I Married An Alien (7 page)

“
Are you ready?” Dana asked.

“
As I’ll ever be,” I murmured softly, still awed by the wide-eyed young beauty gazing back at me from the mirror.

“
Speaking from experience, the first time isn’t so bad, particularly if you’ve had a boyfriend before.”

Since I knew virtually nothing about Anita’s life before I took over, all I could do was hope that she had. After seeing how large his hands were, I didn’t doubt Mr Demantena’s
other
organs were equally in proportion. I suppressed a shiver. I really didn’t fancy losing my virginity to an oversized alien on another planet. But it seemed that this was precisely what was going to happen to me. Once again I hoped that Anita had already had sex.

“
Have no fear Anita. They have been well schooled in the art of love-making,” Dana once again tried to reassure me. Unfortunately it didn’t work, as another shiver chilled down my spine.

She pulled the front of my veil over my face, so that I was now looking at the world through frosted gauze. On uncertain legs, I followed her out of the change room, down another long corridor, and into a very official looking chamber.

Two pompous-looking men were sitting behind a long bench to one side. One looked like he was from Earth but the other was obviously Terron. They all seemed to favor long hair, but this man had his tied back into a neat braid. They both wore elegant black robes adorned with embroidery down the front.

Another official-looking man stood beside the man I was to marry, along with the older one I’d first seen him with. I wondered if he was his father. The last thing I wanted in my life right now were parents-in-law. He too wore one of those long black embroidered robes. But what Mr Demantena was wearing, or more to the point, not wearing, completely stole my breath away.

He still had on those shiny skin-tight black pants, but had removed his jacket. I sincerely wished he’d left it on, because I felt my face flush as I took in the sight of the biggest damn erection I’d ever seen, not that I’d been subject to many… well not this up close and personal. If my cheeks could have flared any redder I would have turned into a tomato.

Tearing my eyes away from that enormous bulge didn’t help my flaming cheeks, because the shimmery white shirt he wore had been left open almost to the navel, revealing the most impressive abs in the galaxy. Which galaxy, I wasn’t sure, since I had no idea just how far from Earth I was, but they beat anything a body-builder from my own time period could have produced without pumping iron and drinking steroid milk-shakes.

Dana nudged me from behind, and I realize I’d faltered in my steps. I glanced at her, and my confusion must have shown on my face. Once again she beamed her reassuring smile. She appeared to have come out of this still in one piece, so I took a few more uncertain steps.

My husband-to-be, or mate, or whatever the heck he was supposed to be, held out his hand to me, but I didn’t put mine in it, because when he moved, I saw that his shirt had splits in the sleeves, revealing tanned muscular arms. I know most women would have been reduced to a puddle of drool on the floor by now, but I wasn’t a normal woman, and neither was this a normal situation.

I had to marry this incredible hunk, and then have sex with him! How could I when the sight of that massive bulge in his pants scared the living daylights out of me? There was no way I’d survive a night of passion with a man built like him. And why the hell was he sprouting such a massive hard-on anyway? Surely he should have more self-control than that!

This was clearly what my traveling companions had been warning me about. And naïve little fool that I was had walked straight into the lion’s den. Not that I’d had much choice otherwise.

“
All right, what do I have to do to get out of this?” I heard myself asking in a frightened little mouse voice.

“
It’s all right, Anita,” Dana tried to reassure me again.

I rounded on her. “No, it’s not all right. Look at him, for goodness sake. He’s going to break this tiny little body in two!” I swept a hand over my borrowed persona. Even as Ruth Clarke, I doubted my ability to accommodate what he had filling his trousers.

“
No, he won’t. Haven’t you read your notes?” she asked.

“
No, can I go and read them now?” I demanded. Anything for a reprieve while I tried to work out a way to extricate myself from this insane situation.

“
This can’t wait,” Mr Demanteena growled, grabbing hold of my hand in his enormous one. It was then I noticed he was trembling. As I glanced up at him in alarm, I saw a faint sheen of sweat on his brow. After nursing my mother for years, I saw the sickness in his eyes right away. Whereas they’d had a healthy silvery glow a short time ago, they were now as dull as those of a dying man. Even his skin seemed to have paled beneath his tan. Why did such a well-built, supposedly healthy man, suddenly look like he was standing on death’s door?

“
I don’t even know your first name,” I cried, trying to extract my hand from his, but he held it fast. He might look ill, but he was still much stronger than I.

“
It’s Jordan,” he ground out, as though it was an effort to even talk. His hand continued to tremble as he pulled me closer to him. I became conscious of how hot he felt, much hotter than before.

“
Jordan?” I squeaked, having expected something unusual and exotic as his surname.

“
Yes, blame your planet for that one,” he rumbled.

He hadn’t asked me my name, and I wondered if he even cared to know. Probably not. He’d just want to jump my bones and impale me on that great big rod of his. I cringed inwardly at own overactive thoughts.

“
No, it’s a perfectly nice name,” I admitted. “I just expected something more, Terron, I suppose. And what’s wrong with you, anyway? You’re sweating and shaking like you’ve got a severe dose of the flu.”

“
Terrons don’t get the flu,” he muttered, and nodded to the Terron official standing in front of us, who took this as his cue to begin the marriage rites. They sounded exactly like they had hundreds of years ago on Earth, except his accent-less voice made him seem banal and completely disinterested in his job. Perhaps he was. He’d probably read out these rites hundreds of times before, and couldn’t really give a fig what became of all the Earth women who disappeared into Terron’s hinterland.

As I stood there beside the towering inferno, my ears buzzing and my own body rebelling, I longed for a pair of red shoes I could click together and chant; ‘There is no place like home. There is no place like home.’

Surely the Prof would have worked out how to get me back by now. He couldn’t mean to leave me here permanently, could he?

