The Bride's Unexpected Change in Plans

by Rachel Clark

  “I’m sorry to be a bother. I can…um…” But again the hopelessness of her situation struck her. She very literally had no place to go.

  “Oh, hell, sweetheart,” Dayved said as he rushed to sit beside her and put an arm around her shoulders, “you’re not a bother. Ewin and I both want you to stay with us, unless you…” He hesitated, glanced at the others, and then started to say something else that he didn’t finish. Finally he swallowed heavily and managed to get the words out. “Unless staying with us makes you uncomfortable. I mean we’ve already discussed moving one of the beds into a different room so that you can have some privacy. That’s what humans prefer, isn’t it? I mean, I’m not an expert on humans or anything, but I think… Well I was led to believe… Isn’t that the way you prefer it?”

  Ewin smiled at the man indulgently and then moved to squat in front of the sofa where they both sat. He took one of Kimberley’s hands in his and placed the other on his husband’s knee. His hand skimmed over and over the same spot as if he was trying to soothe his husband’s agitation.

  “Honey, I think you might have gotten the wrong impression when you first came in. Dayved is trying to get the kings to help you. He wants you here as much as I do. You’re very welcome to stay in our home for as long as you like.”

  “But I thought I had to go home.” She almost shuddered at the word “home.” Earth wasn’t her home any longer. She’d been ridiculed and rejected by her friends for even contemplating moving to Descon. She was unlikely to be able to find employment anywhere when she got back. With everyone knowing almost everything about everyone else thanks to the removal of privacy laws on Earth, her travel to Descon would be one very big black flag against her name. She didn’t even want to consider the type of things that could happen once she was identified as a “fallen woman.”

  The irony wasn’t lost on her. Returning home a virgin wouldn’t save her from any of it.

  “We’re trying to find a way around the current laws so that you can stay. At the very least we should be able to extend your stay on the planet for several weeks.”

  “But I still have to go to the bank and try and borrow some money. I can’t stay here without working or something. I need to pay my own way.”

  Cindy gave her a sincere smile. “Juna and Hollank picked the right woman. Too bad they lost sight of that in their own selfish desires.” She glanced at Ewin and Dayved before continuing. When they nodded in agreement to her silent question, she said, “I read over your file last night and noticed that you have various secretarial skills. Our tredella’s secretary has been grumbling for some time now that she needs an assistant. Would you be interested in working part-time with her while you’re here?”

  “Absolutely,” Kimberley said without hesitation. Cindy and Loukie both smiled at her quick agreement. “What does your husband do?”

  “He’s the prince,” Loukie said quickly, “but he’s a really nice guy, and he works really hard. I promise you’ll like him.”

  Kimberley had to swallow twice before she could form any words. “A prince? So that would make you both princesses?”

  “Breathe, honey,” Ewin said with a smile on his face. “Cindy, Loukie, and Eric are friends. They rarely put up with pomp and ceremony. For the most part they’re just regular people like you and me.”

  Uh-huh. Regular people.

  Loukie laughed softly. “It’s going to be okay, Kimberley. Dayved or Ewin will escort you to and from work for each shift so you’re protected at all times. In the meantime, Cindy and I will work on ways of getting your stay on the planet extended indefinitely. With a bit of luck we might be able to find a Desconian couple who’ll know a treasure when they see one.” She glanced at Ewin and Dayved. “If any of you need anything, anything at all, you just contact me or Cindy. Agreed?”

  “Of course,” Dayved said. He pressed a brotherly sort of kiss to Kimberley’s temple and got up from the sofa. He escorted the other women to the door, but as they were about to step through, Kimberley had a thought.

  “Actually,” she said, twisting the ring off her finger. “Would it be possible to track Juna and Hollank down and give them this for me?” She glanced at the group of sparkly little diamonds held together in an intricate web of metal. “With a baby coming along they might need the money.”

  “Maybe you should keep it,” Dayved said, sounding annoyed. “It’s not exactly adequate compensation, but at least it’s a start.

