“Baen told me he was the seventh born of the seventh brood. Their women have multiple births--litters. All of them. After six broods, they’re supposed to produce a new queen. And each queen takes a brood to start her own colony or family unit.
“They’re laboring under the assumption that if we accept them, they will become a part of a unit like it exists in their culture. If we try to exert our own culture over theirs we have no way of knowing how they might react to that, but it’s very possible, however likely, that it could be with violence.
“If the other colonists find out that they’re the same as we are, this could get completely out of control before we fully understand it and we might find ourselves dead in the middle of a territorial battle.”
Deb’s dark eyes had grown wider and wider as she listened to Eden. By the time Eden had finished her dark skin had turned a sickly hue. She uttered a sound that carried a note of hysterical disbelief. “You mean to say they would expect us to take on a--harem of men?”
“There are eight in Baen’s brood. He made it pretty clear to me that that was what they expected, yes.”
Deb sobered instantly. “Talk about an embarrassment of riches! My god! It makes me giddy just thinking about it, but as wonderful a fantasy as that sounds, how the hell would we deal with having that many when we haven’t been around any men in all these years? You’re saying we’d have to take the whole brood or just do without?”
“That’s what it sounded like to me. We might discover after we study them a while that that isn’t the case, but if I didn’t misunderstand, that’s exactly what we’re facing. And if we did, then they would be exposed to our culture, and god only knows how they’d react to that. We’d certainly be placing ourselves in a precarious position.
“In their culture it seems the queens are the central focus and function a lot like a ruler would---the males respect them and cater to their needs and wishes. But we wouldn’t be acting like their queens and their response might not be pretty.”
Deb focused on packing her satchel. “Other than the jolt of discovering his genetics, I couldn’t find anything wrong with him beyond a low tolerance for alcohol. He’ll probably have a whale of a headache when he comes down, but otherwise he should be all right.
“If you want my opinion, we should have nothing to do with them at all. I’m as lonesome a gal as everyone else, but I don’t think I could deal with walking a tight wire. I know I don’t want to. And I know damned well that there aren’t many colonists that would know how to maintain such a relationship. There’ll be trouble if we try to bring them into the colony.”
Eden moved to the edge of the bed and sat down. “I know that. There’s going to be trouble if we don’t, too. The question is, which would be worse?”
“Having several hundred romping, stomping, bellowing men running amuck in New Savannah!” Deb retorted.
Eden smiled faintly at the image that conjured though it wasn’t really funny. “We’ll have several hundred screaming banshees if we try to stop it,” she said, rubbing her temples. It would have been hard enough to decide what to do if she could have distanced herself from the situation. She couldn’t. On a personal level, she was battling a nearly overwhelming impulse to throw caution to the wind herself and explore her interest in the Xtanian’s, Baen in particular. He looked fierce. She knew he would probably be a formidable foe on the battlefield, but her mind wasn’t on the battlefield when she was anywhere around him.
It would’ve been an understatement to say she’d never met anyone quite like him. Even with the new information, he seemed more alien to her than brethren, but she thought his exotic looks was one of the things that she found so fascinating. Beyond that, she sensed facets of his personality that drew her to him, most powerfully his neediness. He had never experienced tenderness or affection--not like the cherished offspring of an Earth couple, and yet she felt like he sensed the vacuum and yearned for it.
But maybe that was only her imagination because she ached at the thought of anyone being deprived of something so necessary to happiness? Maybe what she saw in his eyes when he looked at her wasn’t desire and a hunger for tenderness? Maybe it was only physical need and confusion because their cultures were so different?
“We can’t risk bringing them into New Savannah, Eden. I don’t agree with Ivy on everything, but I think she’s right about that.”
The comment brought Eden out of her thoughts. “So--what’s the solution?”
Deb smiled wryly. “Thankfully, your problem,” she retorted, getting to her feet and heading for the door.
“Thanks!”
“You’re welcome!”
* * * *
“E zith tsatima tae amen za san piz wil pzyztha?”
