Текст книги "Sleeping With the Enemy"

Автор книги: Kaitlyn O'Connor

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    Deciding he was going to have to place tighter security on the growing houses and limit access until the plants were big enough to actually be considered a garden, he left the greenhouse and returned to the labor pool.

    The arrival of the colonists from Pluto had increased their labor pool considerably, but it had also increased the strain on their resources. They were going to have to work hard to balance the two.

    Despite his reminder, he discovered when he returned to work on processing building materials for their construction efforts that his spirits were much higher than they had been in a while. It wasn’t until he ended his work shift that he realized it was because he’d made up his mind about Sybil.

    It had been a week. That was as much as he could stand, knowing that she was so close. He was tired of waiting for her to come to him, sick of sleeping alone when he could be sleeping in her arms.

    They would probably be waiting for him. He knew they would be expecting him to come and they knew by now that their security measures were useless when it came to preventing him from getting to Sybil.

Chapter Fifteen

    Sybil had spent a solid week wavering between hope and despair-hope that Anka would come to her; hope that he wouldn’t, fear that he’d taken that woman to his bed and didn’t want her anymore; fear that he would come and Meachum’s dog would have him arrested for trespassing on American soil.

    She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when he materialized in her quarters, but when she met his questioning gaze, she did both, uttering a sound about halfway between a chuckle and a sob.

    He tilted his head questioningly. “Does that mean that I’m welcome to stay? Or should I leave before you find something to throw at me?”

    Sybil sniffed, struggling with tears. “You’re always welcome.” She surged toward him then, flinging herself into his arms.

    He gathered her tightly to him, filling her with warmth, and then found her lips, filling her with heat. She linked her fingers behind his head and dragged him down to nuzzle his ear when he broke the kiss. “They’re watching,” she warned against his ear on a breath of sound, hoping he could hear her and the watchers couldn’t.

    She leaned away after a moment to search his face for understanding.

    His gaze was thoughtful, almost puzzled and she feared for several moments she’d failed to warn him.

    Anka lifted one hand and lightly stroked Sybil’s cheek, struggling with the truth that had been staring him in the face all along. Sybil had never deserved the lack of trust or the suspicions that he’d harbored about her. She’d been honest and faithful from the very beginning, even when she’d told him she was afraid. Despite the fact that he’d learned she had good reason to be uneasy, he’d still thought it went beyond that, that at least part of her fear stemmed from a plot to use him or to learn what she could about them to take the information to her own people.

    He’d clung to that willful misunderstanding to protect himself, he realized, not because she had ever done or said anything to warrant it.

    He swallowed the words that clogged his throat with an effort. They were for her. He’d had to share virtually every moment they were together with the watchers. He wouldn’t share his feelings for her with them, as well.

    Resisting the urge to let them know that he knew they were watching and fucking well didn’t care by flicking an obscene gesture at them, he smiled at her with an effort. “We must stop meeting this way,” he said teasingly. “I am too hungry when I see you to properly appreciate the meals.”

    Sybil chuckled huskily, relieved that he seemed to have caught the warning after all and aroused by his suggestive comment. “I haven’t noticed any lack of appreciation.”

    He gathered her close in an embrace again and then led her to her bed, pushed his boots off, and lay down with her. “Not even the last time?”

    “Especially not the last time.”

    “Now I know you’re only trying to flatter me,” he retorted teasingly.

    Hurt flickered in her eyes briefly, but not so briefly that he didn’t see it and feel guilt make his chest tight from the realization that he’d seen it many times, put that look in her eyes many times. “I don’t know why you put up with me,” he muttered.

    “It’s a job, but somebody has to do it.”

    He chuckled, struggling for something to say that wouldn’t put her in an uncomfortable position when he’d had no trouble doing so before. There was so much he wanted to talk to her about, though, that he’s never dared ask. “You’re wearing far too many clothes to suit me,” he murmured.

    She lifted her brows at him. “I thought you wanted to savor your dinner for a change?’

    He grinned at her. “By playing with my ‘food’, nodia,” he said chidingly. “I can’t play when you’re so bundled up.”

    “Maybe I’d like to play, too?”

    He promptly released her and rolled onto his back, folding his arms behind his head. “Play all you like, nodia. I’m all yours.”

