smile, then posed for a fraction of a second and dived into the sea.
She swam with long, clean strokes toward the island, then paused, panting slightly and treading water as she looked back toward the Tatiana. Rex was nowhere in sight.
She gasped, nearly slipping beneath the surface, when she felt a tug upon her foot. Then he was with her, sliding up from beneath the surface, his body--all of it--rubbing against hers. Next to the chill of the sea, he was vibrant warmth, his arms coming around her, his legs twining with hers, his desire hot and potent and arousingly full against her thighs. She saw his eyes then for a moment, dark and glittering with the reflections of the sun. Then she saw them no more. His mouth came to hers, sealing them together in a deep, erotic kiss that sent them sinking far below, into the depths. So wonderfully hot...his tongue raked her mouth with that fire while his fingers moved over her in the exotic world of the sea. She would die... in seconds she would smother. But his touch in the watery world was already a taste of heaven.
Rex gave a powerful kick, sending them both shooting back toward the surface, still entwined. As they broke the surface, Alexi cast her head back, gasping for breath and laughing. She had barely inhaled when his lips were there again, against hers. He alternately rimmed her lips with his tongues, then whispered things to her. She and Rex did not sink, for he held her tight against him, treading water. She swallowed, weak and dizzied, as he moved his hands in concord with the warning of his whispers, teasing her breasts, working along her lower abdomen, stroking her thighs, taunting her implicitly.
'Oh...' she whispered.
'Alexi.'
She leaned her head against him, closing her eyes, unable to reason against the sensations. She would sink again. Sink forever in the swirling realm of bliss where she floundered now.
'We've got to get back to the boat.'
'Yes.'
'Alexi.'
'Yes.'
'Now,' he laughed, 'or I won't have the strength left to do us justice.'
'Oh!' Lost in the sensations of his loving, she realized that he had been doing all this while keeping them both afloat. 'Oh!' she repeated, slightly embarrassed. She kicked away from him, hard, and began to swim. He caught her at the rope ladder by the motor at the back of the Tatiana. He raised her to the deck, then curled his leg around the ladder himself for balance. Alexi tried to rise. He stopped her, caught her foot and stroked the arch while he kissed her ankle.
'Rex!'
'What?' Tenderly he moved his mouth up along her calf.
'The sun is out and shining. We're in broad daylight. There's nothing to shield us--'
'And there isn't another boat around for miles,' he assured her. Her kneecap received his ministrations next.
She thought that she had died. Where he did not touch her, the breeze moved erotically over her wet body. And there, in pagan splendor beneath the captivating rays of the sun, he made very thorough love to her. He treated the length of each leg with the same exotic care as he did the juncture between them, with incredible, exotic savoir faire--so sweetly that she was nearly numbed, consumed again by tiny explosions of delight. She could scarcely move...but then agility came to her and she reached for him, eager--desperate--to love him as he had loved her.
He came up beside her; they stood, damp and sleek, their fingers entwined. And she pulled him close to her and kissed him, consuming his lips again and again, savoring just that touch to the fullest, like a fine delicacy. She brushed her breasts against his chest as she tiptoed up to him, then slid against him, tasting the salt on his shoulder, all that lingered on his chest, falling to her knees and returning each subtle nuance. She moved on to his feet, his ankles...then up the length of his legs to the pulse of him. He whispered frantically--urges, cries. She obeyed them all and gloried sweetly in her power, in the absolute intimacy. She had never loved like this; she knew that she never would again.
They sank together upon the deck at last in an inferno of mutual desires and hungers, with a need deeper than any words they could ever whisper. To Alexi the earth seemed to tremble, to shake, to explode in a blinding brilliance. The sun was the brilliance, she knew, riding high above her, very real in the sky. But it seemed to live inside her, too, a life-giving warmth, given to her...by him.
Rex turned to her at last, stroking her breast, then her cheek, a curious twist to his lips.
'Am I supposed to apologize now for dragging you out here against your will?'
'An apology would be nice.'
'All right!' he said, pressing her down on the deck. 'I'm sorry I dragged you. Now you can apologize.'
'I beg your pardon? I was the abused party. But not only did I take incarceration in stride, I went way beyond the call of duty.'
'That you did,' Rex admitted with a broad smile. Then his smiled faded and he sat up, wrapping his arms around his legs.
'Rex--'
'Why did you say that to me, Alexi!'
'What?' she asked, at a loss.
'That bit about sleeping with me because you were afraid.' He twisted around to stare at her, harsh and accusing.
'You knew it wasn't true!' she cried. Please, please, she thought. Don't ruin this. This is ideal. This is the type of day that one remembers for a lifetime.
He shook his head. 'No, I didn't,' he said lightly. 'Tell me what is and isn't true, Alexi.'
'I don't know what you're talking about.'
He touched her lower lip with the tip of his thumb, studying her face. 'Tell me what you've felt--what you've wanted.'
'I have told you,' she gasped out, herself turning. She didn't want him to see her eyes. To read any of the secrets within them. Love made one so vulnerable. She wished she were dressed.
She shivered. 'Rex, do you have robes aboard this boat? It's getting so chilly--'
He pulled her into the curve of his arm. 'I'll keep you warm,' he promised her.
'I told you,' she murmured, her eyes downcast, 'that you were very special.'
'The Easter Bunny is special,' he told her.
“I have been with you every time because I wanted desperately to be with you. Is that what you want?'
'No.' He lifted her chin to force her eyes to his, holding her close against his chest. 'I want more, Alexi.'
Her heart seemed to thunder and stop, then race again and soar. Her lips were dry, and she moistened them with her tongue, 'I hear that you're the one with a girl in every port.'
'A gross exaggeration. And reasonable.' He smiled ruefully. Smiled at her, deep into her soul, and she instinctively stroked his face, musing again about how she loved it. Dark and macabre... To think that she had once thought he must be that way, when he smiled at her now so openly, so ruefully, so tenderly.
'I've been scared. I've been running. And I'm still very, very scared.'
'Of me?' she whispered.
He nodded. 'Alexi?'
'Yes?'
“Do you have to go back? Do you have to do that commercial or whatever it is?'
'Er, no.'
He hesitated. He gave her a crooked smile, dark lashes covering his eyes. He released her and stood, hands on hips, beautifully naked, staring out to the sea.
'That wasn't the right question,' he said at last. 'Do you want to go back?'
She had thought that she was safe; his back was to her. But he spun around swiftly, and she felt that she was seared through by the probing intensity of his eyes, by the demand within them. She felt herself blush--all of her, from head to toe--and she felt painfully, terrifyingly bare and vulnerable.
'I don't know.'