Eden whirled to look at Baen with a mixture of surprise, guilt, and embarrassment. Reaching up, she switched the translator on. “What?”
“In what way am I different from the men of your world?”
The temptation arose to pretend she wasn’t aware that he’d overheard more than he should have, to try to gloss over her stupid mistake with lies and half truths. After what he’d overheard, though, she knew she was going to have to feel her way carefully to keep from offending him more.
He was offended. She was in no doubt of that. “A lot of ways, actually, but not all of them are bad.”
His brow creased in a look that was more angry--or perhaps wounded--than thoughtful. Pushing himself upright, he moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “And not all good?”
Maybe she wasn’t really cut out to be an ambassador of her people? She thought wryly. She was beginning to think she wasn’t worth a damn at diplomacy. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
He seemed to debate with himself whether to pursue the matter further. “These--differences--they are repulsive to you?”
His voice was carefully neutral, but there was no doubt in Eden’s mind that he felt very strongly about his doubts. She forgot her role as colony leader and ambassador and reacted on a purely personal, and feminine, level. “No!”
He sent her a startled look, but she could see her vehemence hadn’t convinced him. Yielding to the impulse she’d been struggling against almost from the first time she’d met him, she moved closer. Kneeling in front of him, she looked up at him earnestly. “I am different from a Xtanian woman. Do you find that distasteful?”
He swallowed audibly. “No.” A wry smile tugged at his lips. “I am not certain I understand what I feel when I look at you, but it does not seem to be revulsion. I think things that are forbidden for me to think, want things I should not.”
Warmth suffused Eden. Doubts surfaced, but she willfully ignored them. Just a kiss, she lied to herself, just to soothe his wound, just to show him I don’t find him repulsive at all.
What possible harm could such an innocent gesture do?
Giving in to the impulse to move closer, she lifted a hand to his cheek, tilting her head up to touch her lips lightly to his. He stiffened, but he did not pull away. When she drew back to gauge his reaction, she saw that his eyes were stormy, his face taut.
“What is this custom?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
Surprise flickered through Eden. “The kiss?”
The word didn’t translate, but it took Eden a moment to realize it. She didn’t know if that was because the computer simply hadn’t had that sort of input before or if it was because they didn’t kiss, but she strongly suspected the latter, especially when he traced one finger lightly along her lips, swallowing hard. “It is forbidden for a soldier to touch a queen in any way except to prevent harm to her,” he said slowly.
He didn’t move away, though.
It was a warning and she should have heeded it. She knew she should, but her lips tingled from his touch and a hunger had arisen inside of her she found she didn’t want to ignore. Rising, she placed her palms on his shoulders and a knee on either side of his thighs, settling her buttocks on his lap. A flicker of something that looked like alarm crossed his features, but she ignored that as she had the warning. He planted his hands along the curve of her hips as if he was of half a mind to set her away from him, and half inclined to pull her closer still.
Eden slipped her arms around his neck. Leaning closer, she placed her cheek along his, breathing in his scent. It was intoxicating. “Kissing is one of my favorite customs,” she murmured near his ear.
A tremor went through him as she dragged her lips along his cheek and sought his mouth again, brushing her lips lightly back and forth across his. His breathing became labored, his lips parting as he struggled to drag more air into his lungs. Eden felt her body respond, her heart accelerating, warmth pouring through her bloodstream. It decimated what little rational thought remained.
She traced his lips with her tongue, plucked at them with her own lips and finally fitted her mouth firmly against his, thrusting her tongue into his mouth to taste him and explore.
He sighed gustily into her mouth, his hands tightening almost bruisingly on her hips as she leaned against him. She felt him grow hard beneath her as she continued to explore his mouth, felt his great body begin to tremble until he was shaking as violently as if he had fever. His response sent another heady rush through her.
It also set off distant warning bells which she did her best to ignore.
He wasn’t used to being touched intimately. The only females they had were queens, and as a soldier, they were off limits to him.
If she unleashed the desire he had been trained to keep inside ….
She could feel the battle going on inside of him.
