Sleeping With the Enemy (11 page)

    Sybil was
not
that young.

    It was true that it was as hard for him to judge the age of humans as it was for her to judge the age of a
feril
. Neither of them had the ‘tools’ to make that sort of judgment, but he certainly came closer than her. He’d at least studied the exhaustive data collected over the years on humans. Regardless of the fact that he hadn’t had enough interaction to simply make an educated guess from their appearance, he had some data to help him calculate. She was an officer in service to her country. Even if she’d gone to school to become an officer, instead of entering service at the lowest rank, it would’ve taken time to move up. She must be at least twenty five solars, or years as they referred to it, he concluded.

    He realized that wasn’t actually the question in his mind-not why she had been virginal when she was old enough to have taken many lovers, or at least a few. The question was, why had she taken him?

    Because she’d been afraid to refuse?

    He feared that might be the answer and if it was, it could be disastrous on far more than a personal level.

    Anger flickered through him. He’d done his best to recover the situation when she’d told him outright that she was terrified and he’d seen that she was. He’d tried to sooth her. Why had she refused every attempt he’d made to convince her to simply return to her own people? If she was afraid of him, why hadn’t she fled when he’d given her the chance?

    He didn’t know. He wracked his mind for something he’d read about their psychology that might help him understand and came up empty.

    She hadn’t
behaved
as if she had never been with a man, damn it! He hadn’t discovered it until he’d been inside of her and by then he was lost. There was no point in trying to whitewash it. He hadn’t
wanted
to stop. He’d still given her the opportunity to push him away, but when she hadn’t he was just so much putty in her hands.

    Gods! She would go back to her people and tell them he had raped her and she would have proof that he had. He
knew
she was raw from his lovemaking. She had to be when he’d felt the delicate tissue tear.

    He would be fortunate if his people turned him over to hers in one piece when the fallout from his stupidity landed in their laps!

    Gods! He was nigh forty solars! She was not even a woman of Sumptra! He didn’t see how he could have fallen so swiftly and completely under her spell as to do what he’d done! He might as well have been a complete moron for all the brain matter that he’d used!

    What was it about him that drew virgins, he thought in disgust? A good half of the women he had taken as lovers over the years had been. He did not believe for one moment that it was a subconscious desire on his part. It certainly wasn’t a conscious one, by the gods! Beyond the fact that they had no idea how to please a man, they were not
mature
enough to form a comfortable relationship.

    Not that it would be any help to him to figure that out at the moment! There could not
be
any relationship with Sybil. That was one of the main reasons he’d decided he would ignore the attraction he felt toward her-that and the political ramifications of such a liaison.

That
had worked well, by the gods!

    She had smiled at him, laughed at his stupid attempts at humor, looked him over with frank admiration, and he had completely forgotten everything that he’d worked out so carefully in his mind and allowed her to lead him off by his cock!

    Sybil stirred in his arms, dragging him abruptly from his mental rebuke and pitching him into a mild state of panic as it dawned on him that he’d been too busy berating himself to figure out how to handle the situation.

    “Is it morning?” she asked sleepily.

    “What passes for it here,” he responded more harshly than he’d intended. “We slept through the rest period.”

    She lifted her head and studied him. Her hair-the beautiful sunlight colored hair that he’d admired-was tousled from sleep, her pretty face flushed, her lips soft and inviting and his cock leapt up like the mindless beast it was. “You didn’t sleep well?”

    He swallowed a little convulsively. “Like the dead.”

    She smiled. It took all he could do to refrain from leaning down to capture her lips with his own and explore her mouth. “We have trampled the customs of two cultures and lain waste. I should return you to your quarters.”

    She uttered a half laugh before something horrendous apparently occurred to her. The smile died. Her eyes widened. “Oh god! It’s morning?”

    “I said that.”

    She tore from his arms and leapt from the bed so fast he was stunned. “My clothes! Where are they?”

    Bemused, he searched the bedding and finally produced the top. She snatched it from his hand and began struggling to tie it while he searched for the rest. He found her panties and the skirt beneath him. Dismay registered on her face when she saw the crumpled clothing. “Oh! Jesus! No way in hell are they going to be in any doubt… Never mind! Do you have a comb? A brush?” she added, raking her hands absently through her hair.

    “In the facilities,” he said, nodding toward the wall.

