Sleeping With the Enemy (25 page)

    Processed soil already filled the containers inside the greenhouses they’d built and purified water snaked along the planting beds to nurture the seeds they hoped would flourish-if they’d balanced everything as carefully as they thought they had.

    On that thought, he left the men he’d been working with abruptly and strode to the nearest of the growing houses, moving slowly along the walk between the beds and bending to peer at the dirt for any sign of fresh sprouts. He’d more than half expected to discover that the seeds the Americans had brought with them would either be no good or simply couldn’t be cultivated on Venus. To his relief, he’d discovered he was wrong on both counts. Many of the seeds began to sprout within a couple of days and he discovered as he walked along examining the troughs of dirt that there were new ones today, tiny sprouts with nearly microscopic leaves, but life. Hope and pleasure filled him.

    He tried to subdue the first. It was early days. They had yet to see if any of it would flourish and bear fruit but, like everyone else, the budding life gave him badly needed hope for a future. It worried him that everyone who could find an excuse to be there spent much of their free time hovering anxiously over the plants. In the first place, he was worried they might inadvertently sabotage their efforts by over-attentiveness. In the second, just as the plants boosted morale because of the future they represented, they could wither and die and take morale and hopefulness with them.

    Deciding he was going to have to place tighter security on the growing houses and limit access until the plants were big enough to actually be considered a garden, he left the greenhouse and returned to the labor pool.

    The arrival of the colonists from Pluto had increased their labor pool considerably, but it had also increased the strain on their resources. They were going to have to work hard to balance the two.

    Despite his reminder, he discovered when he returned to work on processing building materials for their construction efforts that his spirits were much higher than they had been in a while. It wasn’t until he ended his work shift that he realized it was because he’d made up his mind about Sybil.

    It had been a week. That was as much as he could stand, knowing that she was so close. He was tired of waiting for her to come to him, sick of sleeping alone when he could be sleeping in her arms.

    They would probably be waiting for him. He knew they would be expecting him to come and they knew by now that their security measures were useless when it came to preventing him from getting to Sybil.

Chapter Fifteen

    Sybil had spent a solid week wavering between hope and despair-hope that Anka would come to her; hope that he wouldn’t, fear that he’d taken that woman to his bed and didn’t want her anymore; fear that he would come and Meachum’s dog would have him arrested for trespassing on American soil.

    She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when he materialized in her quarters, but when she met his questioning gaze, she did both, uttering a sound about halfway between a chuckle and a sob.

    He tilted his head questioningly. “Does that mean that I’m welcome to stay? Or should I leave before you find something to throw at me?”

    Sybil sniffed, struggling with tears. “You’re always welcome.” She surged toward him then, flinging herself into his arms.

    He gathered her tightly to him, filling her with warmth, and then found her lips, filling her with heat. She linked her fingers behind his head and dragged him down to nuzzle his ear when he broke the kiss. “They’re watching,” she warned against his ear on a breath of sound, hoping he could hear her and the watchers couldn’t.

    She leaned away after a moment to search his face for understanding.

    His gaze was thoughtful, almost puzzled and she feared for several moments she’d failed to warn him.

    Anka lifted one hand and lightly stroked Sybil’s cheek, struggling with the truth that had been staring him in the face all along. Sybil had never deserved the lack of trust or the suspicions that he’d harbored about her. She’d been honest and faithful from the very beginning, even when she’d told him she was afraid. Despite the fact that he’d learned she had good reason to be uneasy, he’d still thought it went beyond that, that at least part of her fear stemmed from a plot to use him or to learn what she could about them to take the information to her own people.

    He’d clung to that willful misunderstanding to protect himself, he realized, not because she had ever done or said anything to warrant it.

    He swallowed the words that clogged his throat with an effort. They were for her. He’d had to share virtually every moment they were together with the watchers. He wouldn’t share his feelings for her with them, as well.

    Resisting the urge to let them know that he knew they were watching and fucking well didn’t care by flicking an obscene gesture at them, he smiled at her with an effort. “We must stop meeting this way,” he said teasingly. “I am too hungry when I see you to properly appreciate the meals.”

    Sybil chuckled huskily, relieved that he seemed to have caught the warning after all and aroused by his suggestive comment. “I haven’t noticed any lack of appreciation.”

    He gathered her close in an embrace again and then led her to her bed, pushed his boots off, and lay down with her. “Not even the last time?”

