by Ashley West
"It's not good timing right now, Ashlyn, but I'm your husband," I said, looking deep into her eyes. "We're not done with this yet."
She drew in a deep breath, and I heard her swallow.
"Maybe no more snuggling, then," she said.
I felt myself falter.
She was right. No more snuggling. Try and remember you're a pirate. I rose from the bed.
When I thought about how it had felt to fall asleep holding her in my arms, I wished I wasn't leaving tomorrow.
Chapter Fourteen
ASHLYN
Nathaniel and I were on the beach again, getting one more swim in before we had to get dressed for the evening. He was taking me out for dinner and dancing on our last night together.
Every time I thought about him leaving, I got a sad feeling in my chest, but I buried my emotions. He had to go, and I had to stay. I accepted the way things were. You couldn't change everything.
But when I had that thought, something inside of me rose up and rebelled. Who was to say I couldn't change things? I could ask him if I could go with him. Why not? There was lots of room on board. I could sleep in his bed if there were no room. I could help and be useful. If I couldn't assist with the science, then I could cook and clean and swab the deck.
I looked over at him, but I felt like I couldn't invite myself along. If he wanted me with him, wouldn't he have asked me himself?
He was playing with his wedding ring, and it encouraged me to look at my own. I had studied it a few times since we got married, but I hadn't had a chance to ask him about it. I wondered where he had got them and if he knew their significance on earth.
"Nathaniel?" I said. He looked up at me with a pleased expression.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering about our rings."
"What about?"
"Why did you choose these rings with this particular pattern?"
He turned onto his stomach on the blanket we were lying on and twisted the ring off his finger. It was similar to mine but larger.
"Originally, I hadn't planned to offer you a wedding ring at all," he said apologetically.
"I admit, I was surprised. I had imagined a civil ceremony with a justice of the peace and wearing regular clothes," I told him truthfully.
I hadn't had any expectations. I was a mail-order bride. No love. No romance. No celebration. Certainly no rings. All I needed was a certificate that would give us both what we wanted.
That reminded me that as soon as the transfer went through, I had to wire the money to my brother's creditors. It was easy to forget the mess that I left behind on Earth. Here on Vandwa, every day was like a holiday.
Frankly, my thoughts had been taken up by a particular handsome alien who happened to be my husband.
I promised myself that I would transfer the money to Marlin's creditors' bank account right after I got back after dancing tonight. Surely the transfer from TerraMates would have gone through by that time. They said it took about forty-eight hours.
I would suggest that we sleep in separate rooms tonight so that we didn't get distracted again.
"No." He shook his head. "You were unexpected."
"Unexpected?" Why was I repeating everything he said? I sounded like an idiot. But my heart had stopped, and I waited to hear what he had to say.
"This was supposed to be a marriage of convenience. That's all. I needed to be married. Then I saw you at the airport." He was staring at me, and I was getting lost in those eyes as green-blue as the ocean behind us.
"You were not what I expected at all. I didn't plan on being so attracted to you."
There were many sweet things he could have said at that moment, but that was not one of them. I felt disappointment well up inside me.
His feelings for me were nothing more than an attraction. I chided myself for imagining that he felt anything more than desire.
"It's better than hating each other, isn't it?" I said, with more cheerfulness than I felt. I was a fool letting myself think that my marriage was more than it appeared to be on the surface.
This morning he had been upset by a dream. Everyone was emotional when they woke up from a nightmare. I had merely comforted him. He certainly wanted my body. Reading anything else into it would get me into trouble, for sure.
He was still talking, and I needed to pay attention.
"Ashlyn, I hadn't expected to like you. But I did. A lot."
I took a deep breath. Did he like me? Well, that was better than just wanting my body for sex.
"And so I thought that it wasn't fair to have a civil ceremony with nothing special. I thought you deserved a little more than that."
"But the dress and the rings. The lady that helped me dress and did my hair? And the breakfast luncheon? You're saying you didn't have it all planned beforehand?"
He shook his head, putting the ring back on.
"That's why I was late. I had to arrange everything at the last minute. I did as much as I could the day you arrived. I still had a few things to do before the wedding, and I was late. I'm sorry about that, Ashlyn, even more so now than I was at the time."
"It's okay, Nathaniel. I appreciate you making an effort, I honestly didn't expect anything at all."
"Well, that's what I thought. But a girl like you ought to have a few special things on her wedding day," he said, playing with his ring again and blushing. "I went to pick up the rings first thing in the morning while you were getting dressed. None of the jewelers were open, Ash."
"How did you find these?" I asked, twisting my band.
"I took a short cut back to the hotel, and I ended up on this little back street. I know Dass Vasser like the back of my hand, and I had never seen this store before. There was a specialty shop that said that they sold trinkets, novelties, and jewellery. I went in thinking I had nothing to lose. There was an older lady, a little odd looking with a funny bump on the side of her eyebrow. She asked me if I wanted to have my palm read."
I flashed back to the woman who had told my fortune at the airport.
"I was already late, so I didn't have time to get my palm read. Then she brought out some rings for me to see. I had got your ring size from the briefing they gave me."