    She whirled and dashed in that direction, almost slamming into the wall before he could leap from the bed and prevent it. “The doors only respond to us.”

    Nodding distractedly, she pulled free of his hold and dashed inside. Still bemused, he watched her as she grabbed his brush and began raking it frantically through her hair. “I could do that for you,” he murmured, unable to resist the urge to touch it.

    She shook her head. “No. It’s fine. I need to get back before…”

    He could no more understand the anxiety that had her dancing with impatience than he’d been able to understand why she’d allowed him in her bed-allowed him to take her into his. He felt her urgency, however, and escorted her as quickly as he could, refusing resolutely to run even though he could tell she wanted to.

    They arrived at the quarters set aside for the humans to find Dr. Rains and Ensign Beckt embracing against the wall. Hearing their approach, Dr. Rains pushed him away frantically, threw them a wide-eyed look of horror, whirled, and slammed into the wall when the door didn’t open for her. Beckt caught her arm, turning her to face him so that he could examine her for injury. “No! I’m fine! Really!”

    She glanced at him and Sybil in dismay as they stopped. “I was just talking to Beckt… uh…” Apparently, she wasn’t in any condition to cook up a believable story. “I should go.”

    Sybil glanced at him. “Yes. Good idea! Well… bye!”

    Anka frowned, catching her arm before she could escape. “A moment…”

    “I have to go in!” she growled at him and then forced a smile. “We can talk later.”

    They were both distracted by sounds of new arrivals and turned to look as Powell and Kushbu strode toward them.

    Sybil gaped at the men, too dismayed to be caught outside the observatory with Anka, at first, to really register their condition. Their hair was standing on end, however, a sure sign of bed head. Both men had a day’s growth of beard and both of them had bags under their eyes as if they hadn’t actually done a lot of sleeping in the beds they’d climbed out of.

    Powell’s face darkened with color as he reached them. He nodded curtly. Kushbu studied the floor as he passed them. Sybil threw Anka a look he had trouble interpreting. “I need to go in now.”

    Reluctantly, he released her. Dr. Rains snatched her arm free of Beckt’s hold and dashed through the door before Sybil could, nearly knocking her down.

    Anka stood frowning at the door for several moments after they’d disappeared and finally looked at Beckt. Beckt looked as confused as he was. He shrugged. Abruptly remembering himself, he stiffened, saluted and headed down the corridor at a brisk walk, leaving Anka in the hall alone and wondering what the hell had happened.

* * * *

    Holly beat Sybil to the facilities and leapt into the shower. After glaring at the woman through the opaque material surrounding the shower for several moments, Sybil left and returned to their sleeping quarters. Plopping tiredly on the edge of her bunk, she stared at the floor, trying to empty her mind. Thoughts swarmed like a flock of carrion feeders, however, determined, relentless.

    Foremost in her mind was the ‘walk of shame’, which she, unfortunately hadn’t been able to avoid despite the fact that she’d given it her best shot. She supposed she shouldn’t feel too embarrassed about it since she hadn’t been the only one, but she couldn’t tell that she was any
less
embarrassed from encountering the rest of the crew outside of the observatory. True, they were hardly in any position to make a judgment on her, but that didn’t change the fact that they knew exactly what she’d been doing.

    It sucked that she’d managed to think up a really good lie to cover herself and had been thwarted from using it by the circumstances!

    Holly was still dripping when she left the bath a little bit later. Without glancing at Sybil, she headed for her bed. Jolting to her feet, Sybil headed into the bathroom. When she came out again, Holly was either asleep or pretending to sleep. She wasn’t sure which, and she didn’t particularly feel any need to rest herself. Discovering the moment she poked her nose out of the room, however, that Spencer was pacing the observatory like a caged lion, she headed back to bed.

    For a while after she lay down to stare up at the ceiling, the only thoughts rambling through her mind were of the embarrassing encounter with her fellow crewmembers. Slowly, however, the endless round of questioning what she might have done differently wore itself out and she began to remember her behavior in a totally different light.

    What must Anka think of her odd behavior, she wondered?

    What
could
he think, she realized in dismay! That she was ashamed of what she’d done and embarrassed that her fellow crewmembers
knew
what she’d done!

    God! She wouldn’t even talk to him, or look at him!

    She hadn’t meant to leave him with impression! She’d just been too caught up in her own distress to consider that it might make him feel badly!

