Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I (43 page)

“
I’m not.”

She studied his face assessingly and
abruptly dove for the tickle spot on either side of his chest. He
jackknifed, uttering a choked laugh as he grabbed her hands and
held them. “Gods damn it, baby! That hurt.”

Emerald bit her lip, trying to look
remorseful. She knew damned well it hadn’t hurt. He just didn’t
want to admit that he was ticklish. “I won’t do it again. I
promise.”

He narrowed his eyes at her but he
finally released his grip on her hands. The moment he did, she dove
for the spot again. He uttered a choked laugh, bucked her off and
rolled over on top of her. “You’ve no sense of honor!” he muttered
with both amusement and irritation.

She shook her head. “Not a bit!” she
agreed cheerfully. “Anyway, I had my fingers crossed. It didn’t
count.”

“
Is that a
fact?”

She felt smug until he found her
ticklish spot and tickled her until she couldn’t catch her breath.
“Stop! Stop!” she cried, laughing. “I can’t breathe!”

He stopped. Emerald sucked in a
reviving breath and goosed his ribs again. He laughed, grabbing her
wrists and pinning her arms above her head, but he sobered as soon
as he had, his expression becoming intent. She stared up at him
worriedly. Instead of tickling her again, he abruptly dropped
closer and covered her mouth in a heated kiss.

Emerald felt an instant response
inside of her to the heat his kiss despite the days they’d spent in
a heated tangle, striving over and over to reach the pinnacle. It
almost seemed they reached fever pitch faster each time, and
perhaps they did, she thought dreamily. He was certainly no less
desirable and he’d learned just how and where to touch her to stir
her. She welcomed him into her when with love and joy when he
reached a point of impatience to join with her, enjoying their deep
connection on every level. And when they both reached culmination
within moments of one another, she yielded to exhaustion and sank
beneath the blanket of bliss that beckoned her, buoyed by the
certainty that she’d given as much as she’d taken.

She struggled to curl her lips into an
appreciative smile when she felt Tariq arrange her against his side
afterwards and begin to stroke her in wordless appreciation. She’d
almost reached the dark gateway when he rolled onto his side and
tightened his arms around her.

“
I thought I’d go
completely insane when they took you from me,” he murmured
raggedly. “I was far more focused on getting
too
you than getting out or I might
have managed it sooner.” He paused and tightened his hold. “I love
you, Em.”

* * * *

Alarm instantly went through Emerald
when she and Tariq finally emerged from seclusion and joined the
rest of their party in the lounge for the evening meal. Koryn
didn’t just look as if he’d had little sleep in the past three
‘days’ since they’d escaped. He was battered and bruised. She
couldn’t decide whether to comment on it or not, but she knew he
hadn’t shown any signs of having been in a fight before she’d
joined Tariq for a marathon breeding session.

Tariq noticed, too, and he wasn’t the
least bit restrained in his reaction. “What the fuck? Did you get
in a fight with the lab equipment?”

Koryn narrowed his eyes at him, his
lips tightening.

“
We have been sparing in
the hold. Koryn pointed out that we did not know what we might
encounter and therefore it would be wise to polish our
skills.”

Tariq lifted his dark brows and
studied Koryn assessingly for several moments.

“
I don’t have fucking
nanos to help me heal faster,” Koryn pointed out tightly, clearly
defensive about the fact that he looked the worse for wear when
none of the others did.

Emerald felt her chest
tighten in commiseration, but she resisted the urge to rush to him
and fuss over his bruises, fearful that would wound his pride even
more. There was no doubt in her mind that he felt like he wasn’t
‘manly’ enough beside Tariq and she suspected he thought she loved
Tariq more because of the way he was. Well, she supposed in a way
she did. She certainly loved him in a
different
way. Then again, they
were
different
.
They would be if Koryn had been a soldier as Tariq was and even if
he’d been just as skilled at fighting.

He still fulfilled her need to feel
protected. He still fulfilled her sexual needs. And beyond that, he
had a lot to offer in many other ways.

She didn’t think he’d want to hear
that either, though, or that it would make him feel better. “Unless
something terrible happened on Centaurian, I don’t see that
fighting skills would be crucial. It’s certainly something one
wants to have, and to feel confidence in, of course, but it should
be a civilized place—even if it is a frontier colony. Of course,
you don’t need to concern yourself about your other skills, so
there’s no point in focusing on polishing those.”

Koryn looked so much better when she’d
finished that Emerald was glad she’d considered carefully before
she spoke.

Although he relaxed considerably, his
expression was wry. “I can’t say that I’ve mastered food
preparation either. I’m damned if I can figure that out, though. I
always measure everything carefully and follow the
instructions.”

Emerald smiled at him. “I’m not
terribly good, either. I never had much opportunity to prepare
anything but prepackaged meals. I’ve always heard, though, that
it’s technique as much as anything else.” She frowned. “I think we
all need to practice that. From what I heard, the colonists had all
decided that a simpler way of life was far better in the long run.
It was part of the requirements of potential colonists—to be
willing to live at a very basic level—growing most of their own
food, making do with mechanical or manual tools, rather than
electronics, and renewable energy sources.”

She discovered when she glanced around
at the others than even the androids looked appalled. It took an
effort to keep from smiling.

Tariq frowned. “What sort of economic
system did they have? Or do you know?”

Emerald considered it, struggling to
remember what she’d learned when she’d been considering becoming a
colonist. It hadn’t just been a very long time ago, though. It had
been a lifetime for her and even though she’d regained bits and
pieces of her memories, she had an uneasy feeling that she had
‘forgotten’ as much as she remembered. “It’s primarily a barter
system, I think.”

