She eyed him provocatively. “Aren’t you even a little bit curious about the fantasy I have in mind?”
Twin desires warred within him. A part of him wanted to haul her over his shoulder and cart her off to the room. Another part of him wanted to indulge her. Hell, a part of him was becoming very curious about what she’d come up with next.
“It won’t take long,” she murmured.
Unable to resist a moment longer, he lowered his head and nibbled along her jawline. Perhaps the room was too far away. But the cabana wasn’t. “Come—”
“And we won’t be in full view of the people in the lounge the way we would be in the cabana.”
Lucas lifted his head and glanced over her shoulder. Hell, he’d forgotten that the lounge offered a panoramic view of this part of the lagoon. If he had dragged her into that cabana, they would have provided quite a sideshow for the hotel guests who were probably watching them even now.
“You’re a damn good negotiator, Doc. If you ever get tired of working in that lab, I could use a mind like yours at Wainright Enterprises.”
“You could?”
The quick leap of surprise and joy in her eyes sent a wave of feelings tumbling through him. It occurred to him that he would do a lot to see it there again. Often. “Absolutely.”
“You really are—”
He put his fingers against her lips. “If you say kind or sweet again, you’re going in the lagoon.”
“Kind and sweet.”
Before he could shove her, she twisted and dived into the water. He had one clear view of smooth, white cheeks before they disappeared below the surface of the water. It wasn’t a bikini bottom she was wearing—but a thong.
While they’d been negotiating, everyone in the lounge had been treated to the view.
She was driving him crazy, and he was going to put a stop to it. He followed her into the water.
MAC BROKE the surface for air at the same time that Lucas did. The water was cold, and she’d needed the shock of it. She couldn’t have held her own much longer—not with his body, his mouth touching hers. Especially when she could see that wild, reckless gleam in his eye. For just a moment—one glorious moment—she’d seen that he wanted to carry her off. And she would have gone.
The thought alone had the heat moving through her again. She hadn’t known she had the power to make a man look at her that way. Treading water, she twisted to face Lucas.
The wild, reckless look had disappeared.
“That bathing suit is indecent,” he said. “Do you realize that everyone sitting in that lounge must have had their eyes glued to your…your…”
“Do you think so? I never thought I’d ever have the courage to wear it. And I was right. I didn’t.”
“You did wear it. You’ve got the damn thing on.”
Mac shook her head. “No, Sally was the one who put it on, under those outrageous clothes. Just as soon as I decided to be her, I suddenly had the courage to put it on. I didn’t even have to go out on that balcony again.”
His gaze narrowed and he stared at her for a long moment. “Who the hell are you?”
His question was a cue if she’d ever heard one—and her chance to bring that look back into his eyes. Moving closer, she said, “I told you. I’m Fiona now, a mermaid, and I’ve just lured you into the water.”
“You’re a…mermaid?”
He didn’t sound at all convinced. Or even interested. Beneath the surface, her legs tangled briefly with his. “In the survey, over forty percent of the men said they had erotic dreams about mermaids. I find that very curious, don’t you?”
Underwater, he trapped one of her legs with his. “Not particularly.”
“Well, I’ve given it some thought—from a scientific viewpoint.”
“Ah, and you’d like to share your conclusions.”
In a swift movement, he trapped her other leg.
A strange wave of helplessness moved through her.
“Mermaids are exotic, different, and the stories of them date back to primeval times. Part of their allure could stem from that.” The feeling of helplessness was growing, she discovered. They were touching nowhere else—just where his legs trapped hers in a vise. But she was very much aware that his legs were stronger. Her heartbeat was accelerating, and it was getting more difficult to breathe. “Then there’s the fact that man came out of the water and will always be lured back to his origins.”
“Sounds like a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo to me, Doc. I think my reality’s a lot better than your fantasy.” Quite suddenly, her legs were free, but he had her hand and was pulling her toward the edge of the lagoon.
“Wait.” What had she been thinking? She’d been spouting off her research, and he was seeing her as Mac. That was the problem. “That’s not the real reason I think that men have erotic dreams about mermaids.”
“I told you, Doc. I’ve never thought of making love to a mermaid.”
She moved closer so that their bodies were just brushing beneath the water. “Think about it now. Just how would you do it?”
His gaze narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“How would you make love to a mermaid? Maybe you couldn’t—I mean, in the normal way. Certain important parts of her body are…another species.” Lifting her hand, she drew it across his shoulder, over his throat, and slowly down his chest to his waist. She let her fingers rest just where skin gave way to the thin material of his bathing suit. “Right about here is where she changes. However, there are certain very specific ways in which she could pleasure you.”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you let me show you?”
For a moment, he said nothing, but she felt his grip tighten on her hand and saw the carefully guarded expression in his eyes change. This wasn’t the recklessness she’d seen before, but something else—a raw hunger that she felt her whole body respond to. In that moment, she realized it could go either way. If he pulled her with him out of the water, she wouldn’t resist. She would go back with him to the suite.
Finally, he let out the breath he’d been holding. “Not here.”
She ran her fingers lightly along the waistband of his suit before she drew her hand away. “I have a more private place in mind. C’mon.”
She pushed away from the edge, slicing the water with smooth, clean strokes. The waterfall she’d spotted from their balcony was on the other side of the hotel from where they were. The length of the swim would give her time to plan.
There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that once they reached the cave, Lucas would make good on the promise she’d seen in his eyes and felt in his body’s response to her. She’d been playing with fire for about as long as he was going to allow it. And if the truth be told, she wanted to be burned.
So what was causing the tight ball of fear to form in her stomach? Hadn’t she proven to herself that if she could focus on the fantasy, she could do all the things she’d discovered in her research?
In the bar when she’d been pretending to be Sally, she hadn’t even had to plan anything out step by step. Everything she’d done to him had felt so natural because…she was Sally?
Or was it because he was Lucas?
She knew exactly when he drew beside her, even before she felt the brush of his hand along her shoulder and down her back. His touch was familiar, exciting, and with each lift of her right arm as she swam, she could see him. The lean muscled arms, the broad shoulders, the narrow waist and the…
She hadn’t had a chance to appreciate before how he filled out that tiny bathing suit. Every time her face went into the water, her eyes homed in on the same target. Not that she hadn’t vividly pictured him in her mind when she’d chosen the suit in the gift shop. But the reality of Lucas, nearly naked and well within reach, had the fear in her stomach turning into something else.
She really wanted him. As a biologist, she could dismiss what she felt as lust. But as a woman, she was very much afraid that it was personal.
As successful as she’d been in becoming Sally the hooker, Lucas had always been Lucas. There was that kindness, that sweetness that embarrassed him. More than that, there was the feeling she got when he looked at her—that he saw her as no one else ever had. He already knew her secrets, and they didn’t frighten him away.
But it was dangerous to dwell on that, dangerous to want…
No, it was much safer to concentrate on the fantasy she was about to create and slip into the persona of Fiona.
Dragging her gaze away from Lucas, she checked her surroundings, then increased the speed of her stroke. The moment she rounded the curve, she spotted the churning in the water that told her the waterfall and the little rock cave were just ahead.
She summoned the image of a ladder into her mind. All she had to do was take it one step at a time. The first step was to create the mermaid fantasy. Concentrating, she focused on the water beyond Lucas. Though the lagoon was man-made, every effort had been made to create a facsimile of the real thing. Concrete in the shape of rocks lined the walls, and in the shade created by the palm trees on either side, the water was a deep, exotic blue-green. Shafts of sunlight lightened the color at intervals.