by Lisa Lace
"You were dreaming about us?" Our eyes connected and held. This time, I couldn't stand to have him so far away from me. I needed a passionate kiss, not the chaste kind he'd been giving me all evening.
I stood up unsteadily and walked over to him.
"Have you heard about the underwear a Koccoran woman wears on her wedding day, Airik?" I said, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my breasts up against his chest. I wasn't usually this forward. The pink drink must be making me bold.
"There are rumors. Men aren't allowed to see it. We're not supposed to know about it until our wedding night."
"It's designed to give you access," I said, looking him deep in the eyes.
"To what?" he said, licking his lips.
"To the important parts of my body."
He swallowed, and I watched his Adam's apple bob up and down. I kissed it. He pulled in a deep breath.
"Do you want to help me out of this gown?" I said. "It's tight and constricting."
"It would be my pleasure," he said, leading me over to the bedroom.
Airik took his sweet time stripping me out of my dress. I didn't mind being free. I wasn't thinking thoroughly about my actions while I was drunk. The fact that I wanted him badly helped. But who was I kidding? I had gone home with a stranger from the bar on a night long ago. My husband was next to me. There was nothing wrong with a husband and wife enjoying conjugal relations.
He unbuttoned me slowly, planting kisses all the way down. He periodically stopped for us to make out like teenagers, our tongues twisting around each other. Every time he kissed me, I got more hot and bothered for him. Once he had me out of the dress, the sexy, naughty underwear made me squirm with need.
He made full use of the underwear to access the vital parts of my anatomy. Finally, we were both naked.
"Quinn, I can't wait anymore."
"Me neither, Airik," I said, panting. "Do you have protection?"
"Protection against what?"
"A condom or something, to make sure I don't get pregnant."
"Why wouldn't you want to get pregnant?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"Right, you didn't get the brochure on Koccoran. The short version of the story is that we have an extremely low birth rate due to environmental conditions. There's no such thing as birth control here. It's against the law to prevent conception."
"We get to do it with nothing between us?" I said.
"What other way is there?"
"Well, we have these things called condoms on Earth. They're like a latex glove that wraps around your..."
He made a disgusted face.
"Yeah, it's not as much fun. I mean, I've never done it without a condom. But I imagine it feels better with nothing between us." I felt myself tingling at the thought of his flesh against mine.
"Airik, I need you inside me, right now," I said, pressing my hips up towards his hardness.
"Quinn," he breathed, and I felt him at my entrance.
"Yes, yes, please, Airik."
I felt like a wanton, but it had been a long time for me. I needed this. He pushed inside. I gasped at the size of him. I hadn't got a good look, but he was quite the handful.
"You're tight, Quinn," he said.
"It's been a while," I told him, panting as he pressed in further. "And I've only done it a handful of times."
"I'm not complaining," he said as he thrust in more.
I felt myself opening for him. My inner muscles stretched to accommodate him. "Jesus, that feels good," I said.
He bent and sucked one of my nipples into his mouth, scoring it with his teeth. It made my hips jerk, plunging him deeper inside me.
I was breathing quickly. I cried out as he drove in hard, embedding himself completely inside me.
"Oh, fuck, Airik."
He kissed me passionately. I squirmed beneath him. Our bodies were slick with sweat. Then he began thrusting rhythmically in and out, touching a bundle of nerves I hadn't noticed in the past.
I didn't know what he was doing, but I knew I was enjoying it more than I ever had before. Soon I felt my pleasure rise. Heat started pouring from my core into every corner of my body. I didn't know that when women said they were hot for a man, they meant physical temperature.
Every time our pelvises hit together, he rubbed against my clit and another spot inside me. He had his head bent, sucking my breasts. My desire ratcheted up several notches, and I moaned, unable to stop myself. I had never felt like this before. Airik began whispering to me in an alien language. I didn't understand what he was saying, but it sounded sexy. I thought I would come right then.
"Faster, please, Airik," I said.
He increased his speed, driving into me and making me crazy.
"Oh, yes. Yes, that feels so good," I said.
I felt the intensity rising higher and higher until I peaked. I exploded with the longest, hottest orgasm of my life. I screamed and writhed as I convulsed around him.
"I'm going to come," he said. Then he stiffened and groaned. I felt his seed filling me. It made the spasms increase again as if my body wanted to pull every drop out of him.
Finally, we lay still, with him on top of me and still inside.
When he rolled off of me, I let out a little sound of dismay when I felt us separate. He pulled me close to him. My back was against his chest, and I smiled.
"That was unbelievable," he said in my ear.
"I have never, ever experienced anything like that in my life before," I told him truthfully.
"Me neither, Quinn," he said. I felt him smiling into my shoulder. "It's an auspicious beginning, I think."
"Very auspicious," I said, rolling a little so I could kiss him.
Our lips felt like they had been made to kiss each other and soon we were lost again. This was going to be a long night.
I was confident we would pass the test.
CHAPTER 7
QUINN
We received our marriage certificates after we got tested. We each gave a swab of our saliva for DNA testing that proved our identities. A machine spit out a rectangular sticker.