    Sybil stared at him wide eyed for a moment, completely disconcerted by the invitation. She had no idea what he might like or how she was to go about pleasing him. She’d always let him take his pleasure as he would. She did like the comment that he was all hers, though, even if he was teasing. “A challenge?”

    He chuckled. “Now that sounds interesting.”

    It did to her. It also made her uneasy, but she thought he must like much the same things as she did. Otherwise, how would he know so well where and how to touch her?

    Practice, she thought dryly, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t light him up like he did her.

    Shifting up onto one arm, she scanned his length. “Am I going to have to work with barriers?”

    “You don’t want to unwrap your gift?” he murmured, his voice shaky with suppressed laughter.

    She surged upward and straddled his waist when he tensed to get up. “You don’t think I know how to turn you on, do you?”

    “I know you do. I was hoping for a test of my stamina.”

    “That’s a challenge if I ever heard one,” Sybil said with a chuckled, reaching for the buttons on her blouse. He watched with interest while she opened it from the neck to the hem and then shrugged out of it. She discarded the bra next.

    His arms came from beneath his head immediately and he reached to cup her breasts in his palms. “No,” Sybil said, catching his wrists and guiding his arms back to where they’d been. “You get to look, not touch. It’s my turn to touch.”

    She saw his Adam’s apple bob when he swallowed. “Can I at least taste?”

    She tilted her head, considering it. “Maybe just a little taste.” Leaning forward, she placed a palm on the mattress on either side of his head and presented him with one breast. She didn’t miss the gleam of triumph in his eyes as he opened his mouth and flicked at the tip with his tongue until it stood tightly erect and then sucked it into his mouth. The heat that traveled from her breast to her womb scorched her. She wanted to linger, to allow the heat that blossomed in her lower belly to grow higher, but she pulled away after only a moment. After a moment’s thought, she nudged his lips with the other nipple, demanding he even up the heat.

    The desire flowing through her blood stream like warm molasses increased her eagerness to explore him and quashed her doubts. Pushing herself back along his body, she explored his face, his ears, his throat, teasing him by kissing all around his mouth without touching her mouth to his. He surged upward abruptly, cupped a hand along the back of her head to trap her and

    kissed her deeply, building the heat within her.

    “That’s cheating,” she said disapprovingly when he released her and fell back.

    He waggled his brows at her.

    She couldn’t help but chuckle, but she turned her attention immediately to parting the front of his uniform from the neck to the waist, roughly, in playful mastery. He frowned at her, but his lips curled upward at one corner. The smile died as she leaned down to nibble a path along his throat to his chest. She sat up again, stroking the sculpted muscles of his chest and finally wiggled further back to reach him better.

    His cock was rock hard. He winced when she landed on it. Giving him an apologetic look, she reached down to adjust it. She discovered when she settled again that it fit very nicely along her cleft. On inspiration, she rocked back and forth a few times, watching his face for his reaction. It felt good to her, not nearly as good as she thought it would’ve felt if they’d had no clothes between them, but nice in a teasing sort of way.

    He caught her hips, stilling her movements.

    “Did I hurt you?”

    He grimaced. “That’s a highly volatile stick of explosives, nodia. Take care how you handle it. It might go off and spoil all our fun.”

    Sybil laughed. “Will you be serious? I’m working here!”

    “I am serious-and deeply concerned.”

    Leaning down, she bit his pec in playful rebuke, then sucked at it. “You taste good,” she murmured. An image of his cock leapt instantly into her mind and she examined the idea with a mixture of uneasiness and excitement. Anka sent her a heated look when she glanced at his face.

    “You taste good. Maybe I’ll nibble a while?”

    “I’m not done yet,” she said decisively. Scooting backwards to sit on the tops of his thighs, she opened his suit fully and studied his cock meditatively. It jerked when she stroked a finger along his length and she flicked a quick look at his face.

    “Not a good idea-not right now,” he growled warningly.

    She sent him a look of innocence. “What?”

    His eyes narrowed. “Remember what I said,” he reminded her as she grasped his cock and leaned down. Ignoring the warning, she opened her mouth over the rounded head and sucked at it experimentally. His hands clamped around her head. She paused, but when he didn’t try to push her away, she settled to exploring it more thoroughly.

