Amaryllis watched Violet as she stalked off. When she glanced at Cain, she saw that he was studying her retreating form, as well. “She's probably right."
"Only in the sense that she managed to trick you in to voicing dangerous thoughts ... or at least what appear to be dangerous thoughts.” He turned to study her for a long moment. “She's likely to report the conversation ... assuming they didn't hear it already, which they probably did."
"You think?” Amaryllis asked dryly. “I wasn't referring to my ... logic circuits,” she said after a brief hesitation. “I meant, the hanging around me thing."
"You aren't considering anything, are you?"
Amaryllis gave him a look. “If I had been, I wouldn't have mentioned it. Iwas talking about after we land. They did say we'd be given the option of joining their colony."
"They didn't say what the alternative was,” Cain pointed out.
Amaryllis glanced at him sharply. “You think it's do or die?"
He shrugged. “I don't trust The Company ... never did. That doesn't mean I do trust them. And, strategically speaking, it wouldn't be safe to let any of us go when we could head straight back to The Company and tell them how to find the cyborg home base."
Amaryllis shook her head. “We've entered uncharted space ... uncharted by humans, at any rate. They removed the locators and destroyed them. Setting aside the fact that we now know The Company's plans for us and only a complete moron would even consider going back to The Company, the cyborgs could leave us anywhere in the known universe without any worry whatsoever that The Company could track them down. There's no reason for them to terminate us, unless they just want to, and if they did, they've had plenty of opportunity to do that."
He shrugged. “I guess we'll find out whether we can trust them or not."
* * * *
"We need to talk."
The voice, more even than the words, sent a shiver of sensation down Amaryllis’ spine that had nothing to do with fear. Her heart was in her throat as she glanced down at the hand that had clamped around her upper arm and then up into the face of the man who'd detained her. Surprise went through her when she met Reese's pale blue gaze instead of Dante's deep sapphire eyes. She hadn't realized until that moment that his voice was almost identical to Dante's. Her mind went perfectly blank. “Talk?” she echoed.
She'd hardly gotten the word out when he snatched her into a room along the corridor, closing the door behind them. Instead of releasing her once he had, he corralled her in one corner, placing a palm against the bulkhead on either side of her and Amaryllis felt as breathless as if someone had punched her in the stomach. “I'll be missed,” she said with an effort.
He frowned. “I'll escort you to the barracks myself."
Amaryllis blinked as that statement washed over her with equal parts fear and gladness. “No offense, but they already look at me like...."
Reese tilted his head questioningly when she didn't finish. “Like?"
Her mouth felt dry. Her lips stiff. She licked them, searching her mind for something that would put a safe barrier between them. “I'd just as soon they didn't suspect me of being a plant to watch them."
"Like I was?"
Hurt surged through her full fold. She gave him a look. “Except that now we know you never were one of us. It's a different sort of betrayal."
Anger glittered in his eyes. “I didn't betray you."
"No. You were just doing your job. That almost makes it worse. I ... we idolized you, looked up to you, and you aren't even real."
Several emotions chased across his features, anger uppermost. “Iam real,” he growled, dipping his head to capture her lips. She evaded him, twisting her head to one side and lifting her palms to place them against his chest to hold him at bay. He caught her wrists, pushing them behind her so that she had to arch her back to relieve the pressure on her arms. His mouth, seeking flesh, settled along the side of her neck like a firebrand. She gasped as a rush of heated sensation washed through her, both seduced by the lure of his heat and infinitely wary of it.
"Don't!” she gasped as he wove a path downward and nuzzled his face between her breasts.
He hesitated and finally lifted his head to look at her. “Why? Because I'm not real? Or because you want me and you don't want to now that you know what I am?"
