Her hands gripped his shoulders, clawing his skin. “Yes!”

Steel’s eyelids lowered and he hissed out a groan. “You’re so damn tight, so damn wet and hot. Sheer heaven, my little siren.”

He wasn’t moving inside her so Rena wrapped her legs around his waist, bending her knees up high near her shoulders, and used her hold on him to move. The sensation of him moving even that little bit increased her pleasure, her vaginal walls still twitching from her release. Steel’s eyes closed, his tongue darted out to lick his bottom lip. Rena went for it, lifting up enough to press her mouth over his, gently nipping where he’d licked before she met his kiss.

He started to move his h*ps in a teasing, shallow movement that rubbed Rena in all the right ways. He kept the pace steady, drawing up her passion again, ignoring her urging to move faster when she tried to use her heels against his ass. He broke the kiss, chuckling.

“I’m not a horse you can kick into a gallop. I’m enjoying you, memorizing how you feel around me and under me. I want to take my time savoring you.”

“We have all night.”

He stopped moving on her, something in his eyes darkening and growing a little cold. “I wish we did but the hours are passing too quickly, Rena.”

He moved then, nearly withdrawing completely from her body before he thrust forward quickly, driving into her hard and fast, the way she loved. He was strong as he moved over her, the pace increasing and the sensation of it drawing Rena into a haze of sexual euphoria. He was hitting those amazing spots that only he had ever found, rubbing her in all the right ways, and the pleasure built again, renewing that wonderful anticipation that she knew would lead to mind-blowing orgasms.

Steel rasped her name, twisting his hips, his shaft rubbing over her cl*t as he lifted up a little to take her at a slightly different angle. He was powering in and out of her, the bed slamming into the wall, the sound barely audible to her over both of them panting and moaning. His strength turned her on more, drove up the excitement level for her. Though he was being a bit rough, he wasn’t hurting her. Throwing her head back, Rena arched her hips, tensed, her body shaking with desire, and then cried out Steel’s name as she came. Steel roared out her name as he followed her to that tranquil place she found once the spasms in her pu**y stopped.

Rena gasped when Steel used one hand to unlock her limp legs around his hips, rolling them both over, his arm locking around her waist to haul her on top of his body where she sprawled on his chest. Lifting her head, she opened her eyes to gaze into his smiling face.

“Amazing.”

“Not the word I’d use but it will do.”

“What word would you use?” She grinned.

“Home.”

“I don’t understand.” Her grin faltered.

He reached up to push back a thick lock of hair from her face, his hand cupping her jaw and part of her cheek. She pressed her face against his hand a little tighter, loving him touching her and enjoying the warmth on the side of her face.

“You feel like home to me, a place where I feel most relaxed and at ease. I don’t know how to explain it any better but that is what I am experiencing and the word that came to mind to describe you.”

Don’t cry, she ordered herself, blinking back tears.

“Did I upset you? You try to hide your emotions from me but you are bad at it.” He released her face to rub her bare back, his hand massaging her skin from butt to shoulder blade. “Did I make you experience sadness? You have very expressive eyes and you tense your mouth, making tiny lines.”

“I’m just going to miss you and I’ve never felt this way about someone before, Steel.

I am sad.” There was no point in denying it, she figured. “I’m trying to not cry because I’m human and hell, we do a lot of that. We— I—suck at hiding my emotions, I guess.”

He took a deep breath. “I would take you to Garden but you wouldn’t be happy there, Rena. I have considered this, as I told you. I know you would want equality and I will never be able to give you that.”

“Because I’m property and that isn’t going to change on your world?”

He gave a sharp nod. “You would grow to hate me in time and I don’t want to break your spirit. It would be only a short time before I need to form a family unit and it would be more difficult on each of us to separate if we spent more time together.”

“Right.”

“I am honor bound, my little siren. I can’t change what I am even if I wanted to. We come from different worlds now and neither of them is receptive to the other.”

“I get it. I hate it, but I do understand.”

“It is very unfortunate.”

“Damn straight.” She paused. “By the way, watch your ass with Fusion, okay? She’s determined to have you and she said she could make you sleep with her.” She paused.

“What is a breeding pact?”

Steel’s entire body went rigid under hers and anger radiated from his eyes. “She told you that term?”

“She said to ask you about it and then said she’d get you, even if she had to contract with someone in your breeding pact who had bad sperm.”

He lay staring at the ceiling then looked at her, his expression masked. “You know it’s our duty to produce children and I told you that some of our males do not have viable sperm to impregnate a female. Twelve males sign a pact, a contract. If the males in a family unit cannot impregnate their female, they can call upon another pact member to do so. We do not consider them our children, we are just donors, only able to claim the children we produce with the women in our family unit as our offspring.”

She tried to hide her dismay. “You’ve impregnated women in other family units then?”

His jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. “I realize, to humans, this sounds cold, but I do feel conflicted over this subject. It is for the good of all, though, so I deal with the unwanted negative emotions.”

“I’m not judging. I was asking a question.”

He sucked in air, slowly exhaling, never looking away from her curious gaze. “I am a healthy breeder and have been contacted nine times to donate.”

“Twelve men and they needed you that many times?”

“Yes. Producing as many children as possible is greatly encouraged.”

“So you had to sleep with nine women? That’s a lot of males out of that dozen who can’t produce babies. Is that common?”

“There were just five females in all that I needed to service, some multiple times.”

He paused. “I was successful eight times out of those nine, donating my sperm. Natural breeding has a higher successful rate if you think to ask me why we don’t use alternative methods. We attempted it and the failure rate was unacceptably high.”

Her mind was reeling, trying to understand all the implications, accepting that he’d just told her he’d helped create eight children. “Is that why you want to be in a family unit? So you don’t have to knock up other women to make babies you can’t claim as your own?” She hurt for him, not able to imagine the pain of having children she couldn’t keep, now understanding why he was so determined to get married.

Steel frowned. “That doesn’t matter. If I am in a family unit or not, I am always under the obligation of the pact.”

“So you slept with other women when you were married? And your wife slept with other men she was contracted to in a family unit?”

Steel gripped her suddenly, lifting her off him to roll onto his side. He stared at her, a frown firmly in place. “It’s not how we wish things were but it is about survival and what we must do. That is another reason I won’t be taking you to Garden with me, Rena. I saw your reaction to Fusion undressing in front of me and again on the planet surface when Fiona offered to test our physical chemistry. I had the choice to deny them access to my body but that isn’t the case with women in the family units of the men in my breeding pact. It will be my duty if they need me to donate. Do you understand?”

She looked down at his broad chest. “It means you can never be faithful.” She closed her eyes, inching closer to him to curl into his larger body, letting him soothe her pain as he pulled her into his arms.

“I can’t be faithful,” he said softly. “I’m a breeder who wants a woman I can’t have children with.” He sighed loudly. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

A smile played at her lips. “Yeah. Life is a bitch sometimes.”

He nodded, his chin brushing the top of her head. “Our remaining time together is slipping by too quickly.”

She lifted her head, meeting his gaze. “Let’s make the most of the time we have.”

She took his mouth, kissing Steel, and shutting out the pain of knowing they were saying goodbye to each other. She wanted to make the most of it, memorize every second, every touch, everything about the man she couldn’t have yet wanted to remain with more than she wanted her next breath.

Chapter Eleven

The pod was a lot bigger than Rena would have guessed as she stared around it from the pilot seat, her belt on and her heart broken. Saying goodbye to Steel had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back. It’s for the best. You know it, she thought. He needs to have little cyborg babies with one of his big cyborg women.

“Fuck,” she whispered as she forced her attention to the controls. “Pod 3, respond.”

“Orders?”

Rena really hated autopilot systems, never sure exactly how to talk to them, but she knew she had to give it a shot. Steel had assured her that the pod knew where it was taking her, that there would be no errors on destination. She knew Steel was tracking her long distance by a droid they had following her to relay information to the Vontage, which wasn’t in range of Outpost Five. No one would be able to detect the ship.

“State orders.”

Right. “Distance to Outpost Five in time, please.”

There was hesitation on the computer’s response. “At current rate of speed, two hours, fourteen minutes, thirty-two seconds.”

“Thank you.”

“Orders?”

I hate autopilot. “That is all.”

“Pod 3 going silent.”

“Thank you!”

She turned in her seat, staring at the empty seats in the back of the pod, experiencing an eerie feeling being alone in something designed for at least a few dozen people. In just over two hours she was going to reach Outpost Five, get on the first transport to Earth that became available, and then she’d be back on Earth before she knew it, back to the hell she had left.

She suddenly yawned, surprising her, but she knew she shouldn’t be, not after spending all night without sleep. Her heart ached at the image of Steel that filled her mind—his gorgeous silver-blue eyes, and his full lips that made him incredibly handsome when he smiled at her. She’d miss his voice, his laugh, and even his frowns. Depression hit her hard and caused her to unfasten her seat belt and leave the pilot’s chair. She paced, hoping to grow so tired she’d stop obsessively thinking about a man she was better off forgetting as soon as possible.

She’d committed adultery. Rena snorted, not worried about it since her marriage was a farce to begin with. Chuck cheated all the damn time and it wasn’t as if he’d ever know since she could never admit to anyone that Steel even existed. He was her secret until the day she died, knowing it would always be too dangerous to ever trust telling a soul what had really happened to the Bridden or what had happened when she’d reached the Star.

Mentally, she went over her story again and again, not wanting to screw anything up.

She paced, rehearsed what she’d say to Joe Emmit and to Chuck when they wanted to know why the hell the company had lost money and she didn’t have a ship to show for it.