Free Odalisque by Annabel Joseph

humid, secluded pool, and found the idea really suited his mood. He went straight from the dinner party, not even putting his jacket back on.
    The grotto, too, was lit by the light of a recessed fireplace. Faint lights shimmered beneath the water of the man-made pool, creating an almost eerie glow. Mist danced on top of the water in little wisps. Kai threw his clothes over a nearby rock, and was about to slip into the water when he realized he wasn’t alone. A woman was sitting across the pool from him, twenty or thirty feet away. She was hunched over on a rock, her shapely pale legs dangling into the water. She turned her head to look at him and stared.
    Constance.
    She didn’t smile, didn’t even acknowledge his presence. Instead, she sank into the water and began to swim--away from him. He called out to her before he realized the stupidity of it. He dove under the water instead and used the faint filtered lights to find her. When he grabbed her legs, she struggled. He surfaced to the sound of her hoarse scream. “Stop!” she said, perfectly clearly. “No!” Those two words seemed to exhaust her available vocabulary. He tried to soothe her but she responded by pushing him away.
    “Constance, relax,” he said. “Calm down.”
She has to see your lips to hear you.
He took her chin in his fingers and stilled her shaking head. “Look at me. Listen. Calm down.”
    She subsided under his gaze. He saw, now, how her eyes fixed on his lips. Then she raised her eyes to his and gave him a look that felt a lot like a hot knife twisting in his chest. He shook his head, denying the reproach he saw there.
    “It wasn’t me. It was Bastien. All I said was that...that I wasn’t sure...” Kai paused, trying to think of words that wouldn’t sound like excuses, but she was off again, slipping from his arms like a mermaid. She slid under the water and took off like a shot, but he was taller, stronger. Faster. When she came up for air, he was waiting for her.
    “Constance!”
    His expression must have arrested her, if not the pleading note in his voice.
    “Give me a minute to explain. You have to understand--” He drew her close, not wanting her to flit away again. His fingertips traced her curves under the water. He made sure she was looking before he spoke. “It scared me at first, okay? The responsibility of communicating with you. I wasn’t sure I could do it. It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. Bastien misunderstood...” Or maybe he had understood all along. “Wait. Did Bastien tell you to come here tonight?”
    Constance thought a moment, and then rolled her eyes in a perfect approximation of Kai’s own feelings.
    “That manipulative bastard,” Kai said with a laugh.
    Constance pulled away from him. She didn’t swim away, but bobbed in the water at arms’ length, dissecting him with an astute gaze.
    Kai drifted beside her, moving his legs slowly to stay afloat. “Listen, I know now... Now that I’ve thought about it... Look, I want you, and you’re the only one I want. Everything else is secondary, and I’m sorry--so sorry--if your feelings were hurt.” He looked down in the water, where her hand floated next to his. He took it, lacing his fingers with hers. “I’ll learn sign language. Whatever. We’ll figure it out as we go along. I can even live with your insect thing.”
    She looked confused. He said it again, more slowly. “Your insect thing. It said on your profile that you were interested in etymology.”
    The most amazing thing happened then. She laughed. She threw back her head and laughed out loud. The melodic sound echoed off the rocks around them while Kai watched in wonder. Obviously, she was laughing at him, but he didn’t care. He thought to himself,
she can’t even hear how beautiful her laughter sounds.
    She swam to the edge of the pool near the fire, and he followed her. She pulled herself half out of the water and picked up a little notebook and pen. She wrote