Page 34 of The Red Woman on Mars

“Wim warned us to refrain from—from sexual congress.” Vivian ducked her head, torn between curiosity and shyness. Should she tell him to leave? No. This might be her only chance to be with someone outside of Wim’s approved list. Someone who wasn’t interested in her for her womb.

“Did he indeed?” Silas’s voice had gone low. His large hand wrapped around the back of her neck, and his thumb came to rest on the faint scar at her throat.

Vivian looked up at him. She was forever looking up at Martian men. Silas’s eyes were a mischievous azure blue, and his lips looked warm and inviting. He bent his head low and kissed her.

At twenty-two, Vivian had never allowed herself to be alone with a man before.

She’d never been kissed.

Until now.

Silas’s hand gripped the back of her neck as he explored her mouth with his tongue, barely giving Vivian a chance to breathe. Her head was bent fully backward to accommodate their height difference. This was how it was supposed to feel, Vivian assured herself. She wasn’t trapped. As an experiment, Vivian tried to pull away slightly, and Silas tugged her closer against him.

She could get away, if she tried. She could. This was nothing like being pressed against Max Rinaldi. She was stronger than Silas. Her bones were denser. Hadn’t Wim warned her on her first day on Mars that she could crush Martian finger bones with her bare hand?

I’m not trapped.

Silas guided her down onto her bed and moved his lips down her throat to the swell of her breasts. With one hand, he reached up her skirt.

Her skirt.

Vivian’s head spun. Everything was happening so fast.

Don’t let yourself be alone with a man, her mother had told her the day they’d arrived at Sumter.If you get pregnant in here, you will never get out.

The Martians may receive contraceptive implants as teenagers, but no one had offered one to Vivian. Why would they? She was to be a Red Mother and bear the future hope of Mars.

His hand was between her legs now, probing with long, calloused fingers. “You aren’t wet yet,” he muttered, his face tensing, and spit into one hand. “We’ll have to do something about that.” He shoved two fingers deep inside her, and Vivian winced.

Was she supposed to be wet? All she could think about was keeping still. Waiting for it to be over. Remembering shakingunder Max Rinaldi’s blade as his big hand cupped her hips to press her bottom tighter against him.

The door burst open. “Viv baby, I need to talk to you.” Vivian looked up to see Luz standing still in the doorway, her face frozen in shock. “Who the hell are you?”

“A thousand pardons,” Silas said, leaping to his feet and adjusting his trousers.

Vivian’s hands were shaking as she sat up and smoothed down her dress.

“You need to leave,” Luz ordered. “Now.”

Silas bowed to them both and grabbed his hat. “Vivian, I— I’ll come back another time.”

Vivian looked up to meet his beautiful blue eyes. Did she want to see him again? Why had she been so cold and disconnected? She’d wanted him too, hadn’t she? At least until it had actually happened.

“No, you won’t.” Luz’s mouth was pinched as she spoke. “Vivian isn’t going to fuck up her future for you. Leave.”

Silas gave Vivian one last look and fled from the room.

“It was nothing—”

Luz held up one hand. “We’re at peak fertility—that’s what Dr. Chavez said. You were really going to throw everything away to fuck some pretty Martian soldier? You’re smarter than this, Viv.”

Vivian winced. “We weren’t going to have sex. I was curious, that’s all.” She touched the back of her neck, where Silas had bent it at an odd angle. What would have happened if Luz hadn’t interrupted them? Would she have found the words to tell him to stop? And would he have listened?

Her hands were still shaking. Could she have gotten pregnant today? After all the care she’d taken.Stupid.She had just wanted, for a moment, to forget about the fate bearing down upon her. To just be a young woman spending time with a charming, handsomeman. Why had she assumed Martian men were different from the men at Sumter?Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The door opened again, and Delilah walked in. Vivian felt some relief to be spared Luz’s lecture until she caught sight of her sister’s tear-streaked face. “What’s happened? Is it Mom and Dad?”

Her nightmare had come to pass. She’d been too selfish to save them. She should have accepted Wim’s offer when she had the chance.