“The brides were distributed to the highest echelons of our society. There was no screening for suitability. Our past experiences with Dak-Haliah women had become so contentious that we presumed any alternative would be an improvement.”
My curiosity was piqued.
“Most of the brides from this first endeavor were…unhappy. The druid in the holiest seat at the time was misogynistic.”
“That was Shindray?”
A Domestic came and filled our two tall metal glasses with water.
“Ah, I see. Hor has educated you about our past?”
“No. I’ve been getting my information from a Domestic, and we haven’t covered Shindray yet.”
Another Domestic set down platters in front of us. He opened the cloches to reveal some kind of fish covered in a crackly breading. I leaned close and took a hearty sniff.
“Wow, that’s awesome.”
Elentinus’ eyes glimmered at me. The way he admired me made me feel like a princess. I’m not bad looking, but I’m not a super-model. If we were back in my reality Elentinus would have been out of my league. Not just because of his looks, but also because the guy is practically a king. And yet, in this time and place, I was the special one. I was the one who had to be charmed.
Considering how he’d ripped me out of my previous life, he knew he had an uphill climb to win me over. It gave me a weird advantage in a situation where I was a prisoner. All kinds of bubbly emotions were tickling my insides. I was flattered, and nervous, and a little giddy.
Yeah, I knew in the back of my head I was being a ditz. The Dak-Hiliah were war-mongering space bullies, and this guy was one of their leaders. He could have been evil. He looked evil, because, let’s face it, evil was often sexy. It would be stupid for me to lower my guard with him.
Even if I wanted to.
“Tell me about yourself,” Elentinus said.
He used a crescent shaped utensil, like a sharp half-spoon, to dig into his fish and I followed suit.
“Oh, uh, geez. Where do I start?” The fish broke apart into tender flakes. “I was in the Peace Corps for two years. I’d only been out for a few weeks when you…got me.”
“Go earlier than that. Start with your childhood.”
I chewed for a few seconds while trying to come up with a way to change the topic. Commenting on the pretty floor tiles would have made my discomfort too obvious. Unless a spider ran across the table I was probably stuck.
“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “My mom met my dad when she was on a cruise in Puerto Rico. Oh, um, a cruise is when people go on big ships to visit islands and stuff. Anyway, she ended up staying in Puerto Rico and marrying him. They did a lot of drugs. When my grandmother, my mother’s mother, came to visit she ended up taking me back home with her to her farm in Nebraska. I was a baby. It was just me and her on this big forty acre farm. I helped with the chickens and the goats and picked raspberries and even drove around on the tractor. The house was falling apart and she hardly ever had money to buy me school clothes—but, God, I loved it there.”
Elentinus smiled.
“I met my mom for the first time when I was nine. We had only talked on the phone a few times before then. She came down because my grandmother was dying of liver cancer caused by her Hepatitis B. My mom looked older than my grandmother. She was just a total wasted out junkie. She got clean for a year and a half after she moved in with us, though. After my grandmother died she relapsed hard and started bringing drug-dealing creeps over to the house. One of them walked in on me while I was changing and I ran away from home. I was put in a group home for girls. I was…13 maybe? The staff were assholes there, but I got along fine with the other girls, and it was better than living with my mother.” I searched the ceiling to remember what happened next. “I was 16 when my mom froze to death by passing out outside in the dead of winter. The police made me sign paperwork to put her in a pauper’s grave.”
Elentinus made a sympathetic noise.
“I always thought that I could go back to my grandmother’s house after I graduated high school. I was going to fix the place up and get the land working again. Someone from the bank came to the group home with a box of some of my stuff from the house. He let me know that my mom had used the property for collateral on a loan and they were confiscating it. So, poof. There went my dream of moving back home.”
“What a pity,” Elentinus said.
His voice knocked me out of the trance I’d gone into while I bared my soul. I swished my food around my plate.
“So…um…”
“Could you have stayed at the group home indefinitely?”
I perked up. “No. They kick you out when you turn 18. That was a major stressor for me, you know? I didn’t have any family or any place to go. I ended up enrolling in college just so I could live in the dorms. Since I was a ward of the state my education would be fully paid for. I figured it was the best solution for me.”
“What did you study?”
“Agricultural Science. That’s farming, pretty much. I still dreamed of living on a little farm the way I had when I was a kid.”
“How charming.”
I felt myself blushing again. “It was probably not the best choice for me. The economy tanked my sophomore year. The odds of me getting a job right out of school were slim. The government wasn’t going to pay for me to go for my masters, so I couldn’t stall. I thought about joining the army but we had so many nasty conflicts going on in the Middle East.”
“Ah.” Elentinus leaned back with interest. “So women could serve in the military even in your era?”
I nodded with a touch of pride.
“I thought this ‘Peace’ Corps you were in might have been the military alternative for women.”
I tried not to be insulted. “Um…are Dak-Hiliah women pretty…um…dainty?”
“I should say not.” He smirked. “But Earth women are.”
I raised my brow at him. “Okay, anyway, as you know I ended up joining the Peace Corps. That’s pretty much it.”
“Why did you move to a city when you returned?”
