Esras turned back and scanned her from head to foot appreciatively. Then he flicked open the button on his trousers and began to undress himself. A burst of shocking hot need arrowed through Kate. She should turn around while he undressed, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him as he slid the grey trousers down his thighs and stepped out of them. His underwear was plain white cotton. She stared for so long that by the time she managed to tear her gaze away her cheeks were flaming.

Crouching, he scooped water over his head. Her eyes tracked the drips that trickled from his hair to his chest and snaked down his golden skin over the ridges and dips of his muscular torso to soak into his underwear.

When she looked back at his face, his eyes sparkled and his lips curved in a wicked smile.

«You tease,» she accused.

He gave her a satisfied male grin and held out his hand.

She hesitated. «We can’t be long. The director will go ballistic if we don’t go back soon.»

Esras shrugged. «There’s plenty going on at the feast for him to film.» He held out his fingers. «Hold on to my hand until I tell you it’s safe to let go.»

«But if we’re only going swimming.»

Esras’ smile dropped away. The serious intensity she’d seen in his eyes earlier returned. «Trust me, my love. Hold my hand.»

«What are we going to do?»

«All I can promise you is that you’ll enjoy it.» Clasping her hand firmly, he stepped into the water. Kate followed, the first shock of cold quickly passing as she went deeper.

They swam towards the cave opening, Esras pulling her while she swam one-handed. Sunlight glinted off the ripples as they emerged from the shadows. The Celtic Sea spread out in front of them for as far as they could see.

He pulled her closer, treading water. «Now, we go down.»

She looked down through the water at the rays of sunlight painting wavering green-gold streaks across his body. He moved behind her and slid an arm around her waist, holding her loosely against his chest. She filled her lungs and they ducked beneath the surface.

He angled them down, swimming surprisingly fast out to sea. She scanned the area, expecting to see whatever it was he wanted to show her before they had to return to the surface. Fish slid among fluttering fronds of kelp and seaweed, while even down here rays of sun pierced the water with golden warmth.

Her lungs started to burn and panic quivered in her muscles. Esras was still descending. They were so deep now, she wasn’t sure she could hold her breath long enough to reach the surface again. She should have told him that she was out of practice. She hadn’t been swimming for years. She struggled in his grasp, but his arm only tightened around her waist. She tried to turn, see his face, signal her distress, but he kept going down so fast that the momentum prevented her from escaping his grip.

When she was certain she couldn’t hold her breath a moment longer his voice slid into her mind. «Relax and stop fighting it, my love. Trust me.»

The last air leaked from her lungs in a shower of tiny bubbles that raced away to the surface. In that moment, a strange calm came over her. She stopped struggling and closed her eyes. The water skimmed her breasts and legs, Esras’ warm chest pressed tightly to her back, his hard muscles rippling against her as he swam. She became aware of his heart beating, sure and steady.

Water filled her mouth and nose. She waited. not for pain and death, because she knew they wouldn’t come.

«Breathe.» Esras’ voice whispered into her head, soft as a caress. And she obeyed him.

Strength and energy flooded into her with the water. Her nerves tingled, blood surged. She heard sounds she hadn’t noticed before, squeaks and clicks and deep rumbles and booms that echoed through the water.

She tried to turn to smile at him but he held her tight.

«We’re going to ride a current. Be ready.»

Ahead the water plunged and churned, dragging at the seaweed and scattering debris like a storm. She tensed as they approached; then they were sucked into it, being tossed and buffeted by the current, moving so fast Kate couldn’t see anything but foaming water.

Esras wrapped his other arm around her, hugging her tightly to his body. She felt as though she was white-water rafting without the raft.

«When I tell you to, swim hard,» he said inside her head. «Now.»

Kate kicked and pulled with her arms for all she was worth. Esras’ muscles flexed against her back as he swam with one arm, holding her with the other. After they broke away from the turmoil, the sudden peace of the still water came as a relief. He loosed his arms, releasing her, and let her float beside him. For the first time since they’d dived, she saw him. Her breath caught in her lungs. Everything about him had become more beautiful beneath the water. His hair gleamed with a patina of silver, his skin glowed pale gold and his green eyes shone like starlight through emeralds.

«You’re gorgeous, Kate,» he said.

She’d been so entranced with Esras, it hadn’t occurred to her that she might look different. The buttons on the silk shirt she was wearing had come unfastened, but she hardly registered that her breasts were bare. She was mesmerized by the subtle play of colours across her opalescent skin.

Esras gathered a handful of her long hair and held it in front of her face so she saw the gleaming polished ebony strands. He stroked his fingertips across her cheek, traced her jaw. «I wish you could see your eyes as well. They put sapphires to shame,» he said.

His fingers trailed down her neck and along her collarbone, drifting lower to the swell of her breasts.

Kate wanted to tell Esras how luscious he looked, but she didn’t know how to speak underwater. Instead, she reached out and slid her palms over his shoulders and chest, revelling in the solid strength of his muscles.

His arms closed around her. He drew her closer and kissed her forehead and her cheeks. Then his mouth covered hers. His lips were firm and cool, but his tongue was hot in contrast to the cool seawater as she opened her mouth and he deepened the kiss.

Too soon, Esras pulled away. «You’re so distracting. You nearly made me forget why I brought you here.»

Kate raised her eyebrows and pointed at herself. Hadn’t he wanted to prove to her that she was different? He’d certainly done that. Whatever decisions she made about her life when they returned to the air, she would never be the same person again.

