himself in the deep water with one hand on the tile very close to her leg. He used his other hand to shove gleaming wet hair back from his high forehead.
'I see the suit fits.' He surveyed her with undisguised satisfaction and something that could have been possessiveness.
'Perfectly.'
He smiled. 'And just your color.'
She gazed down into his face and saw that his eyes still burned with the remnants of the fires of the focus link. 'Do you have any other hobbies besides swimming?'
He looked surprised and then slightly baffled by the question. 'Swimming isn't a hobby. I do it because it's an efficient way to exercise. I don't have any hobbies.'
'I see.' Typical obsessive matrix. There was no middle ground for them. Things were either compelling enough to warrant full attention and energy or they weren't worth doing at all.
He watched her closely. 'Do you?'
'Have hobbies?' She shook her head ruefully. 'Not really. I've been too busy with other things for the past few years. Someday I'd like to have a garden.'
'You'll have to move out of that loft apartment if you want to have one.'
'I know.'
'You'd need a house and some land.'
'Yes.'
He was silent for a moment. Then, very deliberately, he put his hand on her bare thigh. He stroked slowly downward, briefly cupping her knee. She flinched at the touch of the cool water. Then the heat of his palm warmed her.
When he looked up again she saw that his eyes still burned. This time it wasn't just the smoldering embers of the focus link that blazed in the depths of his gaze.
'Have you made a decision?' he asked.
She knew what he meant. 'Yes.'
'Is that yes you've made up your mind, or yes you'll have an affair with me?'
'Yes to both.'
'Zinnia, my talent may not drive me crazy, but you surely will.'
He seemed to explode out of the water. Laughter and exultation flared in his eyes. His hands closed around her waist.
'Wait,' she yelped. But it was too late.
He pulled her off the edge and toppled back into the pool with her in his arms.
'Take a breath,' he warned.
The shock of hitting the cold water made her gasp.
Nick's teeth flashed in a wide grin. He plunged below the surface, drawing her down into the depths with him. The sudden sense of weightlessness made her feel giddy and disoriented.
He swam with her through the silent blue water world, his hold on her sure and confident. Down they went, into the deepest portion of the pool.
When they reached the bottom he tightened his grasp and soared back toward the light. Just when she thought she could not hold her breath a second longer, they broke the surface together.
'Beast.' She laughed as she clutched his shoulders. 'I'll get even for that. And you'll never know when it's coming.'
'I can't wait.'
The amusement in his eyes metamorphosed into sexual hunger with a speed that shook her to the core. His mouth closed over hers, searching, demanding, exciting.
When he raised his head a long time later she could feel her fingers trembling. If it had not been for his hands anchoring her against him, she would have floated away.
'I want this to be a real affair,' he said.
'I don't see how much more real it can get.'
His mouth tightened with impatience. 'I mean I don't want to play any more games.'
'Games?'
'We're not going to pretend that I've hired you as my interior designer.'
She made a face. 'Just as well. I don't think anyone was buying the interior-designer story. Not after those photos in Synsation. But, Nick, I have to warn you, dating me is probably not a good way to pursue your big plan to gain respectability.'
'Don't worry about my respectability. I can buy that the same way I can buy everything else.' His eyes darkened. 'Except you. No one could buy you, Zinnia.'
She touched his throat. 'Or you.'
'Neither of us is for sale.' He smiled with an almost savage satisfaction. 'We'll make it official tomorrow night.'
'What happens tomorrow night?'
'I'm going to take you to the Founders' Club Ball.'
She raised her brows. 'Nick Chastain and the Scarlet Lady at the annual charity event of the year? Oh, my. That will certainly liven up the conversation in certain circles.'
'Be sure to wear red.' He bent his head and took her mouth once more.
She realized what he intended and managed to tear her mouth free long enough to protest. 'Nick, for heaven's sake, not here. The waiter may come back at any moment.'
'He won't come back until I call him.' He held her with one hand and peeled the top of her swimsuit down to her waist in a single motion. He stared at her as if he had never seen another woman in his life. 'You are so beautiful.'
She knew full well that no objective observer would label her beautiful. But that only made his words all the sweeter. He was a matrix. Beauty was far more complex and multileveled for him than it was for most people. She framed his face with her hands. 'So are you.'
He lifted her partway out of the water and bent his head to take one taut nipple between his teeth.
She shivered. Water streamed from her hair down her arched back. She sank her nails into Nick and took fierce pleasure in the shudder that went through him. A glorious sensation of wild heady freedom flowed in her veins. She abandoned herself to her own womanly power.
Nick worked the red swimsuit down over her hips. A moment later it floated out of sight. His eyes gleamed as she slipped her fingers beneath the waistband of his suit.
She flattened her palms against his thighs and savored the feel of hard muscle beneath firm skin. Then she pushed the suit downward until it disappeared into the depths. She cradled his rigid erection in her hand.
He drew in his breath. 'I told you, you're an inspiration to me.'
She stroked gently, fascinated by the size and feel of him. 'I take back what I said earlier. Maybe being an inspiration for you is enough for an overachiever like me.'
'Come closer.' He braced himself and pulled her legs around his waist. An erotic thrill shot through her when she realized that she was completely open to his touch.
He reached between her thighs and found her erect clitoris. He pressed it slowly, deliberately.
Ripples of anticipation gripped her. 'I want you.'
'You don't know what real wanting is,' he said.
'Do you?'
'Yes.' He eased a finger inside her. 'God, yes, I know all about it. It's what I feel whenever I see you.' He pushed upward against the top of her vagina. 'Or think about you.' He maintained the pressure inside her while he used his thumb on the small stiff nubbin that was a focus of so much sensation. 'Or link with you.'
Zinnia's eyes flew open. 'So you do feel it.'
He smiled faintly. 'You mean this?'
Power crashed across the metaphysical plane, questing for a prism. Zinnia responded as she had the very first time, as she always did to him, instinctively, eagerly, with a sense of Tightness. The feeling of intimacy that was somehow sexual and yet far more than that, shimmered through the focus link.
