by Lisa Lace
I impatiently waited for Khellen to wake up as the lilac-colored planet came into sight on the cabin’s view screen. I didn’t know what would happen when he woke up, but I certainly wanted to get things moving. I was tired of waiting.
The planet got closer and closer, and he continued to sleep. I resigned myself to the fact that he wouldn’t wake up, and we would need the medical transport after all. I strapped Khellen in before we landed, kissing him again as I fastened the straps on his bed. I secured my restraints and we landed without incident.
In the docking bay, a recorded voice welcomed us to the planet, instructed us to remove our belts and gather our belongings. I released myself, and as I reached for Khellen’s straps, he finally opened his eyes. I helped him undo his restraints, and he sat up, looking around in confusion. He glanced down at his white hospital sweatpants and the long-sleeved shirt. There were frown lines between his eyebrows as he tried to orient himself.
“I have a lot to explain.” I helped him get up and handed him his shoes. “The shuttle has landed, and we need to get off and go to the hotel. We can relax there, and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Where are we?” He fumbled with his shoes. He managed to get them on his feet, but his fingers didn’t do the delicate work, so I had to tie them for him. His problems could be related to being shot or remnants of the induced coma. The technicians said he would recover quickly, but might have small motor issues for a while.
“We’re on Shveitz,” I told him, standing up. “Can you walk?”
He took a few hesitant steps. Even though he looked stiff and sore, he was able to move. “It seems like it.”
“Good.” I grabbed the backpack laden with a few things Fiona had sent. “Let’s go.”
We were fast-tracked through security again. I made a mental note to write Fiona a long thank-you letter.
When we exited into the spaceport, we were met by a jostling crowd of reporters and local police officers. One woman stepped forward and held her hand toward us, palm out. “Halt,” she said. “You’re under arrest.”
I guess I wasn’t going to get a chance to write that thank-you note.
KHELLEN
I had been groggy since regaining consciousness. Sometimes there was short-term memory loss after a medically induced coma. Bits and pieces of what had happened floated in and out of my mind, but I couldn’t remember anything clearly. I obediently followed Sophie off the shuttle. I had to trust her for everything right now.
“Oh no,” I heard Sophie say under her breath when she spotted the police officers.
“Halt,” a female officer said. “You’re under arrest.”
Sophie drew herself up to her full height and faced the officer. “Why?” There was a steely defiance I hadn’t heard before.
“We’ve been asked to detain you. The government of Biyaha has a warrant out for your arrest.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Sophie responded, her eyes intense. She was trying to remain calm. “We’re seeking asylum from political persecution.”
“On what grounds?” the police officer asked, not looking sympathetic at all.
“My husband was being held prisoner by the Biyaha government.”
“Do you have evidence?”
“You want proof they were holding him? How could I prove that?” She was doing her best to hide her desperation.
“We’re not looking for proof of his incarceration. If you can prove you’re married, we have no reason to detain you. He has an outstanding arrest warrant for breaking the Edict of Marriage. If you can show evidence of your marriage, we will not honor the Biyahan request to hold you.”
Sophie’s worried look made no sense to me. If we were married, we would have proof; why was she so concerned? I looked down at my left forearm. There was nothing there. A memory danced around the corners of my mind but eluded me.
The police officer looked down at my forearm as well. “There’s nothing here,” she said pointedly.
“They’re hidden underneath a chemical layer.” Her excuse sounded ridiculous, even to me. “It has to be removed by a doctor under anesthesia.”
The police officer rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“I’m telling the truth. You have to believe me.” Sophie pleaded with the officer, who was moving towards her.
The reporters had been listening raptly, with recorders held over their heads. Suddenly, one of them spoke up. I wondered if they were broadcasting live to their news stations. “Is it true that this man is one of the disappeared?” His equipment indicated he was from Earth.
Sophie’s head whipped around to see who had spoken. She noticed the Earth logo too and hesitated before addressing the question. “Yes, he is.”
“You claim to be his wife?”
Sophie paused again, staring at the insignia on his jacket. “Are you transmitting live to Earth?”
He nodded.
She cut her eyes over to me, and it seemed she had to decide something painful. She slowly pressed her lips together and gave a tiny nod. “I am his wife,” she said, and lifted her head, first staring directly into the camera and then looking back at the police officer. “If I can prove it, will you let us stay here and leave us alone?”
“Of course I will. That’s what I said, isn’t it? I’m not here for fun. Show me proof and you are free to go,” the police officer replied. She looked annoyed but interested.
“Okay.” Sophie took a deep breath. She swallowed and bit her lip, raising her left arm. Sophie had everyone’s attention now, and she knew it. As she lifted her right hand towards her left arm, I saw that it was shaking. I wondered what she was going to do.
She grabbed hold of a small flap of dried skin protruding from her left forearm. With another deep breath, she pulled down sharply. She cried out in pain, and all at once, there was blood everywhere. Everyone gasped.
I didn’t understand what that had to do with showing we were married.