“Oh, some girl I served with got me all goo-goo eyed about Manhattan. I’d gotten all this administrative experience in Botswana, so my job options were a little broader. I guess I just latched on to the first idea that sounded good. There wasn’t any reason for me to go back to Nebraska.”
“Maritza.”
Elentinus put his hand on mine. My heart rate leapt up again.
“Who do you grieve for from your home?”
My brow furrowed.
“Who did you leave behind? Who missed you when you were gone?”
I got the point, and didn’t like it. “I might not have had many strong connections, but my life still had meaning.”
“You misunderstand me.” He cupped his other hand under mine. “You were in the perfect position to begin a new life somewhere else. What have you really lost by coming here?”
“Huh.” I accepted his logic.
“Of course your life had meaning, my dear. Although you’d have found you couldn’t have children due to a problem we corrected—“
That explains my monster periods.
“You were an intelligent, resourceful, and vital woman. You would have contributed a great deal to your society.”
This gave me a pang in my middle.
“But by no means could you have ever been as indispensable as you are here. We need you far more desperately than where you came from.”
A Domestic came to take our plates away. Another followed behind him to reveal two new ones. They looked like my fish donut but smelled different. I had to pause for another euphoric whiff.
Elentinus caressed my hand before moving his own away. “I have many more treats for you to savor.”
I dug into the pastry with my crescent spoon thing. “I get that. And I understand why you guys need me so badly, too.”
Elentinus eyed me. I paused to choose my words carefully.
“But, I’m, what did you call me? ‘An intelligent, resourceful, vital woman.’ I need some purpose in my life, and not just having 24 babies a year.”
“This is one of those circumstances I mentioned to you before.” His voice had gotten sterner. “You have to breed for us, even if you don’t wish it. You have no choice.”
I looked at him with plaintive eyes. Did he really think I was being defiant? “I understand that, Lord Elentinus. It…it’s fine. I mean it’s…well, from what Hor-Denay described…I think it should be fine. I’m not trying to get out of breeding.”
Elentinus looked at me. “Aren’t you?”
“Of course not.”
He closed his eyes. I saw an intense look of relief wash over him. He put his face in his hand and sighed.
“Then you’ll be happy here.”
I blinked a few times. “Wait, was that it? That was the thing you were talking about me compromising on yesterday?”
“That’s your only mandatory obligation, Maritza. If you’ve made your peace with that then I doubt any other aspect of your confinement should distress you that terribly.”
My shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath. “Well that’s a relief.”
Elentinus cut into his pastry. “You realize, of course, that breeding requires sexual intercourse.”
I set my utensil down. “Yeah, I…I know how babies are made.”
“And you’ve made your peace with that, also?”
No. Not really. “Just…just with you, right?”
Elentinus made a wry laugh. “If anyone else touches you, I’ll kill them.”
I kind of knew he meant that literally. I also wondered if it was a good time to mention Whore had done my hair. “Um…what I was trying to say before was that I need more to my life than just making babies for you. I need…I need some occupation, you know?”
Elentinus tilted back his head in realization. “Ah. I see what you meant to say. Of course, my dear. We’ll put your skills to use.”
This made me smile. “Really?”
“I’m certain Hor would value your assistance with his summaries.”
My chest deflated. “Oh.”
Elentinus laughed. He gave my shoulder a little squeeze. “Don’t judge him too harshly. He’s very protective of me.”
His hand moved to my hair. I stayed frozen but felt little tingles up and down my spine. He pulled out one of the combs. A small pile of my hair tumbled free.
“Hor put it up for you, didn’t he?”
I nodded. “He had me put on the make-up, too.”
“He knows what I fancy.”
Now my heart started racing out of panic. He started pulling out all the combs in my hair one by one. He was leaning in close and I could hear his breathing. Was he putting the moves on me right now? Didn’t I have eight more degrees?
When all my hair was loose he ran his fingers through it.
“You’re so lovely. I would have chosen a brunette for my first wife, had they given me an option.”
He caressed my nape. The tingles turned into pleasant shockwaves. Despite this, if he wasn’t Lord Elentinus I would have pulled away. That didn’t seem like an option. I’d been fooling myself into thinking I had any advantage earlier. Elentinus didn’t have to charm me. I was his property.
His hand stopped moving. “Does this distress you?”
I found my voice—I don’t know how. “I’m not ready.”
“I don’t mean to take you to bed, my dear. I only wished to touch your hair—your beautiful skin.”
My posture slackened a little. “Oh.” I closed my eyes. “Then it’s fine.”
I heard Elentinus make his soft laugh. “You’re so delightful.”
His hand went to the side of my face. Now that I knew he wasn’t after sex I felt free to enjoy his caress.
“Maritza, be honest with me.”
I looked at him.
“Are you a virgin?”
I cringed.
“Don’t you think that’s important for me to know?”
I gave him my most forlorn look. “Of course you can know. I cringed because I’m embarrassed. No, I’m not a virgin.”
“That embarrasses you?”
“I’ve only been with one guy, one time. He conned me into bed.” I groaned. “I was so stupid. He found out I was still a virgin and made a bet he could get me to sleep with him. I thought we were in love with each other. It was all a scam.”
