Water World Warrior: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 1) (11 page)

It must be about five o'clock in the morning.

I sat up and putting a hand on my head. I was breathing hard, and the feeling of loss was still so strong I had tears in my eyes. I wiped them away quickly, hoping she hadn't noticed.

"Nathaniel?" she said, already sitting up. "Are you all right? It sounded like a really bad dream."

"It was awful," I said, staring at her. I couldn't believe that she was here in front of me, and they hadn't taken her. It had felt real. "Just horrible."

"When I was little, and I had a bad dream, my mother would come into my room, and she would sit on the bed with me and she would hold me."

I didn't say anything, trying to let go of the terrible feeling of loss. I let out a shaky breath.

"Can I hold you?" she said, so quietly I almost didn't catch it. I hesitated only a moment before I nodded. She scooted back so that she was sitting against the headboard of the bed and opened her arms.

I went to her, needing to know that she was here, that she was safe, that no one was going to hurt her.

She wrapped her arms around me, and she held me close. I rested my head on her soft breasts. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I felt peace flowing into me like I hadn't known in a very long time. All of the fear and sadness left me, and I felt calm. She was stroking my hair softly.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" she said. "Sometimes it helps."

Did I want to tell her about it? Hell no. But she was right. I knew that it would help. How could I tell her without giving everything away?

I felt a pang of guilt. Soon I needed to tell her about what I did at sea. It wasn't right to keep her in the dark. I couldn't have her finding out from someone else. At the same time, I didn't want to jeopardize our relationship. I felt something growing between us. If I told her, she might go away, and I didn't want that happen.

I knew now that I was falling for her, and it was too late to stop.

"I dreamed I was a pirate," I said. The compromise seemed reasonable in my mind.

"A pirate?" she said.

"Not like 'Arg, matey.' Like a real pirate that runs down other ships and steals their cargo."

"Oh," she sounded taken aback.

"This world is 86% water." I reminded her.

"Right. Bad guys in boats. I got it. But wait, you were the pirate?"

I paused a moment before I answered.

"We had run down a ship and pirated its cargo. We were leaving when suddenly I saw a ship on the horizon."

"Uh oh."

"Right. It was the sea police."

"A police ship."

"Yes. The Dream is fast. No one has ever beaten her in a race. But no matter how many sails we put on or what we did, that damned slow police boat kept catching up to us."

She nodded. She was slowly running her fingertips up and down over my skin, now. It was soothing, but it was also starting to become arousing. I tried to concentrate on my story.

"They boarded us and put me under arrest for piracy. They wanted to take you in for questioning."

"Oh."

"I tried to stop them. I told them that you hadn't done anything wrong. Was I talking in my sleep?" I said, feeling embarrassed.

"You were. That's what woke me. You were… you were saying my name."

I twisted around to face her.

"You sounded upset," she said, her hand coming up to touch my cheek.

"I was," I said again, swallowing.

We stared at each other. I surged upwards to capture her lips. Her hands were on the sides of my face, pulling me to her. I kissed her, desperately. She made a moaning sound that lit my fire and pressed herself against me.

Our tongues tangled and I felt myself getting hard. I needed her so badly. We kissed, and I had to touch her. I ran my hands up her arms and then down her torso, brushing the sides of her breasts and making her moan again. Touching her through clothing was insufficient. I needed to feel her skin against mine.

I slid my hand up under her pajama shirt. She was smooth. I ran my palm along her flat belly and then slid it higher and higher. And finally I had one soft breast in my hand, feeling its weight.

"You are perfect, Ash," I whispered, squeezing. Her hips bucked against me.

"Nathaniel," she said, panting a little. "Are you sure we should do this?"

Fuck yes, I was sure. But then my rational mind took over, and I groaned.

"You're leaving tomorrow. Won't it make it harder?" she said.

"Nothing could make it harder," I said.

"I want to, Nathaniel."

"I know," I said. "Me too. But you're right. I'm not sure we're thinking straight right now."

"And it would make it more difficult for you to go, I'm sure, if you remembered." We were still lying pressed close to each other, and I felt my cock jump when she said that. By the look of desire on her face, she had felt it too.

I would have enough trouble with the memory of how her breast felt in my hand and the taste of her kisses. If I knew what it was like to take her, it would be near next to impossible to leave her. I would have to keep her in bed for days.

"I'm going to get up now," I said. "Because if I don't…"

I trailed off, kissing her again.

But she pulled away.

"Nathaniel," she said, in a voice that was full of regret. But she gave me a smile that was so full of promise that I couldn't stand it.

"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.

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 didn'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."