Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I by Stacey St. James

dragged it
up in front of hers. “I wanted to have a look at those
abrasions.”
    Emerald eyed him with irritation.
“It’s just a couple of blisters.”
    “ I’d still like to
look.”
    Sighing, Emerald uncurled and extended
a leg. He cupped a hand beneath her leg just above the ankle to
support her foot and slowly removed the bandaging. Emerald studied
his face while he studied her foot with frowning intensity,
wondering what their world was like and why humans had suddenly
become of so much importance to them when they’d apparently grown
weary of ‘playing’ with them and pretty much ignored their
existence for years.
    “ What happened to the
Anunnaki?”
    He flicked a quick look at her and
returned his attention to her foot, but his expression had
hardened. “This seems to be responding well. I think we can dismiss
any anxiety about infection.”
    He wrapped the bandage again and held
out his hand imperiously. Anger flickered through Emerald that time
and the urge to kick him rather than merely meekly extending her
foot for him to examine. She quashed the impulse and held out her
other foot. When he’d examined that foot to his satisfaction and
wrapped it again, she tucked her foot beneath her once
more.
    “ Why can’t I have
something to wear? You aren’t worried I’ll thwart you and catch my
death from exposure?”
    A mixture of amusement and anger
flickered in his eyes. “You’ll have to talk to Tariq about
that.”
    Which, apparently, was a waste of
time! “Why?”
    “ Because he’s claimed
you,” he said tightly.
    Emerald’s heart skipped a beat. She
frowned at him. “What does that mean?”
    “ It means he has the power
to do so and he’s exerted it.”
    “ I still don’t
understand,” she managed to say after a moment. “I thought … I
understood that I’d been resurrected for experiments.”
    He looked startled and then irritated.
“What the hell made you think that?”
    “ It’s what Tariq said—that
the Anunnaki had experimented on humans since they’d first
discovered them.”
    He glanced toward the untouched tray
and reached over to remove the lid. Picking up a bowl much like the
one the night before, he handed it to her. She saw without a lot of
enthusiasm that she’d graduated to thicker broth. Taking it from
him obediently, she sipped at it, discovering it tasted like cream
of mushroom soup. She frowned. “Why is it that everything you’ve
given me is so familiar?”
    “ Because most of the foods
in your diet originated on our world. We didn’t just experiment on
the humans,” he said dryly.
    “ But … you aren’t going to
use me for experiments now?”
    He looked at her, his gaze flickering
over her face. “You belong to Lord Tariq now. He’ll tell you what
he wants you to know.”
    She looked down at the cup
in her hand to keep from giving her thoughts away as resentment
swelled inside of her. Just like that? He decided and it was so?
    Why was she surprised when she’d
already deduced that she was either a prisoner or a lab rat or
both? And maybe she still was? He hadn’t explained what it meant
that Tariq had claimed her.
    Except she had her
suspicions that he had plans that included having her naked in his
bed. He’d said as much, after all. She didn’t see any reason to
doubt it, but she discovered acknowledging it unnerved the hell out
of her. “ Lord Tariq?” she asked in a suffocated voice. “If he’s so
important, why was he sent here to collect the lab
animals?”
    “ He wasn’t
sent.”
    Emerald sent a startled look toward
the door where his voice had emanated and discovered Tariq was
standing in the portal. She felt her face heat.
    Koryn pushed his chair back abruptly
and rose. “I had a look at the abrasions. They’re responding
satisfactorily to the medications.”
    Tariq met his gaze for a long moment
and then glanced at Emerald. He sauntered into the room, allowing
the door to close behind him. “Just so that there are