Page 151 of Seven Oars
“Stop pretending, Rosamma. You’re alive because I wished you to be. Phex had nothing to do with it.”
He now loomed over her, a huge monster with flat eyes.
She wanted to be near him, and she wanted to go home. These contradictory, mutually exclusive desires created a tumult in her soul. She wanted this nightmare to end, for herself, and Phex, and for this alien standing before her. Just go away from here. Anywhere.
“The food’s running out,” she whispered to Fincros. It was like she had no voice left.
“It hasn’t run out yet.”
“I’m scared.”
“Don’t be. Fear makes you weak.”
She laughed suddenly.“You sound just like Phex. I’m already weak! And I don’t care. I can’t fight it anymore.”
“You’re scared because you feel alone.”
“Iamalone.”
She touched the glass behind which the stars called to her, her imaginary white friends.
“I can teach you to fuck if you want.”
The stars flared across her vision as her body jerked, and she felt herself unraveling as if every cell in her body ping-ponged around like spilled bouncy balls.
“I… Do you want it?” she said to the window.
His voice came low and rough.“Do you?”
She closed her eyes, fighting the pull she’d felt for this man, despite what he was.
Opening them, Rosamma looked at his reflection in the window: the glitter in his eyes, the scars, the distant expression.
“You’re mocking me again, Striker.” Her voice did crack this time.
“I’m through with mocking.” His hoarse whisper was as chill-inducing as it was seductive.“Try me. You may like it.”
She rose as if in a dream and stood in front of him, so vulnerable he could shatter her to pieces with a single careless word.
“I think I would like to try. With you.”
His face remained expressionless—no smirk, no self-satisfaction, just a solid wall of impenetrable male.
“Why are you shaking?” he asked softly.“I won’t hurt you.”
Reaching out, he skimmed his fingers over her hair.
He would, but it was her last concern at the moment.
“I’m wondering…” she hesitated, then pushed through the acute embarrassment seizing her chest.“For it to work… is there any more spice charm?”
He blinked then, third eyelid and all.“Spice charm?”
“Well, yes. To help you, you know… With someone like me.”
“There’s no more spice charm,” he said in an odd voice.
They were silent for a spell.
