With every ounce of my strength, I whipped that device.
It smashed his bedroom window. The giant beautiful bowed wall of sparkly glass shattered everywhere and it was so loud it sounded like an explosion.
I cleared the rage from my face that he got a glimpse of and without looking at him, I shakily lifted my cup back to my lips.
He let out a breath and got to his knees at my feet. He put his forehead on my knee.
“Jetta.” His voice sounded pained.
I didn’t fucking care.
He wanted my body, liked my personality for some reason, and decided to strip me of my rights by letting me think things that were not at all the truth?
Well, fuck him.
He couldn’t have my body or my personality. If I was stuck here, he was going to be stuck, too. He’d be stuck with something even worse than the empty shell he thought he had gotten away from with Treya.
He would get nothing from me until I could figure out a way to get back home and then he’d get my middle finger on my way out.
He looked deeply into my eyes. I steeled myself against the emotion in his. I steeled myself against the vivid indelible memory of the beautiful way he looked as he fucked me. As he fucking married me.
His phone made noise. He ignored it. Seconds ticked by. It made more noise. I hadn’t blinked yet. It made even more noise. I looked at it, breaking our stare down.
He lifted it and looked at the screen.
“I’ll give you some time. My father is on his way here. Come.” He took my hand and pulled me to the food machine. He showed me how to use it. It was like an iPhone screen, sort of, with categories and photos and each touch brought him into another screen for options.
Each screen had a red button that meant yes and a green button that would take you back to the previous screen. The colors were set up the exact opposite way that they would be back home. Every time I used that thing it would go against my natural instincts. Poetic injustice.
“We can program favorites as well. If you want that pizza, here, see what’s already prepared and in reserve? If you want something new prepared, you can select among available ingredients and there are suggested meals based on those. These numbers will tell you how long it will take. Those have already been optioned to look like numeric symbols from your language. I’ll have everything at home set to your preferences and I’ll learn how to read them. Or I’ll teach you to read our language. Whatever you prefer. My system at home can also use profiles based on your fingerprint or mine. You can use this button to return to the previous menu. Does it all make sense?”
I didn’t answer.
He showed me how to access the bathroom settings from that same panel.
I could see what was in inventory for clothing. The panel in the bedroom could access everything as well, if I wanted something left in in another area of the house at specific times.
He showed me to the tablet that had been on the table by the bed and there was an icon with my face on it.
“There’s an entertainment and communication panel on the wall inside the bed area here but this is my own device. If you press that, it has access to a library of entertainment from your planet that I loaded for you. I’ve just set it up.”
I wanted to ask if I could access the internet at home, send an email to my roommate about Tucky. But I didn’t want to talk to him. They had communication with Earth so there had to be some way.
“Do you have questions?”
I did. But I wouldn’t ask them.
“Jetta?” He pulled me against him. I stayed stiff.
“I’ll give you time,” he said quietly and then went to leave the room, “I’ll only be downstairs a few moments. In a moment, a machine will come in to remove the broken glass. It won’t harm you. Please don’t think about leaving through that window. And stay back so you don’t hurt the bottoms of your feet on the broken glass.”
I stared at him without responding.
“There’s another event happening today. Another ship arrived at dawn.”
A warning. Other sex starved men running around. Fantastic.
He came closer to me and put his lips to mine. I put my hands up and shoved. He didn’t budge. He caught me by the waist and pulled me close. I looked the other way and felt my lower lip quiver. I needed him to go. I was having trouble holding it together.
He tilted my chin back up to face him so because I couldn’t move away, I closed my eyes. He kissed my mouth and touched that translator ear jewelry. I opened my eyes. He was looking at it with reverence or something.
“I’m not sorry that you’re mine. I’ll never be sorry for that. But I’m truly sorry I’ve hurt you. I plan to make you so happy that you’ll forgive me. I’ll make you so happy that you’ll have no choice but to forgive me, Jetta.”
