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alight in the heat of our bodies, and the world fades
and there is nothing left but us.  Together.
    I fight the urge, despite it becoming more uncontrollable
each time I am tested by her.
    I lean back and I see her eyes, so wonderful and big and
gazing into my own.
    And I know she feels the same.
    I clear my throat in an effort to hide my feelings.  It has
become natural to me now, after so many years - all it takes is a calm voice
and a stoic face.  Anyone can be fooled by such a display.
    “I’ll just be a minute,” I say to Melody.
    “Okay,” she whispers, still caught in the moment.
    I make my way across to the centre stage and approach the
microphone.  The hush that fell earlier when Melody and I entered the ballroom
is nothing compared to the silence now.  I throw a hand out.
    “Hello, everyone.  Thank you for coming this evening.
    The crowd suddenly cheers, hearty claps emanating from every
corner of the room.  I have to pause while I let the din settle, and I mentally
prepare an impromptu speech.
    I’m used to being the centre of attention - hell, I’m happy
to admit that part of me eats it up.  You cannot work in the public eye and
remain anonymous.  Not to mention, my fame and infamy is so key to bringing
more recognition to this charity, and to my business.  If anything, I am so
used to this now that there is a certain element of boredom seeping in.
    It pains me to think that the life I used to love so much
has become so humdrum, and has been for a while.
    That is, until Melody entered my life.  She is the one thing
that makes my body hum and my legs quiver.  The only thing that makes my blood
thunder.
    She is the only thing I want.
    But I cannot have her.
    It pains me each time I remember that horrible truth, but I
must remember it.  I cannot have her.  No matter how much I want her, it is
impossible.
    Before I know it, my speech finishes and I cannot even
remember what I said, so wrapped up in my conflicted feelings for her.
    I see her watching me from the below the stairs, eyes wide
with wonder and her sensual mouth open a touch.  Her tongue protrudes and
lightly wets her lips.
    I dry swallow.
    “Thank you again, everyone.  Have a wonderful night and
donate lots and lots of money.  That’s an order.”
    The crowd titters.  I give them another wave and the
applause grows.  I leave the podium and return to Melody, who looks up at me
with the largest eyes I’ve ever seen.
    “Wow, that was really impressive,” she says.  “All of that,
it was all off the top of your head?”
    “I prefer to operate in the moment.”
    “But, it must be so hard.  If I was up there I’d over-think
everything.  Not just what I was going to say, but when to laugh and smile and
tone of voice.  How do you do it?”
    “Do you ask the bees why they collect honey?  Why the wave
crashes against the shore?”
    She bites her lip.
    “Some things, my princess, just come naturally to us.  It
would be a sin to deny the things we do so well, to hide them from the world. 
So we don’t think about them, because to do so would destroy them.”
    She nods.  “ Techne .”
    “I’m sorry?”
    “ Techne .  It’s an ancient Greek term.  It means an
act which is so natural to you that to others it looks like an innate ability
beyond comprehension, as if in that moment you were communing with the gods
themselves.”
    Beautiful and intelligent.  I really am blessed with this
one.
    “Very interesting,” I say.
    Her cheeks blaze red and her gaze reverts to the floor.
    I lean in and whisper sensually, “And it’s not the only
place where I am gifted.”  I trace her spine with my fingertips, all the way
down to her lower back.
    She shivers.
    I smirk.  It fills me with such solace and sweet
satisfaction to know she feels the same way about me as I feel about her.
    She is so easy to read that it almost defies reasoning. 
Almost everyone in my life has worn their stone-faced masks so long that it’s
become