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His hands left her rib cage, moved upward. She felt their movement by the flow of the water, like fish gliding around her, just above the surface of her skin. He found the floating fabric of her bikini top, while his cheek pressed against her temple. Lauren leaned back against him as he pulled the fabric back down, fitting it into place by light, maddening touches on the sides of her breasts. His grip slid to where the two portions of the clasping straps came out of the triangles and he pulled them around her, nudging her forward, and re-hooked the suit at the center of her back. His fingers lingered there, on the sensitive indentation of spine.
"Now, Josh," Marcus winked at her. "She might be a European girl. You never gave her a choice. "
Lauren splashed at him and moved away from them both, turning so she could float on her back in the water. "This is incredible," she murmured, trying to take her mind off the raging inside her body and the unsettling mystery of the man causing it. "How can you bear to go back to New York, Marcus?"
"I use this place as my reward for good behavior. And since I am rarely good," he tugged on her foot and she kicked playfully at him, "I don't deserve to be here for more than a short time anyhow. However, keep in mind, dear heart, that one man's Eden," his gaze flicked to Josh, "is another man's self-imposed Purgatory. "
"Surf with me until we're hungry enough for lunch," Lauren said, not wanting the shadow that crossed Josh's face to linger. "And no adult thoughts," she decided, shooting Marcus an emphatic look. "You're six, I'm seven, and Josh is five. We have no responsibilities, no past, no history, no baggage. If we had any white sunblock, I'd paint it on all our noses. "
"And there are so many other fun places to put it," Marcus chided. At her quelling look, he grinned. "I'm a rather mature six year old. Do we get to make sand castles?"
"Absolutely. " She dove into the next wave and then swam away from them like a dolphin. Her ankle still hurt, but in the buoyancy of the water, she felt unencumbered by the injury and more certain of herself.
She spent the next hour playing tag, dodging under waves and enjoying impromptu splash fights until her ploy succeeded and they were all three laughing, red-eyed and relaxed as children in truth. Even the sexual tension melted away before the joy of pure play.
She couldn't outlast their energy, though, so when she was doing more floating than swimming, Marcus made the suggestion they retreat to the beach and open their picnic basket. Two wet men, bronzed and muscled in shorts plastered to their bodies, made an agreeable escort to shore. Per her request, they let her limp, testing the strength of the ankle, but they stayed close. Their readiness to catch her if she toppled one way or the other both amused and touched her.
Marcus had pulled the blanket from Isabel's back before she wandered back into the forest on more elephantine pursuits. Now he spread it out to form a table for bread, cheese, wine and grapes. There did not seem much need for conversation, all of them wet and panting from their exertions in the water, so they ate, gazing out to the sea with their own thoughts for awhile, and listening to the random cries of the few seabirds keeping them company on the beach. Lauren reflected that she had not felt so relaxed in a long time, and watched idly as Josh pic
ked up a handful of dry sand and let it trickle over her calf, following its progress until he had created a small cone leaning against the relaxed calf muscle.
Marcus's attention was drawn to it as well, and a light came to his eyes that Lauren was beginning to anticipate, with a mixture of delight and trepidation.
"I'm ready to build a sandcastle now," he announced, taking a swallow of wine.
"Mmm. " Her eyes were half closed behind her sunglasses as she turned her head to look at him. They had let the blanket be the table, but she had passed on the folding beach chair he had brought in a duffel bag. Instead, she lay stretched out comfortably on the sand, wiggling until its hills and valleys supported her concave points comfortably. "I'm taking a nap. "
"Excellent. " He rummaged in the bag and produced a large purple plastic sand bucket with a bright yellow handle. Lauren chuckled. "One of Lisette's?"
"No, my dear girl. I bought it at one of those tacky little beach places before I came across. You can't be at the beach without a sand bucket. "
"You know," she said, "They have those molds now that are shaped like castles. "
Marcus made a horrified face. "Cheating. As blasphemous as copying the Mona Lisa. Every work must be an original to be called art. It's like re-creating a movie or song someone else has made famous. I have more respect for an original piece of crap than I do for someone trying to ride on the coattails of someone else's success. At least they made an effort to create rather than being an artistic copy machine.
It's just re-manufacturing, piggybacking the genius of the original artist. Parasitic art industry, not worth our notice. "
He stomped toward the ocean.
"You know, he should open up more," she commented. "Express how he really feels. "
Josh chuckled somewhere to Lauren's right. "I keep telling him that. "
Lauren slanted him a glance over her glasses and grinned. "But not everyone can be as talkative as you are. "
"Exactly. "
"Here we are," Marcus returned with a bucket sloshing seawater. As he placed it on the sand, Lauren saw the bucket was a half-and-half mix of sand and water. Her scrutiny turned to wariness as Marcus dropped to his knees beside her.
"You said I could make a sand castle," he reminded her. "I'm partial to drip castles. "
Lauren caught on and scrambled to a sitting position. "Oh no," she shook her head. "You'll get my swimsuit all nasty. "
"So take it off. "
The trap closed with an audible snick, reflected in the devilish challenge in his eyes. Lauren glanced at Josh. She couldn't see his thoughts behind his sunglasses and she reached over, drew them off with both hands so her fingers brushed the soft hair at his temples. His gray eyes were almost as opaque as the lenses. "Do you like to make drip castles, too?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
"I'm developing an interest. "