    She hadn’t actually caught more than a glimpse of it before. She’d been far more focused on how it felt inside of her-absolutely divine! She decided she liked the way it looked, though, and tasted, and felt in her mouth. It was surprisingly arousing to suck on it, to hear his breath catch in his throat, the way his hips moved when she stroked him with her mouth and hands.

    He pulled her away just when she was thoroughly enjoying herself, surging over her and pushing her onto her back. “My turn,” he growled.

    She sent him a saucy look. “No stamina.”

    He tsked. “You should know better than to throw out that kind of challenge.”

    She folded her arms behind her head. “Do your worst.”

    He sent her a look. “I’ll do my best,” he promised, coming up on his knees to unfasten her trousers and tug them from her hips. When he’d pulled them all the way off and tossed them aside, he skimmed a look up her thighs to her hips and belly. Sybil tensed when he paused for a long, long moment. Frowning, he flicked a look at her face that was a mixture of confusion and concern before he returned his attention to her belly. She knew the very instant comprehension hit him. His gaze moved to her face again and this time she saw a flicker of anger in his eyes. He dropped to the bed beside her, heavily, as if the strength had gone out of his legs. His hand was shaking as he lightly stroked her rounded belly.

    For many moments he did nothing else and Sybil felt her desire burn itself out. Finally, he rolled toward her. He kissed her breasts and throat. He caressed her, touching her in all the right places, but she had the sense that it was mechanical, that his mind was elsewhere.

    She had little moisture to offer him to ease his way when he moved between her thighs at last. It was a struggle for both of them to achieve full penetration but, in spite of everything, heat rose inside of her when she felt him moving along her channel rhythmically. She gasped when she came, clinging tightly to him, but it was more a plea for understanding than from passion.

    She wasn’t even sure he’d managed to come until she felt the stickiness between her thighs when he withdrew. Relieved about that at least she lay with her eyes closed, more to shield herself from his gaze than from the weakness in the aftermath of pleasure. He moved behind her, pulling her back against his chest. To her relief, he stroked his hands over her the way he always had. It soothed her as it always had.

    She’d always wondered what was running through his mind when he caressed her like that. This time, she was almost certain she at least knew the questions in his mind. It worried her that he seemed so… distant.

    He nuzzled her neck after a little bit. “Our experimental garden is coming along nicely,” he murmured.

    Sybil whipped her head around to stare at him, afraid he’d say more.

    His lips tightened. The look his eyes was enough to reassure her that he hadn’t slipped and he hadn’t forgotten the warning. “I’d like to take you to look at it tomorrow.”

    Dismay flickered through her, but she forced a smile. “I’d love to see it,” she responded woodenly.

    He called for her in a transport. Sybil was almost surprised when she was allowed to leave without question. Despite the ‘assignment’ she’d been given, she would’ve thought they would be worried about letting her off her leash entirely.

    Brant gave her a significant look as she strode past him, but otherwise his only comment was to ‘take care’.

    Anka’s lips tightened, but she couldn’t decide if it was because he knew it was a subtle warning or if it was jealousy. “The weather’s fine today. If it wasn’t so far I would’ve invited you to walk,” he said as he helped her into the front of the transport. “You’ll get the chance to do plenty of walking once we get there, though.”

    Sybil didn’t respond. She had the feeling that it wasn’t as inconsequential as it seemed, that he was dangling a carrot for Brant, however, and she was afraid to say anything at all.

    “I see the construction of the American base goes well,” he commented as he climbed in beside her.

    “I haven’t actually been out a lot. I’ve heard the equipment, but I wasn’t certain if it was alright to gawk. Anyway, heavy equipment is dangerous.”

    He fell silent as he started the transport. To Sybil’s surprise, it was some sort of hovercraft, although it didn’t seem to be like anything on Earth that fit that description. This one almost seemed to defy gravity rather than running on a cushion of air.

    She glanced at Anka uneasily several times as they crossed the plain, moving closer and closer to the area under construction by the Sumpturians, but he neither said anything or even acknowledged that he’d noticed her looking at him. She frowned, wondering if he was concerned they could still be monitored or if he was preoccupied. Since she knew it was completely possible that they were still being monitored, however, and she couldn’t think of anything to contribute as small talk, she focused on studying the landscape.

    The surface still looked more like a barren desert than a living world, but she spotted tiny patches of what looked like moss-possibly. She supposed it might not be anything but grayish-green colored rock, though.

