She just hoped she would have the chance to tell the others her slightly revised version of the truth.
To her relief, she did. When her mother decided she’d heard enough to make a decision, she escorted her back to the hearing room and cleared it of spectators so that she and the other council members could discuss their situation and come to a decision. She was allowed to leave with the Anunnaki and they were taken to a hotel near the council building to rest and wait to hear their fate.
Koryn, she discovered, true to form was more preoccupied with the ‘science’ of the development than anything else. “Even considering that time is unpredictable from one place to another in space, it doesn’t seem to me that your daughter would still be alive after all this time. Of course, we never did figure out how long it had been since the invasion, but even so …. What is the typical lifespan of humans now?”
Emerald shook her head at him. “It’s been a while—I don’t know what it is now. The average life expectancy when I was alive before, though, was around two hundred.”
Both Tariq and Koryn looked startled. “That long?” Tariq echoed. “Humans didn’t live nearly that long the last time we studied them.”
“I guess that would explain it then,” Koryn said thoughtfully. “They don’t extend by resurrection I don’t suppose?”
“I don’t think so. Everyone was opposed to human cloning in my time, although they did clone species of animals that were endangered, and Cara wasn’t especially pleased when she realized I had been.”
“Why the hell not?” Tariq growled. “She seemed happy to see you—hysterically happy.”
“It’s just the way we look at it,” Emerald said tiredly. “I think she’s still having a hard time accepting that I’m really me.”
Chapter Nineteen
It had been a long, tiring day for all of them and Emerald was looking forward to a long, hot shower and bed when she finished cleaning the kitchen. Hearing voices outside the window, she looked out, surprised to discover Tariq and Koryn were on their way back in. Either they’d made short work of their own chores or it had taken her longer to clean up than she’d thought.
Drying her hands, she went to the table to collect Anna from her chair. She’d just lifted the baby to her hip when the two came in. Tariq’s eyes lit instantly when they settled on the baby and he crossed the room to take her. “She’s too heavy for you to carry around now,” he said chidingly, grinning at the baby as she smiled at him and began jabbering, as if she was trying to tell him something.
Emerald smiled at both of them indulgently. “You just use that as an excuse because you like holding her.”
His eyes gleamed with amusement. “I need an excuse?” He returned his attention to the baby, disentangling her little fist from his hair. “That’s daddy’s bad girl. Aren’t you, Anna?”
She grinned at him, wrinkling her nose.
Emerald chuckled. “Quit telling her that! She thinks it’s a compliment!”
Koryn had joined them. He slipped around behind Emerald and pulled her back against his length, running his hands down over her belly and cupping the growing mound. The baby obligingly kicked and then began to do jumping jacks. It was almost as if she knew it was her daddy and she was so excited she wanted to leap into his arms. “Don’t get her stirred up! I’m tired.”
He bent down to kiss the top of her head. “It’s nice outside. Come sit with me on the porch and I’ll rock the baby to sleep.”
“Which baby?” Emerald asked with amusement.
“Both of my babies,” he murmured against her ear.
She was tempted. She might have declined except that Tariq apparently liked the idea. He’d headed toward the porch with Anna.
Taking her silence as an assent, Koryn tucked her under one arm and guided her through the house and out onto the front porch. Tariq was already occupying one of the huge rockers, Anna perched on his lap and watching the movement of his finger as he pointed out the stars in the sky that were distant galaxies and named them off in his own language.
“That’s why we can’t understand a word she says,” Emerald said, vaguely disapproving. “She’s trying to speak your language and mine at the same time.”
Tariq sent her an indulgent look. “She’s smart. She’ll learn both.”
Koryn planted himself in the other rocker and pulled her down on his lap, carefully arranging her so that her back was to Tariq. It was one of those ‘subtle’ moves they still made to exclude each other whenever the opportunity arose. Not that she was complaining! They almost never got into really heated arguments anymore and they hadn’t come to blows since Anna was born. She sent him a chiding look and turned around.
Irritation flickered across his face, but he relaxed when she settled her head on his shoulder, curling an arm around her and splaying his hand on the mound of her belly. “It didn’t take you guys long to do your chores,” Emerald murmured lazily as Koryn set the rocker into motion.
“Aeon had already done everything. We just stayed to talk a bit.”
Amusement flickered through her. “To avoid kitchen duty, I don’t doubt.”
Tariq didn’t even have the grace to pretend that wasn’t the case. He grinned, but he focused it on Anna.
“It was your night,” Koryn reminded her.
Aeon came around the corner of the house about that time, still dripping from a fresh bath—which she didn’t doubt he’d performed under the hose in the yard. She didn’t know if it was purely out of courtesy to make sure he didn’t track anything nasty into the house or because he wasn’t comfortable with their living arrangements. She thought it was a little of both. It was hard to ignore the fact that he avoided the house—and her—as much as possible.
Maybe it was just her imagination, though?
If he really did want to avoid her why had he moved in to start with? Loyalty to Tariq?
Possibly, she decided. Unlike the others, who’d found a woman and settled down within the first year after they’d arrived, Aeon hadn’t seemed to have any luck with the opposite sex—which baffled her. To her mind, he was far more handsome than Mikail or Daris or even Nicholas. He was quieter than they were, though, seemed shy around her so maybe that was it?
