Bad idea.
Lucas winced as he soaped his chest. Talents and prisms didn't have long-term futures together. They had short-term affairs, if they had anything at all.
Besides, other than psychic power, he and Amaryllis didn't have a lot in common, anyway.
Okay, so they would sit in the secluded corner and discuss their affair.
And then they would go home. His place this time. He would make love to her all night long. Just to be on the safe side, he would turn out the lights.
Fifteen minutes later Lucas sauntered out into the kitchen. Amaryllis was puttering around behind the counter. She was dressed for work in a conservative business suit. Her hair was pinned into a neat knot on top of her head. Small, tasteful drops of gold gleamed in her earlobes.
Lucas smiled. In spite of her sober, serious attire, she looked fresh and bright in the morning sunlight that streamed through the windows. A fresh shock of wonder hit him with enough force to make him nearly double over. She was his, at least for a little while.
Amaryllis turned her head and saw him. A delicate blush stained her cheeks, but her eyes were brilliant and deep.
"Good morning." She turned away quickly to busy her- self at the counter. "Coff-tea?"
"Yes." Lucas forced himself to move forward. "Please."
"I've got some fresh pear-berries."
"Sounds good." Lucas eased himself down onto the nearest stool, spun around once just for the hell of it, and then gripped the edge of the tiled counter. He thought of the plans he had made in the shower.
"About tonight," he began.
"Strange you should mention that." Amaryllis poured the coff-tea into a mug. "I was just about to bring up the subject."
"You were?"
"Yes. I had an inspiration this morning, Lucas."
He was suddenly, inexplicably cautious. "What sort of inspiration?"
Amaryllis put down the pot and turned to regard him with brimming enthusiasm. "About how to find out more about what Professor Landreth did on the day he died."
Lucas chilled. "I thought we had agreed to let the matter drop."
"Oh, no." Her eyes widened innocently. "Whatever gave you that idea?"
"Forget it. Just a false hope."
"The thing is, this morning I suddenly recalled the boxes stacked in Professor Landreth's old office."
"Boxes?"
"His things," Amaryllis explained. "All his books and records and files. His secretary, Irene Dunley, said she packed them up shortly after the professor died. His person- al effects from the office are all sitting there in boxes waiting to be picked up by his next of kin."
"So what?"
"Lucas, think about it. Professor Landreth's appointment calendar is probably buried in one of those boxes."
"I know I'm going to hate myself for asking this," Lucas said slowly, "but what do you plan to do with Landreth's calendar?"
Amaryllis gave him a triumphant smile. "I plan to use it to learn who he saw and where he went on the last day of his life."
"I thought he went up into the mountains. He had a weekend cabin, you said."
"Yes, but he never left the office before five o'clock, even on Fridays. Professor Landreth had a very sound work ethic."
"Figures."
"We may very well find some useful clues in his calendar."
He was getting irritated again. Happened every damn time. "You're doing all this just because you happened to discover that a prism who may or may not have been trained by Landreth got a job focusing for Madison Sheffield?"
She stiffened. "That's what aroused my interest, yes. But the deeper I get into this case, the more questions I have. Doesn't the fact that Sheffield's campaign began to take off in a big way only a couple of months ago bother you?"
"Not particularly."
She let that pass. "I'll bet that it started building fast after he began using a university-trained prism to focus his charm or charisma or whatever he's doing."
"So?"
"So what if Professor Landreth found out what was happening? What if he tried to interfere?"
"Amaryllis, what the hell are you implying?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "But the deeper I get into this thing, the more questions I have. I'm going to ask Irene Dunley if I can go through the boxes stored in her office. With any luck, I'll find the professor's calendar. I'll want to see if anything unusual jumps out at me. Tonight I can assess the situation and maybe make some plans."
Lucas brooded over his coff-tea. "Are you telling me that you intend to spend the evening pursuing this damn investigation?"
She looked hurt. "I thought you'd want to be involved in this, Lucas. You seemed interested in helping me last night. But if you've got other plans for the evening, I'll under- stand."
"What makes you think I had other plans for the evening? I can't conceive of anything I'd rather do than go through Landreth's desk calendar with you. Hell, I don't know why I didn't think of it myself."
Amaryllis stood quietly in the center of O'Rourke's Antiques and held the focus while her client, Marilyn O'Rourke, turned a cracked earthenware plate in her hands.
"Definitely Second Generation," Marilyn murmured. "A fine example of the early pottery techniques used by the founders. What a lovely discovery. Picked it up at an estate sale last week."
Amaryllis smiled. "Your intuition was sound, as usual, Marilyn. I don't think you really need me."
The antique dealer beamed happily. She was a short, fashionably dressed woman with a keen eye and an impeccable clientele. She had a standing account with Psynergy, Inc. A class-five talent with an ability to sense the age and genuineness of almost any antique she touched, she was a natural success in her chosen career.
"I always like to be certain." Marilyn set the old plate down with great care and picked up a crudely painted bowl. "Besides, it reassures the customers to know that I've authenticated everything in my shop with the assistance of a prism from a reputable firm. So many charlatans around in this business, you know."
Working with Marilyn required very little effort. Amaryllis barely had to concentrate in order to create a prism and hold the focus. It occurred to her that the difference between handling the dealer's psychic energy and focusing Lucas's raw power was like the difference between moonlight and sunlight. The first gave off only a pale glow. The second created a dazzling glare so hot and intense that it left afterimages on the psychic plane.
Amaryllis examined her link with Marilyn while the dealer went about testing the new items in the shop. It was perfectly normal. There was absolutely no sense of intimacy. Neither she nor Marilyn felt as if their personal spaces had been invaded in any way. They shared psychic energy in a synergistic fashion that allowed them to work together, but neither could sense the other's emotions, nor were their own emotions affected. They simply cooperated in a natural fashion to make use of a tool that required two people to operate.
No big deal.
According to all of the research data Amaryllis had ever seen, it was always like this when talents and prisms worked together.
Except when she worked with Lucas.
"I think that does it for this lot." Marilyn smiled with professional satisfaction as she dusted off her hands. "I'll call some of my Second Generation collectors and let them know I've got some very nice pieces in the shop."
Amaryllis broke the link. The prism vanished. "Will there be anything else, Marilyn?"
"Not today."
"Would you mind if I used your phone?" Amaryllis glanced at her watch. "I've been trying to get hold of someone all morning. She hasn't been at her desk. It's almost lunchtime. I'm afraid that if I wait until I get back to the office, I'll miss her again."
"Help yourself." Marilyn waved toward the phone on the counter.