by Sue Mercury
“Leah?” Jav prompted, his tone gentle as ever. “I would like to understand. Tell me. Please.”
“All the other women aboard the spaceship were wearing their nicest clothing,” she blurted. “Most of them were wearing dresses. Many of them spent some time before we landed putting on makeup and doing their hair. But I-I didn’t have anything similar that I could bring with me. I think the other women looked down on me because of the poor way I was dressed and that’s why Miranda didn’t talk to me. As I told you, I worked in a factory, but my hours were cut and I could no longer afford rent.
“To make ends meet, I sold all my belongings, including the few items of clothing I possessed, in hopes that I could find another job with more hours before my rent was due. But I wasn’t able to find another job. So, I went to the Martian Affairs building, wearing the last outfit I had left, which I kept because it was the warmest, and signed up to become a mail order bride.
“Based upon how I looked, Miranda and the other women probably thought I came from the streets, and they probably worried I was a pickpocket or something. There’s a high level of crime in Zone 12 and I don’t blame them for being wary of me. I suspect that is what Miranda had been about to say. But I didn’t push the water pitcher on her on purpose. That truly was an accident.”
The lie escaped her lips much easier than she had anticipated. It seemed once she started telling the fabricated story, the rest of it just flowed out of her. She pushed away the guilt she felt over telling Jav such an elaborate untruth.
“I see.” His eyes gleamed with compassion and he drew her closer, brushing his fingers through her hair. “Why were you late boarding the spaceship? Miranda mentioned that, too.”
“I-I was the last bride to go through processing in the Martian Affairs building, and the clerk was having difficulty with her computer.”
Jav nodded, his visage thoughtful. “I believe I understand now.” His eyes filled with regret in the next moment. “I am sorry for accusing you of knocking the pitcher over on purpose.”
Leah waved a hand in the air in a dismissive manner. “Oh, it’s all right. I’m not upset with you. It happened so fast.” She exhaled a deep breath and felt utter relief when Jav seemed to accept her elaborate story.
She prayed he never discovered the truth, and she also promised herself she would never lie to him again. She wanted to be a good mate to Jav. She truly wanted Mars to be her second chance.
Never look back.
Chapter 18
It saddened Jav to learn Miranda, as well as the other human females aboard the spaceship, had refrained from speaking to Leah simply because of the way she was dressed, simply because they thought she might’ve been living on the streets and stealing to survive. It bothered him that the females had judged her so harshly, especially when the majority of them were probably fleeing bad circumstances as well. He hadn’t known human females could be so concerned with appearances and his heart ached for how alone Leah must have felt during the journey to Mars.
When he’d contacted the Martian Affairs offices in Zone 12, he hadn’t been able to reach anyone who might help him find Leah’s mail order bride application. The first clerk he’d spoken to had transferred him to another worker who’d informed him they were having technological difficulties and could not provide him with any assistance today.
Now that Leah had confessed what had happened on the spaceship, he decided not to follow up with Martian Affairs. But his desire to surround her in luxury and shower her with expensive gifts remained. He would contact Nassia again soon and ask the woman to pick out elegant jewelry to match all of the new dresses she was making for Leah.
He studied her while she sat next to him in bed, a book in her lap. A short while ago, a servant had knocked on the door with a gift from the queen—a box of books written in Leah’s native language. Leah had immediately started reading one of the books, a thick tome that had a picture of a human woman standing on the deck of a ship, the sea breeze blowing through her hair.
“There are many bookstores here in the city,” he said, reaching for her underneath the covers. He gave her thigh a gentle squeeze. “Most of them contain books written in Galactic Common, as well as some human tongues.”
“Really?” she set her book aside and turned to stare at him. “I’d had no idea. I thought perhaps Queen Esmay had brought these with her from Earth, or perhaps sent back home for a shipment of books.”
“Many of the shops in the city sell items that cater to human females. After all, human females have been living on Mars for twenty years now. Since the war ended.” As soon as he mentioned the war, he regretted it. She’d told him she was twenty-eight years old, which meant she’d been a small child during the fighting. Did she remember much about it?
As if sensing his thoughts, she said, “My father built a bunker in our backyard well before humans made first contact with your people. I’m not certain what prompted him to do it, but I remember helping him put the final touches on it. He would always ask me to hand him tools. Anyway, after the fighting started, we hid in the bunker and didn’t come out until after Earth surrendered.”
“Were you frightened?”
“No. My parents made it fun. We played games and listened to music. They had me keep up with my studies, too, of course. I was only vaguely aware of what was going on. Sometimes I would awake in the middle of the night and hear my parents talking. Sometimes the ground would shake and I’d see my parents exchange a worried look. The war lasted for a few weeks and when we emerged, there wasn’t much left of our house. We had to continue living in the bunker until repairs could be made.”
“I am glad you had a safe place to hide during the war, sweet Leah.” He stroked her hair. “The thought of you frightened or in danger fills me with rage.”
