Part 4 (1/2)

”They can't be your aunts; they look like your regular, run of the mill, eccentric humanoid aunts; my parents told me they're my aunts, do you expect me to believe my parents lied to me in order to deliver me to you?” she accused with obvious skepticism.

”Marie and Helen are both citizens of Gattonia, they are a mix of our races. I told you our races had frequently mated and they are a result. Their job has been to monitor the progress of your planet and execute certain a.s.signments, such as yours. Your parents are both half Gattonian and gave their permission to collect you. It was not easy for them, but you have Gattonian blood on both sides. It was imperative for our race to have you.” He watched, as the light in her usually expressive eyes died.

She'd been betrayed. Who would have thought that her parents would sacrifice her and not even COM to let her know? She'd had two strangers living in her house for almost a year, how could she have been so stupid. And Angel and Dee-their capture rested directly on her shoulders. How could they forgive her? She'd ruined their lives. She felt like a bowling ball that had just made the mother of all strikes. Her glazed eyes began to clear and settle on Zorroc, his expression showed concern and pity. He ought to pity himself, she decided, he was as stuck with her as she with him. The perfect way to incinerate an already doomed relations.h.i.+p.

”Well, at least I'm good for something. So, should I lay spread eagle and make the rape easy or are you going to wait until I'm asleep to attack?” she proposed, with icy detachment.

”Do not push me Catarina, we both know I can take what I want from you and make you like it, and if you continue to push me I will do exactly that. I want to make love to you, my cream; it is the only way to push through your barriers until you admit that you are more afraid of your feelings for me than in the situation you now find yourself. I will take you as many times as necessary until you face the truth about us. We are bound.” He grew hard, knowing that the time had come to make her, his. The final lesson was about to commence and for the sake of the two of them and their future children, he would make sure she loved every moment of it. He moved in.

Cat knew exactly which way her cat man was blowing by the smoldering in his cat-eyes and the pole jutting prominently from his uniform. Unlike jeans, every male reaction could be seen clearly because of the flexibility of Gattonian clothing. The amber in his eyes had caught fire, burning her from the inside out. The final lesson had arrived. It would be an inferno and she would not be the same at its conclusion. Well she'd see if she couldn't give her proposed mate a little return fire. She relaxed her stance to let him know she accepted what was to occur. He read the change in body language and gave her his hottest, s.e.xiest smile.

”You will not regret this, my one,” he purred. ”I will teach you well and satisfy us both beyond bearing.” He closed the distance between them and reached for her; she in turn took his hand, stepped up, and kneed him in the groin before whipping around and throwing him to the ground. Score one for the earth girls; she knew those self-defense lessons Dee had forced on her would come in handy some day.

She exited the Med-center in search of her friends, leaving Zorroc doubled over on the floor.

Chapter Six.

Cat had no problem locating Dee; she just followed the verbal hurricane. She was letting Prolinc have it again. She entered without knocking, feeling particularly pleased with herself for getting a little of her own back from Zorroc. She sighed; it looked like an exact replay of the first time she came upon them, sans Angel. She looked around for a moment, realizing they were in a sleeping chamber. Though not quite as elaborate as Zorroc's, it still provided s.p.a.ciousness and comfort. They didn't notice she'd entered so she waited for a break in the action to make herself known.

”I see communication between you continues to spark, Dee, but you're going have to learn to keep your finger off Prolinc; he could get the wrong idea and think you're trying to have your way with him. This is a different culture after all, and Prolinc, I've noticed, tends to take things very literally.”

Silence finally. ”Prolinc, I'm sure you'll excuse Dee, we need to round up Angel and disappear. Please meet us in five minutes at the trans-pad and your chest will be finger free forever.”

He looked at her oddly, trying to change gears from Dee's a.s.sault to her Miss Congeniality act, no doubt. She smiled sweetly, grabbed Dee's arm, and propelled her to the exit panel, looking back to make sure Prolinc didn't intend to stop them. Nope, he still looked as befuddled as the first time she'd seen him. They almost made it through the exit but as she turned, she hit a solid wall vibrating with suppressed energy; make that rage; she amended, as she got a look at Zorroc's expression.

”Dee will stay with Prolinc, you will come with me. Now.” He ducked down, scooped her over his shoulder, and proceeded toward their quarters.

