Invasion Earth (5 page)

She knew she should be pissed. It was bad
enough being forced to marry her enemy. That she actually
liked
him while he had used trickery to force her acceptance
was unacceptable. She should feel angry and tried to work up a good
temper. It didn’t come. Instead, she remained confused, almost
disoriented, and filled with need for him. It crawled through her
body and invaded every cell like a palpable thing.

Dread set in. It was complete lack of control
and she stood, wrapping the sheet around her. He would answer for
these strange feelings and stop whatever was happening. She barged
into the other room, barely noticing when his brother, Daggar, beat
a hasty retreat.

“What have you done to me?” she demanded. To
her horror, tears thickened her voice. It didn’t sound very
commanding. It sounded weak and she hated that, hated herself for
feeling it. Hated him for bringing it out. “Never mind that. Undo
it!”

Alrik tried to wrap an arm around her and she
fought the urge to cling to him. Instead she pulled away and
marched across the room.

“Let me explain,” he said.

“Do that. No wait. Don’t! Just undo it.” She
tried to finish calmly, but heard the hysteria rising in her
voice.

Alrik knew about the demands of the bonding,
of course. But knowing intellectually and living it were two wildly
different things. When she stirred from sleep, he felt her.
Discussing the proposed trade agreements with his brother, he’d
monitored her, felt her consideration of the situation, her growing
confusion, her rising panic, and the ever present need for his
body.

The best thing to do for both of them would
be to kick his brother out, take her, and then talk. By the time
her alarm drove her to him, the need overwhelmed her and he feared
his own grip on control. Inexplicably, he wanted her to understand
before he gave in to the demands of their bodies.

He realized too late she was beyond
reasoning. Tossing her over his shoulder, he returned to the
bedchamber. With shaking hands, he ripped the sheet from her grasp
and pinned her down. In those few short moments, they were both
panting and he plunged into her body in one sure stroke. He held
himself immobile, ignoring his body’s demand to thrust in and out
of her. Her hands came up. Unsure if she meant to fight him or
embrace him, he secured her wrists next to her head. She sucked in
deep breaths and his heart hammered. This was not how he wanted
them to come together.

Lust and confusion warred in her eyes. He
watched her face as she battled both, and felt her body soften
around him when she gave into the craving. Exhaling a sigh of
relief, he released first one wrist then the other, testing her
reaction. Instead of clawing his eyes out, she clasped his
shoulders and bent her legs, knees at his waist. She lifted her
head to bite at his neck, wiggled her hips in silent demand. He was
more than happy to oblige her and started moving in fast sure
strokes.

They stared at each other in silence, gasping
at the strength of the bond’s need to merge. Held in its grasp, he
couldn’t spare a thought for gentleness or fostering future trust.
Lifting her ankles over his shoulders, he gave in to his body’s
demand that he claim her. Hard. Now. He thrust hard enough to move
them along the bed. But he was not so far gone that he didn’t feel
the shudders wrack her body when she came. He quickly followed and
collapsed over her, spent.

Laney lay under him trying to catch her
breath.
What the hell was that?
If she weren’t on board a
space ship, she would have said the earth moved. Come to think of
it, the bed had moved. But that didn’t account for the way her body
hummed or the way she wanted to cling to Alrik when he rolled off
of her to pull the sheet back over them. She felt off balance and
squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the sensation of being
... tethered. Reminding herself over and over again this man was
her enemy. But even as she tried to keep that reminder firm in her
mind, her body stayed tuned to his as if on high alert. When she
found her voice, it came out low and unfamiliar, not the strong
voice of command she was accustomed to.

“What’s going on here, Torfa?”

He sighed and rested a forearm over his face.
“Alrik.”

The silence stretched while she waited, and
she opened her eyes and rolled on to her side to watch him struggle
with his answer. Tension lined his face and she felt a moment’s
pang at his distress before squashing it down. They were not on the
same side. He got them into this mess; he could get them out.

“So Alrik?” she nudged. “Tell me why that
just happened. Why do I feel connected to you?”

