“Yes!”
He blinked.
“No,” she said. This time her words were softer, and she shook her head.
“You have confused me.”
She sighed. Pinched the bridge of her nose. When she glanced at him, her expression had relaxed, and she now looked every bit the diplomatic Ambassador she was. “You are a different culture and put different values on what intimacy and sex mean to your people. I have no right to be offended at your lack of understanding of what those kinds of acts mean to my people.”
The words were almost a dance as she said them. A collection of phrases that had been rehearsed often and told with a specific cadence to get the desired result.
She was performing for him.
He did not like her performance. He would rather see her true range of expression and emotion.
“Define the difference, please,” Kian said. He was unsure of the definitions she used, and it did not make sense.
“The difference of what? Between our cultures? I think that is fairly well defined at this point.”
“No. The difference between intimacy and sex. You seem to consider them the same thing. I do not.”
“Now, I do not understand. Intimacy versus sex. They both refer to the same acts, do they not? Close physical contact between two humanoids?”
He took a step closer to her. The dress brushed his legs, but he was not against her body, in position for a sexual act. Yet the Craving burned inside him, ready for it. “We are close. Is this what you consider sex?”
She shifted her weight from one side to the other. Her gaze darted around like she was about to run. He guessed it was a flight-or-fight reaction.
But it was important to understand the differences here.
For research.
Regardless of how the Craving burned through him.
“N-No. This is just close proximity.” Her heart hammered in her chest, and her breathing was shallow.
Perhaps she experienced her own type of Craving.
“Would you say, intimate proximity?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“But we are not having sex.”
“We are within each other’s personal space. Even without touching, we are close. Intimate.”
“Does close proximity lead to sexual actions in the Terran Empire?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “I understand.” And walked away.
He heard her exhale a breath.
He glanced back, and she fanned herself with her hand. A strange expression on her face. Almost a smile.
Almost.
It pleased him that she reacted to his presence. It made the reaction he felt near her seem more logical. Perhaps they both were having their own Cravings, and the states amplified each other.