  “No,” Kimberley said, looking at the bare patch on her ring finger. She hadn’t taken that ring off since they’d sent it to her six months ago. “I’d rather give it back. It doesn’t feel right to keep it.”

  “Okay,” Cindy said, perhaps understanding her very human response. Keeping a symbol of a love gone wrong seemed kind of pathetic. “I’ll make sure it gets back to them.”

  “Thank you.” Kimberley handed her the ring and stepped back. “Thank you for everything. I really am sorry to be a bother.”

  “If you say that one more time, I’m going to tip you over my knee and spank you,” Dayved said playfully.

  “Can he do that?” Kimberley asked, just a little nervously.

  “Only if you want him to,” Cindy said with a wide smile and a happy wink.

  * * * *

  “Well, now that we have that out of the way,” Dayved said cheerfully, “what would you like for breakfast? We have fresh fruit and various juices and several things that I think are similar to breakfast cereal that you eat on Earth. We also have coffee. Humans like coffee, right? I mean of course you do. The coffee machines come from Earth, but well I’m not sure I know how to use it properly. Cindy usually helps herself, but I’m sure I can figure it out, I think. But if not we can always have Ewin’s favorite. It’s kind of like coffee.”

  Ewin watched his tredellabina try to overcompensate for the earlier misunderstanding by talking nonstop. Before Dayved could begin to nervously list every edible item in the house, Ewin reached over and pulled the man he loved into his arms. Dayved stilled immediately, perhaps realizing where his little speech had been headed.

  “Did you sleep well?” Ewin asked Kimberley. She didn’t look tired, but he wasn’t exactly an expert on human physiology. The only two humans he actually knew were Cindy and his boss’s mubella, Serena. Thanks to their shared voyeuristic tendencies he knew that from a physical and sexual point of view human women were very similar to Desconian women, but he’d never looked closely enough to notice symptoms of illness or tiredness in the two women.

  “I did,” she said, looking a little surprised. “Maybe all those sleepless nights finally caught up with me.”

  “Well in that case, let’s have something to eat and then we’ll get the bed moved into a separate room.” She looked like she was going to apologize for being a bother again, so he leaned over and pressed a hand against her mouth. “Don’t say it, or I’ll have to threaten to spank your bottom, too.”

  She looked surprised at first, but then she laughed, sounding more relaxed.

  “Why do I get the feeling that’s an empty threat?”

  “Probably because it is,” he said with a grin. “Dayved, on the other hand, could probably do with a good spanking.”

  “That I could,” he said with a wink at Kimberley. “It’s been a long while since you beat on my ass.”

  “Later,” Ewin promised in a deep voice as he tried to surreptitiously adjust his cock inside the loose material of his pants. He and Dayved were both wearing clothes in deference to their houseguest, but after last night’s renewed vigorous lovemaking, Ewin found the material even more restrictive.

  But judging by the look on Kimberley’s face she’d never even considered the idea of spanking being a part of sexual play.

  “I’m sorry,” Dayved said as he stepped out of Ewin’s arms and moved toward Kimberley. “We shouldn’t talk like that around you. I guess it’s not what you’re used to.”

  Kimberley looked ready to apologize again.

 
“Enough,” Ewin mock growled. “The next person to apologize is getting spanked, no matter who they are. I’m not going to spend the foreseeable future with you two apologizing to each other over everything. Kimberley, Dayved is very glad to have you here. He wants what is best for you and will fight for you to be treated properly by the bureaucracy. Dayved, Kimberley spent a lot of time learning about our culture and lifestyle. She wouldn’t have been allowed onto the planet without clearing all of the checkpoints on the mail-order-bride list. She may not be experienced in our ways, but she shouldn’t be shocked by them either.” He reached over to grab Kimberley’s hand. “So no more apologizing from either of you. Okay?”

  “Sure,” Kimberley said a little nervously. It was very clear that she wanted to apologize again, but she bit her lips together and kept her mouth closed.

