"Money?" Kinsman was genuinely surprised. "Money doesn't enter into it."
"Oh, no?"
"No. Not with me."
The tenseness in her body seemed to relax a little. "Then why ... I mean . . . what's it all about?"
Kinsman ran a hand across his jaw. It felt stubbly. "It's about making love. That's all. I mean, you're damned pretty, neither one of us has any strings, nobody's tried it in zero gee before . . . why the hell not?"
"But why should I?"
"That's the big question. That's what makes an adven- ture out of it."
She looked at him thoughtfully, leaning her tall frame against the galley paneling. "An adventure. There's nothing more to it in your mind than that?"
"Depends," Kinsman answered. "Hard to tell ahead of time."
"You live in a very simple world, Chet."
"I try to. Don't you?"
She shook her head. "No, my world's very complicated."
"But it includes sex."
Now she smiled, but there was no pleasure in it. "Does it?"
"You mean never?" Kinsman's voice sounded incredu- lous, even to himself.
She did not answer.
"Never at ail? I can't believe that ..."
"No," she said, nearly whispering. "Not never at all. But never for . . . for an adventure. For job security, yes. For getting the good assignments. For teaching me how to use a camera in the first place. But never for fun ... at least, not for a long, long time has it been for fun."
Kinsman looked into those cold blue eyes and saw that they were completely dry and aimed straight back at him. His insides felt strange. He put out a hand toward her but she did not move a muscle.
"That's . . . that's a damned lonely way to live,"he said.
