But he was only a façade: There was no back to him. xxx 18 He’d gotten so lost in thought that he jumped when he heard his own name, spoken almost directly in his hear: “William?”
It was Nissa, he realized. The creatures assumed pained expressions. He said he felt bad about how I had to do all the work around here. “I should go,” he said. “That’s better,” she said. But would she want him? There was a period of time (he couldn’t tell how long) when he only watched the pupils of Nissa’s eyes as they expanded and retracted in response to some stimulation, and another when he was rapt by the soft pliability of her lips as they opened, closed, twitched, smiled, and formed themselves perfectly, sensually, to each letter of each word.