    She just hadn’t wanted them passing judgment on her, whispering behind her back! It wasn’t that she was ashamed of him or what they’d done together! It wasn’t! It had been… beautiful! More wonderful than she’d ever imagined it possibly could be!

    Tears clogged her nose and throat at the thought that she’d ruined it by behaving like a silly child caught at something they shouldn’t be doing and fearful of punishment. God! She was twenty eight years old! She was damned well old enough to make her own decisions about her life! It wasn’t any of their business at all! Why should she care what they thought?

    She did, though. Actually she didn’t, not really, but she did care about being shunned.

    They weren’t really in any position to look down on her, though, were they, she thought, perking up slightly?

    Not that she’d seen that had ever really stopped anybody from doing so. They always found an excuse for themselves.

    Angry male voices from the observatory alerted her to the fact that the men had left their quarters. Holly sat up, listening intently. Her alertness made it clear that she hadn’t actually been sleeping any of the time.

    “What’s going on?”

    “Your guess is as good as mine.”

    Holly was silent for several moments, listening. “Do you think we should go out and try to break it up before they fight?”

    Sybil sent her a sour look. “Do you honestly think we could? Anyway, I don’t care if they beat Spencer senseless. He’s an asshole.”

    Holly seemed to consider that. “Yes… but… What if he beats Powell and Kushbu senseless?”

    Sybil blinked at her, digesting that, and then surged off the bed. The last thing she wanted was to end up at Spencer’s mercy the way he’d been acting! She didn’t know about Powell, but Kushbu was about as big around as a thread! Spencer would mop the floor with him.

    Holly, who’d suggested ‘they’ try to stop the argument before it escalated into a fight, followed Sybil to the door and then hovered in the doorway as Sybil strode into the observatory. Sybil didn’t even realize she’d lost her backup until she’d reached the men. “What’s going on?”

    Spencer, who’d been chest to chest with Powell, snarling in his face, whirled to look at her. His expression was ugly. He looked her up and down as if she was a pile of shit and curled his lips back. “Stay out of it, whore!”

Chapter Seven

    Absolute shock hit Sybil as if she’d been punched. Never in her life, certainly not in her military career, had she been assaulted in such a way. Rage chased the shock in a counter wave. She balled her hands into fists. “What did you say to me,
Corporal
?”

    He didn’t get the chance to respond. Powell grabbed him by one shoulder and half spun him around to punch him in the face. Caught off guard, the blow was far more effective than it might have been otherwise. Spencer staggered away from the blow, trying to catch himself and lost the battle. Almost the moment he hit the floor, however, he rolled to his feet, uttered a bellow of rage, and charged Powell.

    Holly screamed ear-splittingly.

    “Have you completely lost your mind, Spencer?” Sybil shouted as he butted Powell with his head and shoulders, carrying him across the room and into the wall. She heard Powell’s head make a sickening sound as it struck the wall. His eyes rolled back in his head. He slid down the wall when Spencer released him and turned, fixing her with a deadly look.

    Her heart slammed against her chest wall, knocking the breath from her, but she shook it off, assuming a fighting stance. “Don’t do anything you’re going to regret, soldier!” she said warningly.

    Not surprisingly, he was too enraged to listen. He charged her. Sybil waited until the last possible moment. Instead of meeting his charge, however, she leapt out of the way, whirling as she landed and driving her foot into his back. Pain shot through her ankle. Gritting her teeth, she resumed an attack stance, watching Spencer as he slammed into the floor from her blow and then rolled up again. Before he could get from his knees to his feet, the door of the observatory flew open and Anka, followed by two other soldiers, raced inside. Anka caught Spencer around the shoulders and lifted him bodily from the floor as if he weighed no more than a child. Spencer wrestled to free himself from Anka’s hold and then abruptly threw himself forward and down, flipping Anka over his back.

    Sybil sucked in a sharp breath. Before Spencer could follow through, however, Anka was on his feet and facing his adversary. Spencer had been reduced by his rage to snarling and grunting, but he managed to throw a few insults in her direction as he attacked Anka, throwing three quick punches in succession. Anka blocked each strike and then slammed a fist into Spencer’s face. His head snapped back at the blow. His eyes rolled back into his head and he fell toward the floor like a felled tree, stiff as board.

    Aghast, Sybil stared down at the man. “Is he… dead?”

    “Not yet,” Anka growled, glaring at the unconscious man. He seemed to collect himself with an effort and tamp his anger. “Are you hurt?”

