Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I by Stacey St. James Page B

she would’ve had on Earth even if not for the
war.
    She was just sorry for herself that
she couldn’t be there to watch her life unfold.
    She didn’t presently see any
possibility of it, at any rate. She wouldn’t even be alive now if
not for the Anunnaki and she wasn’t convinced, yet, that they’d
done her a favor. She had a bad feeling she never would be
convinced of that.
    Thrusting her depressing thoughts
aside after a moment, she focused on eating what she could of the
food Koryn had brought, reminding herself that she had to get
stronger to even look for opportunities. She felt stronger already
than she had a few days before and she’d recovered enough of her
memories to have both a past and some hope for a future.
    Beyond having a goal, she didn’t allow
herself to dwell too much on Cara. She hadn’t since she’d sent her
away to protect her and now wasn’t the time to allow herself to get
bogged down in useless emotions. She had to survive first before
she had possibilities.
    * * * *
    Koryn was so consumed by jealousy that
it wasn’t until they reached the dig that he emerged sufficiently
to feel any curiosity at all about what Tariq had found. It had
bothered him just knowing that Tariq had her in his quarters. He’d
convinced himself, though, that Tariq wasn’t fool enough to risk
Emerald just to appease his needs and, unfortunately, he’d assumed
that meant that Tariq would keep his distance.
    Clearly the bastard saw no reason not
to gentle her to hand while he waited, though. She not only hadn’t
put up any resistance when he’d carried her to the chair and
cuddled her, she’d clung to him. The sight had been enough to make
him so sick with rage that he’d wavered for a time between the urge
to throw up and the urge to drag Emerald out of his lap and resume
what they’d started earlier.
    Emerald’s distress was the only thing
that had kept him firmly planted where he was. The memories he’d
helped to surface were clearly far more traumatic even than he’d
expected and he’d been worried enough about her dealing with them
emotionally that he’d managed to retain a slender thread of sanity.
Not much more than that, but at least a little
self-control.
    The underhanded bastard was using her
emotional frailty, her need for comfort to accustom her to his
touch!
    Not that he could see that Tariq had
succeeded all that well, he thought with some satisfaction. She
didn’t trust him, despite his efforts.
    Of course, she didn’t
trust him either!
    That rankled almost more
than the fact that she’d at least trusted Tariq enough to calm her
when he thought she ought to have been more inclined to turn to
him. He was the
one who’d revived her, after all. She’d responded to his hypnosis
with trust!
    And yet he’d gotten the distinct
impression that she wasn’t even aware he was in the room until he’d
spoken—which was proof positive his mind was just so much mush!
What in the hell had possessed him to pose such a question, he
wondered, thoroughly disgusted with himself? He should have known
better! Tariq might still be laboring under the impression that the
humans were vastly inferior intellectually to the Anunnaki, but
he’d studied their genome thoroughly. He knew they were the equal
of the Anunnaki in that respect—maybe not technologically but even
that was debatable now, when they’d discovered the humans had
mastered space travel to an extent that had allowed them to
colonize other worlds.
    If he’d been thinking straight, he
would’ve known that that would instantly set off alarms and inspire
distrust!
    The truth was, he thought disgustedly,
that he’d been too focused on trying to gain her attention and her
trust to think before he spoke.
    Not that he thought the fault was
entirely his! Tariq had completely underestimated the humans in
general and her in particular. Granted, it was hard to shake the
preconceptions they’d had when they’d been sent to collect