She didn’t want to spend the night alone in the room she’d gotten for two, damn it! It was for sure she wouldn’t be getting a refund, though. Changing directions, she headed back across the conference room toward the hotel transport dock. She’d almost made it when the music stopped and someone tapped on the microphone for attention. Deciding she didn’t care, she kept going.

    “Our guests have offered an exhibition for us tonight of the festival dance.”

    Sybil halted abruptly, her heart hammering in her chest as she turned to look back toward the stage. The dance floor began to clear as the Sumpturians advanced upon it. A few moments later, she heard the exotic music she remembered and then she saw Anka, his head lifted as he scanned the audience. Breathlessly, she waited, hoping he would spot her and that it was her he was looking for. He met her gaze and lifted his brows questioningly.

    Her legs felt like they’d turned to spaghetti. She didn’t think she could make the walk if her life depended upon it. Fortunately, she didn’t have to, at least not alone. Anka left the other dancers and strode toward her.

    As thrilled as she was, she was also hideously self-conscious when she realized he held the attention of nearly every soul in the ball room as he approached her.

    The only thing that could possibly be worse was the nightmarish vision that danced in her head of Anka walking right past her and asking some other woman to dance. Before she could glance behind her to check, however, he’d reached her. He held out his hand in invitation. “You promised me a dance, nodia.”

    She thought she was going to faint. Struggling to catch her breath, she placed her hand in his. “Wait!” she gasped as he turned to lead her back to the dance floor.

    He paused and looked at her quizzically, but she wasn’t about to try one of their folk dances in spike heels! Kicking them off and abandoning them, she hurried with him to take their places on the dance floor, ignoring the stir it caused when she’d kicked her shoes off.

    Someone started the song over.

    Sybil glanced up at Anka and smiled, feeling like Cinderella must have felt when the prince asked her to dance-as if she’d suddenly found herself in a magical dream. He smiled back at her as they began the steps of the dance. She surprised herself by remembering most of the steps and acquitting herself with far more grace than she’d thought she could manage considering she was high with excitement.

    Even the reaction of the audience felt like part of the dream when the dance finally ended and Anka turned to her, looking down at her with his eyes gleaming. “Will you take me to your bed tonight, my nodia?”

    Sybil smiled up at him until a sudden thought struck her. Her smile flattened. “The transport!” she gasped.

    He looked disconcerted. “The transport?”

    She moved closer. “Meet me at the hotel dock. I got us a room!” she whispered.

    He looked more confused than enlightened, but he released her and she dashed away to search for her shoes. She’d been pacing the dock for all of five seconds when he arrived. “I thought you weren’t coming!”

    He made a sound of irritation. “The President stopped me. I believe I may have been rude, but the treaty is signed now. Where are we going?”

    Sybil stared at him. “You were rude to the President… of the United States? Never mind. Like you said, the treaty’s signed now.”

    He looked bemused when she led him to the airlock and from there into the transport. They settled side by side on the bench that faced the airlock.

    “Is anyone else ready to return the hotel?” the driver asked.

    She didn’t know, but she sure as hell had no intention of waiting for them. “No. Just us.”

    “Hotel?”

    “Shhh!” Sybil hissed, anxious now that it looked like they might actually manage to leave without being observed that someone would show up and ruin it.

    “Why are we whispering?” he asked, amused.

    Sybil shook her head at him. “Watch the safety harness!”

    Anka ducked as the bar came up over the back of the seat and secured them, looking at the apparatus, which was actually more like the safety guard on a roller coaster than a harness. “What is this for?”

    “To keep us from floating.”

    He looked startled but the driver pulled out of the airlock just then and his expression was downright comical. “Gods!”

    Sybil bit her lip. “No gravity-not much anyway.”

    “This feels… strange.”

    Sybil was about to point out that he’d experienced it when they’d moon walked before when it abruptly occurred to her that they hadn’t. She’d just been too upset to think about the fact that she hadn’t experienced the micro gravity she should have.

    It must have been the suits! No wonder the military had been so hot to get hold of them!

    “You still haven’t told me where we’re going.”

    “I did. I told you I got us a room.”

    “So, we aren’t going to your quarters?”

    “No, because I’m tired of worrying about being caught.”

    Something flickered in his eyes. “You truly were worried, nodia?”

    “Of course I was.” She looked up through the viewing port at the back of the transport and pointed. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

    Anka dutifully glanced at the view of the Earth. “Yes, it is.”

    “It felt so strange when I first got here to look up into the sky and see the Earth instead of the moon.”

    “When you’re on the Earth looking up at the moon, is the moon beautiful?”

    “Yes,” she murmured. “I guess people always think another place will be better.”

    “Nothing could be better than being home.”

    She glanced at him, feeling her throat tighten, partly because it hurt to realize he yearned for his home when he was with her and partly because she ached for his sadness. “Will you go home soon?”

    “No.” The word emerged harshly. He cleared his throat and glanced at her, smiling a little crookedly. “I have a new home.”

    One he wasn’t particularly happy about. Before she could decide whether to pursue it or not, though, the transport pulled into the airlock of the hotel.

    She didn’t know what she’d been thinking! Almost the moment they stepped from the airlock they caught the attention of everyone they passed. Several people actually ran into things-like other people and the walls. Struggling to ignore the feeling that their ‘clandestine liaison’ was going to make front page news, she walked briskly across the lobby and headed for the elevators. There were three other people on the elevator and all three gaped at Anka as if he had two heads. Sybil glared at them for their rudeness but they were too focused on Anka to actually notice.

    She was more relieved than randy when they finally reached their room and she used her key to enter. Anka, apparently, had other things on his mind, however. The moment they cleared the threshold he slipped his arms around her and waltzed her back to the wall, pinning her with his body. “I’ve been wanting to do this all night,” he murmured against her hair, nuzzling a path downward to capture her lips.

    Sybil had been wanting him to kiss her all night-before the night began, in fact. On the instant, she dismissed the anxiety that had trailed her from the conference center and all the up to their room. She didn’t care if they’d been seen together. She didn’t need to keep it secret anymore-not for his sake or for hers.

    She kissed him back with all the yearning that had been building inside of her. It almost seemed as if they both caught fire. The heat that surged between them as they explored each other’s mouths was nearly blistering. They broke for a gusty breath of air and met again, exploring cheek and ear and neck and throat with their mouths, dueling for dominance. They began tugging at one another’s clothes, impatient to have nothing between them, and then gave up on solving the confusing intricacies of closures and simply tugged clothing aside to touch and fondle.