The days had all blurred together. Jenny was exhausted one afternoon as she stepped into a blissfully empty room to catch her breath and try to gather her shattered nerves.

It had been a hard day. There’d been massive shelling on one end of the city, and the refugees had to fight not just those Rovers to get to safety, but the terra-rats, which had begun to break free of the sewer tunnels. There were crews out now, blasting the dreadful things into oblivion and repairing the tunnel holes where they had found cracks and lifted themselves into the sunlight, but if she never had to see another injury from one of those rats in her entire life, she’d be grateful.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude.”

Her head jerked up at the words. Marik stood in the doorway, his face as weary as she knew her own must be. She gave him a smile. “You’re not intruding. I was just catching a breath, really.

“Me too. It’s been crazy.”

He stepped into the door and closed it. Her heart beat harder and faster as he came toward her. He was so strong and powerful, even the way that he moved held power, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

She grabbed at a refresher bottle. “Do you want this?”

He came closer still. “Yes,” he murmured. “I do.”

She made the mistake of looking into his face as he spoke and her heart did a wild dance in her chest. Did he mean the bottle or her? She wasn’t sure. Her tongue touched her dry lips. “Here.” Her fingers trembled as she handed it over and he took it. Their fingers met, and that thrill she always felt when he touched her went spinning along her veins, making her heart pound even faster and her mind close down, making her unable to even speak.

They stood there. Marik tilted the bottle to his lips. Her eyes went to a tiny drop of sweat right at the base of his throat. That salty little drop called her attention to his throat and then her gaze lifted upward just as he lowered the bottle.

His lips shone with moisture, and his intense eyes were locked onto hers, and she couldn’t look away. She knew she should, but she couldn’t. Marik’s long fingers dropped the bottle to a table top, and she swallowed hard, her eyes going to the door behind him.

She opened her mouth to say something, anything. Her pulse lifted higher and faster, and she found herself frozen, rooted into place.

His hand came up and touched her cheek, an innocent little gesture that ignited every single desire she had ever felt for him. He stepped closer, and she sucked in a long breath that lifted her chest high and then dropped it as his mouth came down on hers.

Jenny reacted, her body pressing against his and her mouth clinging to his. It was wrong. She knew it was wrong. But when his lips parted and his tongue entered her mouth, her toes curled. All the thoughts that told her to stay loyal to Ben, to stop this right now, that her heart did not belong to Marik and neither did her body faded away into a stinging silence that was broken only by the sound of her breath shuddering out of her mouth as his tongue met hers.

His hands dropped to her shoulders, pulling her closer still. Heat flushed up and down her body, making her vibrate all over. Her skin puckered into gooseflesh, and her nipples stiffened. Her muscles tensed and coiled. Her fingers splayed out along the wide ledges of his shoulders, and her breasts flattened against his chest.

Wrong. It was all wrong, but it felt so right. His mouth tasted of water and the protein bars; his lips were firm and yet soft, and his tongue teased at hers until she had no choice but to follow that pattern he set with his tongue with her own.

His hands slid downward, riding along the flesh of her back. His fingers pressed into the hard and raised knobs of her spine and she whimpered, her body sagging against his. She’d been with a man before, but she had never felt what she felt just then. It was a heightened thing, a sort of elevation of her emotions and the reactions running through her body.

Ben. She had to think of Ben and how she was going to betray him if she did not break that kiss off.!

That thought went through her brain and died a sudden death. She wanted to be true to Ben, but the danger and Marik’s presence all around her was too much to look away from. Every part of her needed him, needed the touch of his body against hers and the kisses he was giving her. The kisses that stole her breath and her senses. The kisses that sent her senses reeling and made her body quake with a desire that was as high and deep, as deadly and seductive as the ocean back on Revant Two, and just like she could not stay away from that sea, she could not stay away from Marik either. She simply could not bring herself to stop the delicious sweetness pouring through her body, a sweetness that didn’t satisfy her but only whet her appetite for more—and more again.