The man processing our marriage certificates smoothed the label on my left arm. Right arms were for birth certificates. After a minute, when I moved my arm back and forth, I could see our marriage information. The date of the wedding, our names, and a photo of Airik and me.
Once he did the same steps on Airik, we were legally married. We got dressed to go outside again. Airik took my hand as we walked out of the building and back into the bitter cold. Even though I had three layers on and wore more clothing than him, I still felt chilled.
"We're only getting two days of honeymoon," he said. "I'm not taking off of work."
Because this wasn't a real marriage, I thought.
"Where do you work?"
"I'm a senior admin for the government. I don't want to talk about work right now. I'm already a bit of a workaholic, and this is supposed to be our honeymoon."
"Of course. That's fine. We have all year to get to know each other," I said. I didn't care. I was on a high today.
"I was wondering something," he said. He opened the door for me to a small snow car waiting outside the building.
"Is this one self-driving?"
"Yes. I own this one. They don't all have drivers. The ones in town are self-driving. Any cars that go out of town need drivers because the terrain or the snow can require human intervention. That brings me back to what I was wondering," he said. The look in his eyes gave me shivers. "Is it possible you're wearing your special underwear like I asked you to?"
I smiled at him, feeling as sexy as I ever had in my life.
"Maybe I am."
"I was hoping you'd say that."
"You mean I didn't wear this skirt for nothing?" I said, indicating my attire. "I wanted to make sure you had access if you needed it."
He didn't say anything as his hand slipped under my skirt. He sucked in his breath when he discovered how much access he
had to me. He set the car to the slowest speed possible on the way home.
I saw him again. It was when we stepped into the hotel and pulled off our mitts and hats. The man from yesterday disappeared down one of the halls.
"Did you see him again, Airik?" I asked, feeling a spike of fear pierce my heart. He might be randomly staying at the hotel, but my intuition told me otherwise. I had learned a long time ago that it was always right. "Will you have him checked out? You don't think I'm crazy, right?"
I wished again that my Dad was here. He had always been my protector. But he wasn't here, and I would have to get used to it, despite my heartache for him and anything familiar from home.
"Sure, Quinn. But why are you worried? I think you had better tell me."
Tell him? I couldn't tell him the whole story, but I would have to give him something.
"It sounds silly, but when I left home, I was being persecuted. There was a cult that was trying to...well, they were attempting to kill me. I'm afraid they might have followed me here."
"Pursuing you seems unlikely when you consider the expense," Airik said.
"I'm probably just being paranoid." I tried to dismiss my concern just like he did.
"I'll check him out if you want, Quinn. I'll send you the information."
"Thanks, Airik. I appreciate it," I said, smiling up at my new husband. Maybe I had imagined things after all.
I had the vision after we made love again in the hotel room. It took me when we were snuggling in bed. As usual, I was sucked into a movie that was playing in my mind. But it wasn't a movie. It was the future.
I felt my body go rigid and start to shake. I stared into space, not seeing what was in front of me. I was walking down the street holding a little hand. I looked down and saw a two-year-old girl. We were walking down the street near the building where I had received the marriage certificate. There was no snow around me, so it must be summer.
I went to cross the street. We were in the middle when the little girl dropped her doll. There was a car coming towards us. I pulled her across the street to save her. At the last moment, she yanked her hand away from me and ran back for the doll. She grabbed it and picked it up, beaming at me. She didn't see the car when it hit her and her body went flying through the air. I didn't need to touch her body to know she was gone. She was lying still without any movement. I screamed and ran to her, dropping down beside the lifeless little body as I started to sob.
As I came out of the vision, I saw Airik staring at me. "Quinn? Thank goodness you're back."
"Airik?"
"Are you all right? What happened?"
My eyes filled with tears. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. If I did, nightmares of the girl's death would torment me.
I looked up at him. He appeared concerned. "It seemed as though you were having a seizure," he said.
He had a great explanation for me, and it wasn't even much of a lie.
"This kind of thing used to happen to me back home," I said. "I'm sorry. I should have told you, so you wouldn't worry when it happened." It was all true.
"I was worried."
I reached up and touched his face. "You don't have to be. I'm all right."
"You look upset," he said, tracing a line the tear had made down my face.
"I always feel a little strange afterward," I said, dropping my eyes. "I need to rest."
"Okay," he said. "I'll find something to occupy myself."
I nodded. "I'll rest here."
Once I was sure he was gone, I broke down and cried.
AIRIK
We had just made love again when it happened. Her body went stiff, and she started shaking. Her eyes became unfocused. She stared off into space. I watched in consternation.
What was going on?
Different intense emotions passed across her face. Happiness. Careful attention. Worry. Anger. Terror. Grief.
Without warning, she was back. Her shaking stopped, and she looked up at me, telling me this had happened before, and it was nothing.
I let her give me a story about a seizure. When I went into the other room, I couldn't concentrate.
I knew Quinn was lying to me.
Along with my ability to receive Precogs about the future, I was also an empath. I could feel people's emotions. The emotion I sensed from Quinn right now was guilt.
