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They fell silent again, contemplating the evidence of mankind’s arrogance, his belief that he was in control of his world and could do what he liked with it.
“Do you know what this is? The red mist?” Friday finally asked. “It’s a monument to how greedy and evil mankind can be. A permanent reminder of what we’re capable of. A red scar on the face of the planet. That’s us. We’re a plague. A blight. We don’t deserve to be here.”
“Okay, Susie Sunshine.” Striker crouched in front of her. “Should I bother trying to save your life, or would you rather end it all here and now?”
Her cheeks flushed. “Too much?”
“Just a bit.”
She chewed at her lip before talking. “I’m worried what will happen when we go in there.”
That was priceless. He threw back his head and laughed, long and hard. When he wiped his eye and looked at her, she was glaring at him. He held out his hand and tugged her to her feet.
“Bébé, you’re either gonna die in there, or the poison’s gonna get you out here. You got nothing to lose. Now how about trusting me for a change? Didn’t those Freedom contacts of yours tell you that I’m the best? Have a little faith, huh?”
She batted those thick eyelashes at him. “How about I keep my more maudlin thoughts to myself instead?”
He shrugged. “That works, too. Now take off your clothes.”
…
Friday blinked at him, unsure she’d heard correctly. “What?”
His smile was pure wickedness. “I said, get naked, chère.”
He folded his arms, making those unnaturally large biceps of his bulge. The snake tattoo on his neck glinted in the blue light from the lantern and for one fanciful moment, she thought it watched her, too.
“Remember our deal,” the devil said. “You do anything I want, anytime I want.”
She gaped at him. Opening and closing her mouth like a fish stuck on dry land. “You want to have sex? Here?” She pointedly looked around them, first at the rocky ground beneath her, then at the rim of the canyon behind her and, finally at the cloud of heavy red fog on her other side. She could see this was going to be just as romantic as her last sexual encounter. “The ground is too rough. It will rip up my skin. I could get an infection.”
When she looked back up at him, his grin was all teeth, and his shoulders were shaking.
“Are you laughing at me?” She was outraged. There was no way she was having sex with him under these conditions. She didn’t care what their deal was. She’d rather walk into the red than surrender.
“Bébé.” He closed the distance between them and clasped the top of her arms. “I don’t want to have sex here. I never even mentioned sex when I negotiated our deal. But I find it highly entertaining that no matter what I tell you to do, you assume it will lead in that direction.” She felt her cheeks burn as he leaned in to talk against her ear. “Now strip.”
“If you don’t want sex, why do I have to strip?”
He turned his back on her to dig around in the storage box, coming out with a tub of body cream. “I need to cover your skin with this, to help protect you from the mist.”
She eyed him and his magic cream suspiciously. As far as she was aware, there was nothing that would keep the red mist from being absorbed into the skin. This sounded like a childish ploy to get his hands on her body.
“Whatever you’re thinking right now,” he said when she looked up at him, “don’t tell me. Save it for later. I know from the look on your face that it’s going to be good, and we don’t have the time for me to fully appreciate it.” He cocked his head. “Now strip, or I’ll do it for you.”
“This is embarrassing.”
“Not for me.” He grinned, obviously having fun.
“What is that cream? And do you honestly think it will save me from the mist?”
He rubbed a hand over his head in a gesture she had come to realize meant he was losing patience. “It’s kind of like a barrier cream. One of my team developed it. It won’t protect you from the mist for more than a few seconds, at best. But that’s more time than you’d have without it. Think of it as another layer of defense under your protective suit.”
“You must be insane if you think I’ll be able to walk through that”—she pointed at the mist—“protected by a suit and some sun cream.”
He looked up at the starry sky for a second. “Woman, can’t you do one thing without knowing the ins and outs of it?”
She thought about that for a second. “No.”
