Calm (6 page)

Meri blinked. “What?”

“It is traditional for the Lahash to buy their brides. Since you are no longer near your family, I cannot offer them a bride price.”

She frowned. “The Alliance usually handles that end of things on behalf of the Terrans.”

He fidgeted and focussed on his plate while he mumbled something.

Meri scowled, “What?”

“I bought out your contract when you had the gills installed. The Alliance would not authorize the procedure on a person of your talents, there was no urgency for the change, so I paid for it myself, and at the same time, I bought out your contract.” He looked up at her with his eyes sincere. “You are now sponsored to live on Reepha for the rest of your life, including a small house in the city if you want it.”

“You are just mentioning this now? I have had the gills for over a year.” Laughter bubbled up in her.

“Well, yes. I didn’t know how to bring it up. Arranging a negotiation underwater was hard enough, but insisting on you accompanying me took all my effort and quite a few favours.” He sat back and fiddled with his plate. “I was unsure how to approach one of your species, and my research didn’t proceed properly until I spoke with one of your representatives.”

Meri quirked a smile. “Which one?”

“An ex-Negotiator. Amanda Tyrell, currently the Consort of the Emperor of the Haldis Imperium. She explained a few of your quirks that had me baffled and offered me a consulting voice when I needed one. She is quite sharp.”

“She’s one of our Champions. She is indeed very sharp.” She chuckled at the understatement. “The other ones are as well. They are the best that humanity had to offer.”

“I beg to differ. They may have been exceptional, but all they did was surpass the expectations of the Alliance assessment council. You are the best that humanity has to offer, in my opinion.”

She grinned, “I like your opinion. It’s very flattering.”

“So, Meribeth, what will it take to get you to formalize our connection?”

She looked at him, stared at him as her vision took him in from head to toe. His long, dark hair was tousled from her fingers. His eyes were bright. The curve of his lips was hopeful, and the rest of him made her mouth water. Aside from the physical, she had spent two years working with him, and his mind was as keen as his body was enchanting. He also appeared to have money, so he was the complete package, tall, dark and alien.

She smiled. “What does a woman in my position usually ask for?”

“Jewels, property, an account to buy jewels and property with.” He shrugged. “When my mother agreed to take my father, she almost confiscated the entire Kao family fortune.”

She laughed. “Mir does seem rather strong willed.”

He rubbed his forehead. “You have no idea.”

She pondered what she wanted from the rest of her life. “I want a place that is mine. That no one can take from me. Clothing that will help me blend in as well as I can and lessons in swimming so that I don’t need you to haul me around under water.”

He blinked. “That’s it?”

“Well, I would have to know that Niika is all right with it. She just got a father. To have another stranger in her life so soon might be awkward for her.”

“Why don’t we ask her when we go to pick her up?”

Meri blinked. “Just like that?”

“You are over complicating things, Meri. The Lahash are far more practical than you give us credit for.”

“Even the children?”

“Especially the children. My birth mother was a charming woman who enjoyed my father’s attentions until I was five, and at that point, he and I went to the water and she married a Sivith who moved her as far inland as he could. I never saw her again, but a few months later my father met Mir and she became my mother in all ways. There has never been a moment that I doubted her love for me. I could feel it every time she helped me with homework or ruffled my hair.”

Meri smiled and blinked away the tears that welled up. His affection for Mir was obvious and heartfelt.

“You didn’t mind the change?”

“No, Mir is Lahash, and she understood the calling of the water, something that my birth mother never understood. It means a lot to be accepted for what you are. Niika will know what it means to have that in her life if you join us and complete our family.”

“That is hitting below the belt.”

He raised his eyebrows. “An interesting phrase, if an appalling visual.”

“It refers to fighting with an illegal move.”

“I thought it might. Well, we pick Niika up in an hour. You have that time to decide.”

Meri exhaled and cleared the dishes, putting them in the cleansing unit and setting it to scrub them. She then puttered around and made tea. “How is it that everywhere I go on Reepha, I find my tea blend?”

