I heard a snort of laughter from behind me.

Not allowing myself to hesitate (because I’d chicken out), I made my way out into the pool. The bottom was rocky, but the rocks were mostly small, smooth pebbles, which was a blessing. I would hate to add sharp, cutting rocks to my freezing feet. Before I could stop myself (and keeping in mind how rank I smelled), I took a deep breath and sank down in the water until I was covered to my shoulders.

“Oh, brrrr!” Actually, I was finding out it wasn’t so bad once I was under the water. It especially wasn’t so bad since the water was now blanketing the view of my naked body from him. I turned to face the centaur, kind of resting half on my butt and half crouching, but definitely under the water and covered to my shoulders.

His face was in shadow, but I saw the white of his teeth flash as he smiled at me.

“I wish I had some soap. My hair could use a good scrubbing.”

He walked toward the edge of the water and I could see he was searching the ground near his hooves. Did he think someone had dropped a bar of Zest on the bank? Suddenly he raised a hoof and stomped several times on a dark, flat stone.

I thought that perhaps lust for me had driven him out of his horsey mind.

“Will this do?” He gestured to the ground, which was now covered with sandlike pieces of rock and lots of soapy bubbles.

I didn’t move. As far as I was aware, Oklahoma doesn’t have any rocks that doubled as soap. I was confused. Again.

“I know it is not perfumed and processed, but sand soap works well, even in its natural form.”

Silly me.

“Um, of course. But, well, I’m going to freeze if I stand up. Do you think you could bring me a handful?” Somehow it was better to have him wade out here and join me while I was covered with water than for me to stand up, all naked and nippley, and parade to him. Maybe.

He started to bend to scoop up the soapy sand.

“Hey, you better take off that vest.” I looked at him and couldn’t help adding a teasing smile. “You’re going to get wet.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy get out of a shirt or vest so quickly. Eager was too slow a word. In moments he was causing the pool to slosh and spill over as he waded to me, hands filled with bubbles and sand. As he joined me he offered me the sand soap and I gratefully scooped out a handful (which was, by the way, warm from his touch) and started soaping up my arms, pits, and well, other places. I had to rise a little out of the water to get to some of the other places. I tried to stay turned away from him because he just stood there, watching me, slowly rubbing some sand around his own chest. Which was now very bare—and very muscular—and very broad. Good thing the water was cold; I was suddenly beginning to feel warm. Imagine that.

To take my mind off his chest, I dunked myself all the way under the water, shaking my head until my hair was good and soaked. Emerging back above water (and trying not to sputter unattractively), I reached for more of the sand soap from my very handsome soap holder. The sand felt wonderful as I rubbed it furiously into my hair, and I liked the unusual, sweet scent that drifted down my shoulders with the bubbles. It smelled a little like vanilla, or maybe honey, mixed with some kind of nut.

“I can do that.” His hands replaced my own and he took over for me, massaging the soap into my scalp with warm, firm fingers. “You will be warmer if you stay covered by the water.”

I crouched back down and felt him kneeling behind me. His hands worked through my hair, rubbing and pulling, being careful to keep the soapy bubbles from falling down into my eyes. His body was only a few inches away from me—I could feel the heat of him radiating through the water.

“That feels wonderful.” I meant it as a comradely compliment, but it came out of my mouth as a breathy moan. His hands drifted from my head to my neck, gliding with slick, hot fingers down to my shoulders and back to the base of my neck then up through my scalp again. I leaned until I felt my back touch the heat of his chest. His hands stilled on my shoulders. I placed my hands over his and then glided them up his soapy forearms, loving the hard feel of his tense muscles.

“Don’t stop,” I whispered. Through my back I felt his heartbeat increase as his hands moved forward and down under the water, taking the heaviness of my breasts, one in each of his hands, and squeezing them gently while he drew me more firmly against his body.

This time I didn’t even attempt to make my moan sound comradely. The cold of the water combined with his heat and the slickness of the soap. I felt everything inside of me liquefy. Turning in his arms, I rose just far enough out of the water so that our faces were almost even with each other. His hands dropped to cradle my waist and I reached up, ringing the excess soap from my hair into my hands and piling my sudsy hair in a ball on top of my head. Not taking my eyes from his (which was difficult because I really wanted to gawk at his gorgeous chest), I began rubbing the soap over his torso.

“I can do that,” I purred.