"Right."
"She pulls out a tray from under the glass, and there were the weirdest rings I had ever seen."
I smiled.
"I'm being polite and looking at them because she went to all the trouble of pulling them out for me. I was about to say thank you and get the hell out of there when she suddenly smiles and says. 'You need something special, I think, don't you?'"
"Seriously?"
"She goes into the back and comes out with a little trunk. It folded open and in the middle, in a place of honor were these rings." He pointed back and forth at our hands. "She took them out, and I had never seen anything like them, but I found the pattern intriguing."
He took my left hand with his hand so that we could see both the rings and our hands together.
"Of course you wouldn't have seen anything like them," I said. "They're Celtic. From Earth."
"You knew?"
I nodded.
"She said I had a girl that will appreciate these rings."
I paused. "I met a woman at the airport. She told me my fortune. Maybe it was the same person."
"Did you tell her you were from Earth?" he said.
"I must have," I said, not remembering whether I had or not.
He nodded and continued with his story.
"The rings have Celtic knots on them, and they symbolize the interconnectedness and continuity of life."
"They also represent eternity," I said, with a smile that was a tiny bit wobbly. "The knots have no beginning and no end, like an eternity."
"Right, eternity too."
He searched my eyes for a moment and then went on.
"She said, 'With your bride's roots, she will love these rings.'"
"What?" I froze, pinning him with a sharp look.
"Yeah. I di
dn't know what she meant," he shrugged. "Why? Does that mean something to you?"
"My name is Ashlyn O'Connor," I said. "I keep forgetting you won't know Earth things," I exclaimed, putting my hand on my forehead. "It's a very Irish name. The Irish are descendants of the Celts who created these sorts of knots. My people are Celtic, Nathaniel."
He stared at me.
"How could she have known?"
I shook my head.
"I don't know. If it was the same woman, then she knew things she shouldn't have. She said the knowing was a skill, not magic."
"Of course," Nathaniel said, slapping his hand on the blanket. "She's Kokoran. They can perceive other people's thoughts."
"Really?"
"Yes, that's why she had the bump beside her eyebrow. It's part of their enhanced brain. I wonder what she's doing here on Vandwa. You wouldn't believe what those people get paid."
He squeezed, looking down at our joined hands.
"It seemed silly at the time to buy rings with eternity on them for a mail-order bride," he said, his turquoise eyes gazing into mine. "But I wanted to please you. And it doesn't seem silly now."
I held my breath. What was he saying?
"I love it," I said. And I did. Celtic knots had always fascinated me. The fact that he had bought me a ring with a Celtic knot on it to please me was giving me a warm feeling. I knew I should guard against it. I knew I should try to stop myself.
I couldn't help it. I was falling in love with Nathaniel, whether I wanted to or not.
Chapter Fifteen
NATHANIEL
Ashlyn and I had gone to a dance club following our dinner at a fancy Vandwan restaurant. It had been hot and dark, and the music had been provocative. We had danced close, our bodies moving together and pressing tightly against each other, the way we longed to do in bed but couldn't let ourselves.
After a certain point we left, knowing it would be difficult to stop if we got ourselves too keyed up. Instead, I asked her to go down to the docks and look at the sailboats and ships. She was ready to get out of there too, and we strolled hand in hand down to the water.
"You know how to build boats?" she said as we got on to the boardwalk that ran out to the docks. It was big enough for a small road that allowed cars and bicycles. The road along this stretch was full of potholes and was extremely rough. There were caution signs saying that it was being repaired.
"Yes. I'm not sure I could build one on my own, but I know the theory and I certainly know how to fix them. I've done plenty of that."
"Didn't you want to build boats?"
"I was always interested in science."
"Me too," she said, swinging our hands between us.
"Be careful here, Ash. The rail's broken and I don't like how this sidewalk is so close to the road."
She stayed away from the edge and opened her mouth to ask me another question when suddenly a car hit one of the potholes and careened out of control heading right for us. Instinctively, I pushed Ashlyn out of the way. If she hadn't held on to my hand, I would have been killed.
When I shoved her, I expected her to let go, but she didn't, and her grip pulled me out of the way of the car. My relief was enormous until I realized we were falling into the water.
As we plunged beneath the surface, she let go of my hand, and we became separated. I bobbed up to the top for a moment and looked around for Ashlyn. Where was she?
I ducked under again, not bothering to take a breath. I opened my eyes and let the transparent inner lid drop down. The water was dark and murky, but that wouldn't be a problem. My eyes collected enough light for me to see clearly in the darkest water. I started to look around for her.
There she was.
She had fallen close to the piles and caught her dress on something. She was pulling at it frantically. Why was she panicking?
Her cheeks bulged out, and I realized that she couldn't breathe underwater.
I swam to her as quickly as I could, taking a deep breath through the gill-like membranes that ran along the sides of my ribs. I felt my lungs fill with oxygen. As soon as I got to her, I pressed my lips to hers and opened my mouth — she opened hers, understanding what I meant to do. I breathed out, giving her the oxygen she needed.