  Dayved wasn’t so restrained. “Okay, no more apologizing. We’ll accept each other’s differences and simply ignore silly little meaningless gaffs. No problems. No worries. It’ll all work out and nobody needs to get spanked.”

  “Thank you,” Ewin said as he smiled at Kimberley and let his tredellabina move out of his arms.

  Dayved was almost out the door when he turned back. “Oh, just one more thing,” he said with a wide smile on his lips. He winked at Kimberley before he said it, and Ewin was moving toward him before the sound left his husband’s mouth. “Sorry.”

  Dayved laughed happily, dodging Ewin’s first attempt to grab him.

  “You want to spank me? You’re going to have to catch me first.” He ran into the eating area, laughing when they ended up at opposite ends of the large table. Ewin grinned, feeling the tension of the past few hours drain away.

  He pretended to go one direction, switching quickly when Dayved ran the way he’d hoped. He scooped his lover over his shoulder, smacking him playfully as he dangled helplessly and laughed contagiously. “Help me, beautiful,” he said to Kimberley.

  “Nope,” she said with a wide grin of her own, “I’m pretty sure you had this coming.”

  “Coming sounds like a good idea,” Dayved said a moment before he nipped Ewin’s hip with his teeth.

  “Imp,” Ewin said, landing another loud smack on his lover’s ass. “Breakfast first.”

  “Fine. Fine. I’ll make breakfast first, but you owe me one.”

  “That I do,” Ewin said as he reached for Kimberley’s hand and guided her to take a seat at the table. “I’ll be sure to pay up later.”

  Chapter Four

  Kimberley glanced up as her boss came into her small work area.

  “That should be enough for today,” she said with a smile on her face. “I sent you a couple of press releases to proofread, but they can wait until tomorrow. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have another person able to proofread things written in the standard Earth language. I used to ask Cindy, but between her royal duties and hers, Loukie’s, and Eric’s two children she has her hands quite full.”

  “I don’t mind at all,” Kimberley said. She could feel the smile on her face widen as she again realized that she was actually useful. For at least the first three Desconian weeks, she’d wondered if the job was just a fabricated illusion Cindy had created to make Kimberley feel like she was contributing. She needed the money but had worried that she wasn’t really earning it. Thankfully, after quite a bit of on-the-job training her fears had been allayed, and in the past couple of weeks several important projects had been handed her way.

  “Ewin should be here soon. Why don’t you go take a moment to freshen up?”

  Kimberley smiled at the older woman. For the past few weeks Ewin and Dayved had been introducing her to couples that they knew were looking for a mubella or mubellabina. So far she hadn’t really “clicked” with any of them, so her boss was using it as an excuse to push her toward Dayved and Ewin. That would have been fine with Kimberley—they were amazing men, both of them—but they didn’t want a mubella or children, so it wasn’t an option.

  “Ready to go?” Ewin asked as he stepped into the small space. He was so handsome that Kimberley had been comparing every other man to him unfavorably since she’d met him. He’d become the yardstick for what she considered good looking. Of course Dayved had somehow landed in a category all his own, so it meant that every couple he and Ewin introduced her to simply didn’t measure up.

  The men they introduced her to weren’t as handsome or as dominating or as confident or as smart or anywhere near the two men she could have easily fallen in love with given half a chance. It didn’t help her silly heart, or libido, that all of their friends—Loukie and Cindy included—seemed to be encouraging her to throw herself at Dayved and Ewin.

  “Sure,” she said, glancing at her boss and then turning back to the man she was quickly falling for. “I’ll just go freshen up.” Her boss smiled approvingly, patted Ewin on the arm on her way past, and left them alone in the small space. To get to the ladies’ room, Kimberley had to somehow slide past Ewin’s huge body and resist the temptation to slide against him instead.

  “Are you okay?” Ewin asked, reaching out to touch her chin. “You look tired.”

