HerOutlandishStranger by Summer Devon Page B

him
now. He had to learn how to wake himself from good dreams too. More than once
he dreamed Liza was in his arms, and when he awoke he was horrified to find he
was holding her, moving, no grinding against her, touching her in his
sleep, embarrassingly close to coming.
    Talk about wild-state. How in the world did he get through
the many layers of clothing to find her silken skin in his sleep? Luckily she
was a sounder sleeper than he, though she wasn’t exactly a log on those
occasions. Unfortunately.
    He had to cautiously unwrap her arms, even her legs from his
body, and pull himself away as she made small sounds of protest in her sleep.
He’d throw his cloak over her, then he’d take a brisk walk through the cold
night air, never far from her, but not so close he could see her. Just seeing
her vulnerable as she lay on the ground was enough to set off the throbbing
ache again. It was too easy and painfully tempting to crawl back and make love
with her.
    At least outside he could easily get away. He became an
expert stargazer during those long nights. He lay on his back staring up at the
sky, using the CR to pick out constellations, all the while pretending a warm
and lovely woman did not lie on the ground a few yards away.
    One night he woke to see her heavy eyes staring back at him.
He promptly shut his eyes again and used all of his skill to make his breath
heavy and slow, hoping she didn’t feel his frantic heartbeat.
    “Jas,” she whispered quietly. She leaned forward and gently
kissed his cheek, her lips almost hot on his chilled skin. He bent his knees so
she couldn’t press against him and feel the obvious evidence that he wasn’t
relaxed. She pressed faint kisses on his mouth and face and with light
fingertips of one hand stroked his hair, face, neck. He wondered if anyone
could be convinced he’d sleep through such torture, but he did his best to
pretend. A groan escaped him, but he managed to turn it into a sleepy sound.
    At last she whispered, “Good night” and pushed herself into
his arms. She fell back to sleep at once. After what seemed like hours, he
managed to peel himself away, rock hard and trembling with need.
    He nearly gave into the raging hunger for her. He was so
swamped with desire even his blasted toes ached and it didn’t make his life any
easier to know the raging lust could be sated if he simply turned over. Huh.
She wasn’t unwilling and then her pregnancy would not be such a shock. But so
far he’d managed to keep from turning around—while he was awake, anyway.
    The truth was miserably clear to him. It was one thing to
fulfill some bizarre DHUy commission that was basically rape, quite another to
make the woman a part of a seduction. The records showed that the man who impregnated
her was a stranger, so if he still cared about keeping archives straight, he
knew he had to keep his hands off.
    But the records didn’t matter to him nearly as much as the
woman he’d gotten to know. When he pondered the question in the middle of the
night—ha, in the middle of the day too—he knew which situation was worse for
Liza. At least with the one she couldn’t despise herself for the pregnancy.
    The DHU experts hadn’t exaggerated for once. In her peculiar
society, she would feel shame, perhaps even loathe herself, should she become
pregnant by acting on her own desire.
    He had another, more selfish reason to keep off her. Though
their time together would be a short episode in her life, he didn’t want her to
think of his memory with disgust. She would hate him if they made love and then
he simply vanished, leaving her pregnant.
    Of course that’s what had happened—what will happen—but she
didn’t know the whole truth. If he was any kind of agent, she never would.
    * * * * *
    In the morning, he packed up while she slept. He froze when
he heard a quiet whimper and realized it was the sound of Liza sobbing.
    He knew she cried for her father. He wanted to go to her and
gather her in