I pulled off my shirt and moved to stop the bleeding, but she pushed my hands away. Turning her forearm to the crowd, she announced in a loud voice, “My name is Sophie Lynch, and I’m Khellen Lynch’s wife.”
Through the veil of blood, the marriage certificate and wedding band were visible to everyone — police, reporters, and Earth via a live feed.
She stepped up to the police officer, letting her arm drop down to her side. “We seek political asylum on Shveitz. Is that enough proof for you to let us in?” she asked, holding out her arm to the police officer.
The policewoman looked shocked, but she nodded curtly.
“Sophie, we need to clean you up.” I was unable to focus on anything else. I took her arm and dabbed it with the white hospital shirt, ignoring the chilly air of the spaceport that was giving me goosebumps on my bare chest. I paused to run my fingers across the picture of us on the certificate. Seeing the picture made all of my memories come flooding back. “Sophie,” I said, meeting her eyes.
She saw that I remembered everything. There was fear in her eyes, as I slowly wrapped my shirt around her arm trying to understand what she had done.
“You’re free to go, Mr. and Mrs. Lynch,” the police officer said, approaching us and speaking more courteously now. “Your records are clear. You are welcome on Shveitz for as long as you need to stay. No one will try to arrest you again.” She nodded an apology at Sophie and addressed the reporters. “You got your story. Please vacate the area now. Mrs. Lynch needs medical attention.” She raised her authoritative voice above the din of the excited reporters.
“There’s a medical transport waiting for us outside,” Sophie said, her face was worried and anxious as she gazed at me. She didn’t seem to notice that her forearm wouldn’t stop bleeding and was soaking the white shirt crimson.
“I don’t know which one of us needs to use it more.” The police officer kindly escorted us through the crowds of people catching flights. Everyone moved aside when they saw Sophie was bleeding, and soon we were speeding away
in the medical transport hovercraft.
The doctors evaluated both of us and stopped the bleeding on Sophie’s arm. They thought the bleeding looked worse than it was and wrapped her arm in a white gauze bandage before they dropped us off at the hotel. After reaching our room, we collapsed on the couch in silence. I didn’t know where to start and neither did she.
I gently took her hand, making sure to touch the good arm, without the bandage.
“No, Khellen,” she said before I could say anything. “Let me talk first.”
I stopped, studying her face as she spoke.
“I want to apologize. I’m sorry for walking away and leaving you the way I did. It was selfish and cruel, and even if you didn’t love me, I still should have helped out a friend. I shouldn’t have listened to you when you told me to leave. I’ve been a coward, and I don’t expect you to forgive me. I wanted to get that off my chest before I left.” She stood up then, but I wouldn’t release her hand.
“Sit down. I want to know why you came and rescued me from that place if you’re as selfish and cruel as you say.”
“I couldn’t leave you there after I had realized I had done something wrong. It wouldn’t be right to leave a friend in such a terrible situation.”
“Even if I didn’t love you, you should have helped out a friend. What does it matter to you whether I love you or not, Sophie?” My heart was beating quickly. She was staring down at our interlocked fingers but looked up as I asked my question. Our eyes locked on each other.
“Because,” she whispered.
“Why?” I asked, so quietly I almost didn’t hear myself.
“Because I love you, and I want you to love me back.” Her eyes filled with tears. One rolled down her cheek, and I watched it fall and make a small dark spot on her pants. “Back in the jail when you didn’t tell the Warden that we were married, I thought you might feel the same way, and that was why you hadn’t revealed the truth. I wondered if you wanted me to have the life I thought I desired.” She stumbled over her words and finally stopped. “Do you think you can forgive me, Khellen? Even if you can’t love me?”
I shook my head. “No.”
Chapter Sixteen
SOPHIE
I held myself together. I was determined not to fall apart until I got outside the room. I had my whole life to cry. But he wouldn’t stop talking.
“I won’t forgive you, Sophie, because there’s nothing to forgive.”
Tears spilled down, and I was helpless to stop them. “I need to hear you say it. Please tell me you forgive me.”
“I forgive you, then. But not because I think you did anything wrong. I’ll do it because you asked me.”
“Why?”
“I would do anything you asked of me.” He brought our joined hands to his lips and kissed mine tenderly. “It doesn’t even matter if you asked or not.”
“Then I have another request,” I said, brushing away tears with my other hand. “You promised to tell me why you sent me away earlier, Khellen.”
He looked at me strangely. “Because I love you,” he said directly. “I didn’t want you to see me like that.”
I didn’t let him finish what he was saying. I wrapped myself around him in a hug so tight that I was afraid I might hurt him. He pulled away from me, giving himself enough space to put his lips on mine. Suddenly we were kissing like there was no tomorrow and like we hadn’t seen each other in years. We were two people in love.
We had our clothes off in record time and fell on the bed, needing to be as close as we could, feeling like we had nearly been separated forever. Our bodies twisted together, kissing and touching as my excitement increased. He rolled me onto my back, and I spread my legs wide, feeling him at my entrance.
“I need you inside me, Khellen.” I gripped his ass tightly. “Please.”
