Alien Terrain Read Online Free PDF Page B

find
something to take it outside with.”
    Raj bent.
    “Oh, please!” she begged.
    He looked at her. “I’m not going to harm it.”
    Gently, he coaxed the creature onto his palm and cupped it
there between his hands. The spider curled itself into a ball. Raj watched it
through his fingers as he opened the door out to the stoop and released the
creature into the night.
    When he got back to Jane, she hadn’t moved. The air inside
the bathroom had grown steamy from the running shower. She was still clutching
her towel and gasping to draw breath.
    Raj unfastened his trousers and stepped out of them. She
didn’t look at him, didn’t look at anything. He took her towel from her and
draped it over the sink before he clasped her hand and led her to the edge of
the tub. “Get in,” he said. She balked but not, it seemed, because of him. The
spot where there’d once been a small intruder drew her gaze and had her
twitching like an animal preflight.
    “It’s gone,” he said. “There’s nothing else, so come. The
water will be good for you. And for me too. You’ll be
all right.”
    “You’re coming with me?” She looked embarrassed and
relieved, climbing shakily into the tub. Raj stepped behind her into the wet,
steamy shower and said a silent thank-you to his spider friend.

 
    JANE HAD NEVER been a weepy girl, not even as a child. When
she needed a good cry, she always got it done without risking an audience. Now
here she was, wet, naked, and beside herself in front of a stranger.
    What had she looked like crying like a kid because she’d
seen a bug? Probably like an idiot, but it wasn’t like she’d had a choice. On a
good day spiders half that size gave her the screaming willies. And this had
not been a good day. She’d just discarded everyone she knew and everything she
had. Not just her clothes but things she truly cared about: her mother’s dishes
and her father’s books. The one or two mementos she’d risked sneaking out with
her didn’t seem like much. Everything was gone. And so her dignity had left her
too.
    In her defense, it seemed a little cruel of life to put a
spider in her shower now. After her escape. The rescue of a half-dead alien. It was a little much. The
water washed the constant stream of tears under her eyes, but she was still
whimpering, still balled up and shaking with her head down and her hands in
fists against her chest. Every part of her was trying to get past the awful
feeling things were crawling on her. There was a naked man behind her, and even
that noteworthy fact couldn’t get her functioning again.
    He reached over her shoulder to check the water temperature.
Apparently it met with his approval because he nudged her forward, one hand on
her shoulder, the other on her hip. He had a very soothing touch—warm, firm,
gently coaxing.
    “You’re all right,” he said. “There’s nothing to be
frightened of. Try to relax.”
    “You’re not afraid of spiders?” Of course he wasn’t. He’d
just touched the thing with his bare hand. She took a brave step under the
stream. The man reached around her again, picking up the soap.
    “Not spiders,” he said in answer to her question. The soap
went back into the dish, and she felt slippery hands on both her shoulders.
Really, he had an amazing touch. Probably because he was a
prostitute. He did this kind of thing for money. Jane let go of some
small portion of her stress and let him ease her knotted muscles.
    “Are you afraid of anything?” she asked.
    “Oh yes.”
    That made her curious enough to turn around. Her breasts
bumped against his lower ribs. She drew her hands back up with a delayed
awareness of her nakedness.
    Jane didn’t have a good body. She used to think her brain
had possibilities, but even that had let her down after her marriage.
Physically the kindest word for her was nondescript. Or “normal-looking” as
Rick liked to put it. If medium was normal, then she supposed she qualified in
spades. She was