Not that she’d ever done or said anything to support his suspicions about her, but that might only mean he hadn’t caught her. It didn’t necessarily mean that she hadn’t or that he could afford to trust her.

    In any case, he was also aware that her people had had him under constant surveillance. Even if he trusted her enough to speak openly, he couldn’t when he knew how likely it was that they were listening.

    He certainly hadn’t wanted to come to this gods forsaken solar system, so far from the world they’d called home and inhabited by a hostile people they had learned all too well would not welcome them. None of them had. Unfortunately, their situation hadn’t left them a lot of choices and of those unpleasant choices her solar system had been the best option. They’d had to weigh their limited resources against the odds of survival among the worlds known to them or at least the solar systems that contained worlds with some potential for terra-forming. The worlds that supported life had indigenous life and, even with their own survival hanging in the balance they hadn’t been able to contemplate taking what they needed and ignoring the needs of the indigenous people, perhaps because their own survival was hanging in the balance.

    “Why have your people left your world?” he countered.

    Sybil leaned back to study his face. She saw no reason not to tell him the truth, though. In all likelihood they already knew, but she’d known that telling him before could be tantamount to treason. The treaty had been agreed upon and signed now, however, and she thought that negated the information being a matter of national, or global, security. “Truthfully? In the beginning it was pure curiosity, the search for knowledge and, for some, adventure and the excitement of discovering new things.”

    She looked down at his chest, exploring it with her fingers. “Somewhere along the line we went wrong, weren’t cautious enough, were too arrogant to care what we were doing or too ignorant to realize it. Personally, I think we really got in trouble when some stupid asshole with more power than brains thought up the brilliantly moronic idea of wasting-disposing of absolutely everything, no matter how huge a drain it was on resources or how small-in order to build a healthy, wealthy economy. Maybe if it hadn’t seemed to be working we would have woke up soon enough to turn things around-and maybe not. Old habits die hard. It took generations to make the mess we did. One generation, no matter how dedicated, couldn’t turn it around.”

    “You’re saying colonization isn’t a matter of want as much as it is need?”

    Sybil grimaced. “Pretty much. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people want to and would have anyway, but they’ve got more reason to want to with the mess we’ve made of Earth. And that’s a good thing because moving part of the population will give the Earth a better chance at recovering, and more quickly. The exploding population certainly didn’t help the drain on the Earth’s resources or the pollution.

    “Is that why your people decided to colonize, to lift some of the burden of population from your home world?”

    Anka caught her hips, pulling her up onto her knees to bring her breasts level with his face and distracted her by teasing first one and then the other pert bud. It distracted him from his dark thoughts, as well. It was the one thing he needed more than anything else and the one thing only Sybil could give him-escape. “We came to conquer Earth, one woman at a time,” he murmured teasingly, “and I was fortunate enough to win the first draw.”

    Sybil smiled against his hair. “You think you’ve made a conquest?”

    He used her position to align his cock with her body’s opening and slowly began to press her downward to engulf his flesh, watching her face. It was the only time he knew, absolutely and without any doubt, that she was his, that she was completely honest, when he saw the pleasure on her face. “Haven’t I?”

    She opened her eyes to look at him as she settled finally and he felt his flesh buried deeply inside of her. Her eyes, as beautiful as a summer’s day on Sumptra, had darkened with the expansion of her pupils in desire. She couldn’t pretend that. She might gasp and sigh with carefully feigned desire, but her eyes told only the truth.

    The glazed look in her eyes vanished as she rose and settled again and there followed an ominous splash of water on the floor beside the tub. Blinking as she emerged from the spell, she glanced in horror at the mountain of bubbles surrounding them. “Oh my god! I put too much bubble bath in the tub!”

    He tightened his grip on her and rose abruptly. Sybil nearly tipped from his arms as she struggled to reach the button to turn off the jets. She didn’t get the chance to hit the drain release. He stepped from the tub with her.

    “Crazy man!” she gasped, tightening her legs around his waist and looping her arms around his neck. “You’re going to injure that fine thing if we slip in the soapy water.”

    She’d hardly gotten the warning out when he skidded. She sucked in a sharp breath that bordered a scream, tightening her grip around his neck as he flung out an arm to avert disaster. Whipping her head around when she heard the impact of his hand against the frame of the door, she stared in absolute shock at his hand, or more specifically the four six inch, knife-like claws that had shot out from his first knuckles and embedded in the wood.

    He retracted them, stepping onto the carpet of the bedroom floor and striding toward the bed. Sybil was still in a state of shock, however, as he climbed onto the mattress with her. A shiver skittered through her as he dropped from his knees to lower both of them onto the bed. He lifted slightly away from her and met her gaze for a long moment. “It isn’t as easy to pretend I’m man when you’ve seen that, is it?” he growled.

    Sybil stared at him wide-eyed, trying to decide whether to pretend she had no idea what he was talking about or if she should flatly deny the fact that she was shocked to her core. He covered her mouth in a hard, almost hurtful kiss before she could shake her stupor enough to react in any way, however. The kiss took her by surprise, more because it was rougher than any before. Despite everything, it sent a thrill of excitement through her and acceptance.

    Maybe because it was so fierce, as filled with ravening hunger as anger?

    Or maybe it was because she realized she’d wounded him in some indefinable way, however unintentionally. She couldn’t decide if he was trying to punish her or drive her away, but he didn’t succeed in either aim if that was indeed his intention. The assault on her mouth gave way to an assault to her senses as he drove into her relentlessly, lifting away from her only to gnaw on whatever tender flesh he could reach.

    She came within moments, shuddering, gasping for breath. He slowed his pace and then rolled them onto their sides and began to increase the rhythm and depth of his strokes until she felt the rise of tension inside her again. Abruptly shifting to tip her onto her back again, he pushed his hands beneath her buttocks to tilt her hips forward. The angle of his strokes sent her spiraling off into bliss again, held her aloft until she was gasping so sharply with the pleasurable convulsions it was closer to a scream.

    He slowed finally, allowing her to catch her breath. Withdrawing from her completely, he rolled her onto her belly and sprawled atop her, penetrating her from behind and building the heat inside her with slow, deliberate strokes. She was so weak, so drunk and disoriented from the two climaxes she’d already had, she could barely respond, let alone comprehend when he shifted upward abruptly, lifting her hips into the air and pushing at her legs until she was on her knees. He bit lightly down on her shoulder, just hard enough to produce a sting that incomprehensibly caused a chain reaction heat wave that traveled through her and made the muscles of her sex clench around his cock. He groaned against her ear, covered the shell with his mouth and sucked lightly.