He smiled as my words echoed his. I lathered his chest, working the sandy soap up to his shoulders and down his wonderfully muscular arms. Then I swiped the extra soap, cupping the bubbles in my hands and reaching under his arms to rub them around his back. The tips of my breasts worked seductively against his chest, moving to the rhythm of my hands.

I think his breathing had increased, but I couldn’t be sure because my heart was hammering so loudly in my chest it seemed to be drowning out all sound—except his deep moan as he bent down and covered my mouth with his. His hands slid from my waist to cup my ass, and my breasts flattened against his chest as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pressed into him.

Naturally, my hair had to choose that precise moment to fall down out of the soapy ball on top of my head and flop directly into the space between our eyes and noses.

We split apart—sputtering and wiping soap from our eyes and mouths.

“Maybe I should rinse now.” The sexy, throaty tone of voice I was going for was pretty much ruined when I spit a big blob of sandy bubbles out of my mouth and onto his chest. “Oops, sorry.”

“Urmph.” He was busy cupping handfuls of water up to wash the sand and soap out of his eyes.

I dunked myself under the water, rinsing and rinsing until I seemed to have the soap and my hair under control. I ended up crouched back under the water, watching him try to get the soap out of his eyes.

There he was, this big, strong man/horse kneeling down in the water with about half of the horse part of him submerged, splashing water in his face, which really only caused more and more bubbles. He looked like someone who was being forced to take a bubble bath and was pissed off because of it. A giggle escaped my mouth.

He squinted at me, trying to blink the remainder of the soap from his eyes.

I giggled again.

“What is so fun—” As his lips formed the beginning of the word funny a bubble popped out of his mouth, just like he’d blown it from a big ol’ wad of Bazooka.

I couldn’t stand it—at the sight of that bubble popping from his serious, soapy face, my giggles convulsed into laughter.

At first he just stared at me, but when my laughter made me snort he joined me. Pretty soon I was clutching one of his arms to keep myself from drowning. Eventually our laughter quieted and left us smiling at each other. I shivered suddenly and wondered how I could feel so warm inside and actually be freezing on the outside.

“You look cold.” He reached out and tucked a stray tendril of wet hair behind my ear.

“I am. I guess we should get dried off.”

“Yes.”

Neither of us moved. We kept smiling at each other like our brains were as frozen as our feet (well, my feet, his hooves). Standing so that the water covered me only to below my rib cage, I stepped slowly toward him, liking the way his eyes traveled over my wet body. I sucked in my tummy and knew the distant firelight was reflecting softly off my curves, flattering my voluptuous body. His dark eyes told me he liked what he saw, and I sent up a silent prayer of thanks that I had never been one of those women who felt it necessary to starve or puke away their bodies.

I reached forward and kissed him lightly, whispering into his lips, “You’d better rinse off—that soap will itch your fur if it dries.” Then I turned and headed to where we’d left our clothes and the blanket. Behind me I could hear a lot of splashing and grunting as one very large horse-guy tried to get himself unsoaped.

I wrapped myself in the blanket and vigorously began drying with one end of it. Now I was really cold and my hands shivered and shook so hard I almost dropped the blanket. ClanFintan plodded noisily out of the water and joined me on the bank.

“If-f-f-f you s-s-shake water on m-m-me I’m going to p-pull your t-t-tail.”

He snorted a laugh at me and grabbed the blanket from my frozen hands. Before I could complain, I found myself in the middle of his vigorous toweling. I sucked in my breath as the rough blanket brought the blood rushing back to my extremities.

“You take a lot of care.” His voice sounded very businesslike. He had part of the blanket draped over my head and he was kneeling to the side of me, drying my back and front at the same time. I felt a little like a piece of silver that was being polished.

“Don’t complain—it’s not attractive.” I had to yell through the blanket to make myself heard. Suddenly the blanket was removed and draped over his shoulders and he began handing me articles of my clothing.

“It was not a complaint.” His voice was gruff but his eyes sparkled mischievously at me.

“Well, okay then.” I held my damp hair out of the way and offered my back to him. His warm fingers deftly retied the leather. After I slipped on my boots, I took the blanket from around his shoulders.

“My turn.” As he put on his vest, I busied myself toweling off his wet fur. There really was a lot of him. I mean, he was a seriously big guy/horse/whatever. By the time I had him fairly well dried I wasn’t so cold anymore. Folding the blanket and tossing it over his back, I slipped my hand in his.