her in the darkness backstage at SynCity. This was a tender, gentle brush of talent questing for synergistic wholeness.
'Lucas.' Amaryllis wrapped her arms more tightly around her knees. She tried to blink away the dampness she could feel in her eyes. 'It would probably be better if we didn't do this anymore.'
'Probably.'
'According to every syn-psych theory in the book, we're all wrong for each other.'
'Yeah.'
'It would be stupid to take this relationship any further,' Amaryllis insisted. 'Neither of us wants to risk repeating the mistakes of the past.'
'You think we're both afraid of the past?'
The perception in his words startled her. She stared into the flames. 'I've been telling myself that doing the proper thing was a matter of responsibility and duty. But maybe you're right. Maybe in the end it just comes down to a fear of the past. We both have reasons to be afraid.'
'Are you going to spend your whole life being afraid?'
Amaryllis was stunned. An entire life spent living with a fear of the past stretched out before her. Every action guided by fear. A marriage based on avoiding fear. It was a dreadful vision.
'I don't know,' she said. 'Are you?'
'I hate to think of myself as a complete and total coward.'
She frowned. 'You're no coward.'
'Neither are you.'
'Where does that leave us?' she asked.
'Marry me.'
Amaryllis whirled around on the sofa to stare at Lucas. Shock waves went through her. At first she thought she had not heard him, that she had conjured the words in her own mind.
He hadn't moved. His head still rested against the back of the sofa. His eyes were still narrowed as he gazed into the flames. The Iceman.
'It's okay,' he said without any trace of emotion. 'I know the answer. Just thought I'd give it a try.'
'Oh, God, Lucas, I thought you'd never ask.' Amaryllis threw herself into his arms. 'What took you so long?'
He caught hold of her mentally and physically. Brilliant beams of psychic energy poured through a crystal- clear prism. Power crashed in glorious waves.
When Amaryllis opened her eyes, she discovered that she and Lucas were safe inside his secret island grotto.
Chapter 17
He made love to her there in the hidden grotto, just as he had dreamed of doing. He undressed her slowly beside the fathomless green pool, peeling away blouse and slacks and layers of neat, serious underwear. Her skin glowed pale gold in the firelight that passed easily through the illusory stone walls of the cave. He cupped one graceful, elegant breast in his hand, marveling at the perfect shape and texture of it.
Amaryllis fumbled with the buttons of his shirt and the fastenings of his trousers until he grew impatient with the slow torture.
'Wait.' He sat up beside her and yanked off his clothes with a few brusque movements. Then he stretched out slowly above her.
She reached up to splay her fingers across his bare chest. 'I love the feel of you.'
Lucas longed to ask if she loved him as well as the feel of him, but he told himself he would not push his luck. She had agreed to marry him. It was enough for now. Everyone said that when the match was right, love came after marriage.
When the match was right.
'I'm a beat-up iceman.' He watched her eyes as he caught one of her hands and pressed it to the spider-frog scar on his shoulder. 'I spent too many years in the islands to ever be anything else.'
'No, you're gorgeous. Spectacular. Unbelievably sexy.'
'I'm covered with scars and calluses. My manners are rough and so is my accent.'
She dismissed that with a wave of her hand. 'Who cares? You've got gray eyes. I was very particular about wanting gray eyes on the Synergistic questionnaire, you know.'
For some reason he had to keep going. He had to make certain she knew everything. 'I cheated on my talent certification test. I don't have your high standards when it comes to that kind of thing.'
'You have your own code and you stick to it. That's all that matters.'
'If I could have figured out how to fool the syn-shrinks at Synergistic Connections into thinking that I would be a perfect match for a full-spectrum prism such as yourself, I would have done it in a heartbeat.'
Amaryllis's smile was brilliant. 'It occurs to me that the counselors at the agency aren't qualified to find a match for either of us because they've had no experience matching off-the-scale talents and prisms.'
'We're opposites in a lot of ways, Amaryllis.'
'I'm not so sure about that. I feel closer to you than I've ever felt to anyone else in my whole life.'
A great sense of exhilaration drove out the last of his fears. 'That pretty much sums up how I feel about you. It's as if I've been waiting for you forever.'
'And I've been waiting for you.' She wound her arms around his neck. Her eyes gleamed. 'Do you think I could interest you in using your psychic vampire talent to turn me into a love slave?'
'Actually, I was sort of hoping that you would use your amazing prism powers to turn
'Hmm.' She drew a fingertip down to his bare stomach and then moved her hand lower. She cradled his heavy shaft in her palm. 'The notion is fraught with possibilities.'
'Yeah.' Lucas sucked in his breath. The grotto walls shimmered and dimmed for a few seconds as he diverted psychic energy into old-fashioned self-control. 'It is, isn't it?'
'Oh, Lucas, I want you so much.' The teasing light in her eyes was replaced with unabashed need. She brought his mouth down to hers and arched herself against him.
The passion sparked between them, hotter than raw, unfocused psychic energy.
He reveled in the feel of her body. He worked his way downward, tasting the small valley between her breasts, the gentle curve of her belly, the inside of her thigh. When he touched the hot, moist flesh between her legs, she shuddered in his hands.
'Lucas.'
On the psychic plane, the crystal prism winked out of existence. The grotto walls disappeared. Lucas felt a surge of triumph. This time Amaryllis was the one who had lost control of the link.
'You're so beautiful,' he whispered.
'You make me feel beautiful.' She shivered again and sank her nails into his shoulders.
Together they found the focus link again. Lucas did not bother to rebuild the grotto. He simply let the power flow in a shimmering river. The sense of deep intimacy enveloped him. He was a part of Amaryllis and she was part of him.
He moved back up along the length of her trembling body. He used one hand to guide himself to the entrance of her snug passage. Slowly he eased himself inside. She closed around him.
When Amaryllis cried out and convulsed in Lucas's arms, he thought that he would lose the mind link again, but to his surprise, it held steady and clear. Unfocused talent flashed through the prism and ricocheted around the psychic plane.
Power and passion flowed together.
A long while later, Amaryllis felt Lucas disengage himself carefully from her arms. He slid his leg from between her thighs. She opened her eyes as he sat up on the edge of the sofa.
