Sleeping With the Enemy (15 page)

    She didn’t want to rush him. She wanted to enjoy every moment, but impatience began to ride her, a need to feel him inside of her. “Come inside of me, Anka,” she gasped finally.

    His head jerked upward. He stared at her face for a long moment and moved over her, adjusting her thighs to accommodate his narrow hips. She’d panted until she’d begun to feel dehydrated, vaguely ill with the dust dryness of her throat.

    He remedied that with the heated moisture of his own mouth on hers.

    She realized the moment the head of his cock connected with the mouth of her sex where her moisture had gone. She was slippery with need, almost embarrassingly so.

    He didn’t seem to think so. “You’re so wet,” he said, his voice a husky growl as he pushed deeper.

    It sounded like praise. She was too mindless to be certain of anything anymore… and unnerved. She began to feel as if she would climax even before he got inside of her. With the best will in the world, though, she couldn’t seem to hold it back. He’d barely sank deeply inside of her when it ripped through her. She caught her breath, trying to conceal it from him.

    He uttered a throaty chuckle, sawing slowly in and out while the convulsions rattled her. Anger and embarrassment flickered through her, but he dispelled both. “My
nodia
. The next will be better.”

    Next? She was nearly comatose!

    She discovered she wasn’t as close to it as she’d thought. He shifted the moment her body had stopped convulsing, rolling to one side and driving into her in long, deep strokes. Her g-spot quivered, reawakening. Uncertainty wafted through her, but there was no denying the steady rhythm was deeply satisfying and within a few moments she felt her body gathering itself again, felt the building tension she recognized.

    His muscles began to quiver. His breaths were ragged, harsh against her ear. It unnerved her. At the same time it seemed to reach something deep inside of her, to thrill her in a way that sent her racing upward to her peak again. She gasped, stiffening as the first convulsion hit her.

    He groaned, a long, low sound filled with passionate anguish. She shuddered, bucking against him as the next wave hit her harder, crying out. Rolling with her so that she was beneath him once more, he began to drive into her harder and faster, driving her climax until she’d begun to think it would shake her apart.

    A profound sense of bliss rolled over her when he finally ceased to pump into her, shuddering and then going limp on top of her. “I’m sorry,
nodia
,” he said gustily, shifting his arms to lift some of his weight off of her.

    “Mmmm?” she murmured drunkenly.

    He uttered a half-hearted chuckle. “I should learn not to make promises. It has been a long time for me,
nodia
.”

    “Mmm? I came twice.”

    He rolled onto the bed beside her. “I was intent upon three.”

    Sybil dragged in a sustaining breath and let it out slowly. “I’m not sure I could handle three.”

    He curled his arms around her, dragging her close. “We’ll see.”

    “My headache’s gone,” she murmured in surprise after a few moments.

    Anka stiffened then began to shake with silent laughter. “I’ve always thought sex had amazing curative powers myself.”

    She smiled against his shoulder. “I took painkiller.”

    “But all you needed was me,
nodia
.”

    Her throat closed at his quip. She was beginning to think that was too painfully true.

Chapter Nine

    Sybil had never been more thoroughly exhausted in her life… or happier about it. Despite his threat/promise, Anka hadn’t made any attempt to coax her into another round of sex. He’d slept with her in his arms, though, awakened her several times with the light stroke of his hand or his lips in her hair. Regret had filled her when he finally slipped from the bed and dressed in spite of the fact that she’d found it impossible to sleep deeply or stay asleep with him in her bed.

    She hadn’t wanted him to leave even though she’d acknowledged that she couldn’t afford for him to be spotted leaving her quarters. “You don’t have to leave yet.”

    He leaned over her, bending down to nuzzle his face against hers. “I do. Everyone will be stirring soon.”

    She sighed her acceptance and her disappointment, but she didn’t try to hold him longer. For a little while after he’d gone, she lay awake, and then dropped asleep again just before her alarm went off.

    She was a little sore, but even that made her happy, each tiny twinge reminding her of the night they’d spent together.

    “You seem to be in good spirits this morning,” Powell muttered. “You take a happy pill?”

    Sybil felt her face redden, wondering if she’d actually been smiling at her thoughts. “Just trying to brace myself for another tedious day,” she lied, grabbing a cup of coffee and leaving Powell standing beside the urn.

    The congressman’s aid sent her a piercing look as she came in that unnerved her. Surreptitiously, she checked her uniform to make certain she’d put herself together correctly and then nonchalantly checked her hair. She couldn’t tell that anything was askew. She set her cup of coffee down at her desk. “Excuse me. I believe I’ll hit the lady’s room before I get started.”

