Alien Mine (20 page)

His lovemaking, as beautiful as it had been up to now, hadn't fulfilled that fantasy. This moment did. He was savage in his need for her, merciless in his drive for satisfaction. It was the fulfilment of all her fantasies, and she clung to him, meeting him thrust for thrust as he drove them both to pleasure too intense to bear. Her orgasm rushed over her and vaguely, she heard him roar in triumph.

Limp, unable to move, her body satisfied, she kissed the copper shoulder near her lips. She wanted to imprison him in bed for a long time. They could just stay in here and make love until they had to emerge for food. She raised her fingers and absently stroked his back. He'd collapsed over her but kept most of his weight off her, propping himself up on his forearms.

Then something in the room changed. She frowned, the feelings of satisfaction left, to be replaced with dread.

His head lifted with a slow, almost reluctant movement. "I have to do this, Natlia."

"Do what?" she asked, still confused by the sudden change in the atmosphere.

"This." He leaned down and bit her, two long, savage incisors piercing the base of her neck.

Natalie screamed and everything went black.

Chapter 10

Natalie woke to absolute quiet. Even before she opened her eyes, she knew something was different, that her life would never be the same again. She frowned, trying to remember. Moaning, she drew the patchwork quilt over her. When her muscles protested, memories of Zacar making wonderful, soul-destroying, and relentless love to her the night before flashed through her mind. That, and he'd bitten her. That damn bossy alien had lulled her with pleasure, and then bit her with teeth the size of boulders.

A woman shouldn't have to deal with more than one thing the morning after being...fucked senseless. She cringed a bit at the crude word but it described the previous night perfectly. Gripping the quilt with shaking fingers, she peeked over her shoulder and sagged in relief and a little disappointment. She was alone in the tent. Shouldn't he at least have stayed and kissed her good morning? Maybe murmured sweet nothings in her ear. She giggled at the thought of taciturn Zacar, murmuring sweet nothings. It was more likely he'd roar at her to get up and hurry to the table so he could feed her.

As if her thoughts had called him, he stalked into the tent, with that graceful, silent stride.

"You bit me." The accusation flew out of her mouth before she could stop it. She remembered how he'd looked with his mouth wide open, those teeth growing to an enormous size, his eyes bright red and almost glowing. She'd come to see his red eyes as the windows to his soul. Beautiful, in a savage way. But when he'd bitten her last night, they were just scary.

Ignoring her glare, he came to sit on the bed. With his finger under her chin, he lifted her head to the side. Then bending down, he stared intently at her neck for a few moments. Uncomfortable, she lifted her shoulder and tilted her head to hide her vulnerable neck from him. Zacar moved her head and traced her sore neck with a gentle forefinger. Still, she didn't like those teeth this close to her exposed neck. Who knew when he'd get the urge to bite her again?

"Human women break easily. I did not know this." There was definite disappointment in his voice.

"I didn't break last night," she said hastily then felt a blush burning up her cheeks and neck. Just because she fainted like any normal person would have, after having their brain messed with, or getting bitten, didn't mean she was broken. Still, the clear disappointment in his voice hurt her. So what if her body was sore and aching? It wasn't as if she was used to making love the whole night long then being bitten into a coma.

"Viglar explained I cannot pleasure you for more than six hours a night," he said in a calm voice, as if pleasuring a woman for six straight hours was normal.

"Six hours?" she said and drew back a bit. Was he planning on...on loving her to death? She resisted the urge to cup herself protectively.

Wait. He said a night. As in every night
? Andre could barely bring himself to touch her once a week.

Then something else he'd said caught her attention. "You discussed making love to me with the doctor?" She was beginning to feel real hatred for the hapless doctor and his silver instrument.

"Yes." Those red passion eyes narrowed at her. "Viglar assured me, with ample care you can manage six hours."

She cringed. "Ample care?" Visions of being kept in bed to rest after long breeding sessions floated through her mind. Though, not all of those images were scary.

"Do you always discuss your sex life with the doctor?" She could just see them lining up, discussing all their performance problems with the doctor. Although, if Zacar was anything to go by, then performance problems would be the last thing they'd consulted the good doctor on.

"Yes," he said, as if she asked strange questions.

"I don't believe this," she murmured, throwing her hands up in a helpless gesture. If the doctor didn't already know everything about her, he soon would. He'd already measured her, for God's sake.

"Viglar will give you...vitamins that will keep you strong."

Vitamins
? "How on earth did you get your hands on vitamins?"

They'd been really hard to come by for decades now. Visions of them breaking into a pharmaceutical warehouse flitted through her mind. What if the police tracked them to her cave? They'd lock her up as an accomplice.

"We recreated the formulas in our synthesizer."

"How do I know those vitamins will agree with me?" If they made her feel like the implants did, she wanted nothing to do with them. "For all you know, it kills humans."

"It will work. We tested it."

Tested it
?
On who
? Natalie dropped her head into her hands. "Let me guess. You captured a raider and tested it on him."