    When they reached the area under construction by the Sumpturians, she saw that they’d made headway in carving what looked to be footers for buildings in the hard soil. Anka settled the transport to the ground and switched the engines off. He threw her into confusion when he got out and walked around to help her out.

    Settling a hand along her waist, he guided her toward a structure that looked very similar to a greenhouse-any greenhouse that might’ve been erected on Earth. She saw once they’d entered that that was exactly what it was, sucking in her breath in wonder at the green that filled her vision. “Anka! It’s… beautiful!”

    When he didn’t answer, she turned to look at him questioningly. His expression was guarded, but there was a hard look in his eyes that told her he was angry. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

    The urge to pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about assailed her. She discarded it, feeling defensiveness surge through her. “That isn’t fair! When was I supposed to have told you?”

    “When you arrived?” he asked tightly.

    She gaped at him in outrage. “Well pardon me all to hell! What was I supposed to do? Waltz up to you while you were wrapped around that damned… female and announce it?”

    He flushed. “Maybe when I took you to my quarters?”

    “You didn’t look like you were in the mood to talk!” she snapped.

    He gave her a look. “We spent the entire night together. You could’ve found some time, surely, to say something.”

    She looked away. “I hadn’t seen you in two months! I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” She looked at him earnestly. “I didn’t want to risk… that you’d be angry with me.”

    “I am angry now!” he growled.

    She swallowed with an effort. “I see that.”

    His gaze flickered to her belly. “Is it mine?”

    If he’d hit her she didn’t think it would’ve stunned her more. She stared at him, feeling hurt, betrayed, and angry. She thought for several moments that she would burst into tears, but she was too angry to keep it inside. “I don’t deserve that,” she said hoarsely, struggling to keep her chin from wobbling. “What have I ever done, besides being born human, to deserve your contempt? I’ve never once betrayed you or even thought about it!”

    He caught her when she turned away blindly to stalk off and leave him, tightening his grip when she struggled to break free. “I know that, nodia. I’m not sure I deserve it, but there is no doubt in my mind that you have always been faithful to me. That wasn’t an accusation,” he said, forcing her to turn and look at him. “I wanted you to say it. I wanted you to tell me you were carrying my baby.”

    “Of course it’s your baby!” she sobbed. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t yours! I had to protect it. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to come begging for help when you’d left me there-without a word! Without once telling me whether you’d come back or not, or asking me to go with you, but I didn’t have a choice! They were going to charge me with treason, put me in prison, and take the baby. I couldn’t take a chance. I had to come!”

    He held her tightly while she cried all over his chest. “I know, nodia. I just didn’t understand why you’d let them manipulate you into coming. You didn’t betray anyone-not me and not your people. I wouldn’t have put you in that position even if I’d thought I could.”

    Sybil mulled that over and finally pulled away to look at him as a terrible thought dawned on her. “You know? How do you know?”

    His lips tightened. “Do you think your people are the only ones capable of surveillance?” he asked dryly.

    Sybil pushed away from him. “You were watching me, too?”

    “We weren’t watching you!” he growled angrily. “We were watching the politicians and their dogs! We had Meachum under surveillance!” He sighed at the look on her face. “I wouldn’t allow surveillance on you.”

    “Why not?”

    “Because I didn’t want to know if you betrayed me!” he said angrily.

    “Which means you thought I might.”

    He seemed to wrestle with it. “Yes. I thought you might.”

    Sybil sniffed, wiping her face with her hands. “I guess that made it easier on your conscience to use me.”

    “Now who’s being unfair? Did I ever, once, ask you anything of a secure nature?”

    She sniffed again. “No.”

    “I came to you because I wanted to be with you-and for no other reason. I by-passed their security every time I came. I could’ve walked through any room on that base. I didn’t need to be there to breach their security.”

    She looked up at him hopefully. “You wanted to be with me? That’s all?”

    He gathered her close. “I didn’t seem… enthusiastic enough, nodia?”

    “I thought you were just… horny.”

    He uttered a bark of laughter at that. “I was. Gods!”

    She sighed, enjoying being held by him. “I don’t suppose we could spend the day together? It would be really nice, for once, to spend time with you without worrying about every word I said.”

    His arms tightened briefly. “I wish that I could, but there is more work to be done than we can all do working together. It wouldn’t be fair to the others for me to take the day off and it wouldn’t be a good example.”

