“That’s nice,” Lenore said softly.
He kissed her, but that warning note still sounded faintly off in the back of his head.
“Why did you want to know how many girls I’ve been to bed with?”
“H’mmm?” she murmured. Then, pulling slightly away from him, “Oh... just professional curiosity.”
“Professional?”
“Medical,” she said. “Psychological.”
“I thought you said you weren’t a psychologist.”
“I’m not. But still, it’s interesting how people are sexually attracted to those who remind them of their parents.”
He backed off completely. “You don’t look anything like my mother.”
Lenore smiled. “And you don’t look anything like my father, either. But you have that same coiled-up animal power in you. Just like he did. And I tend to be aggressive, just like...”
“That’s bullshit!”
“Such strong language! Really getting to you?” She seemed amused. “Would you have invited me to your place for dinner? Would it even have crossed your mind?”
“I thought about it,” Alec said. “But you seemed busy enough.”
“I haven’t gone to bed with anyone since we arrived here at the station. Do you believe that? Six women and eighty men, and I get to fondle each man at least twice a week... and I waited for you.”
Alec didn’t know what to say.
“I even turned Martin down. Twice.”
The warning alarm rang in his head. “Kobol?”
She nodded. “Twice.”
“Why did you say even?” Alec demanded.
“I don’t know. I guess because he’s sexy. Dark and mysterious. Deadly earnest. He warned me about you...” She looked as if she would giggle.
“Me?”
“Yes. He said you wouldn’t be interested.”
“Did he?” Alec felt the tide of rage building up in him. “What else did he say?”
Lenore looked at him quizzically. “Nothing,” she replied quietly. “He didn’t say anything else...”
“No?” Alec gripped her arm. “He didn’t say that I’m a classic Oedipal? He didn’t tell you that I’d like to screw my mother?”
“No... Alec...” Her eyes were wide and frightened now.
Alec threw his cup down on the floor and stood up. “I don’t know what your game is, but you can tell Kobol or anyone else that I’m not afraid of anything. I’m not weak and I’m not scared! Of anything!”
He turned and reached for the door. She sat huddled in the corner of the bunk. “Alec... what did I...”
With one hand on the door handle, he said to her, “For all I know, Kobol put you up to this—to see if I have any balls at all!”
“Do you?”
Suddenly he wanted to hit her, smash her face, throttle her. Instead he grabbed her, pulled her off the bunk, tore the clothes from her body. She gasped and swung at him. But it was clumsy, hampered by the torn clothing that hung on her arms. They struggled against each other. She was a big woman but he was furious with a murderous rage. He ripped the rest of her clothes off, pushed her onto the bunk. When she tried to get up he cuffed her, hard, with the back of his hand.
She recoiled back onto the bunk, then reached for the bottle on the desk. By that time Alec had his jumpsuit unzipped. He knocked the bottle away, turned her on her back and fell on top of her. She snarled at him, teeth bared, “I’ll bite your prick off!”
“Try it.”
She struggled briefly, then stopped trying to push him off. “Wait... wait... at least...”
But he exploded inside her, then pulled away and got to his feet.
“Tell Kobol I’m not dead yet,” he said.
And he left her there.
Chapter 12