Amaryllis stared at him speechlessly, embarrassed that she'd been so transparent and he'd seen it. When she said nothing, he dipped his head once more. Making no attempt to kiss her lips, instead he nipped a string of kisses along her cheek, then traced the line of her jaw to her chin. Sensation erupted through her, lifting the fine hairs all over her body to stinging life. He hesitated when he reached her mouth, waiting, his heated breath fanning against her lips, making them tingle with heightened sensation.
Amaryllis wasn't entirely certain of whether she closed the distance or Reese did, but the ability to formulate any sort of objection deserted her the moment his lips covered hers and his essence flooded her senses, intoxicating her with desire. She surrendered completely to the lure of pleasure, stroking her tongue sinuously along his as he explored her mouth with desperate thrusts. Lifting her hands, she skated her palms along the hard, bulging muscles of his chest, dug her fingers into the thick ridge of muscle along his shoulders, battling to retain her balance when weakness and dizziness swarmed around her.
Abruptly, he tore his mouth from hers and trailed his lips hungrily along her throat to the valley between her breasts. Cool air wafted across her nipples as he disgorged her breasts from the cups of her halter style top, causing her nipples to pucker and stand erect. She uttered a whimper of pleasure at the jolt that went through her as he covered one peak with his mouth, suckling the sensitive nub. The sound seemed to tear what little restraint from him that he'd held onto. He grasped her around the waist, lifting her up for better access and divided his attentions between her breasts, suckling and teasing first one throbbing nipple until she thought she would black out from lack of oxygen and then the other. She wasn't even aware of wrapping her thighs around his waist until she felt the ridge of his distended cock nestling along her cleft. He slid his hands from her waist to her buttocks, cupping them in his palms, massaging them, then slipped his fingers beneath the edge of her briefs and traced her damp cleft.
Amaryllis clung tightly to him, gasping for breath, her heart thundering so hard in her chest it felt as if it would explode. Moisture gathered in her sex, the walls of her channel clutching mindlessly for the feel of his hard flesh. She uttered a choked cry as his fingers found the ultra sensitive nub of flesh nestled in the valley of her cleft, rubbing it and sending jolts of electrifying sensation through her. Lifting his head, he covered her mouth with his own once more, thrusting his tongue in and out in a rhythm that made desperation climb over her to feel his cock thrusting inside of her. As if he'd read her mind, she felt him fumble briefly with his clothing and then the rounded head of his cock pressing against her, piercing her body's opening.
Gratified, she pressed down in counter to his thrust, trying to sheathe him within her body. Frustration surfaced when she found she could get no leverage to take him inside her.
Breaking the kiss, Reese glanced around the room and finally settled on the seat of a straight chair with her straddling his lap. He bore down on her hips, thrusting upward to meet her and Amaryllis groaned as she felt her body yielding reluctantly, clinging to his hard flesh.
A fine sheen of moisture broke from his pores. His muscles began to quiver with the effort of his restraint. Groaning, he lifted her up and thrust again. Sinking inside of her that time to the root of his cock, he went still, squeezing his eyes tightly shut, gasping hoarsely.
Amaryllis’ eyes drifted closed as she leaned her forehead against his, willing her body to adjust to the almost painfully tight intrusion of hard flesh. She opened her eyes again when she felt his palms along her cheeks.
"Amy,” he murmured huskily, brushing his lips lightly across hers before
he covered her mouth and kissed her deeply. Her body quickened, clenching around his cock. Groaning, he tore his mouth from hers and began to move. Stroking his cock along the sensitive inner surfaces of her sex with each thrust and retreat, he lifted her hips upward, then pressed her down in counter to each hard thrust. With each stroke waves of electrifying, heated pleasure washed through her, building toward a crescendo. She clutched his shoulders, groaning almost incessantly as the tension built inside of her to a fever pitch, began to expand beyond containment.
His cock jerked as he reached his own crisis. Abruptly, ecstasy exploded inside of her, dragging a sharp cry from her throat. She buried her face against his neck, clutching him tightly as it rocked her with shock wave after shock wave of purest bliss as she felt his body erupt inside of her with his own culmination.
