Chapter Eight

ARNON

I thought we might be breaking the rules of the trial. We were not supposed to have physical contact until the start of round two, which wouldn’t happen for a few more days. But I could barely control myself when Jayne took her clothes off and slid into the water while wearing nothing but pink underwear.

I wasn’t an expert on women, but it looked like she wanted a kiss. But I wasn’t sure. Our culture venerated women. One of our most basic rules was to make sure we knew what the woman wanted, then give it to her.

“Jayne, I want to ask you something.”

“Yes?” She gazed up at me with blue-green eyes that made my heart jump.

“May I kiss you?”

“You don’t need to ask.” She put her hand on the back of my head and pulled my face down.

It was nothing like the kiss I gave her the first time I saw her. This kiss was like a blazing inferno. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I pulled her close, my hands drawing her hips against me. I wanted her to feel my cock. She should know how much I wanted her. The water felt cold, but our bodies were warm against each other.

She opened her mouth to me immediately, and our tongues did a dance in each other’s mouths. She let out a moan that made me want her more. Before I became too lost in her, I pulled away.

“Arnon, what are you doing?” Her eyes were glazed and unfocused.

“I think we need to stop. If we don’t, we’ll want to keep going.”

“I already want to keep going.” The truth fell out of her lips before she could stop it.

“So do I.” I put my hand to her cheek. “But it can’t be.”

“Why not? Do you have a no-sex until the tenth date rule on Auxem?” Her voice was almost plaintive.

“Consummation of the union creates the life bond.” I kissed her on the nose and floated away from her before I became tempted to take her in my arms again.

“It can’t happen by itself or there will be problems. There’s a proper order of things. Courtship, marriage with the bonding ceremony, then fulfillment. Mating completes the bond started in the official ceremony.”

“Well, that killed the mood.” She looked glum.

“I hope we may someday consummate our desire,” I said formally.

Her eyes widened as she realized the implications of what I had just said. To my dismay, she didn’t say anything similar to me. She only gave me a weak smile.

As difficult as it was for me to believe, was it possible that she didn’t want to bond with me? The thought was inconceivable, but I supposed it was theoretically possible.

I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. “If you’d like to move on to someone else, I won’t be offended.” I pulled myself out of the pool and turned my back to her as I put on my shorts. I didn’t want her to see my face, which might betray my feelings. “I’m sure there are plenty of other couples finding out they aren’t compatible at this very moment. We have no obligation to each other.”

She raced around and shoved her face in front of me. “No obligation?” she said emphatically. “What about the kiss? Was it only lust for you?”

I looked down at her calmly. “No, it meant something more. If that makes you uncomfortable, you are free to choose someone else.”

Jayne looked at me angrily. “Arnon, I don’t want anyone else.”

I stared into her eyes and wondered what I might learn if I could read her mind. She stepped into me and put her arms around my waist. I didn’t say anything, but I was listening.

“I may not know if I want to bond with you, but I wouldn’t want to bond with anyone else. Are you telling me that you’re sure I should be your bond mate?”

I didn’t say anything.

“I didn’t think so. But I’m not done finding out. I believe you’re a little too serious about everything.”

She might have a point. Being the crown prince and living through the tragedy of our females hadn’t given me much time to fool around as I was growing up.

“On Earth, we have titles for our kings. I bet you’d be known as Arnon the Solemn.” I could tell she was teasing me. “I think we’re going to have to inject some fun into you. I know where we’re going for our next date. Bring your bathing suit this time. They won’t let us in if we’re only wearing underwear.”

I don’t know where I thought we were going, but I hadn’t expected where we ended up. We were in a place with water slides everywhere.

Our planet had high technology without being overly developed. Our houses were simple and traditional, with technology hidden behind doors and cupboards. There were no flashing lights or wires anywhere in our homes. In fact, our society was somber compared to the humans. We had always had a threat of death over us. Massive predators roamed our world, and we had taken to the skies so we could escape the deadly animals that threatened us on the ground.

There were no amusement parks on Auxem, and by extension, no water slides. I felt out of place here playing with her. I usually had something important to do. I was always working on an official project or worrying about my brothers. I never had time to enjoy myself.

“Don’t just stand there. Let’s do something!” Jayne took my hand and led me up a set of metal stairs. “We’ll start at the top. That will give us the longest ride down.”

I shrugged and let her pull me along. I enjoyed her enthusiasm even though I had a hard time sharing it. I couldn’t help thinking that we should be doing something more important than running around. When we reached the top, I realized the slide was just a long, enclosed tube.

Jayne gave me a mischievous grin. “Put your legs around me so we can go down together.”

“If you insist.” I straddled her and wrapped my arms around her waist.

“Are you ready?” She twisted her neck to look back at me.

I kissed her. “I’m always ready.”

“Okay, here we go.” Jayne pushed against the tube with her hands to start us moving. In an instant, we were flying down the slide at a breathtaking pace. When the slide suddenly dropped, I screamed, then laughed. It was almost as much fun as flying.

“Woohoo!” Jayne yelled the whole way down, then dragged me back up to do it again. After a couple of hours of zipping around, we grabbed inner tubes and started floating in a slow-moving river that encircled the park, drifting along on the idle current.

“Do you think you can be ready to choose a bond mate within a week?”

I didn’t expect Jayne to be so forward with her questions, but I decided to answer her honestly. “I’m not sure. I know I’m enjoying our time together and I don’t want anything to end.”

“If we don’t bond, it has to end, doesn’t it?”

I shrugged noncommittally.

“Let’s be honest with each other — there’s nothing ordinary about our dates. We both have big expectations on our shoulders. A day at the water park isn’t going to change anything.”