But why would she lie about having seizures? There was nothing shameful about them at all. Her behavior was strange. Something different was going on. I needed to find out what she was hiding. I had linked my life with this woman without knowing anything about her. Right now, I thought that had been a bad idea.
I needed to find out the truth. If I couldn't trust Quinn, then this was never going to work.
QUINN
It was three o'clock in the morning. I still couldn't sleep. I had watched three movies and tried every trick I knew to get myself to fall asleep.
As soon as I closed my eyes, I would see the little girl dead and broken on the ground.
I made myself so sick from crying that my stomach hurt.
Airik, of course, was sleeping like a log in the other room.
I got into my messages and saw one from Airik about the stranger and also one from my father. I opened my Dad's message first. I needed something to cheer me up.
When I started reading, I wished I hadn't opened it. It wasn't good news. Dad said he had recently watched a news program about the Sons of the Heavenly Father. The police had captured several members. Two had told the police everything they knew. Former cult members said the organization had people all over the galaxy and on every planet. Cult members were encouraged to seek out and kill anyone who seemed different.
They were fanatical, he said. The cult's lone assassins would go to great extremes to kill someone who had been targeted previously as a victim. He encouraged me to be vigilant and careful in my new home. Maybe I wasn't as safe as we had hoped. He also sent me congratulations on my wedding. Tears ran down my face by the time I finished his message, but I still managed to open the one from Airik.
Airik's message was a copy and paste. All the man's profile information was in front of me. I wondered if Airik had read it. I thought it unlikely. The message didn't have any personal greetings, and he hadn't seemed concerned when I told him about my worries.
I scanned the information. The man was human. Was on a work visa on Koccoran. Wasn't married. Had graduated from high school but not college. I scrolled down looking for the pertinent information I needed. Religious affiliations. Where was it?
There. Near the end. Religious affiliations: a member of the Sons of the Heavenly Father church
I jumped up and began to pace. Suddenly, the fear for my life eclipsed my grief at seeing the little girl die. If I were back home, I would go for a run. But here with three feet of snow outside, it was impossible. I felt trapped and frustrated. Sometimes exercise helped when I felt isolated like this, but I couldn't go out.
It wouldn't be safe to go out, either.
I supposed I could do some exercises inside. I started with some jumping jacks, then proceeded to sit-ups, push-ups, running on the spot, and burpies. I dripped with sweat and felt exhausted. I sat on the floor with my arms wrapped around my knees.
I was exhausted, but not sleepy.
I decided to take a shower. As I got up, Airik came out of the room, rubbing his eyes. "Quinn? Are you still awake?"
"Yeah, I can't sleep. It's no big deal; it happens all the time. Don't worry. You'll get used to it. I hope I didn't wake you."
"Uh, no. I didn't hear you." He looked uncertain, which I found perplexing. Either I had woken him, or I hadn't. "But why can't you sleep? Is something wrong?"
He was giving me a penetrating stare and his eyes looked wide awake. He was making me nervous all of a sudden. Did he suspect I was psychic and that I had visions? What would have made him think that? I didn't know what I did while having a vision, but my dad said I never spoke.
What would
have tipped him off?
"Nothing's wrong. I have nightmares sometimes and can't go back to sleep." This was true, though not the entire truth. I would decide what to tell him about the man from the lobby in the morning after I had a few hours of sleep under my belt.
"Really? Me too, sometimes."
I didn't believe him. "I was exercising to try and make myself tired. I'm going to have a shower."
"Let me use the bathroom first."
"Sure," I said, gesturing for him to proceed.
It was an incredibly awkward conversation. I wondered how we went so quickly from being as close as two people can be to barely being able to make small talk. I shook my head. Maybe I shouldn't be hiding things from him. He was my husband. Surely he would understand, right?
Of course not. No one ever understood. I was a freak, an outcast, and a weirdo. He wouldn't get it. No one would ever get me.
That's the way my life was.
He came back out of the bathroom.
"How about something different? Quinn, you said you've never seen snow before, right? Have you ever heard of rainbow snow?"
"What's that?"
"It's a weather phenomenon that creates a swirling light effect that looks like colored snow. It looks spectacular. I checked, and the observation point will be open tomorrow. They're expecting a rainbow swirl. Would you like to go?
"Sure," I said, smiling at him. He walked over to me and pulled me in for a soft kiss. When our lips touched, I felt like there was nothing between us. When he let me go, I felt the distance growing between us again.
"I hope you'll come back to bed," he said, studying me.
I shrugged. I felt far away from him, and I didn't like it.
"I probably won't unless I think I can sleep. Otherwise, I'll toss and turn and wake you up."
"Okay then," he said, looking at me like he didn't believe a word I said. With a sad glance, he went back into the bedroom.
I sat down on the couch then and hung my head. If Airik couldn't trust me, I knew this marriage couldn't last.
AIRIK
We stood at the top of the hill and looked down. There was snow everywhere and from up here we had an excellent view. Before us, the town spread out — the colored buildings stood out brightly against the white of the snow on the streets. Some of the houses had smoke coming from their chimneys. All around the town was the forest, looking like a thick green carpet from our viewpoint.