"As long as I wasn't henpecked," he laughed.

"Well, I'm getting waterlogged here, so I think I'm going to get out and dry off," he said. "And I have some work to finish. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, go ahead," he said. "I want to finish washing this, then I'll probably go spend the rest of the night with Jasana."

Dar climbed out of the pool, and Tarrin bent to the considerable task of washing the entirety of his hair. He debated again whether or not he should cut it off the whole time he was washing it. Scrubbing hair longer than the height of a small child is a time-consuming task, and the population of the bathing pool completely changed, then slowly dwindled as Tarrin scrubbed from the roots of his hair to the very tips, having to gather up the long locks and keep them out of the pool to lather them. It seemed a ridiculously boring chore, and he had all but decided that maybe something of a trim would be in order tomorrow. Maybe not take all of it off, but he wouldn't mind losing about half its length. It would be much lighter, alot less inconvenient, and it would probably stop the headaches. He didn't mind the idea of having a braid, but it was just that it was so long and so heavy. If it was neither of those things, he probably wouldn't mind it at all.

Finally finishing, he waded towards the cooler, slightly shallower end where the stone steps leading out of the pool were located, sat down on them, and bent to the task of rebraiding his hair. It took him nearly a half an hour, mainly because he wasn't very good at doing it to himself. He'd braided his mother's hair many times, but it was alot different when he couldn't see what he was doing. He had to take the braid out and rebraid it three times when he realized that it was all uneven and probably looked like a big knot at the base of his neck. If he had to have it, he was determined that it wasn't going to look unkempt.

At long last, he was done. He retied the leather thong at the base of his braid to cinch it, and instead of getting out, he decided to go down towards the hot end and enjoy it a few minutes before leaving. Most of the bathing he'd done was in cold water, and that didn't tend to make him want to linger for very long. The hot baths he took at home didn't stay hot for very long in the winter, and in the summer a hot bath was the last thing anyone wanted. Aldreth and Sulasia lay in a temperate zone, where the winters could be very cold and the summers very hot.

The only problem he could see was the depth of the water. It only came up to his stomach, and he had to bend his knees to let the water come up to his chin. That, and he felt the strange desire to lay down in the water, to simply relax and let the water's heat soak into him. There really was no way to lay in the water other than to swim, and that seemed like too much exertion to him at the moment. Despite that disappointment, he found the water quite relaxing, and he was content to sort of float there with his feet on the bottom of the pool but not supporting his weight, half-floating, half-standing with the water lapping at his ears and its heat surrounding him in a most pleasing manner.

He was so relaxed, he didn't realize that someone was pulling on his hair until there was enough force behind it to move him. Someone had a firm grip on his braid, and that grip was pulling him. He opened his eyes, and to his shock, found himself staring up into the amused, hungry eyes of Auli.

He rose to his feet so quickly that the water erupted around him, but Auli had a very firm hold on his braid, and her grip on it pulled his head up short. His head was yanked to the side painfully as he rose up over her, a mixture of surprise and shock and a little embarassment over being taken so completely by surprise showing on his face as he grabbed his braid with his free hand and yanked it free. Auli was nude, and there was a look of smug victory in her eyes as she moved towards him. Tarrin's eyes moved to and fro, and he realized that he and Auli were the only ones in the baths. There would be no others to put her off this time. She had truly caught him alone. "Hello, Tarrin," she purred as she reached out and put her hands on his chest. "I've been waiting a very long time to get you alone."

Tarrin recoiled from her, not quite sure why he was doing so. He liked Auli, he was attracted to Auli, and part of him wanted Auli. But something else was there, and it told him that getting involved with Auli would be a very bad idea, and at the moment, that part of him was in charge. "A-Auli," he stammered, backing away from her. His attempt to retreat was met with her advancing, and the water slowed him as she was pulled along in his wake. "I told you to leave me alone. I don't want to-"

"Of course you do," she said with bright eyes, keeping her hand on his upper chest. "You just don't want to admit it."

Tarrin kept backing up, but he ran out of pool. His back and shoulders hit the high edge of the pool painfully, and in a blink she was against him, wrapping her arms around him, even hooking one of his legs with her own, locking him in place. Thought became hard when she pressed up against him, when he could feel her body pressing against his, feel all those things he'd been dreaming about touching him in the most intimate ways.

With a hungry look, she leaned completely forward and kissed him with the same passion and exuberance that he remembered from before, a kiss that caused what little thought he had to scatter and quite effectively subdued all those nagging warnings that were still trying to run through his mind. So close to her, with her naked body pressing against his, with her kissing him, no amount of objection was going to pierce the powerful sensations her kiss and her touch had evoked in him. All of Jula's advice was completely forgotten, scoured away by the power of Auli's kiss.

He knew beyond any doubt that Auli had won when she grabbed his wrist and ever-so-sensually set his hand on her backside, and he did not move it away after she removed her hand. But even that realization was drowned by her as she overpowered him with the raw energy of her touch and her kiss, and he found himself surrendering to her willingly, eagerly, wanting to accept the delights that she offered. The thought that they were in a public place, that almost anyone could come down those stairs and catch them making love in the bathing pool, that Jesmind was going to try to kill her when she found out, and then she was going to kill him, that this was a terribly bad idea, all of them were wiped away, and there was nothing left but the desire to finally experience what part of him had imagined and fantasized over the days.

To give in to Auli and let her do whatever she wanted.

It was both everything he imagined, and everything he feared it would be.

Tarrin didn't feel quite so good about it in the morning, after Auli was gone. She had taken him in that bathing pool, and if that wasn't enough of a blow to his pride, she had convinced him to take her back to his room, where she was about ten times as aggressive and almost shocking in her behavior. He never imagined a girl could act like that. She had been-even thinking about it was both wildly exciting and somewhat unsettling. He had been overwhelmed by her raw sensuality, her overpowering feminity at first, but it was nothing but his own weak will that had caused him to bring her back to his room afterwards, when he had a chance to think rationally. He had wanted to make love to her, and there was no way to excuse it. Despite all his bad feelings about it, he had thrown all of them aside and abandoned himself to the moment.

Despite beating himself over the head for his own shortcomings, he had to admit the fact that it had been very enjoyable. Auli was a very aggressive girl, but she had never once forgotten his needs or wants. She had been exquisite, and just thinking about her, about holding her nude body, about finally being able to touch all those places only his eyes had enjoyed before, it was almost intoxicating. Auli was so beautiful, so sensual, so free with herself, and so fearless, even in bed, to make love with her was almost like satisfying one's deepest fantasies and desires. It had been nothing like he had imagined it would be.