She shrugged casually. "To make certain the tides are behaving the way they should. That's a witch's job, you know."
A small smile flirted with his mouth. "And all this time I thought the full moon caused those high and low tides and the quarter moons rendered the tides less dramatic."
"Did you learn all that in science class? We were already busy making certain the sun and moon lined up for the strong gravitational pull. It was all the Drake sisters." She leaned close to him to rub her face over his shoulder, wanting the skin to skin contact. Her tongue darted out and she caught several drops of water in her mouth. "In case you didn't know, we have a symbiotic relationship with the moon and the sun."
"I'm just learning so much tonight. It must be like the clown fish and the sea anemone--a very dangerous relationship."
She nodded seriously.
His grin turned mischievous and his eyebrow went up, alerting her to a possible trap. "You're aware the clown fish is covered in a slimy mucus and if the mucus gets wiped off before the clown fish returns to the host anemone it will be stung or even killed by the anemone's tentacles. I can't imagine you slimy, but I'm willing to try a little olive oil." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"Aw, but then you have it all wrong. We, meaning the Drake sisters, represent the anemone with the tentacles. We send the clown fish out with his bright colors to attract unsuspecting prey." Her hand slid over his bare chest and dropped to his flat stomach where her fingertips began to walk lower. "The clown fish lures our prey back to us and we strike with our tentacles." Her fingers brushed his shaft, stroked teasingly. "We kill and eat our fill and the poor clown fish gets our leftovers. I do so love a symbiotic relationship." She bent her head to flick, first his nipples with her tongue, then his belly button. Her hair slid over his most sensitive parts and in spite of everything he felt himself stirring again.
"I can imagine you with all kinds of tentacles." His cock jerked as her breath bathed him in warmth. "Poor unsuspecting fish."
She laughed and sat back up. "It gets worse. The clown fish not only feeds on plankton crustaceans and algae that live and grow in the reef, but also eats away debris and nibbles off the dead tentacles of the host anemone."
"I'm sure as hell not going to be the clown fish, especially if he eats dead tentacles and algae. If it wasn't for marine algae, we wouldn't be able to breathe."
"And you think the poor clown fish is devouring it at an enormous rate, threatening the oxygen in the world?" Her tone was innocent, but the mouth engulfing his shaft was sinful and greedy with passionate teasing.
Tyson looked down at her head in his lap and realized he'd never recognized the fun of teasing, sexually or otherwise. It was one of the things that had left him so socially inept. But here he was, flames licking over his skin and streaking through his bloodstream, and he had a big smile not only on his face, but also deep inside where he'd never looked before because it had always been too damned painful.
He found himself struggling to draw air into his lungs and it made him laugh. "See? The clown fish is a definite threat. I can't breathe."
Her tongue swirled and she sat up again, her grin smug. "Poor baby. Never think you can win a discussion with a Drake."
"That's because you cheat." He wrapped his hand around the nape of her neck and tugged in an effort to urge her back to his lap.
Libby resisted. "I'm breathing here, buddy." She waved her arm toward the ocean. "Marine plants and algae provide much of the world's oxygen supply and take in huge amounts of carbon dioxide. With the clown fish disturbing the natural balance, I can't breathe." She pretended to choke, falling slightly forward, allowing his hand to guide her head to his hardening erection.
"You can't possibly be serious. Men aren't supposed to be able to have multiple orgasms. At least not this many." She licked the water from him.
"Are you certain? I wouldn't want to injure anything valuable."
He was already hard as a rock and with her teasing breath and lapping tongue gliding over him and the sound of the ocean in the background, he felt entirely at peace. He closed his eyes, savoring the moment, the absolute feeling of being loved and accepted, of being the object of Libby's pleasure.
His hands tangled in her hair and he tugged until she brought her head up, her sparkling gaze meeting his much more serious one. "Libby. I need to tell you . . ." He choked, just the way he knew he would. He never realized he was an emotional man, but she sat there with her damp hair spilling around her and her eyes so expressive with her feelings and he felt like a fool trying to find the right words to describe a feeling so big, so intense, nothing could really describe it.
Libby wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned against him, her lips moving over his throat and chin. "I'm an empath, Ty."
"Thank God, because I swear I want you to feel what's inside of me."
"You need sleep. You never seem to sleep."
"That's because you have the most beautiful mouth on the face of the planet."
"Maybe so, but I'm going to make certain you eat and sleep properly, Ty, even when you're working."
"Did you know that if you get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night, that in one year you'll have slept away over two thousand nine hundred hours."
Libby made a face at him as she slid down in the bed and patted the sheet next to her. "Lie down."
Tyson did so, turning to hold her in his arms. His mind was racing, first with thoughts of her, of how much she meant to him, how much she'd changed his life, changed him. From there it went to how her family had accepted him, how he was learning to laugh and tease. He might never be social, but he would have his moments and he certainly would always enjoy the banter between Libby and her sisters, especially if he were included.
He thought about how Libby teased him, their conversations which would be strange to anyone else, but were so much a part of who he was. Facts were always interesting to him. Facts and science. She'd even managed to turn a clown fish and an anemone into a fascinating, fun discussion.
He sat up abruptly, staring down at her face. Her lashes were two thick crescents and her breathing was even, but she smiled and settled her fingers around his wrist. Even her beauty, the sight of her body, couldn't stop his mind from racing at a hundred miles an hour now. He was on to something. He was certain of it.
"What are you doing?" Libby asked, her voice drowsy.
"I'm just watching you while I think."
She opened her eyes at the distracted, almost elated note in his voice. "You've thought of something."
"Not quite, but the data I need is there, working its way to me. Go to sleep, baby." He brushed back her hair and bent to kiss her. "I'm going to think this through and then try to get a little work done."
"How?" She touched the back of his hand with her fingertips. "Didn't the explosion destroy everything?"
"I back up everything. I have several computers at BioLab and I sent everything there as well. I never know where I'm going to be so I make certain I can access it from everywhere I am just in case I get ins
piration."
"So your work wasn't destroyed?" A slow smile broke out on her face. "You really are a genius, aren't you?"
"And thorough. I don't take chances with my work, or my woman."
"Do you have to go back to BioLab to access it?"
"Before I set up anything else, I started setting up a laboratory here. I only have a computer in it at the moment, but I can get everything I need into the computer."
"What are you considering that is so different from what you'd been thinking before?"
"Something we were joking about earlier. A symbiotic relationship. The clown fish and the sea anemone have one, but you know, so do many other things, including plants. Some plants are dangerous, and poisonous, just like the anemone, but often growing right near them is a plant or fungus that can provide an antidote for the poison."
Relationship dawned immediately. "You used a plant for your original work, didn't you?"
He nodded. "That's how the drug got part of its name. I used the Ibenkiki cyperus from the rain forest in eastern Peru. The bottom line, Libby, is when something isn't working you go back to the beginning."
"To the Ibenkiki cyperus plant?"
"To the rain forest."
"You really do need to sleep, Ty."
"Not while I'm working. When I figure this out, I'll crash and sleep for a couple of days." He bent to kiss her again. "I'll stay here until you fall asleep."
There was no point in arguing with him. She could see how Sam could become so frustrated trying to take care of Ty, but she felt Tyson's need for his work. His mind refused to let him go, refused to allow him to relax. His brain was working too fast, making leaps and pushing him to continue. There would be no rest for Tyson until he solved the puzzle.
If she accepted Tyson, she'd have to accept all of him. And his brilliant mind was the biggest part of him. It was what drove him and always would. Libby touched his face and then turned on her side, curling up beneath the sheets, closing her eyes. The last thing she thought of before she drifted off was how lucky she was to have him.