    Sybil looked down at her foot. “I think I might have sprained my ankle when I kicked him.”

    Surging toward her, he scooped her off her feet before she even realized his intention and carried her into her sleeping quarters, settling her on the bed. Crouching beside the bed, he gently lifted her leg, supporting the calf and foot, and studied the knot that had sprung up. His expression hardened. “I’ll have a droid scan it. It might be broken.”

    Sybil didn’t object. The pain had started to set in the moment the shock began to wear off. “Do you think Major Powell will be alright?”

    He studied her face for a long moment. “I’ll check on him,” he said abruptly, turning to go.

    The urge to stop him smote her as he reached the door but she curbed it. Listening intently, she struggled to interpret what was going on in the observatory, but discovered that Anka and his men were speaking their own language. After a few minutes, she saw one of the men who’d accompanied Anka carry Spencer out over his shoulder. Anka appeared in her door a few minutes later. “Powell has come around, but we’ll be taking him down for a scan to check his injuries.”

    “What are they going to do with Spencer?”

    His lips tightened. “He’s to be confined… alone.”

    She stopped him when he turned to go. “Anka.”

    He turned back, lifting his brows questioningly.

    “I’m sorry about the way I behaved this morning.”

    Surprise flickered in his eyes. “We’ll talk… later.”

    Disappointment wafted through her when he’d gone and anxiety. She couldn’t tell that her apology had had much impact. Swallowing the sudden impulse to cry for no damned reason at all, she settled back against her pillow and stared at the ceiling.

    “My god!” Holly muttered, plunking down on her own bunk weakly. “What in the world happened?”

    Sybil thought it was a rhetorical question, but she’d been trying to understand it herself. “I don’t know. According to his file, Spencer’s had some discipline problems in the past, but nothing like this. At a guess, he spent the night brooding over the fact that he was sent back here while we stayed to take part in the festival and was spoiling for a fight long before we got back. I think that only fueled the fire-the fact that none of us came back until this morning.”

    Holly cleared her throat. “I got to talking with Beckt-about their culture, you know?- and just completely lost track of time.”

    Sybil sent her a sour look. “You, too? That’s what happened to me-except I was talking to Anka.”

    Holly’s face reddened with anger. “Are you insinuating that I’m lying?”

    “Are you insinuating that
I
am?” Sybil shot back at her.

    “If that’s true, why was Spencer screaming ‘whore’ and ‘slut’ at you?”

    “Because he has a nasty mind and a fertile imagination?” Sybil retorted angrily. Why the hell was it that men could bed hop as much they pleased and yet the very damned moment a woman took a lover she was automatically a fucking whore? Was that just? Was that reasonable? It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair, and yet it was fact of life-always had been, always would be. There were two standards-one for men and one for women. And the worst of it was that women were largely responsible for it! Here was Holly, judging her, when she didn’t have any right whatsoever to do so, and instantly believing Spencer just because he said so!

    Holly sniffed. “I’m not in the habit of sleeping with strange men,” she said stiffly.

    “Neither am I!” Sybil said tightly. “Not that I don’t have a perfect right to do so if the mood strikes me, damn it! I’m single and I’m an adult and, if I have to take on the responsibilities of an adult, then I
also
have the same freedoms as any other adult!”

    “I saw you leave with Anka-we all did.”

    “So? I saw you drag back in this morning, and Powell and Kushbu, so don’t take that ‘holier than thou’ attitude with me! At least I’m not married!”

    “
I
am not married either!” Holly said angrily.

    “Well, I wouldn’t brag about it!” Sybil snapped. “What are you, forty? And Powell damned sure is!”

    “I
was
married,” Holly said defensively. “I’m divorced. It isn’t disgraceful for a woman who’s been married before to… uh… consider finding another husband!”

    “Says who?”

    “Everybody! Single young women shouldn’t… well, they aren’t used to living with a man and it’s different when you are.”

    Sybil gaped at her. “
When
were you born?
Where
were you born, for that matter?”

    Holly glared at her but apparently decided to keep the rest of her opinion to herself. Sybil just wished she’d kept
all
of it to herself! She stewed over it for a while and finally realized she wasn’t nearly as angry at Holly as she was upset by what had happened between her and Anka.

    He’d been cool and polite but he hadn’t unbent even a little when she’d apologized. That could mean only one thing as far as she could see-he regretted everything and he was trying to build a barrier to keep her out.

