Genesis (37 page)

“I’ve scooped a stone’s worth of sand into my breeches,” he muttered after a few moments, dragging a chuckle from her. “And made friction burns on my knees.”

“I’ve got sand in the crack of ass and friction burns on the cheeks,” she retorted with amused tolerance.

He dragged in a deep, sustaining breath and let it out shakily. “I’m sorry, dearest. I could have given you pleasure without the risks to you.”

Her hand stilled for a moment as that reminder washed over her, but she dismissed it as the realization swept through her that she wasn’t sorry at all. “I’m not. I wanted you inside of me. I want your baby.”

Chapter Twenty Three

Kole, Bri reflected, not for the first time, had amazing self control, and it wasn’t something she was inclined to see in a good light when it came to intimacy between them. Under most circumstances, she considered it as one of his most admirable qualities, a strength of character that undoubtedly accounted for the blind loyalty most of his men showed him. There were times, though, when she looked upon it as pure pig-headedness … like his determination to protect her from himself. But whatever thoughts she’d nursed that she’d eliminated his objections were banished when she joined him in their shelter the following night.

He’d woke that morning in a foul mood and gave her a cold shoulder most of the day--when she saw him, which was only twice and both times at a distance, but although it had bothered her, Bri dismissed it with the thought that it was only because he was tired and anxious about their plans. She’d told him she would not count the cost, that she was prepared to take the risks--that she wanted his baby. She had meant it. It hadn’t been an impulse of the moment. She’d considered it, and she’d realized that, even if he did impregnate her, it wasn’t going to interfere with their plans--because those plans would have to be implemented before it could possibly be a problem. Her pregnancy was the least of their worries. With so many other women pregnant, it was going to be impossible to execute the plan at all if they couldn’t do so before everyone was in their second trimester ... and everyone else that was pregnant was well ahead of her.

She knew he was worried about her. It was sweet--more than sweet. It assured her as nothing else that Kole was not merely interested in her because his hormones were raging at the moment and he couldn’t help himself. He cared about
her
.

As tired as she was when they were finally released to rest, she’d looked forward to making love to him all day, allowed her mind to dwell on the night before throughout most of the day until she was already aroused and ready when they settled together in the shelter.

Instead of pulling her to him at once, though, Kole dragged out the sheet they’d used to test the acid and settled down to wait until they’d been scanned by the Sheloni security beams. Mildly irritated, Bri brushed it off. He was right. Business first, and then they could make love.

Settling beside him at the opening, she waited until he’d unearthed the beast, which stunk a good deal worse since it had been ripening in the sun all day. Again they tested the properties of the creature’s acid and, to relief of both of them, discovered that it was as potent as the night before. Bri timed it carefully, despite the overwhelming urge to move as far away from the thing as possible and hold her nose and allow Kole the honors.

Relieved and happy as she was at the discovery, Bri was more than ready for him to bury it again and wondered if the smell alone was going to give them away. It almost certainly would if the thing stank worse every time they dug it up again to test it. At this rate, it was going to smell up the entire compound.

Their shelter reeked. Kole reeked from handling the thing, because no amount of sand was sufficient to cleanse it from his hands.

And Bri discovered she’d lost her ‘hard on’. It was all she could do to breathe. She covered her nose and mouth with her gown, breathing shallowly as they settled down at last to sleep, hoping the breeze off the ocean would carry the smell away before she hyperventilated from trying to catch a breath of air not laced with the smell of rotting beast. She would never have thought the sulfuric smell of the water would be preferable to anything else, she thought wryly.

Eventually, the smell seemed to dissipate--either that or she just became accustomed to it.

Which was when she discovered Kole was asleep.

Piqued, she had to resist the temptation to wake him up, but finally she dismissed the idea. He was tired, she told herself. He needed his rest. Dansk had Cory, and would be keeping the baby with him for the next few nights, until they were satisfied with testing the sea creature. They would have more nights alone.

