Chapter Three
He rubbed his hand over his head and said, “I’m a private man. I didn’t want all of this in the first place. I’m just trying to keep this quiet. I’m not into this… media, I think is your term for it.”
I blinked when he said that. It was kinda a different world from what I was used to. I’m used to the whole public relations thing. That is what I do. So him saying he wasn’t interested in doing all of that, part of me wondered if I made the wrong choice in choosing him. Not that I had any other options. Not that I gave myself a chance to have other options, since I accepted his match as soon as it came in. But considering I didn’t look too closely at his profile…
“So, about the uniform,” I said. “Are you military? I was under the impression that all the guys on the app were the… well-to-do in Reten society.” I hoped I phrased that delicately enough, without using a colloquialism he wouldn’t understand.
His face hardened. I voluntarily took a step back. It wasn’t that he was scary, per se, and I wasn’t afraid for my safety and didn’t feel I needed to shout for help or anything. But he was an imposing man. And big. Not scary, but big. Intimidating. Looked like he could growl. Easily.
“If money is all you’re after, money is what you’ll get.”
I blinked again. “Did you just misquote Star Wars at me?” He cocked an eyebrow, and I realized his words weren’t intentional. His words fit in context, and being in a galaxy far, far away had brought my mind straight to the movie. And the words he said had gone through the translator they had injected in the base of my skull before leaving Earth (talk about an unpleasant procedure — or not, because I didn’t even want to remember it happened, ever), anyway, so who knew what they were originally.
“So if you didn’t want a bride, why am I here?” I couldn’t help but ask the question. Yeah, I kinda needed to leave Earth, but was I even wanted? Did he need me here? Did he want me here? Was I leaving one bad situation for another one?
He rubbed his hand over his head again. “It’s a long story,” he said.
I smiled. “Sounds like we’re going to have the rest of our lives for these long stories.”
“Yes, well,” he paused. “Let’s go get the paperwork done.”
I blinked again. “Sure.”
He led me down the passageways, behind the scenes. Apparently he didn’t want to be in public. Which worked out well for me, because I didn’t want to be in public all that much either.
He knocked on a door then opened it, walking into the room. I stayed in the doorway. It looked like it was the backroom of the DMV or a bank. There were several different tellers or clerks, and I could see the top of the head of one of the girls that came over in front of me standing on the other side of a counter. I guessed this was where we would fill out the paperwork. I figured Relek didn’t want the media circus and instead wanted us to go behind the scenes to fill out our paperwork.
We were filling out said paperwork, and then I hear a bit of a commotion coming from where the other Earth girl was. I got on my tiptoes and glanced over to see one of the Reten males plant a hell of a kiss on the woman. Wow. I had to admit, I was personally jealous that they were… well, going right to it. I see them finish the kiss, and she almost stumbles away from him. That had to be a pretty mighty powerful kiss. That was how it looked, at least.
And yeah, I felt the green flames of jealousy light up inside me.
Relek caught me watching them, and followed my gaze over to where I was looking. The clerk serving us also looked, and smirked.
“Have to be sure they’re compatible,” the clerk said. “No need to get into a marriage without knowing you’re actually able to fulfill the obligations.”
I gulped. Obligations? That… was one way to consider the fact that I was here to be a broodmare. I was here to be a fertile wife — to have children for this man. For this Reten, this alien. Yeah, I’d like to love him, and hoped that we would love each other eventually, but… I wasn’t coming in to this looking for love. I was looking to get out of a bad situation. Looking for a place to sleep where I could stretch my legs out all the way. If I happened to get love out of the deal, so much the better. I was looking for a better life. I was looking for a life.
Relek sure was cute, though.
The clerk cleared his throat. “Shouldn’t you prove compatibility as well?”
I glanced up at my alien, and he was glaring at the clerk. Alrighty then. Guess there was not going to be any kisses from that direction. Which made me feel that nothing really would be happening tonight, either, for that matter. But then he looked over at me and my heart skipped a beat.
The look on Relek’s face was that of ‘I’m not letting somebody else tell me when I should or should not kiss the person I’ve just bonded myself to.’ Which was a lot for a look to say, but he had very expressive eyes. And then those eyes got closer, and closer, and then he had to pick me up by my hips because of the whole two foot difference in our height.
And then he kissed me.
I threw my arms around his neck, partially because that would draw my face closer to his for our deep, passionate kiss, and also because it made it so that he didn’t have to hold me. I could hold myself up. But I held him tight. And I kissed him like there was no tomorrow. Because if the world should end tomorrow — well, if either planet should end tomorrow, I was getting this kiss in. And by golly I was getting a hell of a kiss in. A real hell of a kiss. I’d say it was out of this world, but I already was out of the world. The kiss just… emphasized it.
Relek finally released me and lowered me down to the ground. Both of us were stunned. I could see that in his expression, and I’m sure he could see it in mine as well.
In a daze, both of us finished signing the paperwork, signing our name at the bottom. I really didn’t pay too much attention to what it said because it was going to be a better life than what I had back on Earth.
“Let me take you home,” Relek murmured, and I nodded, still with a lack of words from the power of his kiss.