“You were there, weren’t you?” she asked, though she sounded more curious than accusing. “The Vash’arr, you were on Earth fighting, is that correct?”
“Yes, I was there during the first attack and I stayed until Earth’s surrender.” He didn’t regret fighting the humans. They had attacked his people first. But it still saddened him to know she could’ve been injured in the fighting, had her parents not provided a safe location for her family to ride out the war. Many humans hadn’t been so lucky. Millions had died, though his people had been careful to keep civilian casualties low, instead focusing their efforts on human soldiers and political leaders.
Her breath danced across his chest as she exhaled. She turned further on her side and shifted closer to him. He draped an arm around her, feeling hopeful that she wasn’t pulling away from him after he’d confirmed he’d fought against her people.
“I figured you’d fought in the war.” She glanced away from him for a long moment, and when she finally returned her gaze to his, her eyes were brimming with emotion. “I-I’m glad you survived.”
Her words caused his heart to swell with tenderness. He sat up against the pillows, picked her up, and cradled her in his lap. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. When she wiggled slightly in his lap, his cock went hard and his desire for her ignited anew.
I’m glad you survived.
Her words kept repeating in his mind, bringing him hope for their future.
The sudden scent of her arousal reached him, and he could hold back no longer. He leaned down to kiss her, tangling his tongue with hers and growling into her mouth. She tasted like the sweet berries that had been served for dessert. He drank her in, unable to get enough, and he soon became lost in her scent, her taste, and her touch as she caressed the base of his horns as he continued kissing her.
“I want you, Jav,” she said, pulling back from his kiss. She squirmed in his lap. “I-I need to feel you inside me. Please.”
Another growl rumbled from him. Consumed by his increasing need, he placed her down on the bed and forced her legs apart with his knees. Her sweet but desperate plea to be claimed rang in his ears, prompting him to shove into her particularly hard. He gr
ipped her hips and pumped into her.
“Is this what you want, my sweet Leah?” he asked, then bent over her to take one of her nipples between his teeth. He bit down, just hard enough to make her whimper. “Is that what you want? To be filled with your mate’s cock?”
A shuddering breath left her, and she soon started meeting his thrusts, arching her center upward each time he slammed into her depths. She was soaking wet and her pussy kept pulsing around him. His balls tightened and he groaned.
She whimpered louder and he reached for her clit, wanting to feel the heated pulses of her arousal. Still driving into her, his pace steady and rapid, he swirled his thumb overtop her swollen nubbin. She jerked underneath him and cried out. Moments later, he felt her insides contracting around him as she found her release.
Fluxx. A wave of primal satisfaction flowed through him. He liked bringing his sweet mate to the heights of pleasure. He liked watching her writhe and scream and whimper as she orgasmed on his plunging cock.
He withdrew from her, but only long enough to flip her over on the bed. He arranged her on her hands and knees, then pushed down on her lower back, forcing her back to arch and her center to rise straight up to meet his greedy cock. He gripped her hips and shoved into her, and the sound of his scrotum slapping against her soon filled the room.
The act of claiming her, and at her own request, was helping to close the divide that had opened between them earlier. He regretted that he’d accused her of spilling the water on purpose and treating her as though she were keeping a secret from him. But she wasn’t holding a grudge. She’d forgiven him.
She truly was the sweetest female he’d ever met. The treasure of his life.
I love her.
The realization struck him with a force that took his breath away. In the next instant, he erupted inside her, his seed pouring into her depths in a series of rapid spurts.
He stroked his hand up and down her back as he caught his breath. Then he withdrew from her center and gathered her up in his arms.
“Leah,” he said, his lips at her ear. “My sweet mate. Know that I will cherish you always.”
Chapter 19
Slowly but surely, Leah was starting to feel as though she belonged on this planet.
She wandered through the corridors of the palace, still awed by the beauty of the structure even after two full weeks on Mars. She’d taken to exploring the palace while Jav attended to his duties with the Vash’arr each day.
Sometimes she would run into Queen Esmay and would receive an invitation to venture to the shopping district, which she always accepted, even though the invitations had made her a bit uneasy at first. She wasn’t used to people being nice to her, nor was she used to having friends.
On occasion, other human women who lived in the palace would join them during their adventures beyond the royal grounds. She’d met women who came from many different zones on Earth. Some of the females already had children with their Martian mates. Leah had never held a baby in her life, but during the last week she’d held at least a dozen.
And oh how she longed for a child of her very own. A child with Jav.
Would they ever be blessed with children?
She sighed and placed a hand upon her stomach, wondering if perhaps she was already pregnant. Given the amount of sex she’d had with Jav, it was certainly possible. If she was keeping track correctly, her period wasn’t due for another week or two.
As Leah rounded a corridor, she bumped straight into another woman.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, backing up. Her eyes widened when Miranda straightened in front of her, her hands upon the wall as she righted herself.
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry,” Miranda said, her voice shaking. It was then that Leah noticed the woman’s eyes were swollen and red, as if she’d been crying recently.
