“Then what areyou trying to do?” Alex narrowed her eyes at the naked man lounged on the round bed in front of her. His body was utter perfection-muscles in all the right places and smooth, mostly hairless skin. If she didn’t know any better, she’d assume he was genetically engineered at birth or some sort of android, made to resemble a human.

That’s a creepy thought.After all, this was her lover.

Alex wasn’t usually a one-man kind of girl, but after the start of her affair with Ulric, that all changed. She’d lost interest in all the other possibilities she encountered on foreign planets. Maybe they’d somehow managed to change each other. She hadn’t admitted it to him-and never would-but she hadn’t taken a lover in years, because he kept her cravings sated.

“I’m trying to convince you to stay with me.” His fingers chased lazy circles around her palms, while he kept his intense eyes pinned on hers, his lips pouty. “I want this thing between us to be a little more permanent. Alex, I don’t want to spend hours getting interrogated, or see doubt in your eyes. I just want you to stay with me. Will you do that?”

She shook her head. “I can’t.”

“You can’t, or you won’t?” The suspicion in his eyes made them twinkle in the darkness engulfing them inside his bedroom. Ulric had the top section of the space station all to himself. No one disturbed him, unless he wanted them to.

She turned away and looked out the large window on the other side of the room. Stars shimmered in the blackness of space. It had been a long time since she’d actually enjoyed living in one place. After her mother’s attempt at imprisoning and marrying her off for her own gain, Alex found it hard to stay in one place for too long. The only home she could see herself in for any period of time was her ship, but even that was mobile.