    The view in the mirror was something of a jolt. She’d been sure she had concealed the dark circles under her eyes, but she looked like a raccoon! No wonder the guy had stared at her! Dragging a concealer stick out of her purse, she applied it carefully and then checked the fit of her uniform and her hair. She still looked like she’d had a long night, but it was the best she could do.

    The aid met her in the doorway on her way back in. “Anything you need to tell me?”

    Sybil stared at him blankly, trying to get her heart rate down to something close to normal. “Not that I can think of.”

    He studied her for a moment and finally moved to allow her to pass, but Sybil was a nervous wreck when she sat down at her desk and booted her system. The tedium she’d expected helped to settle her nerves after a few hours, so much so that by the time she’d had her lunch she was fighting sleep. Shortly after lunch, however, an image flashed on her vid display that brought her wide awake.

    “What do you know about him?”

    Sybil lifted her head and gaped at Phil Meachum, trying to ignore the stares of the others. Anger flickered to life after a moment, chasing her shock and anxiety. “He’s good in bed,” she said baldly.

    He looked taken aback by her frankness. “Besides that,” he said dryly when he’d recovered.

    She blinked at him. “I gave a full report.”

    “I’m not asking about that. I want to know what your impression of the man… uh… ril, Commander Anka l’Kartay is.”

    Sybil’s lips tightened. “If you’ve read the report, you should know we were only at their base camp a couple of days. I don’t know him… except in the biblical sense.”

    “You were there long enough for him to seduce you,” he countered sardonically.

    “Yes, about five seconds after I got a really good look at him… and it took me hours after that to convince him to take me into his bed!”

    “You’re damned defensive about him.”

    “I’m defensive about your line of questioning. Maybe if I understood
why
you’d brought this up-again-I wouldn’t be so defensive.”

    “Alright. Good enough. I brought it up because his name keeps popping up-enough that we’re beginning to wonder just how powerful a force he is in the Sumpturian political arena.”

    Sybil gaped at him. “He’s a military man. I wasn’t aware that he had anything at all to do with politics. What do you mean his name keeps popping up?”

    “We haven’t made a lot of headway in breaking their language down, but we don’t need to in so far as names go. So, unless there’s another Commander l’Kartay, this one seems to be on a lot of minds.”

    Uneasiness filled Sybil, not the least because he’d come under the government’s scrutiny. “Well,” she said after a moment, “we don’t actually know that there isn’t, you know.”

    Meachum wasn’t the only one that gave her a look of patent disbelief. Powell, Rains, and Kushbu all looked at her as if she’d grown horns and a forked tail. In all honesty, she didn’t believe it either, but she knew it
was
possible.

    “What I mean is, we don’t even know that l’Kartay is a name as we know them. It could mean anything and there could be any number of Sumpturians with that title, if it was a title. It might be a place name, you know.”

    “I think the law of averages would rule out the possibility of there being two Commander Anka l’Kartays.”

    “Oh.” Sybil struggled with the dismay that comment caused her for a few moments. “Well, we don’t know in what context that they’ve mentioned him, do we?”

    “No, we don’t. But we’re interested in finding out,” he said pointedly.

    Sybil had a very bad feeling that someone had seen him entering her quarters the night before, but she wasn’t about to volunteer the information. “I’m willing to try to figure it out if you’ll just let me study the vids you’re talking about.”

    “They haven’t been released to us yet. All I’m trying to get at this point is a handle on him.”

    Sybil nodded, struggling to gather her wits about her. “It was clear that the men and women under him held a great deal of respect for him,” she said after a moment’s thought.

    “Rils and rilous,” he corrected her. “We feel that it’s important to get a grasp of their language.”

    So they could spy on them more easily? Irritation flickered through her. “The soldiers under his command.”

    Meachum turned to the others, lifting a brow questioningly. “Do you all agree on that assessment?”

    Powell frowned, considering it. “Yes. I’d have to agree with her.”

    Kushbu and Rains also agreed.

    It was the first time they’d all agreed on anything and Sybil almost wished they hadn’t given the speculation in Meachum’s eyes. “So you’re saying they wouldn’t hesitate to follow him… whatever he might ask of them?”

    Sybil turned cold. “That’s a leap,” she said through stiff lips.

    Powell shrugged. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that he’s some sort of hero to them. It would be hard to say considering how little we know about them.”

    Sybil wished she’d been close enough to stomp his foot… and break it.

    Kushbu agreed with him. Holly Rains, thankfully, didn’t simply fall in with the others. “I don’t know much about the military, quite honestly. Aren’t they supposed to follow whatever orders their commander gives them?”

    “Unless they’re treasonous.”

    Holly gaped at him. “Well! I didn’t get that impression at all if you’re saying he’s some sort of… budding dictator! He’s a very kind and well mannered man, from what I could tell… uh… ril.”