He leaned against the counter and smiled. “I made notes and had supplies laid in.”

She chuckled. “Over-confident much?”

“Call me hopeful.” He moved and pinned her against the counter. “Can I do anything to convince you?”

“Give me time and a cup of tea. I have an hour before I go swimming again.” She snickered at the reference but let her mind wander when he feathered kisses across her forehead and down her cheek to her mouth.

She tilted her mouth to his and went up on her toes to increase the pressure between them while her body fought to keep its balance without leaning on him.

He broke the kiss and smiled, “How about now?”

She laughed and placed a hand in the centre of his chest, guiding him backward so she could make the tea. It was going to be the longest hour of her life.

Chapter Nine

Walking back to the wet entrance, she tried not to let her shaking fingers give her away. It was no use, the moment they were three feet away from the water, Vehn grabbed her, pressed his mouth to hers and dove for the water.

His mouth didn’t give her the option to breathe, her gills opened immediately, and she relaxed against him.
It’s still sneaky.

And yet it works. I hope it works for decades to come.
He released her mouth and grinned before setting off to the school.

Meri tried to emulate the swimming style of the Lahash, but she was slow and sluggish compared to Vehn.

He turned, noticed that she was slow and came back. He wrapped an arm around her waist and swam to the school. This time, he hauled her with him into the wet entrance, and she lifted her head above the surface while leaving her shoulders under water. The children were all lined up waiting for their parent or parents to arrive.

Vehn was at her side, and together, they gestured for Niika to join them. She jumped into the water with a shriek, and while her entrance was seamless, Meri wanted to teach her the fine art of the cannon ball.

Niika’s mind was excited, and she wormed her way between them, taking each of their hands in hers. Vehn hauled them away from the city and toward the shore. They entered the shallows and Vehn took Niika to purge.

Meri tried to stand up in the shallows and eject the water from her gills, but she ended up doubled over and coughing, staggering up the sand and stone.

She felt hands on her shoulders, and Vehn lifted her. “Back in you go until you can do it properly.”

He held her under the water with one hand while fluid rushed into her gills. He dragged her back into waist-deep water and helped her stand.

When her shoulders rose above the water, she held her breath. Vehn stood between her and Niika, wrapping his arms around her. “You have to breathe sometime, Meri.”

She looked up at him, not saying a word with her body full of water. When his hands cupped her ass, her eyes widened, and when he slid his thumb between her buttocks, she gasped. Water flew from her gills as the influx of air propelled it out.

She grabbed his arms and hung on while the world righted itself. “You can’t keep using that method.”

He nodded. “I understand. Eventually you will get used to the shocking caresses and they won’t make you gasp. I suppose I will just have to be creative.”

He patted her ass before he released her to walk to the bank on her own. Niika was bouncing around and hugging herself. She wrapped her arms around herself and twirled, her skirts flaring out around her leggings and her chubby bare feet stomped on the grass.

“Hey, Niika, did you have a good day?” She walked into Niika’s spiral and became part of it when the little girl grabbed her hands and twirled with her.

“It was wonderful. They had a class for purging and how to swim and Lahash history.”

Niika was chortling and yanking on her arms.

Vehn walked in and caught Niika in his arms. “Come along now, your gran will have dinner ready.”

Meri swallowed, “Mir is here?”

“It is a family home, and all our family will be here for her first day of school. They will also be with us on major holidays.” He chuckled at her expression. “It’s traditional.”

She swallowed, “What did I get myself into?”

He wrapped an arm around her and squeezed the bare skin of her waist. He kept his arm around her as the door opened for them.

Mir and Hisk stood side by side, grinning wide.

Niika squealed and kicked to be let down. The moment Vehn put her down, she lunged for her grandparents, chattering away and using her hands to pass along her emotions.

Meri laughed, “It seems that she enjoyed going to school.”

Vehn smiled, “It will last as long as it lasts. There is a reason we will need to move closer to the school after she fully adjusts. She will be just like other students and ditch school when she can.”

