You’d better dress.”
“Fine,” I said. “Where are my clothes?”
“You’ll find clothing . . .”
“My clothes,” I growled. I sounded like I meant business. I wished all over again I’d worn slacks, but the stupid skirt, blouse and jacket were the closest thing to a power suit I had at the moment. And something told me I’d need a bit of power to get out of . . . whatever it was I’d gotten myself into. Trying to face a military kidnapping while dressed in a pink nightie didn’t bear thinking about.
“Your clothes are around the corner,” he said.
I marched past him and into the alcove he’d indicated. A curtain of the same colorful fabric covered the wall in front of me. I spotted my clothes neatly folded on a vanity, my shoes on the floor as if waiting for me to step into them.
I felt his gaze follow my every move, the weight of his regard like a caress against my bare limbs. My body heated and I gritted my teeth against the sensation. Biology apparently didn’t care that I was heartless and cold. The fact remained, I reminded myself, that no matter how solicitous and gorgeous my captor, I was a prisoner.
Where did that leave me? To my horror, hot prickles ran up the backs of my eyes.
That pissed me off.
Hoping for a clue as to my location, I glanced surreptitiously at my surroundings. To my right, an arched doorway opened onto a bathroom tiled in deep blue and green and gold. It reminded me of a stained-glass window I’d once seen in one of Europe’s oldest cathedrals. To my left, another archway led into a closet.
I could be anywhere. I slid my skirt on over the insubstantial silk negligee. No help for it. I’d have to strip before I could put on my bra, shirt and jacket. At least I had my back to Carrollus.
I yanked the nightie off over my head and hurriedly fastened on my bra, then put on and buttoned my white silk blouse.
“You’re taking your situation very well, Finlay,” Carrollus commented.
Meaning what? That he’d expected me to weep and gnash my teeth? The thought made me shudder. I should have found something heavy and knocked him flat.
“If by ‘my situation’,” I sneered, tugging on my jacket, “you mean ‘being kidnapped’, I assure you I am not taking it well at all.”
He risked a glance at me.
“You are bigger than I am and I don’t have a gun,” I clarified.
Amusement sparked in his eyes a moment. “You need a gun to take me out?”
My smile in response felt tight. “No, Commander, but a gun would make a satisfying mess, and I’d get to hear you scream when I shot you in the kneecaps.”
He grinned.
My breath caught.
What was he playing at? Weren’t kidnappers supposed to be mean, vicious thugs with missing teeth and psychopathic tendencies? How was I supposed to respond to a sexy commander exuding power and authority? Especially when he smiled at me as if I’d surprised him into enjoying himself?
“You’re a disciplined woman, aren’t you?” he said.
I blinked. “Disciplined? No. I am not.”
“You have so many questions,” he observed, closing the distance to stand directly in front of me. His frame blocked out the rest of the room and I had to look up to meet his eye. “I see them running circles in your eyes. Yet you don’t ask.”
“You said the explanations weren’t yours to give,” I breathed. “But if the whole kidnapping thing isn’t enough of a power trip without me begging for information, then I can oblige. Where am I? Why me?
Because I have no family? Is that it? You imagine I don’t have a life?”
My voice wavered.
He scowled.
I should have listened to the instinct whispering at me to keep my yap shut and my eyes and ears open.
The fact that I hadn’t been hurt didn’t mean I couldn’t – or wouldn’t – be.
And it certainly appeared that I’d ceased to amuse him.
“Our world was at war with the Orseggans,” he said. “We were hit by a biological weapon. The bio-
agent enhances sex drive.”
I frowned. Weaponized Viagra? Why not take advantage of that with one another? Why kidnap me?
The blood rushed from my head and I stumbled into the curtained wall. Rage drowned out rational thought. Shoving off the surface at my back, hand clenched, I punched Carrollus in the stomach.
His breath went out in an audible rush. He didn’t quite double over, but I wasn’t looking up into his face anymore and that felt good.
Temper stoked, I cocked back for another blow.
Gasping for air, Carrollus rushed me. His shoulder took me in the ribs, driving me back.
I hit the curtain-shrouded wall. One foot twisted beneath me. Fabric tore and I slid to the floor.
Carrollus followed me down.
When my butt hit the floor, I found I had enough leverage to shove him off of me. It felt like trying to shove a freight train.
“You son of a bitch,” I wheezed. “You’re infected with a sexually transmitted disease and you kidnap people from Earth to assuage the symptoms?”
He crouched in front of me, posture wary, guarded; but curiously, I saw no anger in his face or body.
“Your species cannot be infected,” he said. “Our medical staff made very certain before we began recruiting from your world. We could not ethically sacrifice another species to save our own.”
“Medically necessary sex?” I sneered. The burn behind my eyes spilled over. “That has to be the cheesiest line I’ve ever heard.”
“Finlay.” As if he couldn’t help himself, Carrollus rose to his knees and reached for me. One warm hand on my hip set my nerves alight, the other cupped my damp cheek. “When both sexual partners are infected with the bio-agent, it activates, killing both partners. If an infected person doesn’t have sex often enough, the agent activates.”
I sucked in a horrified breath. “But . . . condoms?”
He shook his head. “Whenever two infected people are intimate, regardless of barriers to sexual fluids, the bio-agent activates. It’s as if their immune systems cancel one another out. It was a genocide weapon.
One that worked. Our population was devastated until we worked out the disease mechanism.”
The waterworks evaporated. I believed him. Awareness of him rippled through me, tempting me to melt into the feel of his skin on mine.
“When you worked out how the disease spread, it ripped families and loved ones apart?” Visions of lovers torn from one another ran through my head. Mothers wouldn’t have been able to nurture their own children. Sympathy made my breath catch.
He blinked at me.
I thought I detected the first inkling of respect in the softening of the lines around his mouth.
“Yes.”
“You don’t look sick.”
He shook his head. “We’re not. Sex with uninfected partners keeps the bio-agent in remission. Our medical people believe there’s something in the human immune system that bolsters ours.”
“So what does that mean? If you don’t have sex what? Every week? Every day? You’ll die?”
“Each of us has to work out our interval,” he replied. “Most find that two or three times a week is sufficient.”
I bit my tongue to keep from asking him his.
“Does this mean that because of the bio-agent, your people can’t reproduce?”
He nodded. “Hybridization is our only option.”
My mind reeled trying to work out how many alien babies might already be walking around on Earth.
“You don’t hit like a girl,” he noted.
“Sorry.” I sounded sullen.
“I earned it,” he said, smoothing tear tracks from my skin. “If it’s of any comfort, Finlay, we mean you no harm.”