Elentinus traced his finger around the sensitive rim of my ear. “It sounds as though he broke your heart.”
“It—it was just a rich kid taking advantage of a naïve bumpkin.”
“He was unworthy of you.”
“…Yeah.”
He turned my face toward his. I got caught in his deep, dark gaze.
“I’m not.”
He pulled me into a kiss. The way he swept both his large arms around me and crushed my lips under his—it gave me this incredible flutter inside. I closed my eyes and let him own my mouth. His hot wet mouth was rough, and eager, but in such a nice way. A feeling of melting started in my torso, then my legs got drippy and weak and my toes tingled. I couldn’t even think straight. All of the craziness from the last two days disappeared, and the only thing that existed was this warm euphoria.
Elentinus broke away. His dark lips looked dewy and his eyes had an intense gleam. He was taking in my reaction. I’m sure I looked like a pathetic little romance novel heroine, all sleepy, blushing, and weak. He liked what he saw so much that his eyes rolled back and he gave a euphoric shudder.
“This is how it was meant to be—with gentle seduction. Not tyranny.”
I became puzzled, but it wasn’t enough to make the warmth inside me evaporate.
He took a deep breath and smiled at me while stroking my hair. “I’ll stop now. Any more and I’ll carry you to bed. You’re too sweet to resist.”
Dang! I wouldn’t have minded a longer make-out session. It gave me a little ache in my chest when his arms pulled away. I stared at him with expectant eyes.
He threaded his fingers through the hair at my forehead and worked them all the way through. His hand caused rapturous tingles on my sensitive scalp that echoed shivers through my whole body.
“Fly away, little dove. I sadly must return to work.”
I swallowed and nodded. It took some effort to drag myself to my feet. I went a few shaky steps away from the table, but then turned around and gathered up my plate. There was still plenty of donut left.
Elentinus laughed at me. I couldn’t resist a goofy smile. I hugged my plate as though I were selfish and scampered away. I peeked back at the stairs leading out. Elentinus was staring at me with a smile.
I ended up being too giddy to continue my lecture with Kang that night. I wandered around the lobby area in an idiotic love-sick daze while replaying everything that happened at the dinner over and over again in my head. I think it was late when I finally went to bed.
“Damn it!”
I sat up in bed and blinked the sleep out of my eyes. Whore had rudely barged into my cell at what felt like the ass-crack of dawn.
He sneered at me. “What are you doing here?”
“This is my room.”
He lost patience instantly. “Why aren’t you in bed with Lord Elentinus!”
I glared at him.
He threw up his hands. “That’s it! I’m telling him you’re ovulating.”
“Go ahead. Lord Elentinus isn’t going to make me do anything I’m not ready for. Unlike you, he’s a gentleman.”
Whore examined me with a raised brow. “You fancy him.”
I didn’t answer. What? Was that a crime? We were going to get married, weren’t we?
He leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. “So what did happen?”
“None of your—“
He opened the satchel with my choke chain device.
Asshole! “Okay, okay! We talked and we had dinner. It was fish and then one of those
donut things.”
He closed the satchel. “What else?”
I hesitated, but I knew what he wanted. I gave him the goods only on the fear of being shocked. “He kissed me.”
“Did you kiss him in return?” He spat this out fast, like it was an accusation.
“Yeah.”
Whore leaned back with a satisfied grin. “Very well. That’s acceptable, then.” He started to go. “I expect your next meeting with him to end in consummation.”
Whatever, creep.
He paused in my doorway to grumble loudly with his back turned to me. “Lord Elentinus asked me to help come up with the third Degree of Intimacy for you.”
My brow twitched. “Um…so what did you come up with?”
He darted an angry look back. “I don’t know!” Now he gave me his customary sneer. “I think you should just go to bed with him. I don’t see the point of any of this nonsense.” Another grumble. “But Lord Elentinus has asked me to come up with some activity. I have to oblige him.” He turned his back to me again and crossed his arms. “What did men and women do during courtship where you’re from?”
This gave me a snide grin. Well, well, the great Hor-Denay forced to ask for advice from a lowly woman. Gloating would have been fun, but I knew better than to provoke him. I searched the ceiling for a sincere response.
“Well, we’d go out on dates, like to dinner—“
“You already had dinner!”
“—or to a movie. Movies were kind of a lame date. It was better to do some activity, like ice skating or going to a festival.”
“This is no help at all. It has to be something you can do on the yacht.”
“He could give me a tour of the ship. Though it’s kind of huge and my feet would get tired.”
“There’s not enough time for that.”
“What about dancing? You have music, don’t you?”
“That would be ludicrous. Lord Elentinus is not some dancing fool.”
I tried not to get frustrated. “Do you have sports? Like bowling? Could we set something up?”
Whore put his hand on his chin. “There’s Ragmore.” He fumed. “No. It would take far too long to teach you.”
“What about…like, a board game?”
“The only game worthy of Lord Elentinus is too complicated for you. These are idiotic suggestions!”
The Complete Alien's Bride Page 5