No, wait—why had she thought of him that way? He was going to be her boss—if he offered her this position, which didn’t seem likely now. She needed to keep a professional attitude.
“I’m glad you applaud my goal,” Roark said dryly, sinking back down into his chair and steepling his long fingers beneath his chin. “So then, would you be willing to sign a contract stipulating that you will remain single and take steps not to get pregnant during your first year of working with me?”
Sammi looked at him blankly.
“So…you’re offering me the job?”
“Of all my applicants, you have the best qualifications.” He was back to being icy cold again. “A Doctorate in Embryology from Stanford and you’re working on a second one in Developmental Biology, correct?”
Sammi nodded.
“Yes, that’s right. I’m at USF now—I moved back to Florida to be near my family.”
“Very good.” He nodded. “So if you’re willing to sign the contract I mentioned, I’m willing to offer you the job.”
Sammi knew perfectly well this wouldn’t have flown down on Earth. You couldn’t dictate to someone if they could get married or get pregnant just because you offered them a job! But apparently the same rules didn’t seem to apply here aboard the Kindred Mother Ship.
The strange thing was, that the Kindred were said to be feminists. Women had more control of their own bodies and choices here—not less. It was a consequence of the fact that the Kindred race was 95% male, which meant they valued females highly. In fact, they even worshipped a female deity—the Mother of All Life.
Given all this, she was extremely surprised to find herself in this position. Maybe Commander Roark hadn’t gotten the memo about the Kindred treating women with respect, she thought dryly.
She wanted to get up and throw his sexist job offer in his face, and in any other situation, she would have done so. But the fact was, she needed this job—and not just for career advancement. She needed to get off of Earth and stay off for a while.
She’d been staying with her best friend, Meg, and Meg’s Beast Kindred husband, Berik, for the past week but her visitor’s pass was up today. It was either take the job with Commander Roark or go back down to Tampa where she didn’t feel safe anymore.
With a shiver, she remembered the pictures that had been popping up on her cellphone in the days before she’d come to visit Meg aboard the Mother Ship. Pictures of herself all around town—sitting in her car in the USF parking lot, shopping at Publix, buying a loaf of Cuban bread from a local bakery, La Segunda. And then, the picture that had finally driven her into calling Meg in tears—a picture of Sammi in the shower.
That picture of herself, wet and naked and vulnerable, along with the note left on her kitchen counter, had sent her running scared. When she’d called her best friend, nearly hyperventilating with fear, Meg had been as upset as Sammi was.
“Oh honey, he followed you all the way from California?” she’d asked as Sammi sobbed on the other end of the line.
“I g-guess so. Meggie—what am I going to do?”
“You’re going to come up here—right now,” Meg had said firmly. “I’ll ask Berik to apply for a visitor pass for you so you can stay for a little while and decide what to do next.”
Sammi had agreed without hesitation. After all, whoever her anonymous stalker was, he might be able to follow her all the way across the country from California to Florida, but he couldn’t follow her to the Mother Ship where access was strictly limited.
It was while she was staying with Meg and Berik that she found out about the job as an assistant to Commander Roark. Faced with the reality that she was about to be deported back down to Earth, she had jumped to apply.
And now it had been offered to her—it should have been the answer to her fears, hopes, and prayers. It would have been, too, if the eccentric Kindred scientist hadn’t offered it to her under such strange circumstances.
Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers and Sammi didn’t want to go back to Earth right now.
So I guess I’m taking this job, she thought, staring at those strange, pale eyes. But I’m going to do the best I can to take it under my own terms.
“All right,” she said, nodding at Roark, who had been waiting with more-than-human patience while she thought about his offer. “I’ll accept your offer and I’ll even sign a contract stating that I won’t start dating anyone or get pregnant…but for one year only.” She held up one finger to illustrate her point. “After that, I’m free to resume my social life. And let me warn you, Commander Roark—I come from a big Irish Catholic family on my mother’s side, which means I’m going to want to get married and have a lot of kids. I’ve always wanted that and since I’m thirty-eight this year, time is running out for me to have them.”