“Even the evolved Lahash skip classes?”

He stroked her bottom as she passed him to enter the lake house. “We have other means to prove our evolution. I look forward to assisting you in your search to find those means.”

She wanted to blast him, but his family was looking on.

They took one look at his hand on her waist and rushed forward to congratulate them.

Hisk gave her a gentle hug. “Welcome to the Kaos, Meribeth.”

Ys appeared from the kitchen, “She said yes?”

Vehn grinned, “She said yes, and she didn’t even bankrupt the family.”

Mir came in and hugged her with one arm while Niika was gripped with the other. “Welcome, daughter. The Kaos are a good, solid family, rich too. That doesn’t hurt.”

Hisk rolled his eyes, and Ys just cackled. Vehn came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her while the family congratulated them.

Ys finally tackled the elephant in the room. “It is a shame you are so small and pale.”

Meri laughed. “Yes, I know. The horrors of being a Terran on a strange world. I am never quite right for the situation, too short, too pale, too bony.”

Ys continued, “I mean, I wonder if Vehn will even fit.”

From above her head, she heard the low and amused voice say, “I fit.”

Hisk snorted as Mir and Ys darkened.

Meri was entertained. Despite their casual references to spawning and the children thereof, it seemed that they were a little unprepared when sex simply happened.

Niika wanted to know what would fit where, but she was left wanting. It seemed there was information that even contact telepathy could not work out of unwilling participants.

Meri distracted Niika, “What was your favourite part of school today?”

The distraction worked, and Ys herded them all into the dining room for a charming dinner. Sunset was creeping in, and it came as a bit of a surprise. “How long were we in the lake?”

“Seven hours.” Vehn put some green shredded veg on her plate and winked. “How time flies.”

“Well, we were occupied.” She smiled and blushed as Mir and Hisk shared a glance.

Ys laughed, “See, it is quite something to witness when you are not the one dealing it out, Mom.”

Meri could see Hisk’s arm and based on the angle he was holding it, his hand was not on his own thigh. She snickered and reached for her glass, sipping at the water while the family life of the Lahash lapped at her from all sides.

She worked through the peculiar foods one at a time, and when she heard conversation turn to her, she perked up.

“So, Meri, you have a problem purging?” Ys was curious.

Niika nodded. “She made horrible noises.”

Meri nodded in agreement. “The gills were installed, I wasn’t born with them. It takes me a few days to get used to using them. The first time I used them, I had to have the locals hold me under until the gills started to work. It was traumatic for them.”

Niika’s eyes were wide. “You were born Sivith?”

She shook her head. “No, I was born as something else, something strange from beyond the stars.”

Vehn lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to it. “And I am very happy that you fell into my path.”

“I didn’t fall, I was summoned.” She turned her hand in his and stroked his palm with her fingers.

Niika was working something else out. “So, if you are an alien, is that why your fingers don’t have webbing?”

“That’s correct, nor my feet. None of me was designed for life in water until the Alliance techs got a hold of me. They had me floating in a tank in a matter of days.”

“They didn’t teach you to purge?” Niika’s eyes were shocked again.

“No, they hung me upside down by my ankles and drained me that way. It was not fun.” She enjoyed the general amazement around the table. “If you don’t believe me, ask Vehn, he was there.”

“Yes, they hung her upside down, and the water came out. It was really something, as if they had never heard of purging.” Vehn shook his head.

Meri smiled, “I can answer that. Most species with gills have them either up on the neck or lower on the back. The back gills are the most common. The Lahash are a distinct species. You should have seen the expression on the tech’s faces when Vehn demanded the collarbone placement.”

Vehn laughed. “They were most surprised. I think they had to look it up.”

Meri returned the conversation to Niika, “Now, did you meet any nice children your age at school?”

Niika frowned. “They are all younger than me, but teacher says that as soon as I catch up, I can get into my age class. There are two girls in that class.”