by Lace, Lisa
A moment later, he rolled us both over so that I was on top and he was still inside me.
I laid my head on his chest, glad he hadn’t pulled out right away. I loved feeling him inside of me and knowing that he was here with me — all of him.
“I love you, Kenna.” he said, running his hand down my back and relaxing completely beneath me. I felt limp. There was no way I could move, even if I wanted to. After three mind-shattering orgasms, I probably wouldn’t be walking for a week.
“I love you, too, Dar. I need you so much. I had such a hard time doing without you when you were gone.” I felt a tear leak out of my eye. It had been so hard.
He lifted his head so he could kiss my forehead.
“Never again, Kenna. I’ll never leave you again. I promise.”
“How can you say that, Dar? How can you know?”
“Because we’re going to be together forever,” he said, totally serious. Then he added, “My mother said so.”
I laughed then and rolled off of him, making a little sound of sadness when we came uncoupled. I pressed my naked body all along the length of his and laid my head on his arm.
“Speaking of which…” he said, his eyes suddenly becoming more alert. I held my breath.
*
He rolled over onto his stomach, leaning on his elbows so he could look me in the eyes. Our left hips were side by side. I scooted up on the pillows, feeling wide awake and a tiny bit nervous.
“Kenna…” He started. Then he trailed off, looking puzzled. Maybe I was wrong about what I thought that he was going to do. “Do you have a middle name?”
Where had that come from?
“Yes.”
“It’s important. I need to know it.”
“You do?” He nodded vigorously. I shrugged. “My full name is Kenna Alessandra DeAndrea.”
He looked a little skittish.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Dar? Are you all right?” He placed a finger on my lips, silencing me.
“There are traditions that must be upheld,” he whispered. Then he spoke in his usual voice with a tone that was quiet but strong.
“Kenna Alessandra DeAndrea. You have been with me in my most painful moments. You have loved me with your body, your mind, and your spirit. You have given more than a woman should have to give in order to be with me.” He paused then and touched my scar.
“I love your intelligence, your beauty and your talent for bringing life, whether it’s with plants, people, or me. I love how you make me mad with desire, and how you have been there for me whenever I’ve needed you. I want to do the same for you for the rest of our lives.”
I held my breath and searched his eyes. He meant it. Every word. I knew the truth when I heard it. He kissed my forehead, then my right cheek, and then my left — a triangle, of course.
“Kenna Alessandra DeAndrea, would you do the very great honor of marrying me?”
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. My breath was coming too fast and I was feeling too much. I couldn’t answer. The words wouldn’t move past my lips.
“Kenna?” he said and then he looked worried. Shit. When was he not going to doubt my love? When you stop hesitating at important moments, you idiot, I chided myself.
“I’m overwhelmed, Dar,” I said, truthfully, still unable to say the words that I wanted to.
“Overwhelmed because you don’t want to marry me and you don’t know how to tell me?” he said, looking sick to his stomach. “I think I might have grossly overestimated your feelings for me if that’s the case.”
I closed my eyes. This was all falling to pieces because I was a chicken shit.
“Darvish Shu’in,” I said, opening my eyes again. “Sorry, I can’t remember all the other ones.”
He didn’t say anything just waited for me to go on.
“I have loved you almost since we first met. You have made me more me since the moment I met you. I love how you make love to me. I love how you drag me around the galaxy on your crazy adventures.”
He grimaced but I didn’t stop.
“Okay, maybe you don’t drag me with you, but I tag along.” I smiled, going on. “I love waking up next to you and feeling happy because you’re there. And I swore when you lost your memories, that if I ever got you back, I would never ever take you for granted again.”
His eyes got a soft look in them and he took my hand.
“Will you give me a chance to show you how much you mean to me, every day for the rest of our lives? Will you let me wake up next to you so that I can appreciate you every single morning and thank The Three and God and whatever other deities were involved in bringing my curvy ass all the way across the galaxy to find you?”
He smiled and squeezed my butt.
“Will you marry me, Dar? Even though I don’t say the right thing at the right time and you keep wondering if I care about you. Will you let me prove it once and for all by marrying you, so that you never have to wonder again? Will you?” I said and then waited, my heart in my throat, for his answer.
“This is very unconventional,” he said, instead.
I slapped him on the arm.
“If you wanted a traditional female, you shouldn’t have fallen in love with a human,” I said. “Now answer, damn it.”
“You first,” he said, smiling now. “You feisty thing. I asked first, so you have to answer first.”
“Is this what being married to you is going to be like?” I said.
“I hope so,” he said and then laughed. I loved to hear it.
“Okay, okay. I’ll marry you. What about you? Will you marry me? I answered, now it’s your turn.”
“I will marry you, Kenna,” he said, leaning in for a brief kiss. “With all my heart.”
Then he moved over and pressed our scars together. I gasped and saw stars. The shot of energy blasting through my body was incredible.
“Dar,” I panted. “What was that?”
“That was the feeling of a love vow being sealed with our scars, Kenna.”
