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. Iwastalking 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 Robotics, Inc. … 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 Robotics, Inc. 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 Robotics, Inc.’s plans for us and only a complete moron would even consider going back to Robotics, Inc., the cyborgs could leave us anywhere in the known universe without any worry whatsoever that Robotics, Inc. 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. “Iamreal,” 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.
