Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Andi bit her lip. Was he talking about Gobi? Was Goodie Bo-long actually his stepmother? This just got wilder and wilder! It was like the plot of a soap opera or a telenovela!
“The correct term is ‘Manimal’, “Goodie Bo-long corrected her imprisoned husband. “And I like having Gobi as my ‘sex-beast’ as you call it.” She laughed. “I like having all of them. All of your colleagues—every man who ever slighted me is under my control. I have them all locked up—mindless beasts, to fuck whenever I want. Which was certainly something you denied me during our marriage. You never satisfied me sexually—not once!”
“Let me go,” her husband pleaded. “Or else stop giving me the antidote. Let me become mindless too, so that I don’t have to bear watching you breed with Gobi and the others. Please—I’m begging you for mercy!”
Goodie Bo-long laughed cruelly but Andi didn’t even hear her reply. Her mind was racing—Dr. Bo-long had said, “stop giving me the antidote”—could that be the antidote to Manimalism? If so, how did Goodie Bo-long have it? And where was it?
Her intention was to stay there, watching and then hopefully search the lab when Goodie Bo-long left. But just then someone came up behind her and began sniffing under her skirt.
“Oh!” Andi gasped and jumped in surprise.
Looking down, she saw it was Manny—the big Manimal with the pink Mohawk. He growled threateningly at her and then tried to get his face under her skirt again.
“No! No, you don’t!” Andi whispered fiercely at him. “Get away from me you…you sex pest! Go away—can’t you tell I belong to someone else?”
But Manny clearly didn’t care that Cade’s scent was all over her. He moved towards her again, his eyes gleaming with hungry lust in the darkness.
Suddenly there was a growl behind her and Andi turned to see her Protector standing there, glaring down at the other Manimal. Her heart, which had been racing with fear and angry surprise, calmed somewhat. Cade wouldn’t let another male take her. He was protective and possessive in the extreme—Manny would have his ass handed to him if he tried anything.
Manny seemed to understand this because, with a growl of frustration, he crawled off into one of the dark corners of the basement. Cade watched him go and then came to loop one muscular arm around Andi’s waist.
“Good—thank you,” Andi whispered to him. “But please, you have to keep quiet! We don’t want anyone knowing we’re down here.”
“Too late, my dear,” a familiar voice said. Goodie Bo-long came around the corner, hands on her hips. “Tell me, ”she said, “Exactly how much did you hear?”
48
ANDI
Andi swallowed hard and Cade, perhaps sensing her fear and anxiety, tightened his grip on her and growled low in his throat.
“No, Cade—don’t do that,” Andi told him. It was time to come clean. She lifted her chin and looked at the other woman. “I heard you say you have an antidote to Manimalism,” she said. “And I want it—I want it for Cade right now.”
“Actually, it was my husband, Dr. Bo-long who spoke of the antidote,” Goodie Bo-long said coolly. “Come—perhaps you’d like to meet the great man himself?”
She walked back around the corner and Andi followed her, somewhat hesitantly. Cade came with her, his arm still looped around her waist and an alert look in his eyes, as though he was prepared to hurt anyone who threatened her.
But Goodie Bo-long didn’t threaten. She simply led Andi to the iron cage where she kept her husband.
“Andi, meet Dr. Bo-long—world renowned scientist and also, coincidentally, the world’s shittiest husband,” she said. “And my dear husband, you’ll be pleased to make the acquaintance of Dr. Andrea Smyth—she comes from a world where women are not oppressed and holds a degree in Medicinal Botany. She’s also been an excellent house guest, up until this moment,” she added, giving Andi a frown.
“I’m sorry,” Andi said quickly. “I wasn’t trying to snoop—honestly. I was feeling hungry and I was looking for the rest of those cookies they served for dessert at Third Meal. Then I opened the door and heard your husband talking and—”
“And naturally you were curious since no man on the planet is supposed to have the wits left to remember his own name—let alone carry on a conversation,” Goodie Bo-long remarked, nodding. “Yes, of course—I understand.”
“But why is your husband not a Manimal?” Andi asked. “Did you really find an antidote?”
“My dear, I created the antidote to Manimalism when I created the disease itself,” Goodie Bo-long said. “Though it’s not so much a disease as a syndrome. Do you remember the first night you were here, I was telling you that my husband was working with an organism which had properties of mind control?”
Andi had been fairly drunk during that first conversation, but she thought she remembered. She also remembered thinking it was important. But then she’d forgotten about it the next day—probably because she’d been drunk at the time and also she was dealing with Cade and his emerging sexual appetites.