Submitting to the Shadow (Kindred Tales #27) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,19

into infertility centers on a very specific demographic—that of unmated human females who wish to become pregnant with a Kindred baby.”

“Yes, that is extremely specific.” Sammi nodded and crossed her thighs, smoothing her skirt down over her knees modestly. She couldn’t believe they were sitting here in his workroom, speaking as though nothing had happened between them.

Though maybe to Roark, nothing had happened. He was speaking in a dry, lecturing tone and though she was pretty sure he had been aroused while he was making her come, he hadn’t acted on it. Though he had offered to lick her pussy…

Just the thought made her cheeks get hot.

Pay attention, Sammi! she lectured herself. And try to forget the past hour—the only way you’re going to be able to have any kind of working relationship with Roark is if you both just pretend it never happened.

Which was true enough, so she forced herself to focus on his words.

“Why only unmated human females who want a Kindred baby?” she asked. “I would have thought you’d be more interested in infertile couples.”

Roark waved a hand dismissively.

“There are already plenty of infertility treatments for Kindred/human couples. When I first started getting interested in infertility, I had a patient come to me whose mate had just died.”

“How sad,” Sammi said softly.

He nodded.

“Yes, it was tragic. But he, like all Kindred males, had frozen a sample of his seed in our genetic bank, here aboard the Mother Ship. The patient wanted me to implant some of that seed in her womb and help her to have the child they had wanted so much when he was alive. So I did the procedure…but it failed. I also tried combining one of her eggs with his seed—but that also failed.”

“It did—what happened? I mean, what went wrong?” Sammi asked, frowning.

“I asked myself that very question,” Roark said thoughtfully. “It seemed that no matter what I tried, the patient was unable to conceive, even though she was a perfectly healthy female in the prime of her life. At last, I hit on the solution—at least, I hope it will be the solution,” he added.

“What is it?” Sammi was really interested now. She leaned forward, literally on the edge of her seat.

“I realized that the component that was lacking during the attempts at artificial insemination and invitro fertilization was desire—pleasure,” Roark emphasized.

He had been leaning back against the light table with his arms crossed as he spoke but now he stood up and began pacing as he lectured.

“You see, when a human female becomes pregnant with a Kindred’s seed, they are almost always in the process of bonding sex.”

“Bonding sex being the step beyond regular sex that can only happen with a Kindred, right?” Sammi asked. She hadn’t been aboard the Mother Ship long but the Kindred sexual cycle was fascinating to her.

“Exactly.” He nodded. “And a female can almost never get pregnant by a male unless they are having bonding sex. Even after they are initially bonded, he will bond her to him over and over again and that’s when she’s most likely to become pregnant.”

“But an unmated female—a single woman alone—can’t have bonding sex when she’s getting artificially inseminated,” Sammi pointed out.

“Which is the exact problem!” Roark turned to her, his eyes blazing. “Once I realized that, I began working on a solution. A way to simulate bonding sex and the intense pleasure and vulnerability that accompanies it during the insemination process.”

“Is that what all this, uh, stuff is for?” Sammi nodded at the lighted work table with its many small machines and harnesses.

“That’s exactly what it’s for.” Roark nodded eagerly. “I have developed a process that should hopefully ensure that a female is ready to receive a Kindred’s seed and a way to simulate bonding sex in order to be certain her body doesn’t reject it.”

“But…how?” Sammi asked blankly. “I mean, isn’t bonding sex different with different kinds of Kindred?”

“It is.” He nodded. “And I’m working on variations for each type. For instance I have this to simulate Blood Kindred bonding sex.”

He picked up what looked like a small leather patch with two sharp needles sticking out of it and a small, clear bladder below filled with blue liquid.

“The female wears this device attached either to her neck or her inner thigh during insemination,” he explained. “It’s filled with a chemical compound that simulates Blood Kindred essence. It mimics the bite the Kindred male would give her to bond her to him as he shoots his seed into