He hesitated when he saw them on the porch and then continued as if he hadn’t, moving around the porch and finally settling on the steps with his back against one of the posts.
“You still planning to go into the city tomorrow, Aeon?” Tariq asked lazily.
Aeon glanced at him. “Yes.”
“I don’t suppose I could prevail upon you to take Em and the baby? She wanted to do some trading for a few things. I have to go to Middlebrook tomorrow to inspect the fortifications they’ve been working on to discourage the natives from pilfering.”
Aeon glanced at her, his gaze settling on her face for a long moment and then sliding down to her belly and Koryn’s hand resting there.
“I’d take her,” Koryn volunteered, “but I have a dozen appointments tomorrow.”
Emerald saw the reluctance in Aeon’s face. It stung, but she dismissed it. “Stop it! I can manage just fine by myself. Don’t bother Aeon. He’s got enough to do.”
He looked away. “I would be honored to escort your lady,” he said after a long moment, his voice tight with reluctance.
Emerald’s hurt deepened. She couldn’t for the life of her figure out what she’d done that made Aeon so reluctant to be around her. She was always friendly, always had been. It wasn’t just gratitude that he was the one who’d rescued her from Mylor—and been beaten and thrown in a cell in the hold of Lady Selena’s ship for his pains by Lady Selena’s men! That was part of it, but most of it, she thought, was because she saw that he was miserably lonely and she wanted to banish that look from his eyes.
Except he wouldn’t let her. She always had the feeling that he was holding her at arm’s length—she supposed because she was Tariq’s lady, but she didn’t see why that prevented them from being friend
s!
Actually, he confused her. He’d never once returned from the city without bringing her something—usually another flower for her flower garden. He’d been bringing her flowers since they’d received their land lot—even before they’d built the wood frame house. In fact, he’d helped Tariq and Koryn build the house and when she’d mentioned that she’d always loved flowers and wanted to make a flower garden so that she could be surrounded by flowers, he had noticed—not Tariq or Koryn—Aeon. And although he’d only moved in a few months earlier to help them around the farm, he’d visited them often before that and brought her flowers.
It was just odd that he went out of his way to find beautiful, exotic flowers for her and trade for them and yet was so … distant. It was almost as if he was afraid to get too close.
Of course, she supposed that was because of Tariq—maybe Koryn, too, but mostly Tariq, she thought because he still thought of Tariq as his lord.
She released a pent up breath. “It’s alright, Aeon. You don’t have to take me just because Tariq asked.”
“He wants to take you,” Tariq murmured. “Don’t you, Aeon?”
Aeon turned to look at Tariq hard. “Yes,” he said after a moment.
“He just doesn’t trust himself around you,” Koryn added.
Aeon surged to his feet abruptly and sent Koryn a hard look.
Emerald was startled by the comment herself, but Aeon’s abrupt move distracted her even as she glanced at Koryn and she turned to look at him instead. Dismay flickered through her. She hadn’t seen such a look of rage on Aeon’s face since he’d confronted Mylor about hurting her.
“Koryn! Don’t tease him! It’s alright, Aeon. He didn’t mean anything by it.”
“No. I just wanted to see if Tariq was right …. And I see he was.”
“I have not touched your woman,” Aeon growled. “I have not looked at her in any way that was disrespectful.”
“Don’t get too bent out of shape about it,” Tariq drawled easily. “A man has needs. It isn’t as if we don’t know that.”
Even with the shadows of darkness, Emerald could see Aeon flush. She felt her own face heat.
“I manage my … needs,” Aeon said through gritted teeth.
“No very fucking well when you can’t be around Em without staring a hole through her,” Tariq said dryly.
Emerald sat up abruptly. “Tariq! What in the world has gotten in to you?” She glanced reproachfully at Koryn. “Both of you!”
“Well, there’s no subtle way to handle this,” Tariq said somewhat irritably, getting to his feet. “You’re part of the family if you want to be, Aeon, and if Em wants you to be.” He paused beside the chair where Emerald sat. “If you can find it in your heart, Em, I’m not going to object.”
Emerald gaped at his back as he went into the house to put his sleeping daughter to bed.
Koryn got up and set her own her feet. “I’d say three was a crowd—well, it is a fucking crowd, but so is two and Tariq’s right. The poor bastard is miserable and only you can do something about it. It looks like he’s here to stay anyway. If he’s going to be sharing all the work and helping us take care of you, he deserves a little more than a roof over his head and food to fill his belly.”
He glanced at Aeon. “Anyway, we’re never going to find out if my efforts worked any other way. He sure as hell isn’t going to get any other woman pregnant when he won’t touch one.”
Emerald turned to look at Aeon uncomfortably when Koryn had stalked inside. “I don’t know what to say,” she murmured after a moment.