He said all this, looking at the ear piercing. My eyes were on his face. His eyes met mine for a beat and I held my face frozen. He swallowed and shook his head in a little bit of dismay. He then turned and left, grabbing his phone on the way.
I woodenly moved toward the bed, climbed into it, and then my face of stone crumpled. I put my face in the pillow and cried my eyes out.
-9-
DAXX
When Daxx got to the bottom of the stairs, he glanced at his phone and hit a command for the camera inside the room. He couldn’t see her. Panic spiked. She wouldn’t have left via the broken window, would she? If she fell to the ground, there would be a pile of broken glass to land on. No, he’d have gotten a perimeter breach alert.
He scrolled around the perimeter of the room and caught the angle that showed inside the bed. He zoomed in and saw that she was curled into a ball, her face buried in the pillows, her shoulders shaking, and small whimpers filling the space.
Daxx’s gut clenched. He’d expected her to be angry and shout. He expected her odd curse words to fly at him. He was expecting things might even get broken. But the reaction he’d gotten? The frozen face, the coldness, the unmistakable hurt rather than anger from her eyes? And now this? The weigh of it was crushing him.
He thrust his hand through his hair and switched the device off and made his way to un-bar and open the front door.
His father was arriving at that moment, a spring in his step, an odd smile on his face, a project tablet in his hand.
“Good morning, son.” He clapped Daxx’s shoulder and strode inside, “That was under a sizeable amount of glass around the side.”
“Good morning,” Daxx muttered and followed his father to the drawing room where Spar ordered a beverage from the nourishment station.
“I’m in the mood I expected you to be in, son. How strange that you’re so sombre and I’m the opposite. Was your little Earth morsel not what you anticipated?”
Daxx snarled, “Don’t refer to her that way. She’s more than I could have hoped for.”
“Then why the mood? Why the broken window?”
“She’s angry with me. I’m not in the mood for a chat. I’m in the mood to get back up there and change her mood. Hurry, please. What do you want and why are you in such a happy mood?” Daxx had expected his father to give him a list of why he was so disappointed with him.
“I’ve taken Treya as mine.”
Daxx was startled. Shocked even.
“Repeat that.”
Spar looked gleeful. Daxx had never seen such a look on his father’s face.
Spar began to speak, “I left, a little frustrated, thinking that you were throwing away all the opportunities I was laying at your feet. You’ve worked so hard in life that I know you deserved my position, that you’d excel in it, probably beyond my level, even. I know I’ve pushed my agenda on you. I’ve been blinded by my desires and I know I’ve also been fueled by my grief at losing our girls. But, I saw something from you that I recognized. The feelings you have for Jetta seemed similar to feelings I had at your age for a girl I was unable to marry. And I didn’t follow my own dreams, I followed my father’s and I saw
the error of my ways with you in that moment yesterday. You are already immensely successful; you don’t need my help with that. You’re your own man. I knew you didn’t wish to be ambassador and I’ve been pushing that on you. I regret that now. I still have many years ahead of me and I’m as virile as I ever was. I’m happy to keep doing it. I did not think I could ever pair up again after losing your mother but I was wrong. She doesn’t compare. Treya?” he shook his head solemnly, “No one will replace your mother for me. But, she can give me many other children. I can find happiness in them and in seeing you happy by having what you want instead of what I want to thrust upon you as my only heir. She wants to be in this family. Now she is. So,” he shrugged, “I’ll have more heirs. I’ll be ambassador a while longer. And maybe one of my forthcoming children, pure Phallyxian children, will want to be the next ambassador.” He smiled at Daxx. Genuinely smiled. “Treya was distraught at not becoming part of this family. I’ve spent time with her in between your visits. She’s attractive.” He smiled again. “And last night, I married her and I got her pregnant.”
“Father, I’m shocked.”
“So, my boy, enjoy that morsel. Give me some grandbabies soon, too. Our children can grow up together.”
