for her questions, but Delia had no idea where to begin.
    All she got from his explanation was that his ship had carried him here from the stars—which meant that Mount Olympus was a place in the sky, rather than the mountain of legend.
    Arus sighed, looking at her. “You don’t understand, do you?” A rueful smile tugged at the corner of his beautiful mouth. “I guess I should’ve expected that. I wish I could convince you that none of this is supernatural, that we’re just a more advanced civilization, but you’d have to learn a great deal before that would make sense to you. So for now, if it helps you to think of me as a god, you may do so.”
    Delia smiled, oddly reassured by his words. “You are a god. What else could you possibly be?”
    “I’m a Krinar,” he said, and she saw his face assume a more serious expression. “Delia,” he said quietly, “there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
    She blinked. “What is it?”
    “I have to leave soon. To go home to Krina.”
    Her chest squeezed painfully at his words. “Of course,” she managed to say. “You said it’s beautiful there, and you have to return.”
    Arus nodded. “I do—and I would like you to come with me.” Before she could do more than gape at him, he said, “I know I’m still a stranger to you, and that everything about this”—he swept his hand out in a wide arc—“must seem foreign and frightening. But I promise I won’t hurt you, and I’ll take care of you. You’ll be safe with me.”
    Delia couldn’t believe her ears. “You want me to come with you? To the world where you live?”
    “Yes, to Krina—or Mount Olympus, or whatever you want to call it.” Arus reached across the floating table and took her hand. “It is a beautiful place, and if you come with me, I can promise you a life beyond anything you can imagine.”
    Delia had to be still dreaming. “Why?” she said in disbelief. “Why would you take me with you?”
    Arus rose to his feet and pulled her up with him, his gaze filling with carnal heat as he stepped around the table. “Because our time together wasn’t nearly enough for me,” he said, drawing her against his hard, aroused body. “Because I had you, and I want more—so much more. I want you to be mine, so I can have you every day and every night for a long, long time.”
    Delia’s pulse was rabbit fast, and a million questions crowded her mind as Arus gazed down at her, his erection pushing against her belly. His blunt declaration was far from tender words of love, and there were so many things she didn’t know about him and the world he wanted to take her to. But he was giving her a choice, and that fact alone helped quell her fear.
    She could stay and live an ordinary life—most likely as the blacksmith’s wife—or she could follow this gorgeous stranger to a mysterious place in the sky.
    “What about my family?” she asked as the thought occurred to her. “They need the mussels and I—”
    “I’ll leave them your weight in gold before we go,” Arus said. “They won’t lack for anything ever again.”
    “But—”
    “Come with me, Delia.” Arus’s eyes glittered as his arms tightened around her back. “Your family will be fine, I promise. Come with me, and let me show you the wonders of my