Sex or Suffer [Dark Colony 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read Free

there.”
    Penelope made some notes with her stylus on the back-lit flat panel of her digital pad. “Did you experience the same symptoms and pain as Cora?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “Explain. Exactly.”
    Alice pushed out a long sigh and pulled her robe over her thin shoulders covering herself before she answered. “Cora’s symptoms were milder at first and got worse later on. She acted different and more forward with men, but I just thought she was lonely.”
    “What symptoms were milder?”
    “Cora was a flirt. Everyone knew it. Unlike me, she was very animated when in the presence of men. She was comfortable touching men casually on the arm or the back to get attention or to make a point as she talked, but once she contracted the virus, it was like she ramped up her efforts.”
    “Were there lots of men living near by?”
    “No. All the men lived in the small town. But we always went in to town every week to get supplies. We went together for company and also for protection. Two heads are better than one, you know.”
    Penelope smiled and Alice continued. “Cora always flirted, but she rarely dated or chased after men.”
    “When did you notice a change?”
    “Thinking back, I guess I noticed she was slightly different after Collier visited. But I didn’t say anything. I wrote it off as her being upset.”
    “Collier?”
    She nodded. “Ross Collier. He was her ex-boyfriend. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but he showed up one day out of the blue and wanted to start up again. He was bad news and Cora didn’t want to get back together. They had a knock down drag out fight including lots of broken glass shattering against walls loud enough for me to hear from my porch. I went over to help her as she threw him out.”
    Penelope made a note to contact Ross Collier. His name sounded familiar.
    “Later that afternoon we drove my vehicle into town for supplies as usual. We were supposed to meet before dusk, but Cora sent one of the saloon girls to tell me she was staying overnight with a man. She’d never abandoned me before.
    “I had to go back home alone. The next day Cora came back and told me she felt funny. She’d spent the night with a stranger after blatantly seducing him, but the virus didn’t become painful for her right away. She told me she’d been ‘compelled’ to have sex with that man. That was the word she used. She didn’t worry much afterward. She seemed to blow it off so I did too.”
    Penelope flipped back and read a few notes from Cora’s admittance form but didn’t find anything relevant.
    “So it was how long before you two went back to town again?”
    “It was more than two weeks.”
    “Could you have contracted the disease at the same time as Cora?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know when I contracted it.”
    “Did you see any men in town the day Cora stayed over night?”
    Alice thought for a moment. “I only saw one or maybe two, but maybe I wasn’t attracted to them.”
    A tear slipped over her lower eyelid and she sniffed. “What if I did get it at the same time as her? The cure won’t work on me either. I was alone for a month before I came into contact with the first man I jumped into bed with. What if it’s been too long? Not knowing is better. If you give me the cure and it doesn’t work…I don’t want to continue.”
    Penelope bowed her head and caught Alice’s eye. “Don’t talk like that. Please let me try it. Your symptoms were different than Cora’s. What if the cure works for you?”
    “What if it doesn’t?” Another fat tear slid down her cheek. Alice pushed it from her face with the heel of one hand. “And most of all, I hate fucking crying at the drop of a hat. I never used to cry until I got this intolerable disease. Cora had the right idea. I don’t want to live like this.”
    Penelope stood. “Don’t say that, Alice. Even if this cure doesn’t work I plan to develop a new one. A better one. I can have you put in isolation away from