“Yes.”
“Oh, I missed sexy. How could I miss sexy? You fancy me, of course.”
“Well, who wouldn’t fancy an alien with a penchant for bondage?”
His mouth, so close to hers, broadened into a delighted, teeth-baring grin.
“I was right about you. What the hell am I going to do about Anna, though?”
“Be kind to her. If you can’t use her, then let her go.”
“She is bonded to me. She can’t leave me. And I can’t let her go with my child anyway. The child is important.”
“I will not collude in anything that hurts my friend.”
“Yes. I missed loyal from my list. You are loyal. I am not.”
“Tell me why you’re doing this. What do you believe in? Why did you come here? Do you have any values?”
“Values? Beliefs? We are differently made, where I come from. We don’t think in those terms. Besides, being this close to you is driving all that philosophical stuff right out of my head.”
His lips bobbed dangerously close to Mimi’s neck, but instead of kissing it, he drew in a long inhalation. “Ah, something about you makes me feel drunk,” he whispered. “Which is strange, because I can’t get drunk. I’ve observed the phenomenon often enough in the watering holes of the City though. It must feel…like this…”
Survival, thought Mimi, and at the same time, kiss me.
“Right priorities.” Then he planted a kiss on her neck that made the tender flesh sizzle and burn into an imprint of his mouth. “If I free you from these restraints,” he said into her ear, a warm scirocco that drove most of her capacity to understand and interpret his words scattering on its breeze, “if I let you out, you must never leave my sight. That’s the first condition. Shall I tell you the others?”
“Yes.” Mimi’s breath was hitching and catching all over the place. Her lungs had never worked harder.
“The second condition is that you do as I tell you. Always. Regardless of what it is.”
“Not if it means hurting my friends. Not if it means hurting anyone.”
“I won’t ask you to do that. I can do the hurting.”
“Okay.” Mimi nodded as best she could. “Can you undo this now? My hands have gone numb.”
“You haven’t heard my third condition.” John took Mimi’s deadened fingers and squeezed them. “I want you for my brood partner.”
“You have…Anna for that,” she said, wishing her voice was stronger, trying to remember what shock and revulsion felt like. However hard she strove to feel them, though, they wouldn’t come. Only rampant desire.
“I’ve told you. Anna doesn’t cut it. You do. Oh, what I could do to you, Miranda. How I could make you feel. Aren’t you curious? No human can give you the intense pleasure I can. Once you’ve experienced me, you’ll never be able
to go back.”
“I can’t…” Panic was beginning to stir and send Mimi into a flap. Her breath was shorter than ever, and yet her body seemed to be in flames. He would only have to touch her…he would only have to touch me, fuck, I shouldn’t think it, too late…
He touched her.
“Yes,” she wailed. “Yes, I agree.”
“Sensible girl,” he breathed. He pressed a button at the side of the chair and the wrist and ankle restraints flew open, shortly followed by the collar. Mimi could barely lift her arms to flex the wrists, let alone move her legs, but John solved the problem for her, sliding an arm behind her back and lifting her up to stand shakily against his chest.
Her cheek rubbed his shirt, the top of her head resting in the crook of his neck. He settled a hand into her hair at the back, his fingers crawling through its mass, pulling tiny sparks from her scalp.
“I can’t feel a heartbeat.”
“I don’t have one. It’s okay. Relax.” He was whispering for some reason. He held her closer. “I can feel yours.”