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thought you…”
    She couldn’t finish the sentence.
    Paul took a quick breath. “Thought I what?” he said, also looking away.
    “Thought it meant something. Hoped it meant something.”
    He reached for her hand and took it, fidgeting with her fingers restlessly.
    “You still think that? Now we’re outside the temple?”
    “What should I think, Commander? We had intense, passionate sex. It felt like a real connection to me. You’re acting as if it was just a trick of the stone.”
    Paul was quiet for a moment. The long fronds of the abandoned plants blew and shushed in the soft breezes. Suka tried to tune out, to just enjoy the feel of real weather and unrecycled air. Screw Paul and his ethical hang-ups.
    “It doesn’t matter whether it was a trick of the stone or not,” he said quietly. “We can’t pursue this. You know that.”
    “Because of intergalactic protocol?”
    “Yes. Of course because of intergalactic protocol.”
    “Because it’s the rules.”
    “ Suka —”
    “And the rules always rule. Right up there before humanity, or common sense, or love. Rules.”
    “You knew that, Suka , you’ve always known it.”
    “Yes, but that was before I knew I …” She stopped herself just in time. “Before I knew how I felt. About you.”
    Paul squeezed her fingers. “ Suka , you’ve had a very powerful sexual experience. That can affect your reasoning—”
    “Don’t you dare patronise me, Commander. And don’t you dare tell me how I feel.”
    Commander Paul hauled her to her feet.
    “Okay, enough,” he said. “You’re going back up to the ship. I’ll complete this mission alone.” He moved to take his communicator from his belt, but drew the whip instead, having forgotten he had placed it there.
    This gave Suka enough time to slip free of his grasp and race out of his reach.
    “I’m not going back,” she called from behind a huge flowering shrub. “You’ll have to catch me first.”
    “Ensign!” he roared, but she was away, picking out the remnants of the path beneath the drying reeds and leaves, sure of only one thing, which was that this adventure was not ending yet. Not until she had made Commander Paul realise exactly how significant the emotional exchange between them had been.
    It was hard to run with her legs still weak from the sex and her bottom tingling and her whole groin area aching and swollen, but she managed to gain some ground, taking advantage of the obfuscatory foliage to foil Paul’s attempts at second-guessing her route. Through the brown-greenery, she began to make out the wall of a building, looming ever closer, built of a dark, glittering brick, windowless and sinister in its appearance. Suka tried to find a door, but between running full-pelt and trying to place Paul’s location by the sound of his irate yelling, her senses were busy enough, and it wasn’t until she was almost smack-bang into the wall that she worked out how to get into the building.
    She vaulted over an iron balustrade and scampered down some steps to a basement door. Hoping against hope it would not be locked, she yanked at the handle. The door creaked aside and Suka found herself in pitch darkness. Good , she thought. He won’t be able to find me just by looking.
    She reached out, feeling for walls, and tiptoed rapidly along the side of the building, listening out for sounds of her master’s voice.
    Crackling of undergrowth from above, heavy footsteps on the stairs, then his voice.
    “ Suka ? Stop this now. You’re in more trouble than you can ever imagine, girl. When I get my hands on you…”
    Suka had to suppress a gasp, sure already he would be able to locate her by the deafening beating of her heart.
    A narrow beam of light bisected the darkness. He was using his communicator torch. Luckily, the chamber was vast and full of strange corners and cubbyholes. If she used her sense of touch wisely, she could find a way out of here before he lit on her.
    Huge shapes, malevolent and