“I’ve had men come from off-world to see me.” By her tone he could tell she took no pride in the achievement. “What’s surprising is that you’ve managed to confront me in my own home instead of on the street or in an office.” She cocked her head sideways, tried to see past the surface of the man standing before her. She looked like a dusky little sparrow, he thought, as she stood there arguing with herself.

“You’re a very peculiar man, Mr. Abb—Eric. Intriguing. That’s not unusual. Most of the men who become infatuated with me are intriguing. But they’re also very predictable, they don’t surprise me. You surprise me.”

Predictable, Eric mused. That certainly didn’t fit the Eric Abbott of the past week. He’d been anything but predictable.

“You want to hear something strange,” she said into the silence that ensued. Each word hit him like an axe. “It’s absurd, of course, but I think I might—could—come to love you. That would be more than surprising. It would be truly remarkable.” She turned away from him and walked to stand before the curved window that overlooked the river. It was a cloudy day. Colligatarch Weather had forecast a light rain for the mid-Atlantic region.

He followed, and when he let his hands rest gently on her shoulders, she didn’t resist. She didn’t fall back against him, didn’t sigh luxuriously, but she didn’t resist. He fought to keep control of himself.

“If you think it possible, why not let it happen?”

“I didn’t say it was possible.” She sounded confused and upset. “I just said it was something that could happen. It’s really not possible. I’m not allowed to love. It’s forbidden to me.” She turned against his hands, looked up at him, and for the first time her fragile assurance showed signs of cracking. For the first time the real Lisa Tambor looked out at him through luminous, pleading eyes.

“I’m trying to make you understand something, Eric. Love is forbidden to me. I could go to bed with you. I think I’d like to go to bed with you. That kind of love is quick and mechanical and tenuous. But the kind of love you’re talking about is something I can’t experience.”

“He said he thought you might belong to someone,” Eric found himself mumbling.

“What? Who said that?”

“An … acquaintance. It doesn’t matter now. Do you belong to someone? Are you married?”

She shook her head. “No. That’s something else that’s not permitted me.” She seemed sadder than ever.

“Are you trying to tell me you’re being kept by a man who doesn’t love you?”

“No man keeps me, Eric. The men I dally with are chosen for me. I have no say in the matter.” She gave him a twisted smile. “It’s my job.”

No, Eric told himself. He was not naive, but it wasn’t possible. She was too fresh, too clean to be part and party to that business. “You’re not a rich man’s mistress, then?”

“No.”

“Some kind of call girl?” He didn’t care if she was, but he needed to know.

Her answer surprised him. “No, not that either. It’s nothing like what you imagine.”

“What else do you call it when a third party arranges your lovers for you?”

“It’s not a question of money, Eric. I do it for … I can’t tell you.”

“You said it was your job!” He didn’t mean to sound so sharp, and hurried to soften the words. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I’m just trying to understand.”

“I’m not offended. I said it, not you. It’s nothing I’m ashamed of. My work is important. But it eliminates the possibility of any lasting relationship with any one man. You must see that.”

“I see only you, the woman I think I love very deeply.”

“Don’t talk like that,” she said angrily, spinning out of his arms. “Don’t say things like that to me! It’s not possible, won’t you listen? Not for me and not for you.”

“You said your work was important,” he said softly, trying another tack. “I don’t understand. Important to whom? To the man or men who force these liaisons on you? That I could understand.”

“They’re not exactly forced on me. It’s …”

“I know, it’s your job. Did you choose it, this job?”

She didn’t meet his gaze. “In a way.”

“Would you like to quit?”

“I don’t know. I never thought of that.”

Something very strange and evil held sway over this woman, Eric decided. He found it harder and harder to keep his emotions under control.

“Now, wait a minute. This is a free society we live in. You’re talking like some kind of slave.”

“That’s an ambiguous term.”

“Really? I always thought it pretty clear-cut. You said you thought you could love me.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know!” she suddenly shouted at him. “Why did you come here? Why are you confusing me like this?” She was on the verge of tears, but Eric refused to back off.

“Sounds to me that you need someone to talk to you like this. Sounds to me like you’ve been toyed with and taken advantage of for a long time.”

She regained control of herself. “I like you, Eric Abbott. I like you a lot. I don’t know why I should, but I do. It’s crazy for me to like you this much. So help me. Stop hurting me.”

“Hurting you? How?”

“By being here. By saying the things you say. That’s painful enough. If I were to let myself fall in love with you, it would hurt a hundred times worse. Don’t you believe me when I say it’s not possible for me to have a lasting relationship with any one man? Please, leave … now. It’s dangerous for you to be here.”

Eric ignored the implied threat. Having gone through what he’d gone through to come this far he wasn’t about to be put off by words. Outright hatred or dislike he could have coped with. Indeed, he’d come prepared to accept that. But this strange ambivalence on the part of the girl, this feeling she gave of being caged against her will one moment and secure in her life-style the next, not only puzzled him but made him angry. All of a sudden he wanted to help her, wanted to give her help even more than he did his love.

“This isn’t right,” he said firmly. “It’s not right that someone else choose your relationships for you, for whatever reason. It’s not the right way to live.”

“It’s how I live,” she replied simply, indicating the room. “It’s not a bad way to live.”

He gestured angrily. “This is nothing. Personal freedom is everything. Tell me how I can help you. Tell me how I can free you from your prison. Because it is a prison, no matter how content you are to remain within its walls. Love wouldn’t mean a damn thing if I didn’t try to free you.”

“Go away, just go away.”

“If you’re not a call girl, that means you have no pimp. Why can’t you love me, Lisa? Tell me why. Who runs your life for you, who arranges your emotions?”

“You don’t understand.”

“You keep saying that. Of course I don’t understand. Help me to understand, Lisa! I want to understand.”

“It’s not that easy. There are ramifications you wouldn’t accept no matter how I tried to explain them to you. Complicated factors beyond your ability to comprehend. There are certain matters I don’t understand myself. And of them all, the thing I understand least is why I’m so attracted to you. It shouldn’t be possible.”

“Why not? You said I wasn’t hard to look at.”

“That has nothing to do with anything. I’m not supposed to be able to love a man … that way. It’s not supposed to be a part of my makeup. It … complicates everything.”