"Yes," he said without any hint of guilt in his voice.

She didn't want to know if they'd killed the man afterward. It was information she would prefer not to have. If this made her a coward, then so be it. Natalie tried and couldn't find it within herself to feel sympathy for the unfortunate raider. They had terrorized the country for years now and, even before Murdoch became their leader, they were vicious. They'd burned down her house and almost--

"Do you agree? Six hours?" he insisted.

The man had a one track mind.

"Umm--six hours? Well--what about two hours?"

Never in a million years would Julia believe she had this conversation. As teenagers, they'd fantasized about finding wonderful, exciting lovers, but these days they fantasized about having a love life at all.

"Four hours," he said decisively.

"Four hours a week?" she said hopefully. Andre would've had a fit if she'd demanded even one hour a week. Not that she would have had the courage to demand something like that from him. Apparently, dealing with an alien warrior had revealed a backbone she never realized she had. In spite of her fear of him, she'd stood up to him more than she ever did with Andre. Was it because she was older? Or was it the fact that since their break-up, she'd lost both her parents and her home?

He leaned down. "Every. Day," he grated right into her face in a gravelly voice she could barely understand.

She opened her mouth to protest but closed it again. Who was she fooling? She wanted him to make love to her. A man wanting her that much was like a dream came true. The gangly girl, once called
broomstick
by her classmates, was now desired enough by a man that she had to bargain with him over the number of hours he wanted to make love. She had one lover in college--the year before it shut down--if you could call him that. They'd been so young, only fumbling around then never getting together again, both too embarrassed to repeat the experience. After that, there was only Andre, when she'd come back home.

Until Zacar captured her, she always thought she'd missed out on the sensual gene. Apparently, the problem was that she was wired to respond to a fierce alien.

"Is this normal on your planet? This bargaining?" It might be flattering, but four hours a day? Her body simply wasn't built to take the strain. She didn't even want to think about the chafing. Didn't women on his planet have the option to say no?

"No, Zyrgian breeders are strong."

There was that word again.
Strong.
She could hear an underlying scorn for anything weak and shrank back into the bed. Taking a deep breath she forced herself to look relaxed, instead of scared out of her mind. She'd inherited her asthma from her mother who in turn inherited it from her grandmother. What if it was possible to have children with Zacar, and they were born with asthma.

Please let my contraceptive work against aliens.
Three years ago, she had an injection that was supposed to be effective for ten years. Like many other pharmaceutical companies, the company producing it went bankrupt shortly after that, though. Most medicines were too hard to come by or so expensive she'd never be able to afford them. She still didn't know what she was going to do if she couldn't find anyone selling inhalers. When some of the pharmaceutical companies had gone bankrupt, they abandoned warehouses full of product, which were quickly looted by thieves, the medicines sold on the black market to the highest bidder.

He pulled her flush against him, his delicious heat soaking into her bones. Even with the alien gadgets heating up the cave, the snow falling outside still somehow seeped in, chilling her. Her failed escape attempt had given her a permanent disgust for, and fear of, snow and cold. She'd always been determined to stay on the mountain, but now, with everything that had happened, she questioned that decision.

He bent his head and moved his lips softly over hers in a tender caress. His gentleness, the sensual way he made love to her was astonishing for such a fierce warrior.

"Four hours, yes," he murmured against her lips, making the intimate moment almost forbidden. He was relentless.

"Yes, but no biting." She knew she should make more conditions, but with him kissing her, his hands roaming over her body, her mind stopped functioning. Who knew she could be like this. She forced herself to lean back and glare at him. "No biting," she insisted.

"No need for biting," he said and she relaxed. "Yet."

Natalie scrambled back from him. "What does that mean? Do you plan on biting me again once every week or something?"

"Not a week, maybe a few years," he said, as if it was normal to bite a woman every now and then when he felt like it.

"You're not biting me every few years. I refuse."

"I
will
bite you."

"Why? What purpose does it serve?"

"It is custom to my people. A warrior bites his breeder every few years," he said, while looking her straight in the eye. His voice sounded sincere but he had to be lying to her. Some sixth sense vibrated in her body, warning her that he was only playing games with her.

"Why?"

"It keeps you healthy."

Could that be all it was, a way to keep her healthy? She enjoyed his lovemaking but the way her skin came alive when he licked her, vaguely made her feel as if some of her will was taken from her.

"Tell me why your saliva makes my skin burn with pleasure." She felt her cheeks heat when she admitted the effect he had on her. But she wanted answers. Too many things were happening around her, and to her, while she was kept in the dark all the time.

"It is proper that I pleasure you with my tongue."

"That's not what I asked." He was very good at dodging questions.

He didn't answer, but looked at her with that inscrutable face.

Before he could answer the door opened and one of the aliens grunted something her translator did not understand. Zacar tensed and grated something back.

"Zacar? I think something's wrong with my implant. It occasionally misses some of the things you say and now I'm only hearing grunts from whoever spoke to you."

"I will test your translator." Without any further explanation, he left.