“You’ve made my former fiancée into my stepmother and the mother of my future siblings.”
“Yes! And quite possibly saved your life while I was at it. She looked ready to murder you last night. Now, I think she won’t.” Spar burst into riotous laughter and threw his arms around Daxx and hugged him.
Daxx hadn’t had a hug from his father since he was a boy. Not even when they buried his mother, his two sisters, and Daxx’s niece, did he receive a hug from his father. He patted Spar’s back and then his father broke away, excitedly. “Oh, and Daxx, Zane took his bride last night also, as you know; I’ve had an update. A redhaired tiny Earthling. No pregnancy yet as he wants to give her time and Ollie time but yes, he’s happy. He was the first to enter the gate with the others and he ran, caught her and stole her away. I got the alert that he married her. He called this morning, hoping he’d have my blessing.”
“And does he?” Zane was Daxx’s brother-in-law, widower to Daxx’s sister, who’d left behind a son.
“Yes. Of course he does. But I couldn’t tell him that because I missed his call. Do you know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I was fucking my new wife. For the third time!” Spar laughed heartily.
Daxx was bewildered. His father looked decades younger. Happy. Evidently, the presence of a woman in his life again had made a difference. A marked difference.
“Go make amends with your bride, my son. Do I take it correctly that you’d rather not pursue the ambassador’s position?”
“That’s correct, father. My business is growing and I’d like to keep growing it.”
“Understood. I’m proud of you. Your business has grown substantially very quickly. I see good things. Let’s have a meal together before you head back then, shall we? I’ll attempt to get Zane here with his new bride. And little Ollie as well, of course.”
“You want to sit down with me and Jetta, you and Treya, and Zane and his Earth bride? And share a meal together?”
“Soon. Tomorrow or the next day. Maybe the next day. Can you stay that long?”
“I think Jetta knows this redhead. You said she was taken first and Jetta spoke about her. What’s her name?”
His father checked his project tablet, “Tanya.”
“Right. That’s a friend of Jetta’s from the trip over. I saw them huddled in conversation quite a bit. I think it’d help her to see a friend so yes. Treya. Is she satisfied?”
“Satisfied? Well, yes, my boy. I might be older than you but---“
“Please don’t.” Daxx wanted no information about his father’s sexual prowess, “Not what I meant. She’s not angry or hurt?”
Spar waved his hand and laughed, “She’s quite happy. Not to worry. I don’t think she’ll plot your death now. Although yesterday, before I made my move, she might have.”
Daxx nodded. Definitely. Treya was probably ready to murder someone yesterday.
“Then, you have my gratitude.”
“A sacrifice son, a real sacrifice for you.” And then Spar chuckled again and slapped his knee comedically.
Daxx gave his father a grin but then his heart sank again at the idea of Jetta upstairs in tears over him. He’d rather have her ready to plot his murder than in pain like this.
“I need to get back up. I’ve also got to organize the window being replaced. She’s got a bit of a temper.”
Spar laughed heartily, “I’m not surprised. That’s one of the things that drew you to her.”
Daxx gave his father a tight smile.
“And have the door put back on. That’s down to your anxiousness to get her inside, I’m guessing,” Spar added.
“You’d guess correctly.”
“Okay, my boy. Congratulations on your marriage.”
“Congratulations on yours as well, father.”
“I’ll never forget your mother,” Spar said soberly.
“No. I know you won’t. We won’t forget any of those that were lost.”
“But I’m feeling good. I feel better than I have since before I lost her. Good luck winning your bride’s favor. I think you’ll have your hands full. I watched some old footage of her on the route over and she’s … I now see the appeal, son.”
“She has a lot of appeal. I missed some of that footage and didn’t understand her the first week as I had my translator put in later. But even then, she had me. Can you get me access to the early footage? I think I’ll need as much information as possible to win her over.”
