Read The Tracker's Dilemma: (A Mandrake Company Science Fiction Romance) for Free Online Page B

don’t know exactly. The hippocampus is part of the brain’s limbic system, which regulates emotions and is associated with long-term memory. As far as I’m aware, studies in the past have suggested that there isn’t any particular area of the brain that lights up when subjects are attempting feats of extrasensory perception, and I should mention that attempts to perform these feats under observation have shown a nearly clinical insignificance. Nobody’s succeeded in rolling a pencil across a table with her mind, for example.”
    Tick hadn’t tried to move anything with his mind. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to or not. What he had experienced so far made him twitchy, especially given the way the captain and that trader had looked at him. With wariness.
    “Honestly,” Lauren went on, gazing at the floating brain image again, “I wasn’t paying much attention to these scans, my interests in improving human health and longevity being more somatic in nature. But I’ve been uploading my data to my drive on the network where several of my long-term scientist acquaintances have access. We often bandy thoughts about on each other’s research problems, you see. I’d forgotten that Hailey has access too—she’s had it since we studied at Novvy Novosibirsk University more than ten years ago. She saw these scans and was immediately intrigued. She’s been observing the human brain in relation to her field of study—” Lauren’s nose crinkled in distaste, “—for a long time, so maybe she’s seen research that I haven’t. Apparently, she saw something in these scans that caused her to send me a message and ask if any of the Grenavinian subjects had displayed evidence of paranormal mental processing.” Her lips flattened and she looked at Tick.
    “What did you say?”
    Even though Tick was curious about the research and the problem, he’d also grown aware that he and Lauren were standing close together now, their shoulders almost touching. He had tried to draw her into conversations numerous times, but this was the longest she had deigned to talk to him. It occurred to him now that he should have been inquiring about her work and her research, rather than asking what she thought about the new cook or other goings on around the ship.
    “I told her that I hadn’t done any ESP tests and that I refuse to.” Lauren arched her slender brows. She had fine features, almost delicate, even elegant. Tracing the contours of her face would be appealing, or taking down that strict bun she so often wore, and stroking her hair as it dangled around her shoulders.
    “Going to change your mind now?” he asked, pulling his mind away from contours and hair.
    “I don’t know. Can you tell what I’m thinking?”
    “Uh, that you’d like to know what it would be like to receive a shoulder rub from such an attractive fellow as myself?”
    She blinked, and Tick experienced a flash of thought, one that had to come from her. It was of Striker coming up and slinging an arm around her shoulder and suggesting a night of sexual endeavors, evoking extreme distaste on Lauren’s part.
    Tick backed away, alarmed that the strange insights had returned, and also worried she would feel that same distaste for him. He raised his hands in a gesture of apology. “Sorry, it was a joke.” Sort of. “I haven’t tried to tell what people are thinking. I find this very alarming. I don’t want to be a… a freak.”
    “Then why did you sign up for my study?” She smiled slightly, and he realized she was joking.
    He hadn’t realized she ever did that. It was nice. He tentatively smiled back while debating how to answer. Should he lie? Or tell the truth? He hoped she wouldn’t find an admission of his attraction to her as unappealing as Striker’s clumsy flirting, but given how little interest she had shown in any of the men on the ship, as far as he had observed, she might find all overtures unappealing.
    “I wanted to get to know you,”