“I’ll get engaged all over again if we can do that one more time,” I said, still unable to process how good that had felt. “It’s almost as good as sex with you. And that’s saying a lot.”
“If you want to get engaged again, we can do it again, Kenna,” he grinned. “Whatever you want, sheeranla. Whatever you want.”
*
The next morning after some hot, wet shower sex, Dar had brought us breakfast in his room. I thought he was hoping to get lucky again but he was just being romantic.
“I guess we can let your mother announce our engagement at your cousin’s wedding,” I said.
Dar turned a thousand watt smile on me.
“I guess we can,” he said. “Hey, you know what?”
“What?” I said, tucking into my toast and scrambled eggs. He said it was weird to eat bird ovum, but he got it for me anyway.
“I wrote myself a note one night when I had my memory back for a few hours.”
“Yeah?” I said, not really paying attention. I was so starving these days. It seems I could hardly get enough to eat. “Are you going to eat that?”
I could not believe I was offering to eat his weird animal meat. I had been eating on Susohn for some time and I still could not get used to the fact that their meat is blue.
He frowned. “No, I’m done.”
“Can I have it?” I said.
“Sure.” He handed me his plate and I tucked in. “I wrote myself a note that said: Propose. Propose now. Don’t let her get away or you’ll regret it the rest of your life.”
I stopped eating to stare at him.
“You wrote that to yourself?”
“Yep. But I didn’t want to act on it, especially since you were adamant that you weren’t going to get engaged to me when I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”
He grinned at me.
“Well, see? Full disclosure,” I said, taking another bite of the weird meat and trying not to look at it before I put it
in my mouth. “I wanted to make sure you were going in with your eyes wide open.”
He laughed.
“Indeed.”
“I have something to tell you,” I said, finishing the last bite and pushing my plate away.
“What’s that?” he said, looking interested.
“Well, I’ve figured out what I want to do with my life, other than marry you and give your mother grandchildren. Wait a second. They will be our children, won’t they?” I said, suddenly nervous about what strange Susohnnan child-rearing customs I might not be familiar with.
“Yes, Kenna. Of course they will be our children,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Now, what were you saying? About what you want to do with your life?”
“Well, you’re a king and as much as I’ve loved zipping around the galaxy with you, it’s really not much to build a life on. Once we’re settled somewhere I can grow things. Herbs and medicinal plants, you know?”
He nodded, his face lighting up.
“I would prepare them the way my Gran taught me. I would be a medicine woman, I guess,” I finished, looking at him nervously. Would he say I was ridiculous? Would he laugh? I hoped not.
He looked absolutely joyful.
“That sounds wonderful, Kenna. And you would help people heal the way you helped me on Dobu and the way you healed Elara’s eczema?”
“Exactly,” I said. “I would feel useful, like I was doing something good with my life. Do you think I could do that?”
“Of course. I think it’s amazing. I know some people on Susohn that can teach you about the plants that grow there and of course you can have a greenhouse. You already know about growing Earth plants in other environments, so you would just have to figure out Susohn. We’ll get you whatever you need.”
“You sound more excited than me,” I said, laughing. I felt better about the future than I had in a long time.
*
“We’ve made nearly all the repairs necessary and we just need to restock and take on more crew on Susohn. Then we’ll be ready to hunt down that…” Jakk stopped himself from swearing but it was a near thing. “That space squid and the last alien ship that’s hiding out there. We’ll be arriving on Susohn in an hour or so.”
“That’s perfect, we’ll be getting off there, then,” Dar said. “Kenna and I have a wedding to plan and a garden to grow.”
Dar put his arm around me and I caught a wistful expression on Elara’s features. Her glance darted to Jakk and then away again. She was hanging around at the back of the crowd on the bridge and she faded as we continued to talk.
I made a mental note to go talk to her before we got left the ship. I wondered if I would ever get to see her again. It would be a dangerous mission, hunting down those aliens.
“You’re engaged?” Jakk said, a smile spreading across his face. “Congratulations, Dar.”
He made the sign of The Three and then slapped Dar on the back and kissed the triangle of The Three on me — one kiss on the forehead and one on both cheeks.
“You’re invited, for sure,” Dar said.
“Great. Hopefully, I’ll be back in time.”
Or at all. It was unspoken and we were thinking it, but we all ignored it. The congratulations kept coming in, but finally I was able to slip away to find Elara.
*
I poked my head into the library. Elara was sitting in one of the reading bubbles but she wasn’t reading. Her eyes were red and she was rubbing her nose.
She’d been crying.
“Hey,” I said, softly. “Are you okay?”
She smiled sadly.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Congratulations.”
“I’m sorry, Elara.”
“You’re sorry you got engaged? Well, maybe you ought to break it off then,” she said, trying to make a joke. “It’s just that I wish…”
She didn’t finish, just laughed self-consciously and dropped her eyes to the floor.
“We all do, you know. I was once in your shoes. I thought I’d never find someone like Dar, who would love me. It still feels like a crazy miracle that I can’t quite believe, Elara.”
