A Man For Jenna

by Beth Sadler

  Chapter 8

  The insistent buzzing of her front door bell dragged Jenna, reluctantly, from a lovely dream of being wrapped in strong muscular arms and kissed senseless. The owner of the arms hadn't made themselves known but, they had definitely felt familiar. Groggily, staggering to the front door, Jenna threw it open with a grumpy snarl.

  "What's your problem, what's with all this racket?" Her feet left the floor before she could even raise her eyes to see who was making the noise. "Oomph!" was all she got out before warm, firm lips closed over hers and she got to visit her dream for a bit longer. Now she knew whose arms she had been dreaming of.

  "Good morning my love," said a voice from somewhere near her ear; as warm lips nuzzled her neck, creating shivers that trickled down her spine. "You look gorgeous in pyjamas but, I think you need to get dressed before you come downstairs to eat the breakfast I've made for you."

  "Whadya mean breakfast?" She mumbled as she burrowed in closer to the marvellous heat pouring off his body. "I'm sleeping, I don't want breakfast," she willed herself to go back to sleep. Zabron's arms were the perfect place to drift off to dreamland, she thought as she slipped away once again.

  A vigorous shake had her eyes flying open.

  "Hey! Stop that, I want to sleep." She complained in disgust, at actually coming fully awake. "Damn! Now I'm awake."

  "Good. How can I woo you if you spend the day sleeping?" Zabron said in a reasonable tone.

  "Woo me? Who mentioned wooing? You only met me last night." Wowser, was it only last night that they'd met? But Jenna felt her heart race even as she complained. Could this gorgeous, kind, wonderful man actually be serious about her? Oh sure, there were a couple of drawbacks, he was an alien and lived oodles of millions of miles away but, she didn't want to get too picky. "Does woo mean the same on your planet as it does on Earth?"

  "Definitely, the minute I met you my hand tingled with the age old signal. I knew then, that we would be bonded for life. You are my life-mate there can be no other woman, ever, for me. Now I have to woo you until you fall in love with me too," Zabron answered, as if it was all quite simple.

  Jenna wondered if she'd fallen down the rabbit-hole. She needed time to get her thoughts together, and find out about this hand tingle business when she was fully awake. For now she needed to liven up and keep her wits about her. No way was she going to fall in love and then find out that, life-mate was a Teeron name for, 'brief- affair -while -I'm- on Earth,' thank you very much. Hell! How was she going to avoid a broken heart when she was already nine tenths in love with the dratted man?

  "You go on downstairs and I'll join you as soon as I'm dressed. I'll grab a quick shower and then come down to your unit. You can explain the hand tingle, life-mate thing to me then."

  Zabron looked uneasy as he gently lowered her to the floor. "If you promise me you won't go back to bed, I'll go and put the coffee on." He eyed her uncertainly, before turning her around and gently pushing her towards the shower. "Hurry please, I miss you when we are apart little fairy."

  Jenna missed him the minute he left. "Damn it, I must be nuts because, I'm sure I've fallen for that damned alien." Jenna spoke aloud to the bathroom mirror. However, one look at her wild hair and crumpled pyjamas was enough to send her jumping, shrieking, into the shower.

  Zabron was waiting impatiently at the bottom of the stairs when she descended them thirty minutes later. Dressed in jeans and a casual, figure hugging green top, she drew Zabron's gaze like a magnet. Not able to resist, he plucked her from the stairs and carried her into the unit, after giving her a heated kiss just to let her know he was hers.

  "You took a long time to shower little fairy, I was afraid you wouldn't come," he said as he lowered her into a chair at the kitchen table. A huge mound of toast sat in the middle of the table with a bottle of orange juice, glasses and spreads. A pot of coffee waited on the bench near the window.

  "What's with all the toast?" Jenna asked, giving it a wary look. It looked like he had incinerated a full loaf of bread.

  "Teril and I always have toast and orange juice for breakfast and now I must provide you with food as part of the courting ritual," replied Zabron. Jenna laughed softly in surprise.

  "You don't need to provide breakfast to court me but, now that you've brought the subject up, I think now would be a good time to explain all of this life-mate, hand tingle, thing to me."

