Water World Warrior: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 1) (6 page)

NATHANIEL

Remember to be nice, I told myself. You want this woman to like you. She's doing you a favor by marrying you sight unseen, no matter how much money she gets. Be charming. Be considerate. You need her on your side.

I walked through the door and stopped. I recognized her immediately. I couldn't remember from where. I only knew that her face was as familiar to me as my own. Her photos certainly hadn't been retouched.

She was beautiful in a pale, ethereal sort of way. It looked like she would fly away if the wind blew too hard. She was even prettier than in her pictures. In person, there was something magical about her that defied description. She radiated light and was like a vision.

Her eyes were a pale watery blue, exactly like the ocean in Amanzi Bay at sunrise. I couldn't stop staring at her. I knew she would think I was a weirdo, but I couldn't help it. She caught me like a fish in a net or a shark in a cage. Snared by the loveliness of those blue, blue eyes.

When someone shoved me, I realized that I was blocking the exit, and people had been going around me for quite some time. I snapped out of it and started to move. She turned away from me, and I felt a sense of loss. I needed her to look at me again.

I walked over and cleared my throat. Why was I so nervous? I paid for her to keep me out of jail, nothing more.

"Ashlyn O'Connor?" I said, and she turned back towards me, the picture of surprise.

"Yes?" she replied. Her voice was as sweet as her face. "How do you know my name?"

I laughed, unable to stop myself.

"Because I'm your fiance."

She looked down at the picture in her hand, back up at me, down at the picture again and shook her head.

"It's not the best picture of me," I said, grimacing a little.

"It's not even a picture of you, is it?" she asked, swallowing.

I laughed again, wondering how she made me laugh twice in two minutes when I had only smiled once in the past six months.

"Sure it is. Look." I mimicked the smile and posture in the picture. "Now picture me in one of those stiff suits."

She tilted her head, frowning, and then her eyes lit up.

"It is you. I have to say your picture certainly doesn't do you justice," she said, then looked down at the floor. She looked embarrassed to have blurted that out. Did that mean she thought I was good looking?

The contract said no sex unless both parties consented. Staring at her sweet body and pretty face, I sure hoped she'd consent. Why was I marrying her again?

She looked tired. I should get her back to the hotel. She would want to rest. I needed to be nice to her. I needed to remember my manners. I needed to remember how my mother raised me before I had been nothing more than a fucking pirate.

"Should we go?" I said.

"Um…" she hesitated.

"What is it?"

"I don't suppose you could show me some ID," she said. "You don't look like your picture. How do I know you are who you say you are? You might be some pirate, coming to kidnap me."

My face fell for a moment. She couldn't know, could she? No, of course not. I smiled my most charming smile and was pleased to see her cheeks flush.

"My name is Nathaniel Gregory Lachlan. I have a Ph.D. in environmental science from the University of Mizu O'Nomeemass. I am well known on my planet and across the galaxy for my work on our planet's problem of rising sea levels. And I play the guitar." As I said this, I twisted my right forearm so that the light hit it and made my birth certificate and other identification appear.

She glanced down at my arm for a moment but looked back up without reading it, as I began reciting information about her. "You are Ashlyn Marie Lynn O'Connor. You are from North America on Earth. Age left out in deference to your womanly sensibilities. Your mother recently passed away leaving you to take care of your three brothers. You are a seamstress by trade but are secretly working on your degree in environmental science in the evenings. You've had two boyfriends, both in high school and no one since."

She was staring at me with her mouth agape. I wished she would stop it because it was drawing my attention to the pink softness of her lips and how much I would like to kiss them. I stopped that train of thought before I got carried away.

"You memorized my profile?" she said, flabbergasted.

"I'm a good student," I said. "Are you telling me you didn't memorize mine?"

She didn't answer, but her pale cheeks got even redder.

"I did some research on you too," I admitted. Some of what I'd said hadn't been in her profile, but I had found a human interest article in the newspaper about her mother dying and how she had taken care of her brothers. "It didn't say anywhere what your favorite book was."