The men exchanged indecipherable
looks. “That might make things difficult in getting started,” Tariq
said grimly.

Emerald looked at him in surprise.
“That’s not true—not necessarily anyway. They’ll have to have a
standing army—and a peace keeping force—and most of you have those
skills. And Koryn knows so much about science, I imagine his skills
will be in demand, too—If nothing else, as a doctor.”

Koryn perked up considerably. Tariq
looked like a thundercloud. “I have other skills beyond the
military,” he growled.

Emerald flicked a dismayed look at
him, realizing that the harder she tried to build up Koryn’s
self-esteem, the angrier it made Tariq. She forced a smile, giving
him a heated gaze. “I know you do,” she murmured.

Tariq’s expression went blank for a
split second before color climbed into his cheeks. He grinned, but
it looked a bit more embarrassed than arrogant.

“
The thing is,” she
continued after a moment, “I don’t really know all of you that well
and I don’t know what you can do or have done in the past. I was
just pointing out what I did know that would be useful. Now that
you’ve brought it up, though, I think it would be a good idea for
all of us to work up sort of a resume of training and experience.
We’ll have to petition the council to become colonists and the more
skills, the more desirable.

“
I spent a lot of time
with my great-grandmother when I was a child. She taught me several
different needle crafts that I think I could claim as a skill, at
least, claim some familiarity with them. I expect that would be in
demand since no one’s really done much in the way of handwork in
generations. I’ve had military training, too—not like you guys, of
course, but some and some battle experience.”

“
You aren’t going to be a
fucking soldier!” Tariq growled implacably.

Emerald gaped at him. When she glanced
at the others, however, she saw that all of the androids looked
disapproving and Koryn looked as outraged as Tariq. Her lips
tightened with annoyance.

Koryn got up abruptly. “I think we
should run a scan and see if you’re breeding. I’m going to faint if
you aren’t when Tariq was so gods damned dedicated to the task,” he
added, his voice laced with anger, “but we need to be
sure.”

“
I hadn’t planned to offer
my services for the military—especially since I probably
am
pregnant!” Emerald
said tightly. “I was merely pointing out that I had that to offer
as a colonist.”

She followed Koryn from the lounging
area to the sickbay, however, more because she was irritated about
their attitude than because she felt a need to know, immediately,
whether she was or she wasn’t pregnant.

She discovered once she’d settled on
the examination table and Koryn had scanned her, however, that he
had far more on his mind than checking her or even concern about
her taking a job as a soldier. In point of fact, he didn’t seem to
have but one thing on his mind.

Having scanned her, he set the scanner
aside decisively. “Yes. You’re breeding,” he said briskly, and then
climbed onto the examination table with her before she even
realized his intent.

Not that she would’ve objected to his
intentions, but she thought the examination table a precarious
perch for two when Koryn was big enough to take up the entire bed
himself. His hunger was contagious, however. Despite the fact that
Tariq had satisfied her enough to prevent her from feeling needy
anytime in the near future, Koryn himself, her anxiety to please
him and make up for neglecting him, and the sense of desperation
she felt in him were enough to thoroughly arouse her.

She wouldn’t have considered denying
him anyway, or even demanding more foreplay, but fortunately she
didn’t need it. She was wet for him long before he tore at his
clothing to dispense with the impediment. It was a struggle to
envelop his turgid flesh regardless. She didn’t think there was a
hair’s worth of difference in the size of the two men, unless Koryn
was slightly larger, but it was thrilling enough to feel his slow
possession that she was on the brink of coming by the time he
managed to claim her fully.

It was as well she was. He was too
needy to have much control. The moment she began to quake with her
climax, he groaned like he was dying, shuddered, and began to pump
frenziedly to spill his seed into her. “I’m sorry, baby,” he gasped
when he’d finally stopped shuddering.

Emerald stroked his back. “Don’t be,
baby,” she murmured. “It was wonderful.”

He jerked his head up to study her
face for a long moment and finally relaxed. Scooting backwards
carefully, he disengaged them and nuzzled her neck. “I don’t know
how I managed it,” he said wryly. “I thought I was going to explode
before I even got in.”

“
Me, too,” Emerald said
with a blissful sigh.

He chuckled. “I thought I was going to
fall off this fucking thing. Remind me not to try it here
again.”

Emerald smiled. “I don’t
know …. Does this convert like the chair in Tariq’s quarters? I was
just thinking that might be fun—except with you pounding into me
instead of that
thing
.”

She felt his cock rise against her
thigh. He hesitated. “I think we need to get back before I end up
having to fight Tariq. Not that I’d mind on several levels, but I
might not be in any shape to make love to you for a while
afterwards,” he said with self-depreciating amusement.

“
Well! We can’t have
that!”

Tariq gave both of them a hard look
when they returned, but he forbore commenting on the length of time
they’d been gone or the fact that both of them looked like they’d
been doing exactly what they had. “I’m going to assume the test was
positive,” he growled.

Emerald grinned and rushed into his
arms. “Yes! We’re going to have a baby!”

To her relief, the tension left him.
He was grinning at her shakily when she pulled away to look at his
face. “Seriously?”

She chuckled. “Absolutely.”

“
Damn I’m good!” he said
jokingly.

Koryn glared at him. “And you only had
to fuck non-stop for three days to accomplish it!”

Seeing that they were bristling at one
another again, Emerald searched for something to distract them. “I
wonder if it’ll be a girl or a boy?”

It distracted them. “It’s bound to be
male,” Tariq said a little indignantly.

“
You never know,” Koryn
retorted.

“
I guess we’ll find out!”
Tariq growled.

“
I guess we will!” Koryn
snapped.