And maybe she could figure out some way to get rid of the repulsive smell, which wasn’t doing a thing for her libido.

The second night Kole fell asleep before her, Bri was not only not nearly as understanding, she was peeved … and deeply suspicious that he wasn’t asleep at all. She was too irritated with him, though, even to consider trying to initiate sex herself.

Besides, the stench was worse than it had been before and showed every sign that it was going to get progressively worse.

By the third night, Bri was ready for battle. As much as she appreciated his grim determination to protect her from herself, she didn’t by damn need protecting! She was an adult! She was capable of making her own decisions.

When Kole joined her inside the shelter she’d already shucked her gown and hidden the test cloth. Kole eyed her warily. “We must test this each night in order to be certain the properties remain the same.”

“Yes, we must,” Bri agreed, trying to sound reasonable. “But we needn’t test it
first
.”

He stared at her for a long moment. Almost against his will, it seemed, his gaze strayed down her body. He swallowed audibly. “You will … regret this. We both will.”

Bri shook her head slowly and moved closer to him. Steadying herself by placing her hands on his chest, she leaned to brush her lips along his hard pecs. “The only thing I could possibly regret is
not
having your baby,” she murmured. Maybe she wasn’t being completely rational about it, but she was afraid she wouldn’t get the chance if she accepted his terms. She was nearly thirty. Seven years, if what he said was true, was too long for her to wait, might mean she never got the chance at all.

If she was wrong, if she’d somehow misunderstood, or if it turned out that Kole was wrong, and he
could
father a child as long as he was with a woman whose fertility periods were monthly instead of only every seven years, so much the better. They could have a family … a half a dozen children if that was what he wanted. But she couldn’t bear to take this chance of not having his child at all. “You want this as much as I do,” she said, kissing her way up his chest to his throat. “And I want to give you the baby you want.”

He speared his fingers through her hair. “I want
you
,” he said raggedly. “I want you safe. I don’t want anything that would add to your risks. It’s bad enough ….” He broke off. “You are strong, spirited, intelligent. I know you are capable. I trust your judgment in these plans we’re making. But … I am not easy in my mind that you will be in the midst of the battle as it is.”

A mixture of emotions washed through her at that. Amusement was dominant. He was afraid he’d insult her if he mentioned doubts about her prowess as a warrior!

It was just as well, she thought wryly, that he apparently had no clue she wasn’t one. If he was worried now, he’d be frantic to discover she had no training and no knowledge, nothing but grim determination to see her through it. She supposed, if the Hirachi women hadn’t been warriors, it might have occurred to him that there was no way she could be, but he was guilty of the same prejudice most people were. He saw what he expected to see, made conclusions based on his own perception of things.

No doubt he’d concluded that her people had developed sneaky methods of warfare because they were so undersized they couldn’t use brute strength.

In a sense, she supposed they had … women, because the only way they could achieve their goals in a society dominated by aggressive men was to use guerilla tactics.

Hooking her hands behind his neck, she tugged, demanding he lean down to her. “You know I have to be here,” she murmured against his cheek as she caressed him. “I have every intention of being around to do this for a very long time. I’m not going to take unnecessary risks … but I don’t want to throw away the time we have now.”

Maybe it was unfair to point out that they were both at risk and might not have time later to be together, but she realized the moment she said it that that was part of her need for him. She hadn’t been willing to consciously acknowledge the possibility that one or both of them would die, but she knew there was the possibility.

It broke the last of his restraint. He carried her down to the ground, kissing her with a fierce possessiveness that drove the uncertainties from their minds, but there was a desperation in his caresses that hadn’t been there before. They both felt it, a hunger for one another that couldn’t be appeased.

He didn’t object again, didn’t voice any of his doubts. Each night when they came together in the shelter, no matter how weary they were, no matter how tense with worry, with setbacks, they made love until they’d pushed the world away, if only for a little while.