“Certainly, I’ll give you access and forward the details.”
“Thank you. The sooner the better.”
Spar clapped him on the shoulder and headed for the door saying, “As soon as I get back to the office. I’ll go there now. There may be fall-out by you and I participating so I need to go deal with that.”
“Do you need assistance?” Not only had Daxx jumped in and taken an alien but Treya wasn’t put in to replace Jetta so this might ruffle some feathers.
“No, Daxx. It’s fine. You did the right thing. And whatever the fall-out, it’s worth it. It was my decision to claim her as mine. I’ll deal with the consequences.”
Daxx thanked him and locked the door behind him and then went about the task of arranging to have the front door fixed and the upstairs window replaced.
-10-
JETTA
The door opened and I peeked out from the bed and saw a little metallic blue rolling canister come in. it was a bit like a tall Roomba crossed with R2D2. It rolled right by me and a tube protruded and then it started soundlessly vacuuming up glass. I could hear the glass enter the tubes but not the normal loud vacuum sound.
I watched it from the bed.
It cleaned all the glass and then the tube disappeared and a new tube with a mop head on the end ejected and started mopping the floor and then dried it in that area with a slightly noisier hose. It then scanned the floor with its hose slowly, probably searching for any missed glass.
If their machines and showers and coffee were this good, what was their pizza like? I knew what the men were like. First hand.
The space-Roomba-like thing left.
I got up and rifled into my gym bag and went into the bathroom and got dressed in yoga pants and a snug black hoodie, leaving my feet bare. Back in the bed, I scavenged and found the toe ring in Daxx’s bed, beside the dress, panties, bra, and his underwear. I slipped it back on my toe and I made the bed. I had and armful of the clothing when he came back in. He reached for it so I handed it to him and watched him go to the closet, open a door, stuff everything in, and hit a few buttons on the panel on the wall.
“They’ll be cleaned and stored until we want them again,” he said.
I didn’t respond.
“You don’t need to mak
e the bed; the machines will do it when you leave the room.”
I stared at him blankly.
“My father married last night. He married Treya, strangely.”
I felt my eyebrows jolt up in surprise. Daxx saw the reaction before I was able to hide it.
Daxx sat on the bed beside me. I scooted back, not wanting him so close to me.
“He let me off the hook for everything. I’ve been trying to come to terms with disappointing him deeply by not accepting his ambassador post here, not moving here permanently and working for the government, giving up my business. Not marrying her. I’ve toiled, fuck have I toiled, between what was expected of me and doing what I wanted. What I really wanted was to live where I am. I have vineyards, a small specialized agricultural operation. I have varied interests in agriculture and technology. I enjoy what I do. I like where I live. It’s special there. And I was not looking forward to thinking about giving it to someone else to run. And just by my finally exerting my independence in choosing my own bride, everything changed. He decided to bed Treya himself so he could have more heirs. He’s already made her pregnant. He’s happier than I’ve seen him. Not even before losing my mother, my sisters, and my little niece have I seen him so joyous. And he’s just let me off the hook. Just like that.” He snapped his fingers, “I wish I’d had the guts to do this years ago. Wait. No, I don’t. It took meeting you for me to want something badly enough to take action. The timing was perfect because I get to have you.” He looked at me with astonishment.
I had an urge to respond. To ask him about losing his mother and sisters and niece. I wondered if he had a love that had died. I wondered what it was that my planet did that took all those women away. I wanted to ask about his house.
I already wanted to forgive him. But he’d lied to me. He’d taken liberties with me. He’d tied me to him knowing there wasn’t anything I could do about it. And he was unapologetic about it.
What would it say about me if I just gave in and stepped into the role of wife to a man I didn’t know, a man who tricked me? That would be me saying it was okay for him to unilaterally make decisions for me. For us. Us? The idea of me being part of an us…
Hot Alpha Alien Husbands: Book One: Daxx and Jetta Page 12