He closed his eyes and leaned forward, pushing in slowly, maddeningly, inch by inch. “I,” he said, pressing in deeper. “Love.” He was filling me up with every word. “You, Sophie Lynch.” As he said my name, he gave a quick, sharp thrust that drove him home completely. I gasped as I took him inside me.
He moved tenderly, plunging in and out of me as he held my gaze. “I love you, and I don’t want you ever to doubt me again. Do you understand?”
I nodded, unable to speak. He rubbed against every nerve ending I had, and the pleasure was uncontrollable.
“Answer me.” He leaned down and drew a nipple into his mouth. He swirled it with his tongue, sucked on it hard, and gave it a tiny nip.
“I understand,” I moaned. “I love you, too, Khellen.”
He drove into me, and every movement took me higher. I arched upward, my body answering him, our hips colliding in perfect rhythm.
“You’re mine,” he said, his pounding becoming faster and more frantic.
“Yes.” I was beginning to pant.
“Say it.”
“I’m yours.”
“And you’ll never be single again.”
“Never,” I got out.
“You’ll never be barren because you’re going to have my baby.”
“Yes,” I hissed, the wave building inside of me.
“Say it.”
“I’m going to have your baby, Khellen.” Sooner than he knew.
“And…”
My orgasm crested, overtaking me and I cried out, lost in the ecstasy. He found his release too as I clenched around him. Exploding in sensation, I shattered into a thousand pieces, writhing under him as he pressed me onto the bed, pinning me beneath his massive body. I trembled with pleasure until I was spent.
Eventually, we lay still.
“You may be mine, Sophie, but I’m yours, too. You own me, body and soul, and I don’t want to live without you.” He covered my face and neck with small kisses that made my hips come alive again. I smiled with my eyes closed.
“There’s something that I need to tell you.” I opened my eyes to look at him. “It’s good news, I think.”
He tilted his head curiously. “What is it?”
“I’m going to have your baby.”
“I know.” His eyes were warm and smiling.
“In about nine months.” I kept a close watch on him for his reaction. “I’m pregnant, Khellen.”
Suddenly he was kissing my breath away. “I can’t believe it,” he said, pulling out of me and then bringing me close to him again. I threw a leg across his hip. He put his leg between mine, moving closer until we were chest-to-chest. “We’re going to be a family.”
I nodded, thrilled and relieved that he was happy about it, too.
“Sophie, you promised you would tell me everything.”
“That’s true, I did.” I made myself comfortable. “I didn’t intend to fall in love with you, Khellen. I came here to make sure you got married and didn’t disappear.”
He laughed. “You can check that off.”
I grinned. “You were so handsome and charming and sweet that I couldn’t help myself. I fell for you. But when you asked me, as your friend, to protect you from the law by marrying you, I got the message. I thought you weren’t interested in me.”
“That was the wrong message. That night at the hover party, after we kissed on The Boat, it was all over for me.”
“We were such idiots.”
“That’s in the past now,” he said, kissing me.
“On the island, I knew you didn’t love me, but I thought, ‘If I could have this one night to remember for the rest of my life when I am alone and single back on Earth, I will be happy.’”
His grip on my back tightened. “That night was unbelievable,” he said. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“What happened right now was amazing, too.” I burrowed my face into his neck. “Is it always going to be this good between us?”
“I hope so, Sophie. We have our whole lives to figure it out.”
I closed my eyes. “When I couldn’t find you the morning after we got back from the island, I thought I would los
e my mind. I’m the biggest dope on the planet.”
He kissed my forehead. “But you came for me.”
“Your mother helped. She arranged everything.”
“I know you don’t get along very well.”
“At the end, we weren’t exactly friends, but we were allies, at least.”
“I’m glad,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like what happened at the spaceport.”
“I had no choice,” I said, shaking my head. “They weren’t going to let us stay. They were going to turn you over to those bastards on Biyaha again. I swore to your mother that I would take care of you.” I stopped, taking a shivering breath. “Of all the vows I’ve made and broke in the last month, I swore I would keep that one, no matter what.”
“I still can’t believe you ripped off the covering.” Awe and admiration were on his face. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” He lifted his head, supporting it with his hand. “You should have seen the looks on those reporters’ faces. That’s when I knew you cared about me. Because once I thought everything through, I realized you knew the reporters were transmitting back to Earth. A juicy story like ours would be all over the news.”
I nodded.
“You risked everything for me and thrown away any chance of returning to the life you left behind.”
“I love you,” I said, gazing intently into his eyes. “I’d do it all over again if I had to…but I hope I never have to do anything like that ever again.”
“You won’t if I have anything to say about it,” he said.
I suddenly felt sleepy.
“Rest, love,” he whispered into my ear. “You’ve earned it.”
Khellen and I had been looking at houses on Shveitz. We needed a permanent place to stay before the baby was born. We sat in a café, discussing the different locations we had seen over a bite to eat.
“I think the house on the acreage makes the most sense,” he said. “There’ll be room for the baby to play.”