We were outside the terminal now and walked towards the parking lot.

"I don't have a favorite book, but I have a favorite fairy tale."

"What is it?" I said. I was curious to know the answer. I waited as she got into her side of the car. I programmed our coordinates, and the car pulled away into traffic. I turned to face her.

"You're familiar with Earth fairy tales?" she said, looking as if the thought had just occurred to her.

"My minor was in Descendants of the Great Race Literature. We studied a mix of all the old tales from a variety of planets."

"It's the Wild Swans."

"Of course it is," I smiled. "Because the heroine saves her brothers."

"Well, she tries to," she said, looking sad now. "But there's one she can't quite save, right? And he ends up with a wing instead of an arm?"

"Right. But she does her best." I pointed out.

"Sometimes your best isn't good enough," she said, looking out the window. I wondered what we were discussing.

She didn't say anything more. I tried to keep the conversation going by telling her my plans.

"We're going to stay at a hotel tonight. Separate rooms," I said right away, so she wouldn't think I was going to try anything on her. "And the wedding's tomorrow."

"Sure," she said. "I'm really tired."

"We'll get you to bed early, and you can sleep on the way home, too," I said.

Home. My fabulous house that had never been my home, where I would leave her for the next year to spend my money.

I hadn't felt bad about deceiving her about who I was. Before I had met her, I hadn't been worried about it at all. What was in my profile was true, to a degree. It just wasn't the whole truth. I hoped to marry her, get myself out of hot water, and then explain my whole life to her.

If she didn't understand, I hoped that she would agree to live in my big house and spend my money and leave me alone for the year that we had to be married. As long as she didn't interfere, I would be perfectly happy.

She wasn't what I had expected. And for a brief, insane moment, I wondered if this would be more than a marriage of convenience after all.

ASHLYN

It was the next morning, and I was getting ready. I picked at an invisible speck of dirt on my pure white dress and tried not to think that this was my wedding day. Within the hour, Nathaniel and I would marry each other.

I had spoken no more than a few words with him. After he had picked me up at the spaceport, I had gone straight to bed without supper and woken up about an hour ago, just in time to get dressed for the wedding.

I had gotten enough sleep, and the jet lag medicine must be working because I felt normal again. At least, as normal as I could feel on my fake wedding day.

I focused on Jeremy, Marlin, and Tim. They mattered to me more than who I was marrying. Marlin needed the money, and I needed to know they were safe, and Marlin's creditors were off his back. Once the important things were taken care of, I could relax and see what I would need to do in the marriage.
I watched in the mirror as the hairdresser twisted a piece of hair on each side of my head into a crown, leaving the rest of my naturally wavy hair down. She took some tiny white flowers and stuck them all in my hair. It looked lovely.

The dress was an old-fashioned one from the days of with the long skirt and the poofy sleeves from the seventeenth century. I guess modern fashions had not made it out this far from Earth. My shoulders were completely bare, and I had on a push-up bra that gave my modest B cups the appearance of more cleavage.

I hoped he wouldn't get the wrong idea, but the woman who had helped me dress said I was wearing a traditional wedding dress from Vandwa. Since it was being provided for me, and I didn't have to worry about paying for it with my credits, I shut my mouth and let her dress me.

I became nervous again when I arrived at the room for the ceremony. Nathaniel was nowhere in sight, and I had to wait for him to show up. The only other people there was the man officiating and some randoms who were going to be witnesses.

Nathaniel came in about fifteen minutes later, looking wild-eyed like he'd been rushing.

"I'm late," he said unnecessarily, nodding to the others and then coming over to me. "I'm sorry, Ashlyn. But I had to pick up the rings."

"No problem," I said though I was trying not let him hurt me. Even if I'm a mail-order bride, he could still be on time for the wedding! "Shall we?"

I gave him a cheerful smile that I didn't feel and went to stand by the marriage official. I turned to look back at him to see if he was coming. He studied me for a moment longer, then smiled a nervous smile and came to stand beside me.