But when Jordan Demanteena said he would take Anita DeBurgh as his lawfully wedded wife, I finally came up with my out clause.

When the official turned and asked me the same question, I said; “Well, you see that’s the problem. I’m not Anita. I’m actually Ruth Clarke from the year two-thousand and twelve. And I took part in this experiment that kind of got out of hand-”

“
She says yes,” my over-sexed companion interrupted my ramblings.

“
No, I don’t,” I protested, glaring at him. “And if we’re sticking to tradition here, if one party says no then it means-”

“
I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the official announced.

“
No,”
I finished. They weren’t even
listening
to me! Didn’t I have any rights at all?

Suddenly the towering inferno seemed to tumble, taking me with him. If it hadn’t been for both his elderly companion and the official grabbing hold of his arms, he would have landed right on top of me. Luckily I managed to scramble away as he let go of my hand.

“
Can’t take it… anymore…” Jordan moaned, seeming to sag between them. “Too late… it‘s all too late.” A look of despair clouded his ashen face. He looked utterly devastated.

“
My God!” I gasped. “Is he going to die?”

“
Not yet, but he’s going to Age,” the older man said grimly. “Just like me.”

“
Well duh,” I said. “Don’t we all?” Except for me, it seemed, who appeared to be defying that particular law of nature due to Professor Johnston’s malfunctioning time travel experiment.

“
I’ll call the medic,” Dana said. “Surely something can be done before it’s too late. Take him through to the honeymoon suite,” she ordered.

Somehow they managed to drag the comatose blonde giant out of the room. Before I was given the opportunity to even consider making a run for it, two steroid-munching guards dressed all in black, carrying sophisticated looking firearms I didn’t want to mess with, appeared as though by magic to escort me in the same direction.

The honeymoon suite turned out to be a magnificent set of rooms overlooking the Citadel in another part of this enormous hotel complex. A gorgeous sitting room from which veered a massive bathroom, and beside it another room dominated by the biggest damn bed I’d ever seen. I guess it had to be huge to accommodate the likes of Jordan Demanteena, who still seemed to dominate it despite it’s size. He lay sprawled on it, looking like he was asleep, rather than suffering from some terminal Terron aging disease. And that damn bulge in his trousers still hadn’t gone down despite his comatose state. I chanced a glance back at my two guards’ nether regions. Neither of them were packing anything even remotely like it.

I was beginning to wonder if I should feel sorry for the man. The elderly gent now sitting at his side on the bed had looked positively heart-broken when Jordan had collapsed. The thought of getting married and then having my husband promptly die on me didn’t sit al all well, and I glanced away from the tragic scene of the gravely ill man and his grieving companion, wondering if my guards would allow me to even leave the room.

They flanked me as I returned to the sitting room, and watched me closely as I sank down onto one of the soft velvet-covered lounge chairs. I leant forward to place my elbows on my knees, and rubbed the sides of my temples with my fingers, not realizing until then how tense I was. Where was that fruity wine? I could have used a whole carafe of it right now!

My journey into the future had suddenly turned from an adventure into disaster, with me a virtual prisoner, forced to marry a dying man. Could this night possibly get any
worse?

Chapter
Five

The medic arrived promptly enough. They must have had one stationed within the building, which didn’t surprise me, since it appeared to house so many people from both planets. What did surprise me was that the medic was a Terron woman, one of the very few I’d seen since my arrival on the planet.

She swept past me without even a glance. Since I was sitting hunched over n my over-sized armchair, she probably didn’t even notice me. She was almost as tall as her Terron male counterparts, with features equally as sharp and angular. Behind her she trailed a bag, no doubt containing her medical supplies. She was wearing a pair of long loose-fitting pale blue pants and an equally as comfortable looking white shirt. Her long honey-colored hair was tied back in a loose braid, and she wore no adornments or jewelry that I could see. It seemed only the women from Earth dolled themselves up, the same way they always had. I had to admit I preferred her casual garb to this tight and revealing gown, I continuously had to hike the bodice up on for fear of bits of me falling out of it. Nice boobs I might have borrowed, but I didn’t particularly want everyone getting an eyeful of them.

Since I’d seen enough sickness with my slowly deteriorating mother, I glanced away when the medic entered the bedroom, preferring instead to concentrate on removing the irritating veil from my hair, no mean feat, since Dana had used almost an entire packet of pins and bottle of hairspray to keep it in place. Since I didn’t consider myself married I draped it over the armrest of my chair, absently fingering the soft gauze, wondering just what was going to happen to me next.

I glanced back up at my guards, who stood about a foot apart, their brawny arms crossed over their massive chests, legs planted wide, shiny silver alien weapons looking ominous in their side holsters within easy reach.

Dana appeared in the main doorway. It wasn’t until she stepped up to one of the guards and slipped her arms around his waist, that I realized just why she’d come back. So this was her man, I mused, watching as he returned her embrace by draping his brawny arm about her slender shoulders. She looked more like a child standing beside him than his partner.

I could hear the medic and Jordan’s elderly friend talking in soft voices in the adjoining room, but couldn’t make out any words. I returned my attention to my lap, not wanting to witness Dana and her mate’s affection. I’d always been embarrassed whenever I came across couples kissing or embracing in public places.

“
I’ve given him something that will revive him for a while,” the medic announced suddenly, her voice sounding almost as deep as a man’s. My head jerked up, and I saw her standing in the doorway between the two rooms, obscuring the bed from view.

Her gaze dropped to me. “I suggest you get on with it as quickly as possible. With any luck you might be able to arrest the Aging process if you mate within the hour. If not, not only will his life be severely shortened, he might also need an amputation.” She waved her hand in the vicinity of her body where a certain male appendage would be. “I’ve never seen such a severe reaction.”