    “Especially not the last time.”

    “Now I know you’re only trying to flatter me,” he retorted teasingly.

    Hurt flickered in her eyes briefly, but not so briefly that he didn’t see it and feel guilt make his chest tight from the realization that he’d seen it many times,
put
that look in her eyes many times. “I don’t know why you put up with me,” he muttered.

    “It’s a job, but somebody has to do it.”

    He chuckled, struggling for something to say that wouldn’t put her in an uncomfortable position when he’d had no trouble doing so before. There was so much he wanted to talk to her about, though, that he’s never dared ask. “You’re wearing far too many clothes to suit me,” he murmured.

    She lifted her brows at him. “I thought you wanted to savor your dinner for a change?’

    He grinned at her. “By playing with my ‘food’,
nodia
,” he said chidingly. “I can’t play when you’re so bundled up.”

    “Maybe I’d like to play, too?”

    He promptly released her and rolled onto his back, folding his arms behind his head. “Play all you like,
nodia
. I’m all yours.”

    Sybil stared at him wide eyed for a moment, completely disconcerted by the invitation. She had no idea what he might like or how she was to go about pleasing him. She’d always let him take his pleasure as he would. She did
like
the comment that he was all hers, though, even if he was teasing. “A challenge?”

    He chuckled. “Now that sounds interesting.”

    It did to her. It also made her uneasy, but she thought he must like much the same things as she did. Otherwise, how would he know so well where and how to touch her?

    Practice, she thought dryly, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t light him up like he did her.

    Shifting up onto one arm, she scanned his length. “Am I going to have to work with barriers?”

    “You don’t want to unwrap your gift?” he murmured, his voice shaky with suppressed laughter.

    She surged upward and straddled his waist when he tensed to get up. “You don’t think I know how to turn you on, do you?”

    “I know you do. I was hoping for a test of my stamina.”

    “That’s a challenge if I ever heard one,” Sybil said with a chuckled, reaching for the buttons on her blouse. He watched with interest while she opened it from the neck to the hem and then shrugged out of it. She discarded the bra next.

    His arms came from beneath his head immediately and he reached to cup her breasts in his palms. “No,” Sybil said, catching his wrists and guiding his arms back to where they’d been. “You get to look, not touch. It’s my turn to touch.”

    She saw his Adam’s apple bob when he swallowed. “Can I at least taste?”

    She tilted her head, considering it. “Maybe just a little taste.” Leaning forward, she placed a palm on the mattress on either side of his head and presented him with one breast. She didn’t miss the gleam of triumph in his eyes as he opened his mouth and flicked at the tip with his tongue until it stood tightly erect and then sucked it into his mouth. The heat that traveled from her breast to her womb scorched her. She wanted to linger, to allow the heat that blossomed in her lower belly to grow higher, but she pulled away after only a moment. After a moment’s thought, she nudged his lips with the other nipple, demanding he even up the heat.

    The desire flowing through her blood stream like warm molasses increased her eagerness to explore him and quashed her doubts. Pushing herself back along his body, she explored his face, his ears, his throat, teasing him by kissing all around his mouth without touching her mouth to his. He surged upward abruptly, cupped a hand along the back of her head to trap her and

    kissed her deeply, building the heat within her.

    “That’s cheating,” she said disapprovingly when he released her and fell back.

    He waggled his brows at her.

    She couldn’t help but chuckle, but she turned her attention immediately to parting the front of his uniform from the neck to the waist, roughly, in playful mastery. He frowned at her, but his lips curled upward at one corner. The smile died as she leaned down to nibble a path along his throat to his chest. She sat up again, stroking the sculpted muscles of his chest and finally wiggled further back to reach him better.

    His cock was rock hard. He winced when she landed on it. Giving him an apologetic look, she reached down to adjust it. She discovered when she settled again that it fit very nicely along her cleft. On inspiration, she rocked back and forth a few times, watching his face for his reaction. It felt good to her, not nearly as good as she thought it would’ve felt if they’d had no clothes between them, but nice in a teasing sort of way.

    He caught her hips, stilling her movements.

    “Did I hurt you?”

    He grimaced. “That’s a highly volatile stick of explosives,
nodia
. Take care how you handle it. It might go off and spoil all our fun.”

    Sybil laughed. “Will you be serious? I’m working here!”

    “I
am
serious-and deeply concerned.”