    Disappointment flickered through her. “I could help,” she said hopefully. “I grew up on a farm. I have a way with plants.”

    He looked uncomfortable. “I can’t risk it. If anything was to happen to the plants…”

    She felt the blood leave her face. “You can’t think I’d… deliberately… sabotage the plants?”

    He captured her face between his palms. “I don’t, but I can’t risk it when the others don’t trust you. I can’t take a chance of you being accused if anything happened.”

    Sybil swallowed convulsively. She hadn’t realized the other Sumpturians distrusted humans so much. It didn’t sound good for her hope that she might find refuge with them. “I understand. I guess you should take me back, then.”

    He shook his head at her. “Do you think I’d let you go back there?”

    Sybil gaped at him. “But… Anka! You have to! Think! I have to go back… at least for a while, until… until things are better here! You need the shipments of food supplies!”

    He flushed. “As you see, we’re well on our way to having our first crop.”

    “And you’re worried even now that it won’t bear fruit! It’s alright. I can do this. We can both do it. We’ll just play along a little while longer and then, when you’re more… settled here and there isn’t the… threat to the colony that there is now, I can come. The baby won’t be born for months yet.”

    He studied her face grimly. “I know I don’t have much to offer you, Sybil, but I swear I’ll take the best care of you and the baby that I can. It’s all I can do. I hadn’t expected it, but it’s on the way, now, and I won’t risk it or you by letting you go back.”

    “I’m not worried about that!”

    “You should be,” he said grimly.

    “Is it that bad… still?”

    She could see he didn’t really want to tell her, but he came to decision quickly enough to appease the fear that he still didn’t trust her. “We’ve been rationing our food stores since we got here. Between what we have and what the ship brought, we’ll be good for maybe six months… if we’re careful. I won’t lie to you. It’s critical that we begin to grow our own food, and soon. We can’t rely on the shipments from Earth. We couldn’t even if it wasn’t for your situation. There are food shortages there. Don’t bother to lie to me. I know how things are there. That’s the only reason I’m willing to keep you here-there’s a risk for you and baby either way.”

    “Your people won’t be happy for me to stay.”

    “Your people wouldn’t accept me or the baby,” he countered.

    She didn’t try to argue with him. “I never expected… this. I didn’t think… I guess I just didn’t think at all.”

    “You didn’t think I could get you pregnant,” he said flatly.

    “Don’t look at me like that! Have I ever given you reason to think, even for a moment, that I didn’t… care for you, just the way you are? We’re from different worlds, damn it! I just never thought beyond that.”

    He shook his head at her. “Fool!” he muttered with amused tolerance. “Didn’t you think it… convenient that we fit together so well?”

    Sybil blushed. “I thought it was a wonderful convenience.”

    He chuckled. “We may well be from different worlds, nodia, but you and I… we’re like… cousins from distant stars. Didn’t you wonder why we were so curious about the people of Earth?”

    She shrugged. “I did wonder what you could possibly have found so interesting,” she said wryly. “You’re sure your scientists didn’t do a little… experimenting?”

    “Not legally,” he said grimly. “I wouldn’t rule it out, but it was the fact that we were so similar on a genetic level that drew them here to study humans to start with. Before you ask, they never did find the link, but…” He stroked a hand down her belly. “He’s here. That should be proof enough.”

    Sybil smiled up at him. “It might not be a ‘he’, you know.”

    He stroked her cheek, smiling down at her. “It doesn’t matter to me. It’s ours.” Leaning lower, he kissed her briefly. “Let’s get you settled. It isn’t going to be comfortable, I warn you. My quarters are tight for one.”

    “You’re serious?”

    “I have never been more serious in my life-the place is like a box! I can’t fall off my bunk with hitting my head on my desk.”

    “If I’m staying, I’m working with everybody else,” Sybil said firmly. “They aren’t going to accept me if I sit on my ass while they work… and it would set a bad example.”

    Anka studied her thoughtfully for several moments. “You really are good with plants?”

    “I really am,” she said with determination.

    “Let’s see just how good you are, then. You can start the first outdoor garden.”

    She looked at him doubtfully. “What are my chances of success?”

    “I’m thinking slim to none,” he said smoothly, “but… surprise me. You always have.”

    “Do you have a spot picked out?”

    “I can give you a general area.”

