“My goodness, of course. I’m not trying to hold you up. Here.” She got up from the bed for the first time and walked toward them. She had firm, long legs, and used them well. She was utterly lovely and although part of it was probably her professional know-how, she made you [p 21] forget that. She was the most attractive girl, Earth or outworld, Ramsey had seen in years.
Ramsey took the gun. Their hands met. Ramsey leaned forward quickly and kissed her on the lips. He was still holding the Vegan girl’s slender arm, though. She tried to run away but couldn’t. Margot Dennison returned the kiss for an instant, to show Ramsey that when she really wanted to return it, if she ever really would, she would pack the same kind of libidinal vitality in her responses as she did in her appearance; then she stood coldly, no longer responsive, until Ramsey stepped back.
“Maybe I was asking for it,” she said. “I was prepared for that—and more. But it isn’t necessary now, is it? My gosh, Ramsey! Will you please close that mind of yours? You make a girl blush.”
“Then put on your cloak,” Ramsey said, and, really blushing this time, she did so.
She said: “I’m prepared to pay you one thousand credits; what do you say?”
“I say it must be a pretty important appointment you have on Centauri.”
“Earth, Captain Ramsey. I’m settling for Centauri. Well?”
“I’ll take you,” Ramsey said, “if this girl comes too.”
Margot Dennison looked at the frightened Vegan girl and smiled. “So it’s like that,” she said.
“It isn’t like anything.”