“That’s true.” I felt like anything I said was dangerous. “Do you think you won’t be ready to bond in a week?” I hated to ask her like this, but if there wasn’t a future between us we should end things immediately.

“I don’t like being rushed and forced into such a big decision.”

“How big is the decision?”

JAYNE

“I don’t know, Arnon. What if it doesn’t work out? We can’t get divorced.”

“Technically we could, but it’s complicated.”

“Wait a second. You people are always talking about mating for life. And now you’re saying that you can get divorced? Make up your minds!”

“Marriage is one thing. It’s a social and legal construct. But the life bond is something else. If we got married without bonding, it wouldn’t be an issue. Some people do get divorced on Auxem, but it’s rare, and we don’t like to talk about it. It’s usually only if one of the people is mentally unstable or when it’s unsafe for a partner to stay in the relationship.”

I stared at Arnon. The more I learned about the Auxem, the more I realized that I didn’t know anything about them at all.

“Once the life bond forms, it has nothing to do with the marriage. The bond is an emotional and physical connection between both partners. As the name implies, it’s for life. I’m not sure what would happen in a divorce between a man from Auxem and an Earth woman. I’m not anxious to find out, either. I think you’re making this harder than it has to be, little girl.” He held my gaze. “Didn’t you make a decision about me the moment we first kissed on the bed? Can you tell me that you haven’t been thinking about me since that night?”

“No,” I whispered. “You’re all I think about nowadays.”

“Sometimes we complicate things that should be simple. Don’t worry about bonding, Jayne. Whatever happens will happen.”

“You’re right. But the thing is, I don’t usually trust my instincts. My parents taught me to ignore my intuition and favor logic.”

He reached out and took my hands, which were trembling. “I don’t think logic has anything to do with this.” He gave my hand a squeeze as I blushed.

Arnon was right. Logic didn’t have anything to do with the way he made me feel. When we reached the end of the river, he suggested that we get something to eat. Somehow the fun had vanished from the day. Nothing was spoiled, but things felt official again.

After we changed and picked a restaurant, we transported over and placed our orders. “What’s got you so pensive, Jayne?”

“I don’t know. I wanted to help you lighten up, but I think I’m starting to become more contemplative. What we’re doing is a big responsibility and our choices will affect many people.”

He watched me for a minute and leaned back in his chair, looking relaxed. I didn’t feel calm at all. There was a whirlwind of feelings inside me that I couldn’t comprehend.

“Before he became king, my parents went on a few dates, I think. My father ended up stationed far away in another city for work. My grandfather had lived for a long time before he decided to retire and pass the throne to my dad. He worked in his chosen field, zoology.”

“Wow, your family is certainly a wild bunch.”

“He wasn’t thinking clearly at the time and didn’t want to make my mother any promises, so he didn’t tell her where he was going or why. He missed her but wasn’t going to look like it. He didn’t bother calling her or writing.”

“It sounds like he was...” I trailed off, not wanting to say anything too offensive.

“A jerk? He was and he is. Dad’s a good man, but he’s not particularly concerned with other people’s feelings.”

“Eventually he realized he was being stupid and went back to her. He thought she had been pining away for him, but he was wrong. She had already made up her mind about him and written him off. She started dating someone else. When my father came back intending to ask her to marry him, she had already moved on to another person.”

“He shouldn’t have taken her for granted.”

“You’re right. When he showed up at her place, there was another guy there. Lucky for me, my mother is a forgiving woman. She gave my dad another chance. He apologized profusely. She forgave him, and I exist today.”

“Ha. I think I would have liked your mother.”

“I’m sure you would have.” Arnon had a trace of sadness in his eyes.

“Was she ever worried about making the crown prince grovel at her feet?”

“My mother was completely unconcerned about things like that. She was a lot like you in that respect.”

“Like me?”

“Well, you’re dating a crown prince. I’m kind of a big deal on my planet.” He grinned sheepishly.

He was right. I had completely forgotten again that Arnon was royalty. He wasn’t anything special to me. He was just Arnon, not a title.

“I apologize, your majesty.”

“Don’t do that. I appreciate that you’re not aware of it unless I point it out to you. On other planets, it’s all women could talk about.” He dropped his eyes. “They never bothered seeing me for who I am.”

“I see you,” I whispered.

He looked up quickly, meeting my eyes and making my breath jump. I didn’t know how long we stayed frozen looking at each other. The only thing that broke the spell was when the food came.

“How did your parents meet?” he asked, unrolling his silverware from the napkin.

“That’s a story and a half. They were pen pals for a long time…”

“Pen pals?” He frowned at the unfamiliar word combination. Everyone in the galaxy spoke Standard, but certain words were part of regional dialects. The entire vocabulary for Standard was huge, and it was impossible to learn all the words.

“I think it’s something peculiar to Earth. It started when people on other sides of the planet wrote letters to each other. They sent holographic videos back and forth. My mom had a weird job. She worked for an organization which was trying to stop overpopulation on Earth by encouraging people to stay single and celibate.”

“That sounds disgusting.” Arnon looked aghast.

“Some planets don’t have enough children, and some have too many. We’re just getting our population back under control. Thirty years ago, we were prepared to send our citizens out as refugees. The President remembers her history and that’s one of the reasons she is so accommodating right now. If this works out, we can get a lot of childbearing women off Earth and into good homes.”

“It counts twice, right? People and their babies will go off the planet.”

“Exactly.”

Arnon’s eyes lit up. “This could be important for your people, too.”

“Definitely. This isn’t just a list of boxes for me to check off. I feel like the weight of two worlds is on my shoulders.”

“Jayne, you need to relax. Promise me you’ll try not to think like you have to save the world.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“You know what? It’s my turn to plan our next date, and it is going to take your mind off all your problems.”