His hands moved lower, cupping her ass cheeks and then lifting them. Her pelvis bumped against his, and the very hard maleness there made her gasp and her hips go forward. Her fingers bore down, clutching at him now as she ground against that hardened and stiffened flesh that she wanted, needed, inside her body no matter how wrong it was.

Her body arched toward him yet again. His fingers found her fastenings for the clothing she wore, and they slid away from her body, leaving her naked and exposed.

His hands lifted her body upward. Her fingers wound around his neck, and his head bent to her breasts. His lips closed around her nipple, tightening it. Her gasp was loud, and she stared down at his head, fascinated by the sight of his mouth bent to her breast her fingers tangled into his hair, and her ass shook as she tried to lift herself a little more. The head of his cock rubbed against her wet opening, sending her spinning even more out of control and her cries became frantic and desperate as she wriggled a bit, but his hands held her hips still and above that flesh she wanted inside her body.

Trails of heat traced down her skin as his hands eased her downward. Her wet flesh parted for his stiff member and his hips bucked upward, taking her flesh. Her inner walls clenched and shook around his cock as she raised herself, balancing above him before plunging downward yet again.

He moved inside her, hard and hot and thick and long. Her eyes closed and her breath came in hard and rapid gasps as pleasure spiraled upward and then spiked, raising her inner temperature and making her inner folds grasp and suck at his cock as the first waves of an orgasm began to ride through her body.

He shifted, his back flexing as his hips worked harder and faster. She moved a little, giving him a better angle of penetration into her depths.

His cry was hoarse and low, and hers answered it as he thrust deep and withdrew, and her body matched the rhythm, and they met and parted, his flesh piercing hers.

She came. Her breath stopped dead in her chest as her pussy milked his dick, squeezing and constricting around that hard muscle of his. Her eyes opened and closed, and her breath came in long and ragged gasps as she lowered herself yet again, pressing so hard against him that she could feel his heartbeat against her breasts and feel the thundering pulse of his orgasm inside her body.

Marik’s back met the wall. His hands tangled into her hair and he kissed her again, his lips seeking hers and then holding them captive. Tears came to her eyes. She wanted him. She wanted this, but she was given to another, and she had to find out if Ben were even still alive.

He lowered her gently, and she found her clothes, donning them quickly. They had the dead and the dying, the wounded and the frightened, all around them and they had to tend to them, but all she wanted to do, at that moment, was make love to him again.

She took a few steps back. “Marik…I…”

The words would not come. She could not tell him she belonged to another even though she should. Had to. She had to tell him but she couldn’t because saying that would make it true somehow.

It was true.

It didn’t matter that she had no idea if Ben still lived. Until she knew for sure, she could not give him anything, and yet she had.

Her heart hurting and her spirit battered by her actions, all she could do was say, “I hear screams.”

His face crumpled into lines of disappointment, but all he did was fasten his trousers and give her a nod. “As do I. The work never ends. Come on, let’s…” He paused. “Jenny…”

Before she could answer, that scream she had heard before turned into an ear-splitting shriek. She turned, her feet already moving toward the door. He followed behind her and the moment was lost in the rush of caring for those who needed them so badly.

Jenny sat back on her heels, her eyes taking in the face of the man who lay on the floor. He had just come staggering to the door, his body huddled down and blood showing on the upper right-hand side of his tunic. She said, “I can’t believe that it is you!”

The man on the floor looked up at her with a big smile. He said, “I can’t believe it’s you either.”

Jenny stared down at Ben’s face. It had been such a long time since she had seen him and she expected to feel a rush of emotion. She expected to feel all the love that she had felt for him before to come rolling back in and sweep her away. Only she felt nothing but a gladness that he had survived the terrible atrocities that had been brought upon the planet. Fear started as she realized that she felt absolutely nothing but that gladness.