The wedding was the shortest I had ever seen, consisting of merely some basic vows, rings, and the signing. I didn't even have a chance to look at the band that he slid on my finger, it all happened so fast. It was just like I imagined it would be when I was a young girl.

After we had said some words and signed paperwork, the marriage official took our DNA samples with a quick mouth swab. He input the samples, swiped ID, and took a picture of us together. A little machine spit out two clear pieces of plastic.

How romantic.

We held out our left forearms, palms of our hands up, and he pressed the marriage certificates into our skin. They disappeared immediately. When I looked at my arm from the correct angle, I could see our image. The certificate contained our DNA samples, information about our date and place of marriage, as well as our signatures and the certificate number.

I glanced at Nathaniel, but he was still staring at his arm. I twisted the ring on my finger, looking at it more closely now that I had a chance. I was pleasantly surprised. My ring had a Celtic knot on it, which symbolized eternity. I furrowed my brow. That was a strange choice for a marriage of convenience. Then I remembered I wasn't on Earth anymore. What I thought was a Celtic knot might be a weird sailor's knot.

Finally, the marriage official said the words I had always wanted to hear though I hadn't imagined them being said like this.

"You may now kiss the bride," he said.

Nathaniel looked up at me like he hadn't expected this. My breath caught in my chest. Would he kiss me? Did he even want to? Did I want a kiss from him?

I searched his eyes, and I saw them dart down to my lips. I held my breath and time seemed to slow down.

A moment later, he had decided. He moved quickly in and pressed his lips to mine. His touch was electric. I felt myself stiffen in shock and then melt into him. His hands went to my hips, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. He pressed gently at first but then a little more firmly and — I couldn't help it — I opened to him allowing his tongue to tangle with mine. The feeling was like an explosion that shot through my entire body, filling it with bliss. He pulled away too soon and looked flustered.

If that kiss had been part of his TerraMates portfolio, I would have picked him immediately.

That's when I remembered we had an audience. The marriage official was smiling, and the hairdresser was looking politely away. I looked back at Nathaniel, losing myself in those strange turquoise eyes for another long moment before I tore myself away, wiping carefully at my lips and wondering if my lipstick was smudged. He gave me a sweet half-smile and turned to thank everyone.

I sighed. It was done. I could finally wire the money to the boys. Marlin would be safe, and the others would be too. Everything was looking up.

What was I going to do about Nathaniel? I had a preselected husband that I had hoped I would not hate. I had never thought an attraction possible. The kiss overwhelmed me. I burned the 'no sex unless both parties agreed' rule into my brain. If he kissed me like that again, I'd be agreeing all the way to the bedroom.

I hadn't expected to have chemistry with my new husband, but I had to admit that the fact that he was drop-dead gorgeous, and an amazing kisser on top of that was a pretty nice bonus. It had been a very long time since I had slept with anyone, and my long-dormant libido was waking up and taking notice.

And the person it was noticing was Nathaniel.

NATHANIEL

I turned away from Ashlyn — my wife — to thank everyone. They had gone out of their way to do a favor for me. The marriage official had done our wedding on his day off. I would made sure to include a big bonus when I paid him.

Doing these little tasks also gave me time to get my composure back. That kiss had rocked me to the core, and I didn't know what to make of it. I was doing this to get out of trouble with the law. I had no intention of staying married or even spending time with my wife, but when I glanced back at Ashlyn and saw her smiling to herself, I felt something shift.

I didn't know what, but something had changed.

"Ashlyn?" I said, and she looked up at me a little anxiously. "We should go."

She nodded, then looked puzzled.

"Where are we going, Nathaniel?" She was still calling me by my full name. I should tell her to call me Nat. But it was cute. And I liked it. No one had ever called me Nathaniel before.

"We have to make one stop, and then we're going on our honeymoon."

"Oh." Her face displayed many emotions in quick succession: surprise, pleasure, and fear. "A honeymoon?"