* * * *

Bri had not once dared to allow thoughts of failure to enter her mind, though they’d skated the periphery of her thoughts from the first moment she began to prod everyone to join her insurrection. Time had little meaning, but weeks and maybe even months went into the plotting and planning and execution. She was more than a little surprised that the Sheloni couldn’t
feel
the adrenaline rush that went through them as they drove nails into the Sheloni coffin one by one.

The Hirachi had no real understanding of the black powder beyond the assurance from Bri and the science teacher that it was going to cause a hell of an explosion. If it was something they’d invented themselves, it had been so long ago none of the Hirachi working with them remembered it.

It took patience to purify it, and nerves of steel to plant it. They took turns so that none of them were ever seen in exactly the same place twice. They used the rest periods they had each morning to perfect their throwing arms the best they could, playing a ball game with bladders stuffed with sand. Bri was a little surprised the Sheloni allowed it, but they didn’t seem to see it as any sort of threat and didn’t appear to care what the women did so long as they worked quickly and efficiently at preparing food to feed the workers.

Range and accuracy was the goal. Few of the women had the strength to manage much range, unfortunately, and some were down right uncoordinated--including Bri. She was going to have to practically hand place the fucking acid bombs, she realized with disgust, because she couldn’t hit the same mark twice no matter how much she practiced.

She was better at placing the gun powder bombs. Each time Bri placed a ‘biological’ bomb--with no access to any other materials to use, they’d dried the internal organs of the fish and packed them with the powder and shrapnel of broken rocks--a mixture of fear and excitement filled her so completely that it was hard to preserve a façade of nonchalance as she strolled idly by the drop point, dropped it into place, and casually brushed sand over it with her foot.

None of them, including the science teacher, were certain of what kind of explosion they were going to get. They hoped it was going to be big enough to serve its purpose, but not big enough to blow them all to kingdom come--but they didn’t know.

Bri wasn’t certain if it would have dissuaded anyone. None of them were soldiers, although the Hirachi didn’t seem to grasp that, but hatred of the Sheloni built until they became rabid on the subject of them, too consumed with hate and determination to waste much thought on fear.

They’d been torn from their homes, separated forever from people they loved, starved, worked half to death, tormented with the collars that inflicted excruciating pain if they even appeared reluctant, and used as breeding cattle. Hate was barely strong enough to describe how they felt after the months on the ship and within the prison.

The air fairly vibrated with tension and excitement when the day of reckoning finally arrived.

They’d carefully noted and marked each hole the robots crawled out of along the perimeter of the wall and planted explosives in front them. The hope was that the explosions would stop some, delay others. Bri wasn’t completely certain of the weapon the Hirachi intended to use to bring down the seawall, but none of them seemed in any doubt they were capable of it--She hoped they were right. She hoped everything went as planned. There wasn’t much she could do but hope for the best. They couldn’t test everything. Though they’d tested what they could, and Bri had considered the desirability of actually using some of the acid on one of the bots to see how effective it was, she was afraid even if they managed to make it look accidental that disabling one of the bots might set off alarms.

The biggest threat was the plot they’d hatched to bring the Sheloni ship down to attack. Try though she would to come up with an alternative, the only thing that Bri could think of was blowing up the shipment. That might make the Sheloni on the ground call for help, and it might not. If, instead, they simply began blasting everything that moved ….

The Sheloni had provided them with the detonation devices they needed to set off their gunpowder bombs. They’d used the acid to remove the collars the night before--everyone was wearing an acid burn to prove it--and planted the collars with the bombs.

Bri’s heart was in her throat when she gave the signal they’d agree upon to alert everyone to take their positions.

Closing her eyes as she waited, she prayed to any deity that might be out there that they were about to see something a lot more dramatic than a Fourth of July fireworks bonanza and a great deal less than Hiroshima. When she opened her eyes again, she glanced toward the bomb shelter they’d dug out in the middle of Cory’s ‘playpen’ to make certain that Stacy and Linda, their medics, had taken up their positions inside with him, and then nodded at Kole.