He lowered his arm and looked at her.
“Genetically, we’re very similar.”

“Yes,” she agreed, trying to hurry him up.
“Our researchers say there are a few anomalies, but otherwise we’re
the same.”

“Yes,” he cleared his throat. “About those
anomalies. We don’t really understand how it works.” He sat up. “We
seem to have a ... perfect match, our
der’lan
. It’s probably
a prehistoric leftover to assure survival. My world is mostly
desert. Survival depends on working together.”

Her eyes narrowed as he paused again. She had
a sneaking suspicion why he was taking so long to find the right
words. He’d already decided the identity of his ‘perfect match.’
She waited him out.

“My people don’t know how the process works,
but we
know
when we meet our mate. When we see her.”

He met her gaze and she saw his certainty
reflected there. Some primal part of her responded, but her logical
side insisted it was impossible. They weren’t from the same planet.
They weren’t even supposed to be the same species.

“Not me,” she denied.

“Oh yes. You.” With the sexy grin that
threatened to melt her heart, he tugged her onto his chest. His
fingers gently traced the fluttering pulse in her neck. “And you
feel it too.”

“No,” she whispered.

Quiet settled over the room. She fought to
come up with another explanation. Years of living alone? Years of
repressed lust? There had to be a logical, scientific explanation
for the extreme awareness she felt, but deep down, she knew the
truth of what he said. She shoved the inner voice away. She wasn’t
ready to admit defeat yet.

Her entire existence was changing, morphing
without her knowledge or consent. She wanted to wallow in anger at
the injustice of it, but her curiosity and lifelong habit of never
surrendering took over. First, she needed to determine if there was
a way to break this bond. If not ... well, she would deal with that
later. Maybe it wasn’t what he said. Maybe it was his pheromones or
some gas in the air. Maybe it was an elaborate trick. Science had
to explain it, whatever it was.

“Okay. Explain the sex thing. Why do I feel
connected to you and how do you stop it?”

“You don’t stop it,” Alrik growled and his
fingers tangled in her hair, tugging until they were nose to nose.
“The bond once made cannot be broken.”

She sighed. She was afraid he’d say that.

“And the sex,” he paused as if not approving
the word, “is necessary. Our bodies need to join often to reinforce
the bond.”

His voice lowered on the last words, husky
with arousal and his eyes hooded in a look she had begun to
identify as ‘get ready, he’s going to pounce!’ Could she starve the
bond? Would refusing to feed the craving she felt for him snap it?
She fought it, but her body responded without her permission. She
was beginning to think his revenge for her military prowess would
be to fuck her to death. But what a way to go.

“Doesn’t that make it a little hard to get
anything done?”

She tried to move off him, but he held her
hips in place against his growing erection. She gasped at the feel
of him, hard and smooth, warm and just nudging her pussy. Muscles
already clenching to hold him in, she adjusted herself over him and
he jerked up, gasping at the contact.
Focus here, Laney
. But
he felt so good lodged inside her, not moving, just existing. The
contact alone quieted the need raging through her blood. But
ultimately it wasn’t enough. She wanted to explore him, wanted to
discover every inch of his large muscled body. Mostly just wanted
to feel him deep enough it threatened her ability to breathe. At
the moment she was the one in control and she had every intention
of taking advantage of it.

She raised herself up his length slowly,
before slamming back down.

“Kind of defeats the survival mechanism
theory, doesn’t it?” she gasped.

With a wicked smile, she raised herself up
again, and he choked out a laugh. Good. She liked a man who could
laugh in bed.

“You want to discuss this now?” he asked.

She leaned forward, left a line of light
teasing kisses down his neck, across his shoulders, down his chest.
She paused at one nipple, exulted at the way he jerked beneath her
when her teeth closed over the hard tip. She rocked against him,
taking his cock as deeply as she could, but it never felt deep
enough.

“It appears to be the only way to finish a
conversation with you.”

He better hurry up. Every time she thrust
down, the tip of his cock hit the sensitive front of her vaginal
wall. She quivered with the need to come but tried to hold back,
wanting to draw out the superb torture for them both.

