Awakened by the Giant Read online

  Which was a crazy thing to think about a plant, but why not? Clearly it was an alien life form—maybe it was a plant with the instincts of an animal or something like that. And animals had always liked and trustedMaddy—it was one reason she’d become a vet.

  But for now, she concentrated on following Calden and trying to learn more about the layout of the Mentat station. She didn’t want to get lost if she ever ventured out on her own. Not that she probably should, considering how hostile the Mentats were to women, but still—it was good to know.

  All knowledge is worth having, she thought as she trotted to keep up with Calden’s long strides. She just hoped the only knowledge she gained in the enzyme baths was how to get clean without dissolving.

  Why had the bonding fruit plant reacted like that to Madeline’s touch?

  Calden frowned at the memory as he strode down the curving corridor, passing various Mentat labs and facilities on either side as he went. The little plant had been droopy and morose-looking from the moment it had sprouted. Several times he had thought it might be on the edge of death, though he had tried everything from varying the moisture he gave it to adding different minerals and plant foods to its soil as well as giving it a sun-lamp for needed radiation.

  But nothing had affected it or helped it in any way until Madeline had touched it, pressing her sweet face between its silver-green leaves, so much like the color of her eyes. Calden had been watching as she did and the immediate effect on the plant had been extremely surprising.

  It had straightened up and seemed to shake itself—its brown and withered leaves plumping out and unfurling. It had also started emitting a sweet, temping fragrance that Calden had never noticed before. He would have sworn it was nearly dead but it was almost as though Madeline’s presence—her touch—had brought it back to life. And not just life—health. When they had left his domicile, the bonding fruit plant had been the picture of vitality. Why?

  The plant isn’t the only one who reacts to her touch, whispered a little voice in his head. What about how hard your shaft got when you hugged her?

  But that had just been a normal, biological response to the closeness of an attractive female, Calden told himself uneasily. It wasn’t as though he had planned it—his body had simply reacted to hers.

  But your body shouldn’t react to hers—just as hers shouldn’t react to yours in turn, the little voice pointed out. Yet you know it did. You heard the increase in her heart rhythm, smelled the sweet feminine scent of her desire. The two of you aren’t sexually compatible and yet you’re acting as if you are. What’s wrong with you?

  It was a troubling question and his scientist’s mind wanted an answer but they had no time for it now. Before he could even begin to conjecture, they came to the door of the enzyme baths.

  “Come,” he said to Madeline, waving a hand over the sensor. The door’s light turned from red to green and the metal panel slid to one side, letting out a puff of fragrant steam.

  He would worry about the bonding fruit plant…and the other questions that troubled him…later.

  Eight

  The door to the enzyme baths led into a kind of changing room, Maddy saw, as she followed the big Kindred through the doorway. It had plain, deep green walls with no adornment but rows of hooks which were mostly empty, although she did see a single white lab coat hanging limply from one of them.

  It was about ten to fifteen degrees warmer in here than it was out in the hallway and puffs of steam floated through the air periodically, presumably from the other room. They smelled good—very clean in a way that reminded her of laundry deRarenent.

  “Here we are—this is the antechamber before the steam room,” Calden told her. “We must steam first to let the impurities exit our pores and then get into the enzyme baths to remove them.” Then he began matter-of-factly removing his clothes.

  “Oh—do we have to be, uh, naked in here?” Maddy asked, watching as he hung his own lab coat on a hook and pulled off his sleeveless black undershirt, revealing his broad, muscular chest.

  “Well, yes.” He gave her a quizzical look. “Do your people take baths with their clothing on?”

  “No…” Maddy bit her lip. She should have expected this when he’d told her the baths were communal, she supposed. But somehow she’d had the image of the pool at her gym back home in her mind and had been picturing herself in a bathing suit. But of course, there was no suit to wear. “Could…could I just keep my dress on?” she asked hopefully.

  Calden frowned. “You can in the steam room but once you are in the baths, the enzymes will eat it off of you.”

  “Oh.” Maddy felt stupid for asking, though he hadn’t been unkind—just honest. “I just thought…I mean…I know you saw me naked yesterday but I’m still kind of, well…shy. About public nudity, I mean,” she faltered.

  “Are you?” He frowned. “Is that a species-specific cultural norm or does it have something to do with being female?”

  “Both, probably,” Maddy said honestly. “Though I wouldn’t mind so much if I was thinner. But, well…I’m not.”

  Calden shook his head. “Why would you want to be thinner when you are perfect just as you are? If you were thinner, you would be even more delicate and fragile.”

  “Delicate and fragile? I’m five ten and a half and plus-sized—I’m hardly a delicate flower!” Maddy exclaimed, laughing. She sobered. “But of course you’re nine feet tall if you’re an inch so I guess I must seem tiny to you.”

  “You do. And if plus-sized means curvy, then I much prefer you that way for safety’s sake.” He cleared his throat. “Also…I find your voluptuous measurements most pleasing.”

  Maddy felt her cheeks getting hot. “Uh, thanks for the compliment. But I’m still not sure about taking off my clothes and parading through what amounts to a men’s locker room on an alien space station.”

  “I told you that most of the Mentats should be gone by now,” Calden said patiently.

  “It’s not the Mentats I’m worried about,” Maddy blurted.

  “Oh.” He looked surprised as comprehension dawned on his face. “Are you really nervous about me seeing you naked again? But I have told you, Madeline—we would not be compatible because of our size and so I can have no sexual interest in you.”

  “You just said that you found my, uh, curves pleasing,” she pointed out.

  “Yes, but in a purely aesthetic sense,” Calden said earnestly. “No matter how beautiful I find you to be, we are still too different in size to mate.”

  “I never said I wanted us to mate,” Maddy said quickly. “I just felt…you know, shy about you seeing me naked. That’s all.”

  She had begun to feel silly about the whole thing. Here she was worried about what the big Kindred might think of her body when he clearly just wanted to get them both clean so he could get back to work at his lab. He might be kind enough to comfort her by cuddling her at night and hugging her during the day, but that didn’t mean he had any sexual interest in her. Indeed—it wouldn’t matter if he did because, as he had pointed out, he was much, much too big for her.

  As if to prove his point, Calden took off his boots and trousers and hung them neatly on the hooks. This left him completely bare and she was able to see him naked for the first time. And what a sight it was.

  Maddy’s eyes widened as she let them drift over the broad planes of his chest, down his muscular abs and long legs, and then back up to what hung between them.

  Good God, he’s hung like a horse!she couldn’t help thinking. That thing is as long as my forearm and hand put together and it’s not even hard. There’s no way it would ever fit inside me.

  She had a momentary flash of imagination—the image of Calden kneeling between her thighs and trying to fit that thick, long shaft inside her pussy—and then pushed the thought away. She felt her cheeks getting hot. What was wrong with her, imagining something like that?

  “Madeline? Are you well?” Calden was looking down at her with worry on