Then I did it again. Breathing in water through my ribs and filling my lungs with oxygen, I pressed my lips to hers and gave her another breath. She looked at me in shock. Since I was giving her nearly pure oxygen, it lasted longer than a breath of air and gave me time to see what was happening with her dress.
When I investigated, I saw that she had hit some rebar that was sticking out and it had cut her leg as well as caught her dress. I would have immediately cut the dress if I had been wearing my usual clothes with my pocket knife. But there weren't any pockets in traditional Vandwan dress pants. I gave Ashlyn another breath and tried to figure out a way to get her out of here.
Could I take the dress off? I pulled and yanked but the dress was tight and being wet, it hugged her curves. I tried to get the zipper down, but it was stuck from being in the water.
When I tried ripping it, I realized that the dress consisted of Vandwan fiber plant from the sea. The damn stuff was practically indestructible. Tearing it off of her wasn't going to work.
I needed something sharp, but what?
Even if I kept giving her breaths of air, she might pass out from blood loss. The cut was severe, and I could see red-brown liquid seeping out. If she passed out, she might try to breathe unconsciously. The thought of her trying to breathe the water and filling her lungs until she drowned gave me a desperate energy.
A shell would have to be good enough.
Any of the shelled creatures could be used to cut things when they discarded their shells or broke their protective outer layers. Craftsmen often made shells into knives both for their pretty coloring and their dangerous cutting edge.
I drew in another breath through the membranes on my sides and gave Ashlyn as much air as I could. I mimed sawing and dove down to the bottom. Her eyes were big and scared. Then she closed them, making me start to panic. I started counting. How long would she be able to survive without me underwater? A minute?
I needed to get her out of the water. If I didn't know she was an alien before, I would never forget it now. This world was not her element, and she might drown if I wasn't quick enough. She was bleeding, and she needed help right away. Ten seconds.
When I got to the bottom, I searched for a broken shell. Any other time when I've swum along the bottom, there would have been broken shells everywhere. You can't look two feet before you're seeing another one. Twenty seconds.
Of course, since I needed one desperately right this minute, I couldn't see any. I went down to the sand and began digging. Thirty seconds.
It was a dangerous thing to do because you never knew when you might disturb a stingray or another creature that would attack you first and ask questions later. But I didn't care. I needed to find a broken shell right away. Fifty seconds.
That's when I found one. It sliced through my finger, but I didn't drop it. I grabbed it, even though it was cutting me, and I swam upwards as quickly as I could. Sixty seconds.
When I got to her, her eyes were barely open, but she was still alive. I gave her three big breaths before I started working on the dress. As soon as I felt that she was alert enough, I dropped down. Using my left hand, I began to saw awkwardly at the fabric where Ash caught her dress.
Fiber plant comes from seaweed. Its primary protection against sea creatures that would eat it is its incredible toughness. Clothing made from it is beautiful, doesn't tear, and lasts forever. These attributes are great for clothes but bad when you are trying to free the woman you love from either drowning or bleeding to death.
Damn it.
I gave her another breath and went back to it. I tried to be calm, but it simply wasn't possible. I sawed at the dress as fast as I could while adrenaline rushed through me.
A feeling of unbearable urgen
cy was driving me.
When I had given her the previous breath, I noticed that she looked exceptionally pale, and her eyes were closing and rolling back in her head. Like she was barely hanging on to consciousness.
No!
I swam back down and hacked away at the dress with the shell like a madman. There was one little piece left and when I looked up, I saw her eyes close, and her body go limp.
With a surge of power that I hadn't known I had, I slashed wildly at the dress, tearing the last piece of fabric. I grabbed Ashlyn and swam to the top.
As her head broke the surface, I watched her chest.
She wasn't breathing at all.
I towed her as fast as I could to the shore, using a double-leg kick that propelled me at a rapid speed. There was no possibility of climbing the boardwalk; it was at least fifteen feet above our heads.
The trip took longer than I had initially guessed because we had been quite far out. I soon tired from pulling her dead weight. I fought the current while Ashlyn's body pulled me down. I thought that I wouldn't make it multiple times - I thought that it was over for the both of us. When the pain became unbearable, and my body was exhausted, I looked at Ashlyn's face, and my strength renewed.
When I finally got to shore, I dragged her to the beach. Even though I thought I didn't have any strength left in me, I managed to lift her.
I saw a group of people, and I headed towards them, yelling for help as I went. Everything was a blur. Some doctors showed up and started emergency breathing procedures. Medical robots arrived a few minutes later and helped Ashlyn to breathe by herself again. Soon we were on the way to the hospital.
I felt weak with relief.
"Is she all right?" I asked. I rode in the back of the ambulance with people, and I didn't even know their names.
"She's breathing, and her heart is beating, but we won't be able to tell if there's brain damage until she wakes up."
Did she just say brain damage?
"There probably isn't any, but we need to run tests. You said you were giving her oxygen the whole time she was under water?"
"Yes, she only lost consciousness at the very end. When we came to the surface, she wasn't breathing."