Aeon stared at her for a long moment, seemed to debate with himself and stepped onto the porch. Emerald held her ground with an effort as he moved closer, halting only when he was hovering over her. He studied her for a long moment and finally lifted his hand to caress her cheek. “Say that you want me … or that you do not. They have said that I can have what I have wanted since the first time I saw you. I know I should not leap at what they have offered, but I find I cannot resist. The gods know that I have tried not to love you. I tried to tell myself that I could not love you, that I had not been designed for such things, and yet I know that I do. Do you feel that you could love me … even a little, lady?”
Emerald felt the breath leave her. Remorse filled her at that last, chasing the shock and filling her with warmth. “Oh Aeon!” she whispered, regretful that she’d so taken his friendship for granted that she hadn’t considered that she might have wounded him many times in her thoughtlessness. “I already love you … and more a little!”
He released a pent up breath and slipped his hand to the base of her skull, shifting closer until his body brushed hers. She lifted onto her toes to meet him when he bent his head toward hers and matched his lips to hers.
His kiss shook her to her core. Right up until she felt his lips on hers, until she breathed his breath and took his scent inside of her, she’d thought she merely cherished him as a dear friend and the hero who’d saved her from the villainous Mylor. His touch dispelled any notion she’d held that she felt nothing but friendship, however, admired him only because of that one moment of heroism or even for the fact that he was pleasing to her eyes.
They were both shaking with need by the time he lifted his lips from hers. Without a word, he scooped her into his arms. Instead of taking her inside and to the room that was his, however, he carried her down the steps and into the garden he’d made for her—with love, she realized at last—settling her on the soft grasses at the center and following her down.
Regret and discomfort filled her when he’d undressed her and exposed her body, misshapen with advanced pregnancy. She wondered how he could possibly find her the least bit attractive, but he bent his head to kiss the mound as if it was his child housed there and not Koryn’s, and his expression when he lifted his head and looked at her was filled with heated desire. “I want to watch my child grow here as I have watched Lord Tariq’s and Koryn’s,” he murmured as he dipped down again and kissed his way upward to her breasts.
Emerald was torn between delight at his touch and anxiety right up until he began to suckle her breasts hungrily. She forgot everything then. Even her perceptions narrowed to that one point where his mouth pulled at the sensitive nub that tipped her breast, sending electric charges through her that took her breath away.
He rolled onto his back after a few moments, carrying her so that she was splayed on top of his chest and belly and urged her to sit up and take him inside of her. She needed no urging. She was nearing a sense of desperation to feel him inside her and she sat up at once, settling on her knees as she grasped his turgid flesh and stroked it for a moment before she lifted away and aligned his body with hers.
Her eyes drifted closed of their own accord as she felt the pressure build against the mouth of her sex and then her flesh yield reluctantly to his possession, but she watched his face from beneath her lashes in the moonlight, saw it grow more taut as she slowly engulfed his flesh. It sent a surge of anticipation through her.
He sat up abruptly, coiling his arms around her tightly and pressing her down until he was so deeply inside of her she could scarcely catch her breath. He sought her lips again, spearing his fingers in her hair and guiding her mouth to his, holding her while he sucked hungrily at her lips and then her tongue when he’d coaxed it into his mouth. He broke the kiss almost as abruptly as he’d begun it, pressing his forehead to hers. “It feels … like heaven inside of you, Em.”
Emerald’s heart leapt, hammering with a fresh burst of excitement. She nuzzled his face. “It feels like heaven to have you inside of me, Aeon.”
He expelled a ragged breath and began to move, lifting her and pressing her down again faster and faster until he attained the rhythm he needed. Emerald was past awareness of anything but the feel of his flesh gliding back forth along her channel and the climb of her body toward ecstasy. She sucked in a sharp breath when the first wave hit her, jolting her so hard she tensed all over. Aeon shuddered, ut
tered a hoarse grunt and began driving into her faster. She felt his cock buck inside of her and then the scalding heat of his seed bathing her channel. It sent her soaring to a higher level, seemed to intensify the convulsions of her climax until she was gasping and moaning incessantly.
For several moments afterwards, they simply leaned together, shivering in the aftermath. Aeon leaned back after a moment, carrying her down with him. She was too weak for several moments to move, but the baby had other ideas. It began to kick at the restriction.
Aeon uttered a husky chuckle and rolled to his side. “She objects to the blunt rod poking her,” he murmured.
Surprise flickered through Emerald, but she smiled against his chest. “Apparently.”
“Does she always do that?” he asked after a few moments.
“She doesn’t like being crowded,” Emerald murmured sleepily and then yawned.
“I have worn my baby out?”
“Your baby was already worn out,” Emerald muttered ruefully. “A fantastic climax was all I needed to put me in a coma.”
Aeon’s arms tightened around her. “You are my baby. I did not think that I would ever touch you as I wanted to.”
Emerald nuzzled his chest and kissed a spot above his breast bone. “If you’d said something sooner you wouldn’t have had to wait.”
He shifted away from her to study her face. “Truly?”
Emerald roused enough to touch his face. “Truly.”
“Now and forever,” he murmured.
Emerald smiled ruefully. “Just the four of us—and the babies, of course—one very large, and hopefully very happy, family.”
“I am happy.”
“It doesn’t take much to make you happy,” she said teasingly.
Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I Page 32