    Leaning down, she bit his pec in playful rebuke, then sucked at it. “You taste good,” she murmured. An image of his cock leapt instantly into her mind and she examined the idea with a mixture of uneasiness and excitement. Anka sent her a heated look when she glanced at his face.

    “You taste good. Maybe I’ll nibble a while?”

    “I’m not done yet,” she said decisively. Scooting backwards to sit on the tops of his thighs, she opened his suit fully and studied his cock meditatively. It jerked when she stroked a finger along his length and she flicked a quick look at his face.

    “Not a good idea-not right now,” he growled warningly.

    She sent him a look of innocence. “What?”

    His eyes narrowed. “Remember what I said,” he reminded her as she grasped his cock and leaned down. Ignoring the warning, she opened her mouth over the rounded head and sucked at it experimentally. His hands clamped around her head. She paused, but when he didn’t try to push her away, she settled to exploring it more thoroughly.

    She hadn’t actually caught more than a glimpse of it before. She’d been far more focused on how it felt inside of her-absolutely divine! She decided she liked the way it looked, though, and tasted, and felt in her mouth. It was surprisingly arousing to suck on it, to hear his breath catch in his throat, the way his hips moved when she stroked him with her mouth and hands.

    He pulled her away just when she was thoroughly enjoying herself, surging over her and pushing her onto her back. “My turn,” he growled.

    She sent him a saucy look. “No stamina.”

    He tsked. “You should know better than to throw out that kind of challenge.”

    She folded her arms behind her head. “Do your worst.”

    He sent her a look. “I’ll do my best,” he promised, coming up on his knees to unfasten her trousers and tug them from her hips. When he’d pulled them all the way off and tossed them aside, he skimmed a look up her thighs to her hips and belly. Sybil tensed when he paused for a long, long moment. Frowning, he flicked a look at her face that was a mixture of confusion and concern before he returned his attention to her belly. She knew the very instant comprehension hit him. His gaze moved to her face again and this time she saw a flicker of anger in his eyes. He dropped to the bed beside her, heavily, as if the strength had gone out of his legs. His hand was shaking as he lightly stroked her rounded belly.

    For many moments he did nothing else and Sybil felt her desire burn itself out. Finally, he rolled toward her. He kissed her breasts and throat. He caressed her, touching her in all the right places, but she had the sense that it was mechanical, that his mind was elsewhere.

    She had little moisture to offer him to ease his way when he moved between her thighs at last. It was a struggle for both of them to achieve full penetration but, in spite of everything, heat rose inside of her when she felt him moving along her channel rhythmically. She gasped when she came, clinging tightly to him, but it was more a plea for understanding than from passion.

    She wasn’t even sure he’d managed to come until she felt the stickiness between her thighs when he withdrew. Relieved about that at least she lay with her eyes closed, more to shield herself from his gaze than from the weakness in the aftermath of pleasure. He moved behind her, pulling her back against his chest. To her relief, he stroked his hands over her the way he always had. It soothed her as it always had.

    She’d always wondered what was running through his mind when he caressed her like that. This time, she was almost certain she at least knew the questions in his mind. It worried her that he seemed so… distant.

    He nuzzled her neck after a little bit. “Our experimental garden is coming along nicely,” he murmured.

    Sybil whipped her head around to stare at him, afraid he’d say more.

    His lips tightened. The look his eyes was enough to reassure her that he hadn’t slipped and he hadn’t forgotten the warning. “I’d like to take you to look at it tomorrow.”

    Dismay flickered through her, but she forced a smile. “I’d love to see it,” she responded woodenly.

    He called for her in a transport. Sybil was almost surprised when she was allowed to leave without question. Despite the ‘assignment’ she’d been given, she would’ve thought they would be worried about letting her off her leash entirely.

    Brant gave her a significant look as she strode past him, but otherwise his only comment was to ‘take care’.

    Anka’s lips tightened, but she couldn’t decide if it was because he knew it was a subtle warning or if it was jealousy. “The weather’s fine today. If it wasn’t so far I would’ve invited you to walk,” he said as he helped her into the front of the transport. “You’ll get the chance to do plenty of walking once we get there, though.”

    Sybil didn’t respond. She had the feeling that it wasn’t as inconsequential as it seemed, that he was dangling a carrot for Brant, however, and she was afraid to say anything at all.

    “I see the construction of the American base goes well,” he commented as he climbed in beside her.