"What are you reading?"

She jerked free of her reverie, wondering how long he had watched her without her knowing. "Nothing important," she said, knowing he would tease her when he saw the title.

"Read it to me."

"Oh, you would not be interested. It is quite boring, actually." She closed the small volume and bent down to return it to her valise.

"But I would like you to read it, anyway. What is it about?"

"Geometry," she said, and wondered whatever had possessed her to make such a claim.

"Geometry? I did not realize you were a student of Mathematics."

"Oh, I am not, really, but I might need it if I should find myself teaching children again. I only meant to brush up a bit."

His slaty blue eyes narrowed and his mouth quivered at its corners the way it did when he was up to mischief. "Read it, anyway," he insisted.

"Well, it is just about triangles and curves and the like. A very dull read, aloud. I cannot imagine why you would be interested."

"But as I am, surely you could oblige me."

He lunged for the book, which she barely snatched away in time as she launched her fiercest glare at him. He sat back and folded his arms, his eyes lit with that mischievous glint.

"Well, if you insist. It says here, uh, the sum of the two sides squared equals the square of the hypotenuse. There, now are you satisfied?"

"Oh, I might be, if that were correct. However, it would more correctly read, the sum of the two squared sides of a right triangle equals the square of the hypotenuse."

"Oh. Well, I must have got it wrong. I'm afraid I shall never excel at Mathematics, if I did nothing else but study it. Well, there surely must be something more appealing to do." Izzy endeavored once more to slide the embarrassing book into her valise. "When shall we reach our next stop, do you think?"

"Let me see it." Laughing, he lunged across her lap, groping for the little novel as she swung it out of his reach. But his long arms outreached hers, and she shrieked a shrill cry somewhere between desperation and laughter as he pinned her to the seat with his shoulder and snatched the book from her struggling hand.

"Ah," he said, "now let us find out what is so fascinating about Geometry. " And his tongue came out to lick over his lips while he held her off with one hand and flipped through the pages with the other. "Oh, Pythagoras, how you have changed! Why, my dear, I do believe this is indeed about curves and angles, but I am afraid they are the variety that were much beyond old Pythagoras' domain."

"Give it back," she demanded, and grabbed at the book, knowing her cause was already lost, and she, defenseless against the subtle pressure that pushed her downward onto the seat.

"For example," he continued, utterly ignoring her demand, "he has no formula for this curve," and he nibbled playfully at the juncture of her shoulder and neck. "Nor this," said he, as he ran his tongue within the shell of her ear.

Izzy squealed with delight as a shiver ran up her spine. "Let me try that," she said, and pushed against him as she tried to rise.