  She’d learned over her time with them not to fudge her answers. If Ewin asked a question, he wanted the truth, whatever that may be.

  “I’m a little bit tired. I’m getting used to the thirty-six hour days, but some days seem longer than others.”

  “Sounds like a good reason to take you home and tuck you into bed.”

  She didn’t dare comment on that. Lots of cheesy come-on lines were bouncing through her head. What in heaven’s name had possessed her to try watching the serialized soap operas that had been popular on Earth several hundred years ago? They weren’t even available on Earth anymore, but they’d been carefully preserved and watched enthusiastically by some Desconians. At first she’d been put off by the unusual two-dimensional screen, but once the storylines had grabbed her, she’d been hooked. Ewin often laughed at hers and Dayved’s enthusiastic discussions on who might hook up with whom in the next episode.

  It seemed incredible that such things had once existed on her home planet. The overcrowded, overpopulated, and overpolluted planet she’d left behind looked like nothing she saw on the fictional shows. If she hadn’t been assured by many different people that the shows were recorded on Earth she would never have believed it.

  “Kimberley?”

  “Oh, sorry, just daydreaming.”

  “Please tell me,” he said with a mock groan, “it’s not about those ‘television’ episodes you’ve been watching.”

  She giggled slightly, almost surprised by the strange sound that came out of her mouth. “Okay then, I won’t tell you.” She slid past him quickly, heading toward the ladies’ room as fast as her feet would carry her. If only he knew what part of the shows she’d been thinking about, he might not have been quite so amused.

  She fanned herself with her hands, trying to drain the high color from her cheeks. When that didn’t work she ran her fingers under the cold water, patting her cheeks with the cool fluid. She finished the rest of her routine quickly, feeling calmer as she stepped back into the main area.

  But one look at the man in the center of most of her fantasies was enough to undo everything.

  * * * *

  Ewin watched the pretty human walk toward him and found himself wishing for things he and Dayved had long ago decided they didn’t need. They enjoyed their life together. They liked it exactly the way it was.

  Except that now, it wasn’t that way anymore. Now they had Kimberley in their lives, but her presence really hadn’t caused a problem. She’d fit into their routines smoothly and after only a few awkward conversations in the beginning had accepted everything in stride.

  “Ready to go?” he asked, offering his elbow. She threaded her hand through the bend in his arm, her warm, soft touch sending his heart tripping just a little faster than it usually did.

  “Did Dayved say what time he’d be home tonight?”
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br />   “I think tonight is another late one, but we’ll probably only beat him home by an hour or so.”

  “Just enough time to get dinner ready. What do you feel like?”

  He had a ready comeback for a double-edged question like that, but it wasn’t really appropriate to say to a woman who was his to protect but not his to love.

  “I think perhaps I should cook tonight.”

  She did a lousy job of hiding her wince. Okay, he wasn’t exactly good at cooking, but she needed to rest. He could see her trying to come up with a valid argument that wouldn’t insult him, so he decided to compromise. “How about I’ll order dinner for delivery while you take a nap?”

  She looked ready to argue that point, too, but a wide, jaw-cracking yawn took her by surprise. She laughed softly, obviously realizing she wasn’t going to win this argument. “Okay, I’ll sleep, you order dinner, and you and Dayved can wake me when it’s ready. Deal?”

  “Deal,” he said, holding his hand out to shake like humans seemed to prefer. She took his hand, her small palm and delicate fingers nearly getting lost in his big paw. But this time the touch was different, something happened, some sort of awareness zipped through them both. He found himself staring at her lips, wondering what she would taste like. She ripped her hand from his, her fingers shaking as she pushed her hair behind her ear nervously. He could see that she’d sensed something between them as well.

  “W–We should go,” she said as she turned toward the parking lot. She walked quickly, and he stayed close, not only hyperaware of his duty to protect her but now of the woman herself also. He’d always been alert for danger, always been willing to do whatever it might take to keep her safe, but now, somehow, it seemed even more important.