Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I (46 page)

Chapter Nineteen

It had been a long, tiring day for all
of them and Emerald was looking forward to a long, hot shower and
bed when she finished cleaning the kitchen. Hearing voices outside
the window, she looked out, surprised to discover Tariq and Koryn
were on their way back in. Either they’d made short work of their
own chores or it had taken her longer to clean up than she’d
thought.

Drying her hands, she went to the
table to collect Anna from her chair. She’d just lifted the baby to
her hip when the two came in. Tariq’s eyes lit instantly when they
settled on the baby and he crossed the room to take her. “She’s too
heavy for you to carry around now,” he said chidingly, grinning at
the baby as she smiled at him and began jabbering, as if she was
trying to tell him something.

Emerald smiled at both of them
indulgently. “You just use that as an excuse because you like
holding her.”

His eyes gleamed with amusement. “I
need an excuse?” He returned his attention to the baby,
disentangling her little fist from his hair. “That’s daddy’s bad
girl. Aren’t you, Anna?”

She grinned at him, wrinkling her
nose.

Emerald chuckled. “Quit telling her
that! She thinks it’s a compliment!”

Koryn had joined them. He slipped
around behind Emerald and pulled her back against his length,
running his hands down over her belly and cupping the growing
mound. The baby obligingly kicked and then began to do jumping
jacks. It was almost as if she knew it was her daddy and she was so
excited she wanted to leap into his arms. “Don’t get her stirred
up! I’m tired.”

He bent down to kiss the top of her
head. “It’s nice outside. Come sit with me on the porch and I’ll
rock the baby to sleep.”

“
Which baby?” Emerald
asked with amusement.

“
Both of my babies,” he
murmured against her ear.

She was tempted. She might have
declined except that Tariq apparently liked the idea. He’d headed
toward the porch with Anna.

Taking her silence as an assent, Koryn
tucked her under one arm and guided her through the house and out
onto the front porch. Tariq was already occupying one of the huge
rockers, Anna perched on his lap and watching the movement of his
finger as he pointed out the stars in the sky that were distant
galaxies and named them off in his own language.

“
That’s
why we can’t understand a word she says,” Emerald
said, vaguely disapproving. “She’s trying to speak your language
and mine at the same time.”

Tariq sent her an indulgent look.
“She’s smart. She’ll learn both.”

Koryn planted himself in the other
rocker and pulled her down on his lap, carefully arranging her so
that her back was to Tariq. It was one of those ‘subtle’ moves they
still made to exclude each other whenever the opportunity arose.
Not that she was complaining! They almost never got into really
heated arguments anymore and they hadn’t come to blows since Anna
was born. She sent him a chiding look and turned around.

Irritation flickered across his face,
but he relaxed when she settled her head on his shoulder, curling
an arm around her and splaying his hand on the mound of her belly.
“It didn’t take you guys long to do your chores,” Emerald murmured
lazily as Koryn set the rocker into motion.

“
Aeon had already done
everything. We just stayed to talk a bit.”

Amusement flickered through her. “To
avoid kitchen duty, I don’t doubt.”

Tariq didn’t even have the grace to
pretend that wasn’t the case. He grinned, but he focused it on
Anna.

“
It was your night,” Koryn
reminded her.

Aeon came around the corner of the
house about that time, still dripping from a fresh bath—which she
didn’t doubt he’d performed under the hose in the yard. She didn’t
know if it was purely out of courtesy to make sure he didn’t track
anything nasty into the house or because he wasn’t comfortable with
their living arrangements. She thought it was a little of both. It
was hard to ignore the fact that he avoided the house—and her—as
much as possible.

Maybe it was just her imagination,
though?

If he really did want to avoid her why
had he moved in to start with? Loyalty to Tariq?

Possibly, she decided. Unlike the
others, who’d found a woman and settled down within the first year
after they’d arrived, Aeon hadn’t seemed to have any luck with the
opposite sex—which baffled her. To her mind, he was far more
handsome than Mikail or Daris or even Nicholas. He was quieter than
they were, though, seemed shy around her so maybe that was
it?

He hesitated when he saw them on the
porch and then continued as if he hadn’t, moving around the porch
and finally settling on the steps with his back against one of the
posts.

“
You still planning to go
into the city tomorrow, Aeon?” Tariq asked lazily.

Aeon glanced at him. “Yes.”

“
I don’t suppose I could
prevail upon you to take Em and the baby? She wanted to do some
trading for a few things. I have to go to Middlebrook tomorrow to
inspect the fortifications they’ve been working on to discourage
the natives from pilfering.”

Aeon glanced at her, his gaze settling
on her face for a long moment and then sliding down to her belly
and Koryn’s hand resting there.

“
I’d take her,” Koryn
volunteered, “but I have a dozen appointments tomorrow.”

Emerald saw the reluctance in Aeon’s
face. It stung, but she dismissed it. “Stop it! I can manage just
fine by myself. Don’t bother Aeon. He’s got enough to
do.”

He looked away. “I would be honored to
escort your lady,” he said after a long moment, his voice tight
with reluctance.

Emerald’s hurt deepened. She couldn’t
for the life of her figure out what she’d done that made Aeon so
reluctant to be around her. She was always friendly, always had
been. It wasn’t just gratitude that he was the one who’d rescued
her from Mylor—and been beaten and thrown in a cell in the hold of
Lady Selena’s ship for his pains by Lady Selena’s men! That was
part of it, but most of it, she thought, was because she saw that
he was miserably lonely and she wanted to banish that look from his
eyes.

Except he wouldn’t let her. She always
had the feeling that he was holding her at arm’s length—she
supposed because she was Tariq’s lady, but she didn’t see why that
prevented them from being friends!