”Zorroc, be reasonable, it won't work between us, so you may as well let us go home. You have an entire harem to choose from; what's a little Gattonian blood, when all is said and done? Think of this as ensuring the continuance of your family line because if you don't let us go my knee will constantly be planted exactly where you don't want it, which could cause serious repercussions long term. Zorroc -will-you-hear-me!” she shrieked, punctuating each word with her small fist pounding his back. To h.e.l.l with a finger.

It would not work between them? He would prove to her exactly how wrong she was. He sensed the s.e.xual tension humming through her body and felt their hot-wired connection. Why did she continue to defy him? ”Quit fighting, it is too late. We left earth's atmosphere while you were under sedation. Your friends, the aunts and seventy-three additional earth women are bound for Gattonia, and you, my obstinate mate, are bound for my mat.”

Cat was stunned. Seventy-three? How had they found seventy-three willing women in one day? The answer was perversely clear. They'd stolen them. He hadn't even had to lie about it; she'd gone along willingly and condemned all of them to an uncertain future at best. He'd manipulated her as easily as a parent bribing a child with a puppy. Only she wasn't a child. She wanted her old life back and her friends safe from these dictatorial feline s.p.a.ce pirates.

”This is cave man strategy, let's discuss it, you're about to do something you'll be sorry for later,” she pleaded, knowing it to be fruitless or fruitful depending on how things progressed.

”It will be my strategy with you from now on, accept it,” he said as the panel slid silently open then shut with finality.

He dumped her on the platmat and began to strip with slow purpose. She had seen him naked before, of course, but the unleashed raw s.e.xual energy oozing off his powerful frame held her spellbound. She stared helplessly; he personified the most awesome forces of nature as sensuality surrounded him...and engulfed her senses. The top of his uniform seemed to separate on its own as he slowly drew it down his shoulders and torso; she'd have to be dead not to be affected.

She squirmed at the dampness between her legs.

He smiled.

G.o.d, he was breathtaking. Her very own living, breathing, burnished gold statue. His ma.s.sive shoulders and arms rippled with power; his stomach muscles, clearly delineated, clenched as her gaze fastened on them.

She couldn't catch her breath.

He continued to reveal himself, drawing his garment past his abdomen to his manhood. He hung huge and hard and she grew nervous, wondering how it would fit inside her. Angel had a.s.sured her they did, but then she'd been talking about men, not Gattonians. Were they larger down there? Would he rip her to shreds? She began to have second thoughts about the whole process, and the more she stared, the larger it bulged and jerked. He discarded his uniform in a rectangular panel that opened and sucked it in then turned and headed toward the console. Hard and firm, his b.u.t.tocks flexed in time to his strides, and his legs, long and solid, corded and gleamed as he leaned over to issue orders of privacy. He would take no chances of being disturbed this night. She inched closer to panic mode. Her destiny had arrived too soon.

Zorroc read her unease and prepared himself for yet another futile round of negotiations. He would have his way in the end and nothing she could say or do would alter the outcome. He had a lot to teach her and he wanted to give it his full, considerable attention.

His Cat looked in danger of bolting. A little fear was a good thing he decided; just look what she had done to him earlier. She could have crippled his man root for life. Luckily, it seemed to have recovered nicely. She had many weapons at her disposal, as he continued to learn first hand.

”I will have you naked, Catarina,” he began calmly as he sauntered toward his female. ”I will help you undress and then we will begin the petting,” he whispered hypnotically, all the while mindspeaking that all would be well, they would fit as a hand in glove; her pleasure would be his foremost desire. ”Now, my present, we will unwrap you.”

Her disquieting scrutiny pooled into his unfaltering one for a moment and then she relaxed, equal parts wary and expectant. He went to the front of her slacks and released them expertly. She wondered at his expertise as he stripped her of her slacks and panties in one deft motion. He was pleased with the possessive thought.

”Don't get too confident, cat man, I still have more weapons.”

He looked at her incredulously for an instant; would she continue to fight him? As he studied her, reading the bravado behind her words. Though uncertain, she would trust him in this. Would she again trust him in anything else?

”I have unwrapped the best part first,” he crooned softly. ”The part that will take me inside you and make you mine beyond challenge.” He gently brushed her hips, thighs, and abdomen with the back of his talented fingers. ”You are perfectly formed; your legs are long and lithe, you thighs creamy but firm and I can circle your waist with my hands. Your belly is soft as a cloud and slightly rounded to remind me of how our babies will be cradled there; your hips, so small and compact that...” He grew silent and stared as if seeing her for the first time; the width of his one spread hand spanned her hips completely. With their many lessons on touching, why had he never considered her size?

