«Isn't it beautiful? »

He looked at her smiling face and shining eyes. «You are beautiful.»

Her smile faded as he swam closer. He reached for her hand and pulled her up from the ocean floor until her body was pressed lightly against his and they were floating, weightless, beneath the surface of the sunlit waters. He kissed her, offering her all his joy and devotion.

Rain summoned Earth, and the tantalizing, translucent fabric of her gown parted beneath his hand, falling away to bare the perfection of silky skin and gentle curves. She was beautiful. Her long, bright hair, like flame on the water, floated about her, as lovely as any Sea Maid's, her limbs long and slender. Her small, round br**sts fit perfectly in the palms of his hands. He bent his head to draw the soft bud of one nipple into his mouth, and the dark skeins of his hair floated in the current, teasing her other breast with feathery brushes.

Her fingers curled in his hair, gripping his head and holding it to her. The tingling laps of his tongue, the teasing brush of his hair ... mercy! She was weightless, floating in warmth and sensation. Nibbling kisses trailed down her belly and lower. Her eyes flashed open. «Rain? »

He smiled and lifted his head from her breast but did not release the Spirit weave that pressed tantalizing kisses all around the soft, flame-colored curls between her legs. «Las, shei’tani. Let me give you this. I promise you will like it.» The Spirit weave moved lower, directly into those curls. Her eyes widened, but she didn't ask him to stop. Taking that as encouragement, he ducked his head to capture her lips. His tongue dove into the sweet, soft cavern of her mouth just as his weave dove into the softer, more secret cavern between her thighs.

Good, sweet Lord of Light. Ellysetta's eyes closed as wave after wave of unimaginable pleasure bombarded her senses. Heat and pressure built, every stroke of his tongue matched by an even more devastating stroke of his weave. Her hands gripped his shoulders, fingers digging into the lean muscle. He hadn't been bragging about his mastery of Spirit. Even though she knew which touch was him and which was his weave, both felt equally, devastatingly real. The muscles in her legs and belly drew tight. «Rain .. . Rain, please ... » His Spirit flicked with warm, insistent pressure over a spot that seemed to control every trembling nerve in her body. She cried out and her senses shattered.

Holding her trembling body to his, Rain spun a powerful jet of Water, propelling them towards the surface of the ocean, and they burst through the cresting waves like dolphins leaping from the depths. The momentum carried them forward onto the beach, where a rapid weave of Air cushioned their descent. He landed lightly on the sand, Ellysetta in his arms, a scant two steps from the blanket he'd spread out beneath the pella tree.

He knelt on the blanket and lowered her gently beside him. Water streamed from his hair, dripping salty wetness. With a wave of his hand, he dried them both.

She stared up at him with a look of dazed wonder. "That was ... was ...”

He smiled. "I am glad you liked it." His eyes were glowing, burning. He'd given her release but taken none for himself. Need still pounded inside him.

Ellysetta's breath caught in her throat, and a new spiral of desire wound tight in her womb. He was so beautiful, so fierce, and yet so achingly gentle with her, always making sure the choice was hers and freely made. He had a power so vast he could have bent her to his will with scarcely a thought, but he used none of it to persuade her.

She sat up and laid a hand on his bare chest, marveling at the silky smoothness of his luminous skin, the power contained in so much beauty. He froze, kneeling beside her as her hand trailed down his side, over his ribs and the rippling, defined muscles of his abdomen. The front of his trousers shifted as the hard length of flesh still hidden beneath them pulsed against the fabric, as if reaching for her.

Her own brazenness amazed her. She was kneeling beside him, utterly naked and not the least bit embarrassed by it. Instead, she wanted him naked too. "Take these off." She trailed her fingers across the waistband of his trousers. "I want to see you “

He waved, and the thin cloth dissolved into wisps of insubstantial mist.

Ellysetta caught her breath. She wasn't completely unfamiliar with the male form. Between the paintings of the old masters in the museum, her giggling discussions with Selianne after she'd wed, and Rain's own Spirit weaves, she knew the basics of what to expect. Even so, nothing had prepared her for the reality of Rain or the rush of fierce desire that filled her at the sight of him.

He was beautiful. Everywhere. Especially there, where his sex rose up from a nest of dark curls, a thick, silken column of alabaster flesh topped with a broad, slightly rosy, rounded crown. She reached out, needing to touch him, to feel that part of his body so different from her own. Her fingers closed around his shaft, and her thumb brushed across the velvety head. His skin here was so soft ... and so hot, burning like a flame in her hand. His sex pulsed in her palm, and with her fingers still curved around him, she stroked down the silken length, then back up. Tingling bursts of energy shot up her arm, leaping from his body to hers.

He lunged, catching her by surprise and bearing her back upon the cushion of fine sand. His body, the entire full, deliciously naked length of him, pressed against hers. Skin to skin, hot and heavy, a seductive weight that made her legs part and curve up around his thighs in instinctive invitation. His body gave one great, trembling quake, then froze, every muscle locked solid, hard as steel.

"Merciful gods, shei’tani." His eyes closed and he pressed his face into her neck. "Don't do that again.”