She busied herself with the bandages that she had brought to put over his wound. “You’re lucky. It was a minor wound. You must’ve ducked out of the way just as the weapon went off.”

He gave her a wry smile. “No, actually it hit a wall or something first they think.”

She pressed the bandages down and began to fasten them into place. His hand caught one of hers, and she paused in her task. She looked down to see his eyes staring at her intently. Ben asked, “Where did you go? I mean, when you left. Where did they take you?”

She looked away. She continued to fasten the bandage in place, choosing her words carefully so as to avoid causing him pain. “I was placed on a bride ship, but it was taken by wreckers. I was taken to Orbital by the wreckers, who gave me two choices: work off the debt that I now owed them for my safe passage and the removal of my name from the manifests that ship held, or make my own way throughout the universe.”

She finished taping the bandages now, and she sat back, staring at him with a sense of wonder. He had lost weight, and his face wore a faint flush of tan. There was something about him though that seemed off; she just couldn’t put her finger on it. He seemed nervous and upset, and not just because they were meeting again for the first time. Something in her stomach, some small warning system, went off, but she had no idea what it meant.

He asked, “And the people who brought you here?”

She said, “They own a small private planet. Because I had already repaid part of my debt to them and because… Because they thought I could be of use, they asked me to become an inhabitant of the planet. One of the owners is the being that helped to first create the rebellion and then halt the advance of the Gorlites.

“They are good. Perhaps…”

Her tongue ran over her suddenly dry lips. She said, “Perhaps instead of staying here, we could return there. It’s a primitive planet, and there are no cities or governments to speak of. It’s hard to live there. It’s cut off, for the most part, it has very little to do with the other planets in the galaxy, but it’s beautiful has clean air and its new.”

Tears came up in her eyes. She loved it there. If she had not known before that moment that she truly wanted to return to Revant Two, she knew then. She no longer wanted to live on Old Earth. She wanted to help her people of course, but some small part of her had already realized that if she stayed on until everything they needed was given she would die there without ever having truly lived. It seemed selfish. But it was true.

Hard on the heels of that thought came another.

She wanted to be with Marik. Yes, she had been promised to this man lying on the floor before her, but that promise had been broken by someone other than herself. Things had changed a great deal in the time since she had been taken from him and that moment that they were now in.

Ben sat up. His smile was wide, but it seemed false. Had he somehow sensed what she was feeling? Did he somehow know that her heart belonged elsewhere now? Unnerved by that and confused by her defection from her feelings for him, Jenny looked away, but Ben’s fingers captured her jaw and turned her head back toward him.

He said, “How much stuff did they bring? I mean, do they have a lot of food and things? I heard that they were bringing credits to help rebuild it. And a whole lot of them to boot.”

Discomfort set in. “Most of the water and food is gone. It went to help the people here in the hospital, and a lot of it was distributed out on the streets. People are starving. The Federation has given nothing despite all their promises of aid. Everyone says that they came and it was a big ceremony and then they left and there’s been no word. Is that true?”

Been dismissed her question with an impatient wave of his hand. “Yes, of course, it’s true.”

She blinked. He didn’t seem upset about it. Then again how would she know how he felt? She had been living a fairly peaceful existence even while on Orbital, and especially after going to Revant Two.

A pang of guilt struck. It wasn’t her fault that she had not been here for all of the terrible things that happened. She had had no choice in that matter at all. But she still felt guilty that she had not been there. An even larger strike of guilt came when she realized that he had had to live through all of those things. That he had had to suffer. Her hand tried to take his, but he pulled it away slightly.

His eyes burned brightly as he asked, “And the credits? Are they real? Do they really have them?”

“I… I don’t think so. I’ve never seen any.”

His grip on her jaw tightened. “But they had enough credits to buy a private planet. Isn’t that what you just said? They obviously have plenty of them. Planets… I can’t even imagine how expensive a planet would be.”