“Miranda, are you all right?” Leah grasped her arm and gently guided her into an alcove at the end of the hall, which contained a private seating area.
Miranda drew in a shuddering breath and shook her head. “Not really. Pettak and I got into an argument.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Leah said. “Would you like to talk about it?” She hadn’t run into Miranda since the night she’d spilled water on the woman, and while they didn’t know one another well, the fact that they were both mail order brides who were far from home made it feel as though there was a kinship of sorts between them.
Miranda growled under her breath and fisted her hands in her lap. “He wants to retire from being a palace guard and move to the other side of Mars, in one of the more rural settlements. He made the decision without even asking for my opinion.”
“And I take it you don’t wish to move?”
“No. My cousin, Andrea, lives right here in Ressiktron. I saw her the other day for the first time in years and it was wonderful. It was sheer luck that saw me mated to a Martian who lived in Ressiktron near Andrea and her mate, but Pettak knows how happy I was to see her again. But now he wants to move away and… and…” Her voice trailed off. She covered her face and sobbed.
Leah wrapped an arm around Miranda. “I’m so sorry. What made your Pettak decide to move so suddenly?”
“He says he’s been planning it for some time, since before I even came to Mars. But the jerk didn’t inform me about the move until today.” She sniffled. “I’d just started to feel happy here. It was starting to feel like home. But now I don’t know what will happen. I suppose I have no choice. I’ll have to move away with Pettak and be far away from my cousin.”
Leah’s heart ached for Miranda. She patted her on the shoulder, trying to think of something to say that might alleviate her grief. But it was a difficult situation, and it reminded Leah just how precarious her own situation on Mars was. Marttiaxoxalian males were in charge of this planet and their human mates were at their mercy.
“Has Pettak mentioned allowing you to return to Ressiktron for the occasional visit?” Leah asked gently, hoping the answer to the question was yes. If Pettak was refusing to allow Miranda to spend time with her cousin, that really would make him a jerk.
“Well, he hasn’t mentioned visiting yet. He was still talking when I stormed out of his quarters.” Miranda wiped her tears on the back of her hand and sat taller, looking a bit more composed. “It’s bad enough I won’t see my parents again—in person, anyway—and now to have Andrea back in my life, only to lose her again, it’s too much. Pettak doesn’t understand. He’s too stubborn.”
Leah thought about the time she’d spent with Queen Esmay and other women from the palace in recent days. Quite a few of them had mentioned their mates were stubborn or bossy. Some women also said their mates were possessive and rarely allowed them out of sight.
“It’s clear that Martian males are a bit different from their human counterparts,” Leah began, hoping she would be able to help. “I suppose all we can do is try to be patient and try to reason with them and pray that we’ll eventually find common ground. Do you think Pettak has grown to care for you?”
Miranda blushed, nodding. “Yes. He has told me he loves me several times, though I haven’t said it back yet. Seems too soon.”
Leah tried to push aside the jealousy that fell upon her at hearing Miranda’s confession. Jav hadn’t told Leah he loved her yet. She quickly reminded herself that he said plenty of other sweet things to her on a regular basis. He often told her she was a gift from the Gods. He kept telling her he cherished her and thought she was his treasure.
“You and Pettak haven’t been mated for very long,” Leah said, “and he is probably not used to having to run his plans by another person. I’m not trying to make excuses for him, but your mating union is as new to him as it is to you. It sounds as though he’s made an error in judgment, but perhaps he will come to his senses. But if he does decide to go through with the relocation, if he loves you then surely he will make sure you still get to spend time with your cousin. Perhaps you can visit the capital city and someti
mes your cousin can visit you on the other side of Mars.”
“He has allowed me to speak with my parents and sisters using his video comm. They’re still all on Earth, of course. Hm. Maybe you’re right.” Miranda’s expression brightened. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have stormed out the way I did. I suppose he’s looking for me right now. Thank you for your advice, Leah. You are very wise.” Miranda gave Leah a hesitant look. “Have you been married before?”
Leah shook her head. “No, Jav is my first husband. Or mate. Whatever you want to call it.” She smiled, her heart filling with warmth as she imagined him returning home to her tonight.
“I see. Um, about last week,” Miranda said. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you in the banquet hall. I just felt bad that I didn’t talk to you on the spaceship. I heard some of the other women whispering that you probably came from the prison. I should’ve ignored them and talked to you anyway. Friends?”
Leah smiled. “Friends.”
“Well, did you?” Miranda asked. “Did you come from the prison?”
Leah stared at the woman, unsure of what she should say. She had lied to Jav’s face, telling him the boring story about working in a factory and living alone. It still bothered her that she couldn’t confide in him, but she couldn’t risk being sent away.
Martians mated for life, but what would he do if he found out she wasn’t what she seemed? Would he believe she was a danger to others? As close as she was becoming to the queen, it might present a problem. The palace guards, as well as the Vash’arr, were supposed to protect the king, the queen, and all other members of the royal family at all costs.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Miranda said after Leah was silent for too long.
“Let’s just say that I’d like to forget where I came from.”