Gattonians, as a race, were larger than earth humans though not so much so that mating const.i.tuted a problem; but she was tiny even by earth standards. What had her parents been thinking, and Helen and Marie as well. Would she be capable of carrying their children or, after everything...perish birthing his offspring. He had vowed protection and care, is this how he would repay her?

”I have recalled an obligation that can not be postponed; I must leave, no matter how much I wish to stay,” he declared, hurriedly donning a clean uniform and spouting, simultaneously, a non-stop stream of plat.i.tudes. ”You are exquisite Catarina, I will return as soon as I can. I will send your friends to keep you company.” And with a last haunted glance toward nothing in particular, jettisoned through the retreating panel.

”What'd you do to your poor Gattonian, Cat?” Angel asked. ”Earlier, Carpov told me Zorroc had issued orders regulating our time together. He didn't want the two of us getting between the two of you. And he didn't trust the three of us not to get into mischief.” Not that Angel minded overly much. That meant more time with Carpov. He had a serious nature like her own and their specialties in the fields of Biochemistry and Medicine blended surprisingly well. He'd filled her in on what had occurred on Ganz and she had promised to a.s.sist him in finding a vaccine to help his people.

Dee snorted, ”What'd he think we were gonna do; blow up their s.h.i.+p and float home? Zorroc must be one autocratic alien, but hey, aren't they all,” she complained, testing out a hand coordination game she had found in Prolinc's quarters.

Dee and Angel had been delivered to her fifteen minutes before and Dee hadn't stopped pacing and protesting. ”I have been quarantined in Prolinc's quarters for hours; locked in, held prisoner-as in 'Most Wanted',” she charged, continuing to circle the room mumbling a constant stream of expletives.

Angel and Cat studied one another. Both acted quieter than usual, each wondering about the other; then as one, s.h.i.+fted their attention to Dee. She acted like a top spinning out of control; neither had seen such erratic behavior from their friend before, but since b.u.t.ting chest with finger on Prolinc, she hadn't been the same.

”And you,” directing the telltale finger at Angel, ”he told me you were staying with Carpov but had the run of the s.h.i.+p.” She took a breath and began winding down to normal Dee mode as she concluded, ”and did you know that there are seventy-three women sleeping somewhere on this vessel?”

”Seventy-five not including us,” murmured Cat, effectively silencing the room, ”the aunts are here too.” Before she could explain, Angel interrupted.

”That makes no sense, Cat. Surely, they wouldn't have kidnapped your aunts. What possible use could they be; their reproductive organs probably dried up before any of us were born.”

”I think I should be awarded first place for most clueless in the history of gullible dolts. Not only did he use me to kidnap seventy-three innocent women along with the two of you; Zorroc also informed me that Helen and Marie are not my aunts, but citizens of Gattonian. It appears I have Gattonian blood on both sides of my family and they were sent to discern my suitability as a receptacle for Zorroc's sperm.” Putting it into that context further flattened Cat's already squished ego. Her two friends resembled twin snapshots of dawning speculation. No one moved for a few moments, taking in the import of the information.

Dee whistled softly. ”And you pa.s.sed.”

”Well, that answers the provocative question of why you,” Angel summarized.

”Yeah, my model parents set me up. h.e.l.l, I don't think they even sold me, they just delivered me to the Gattonians and said ”boink yourselves out”. I don't care about me, so much, but condemning the two of you on top of it all is beyond forgivable. I've ruined your futures and possibly your lives.” She pressed her hands over her eyes to keep the tears from falling.

”It was a plot, Cat, well laid out, and cannily executed. If there is one person blameless in all this, it's you. The fact that they took advantage of your guileless nature is the part I find reprehensible. The lying sneaks,” Angel hissed. Just wait until she got Carpov alone, she would hit him where it hurt most both verbally and physically. When her thoughts proceeded to Zorroc, her lips twitched menacingly.

”But that's just it, he didn't lie; I just didn't ask the right questions. If I hadn't been so starry-eyed over his exotic appearance and caught up in his touching lessons this whole thing could probably have been avoided.”