«Try to speak to me. Focus on your pearl as you think what you want to say,» he said.

She put her fingers on the teardrop pearl against her chest and concentrated. «Hello, sexy.»

He laughed, a rumble in the water as well as the sound in her head. «Hello, gorgeous. You learn fast.»

He kissed the tip of her nose, his fingers grazing tantalizingly low across her belly. He stilled, staring into her eyes. A hot needy tension thrummed between them. «I really want to take you back to my bed, but before we leave I must show you your heritage.»

Seven

They swam side by side until they reached the edge of a cliff beneath the sea. Esras stopped and released Kate’s hand. «We’re going deeper now, so I need to make some lanterns.» He cupped his hands together as if modelling clay, then spread his palms to release a glowing ball. It floated beside them while he made four more in the same way.

Esras took her hand, guiding her down vertically. The lanterns floated on ahead to light their way. Instead of the water getting colder as they went deeper, it became warmer. Finally, Esras stopped and pointed down at the valley floor.

All Kate saw was the seabed below them. She frowned at him.

«Touch your pearl, Kate.»

She wrapped her fingers around her pearl and a veil lifted before her eyes. In the valley below, a city of glowing white houses appeared. She pulled her hand from his and swam on. Her heart thudded with excitement. This must be the underwater city from Grandma’s stories.

Multicoloured mosaic floors gleamed, while bright murals decorated the walls — similar to the decorations inside Knock House.

But where were the people?

Kate reached the seabed and floated down between the buildings to street level. From higher up, she’d seen only colours and shapes. Down here, she noticed the buildings were falling down, the mosaic floors fractured. Heaps of sand and shells lay in the corners of empty rooms. Seaweed and sea creatures had moved in, growing between the rocks of the tumbledown walls and the cracks in the tiles.

It was deserted.

Her heart contracted painfully and her eyes pricked with tears that were lost in the sea. These had been her people. She knew it as surely as she knew the sun rose every morning and went down at night.

Esras floated down at her side, an eddy of sand swirling about him.

«What’s happened to them?» she cried.

He touched her shoulder and gave a sad smile. «Manannan’s Kingdom was wiped out millennia ago by the Irish Tuatha Dé Danann. This ancient ruin has only survived because it’s still protected by the powerful magic of the sea god. The people of the rainbow are light through water; they spread peace and love. But the Tuatha Dé Danann walk a dark path, imposing their will with the sword.»

«We were no match for them. Most of the survivors were scattered to the four winds and, like you, their descendants have no idea who they are. Only a few of us still live together in our tiny demesne in County Cork.»

Bereft and confused, Kate turned into Esras’ arms and rested her cheek against his chest. She felt as though she had found her people only to lose them again immediately. She relived the misery she’d felt as a child at being denied the magic of her grandmother’s stories. Why had her mother been so violently opposed to her finding out about her people? They must be her mother’s people as well.

Esras stroked her hair back from her face. «There’s something I want you to see.»

He took her into a massive building that resembled a Greek temple, except each of the supporting columns was a sculpture of a man and woman entwined in each other’s arms. «We do not worship a god, we worship couples as the Union of Opposites.»

He stopped and let her find her feet before taking her in his arms. «The ceremony that joined us at the Feast of Beauty was the ancient Union of Opposites. In the eyes of the Rainbow People we’re now man and wife.»

Kate tried to remember why she’d been so angry with him over the ceremony but couldn’t. Being with Esras now felt like the most natural thing in the world. «What do you normally do to celebrate the Union of Opposites?» she asked.

A smile spread over his face, his eyes glittering. «Make love.»

Anticipation quivered through her. She slipped her arms around his neck, moulding her body to his, wanting to forget her melancholy. «Let’s celebrate.»

Esras cupped the back of her head, then leaned down and kissed her. The unusual sensation of the salty water mingling with their lips and tongues drove her wild. The overwhelming need to possess and be possessed beat in every cell of her body like an elemental force. The tumultuous sea ran through her veins, urging her to be wild and unrestrained.

She pushed the silk shirt off her shoulders and it floated away. His hands cupped her breasts, stroking and teasing. She traced the shape of his muscles with her fingers, sliding her hand down the ridges of his abs. He made a needy sound as her fingers slid further.

Esras pushed off his underwear and soon her panties floated away as well. «We usually make love topside,» he said. «It’s easier. But I can’t wait. Clamp you legs around me.»

He gripped her thighs and pressed himself against her sensitive flesh, drawing groans from them both. She clung to him with her arms and legs, digging her heels into his buttocks as he thrust inside her. When they were as intimately linked as it was possible for a male and female to be, they stilled in unspoken assent. They floated together just above the soft sand in the temple beneath the towering statues of ancient lovers.

She had never felt such a sense of peace in the middle of overwhelming desire. Did this mean she was in love?

His fingers gripped her buttocks, then he started to move inside her, slowly, sensuously. His lips traced her throat and shoulder before teasing her nipples.

The water held them in its embrace, playing over her skin like silky fingers as the pleasure built inside her. Waves of sensation flowed through her body. They floated to the ground and her back landed on the soft sand. His green eyes burned with the intensity of his need. Kate touched his finely carved lips, felt the hot touch of his tongue on her fingers. Ecstasy burst through her, sweeping her away from reality to a place of pure sensation.