Candidate (Selected Book 4) by Robin Roseau Read Free Book Online Page B

no challenge for her, she gained experience she can use in the future. And she enjoyed your attention."
    I didn't answer right away. "I don't know what to say," I finally admitted.
    "It was perhaps an overwhelming experience. Well, it is time to make a decision. Do you wish me to have you collected and escorted to the arena? I can have four males waiting for you."
    "No."
    "Perhaps you wish to join the next group of women to come though. I can give you things to occupy your mind so you are not completely bored."
    "You said we could negotiate."
    "So I did. I will have you collected shortly." Her image disappeared, and I was looking at the cell.
    * * * *
    I found myself back on the chair, my legs swallowed, my arms swallowed. The Catseye sat across from me.
    "What are my options?"
    "Agree to accept your fate relatively willingly, and I'll work with you as much as I can. Or the arena is being used right now, but I can have you out there this afternoon."
    "Those are my choices?"
    "They are."
    "What happened to the other choices?"
    She said nothing but simply waited.
    "You'd let a male have me."
    "You can try to resist him," she said. "He'll cheat."
    I looked away. "I'd let Dark Skies have me."
    "I know. She'd accept you for a dalliance, but not as a mate."
    "What do you want?"
    "Make me an offer, Ms. Hayes," she said.
    "An offer."
    "Yes. Make me an offer. That is the nature of negotiation."
    "And you'll accept, as long as I willingly marry one of you."
    "Not necessarily, but that is the beginning of negotiation."
    I turned back to her. "Fine. An offer." I thought about it. "I don't want to be forced to marry someone I don't even know."
    "And?"
    "I don't want to be forced to marry some male."
    "I still don't hear an offer."
    "Are you going to force me to marry someone?"
    "I will force you to go home with someone, and that person will be allowed to woo you. There are rules. You will follow them. After a period of time, you could be allowed to go home. None of the women who go home are happy for having done so."
    "Why not?"
    "Because whoever you're with will have been cheating for months, Ms. Hayes. None of the other species are as powerful in this way as the Octal, but you didn't last five minutes against her. If I let her keep you for a week and forcibly removed you, you'd kill yourself trying to get back to her."
    "This is wrong."
    "Make me an offer."
    "An offer."
    "An offer."
    "An offer." Okay, we were well into a circle there, but I was stalling, trying to think. "Would you let me get to know someone first?"
    "Keep going."
    "All right." I smiled. "I'll let you send me on dates."
    "Dates."
    "That is the human way," I said. "Dates. With whomever you want, as long as she's female."
    "And then what?"
    "And then we'll see what happens."
    "Intriguing offer," she said. "Unfortunately, it's not quite good enough. Do you care to sweeten the agreement?"
    "You can counteroffer."
    "Fine. I'll introduce you to sixteen of the males here at the center. You can spend a few hours with them and then pick the four you wish to compete against."
    "That's hardly an offer."
    "Yours was also hardly an offer. I believe it is your turn to counteroffer."
    "Introduce me to sixteen females and give me two weeks, but if I don't like any of them, you'll send me home."
    "Interesting. If it weren't for the final clause, I'd consider it. Care to remove it?"
    "Six months."
    "Excuse me?"
    "Six months. I'll date whomever you want, as long as she's female, for up to six months. If two of us hit it off during that time, then we do. If not, at the end of that six months, I'll pick one of them."
    "And if she's not interested after getting to know you?"
    "Then you send me home."
    "No. You'll pick again, and again, until one accepts."
    "No," I said. "I'll pick once, and if she declines, then I get to pick from amongst them to join me in your arena."
    "Excluding the species that don't do that?"
    "No. I get to pick. Four, I believe you said."
    She considered me.