Chapter Seven
I swallowed. Relek looked mad. Very mad.
“I went for a walk,” I said, weakly. Suddenly my plan of learning the neighborhood didn’t seem like it was a great idea. “Nice area, I like it,” I added in the hopes that a compliment would lighten him up. Hey, a girl could try, right?
But it didn’t work.
He stepped aside so I could enter the elevator, so I meekly walked in. The door closed us in, and the space seemed to shrink. Relek was so big. He consumed the area.
We were quiet on the ride up to his apartment. Thankfully it was a quick journey — but still, the silence was deafening.
After the door opened on the main room, Relek led the way to the couch. I considered standing, or heading into the bedroom, or anything other than hearing the lecture that was sure to be coming.
But then, why should I? Why should I hide from Relek? It wasn’t that I was scared of him, even with his large frame. Sure, I didn’t want to get a lecture, but I didn’t deserve one. I went for a walk, that was it.
So I put my chin up, steeled my own gaze, and sat at the other end of the couch, right on the front of the seat. I didn’t want to sit back and shrink into the cushions. I was done shrinking — I had done that enough after the mayor and that fiasco. I hadn’t done anything wrong then, either, so I wasn’t going to cave this time like I had last time. I didn’t need to run away and hide.
“I went for a walk,” I said again. “This is a nice, safe neighborhood. It would have to be, otherwise you — the head of the Security Force, wouldn’t be living here. So you don’t get to be mad at me. What, you thought I would just stay inside all day, every day? Not happening.” There. I was firm. I was in control of myself.
Relek’s chiseled face cracked slightly. “It’s not that I don’t trust you—”
“Just everyone else?” I finished for him. “If you thought the planet wasn’t safe, why would you agree to marry me in the first place?”
He looked down and away, choosing his words with care. “One of the other Earth women was accosted,” he said softly.
My already-straight back stiffened even further. “Oh my God, is she okay? Does she need anything?”
“She’s fine, her husband arrived immediately. She’s a bit scared, obviously, but she is well. We have the perpetrator, and she is safe from further harm.”
“What happened? Why did it happen?” I wouldn’t settle for Relek telling me it wasn’t my business — anything that affected one of us from Earth affected all of us. I was possessive towards the other women, even if I hadn’t met any of them yet. We would meet up at some point, surely. We might not have known each other beforehand, and might not have a ton in common, but we were all from a planet on the other side of the universe, and recently married to a very large alien. That was more than enough to create a bond between us.
“I can’t say everything yet,” Relek started. I opened my mouth to protest, to tell him that I didn’t need to be protected from hearing about it, but he held out a hand. “We’re still investigating and finding out all the information. I don’t engage in casual speculation — when I know for sure, it will be communicated.”
That was a PR line if I ever heard one, and I’d written them. “You know the basics, surely. Was she targeted specifically because she was from Earth? Because she was a woman? Did he try to kidnap her because he wanted a woman for himself?”
Relek had lowered his hand down to his knee, but raised it again at my flood of questions. “He thought — incorrectly — that she was meant to be his bride, and wanted to reclaim her. It was specific to her, and you are not in danger.”
His words belied his actions, though, so I jumped on it. “Then why were you so worried about me?”
He opened his mouth and closed it, not saying a word.
I softened my words, since it seemed like I had nailed his subconscious thought process. “That’s why you were worried when you came home and I wasn’t here, wasn’t it? You thought that since something bad happened to one of the other women, that something bad happened to me?”
He still said nothing, so I shifted on the couch to get closer to him, resting my hand on his knee. He looked down in surprise at the touch.
I continued, my voice low and tender. “Bad things happen to people, and it’s not anything that is their fault, or the fault of anyone other the the perpetuator. I know you know that. You are not responsible for it, and wrapping me in bubble-wrap won’t help anything.”
“I don’t know what ‘bubble-wrap’ is, but I think I understand the concept. Like being snuggled in praben fur? You are wrong, though. It is my responsibility. Everyone here is my responsibility. It is not right for this to happen, especially right after the first wave of women came through the portal.”
I shrugged. I didn’t agree with him on the responsibility thing. Just because he was the head of security didn’t mean he was responsible for the bad actors. He had no reason to feel guilty over it.
I started to feel my stomach sink. I needed to take my own advice. Most of me knew that what happened with the mayor wasn’t my fault. But there was still a small portion that wondered if I was. If I should have known, and prevented it. Was there any signs? I truly didn’t know. Especially with all the mess that came from it, it would be hard to point any fingers at any one person, even though people were happy to point everywhere.