Actually, he confused her.
He’d never once returned from the city without bringing her
something—usually another flower for her flower garden. He’d been
bringing her flowers since they’d received their land lot—even
before they’d built the wood frame house. In fact, he’d helped
Tariq and Koryn
build
the house and when she’d mentioned that she’d always loved
flowers and wanted to make a flower garden so that she could be
surrounded by flowers,
he
had noticed—not Tariq or Koryn—Aeon. And although
he’d only moved in a few months earlier to help them around the
farm, he’d visited them often before that and brought her
flowers.

It was just
odd
that he went out of
his way to find beautiful, exotic flowers for her and trade for
them and yet was so … distant. It was almost as if he was
afraid
to get too
close.

Of course, she supposed that was
because of Tariq—maybe Koryn, too, but mostly Tariq, she thought
because he still thought of Tariq as his lord.

She released a pent up breath. “It’s
alright, Aeon. You don’t have to take me just because Tariq
asked.”

“
He wants to take you,”
Tariq murmured. “Don’t you, Aeon?”

Aeon turned to look at Tariq hard.
“Yes,” he said after a moment.

“
He just doesn’t trust
himself around you,” Koryn added.

Aeon surged to his feet abruptly and
sent Koryn a hard look.

Emerald was startled by the comment
herself, but Aeon’s abrupt move distracted her even as she glanced
at Koryn and she turned to look at him instead. Dismay flickered
through her. She hadn’t seen such a look of rage on Aeon’s face
since he’d confronted Mylor about hurting her.

“
Koryn! Don’t tease him!
It’s alright, Aeon. He didn’t mean anything by it.”

“
No. I just wanted to see
if Tariq was right …. And I see he was.”

“
I have not touched your
woman,” Aeon growled. “I have not looked at her in any way that was
disrespectful.”

“
Don’t get too bent out of
shape about it,” Tariq drawled easily. “A man has needs. It isn’t
as if we don’t know that.”

Even with the shadows of darkness,
Emerald could see Aeon flush. She felt her own face
heat.

“
I manage my … needs,”
Aeon said through gritted teeth.

“
No very fucking well when
you can’t be around Em without staring a hole through her,” Tariq
said dryly.

Emerald sat up abruptly. “Tariq! What
in the world has gotten in to you?” She glanced reproachfully at
Koryn. “Both of you!”

“
Well, there’s no subtle
way to handle this,” Tariq said somewhat irritably, getting to his
feet. “You’re part of the family if you want to be, Aeon, and if Em
wants you to be.” He paused beside the chair where Emerald sat. “If
you can find it in your heart, Em, I’m not going to
object.”

Emerald gaped at his back as he went
into the house to put his sleeping daughter to bed.

Koryn got up and set her
own her feet. “I’d say three was a crowd—well, it
is
a fucking crowd, but
so is two and Tariq’s right. The poor bastard is miserable and only
you can do something about it. It looks like he’s here to stay
anyway. If he’s going to be sharing all the work and helping us
take care of you, he deserves a little more than a roof over his
head and food to fill his belly.”

He glanced at Aeon. “Anyway, we’re
never going to find out if my efforts worked any other way. He sure
as hell isn’t going to get any other woman pregnant when he won’t
touch one.”

Emerald turned to look at Aeon
uncomfortably when Koryn had stalked inside. “I don’t know what to
say,” she murmured after a moment.

Aeon stared at her for a long moment,
seemed to debate with himself and stepped onto the porch. Emerald
held her ground with an effort as he moved closer, halting only
when he was hovering over her. He studied her for a long moment and
finally lifted his hand to caress her cheek. “Say that you want me
… or that you do not. They have said that I can have what I have
wanted since the first time I saw you. I know I should not leap at
what they have offered, but I find I cannot resist. The gods know
that I have tried not to love you. I tried to tell myself that I
could not love you, that I had not been designed for such things,
and yet I know that I do. Do you feel that you could love me … even
a little, lady?”

Emerald felt the breath leave her.
Remorse filled her at that last, chasing the shock and filling her
with warmth. “Oh Aeon!” she whispered, regretful that she’d so
taken his friendship for granted that she hadn’t considered that
she might have wounded him many times in her thoughtlessness. “I
already love you … and more a little!”

He released a pent up breath and
slipped his hand to the base of her skull, shifting closer until
his body brushed hers. She lifted onto her toes to meet him when he
bent his head toward hers and matched his lips to hers.

His kiss shook her to her core. Right
up until she felt his lips on hers, until she breathed his breath
and took his scent inside of her, she’d thought she merely
cherished him as a dear friend and the hero who’d saved her from
the villainous Mylor. His touch dispelled any notion she’d held
that she felt nothing but friendship, however, admired him only
because of that one moment of heroism or even for the fact that he
was pleasing to her eyes.

They were both shaking with need by
the time he lifted his lips from hers. Without a word, he scooped
her into his arms. Instead of taking her inside and to the room
that was his, however, he carried her down the steps and into the
garden he’d made for her—with love, she realized at last—settling
her on the soft grasses at the center and following her
down.

Regret and discomfort filled her when
he’d undressed her and exposed her body, misshapen with advanced
pregnancy. She wondered how he could possibly find her the least
bit attractive, but he bent his head to kiss the mound as if it was
his child housed there and not Koryn’s, and his expression when he
lifted his head and looked at her was filled with heated desire. “I
want to watch my child grow here as I have watched Lord Tariq’s and
Koryn’s,” he murmured as he dipped down again and kissed his way
upward to her breasts.

Emerald was torn between delight at
his touch and anxiety right up until he began to suckle her breasts
hungrily. She forgot everything then. Even her perceptions narrowed
to that one point where his mouth pulled at the sensitive nub that
tipped her breast, sending electric charges through her that took
her breath away.