Sleeping With the Enemy by Kaitlyn O'Connor Read Free Book Online Page B

time. “No idea what that might mean to us, but I’m thinking it isn’t good.”
        Cold washed over Sybil. She moved away from the observation window abruptly, rubbing her arms up and down her bare arms. It was the first she’d noticed that she was the only one of the group the next thing to naked. The others were still wearing their suits-minus the helmets, but…
        Was that because she was the only one that had been transported via a particle beam? Or had they done something she couldn’t remember?
        Almost as if he’d read her mind, Powell seemed to focus on her condition, his eyes alive with speculation. “How did you get here?”
        Sybil swallowed a little convulsively. “I’m guessing via particle transport beam. I’m not sure, actually. The last thing I remember is discovering I wasn’t alone. When I turned, I saw an intruder and attacked and then… nothing until I woke up on a gurney surrounded by those… creepy little beings.”
        “The droids.”
        Sybil whirled at the sound of the voice, meeting the alien’s gaze in time to detect what almost looked like amusement. She realized when he spoke again that she hadn’t misinterpreted it.
        “They were designed by our scientists specifically for study of your world.” He shrugged. “They had some notion that the humans wouldn’t find them as… threatening since they were humanoid and small.”
        “What happened to Cpl Spencer?” Powell asked tightly.
        Anka felt a flicker of hostility in response to that he’d detected in Powell, but he resolutely ignored it. “He was… reluctant to be moved. He was sedated. He is unharmed.”
        “But still unconscious.”
        “And still unharmed. If you’d like, we can move him to the quarters we’ve prepared.”
        Powell and Kushbu moved immediately to the supine man. Kushbu helped Powell lift Spencer onto his shoulders and the alien led them to the opposite side of the room. A door opened and the men disappeared inside. The alien emerged alone a few moments later and gestured toward her and Holly.
        The two exchanged an uneasy look. Sybil didn’t particularly want to get any closer, or have any interest in whatever it was he seemed to want to show them, but she also wasn’t keen on the idea of ending up like Spencer. After a brief hesitation, she approached the alien man.
        “I apologize that we cannot offer private accommodations, but I believe you will be more comfortable here,” he said as a door opened, revealing a room perhaps twice the size of the one she’d spent the past several hours in.
        She could see as soon as she’d scanned the small room that every effort had been made to make it more comfortable than the room she’d had, she just wasn’t sure if it had been specifically for their benefit or if he had, for some reason, booted someone else out of their quarters to offer the room to them. She was inclined to think the latter. The furnishings didn’t look military issue. The colorful linens and pillows that covered the narrow bunks inside looked like personal belongings. Of course, she was basing that on her own experience and she had no idea of what their military might be like.
        She also didn’t know, for a fact, that the group that had captured them was military. She assumed they were, but she didn’t know. The facility might be civilian.
        “Thank you,” she said hesitantly, wondering why they’d been moved and if Powell was right.
        He nodded. “I am Anka l’Kartay, Commander of Sumptra’s forces… here.”
        Sumptra? Undoubtedly their country or world. The hesitation before he’d said here could mean anything, though, she realized, or nothing.
        Something did become clear to her as she looked up at him, though. Looking at him made her uneasy even when she was across the room from him. Standing so close was enough to heighten that agitation and create a flutter of butterflies in her belly,