    “Well, nothing beats a try like a failure,” Sybil said cheerfully.

    Shaking his head at her, Anka escorted her to the soldier in charge of tools and told him to issue her what she needed. After glancing around for several moments, he summoned one of the men working on a foundation close by. “Cerek, you’re going to help Sybil.”

    Cerek stared at Anka blankly a moment before he saluted. “Yes, Sir!” He looked uncertain. “What will I help her with, Sir?”

    He sent Sybil a look of amusement. “Sybil is going to plant our first experimental garden.” He reached toward her and patted her stomach possessively. “You’re going to help her and watch out for her. She’s pregnant. I don’t want her to get overheated.”

    Cerek gaped at her belly, turning as red as a beet. “Yes, Sir… what should I do if she overheats?”

    Anka rolled his eyes. “Carry her inside, son, so she can cool off! If she faints, it’s your ass.”

    Carrying the tools, they crossed the construction site. Anka stopped on the other side and dropped the tools to the dirt.

    “Here?” Sybil asked doubtfully.

    He gestured widely with one hand. “Anywhere you like. You have the entire planet.”

    Sybil sent him a look, but lifted a hand to shade her eyes and scanned the terrain. “At least there won’t be a problem getting enough sunlight,” she said dryly.

    Anka dragged her to him and kissed her right on the mouth. “Don’t work too hard. I have plans for the night.”

    Red faced, Sybil gaped at him as he walked off. Cerek distracted her when he knelt down to collect the tools Anka had left. “Just leave them for now. We have to pick a spot.”

    He stared at her in confusion. “It’s all flat.”

    Sybil shook her head at him. “We need a little more than ‘flat’,” she said wryly, striking off.

    Cerek dropped the tools and followed her. “I could get a scanner to test the soil.”

    Sybil glanced at him. “You haven’t tested it?”

    “We test it every week.”

    “There isn’t much point, then, is there?”

    He shrugged. “The scientists think it could be many years before the soil is ready.”

    “Think? Or know?” Sybil asked absently.

    “We know what the conditions were before we began to terra-form.”

    “We knew that, too-at least, we had a fair idea. We hadn’t landed a probe in years. It could’ve changed, I suppose. It certainly has now.” Spying one of the grayish-green patches she’d spotted before, she strode away from him and crouched down to study it more closely.

    “We’ve analyzed that. It isn’t edible.”

    Sybil threw him an amused look. “It’s growing voluntarily, though. That means its finding what it needs in the soil. Let’s give this spot a try.”

    Cerek glanced back to where they’d left the tools. “It will be a long way to carry water.”

    “Then we’ll carry it… if we have to. I’m thinking there’s a fair amount of water that collects here anyway or this wouldn’t be here.”

    “It may rely upon the condensation that collects overnight.”

    “Maybe. Whatever we plant would benefit from that, too, though, wouldn’t it?”

    Apparently deciding there wasn’t any point in arguing the matter any further, he left her and went back for the tools. Sybil had decided on trying a modest sized patch for the experiment by the time he returned. There didn’t seem much point in wasting the seed if it wouldn’t grow in the soil. Of course, she was going to be really disappointed she hadn’t made it bigger if the plants did grow, but it certainly seemed like it would be big enough to try a variety of plants.

    Once she’d shown Cerek the area she’d marked off, the two of them set to work chopping up the soil.

    “Why are we doing this?” Cerek asked when they stopped a little later to sit down and rest.

    Sybil threw a weary smile in his general direction. “Ah! A city boy!”

    He reddened, but he grinned back at her. “Aside from making new blisters on the old ones,” he added.

    Sybil studied her own hands ruefully. “Gloves would be nice! It’s to make it easier for the plants. The first roots will be critical and they’re babies. They won’t be all that strong, so we need to make it easy for them to burrow down to the water and food they’ll need to flourish. When we have it chopped up good, we’ll make hills to plant the seeds so that they get good drainage. If there’s too much water, the plant drowns.”

    He looked out at the terrain doubtfully. “It doesn’t look like getting too much water would be a problem.”

    “It might not be, but a hard rain with this sort of terrain could cause a flood and wash everything away. And those clouds up there,” she said, pointing, “are carrying rain unless I’m very much mistaken.”

    He pulled a flask from the shoulder pack he’d brought with him. “You look like you need a little watering.”