  Zabron lounged in the chair opposite her and reaching for a piece of toast, crunched his way through most of it as he thought of where to begin. Then, straightening in his seat he swallowed the toast and spoke.

  "OK. Here's how it works. For as long as we can remember, centuries, we have had successful marriages only when we have felt the hand tingle on meeting our life-mates. If we bonded--that would be the equivalent to your marriage, without the tingle, then the marriage would be miserable and doomed to failure."

  Zabron looked reminiscent for a second before continuing.

  "So, over the years, if we haven't felt the hand tingle then we have chosen to stay single, rather than risk a doomed bonding. However, the upside to this form of bonding is that with this sign, we know that the union will last until we die and be incredibly happy." He laughed cheerfully as he pointed his toast at Jenna.

  "I thought I was doomed to remain single until I met you as, I'm now almost thirty seven years old. Now, little fairy, if I can get you to fall in love with me I shall be happy all the rest of my life."

  Jenna sat like a frozen statue, not moving or blinking, amazed by Zabron's incredible revelations. Could finding your true love really be this simple? However, she had to wonder at his powers of observation. Couldn't a man as incredibly clever, well travelled, gorgeous and talented as this one, realise that she was already a goner? Jenna decided then and there that, she would let him make the effort to convince her; after all a good courting ritual was not something that came along every day. She intended to enjoy every minute of it.

  "Tell me Zabron, does the man always have to convince the woman to marry him, isn't it ever mutual?"

  "It is always mutual between Teeronites. We meet, and both of us experience a mutual tingle that draws us to grasp hands, love is immediate between us. However, we have found that the humans of Earth don't experience this tingle when they fall in love with us, although love follows quickly."

  Zabron looked at Jenna hopefully. "Do you feel a strong bond to me yet, little fairy?"

  "I'm definitely attracted to you so I think I'll know in a couple of days if it's serious." Jenna didn't want to put him off, but, two days of being showered with attention sounded wonderful to her.

  Zabron reached across the table and wrapped both of his warm hands around hers. "I will love you forever. There cannot ever be another for me now, for as long as I live it will only be you. This is how the Teeron bond works. So, I will wait and hope that your love grows quickly."

  Damn! Jenna felt herself weakening. She didn't want this wonderful man to worry but, damn it all to hell, she wanted to be wooed. This would be her one and only chance. Because, even though she hadn't experienced the hand tingle, she knew there would never be anyone else for her either.

  A loud cough from the room off the kitchen signalled Teril's entrance into the emotion charged moment.

  "Good morning, Jenna, are you rested enough to go to work with us today?" Jenna gave Zabron a curious look as Jenna answered him.

  "Where do you want me to go today?"

  Zabron threw a disgruntled look at Teril as he grumpily answered for him.

  "I would have asked you eventually but, this moron obviously intends to spoil my courting time." He gave Teril another dark look for good measure, before explaining.

  "Teril and I are genealogical geneticists are well as environmental scientists. Our main job is to track pollution levels and causes here on Earth. Teeron wants to avoid the problems that you have here. However, we also devote time to checking genetic markers. Our leaders would like to find out how and
when the people of Earth first became related to us."

  Giving Jenna an intimate smile he squeezed her hands before releasing them to explain further.

  "You are the first person who has ever understood our language. So, there's a possibility that we can trace your mitochondrial DNA back through your maternal line. We will then see if your bloodline connects to us."

  Jenna was astonished. The thought that she could have Teeron blood in her veins was hard to take in. "Well hell! No wonder I'm weird, I'm probably an alien too."

  Teril and Zabron roared with laughter at the disgruntled look on her face. Zabron quickly rounded the table to pluck her from her seat and cuddle her close.

  "Don't worry little fairy, I love you and I don't think you're weird at all." Then, sitting down with her on his knee, he continued the wooing process by, casually feeding her bites of toast as he and Teril calmly discussed the work to be done that day.

  They would be working in a laboratory, at a private genetic genealogical clinic in Brisbane. For years, Teeron geneticists had been searching the world's data banks for a link to their common ancestry. For a people who could travel through the galaxies with ease it was no problem for them to acquire documentation to get into, and use, these labs.