    The urge to weep swept over her again, but she beat it back, refusing to give in to her emotions.

    She decided after a while that he was probably right. They shouldn’t have done it. The situation was already a crisis waiting to happen. Allowing themselves to get emotionally entangled was only going to complicate things further.

    Not that she thought
he
was in any danger of that! She couldn’t actually blame him for trying to protect himself and the interests of his people, though.

    Well fine! If he wanted to pretend it had never happened,
she
could pretend with the best of them, damn him!

    The creepy droids arrived about the time she finished arguing with Holly, scanned her ankle and wrapped it. She guessed that meant it wasn’t broken. It was just a sprain, which she’d thought all the time-meaning she’d permanently fucked up her tendon. She refused the medicine they offered for the pain. She thought it was probably alright, but she didn’t want to take the chance of being knocked senseless and being defenseless.

    Of course, it didn’t appear that Spencer would be allowed to cause any more trouble, but no one was exactly friendly and if Holly, Major Powell, and Dr. Kushbu were going to be hatching a story to cover their asses, she damned well wasn’t going to be left out!

    She was left out, though. When meal time rolled around, one of the creepy droids brought her food to her. Everyone else left to dine in the mess hall. Trying not to feel like Anka had ordered it just to steer clear of her, she ate what she could, set the tray aside, and lay down to stew.

    Almost the worst of it was that she couldn’t even enjoy the night she’d spent with him- not now. It embarrassed her when she finally remembered what she’d said to him-which was probably why he was avoiding her like she had leprosy now!

    “For crying out loud!” she muttered angrily. “I was half asleep, damn it!”

    Of course she’d meant it-in a way, but she sure as hell hadn’t meant to say it! And it wasn’t completely true anyway-just sort of. The truth was that she’d had to work twice as hard to make it in the service than she would have if she’d been swinging a dick. Anybody could say any damned lie they wanted about ‘equality’ but there was really no such thing. She hadn’t
dared
get involved with any of the service men, fearful that it would show up on her record and earn her a reprimand that would go against her the next time she was up for a promotion, or a demotion, or maybe even a discharge. She’d had a few interesting encounters, but never interesting enough to make her lose her head and that went for her time before she’d entered the service. She figured if they couldn’t convince her there was no point in ‘doing’ it.

    She certainly hadn’t consciously made a decision to ‘save’ herself! She supposed, after a while, though, she’d begun to think that way, to figure that she’d already missed the boat, so to speak, and she might as well wait until some guy came along that really tipped the scales.

    And wasn’t it just
typical
that he wasn’t even human? Talk about unattainable!

    She frowned at the thought, wondering if she’d been subconsciously considering that as a point in his favor. After all, it wouldn’t be something that could come back to haunt her. At least, it shouldn’t have been. Now she wasn’t so certain. Unless everybody else decided to keep their guilty little secret about romping with the aliens, she could be in deep shit! Especially if they were willing to lie through their teeth like Holly, swear they hadn’t done a
thing,
and that she had.

    Not that they could prove she had, but if they ganged up on her… Hell, if Powell decided to report her she’d be cooked!

    It dawned on her abruptly that there was no way it wouldn’t come out, regardless of whether Powell and the others decided to keep quiet about it. Spencer certainly wasn’t going to… unless he decided to use it to blackmail them into dropping all charges against him. Given the situation, his behavior was mutinous, not just insubordination, and his attack on his superior officers, both her and Powell, would also carry heavy charges. He would be looking at spending years in the military penitentiary. Considering his personality, it was almost a foregone conclusion that he’d try to blackmail them, she realized.

    So they were screwed!

    She sighed, covering her face with her hands, trying to figure out how one innocent adventure in exploring her sexuality could go so nightmarishly wrong! How was it that
other
people managed to have sex without landing in such an awful predicament?

    She should’ve just had the damned thing sewn shut! She couldn’t even have sex one damned time without it turning into a fucking galactic incident!

    It wasn’t fair! It just wasn’t fair! And, unfortunately, railing against fate wasn’t going to do her any good at all.

    Hearing a commotion of arrival outside her door, she immediately thought about Powell and decided to get up to see if they’d brought him back. Hopefully, he wasn’t in too bad a shape and he could think what to do. He had more riding on the outcome, after all, than she did. It would be his career
and
his marriage!