Reluctantly, she lifted her head. For many moments she remained where she was, waiting, hoping that he would not allow her to stop there. She realized finally that between the liqueur and the desire she’d aroused in him that he was too disordered to do more than cling to his training at the moment like a drowning man.
Slowly, her desire waned and empathy resurrected itself. She should not have pushed him, she realized. She stroked his hard cheek soothingly. “It’s alright, but you do understand now why I’m not at all certain that it would be wise to consider Sademeen’s offer? My people and yours are too different to adjust to one another I’m afraid.”
He set her off his lap and stood abruptly. Eden swayed slightly as he brushed past her. “Baen?”
He stopped and swiveled around to meet her gaze.
“I’ll have to escort you from the city.”
He nodded a little jerkily, dark color creeping into his cheeks.
* * * *
“Was that wise?”
Eden felt color pulse in her cheeks as she dragged her gaze from Baen’s retreating form and whirled to look at Ivy guiltily. She realized almost at once, though, that Ivy had no way of knowing how stupid she actually had been.
Horny twit! She berated herself.
“Probably not,” she retorted brusquely. “He lugged a--something-or-other--over a mile for us, though, besides bringing it down and cleaning it himself. It would’ve been just plain rude to dismiss him at the gate like he was a servant.”
“He is a servant--in their society--from what I can see. All the males are.”
Eden brushed past Ivy, heading for her home. Ivy fell into step beside her.
“That’s not the only reason you invited him to your quarters, is it?” Ivy asked shrewdly.
In spite of all she could do, Eden felt color rising in her cheeks again. “Actually, it was.” She hadn’t intended to kiss him. He’d just looked so cute befuddled by the liqueur, and she’d been worried she’d poisoned him.
She was such a sucker for a hard luck story! From the moment she’d heard that they’d been abandoned here every nurturing instinct she possessed had been screaming for her to cuddle and protect as if they were infants and completely helpless instead of full grown, really big and dangerous looking men! She would’ve found the temptation they represented almost too much to resist if it had only been a fever of the blood that drew her. The other was just icing on the cake to make her behave like a complete idiot!
If they were as cold blooded as they appeared, they could be planning death and destruction and she was going to be as easy a target as all the other red blooded females in the colony!
It could all be an act, this whole ‘we need women’ thing. Her instincts told her it wasn’t, but she had a bad feeling she couldn’t really trust her instincts.
“But then you just couldn’t resist?”
“All right. I kissed him,” she admitted testily. “Not that it’s any of your business!”
“It is when it pertains to the safety of the colony,” Ivy shot back at her, but she looked more amused than angry.
“Maybe I was just experimenting like you did the other day?”
Ivy made a rude noise of disbelief. “I don’t think you should be playing doctor with the aliens. For all we know they might not even have the right equipment, and that could be frustrating all the way around.”
“They have the right equipment,” Eden retorted, feeling very defensive of them.
“So--you were playing doctor? How was it?”
The question dragged a reluctant laugh out of Eden, mostly because it showed that Ivy wasn’t nearly as immune to them as she pretended. “I did not! He was bathing in the stream in the valley when I came upon him.”
“Which was probably at the back of your mind all the way back to the city.”
Eden thought that over. “Maybe,” she finally responded, albeit reluctantly. Not that just seeing a naked man would have been enough, ordinarily, to get her all hot and bothered, but she was already buzzing every time she came within Baen’s vicinity. He didn’t have to do much to push her over the edge.
She discovered they’d reached her home once more. After a moment’s hesitation, she invited Ivy in. “I discovered something when Baen was here,” she began.
“He’s a good kisser?”
Eden sent her a look. “I gave him a glass of liquor and he had a really bad reaction to it. Apparently their metabolism can’t handle it.”
“This is interesting,” Ivy said slowly. “Exactly how did it affect him?”
“He was drunk on his ass,” Eden said bluntly, “but that isn’t what I wanted to tell you. It scared me. I thought I’d poisoned him and sent for Deb. She ran tests.”