“Chris.”
“And then you came to Chris for protection from me. Oh, that was rich.”
He loomed over her. He had the gun in one hand. With the other, he stroked her hair. “You can’t protect yourself from me, Alexandra. No matter where you go, I’ll follow you. Unlike the Chris you know, I can’t repress my hunger for you. I can’t be your good little boy. I can only be your master.”
He bent and kissed her fiercely. She felt something cold and metallic press into her hand.
“This is the only way you’ll be safe from me,” he said.
He had given her the gun—aimed at him.
“No,” she said. She tried not to panic. “Chris, no.”
“I can’t control myself. I don’t want to become another Stephen Paige. I’d rather die than endanger you, Xandra.”
“There has to be another way.”
“We’re looking for a cure at the lab. I’d offered myself as a guinea pig. But I was a fool to think I could control it long enough to test the antidote.”
“There’s an antidote? Where is it?”
He laughed again. “The fridge. But I’d rather die than take it. If I take it, I won’t be the man you want anymore.” His arm around her tightened. “I won’t lose you, Xandra. I won’t go back to being the nice Chris you despise. The only choice is death.”
“Chris, that’s the syndrome talking. You’re not rational right now. I’m not going to discuss this further with you until you take that antidote.”
Xandra squirmed free and ran to the refrigerator.
“I said No!” he shouted.
He pursued her. She spun around, lifted the gun, and fired.
* * * * *
The police finally left.
Firing all the bullets in the gun hadn’t helped the state of the French doors, but it had induced the neighbors to call the police. And it had distracted Chris long enough for Xandra to find the syringe in the refrigerator and plunge it into his biceps, all the while she prayed she was doing the right thing. His overblown “Rocky” physique had subsided back into the more normal fit bod of the Chris she knew. He gave her a bleak look and wouldn’t talk to her. Then the police were there; they each had to give their statements and there was no time for personal recriminations.
That would come now.
“I guess I could go home to my apartment now,” Xandra said.
“I guess you could,” Chris said neutrally.
“The antidote worked.”
“So it would seem,” he said. He still wouldn’t look at her.
“Chris.” She held up a diamond ring she had found in the fridge, in the same plastic box with the syringe. “What’s this?”
“The other choice.”
“I don’t understand.”
Chris paced the room away from her. He toyed with the yellow Do-Not-Cross tape dangling across his gym room. “I had to make a choice. Take the antidote or take you. He—my other self—was going to give you that ring when the time was right. I knew you wouldn’t accept it from me.”
Xandra closed her fingers around the ring. “Chris, when you were…your other self…you said something. You said you had always wanted to do those things, as Chris, but didn’t dare. Was that true?”
“Yes,” he said shortly.
“But even, uhm, under the influence, you made it clear you still would never hurt me. So the syndrome kind of acted like super-alcohol, releasing inhibitions.”
“Yes.” He finally glanced at her. “What’s your point?”
Xandra sighed. She set the ring down on the table.
“My point? I guess there is no point. If you’re the kind of man who needs a drug or a syndrome to go after what he wants most in life, then you’re right, you’re not the man for me. It’s too bad, because it almost seemed for a while there that you were the man who could be my master by night and my best friend by day.”
She stood up and gave him one last lingering look. Stop me, Chris. Don’t let me walk out of here.
He stood up as well.
Yes! Stop me! Don’t let me leave. Don’t make me leave…
“I don’t think we should see each other anymore,” Chris said quietly. “I love you too much to be just your friend anymore.”
“And I love you too much to be just your friend anymore.” Xandra blinked away her tears. “So there we have it. We should never see each other again.”
“That’s right.”
Xandra walked toward the front door. She felt like every step opened up another thousand mile chasm between her and Chris.
Then, just as her hand touched the handle of the front door, she heard forceful steps close the distance. His hand fell over hers, and stopped her from opening the door.
“Just one problem,” he said. “I distinctly gave you an order, as your Master, to shoot me, and you disobeyed. I think I’m going to have to punish you for that. In fact, I think it’s going to take a whole lifetime to punish you for that.”
He captured her other hand as well and slipped the ring onto her forth finger.
“Now go upstairs, take off all your clothes and stand with your hands behind your neck until I come for you. You’re about to get spanked. And that’s just the start of your punishment.”
Xandra smiled up at him through her tears of joy. “Yes, Master.”
Naughty Doctor Page 5