“The edge will wear off some, once the bond
is firm,” he gasped.

Assuming that was as much information as she
could expect now and no longer able to stand the suspense, Laney
reached up and grasped his shoulders for leverage. Her hair swung
around them like a dark red curtain, whispering over the hardened
tips of her nipples. She groaned in response to the stimulus.
Moving in earnest, she increased the pace until their bodies were
slamming together. She relished the sound of flesh slapping against
flesh. An orgasm wrenched through her body and her muscles milked
him, unwilling to let go. A dim corner of her mind registered his
roar of release with relief. She really felt worn out now.

Chapter Five

Laney woke with a jerk, sitting bolt upright
on the bed, a little disoriented. She knew immediately where she
was, but it was impossible to judge time in the closed confines of
the starship. How long had she slept?

Alrik slumbered next to her, eyes shut and
chest rising and falling in a deep even rhythm. She slipped from
the bed and crept into the other room, gathered and pulled on her
clothes with swift efficient movements. She spared a quick glance
over her shoulder to make sure the big warrior hadn’t woken before
she snuck out into the hall. The door slid softly shut behind her.
She leaned against the corridor wall, staring unseeing at the
ceiling and grinding her teeth. Anger and shame rode her hard.

She heard footsteps in the distance and
straightened, making her face a mask of calm indifference. Only she
would realize it was a lie. Setting off in the direction she’d come
from earlier, she wandered the maze of the ship until she came back
to the shuttle bay and was able to retrace her steps to her
room.

As she approached she saw a dim glow from the
common room and wondered who was left awake at this late hour. Her
stomach rumbled. Or if there was any food left in the room. Hunger
was as good an excuse as any to check it out. It was something she
had a semblance of power over, at least.

Unlike her attraction to the enemy alien or
his plans for her.

When she saw who was in the room she wished
she could backpedal out, but it was too late. She’d already been
spotted.

“Bradford.”

“Colonel Eldridge.”

She nodded at the man drinking a beer at a
table and approached a tall cooler on one wall. She grabbed a
bottle of water, eyeing the beer wistfully, and a sandwich before
turning back to face him. Using the heel of his boot he shoved a
chair out in an invitation to sit. She sat while trying to force
away her unease and suspicion. She unwrapped the sandwich and took
a bite.

“Guess I don’t need to ask where you
disappeared to.”

She narrowed her eyes but didn’t answer. She
didn’t trust him, didn’t know what his game was, and she’d be
better off keeping her movements and thoughts to herself until she
did. They sat in silence while she finished the small meal, but she
felt him watching her. When she looked up and met his gaze, there
was a calculating look in his eyes. He was definitely up to
something.

“The others have returned to Earth?” she
asked, keeping her voice low. The silence of the ship seemed to
demand that consideration.

“All but the three of us.”

Laney looked around. “Where’s the
General?”

Eldridge shrugged. “Turned in already.”

She nodded and started to stand. Not a bad
idea. Eldridge stopped her with a hand on her wrist. His touch made
her skin crawl and she just managed to repress a flinch.

“Wait.”

She pulled her hand free and slowly sank back
in the chair, curiosity and suspicion warring within her.
“Why?”

“You have more to lose here than anyone.”

She snorted. Not a great revelation there.
“So?”

He leaned over the table, his voice lowering
to almost a whisper. “What if there was another way?”

She cocked an eyebrow. A way out of the
marriage or a way out of the treaty altogether? If Alrik was right
about this bond, it wouldn’t be so simple to escape. But she
refused to believe there was no way to break it. She didn’t
respond, just sat still and quiet waiting for Eldridge to go
on.

“We have the
Doomsayer
. They can’t use
it.”

The transfer of the weapon had taken place
earlier in the evening. Some people thought that was meant to be
seen as a sign of cooperation. A step in the right direction,
towards peace. Laney was more of the opinion the Delroi didn’t need
it and maybe wouldn’t care if Earth started up hostilities
again.