Stroke, stroke, stroke.

He swam easily with the current of the river, the smell of the water filling his nostrils. God, why didn’t he do this more often? Steal away at night; get away from Prescott and their old man. Jase didn’t want to think of them, they were murky images while the water was clear and cool and touching him in the most intimate of places.

God, was he going to get a hard-on right here, alone in the damned water? How in the world was that happening? But the water was like velvet, soft and caressing. He blinked and realized he wasn’t alone; someone else was in the river, a gorgeous woman swimming around him in circles, her hair fanning around her beautiful features. Her lips were pink, her eyes somewhere between green and gold. Wide and wonderful, they seemed to stare into his soul.

“I’m a mermaid,” she said from under the water, air bubbles floating around her, a sexy smile teasing her lips.

He recognized her. Arianna Hayward, in the flesh. And swimming naked beside him, sensual as a siren and oh, so tempting.

“If you’re a mermaid, what am I? A merman?”

“Oh, no . . . more like a mere man.” She laughed at her own joke, then trailed her fingers over his wet skin. Her fingertips traced the muscles of his shoulders, then slid over his chest, causing him to gasp. Arching an impish eyebrow, she let her hand dip even lower, to dance around his erection. “Uh-oh,” she breathed, her eyes gleaming with an interested, amused light as she discovered he was hard. “A naughty mere man,” she said. Her touch was like magic as her fingers stroked. Or was it the water? He couldn’t be certain; he didn’t really care. The sensation of euphoria that came with her silken stroke was incredible, mind-blowing.

He groaned in the water, sure he would come.

“You like?” she whispered, the air coming out of her mouth and nose rising upward, bubbles tickling him, her long hair feathering around her features and disguising her to the point he wondered if this sexy creature were Arianna or her twin, Brianna.

Oh, I like, he tried to say, but the words were trapped in his throat and he closed his eyes, concentrating on the warmth radiating from the juncture of his legs. Don’t ever stop.

But she did.

In an instant.

Either Arianna or the river quit moving, quit teasing, and when he opened his eyes, it was darker. Clouds scudded across the moon, stars winked out, and the effervescent bubbles no longer rose around him.

She’d vanished as quickly as she’d come.

Arianna? He tried to call through his muted lips. Arianna, where are you?

“I was wrong about you, Jase. I thought you were a good guy.”

He turned in the river, fighting the current. Where was she? Where had the voice come from?