But it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t have done anything. The mayor had acted on his own initiative. Just like the guy that attacked the other Earth woman. It wasn’t my fault, and it wasn’t Relek’s fault.
I couldn’t do anything to help my reputation back on Earth, but I could do something here. I could help Relek get in front of any trouble.
“Do you have a PR director?” I asked bluntly.
“A what?” He looked confused, probably from not being able to keep up with my own internal monologue. He’d have to get used to that — my mind went a mile a minute, and hopefully he could follow the path I took.
“Someone who works with the media. And in this case, would work with the media on Earth, too.”
Relek’s face was still a blank. Did they seriously not do public relations here?
“You have newspapers, or whatever the local equivalent is, right? TV stations? Like, how you find out what the weather tomorrow is going to be, or read about politics and the issues of the day?”
“Oh, the Heileste? Yes, I’ll talk to them when circumstances dictate.”
“You don’t have a dedicated person at the department, or with the city, that is the go-between?”
“No, why would we? Who would want to do something like that?”
I sighed. Did he really just disparage my career? “I like to do that. Didn’t you read my bio?”
Relek shrugged, and looked away, a slightly guilty look on his face. “I skimmed it. You were the first that appeared, and you had a pretty face.”
My jaw dropped. I was having problems keeping up with all the information Relek was laying on me. “Seriously? You just picked the first woman on the list to marry?” I bit my tongue after the words left my mouth, realizing I had no room to talk — I had done the same. Maaaaybe I shouldn’t get into that whole can of worms. Change the subject, quick. “Anyway, yes, I do public relations. That’s what I studied for in school. You need to get in front of this. Don’t let the media — the Heileste — control the narrative. Especially back on Earth. You don’t want to get smeared and turn other girls off from applying.”
Relek reeled at that. “I don’t know what half those words mean, but it doesn’t sound good. That can happen? They can keep women from wanting to marry a Reten?”
Wow, he was so clueless it was cute.
“Yes, and your society doesn’t need that. Look, um…” Was this my chance at redemption? Could I offer to help? I was bored, and looking for something to do. This would be… jumping right into it. But I could bridge the gap between the Reten culture and Earth. I knew the Earth side. And I was perfectly situated, being a new bride on the planet, to address what it was like over here.
“Let me help,” I finally said. “I can smooth the feathers on the other girls here.” At Relek’s confused face at my idiom, I rephrased. “I can get them less stressed. Less concerned. Less apt to call home to Earth and less apt to want to go back there.”
Fear flittered across Relek’s face. “Do you want to go back?”
“No!” I hurried to say. “And that’s why you need me. How concerned you just were when I said that — that’s what we don’t want their husbands thinking. And what we don’t want future husbands thinking. We need to address the situation and make it go away. Nicely, without sweeping it beneath the rug.”
He looked confused again, and I sighed internally. I really had to watch my phrasing. I was used to speaking in idioms, in phrases that made things make sense to the listener. Now I was dealing with an alien race and language, and I had to choose my words more carefully to aid in understanding.
“But anyway, I can help. This is something in my wheelhouse — something I know how to do,” I hurried to say. Damn it, and I had just warned myself to speak simply for him.
“Why would you do this?” Relek asked me cautiously, but his body was looking more relaxed, less stressed. I was glad to see that, and put my hand back on his knee. He reached down and took my hand in his larger one. “What will you get out of it?”
“Well, a paycheck, to start. I don’t work for free,” I warned, but did give a chuckle. “But I want a job. I want to keep busy. I can still work and be a wife to you, and a mother to our children.”
“You can do both? All three at once?”
“People do it every day back on Earth,” I said dryly. Was there always a stay-at-home spouse here? Well, from what I’d been learning, it’d most certainly be a stay-at-home mom. But I could do it all. I was a modern woman. Hell, I came across the universe — I could do anything. I continued, “It would give me a chance to give back to my new home. Retere. My life, and yours, will be better with the influx of earthlings. I’ll make new friends, and we will support each other as we navigate our way through our new lives here. It’d be good for me. Which would be good for you,” I added with a suggestive raise of an eyebrow.
“Good how?” Relek asked, and I darted a gaze over to him just in time to see the corner of his mouth quirk in a slight grin. Okay, so he wasn’t playing clueless anymore. He was playing horny husband.