Every ounce of strength seemed to leave her. She collapsed weakly against him, gasping for breath, felt his arms surround her in a tight embrace as he struggled to regulate his own breathing. Warmth of a different sort filled her as he held her closely against his chest and began to stroke her back soothingly.
"I know you're afraid and confused, but we are not as different as you imagine,” he murmured after he'd caught his breath. “And I would never allow harm to come to you."
It took an effort to lift her head and look at him. “You know."
"Yes."
"Dante?"
He shook his head. “I always knew. From the very moment I first saw you I knew that only nature could produce something so wonderfully, uniquely beautiful. I knew I shouldn't tear you from your own people, but I could no more resist doing so than I could self-terminate. I want you for my life mate. It's why I brought you."
Chapter Twelve
Awkward didn't begin to describe Amaryllis’ feelings as she was thrust through the barracks door by the guard Reese had handed her over to when he'd bowed to her wish not to be seen returning her. However, it was only partly because she could feel dozens of interested gazes as she strode quickly through the barracks and into the latrine beyond. Most of it revolved around the things that Reese had said to her, her complete lack of self control, and her horror and confusion over the fact that she'd fucked both Reese and Dante with the same mindless enthusiasm and within a matter of days.
After all her internal wailing and breast beating over the fact that Dante had given no indication that the event between them was more than merely a desperate physical need.
Goosebumps erupted on her flesh as her mind instantly conjured images of her sitting astride Reese's lap, his cock buried so deeply inside of her that she couldn't think or feel beyond the exquisite pleasure of their joining. Before the image had even faded, the memory of her writhing in an agony of ecstasy beneath Dante arose within her mind's eye and her sex throbbed in reaction.
She didn't know how long she stood stock still, simply staring blindly at her own reflection in the mirror above the lavatory as if she'd never seen herself before, her mind a tumultuous wreck. Finally, physical discomfort penetrated her turmoil, however, and she looked down at herself. A sticky wetness had soaked her briefs.
Semen.
She reeked of sex and doubted anyone she'd passed had failed to notice even if they'd been too blind to see that her clothing was in disarray, her hair looked as if she'd been standing in a wind tunnel, her lips looked swollen and bruised and the skin of her neck and upper chest were reddened from Reese's caresses.
"Jesus Christ and all the saints!” she muttered the curse she'd so often heard her father use, wondering if it was merely seminal fluids or if it was ‘loaded'.
She'd been too stunned by what had come afterward to give it any thought, but she realized now that Dante had ejaculated inside of her, as well—which was the reason, no doubt, that Reese had sent her into the shower, to wash the scent of Dante's possession from her.
And if the meds had worn off that kept her libido in check—which seemed indisputable—then her birth control was no longer working either.
She brushed the thought aside. She couldn't deal with that possibility at the moment. At any rate, regardless of what the cyborgs claimed, she simply couldn't accept that they were capable of reproduction.
She'd idolized Reese, thought he was quite possibly the most magnificent representation of mankind ever born—and she supposed, even though now she knew he hadn't been ‘born’ at all, subconsciously she still idolized him. Possibly that was why she was so susceptible to his attentions. But how could she possibly excuse her behavior with Dante? How could she excuse her complete break with the traditions of her upbringing by making love with both within so short a time—and there was no sense in trying to lie to herself about that. She might not know how either of them truly felt, but she knew herself. She wouldn't have felt passion so keenly if she hadn't felt more for both of them than mere lust.
She knew very well that no one on any of the ‘civilized’ worlds considered such archaic traditions worth a second thought. The idea of sex purely for recreation, and not as a part of a relationship, didn't particularly bother her for that matter.
What bothered her was that she'd felt such passion when neither of them was human in the strictest sense of the word, regardless of the fact that they weren't much, if any, more android than she was.
