“... the slightest smile on her face, almost a smugness, as if she had some secret arrangement with my body that I'd never understand, something dark and faminine and private and it excited me to think that she might know some part of me so well, so instinctively.”

“And as she looked at the pool she saw the waters gather up into a column, rushing up foaming and standing there before her startled eyes, and turn into the form of a man. Not a man, a god. So perfectly formed, so handsome, with such wisdom and desire in his eyes and such quiet joy on his lips. He was breathtakingly beautiful and Anne felt herself grow weak with some unnamable longing. His eyes met hers and caught her soul tight, and she could not look away as he read every thought in her mind. “Come,” he said to her in a voice like liquid silver, “I know your mind, and it is one with mine.” Anne could not speak, but she did not need to. Her eyebrows raised in question. He laughed, “Why to love, of course.”

“When a wisp of fog blew by her she laughed and reached out her hands to it. When the wind blew she turned to it and opened her bodice, letting it caress and kiss her breasts, for she never knew when it might be him, and still she wanted nothing more than to please him utterly.”

“A kind of sensual darkness began to absorb me and the words began to spill out beyond my control.”

“I don't know you very well, and i'm almost afraid to know you better. Maybe i love you because i don't know you. Maybe if i knew what you were really like and what you wanted out of life and what you think is important, I wouldn't care for you at all and that would be the end of this.”

“Well he’ll not get her, will he?” Angus exclaimed. “He’s just some little pond sprite. He can’t do anything out of the water, right? He’s powerless. I’ll get her out of here! We’ll go in to Glasgow or…” Ian sighed. “Come on, Angus. It’s not as simple as all that. This is an Elemental you’re dealing with. You’d have to take her to the center of the freaking Sahara to get away from him, and even then he’d probably make it rain. He’s in every damned faucet and kitchen tap all over the world. She takes a bath and he’ll pull her under!” Angus stared at him angrily. “It’s fucking happened!” Ian said.”

“He tried to make it seem that he had stopped for some dirty talk and to savor the moment, but Anne knew that he was temporarily out of breath, that he’d started out too fast, trying to impress her.”