Closing her mind resolutely to everything but his touch, she gave herself up to feeling every nerve within her body responding to him like a flower to the sun, awakening to sensation as if she’d been asleep and numb to the world without his touch. Dizziness assailed her as he explored her mouth and then moved lower to explore her sensitive breasts.

    She hadn’t realized how tender her nipples had grown with her pregnancy until he closed his mouth around the first to suckle it. Pain warred with pleasure then. She gritted her teeth, forced herself to relax and finally did relax when the pain eased altogether and pleasure took dominance.

    He was clearly determined to make amends. He kissed and stroked her until she was drunk, feverish. Without compunction, she began to beg him to give her what she needed and then to demand it.

    Chuckling huskily, he positioned himself between her thighs and prodded her sex teasingly with the head of his cock. She reached between them and grasped it, trying to thrust it into the mouth of her sex. He let out a hiss of sound, pushed her away and aligned their flesh, allowing her to acclimate to the pressure as he slowly probed deeper and deeper. She dug her nails into his arms, pulling at him.

    “My nodia is impatient?” he murmured teasingly.

    “Damn it, Anka!” she gasped. “I’m going to come!”

    “Not without me,” he countered, driving completely inside of her finally and then withdrawing almost out.

    She gasped, arching her head as she felt a quivering deep inside of her, waiting for the next pass to set her off. He waited until the spasms eased and then slid inside of her again. Once more the tremors shook her and still her climax eluded her. She began to think he was more intent on punishing her than satisfying her, but even as the thought crossed her mind he settled to thrusting rhythmically. Within a few minutes, he took her to the top of the mountain and carried her into heaven.

    She’d forgotten, she thought dreamily as the convulsions ceased to wrack her, just how wonderful it felt.

    He slowed, waited for her to catch her breath and began all over again. Accustomed to it by then, Sybil didn’t struggle against the rise of heat, knowing he could carry her all the way as he had before.

    “Shall I try for three?” he gasped when she drifted down from her second rapturous high.

    “Oh please,” she gasped drunkenly, “let me die in peace!”

    He uttered a choked laugh, but fell to seeking his own release. She was amazed he found it with her lying beneath him like a dead thing, but she discovered an unexpected bonus to her exhaustion. For once she got to feel what it was like when he came without being so absorbed in her own heat that she could barely take it in.

    And she discovered that it was more rewarding in some ways than climaxing herself. She was just regretful that she’d been too focused on reaching climax that first time herself to feel his release with anything but disappointment.

    Closing her mind to the dark thoughts fluttering just beyond her reach, she cuddled against him when he rolled the two of them onto their sides and sought oblivion. * * * *

    Sybil wasn’t sorry she’d spent the entire night with Anka. She did regret the morning return to her quarters, however. As luck would have it, Lt. Brant was on duty. Bracing herself, she entered the foyer, prepared to make an apology to the man after the scene she’d inadvertently embroiled him in the night before.

    “That worked almost too well. I thought for a little bit there that I was going to have to kick his alien ass.”

    Enlighten crashed over Sybil so abruptly at Brant’s comment that she was too stunned to assimilate it all at once. She’d suspected something was up and it still outraged her to realize that the entire cozy flirtation the night before had been a setup job. There was no denying it also stung her ego, but then she didn’t really give a damn about the bastard! “He would’ve broken you in half,” she responded coldly. “Be glad you didn’t get the chance to find out.”

    Anger glittered in his eyes, but he merely shrugged. “All’s well that ends well-mission accomplished. I don’t suppose you got anything?”

    She felt like punching him. “I should’ve smelled the stench of Meachum on you right off. You’ll have to tell your lover I was too busy fucking to chat.”

    Brant caught her arm as she moved to pass him, gripping it tightly enough Sybil had to struggle to keep from flinching. “Oh, I like pussy same as the next man. I just don’t like the idea of taking alien leavings, if you get my drift.”

    “Afraid you couldn’t match up? You should be. You aren’t half the man he is.” Sybil jerked her arm free. “Touch me again and I’ll file charges. I’m still an officer, asshole.”

    “Meachum isn’t going to be happy,” he called after her as she marched past him.

    She barely made it to her private bath before she threw up. She leaned weakly against the wall when her stomach stopped heaving, wondering if it was her pregnancy or just revulsion that had made her puke. She hadn’t been sick before, though. She’d felt twinges of nausea from time to time, but nothing like this.

    Shuddering, she flushed the toilet and moved to the shower to wash the feeling of disgust off. She discovered she couldn’t scour it from herself, though, because it went well beyond skin deep.

    Between throwing up and the hot shower afterward Sybil felt weak almost to the point of fainting. It took all she could do to drag herself to her bunk when she emerged. She sat down, thought about it a moment, and finally just lay back, trying to collect herself.

    She should’ve been better prepared, she told herself angrily. She’d worked for Meachum long enough to know how the man operated. There no was getting around the fact that Brant had taken her almost completely by surprise, though.

    She supposed that was his specialty and the reason he’d been assigned to keep an eye on her.

    She didn’t know what made her angrier-the fact that he’d played her or the fact that he’d used her to play Anka.

    She was angrier on Anka’s behalf, she decided. God only knew what sort of repercussions there might be for him. It made it worse that she was almost certain she finally understood their situation and the motivation behind their willingness to consider a peace treaty.

    A sense of pride flitted through her that Anka had so neatly outwitted them at their game. They’d seriously underestimated him.

    She wanted to keep it that way, but she knew she wasn’t nearly as good at deception or manipulation or even reading people as any of the other players. The only thing that had become clear to her was just how important it was that Meachum never get any clue of the Sumpturians’ situation-not before they had time to grow stronger. Anka had been right not to trust them. One whiff of weakness and the government would’ve been all over them.

    She thought the American people would’ve tried to help if they knew. Despite all of the hardships they’d endured, they still struggled to help their neighbors, anyone in need, and she felt that they would have empathized with the tragedy that had befallen Sumpturians. The government was a whole other breed.

    The problem was, she had no clue of how long it might take and she didn’t have a lot of time that she could devote to trying help them. She still had the baby to consider and she had her doubts that it would be something she could hide many more weeks.

    She shouldn’t have had to concern herself about it. The Embassy was officially American soil now and the Sumpturians had agreed that it was sovereign territory. Unfortunately, she already knew that Anka would do whatever he pleased, regardless of the circumstances or the restrictions. He had to have known even before she’d told him that the base was a restricted area and off limits to the Sumpturians and he’d come to her quarters anyway. He would come to the Embassy if he felt like it. She knew it and, unfortunately, Meachum knew it.