    Sybil could’ve kissed the woman! “I agree with that. Under the circumstances, considering he could well have viewed us as a threat to Sumpturian security, he was extremely gracious.”

    Meachum didn’t seem the least bit happy at that assessment. The bastard! He should’ve been relieved. Instead, he
wanted
to think the worst! He shrugged after a moment. “Maybe too gracious? He could also be a master at manipulation. He would’ve known as soon as they’d examined the craft that it was a scientific expedition. There were no weapons on board.”

    “There were plenty of cameras, though,” Sybil pointed out dryly, “which could just as easily have led to the conclusion that we were there to spy.”

    “And maybe it did?” said the devil’s advocate. “His ‘gracious’ behavior might have been nothing more than a smoke screen to create that impression to get you to lower your guard.”

    Honestly! As if everybody in the world-universe-was as paranoid as the American government! “And maybe we shouldn’t judge them by ourselves?” she suggested tightly. “As you keep pointing out, they’re rils, not men. We don’t know how they think. It doesn’t seem to me that they’re in a position where they’d need to worry about how we feel about them.”

    “It doesn’t, does it?”

    Sybil wanted to demand to know what the hell he meant by that, but she didn’t need to.

    The government was beginning to wonder why the Sumpturian’s had been willing to form a treaty and they weren’t convinced it was graciousness on their part.

    Wasn’t it
just
like them to decide nobody would offer such a thing merely to have peace? That they must be worried, or fearful? It made her blood run cold just thinking what they might try if they thought the Sumpturians were vulnerable in any way.

* * * *

    If possible, Sybil had a worse headache that evening as she headed back to her quarters. Instead of popping more painkillers, she decided to try to take a catnap. Her mind was so active she thought at first she wouldn’t be able to, especially when she could smell the mingling of her scent and Anka’s on her linens. Eventually, though, the broken rest she’d had the night before caught up with her. She woke to discover she’d slept nearly two hours and the headache wasn’t gone. Maybe she just needed food? She hadn’t eaten much the night before or at lunch.

    The temptation to order another tray was strong. Reluctantly, she discarded the idea. The moment she’d thought of food the hope had instantly arisen that Anka might come back, but it was that very thing that drove her from her quarters to dine in the mess with everyone else. She shouldn’t
be
there if he did decide to come back!

    She had a bad feeling that Meachum suspected something and it wouldn’t be good for either of them to be caught together. Not that she was particularly worried about herself. The Sumpturian enclave was restricted to the conference center, though, even if they did have diplomatic immunity. Anka wasn’t supposed to be inside the military complex at all and there was no telling what sort of flap it would cause if he was found there.

    Despite her objective in using food as a curative, she found that it only succeeded in dulling the pain a little more. It was tension headache, she decided, not a hunger headache. When she left the mess hall, she headed to the gym for a workout, reminding herself that she was behind in her routine anyway. It took work, and a lot of it, to counteract the effects of micro gravity despite the efforts to create simulated gravity. Without the centrifugal force the rotators created and the workout they got from the magnetic fields, the moon base would’ve been completely impossible, but even with them anyone stationed for a long period had to work out regularly.

    Thankfully, the work out took care the tension. Feeling pleasantly tired, Sybil headed back to her quarters and a hot bath. She was sitting in the middle of her bed combing the tangles from her hair when a strange phenomena in the center of her quarters caught her attention. Her heart skipped several beats as the particles solidified, fear and joy instantly at war.

    “Anka!”

    He grinned at her expression. “My apologies. There are patrols in the corridor or I would’ve had better manners than to enter without permission.”

    Sybil sprang from her bed and rushed toward him, gripping his arms a little frantically. “This is bad! This is really bad! You shouldn’t be here!”

    He lifted his brows at her but gathered her into his arms, nuzzling her neck. “Does that mean I’m not welcome, my
nodia
?”

    Sybil clutched at him. “Of course it doesn’t! I mean…!”

    He chuckled. Leaning away, he stroked her cheek lightly. “Yes or no,
nodia
?”

    Sybil felt a thrill race through her at the reminder of that night, the first night he’d asked her that. She struggled with the warmth it produced, wrestled with her desire to have him stay and her concern for him. “This is a restricted area. You aren’t supposed to be here.”

    He studied her for a moment. “Then come back to my place with me.”

    The temptation was so overwhelming she wanted to jump on it. She bit her lip, thinking about it. “I’ll be considered AWOL if they try to summon me for any reason and I’m not here. And that could cause trouble, too, especially if they figure out I’m with you.”

    He studied her face. “You’re very worried about this?”

    Sybil sighed. “I’m worried about you.” She hesitated. “You’re here now, though. Stay a while.”