Mathias

It was a gradual slope up out of the water, not the sudden drop from cave floor to water that Veronica had imagined before this place. She was already starting up it when he surfaced in turn. Casting a glance back over her shoulder, the smile that came was warm, unconscious, coupled with a rush of desire to turn right around, go back and kiss him, just because the last half hour had taught her she could. "It's not all that big," she said, "as caves go around here, but it tries."