A soft whimper started in her throat. She quelled it and said, “Ben, you are hurting me!”

She expected him to apologize and drop his hand, but he didn’t. Instead, he stared intently into her eyes. His eyes held something she had never seen before in him. She tried to tell herself that war changed people and that he was obviously desperate and tired. Curious too, and who could blame him? But it felt wrong, that rationalization. She didn’t know why, but she did know that she didn’t want to be near him anymore.

She moved quickly, wrenching herself out of his grip despite the pain that came up in her jaw as she did so. She stood, her hands going to her chest. Her eyes went around the room. There were at least forty new arrivals, and most of them had very slight injuries. She had assumed when they had come in that they were mostly hungry or thirsty and looking for assistance. Only it seemed that almost every face in the room was now pointed toward her and Ben.

Oh, of course they were! She and Ben had been talking in tones that were quite loud. They’d been making a scene.

She said, “I have to go. I have more people to see. We have a lot of injured ones here.”

Fear started up. Why she was afraid was something she didn’t know. She didn’t need to know why she was afraid either; she just knew that she was. She took a few steps backward. Ben sprang up from where he had been laying. His hands whipped out and caught her upper arms. His fingers tightened along her skin, and she cried out, looking wildly around the room and hoping that someone would intercede on her behalf.

Nobody moved except to sit up or to stand. Were they going to help her? It seemed that they weren’t because they didn’t move toward her at all!

Ben spoke in a quiet, soft voice. “It seems to me that they favor you, these creatures that have enough credits to buy a planet to come down here and to bestow their grace upon us like… like we’re some pet that they’ve taken in off the streets.”

A hard cold lump began in her chest. She said, “They came because they care. They’re here because…”

Stop! The word rang out loud and clear in her mind. She did not know why but she knew that telling Ben that Jessica and Talon were a couple and that they were madly in love was somehow a vast mistake. She could not understand how or why she knew that and she did not ask, she simply clamped her lips shut and said nothing, standing there staring at him dumbfounded instead.

Ben said, “I do believe they favor you a good deal, in fact. Perhaps enough to make a decent ransom for you.”

Ransom? Was he serious? Her lips parted. “I’m just someone they rescued off a slave ship. They care nothing for me.”

His head tilted to the side. “I thought it was a bride ship.”

“That is what they said. But that wasn’t what it was. I didn’t find out until after the ship was wrecked that the Federation has been, for years, selling off supposed brides to pleasure planets where they are used until they are dead or too broken to be of any use at all.”

Cold horror ran through her body as she realized just how close she had come to something so terrible. The fact of it had never quite hit her before but it hit her just then, and a long slow shiver worked its way from her feet all the way up to her neck, causing her skin to rise up and gooseflesh and her heart to beat faster.

Ben said, “My dear sweet little Jenny. You never were much use. I don’t know why I kept you around except you were amusing to me. Now, however, I can see that you can finally pay me back for all that I have done for you.”

Her mouth sagged open. “What are you talking about?”

Ben’s eyes, cold as a winter’s day, landed on her face. “I hid you from the Capo. I saved you even though it was a burden. I cared for you when you were weak and sick, which was most of the time. I expected you to marry me. Especially after your eighteenth birthday. Your parents halted that since they still had dominion over you until your twenty-first birthday. I could do nothing about it.

“I intended to pawn you the first chance I got, of course. Instead, you got yourself dragged off to a…whatever ship it was that you landed on. I doubt you would’ve made a good pleasure slave. But they didn’t know that, now did they?”

What was he saying? How could he be so callous? Who was this man? He wore Ben’s face, but he was nothing like the Ben that she knew!

Ben said, “Spread out. Find the aliens. The ones who brought the ship here. You can’t really miss them; hurry up and kill any of them that you can.”

Jenny opened her mouth to scream, but before she could, Ben’s fist flew outward from his body. A hard blow landed on her chin and darkness followed.