What disturbed her more, and totally confused her, was that she knew very well that it hadn't been anything as simple as purely recreational sex ... with either Dante or Reese.
But what worried her the most was that she was very much afraid that no amount of reasoning was going to make her any less susceptible if she found herself in a similar situation again.
She discovered the following day when they filed into the rec room that she'd been relegated to invisible again. She wasn't particularly surprised. She wasn't even deeply regretful considering the state Violet had put her in the day before. She was a little disappointed, though, that Cain didn't make any attempt to approach her. It would've been nice to have someone to talk to occasionally even if she had to mind her tongue.
After weeks of travel, fear of discovery gave way to the misery of sheer boredom, which she missed when new anxieties reared their heads. Occasionally, she managed to get a deck of cards and play a few rounds of solitaire, but by and large she did nothing more than pace the room restlessly, as bored as she had been before they'd been allowed to spend a part of their days in the rec room.
The voyage began to seem interminable. She'd never taken such a prolonged space voyage and found it unnerving to think that the place where they were going was so distant from all that she knew. The possibility of escaping dimmed as time passed and was finally extinguished altogether.
She'd made it a point, at first, not to look up at the observation windows, but even when she finally decided a surreptitious peek now and then would probably go unnoticed, she saw no sign of Reese for nearly two weeks. It occurred to her to wonder if their tryst had been discovered and he'd been confined to the brig as Dante supposedly had, but she had no way of finding out. She wasn't even privy to the gossip circulating among the hunters since they had a disturbing way of falling silent whenever she passed near enough to overhear their conversations.
She caught glimpses of Dante often enough, but seeing him unsettled her almost as much as not seeing Reese.
Two weeks after her encounter with Reese, she was curled up on a couch, staring out of a porthole at the unending, and infinitely depressing night of deep space when Cain settled next to her. She glanced at him in surprise.
"I'm not at all certain that I'll ever be able to look at a night sky with any sort of admiration again,” he said pensively.
The comment dragged a reluctant smile from her. “I was just thinking much the same thing."
He smiled faintly in return. “I'd claim to be extraordinarily perceptive except that I'm fairly certain everyone here is thinking much the same thing. You'll note, no one glances toward the portholes any longer."
Amaryllis chuckled wryly.
“And here I thought they were simply avoiding the area for fear of contamination,” she retorted dryly.
Lifting a dark brow, he glanced around the rec room and finally up at the observation windows. Curious, Amaryllis followed his gaze. Her heart jerked in her chest when she saw that both Reese and Dante were standing at the observation window above, scowling at the man who sat beside her.
"I expect you're at least partially right. Itis for reasons of health, but I don't think it's fear of contamination."
Amaryllis resisted the urge to fan her heated cheeks. “I don't think I follow,” she said stiffly.
A mixture of amusement and annoyance lit his green eyes. “I think you do, but if it disturbs your sense of modesty to speak of it, I completely understand."
Amaryllis sent him a sharp glance and reddened again. “They're afraid to speak to me because of ... the rumors?” she demanded with a mixture of indignation and disbelief.
Both of his dark brows rose this time. He tilted his head curiously. “Isit merely rumors? The cyborg twins seem to have a different perspective on the matter. One or both can generally be seen standing at the observation windows, usually wearing identical scowls if any of the hunters even start in your direction."
Amaryllis frowned thoughtfully, digesting the comments in silence and trying to decide whether there was any truth to it. She often had the sense that she was being watched, but she'd thought a good bit of that could be put down to hypersensitivity or plain, old fashioned paranoia. It was understandable given her situation, a combination of her fear that they would realize she was human and her certainty that her behavior was being judged as much because of her own sense of guilt as because of the snide comments two of the huntresses had made to her.
Shehad noticed that any time she glanced toward the observation windows, though, and either Dante or Reese was there, that they were looking directly at her. It was the main reason she avoided looking in that direction. She didn't want to encourage either of them to think she was interested when she didn't know how she felt about them.
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