“Afraid of losing your inhibitions, Doctor?” She gave a slow smile and lay back, propping herself up with one elbow. “Or have you already lost them? Is that why you’re here?”
Sweat popped out on his brow. “Don’t,” he said.
She seemed to let her mask down, just a bit, watching him with a strange vulnerability. “Why else would you be here?”
“How’s your wound? I haven’t checked it in days.”
She pulled back her thin white shirt, revealing a smooth flat belly with a bandage just under her ribs. The bandage was much smaller now than it had been. As she moved the shirt, it cupped one of her breasts so perfectly that he could see the nipple.
He swallowed.
“Don’t you want to check it?” she said. She sat the glass on her nightstand and reclined all the way. Her legs looked very long, muscular and shapely.
“No,” he said, “I don’t want to check your bloody wound.”
She replaced the shirt. “Then why did you come?”
Drown it out, Avery heard Hildra say. Drown that fucker out!
“What do you know about the Starfish?” he said.
“Why should I know anything?”
“You refused to come to port that day.”
She shrugged. “I felt ill.”
“You looked just fine.”
She crossed her legs, slowly. “How do I look now?”
“Jessryl.”
“It’s ‘Sheridan’ now, I thought.”
“Damn you, just tell me what you know. You’re going into custody—”
“As are you.”
“—and the truth will come out.” He forced himself to take a breath. “Please, Jess ... Sheridan ... the Starfish has destroyed three islands already. Hundreds of thousands must have died.”
“Millions.”
Gods. “Perhaps. So you see—”
“Because you activated the Device.”
“Jess—Sheridan—”
“Even after I told you what would happen if you did.” Anger flashed across her face. “You did this. The Starfish—all of it—you did it. All those millions, you may as well have killed them yourself.”
Though her words only confirmed his own thoughts, for some reason he found himself denying them:
“That’s absurd.”
“Then why else are you here, unless it’s because you feel so guilty about what you’ve done that you would even brave the bedchamber of the notorious Admiral Jessryl Sheridan—”
“That’s not why—”
“Then why?”
They glared at each other, and Avery felt his face grow hot.
“Well?” she demanded, a challenge—though to do what he didn’t know. Did she want him to take her in his arms and ravage her? Slap her? Spank her? What did he want?
“What are you waiting for?” she asked.
“That is an excellent question.”
He left her, having to restrain himself from slamming the hatch closed behind him. He lingered in the hall for a minute, catching his breath, half expecting her to come after him, not because he wanted her to but because he didn’t know where else to go. He’d feel idiotic returning to the bar, but he didn’t know if he could sleep, and he had had enough of the outdoors for one evening. With no other option appealing, he returned to his and Janx’s cabin, readied himself for bed and, finally, slept.
Some hours later, screaming woke
him.
Chapter 4