“Really?” she said. And she looked so young when she gazed up at me like that. It was an illusion, surely, because with that much schooling behind her, there was no way that she was as young as she seemed. Still, she had an innocence about her that was charming. I was afraid someone would hurt her and make her cynical and jaded.
“Really. You’ll find your sheeranlo. He’s out there.”
“Sheeranlo? What’s that?”
“It means your soul mate in Susohnnan. He’s out there waiting for you.”
Jakk stuck his head in.
“Or maybe he’s closer than you think,” I murmured to myself.
“Dar’s looking for you, Kenna. We’re docking in twenty,” he said.
“Thanks, Jakk.”
“No problem. I was looking for Elara as well. Can you run through the supply list one more time with me and make sure we haven’t forgotten anything?” he said.
She sat up straight, sniffing and trying to pull herself together.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, I’ll see you on the bridge.” Then he was gone.
She looked at me for a long time before she finally spoke. I don’t know what the words cost her but she could hardly get them out.
“He’s married.”
I pressed my lips together, shaking my head.
“Not anymore, Elara. The divorce went through.”
“Are you serious?”
“You bet. Dar just told me. He’s a free man. He’s also hurting and lonely because his relationship with his wife has been dead for some time, so tread carefully. Men’s hearts are awfully tender, remember.”
She gave me a shy smile.
“I remember.”
I pulled her in for a hug.
“We’ll meet again, Elara. I know it. You’re invited to my wedding, so don’t do anything stupid when you’re off squid hunting, okay?”
She smiled.
“Okay.”
“Now, I guess there’s a supply list that needs to be gone over, again. Maybe he just wants to spend time with you.”
Her face lit up in surprise and then she gave me one last smile.
“Thank you, Kenna,” she said as she headed for the door.
“May you may find as much happiness as I have,” I whispered to her back as she disappeared through the doorway.
DAR
I looked around me and smiled. We were in the oasis at the back of the palace.
To one side we could see through the trees out onto the burning hot sands. The harsh wind was blowing across the desert but here the air was cool and moist. The huge trees sheltered us from both Susohn’s suns as they traveled across the sky together.
The servants had set up banquet tables and we had invited people to come celebrate our engagement. My heart ached when I thought about Mana and Jared and how they would have been here if they hadn’t been captured.
There was a ship on its way through the wormhole right now but I didn’t have much hope. They might even be dead already. I shook my head to clear it and tried to pay attention to what my mother and my fiancee were talking about.
“I’ve talked to the Conveyor and he is willing to give you a special dispensation to get married this year, since you have known each other for some time and have proven your love for each other in many ways — not the least of which is you completing the ritual, Kenna. That really impressed him.”
Kenna smiled a little and ducked her head. She was wearing Susohnnan pants that had a panel cut out to show the skin of the left hip. Mother had probably picked them out for her. She loved showing off her future daughter-in-law’s scar and telling people what Kenna had done to get it.
“Really, mother? When can we get married?” I said, eagerly.
“Now, now, calm down child. You’re as good as married now. There’s no need to rush.”
I took a deep breat
h, trying not to be annoyed with my mother for calling me a child and telling me to slow down, as if I had been running in the halls of the palace. I felt Kenna’s hand on my thigh under the table. I could tell she was trying not to smile.
“Mother, we are not rushing.”
Just then a servant approached me.
“This just came in for you, sir. I thought I ought to give it to you immediately.” He handed me a piece of paper.
I opened the note and read it while the servant waited to be dismissed. I stared it, reading it over and over.
“Where did you get this, Mervoll?” I demanded.
“It just came in to the communications center, your highness. Is there a problem?”
“How did it come in?” I said, knowing my voice sounded urgent, but unable to control myself.
He smiled then, shaking his head.
“You won’t believe it. Morse code. My brother and I always loved old Earth war movies and one year we spent a couple months learning Morse code. I recognized it right away. Good thing I was on duty, or someone else might have missed it as just space noise.”
Kenna and mother were watching our conversation curiously.
I drew in a shaky breath.
“Thank you, Mervoll, excellent work.” He made the sign of The Three and left. I made a mental note to give him a huge bonus.
“What was that about?” Kenna said and they leaned towards me.
I swallowed hard.
“It’s a message.”
Kenna gave me an exasperated look.
“Yeah, we got that. What does it say?”
“It says…We’re alive. MJ.”
“That’s it? That’s the message? Who’s MJ?”
“Mana and Jared?” I said. My mother made a surprised sound. “They managed to get us a message somehow, using Morse code. Jared must have taken the prototype of Mirallaley’s communication technology with him. They left before we got the full shipment. They’re alive, Kenna. They’re alive.”
I felt like crying I was so relieved, but that wouldn’t do. I grinned instead.
“Thank The Three,” my mother said, putting her hand on her heart.
“This makes this evening even more perfect,” Kenna said, smiling at me happily. “I’ve been so worried about them. There’s probably more to worry about but if they were able to get us this message, then there’s hope.”