Part 21 (2/2)
He made an effort not to press against her. But it was impossible to avoid all contact. He concentrated hard on the simple task because he wanted to show her he could touch her so intimately without getting aroused. He was only partially successful.
She started to step away and tripped over the pants legs pooling around her feet.
His hand shot out to steady her. ”We need to roll those up.”
Again she gave her a.s.sent with a nod, and he hunkered down in front of her, keeping his head bent as he folded up one pants leg and then the other.
When she swayed on her feet, she reached out a hand to his shoulder to steady herself. He wanted to press his face against her middle, but he kept methodically working, evening out the cuffs of the jeans as though her life depended on the exercise. And perhaps it did, he suddenly realized.
”Maybe this isn't such a good idea,” he said.
”Why not?”
”You're not used to wearing this clothing are you?”
”No.”
”Will it get in your way if you have to fight?”
”I don't know.” She whirled away from him, moving her hands in the air, making some impressive martial arts moves.
He watched her focus on the drill, watched her graceful moves, knowing she was using the exercise to distance herself from him.
”You need shoes. But none of them are going to fit.”
He searched through the shelves and found some running shoes in a mens seven and a half. With a thick pair of socks, they stayed on her feet.
He let her move around in them for a few minutes, then stopped her with a gruff order. ”Enough.”
Her head jerked toward him.
”Tell me what all this stuff is doing here.”
She swallowed. ”I don't know for sure. Anything I tell you will be... speculation.”
”Let's have your best guess.”
”Falcone is planning an invasion,” she said, speaking very fast as though she wanted to get the words out before she lost her nerve.
He wedged his fists against his hips. ”An invasion of what?”
”Your world,” she said in a barely audible voice.
”Maybe you'd better explain that.”
She made a broad sweeping motion with her hand. ”This place is a mess. I don't mean this room. I mean this whole...” She gave a little shrug. ”This whole universe. It's a lot like where you come from,” she went on. ”You can breathe the air. You can eat the food. We even speak your language. But there are things that are very different between the two worlds. I found some of your history books. You have something called the atomic bomb, don't you?”
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