Diana moved a bit closer. «What does that mean? The times are out of joint? Don't you, wouldn't you, want to see me again? If we could, I mean?»

Blade smiled at her. Stop the glooming. Helll He had come back six times. He would come back this time.

«Hercules' mother raised no fools,» he told her. «And it is only a game, you know. Shall we stop playing it and get to know each other?»

For a moment he was certain she would agree. The look in her eyes, colored a darker green and warmed by the sapphire water, told him that. Then she shook her head. «No. We can't: I was just thinking crazy for a momenf. We're still playing the game.»

Blade was put out. He ached for her. «Then let's get on with it.» He was gruff. «That bird and bottle is still waiting at my cottage.»

Again she shook her head. «I think not. I've changed my mind about that.»

Blade scowled, not altogether in jest. «I never read that Diana was a tease.»

She laughed, eyes green slits, and splashed at him. «Oh, but she wasl She was a terrible woman, in many ways. Cruel, when she wanted to be. When she was angry, Didn't she change some poor man into a stag and have her dogs tear him to pieces? Just because he watched her bathing?»

«I don't know.» He sounded sulky, and was. The whole bit was becoming jejune. She was putting him on, this strange little bitch from nowhere, and he had been cooperating all too readily in making a fool of himself.

She moved closer. «Hercules is losing his temper,» she gibed. «We don't want that. I suppose I had better relax the rules a bit.»

Her body was against his. She put her arms about his neck and her mouth close to his ear. Her breasts, buoyant in the sea water, flattened against his chest.

She whispered in his ear. «Hercules may kiss Diana if he wishes»

«He wishes.»

They clung together, half-floating, half-treading water, their mouths together. «Let's swim out a little farther. There might be someone watching from the cliffs.»