Water World Warrior: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 1) (8 page)

"What is it?" Nathaniel said, studying my face as I stood at the bow.

The ship was moving with an undulating motion that soothed me, and I felt relaxed in the warm sunshine.

"I have no obligations out here," I said, wondering if he would understand.

He got a funny look on his face.

"Me too," he admitted.

I was surprised.

"Come on. You don't have to worry about money, and you have an excellent career and this ship. You couldn't possibly know what it's like to feel trapped," I said.

"You might be surprised," he said, and I noticed he had come closer and was standing next to me.

"What could make a guy like you, who's got everything, feel trapped?" I said.

"Is that what you think?" he chuckled, holding my gaze. "That I have everything?"

"Don't you?" I said, unable to look away from those turquoise depths as he moved an inch closer.

"Not everything," he whispered, and our lips were nearly touching. My breath was coming fast, and I felt my chest rising and falling with the rapid beating of my heart.

"Captain?" someone called, and we leapt apart.

Shit. That was close. No getting emotional involvement, I chastised myself.

I tried to slow my breathing and calm myself.

"We need you in navigation for a moment, sir."

He sighed, looking at me with undisguised longing.

"I'll be right there," he said and the crew member, red-faced, left as quickly as he could.

"See you later?" he said.

I nodded.

The last thing I needed was more time alone with Nathaniel.

"Oh, and Nathaniel?" I said. He stopped, twisting his head around to look at me.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for this. I love your ship."

"The Dream," he said.

I frowned.

"It's the name of the ship. She's called The Dream."

I laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" he said.

"Oh, it's just funny," I said.

"Funny?" He looked puzzled. "I have always thought it was a perfect name. My grandfather christened her. My family's had her for three generations."

I could see that he was hurt by my laughter.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh. It's just that it's like my name. Ashlyn is a derivative of the name Ashling — an Irish name. It means a dream or vision."

He stared at me.

"Your name means a dream?" he said.

"Yep."

"You might be, at that," he said so quietly that I almost didn't catch it. He looked me over from head to toe, making my thoughts scatter and causing a tingling feeling to spread throughout my entire body. I held my breath until he turned to attend to his ship.

Me? A dream? What was he talking about?

He must mean that I was like a dream. Ephemeral. I would be here and then gone.

We were in an arranged marriage. Women who had arranged marriages were all about security, not passion, right? That described me perfectly.

Responsible.

Hard-working.

Feet on the ground, Ashlyn.

There was no dreaming in my life.

And I would do well to remember that.

Nathaniel and his perfect life were a dream I could never have.

NATHANIEL

I was trying to focus. I was attempting to stick to the plan.

We had arrived at my house in time to unpack, have dinner together, and go to bed. In separate rooms, of course.

The first day of our 'honeymoon' was over. We went to bed with our marriage unconsummated. And I was okay with that. At least that's what I told myself.

Spend a couple more just-friends days with her and then you're off, you're away, I thought. You won't have to deal with a wife anymore. My staff would take good care of her, and I would continue with my life exactly the way it was before. Nothing had to change.

The problem was I wasn't sure if I wanted change or not.

Ashlyn had brought something with her when she entered my life. A fresh breeze. A feeling of newness. She made me think that being cynical wasn't all it was cracked up to be. She made me have hope again that everything wasn't all going to shit.

I wasn't falling for her or anything sappy like that. I lived in real life, not a fantasy. I wanted her. She was sweet and sexy. It was nothing more than physical attraction.

I didn't want a wife. I had never had any intention of ever getting married at all until I needed to because of my stupid mistake.

I had seen how my father treated my mother, and I never wanted to be a husband like that. If I were never a husband, then I would never be terrible at it. Problem solved.

I finished packing my swimming gear and went out into the hall. A strange voice called out. "Nathaniel?"

I smiled before I turned around. I should tell her to call me Nat. Nobody else called me Nathaniel, but maybe that was why I liked it. She was the only one who did it.

"I was coming to get you. Are you ready to go?" She had a flowing skirt on, covering her bikini bottoms and I tried not to look at her breasts in the little top she was wearing. In the quick glance I got, I saw that they were small but round and full — probably the perfect handful.

Eyes on her face, Nat.

She held up her backpack for me to see.

"Great, we should get going," I shouldered my backpack and waited for her to go down the stairs ahead of me.

"Okay."

We walked out the door of the house and on to the boardwalk that led to land. When we got to the shore, I spread my arms.

"Where do you want to go, Ashlyn? The whole island is ours."

"Is the whole island yours?" she said. Yours. Not ours.

"Yep! There's not much of it, but it's pretty."

"I would love to go for a swim."

"You got it, lady," I said. "Left or right?"

The beautiful white sand stretched away as far as we could see in both directions until the curvature of the island made it disappear.

"How about left," she said. "I'm feeling reckless today."

I laughed, and we walked down the sand. It was hot but not burning yet.

"Is there any wildlife that I should be worried about?" she said.

I shook my head.

"There are no predators in this part of the ocean because we have overhunted them, or they've been pushed back behind The Barrier in this area."

"What's The Barrier?"

"Just like people on land-based planets pushed back wildlife away from their cities and farms, we've done the same on Vandwa for sea creatures. Generations ago, we built The Barrier and started pushing back the wildlife — like sharks and other predators — behind it. In the beginning, we just killed them. Later on, if we caught something dangerous, we started to drop them over The Barrier."

"Makes sense," she said, putting her backpack on the sand. She proceeded to put her skirt on the sand too. Now she was standing before me in only her small red bikini. She looked up and caught me gawking.

"Sorry," I said, swallowing and looking out to sea, for a moment. I couldn't help it. I soon found myself looking back at her again. Her body was perfect, and I wanted her.

She pulled a ponytail out of her backpack and lifted her arms to pull back her hair. She inadvertently pushed her breasts up and out towards me, and I tore my gaze away with difficulty. How was I going to do this?

That's when it hit me. I didn't have to abstain. She was my wife! She only had to want to have sex with me, too, and there wouldn't be a problem. As long as both parties agree, remember Nat?

Why didn't I think of this before?

As Vess had mentioned, the ladies didn't usually turn me down. All I had to do was be charming. I was good at that. I attracted her — well, it seemed that way. Maybe I needed to test that theory and see. I only had to make myself irresistible, and she would want to fall into my bed.

"No, it's okay," she said, tearing me out of my reverie. "Maybe we should talk about it."

"About what?" I said, pulling off my T-shirt and the amulet my grandmother had given me. She stared at me for a moment, before she shook her head and went on.

"About our marriage," she said, walking into the water. "Oh, it's warm."

Her eyes were round, and there was a look of amazement on her face.

But I was still caught on the words she had said.

"Of course it is," I said, answering her but feeling worried. What did she want to talk about in regards to the marriage? I mean, I knew we'd have to talk eventually, but I was worried that she would ask challenging questions. "What were you expecting?"

"Where I'm from the water is cold. Freezing. It warms up in the middle of summer, but even then it's a shock, and you have to get used to it."

I nodded.

"Like in the northern hemisphere. But we're in the Southern Isles here and the water's always warm."

"I can't believe it," she said, walking in up to her waist. I kept pace beside her.

"What did you want to talk about exactly?" I said, nervously. I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I hoped she didn't ask any awkward questions, but it was probably better to get it all out in the open.

"Clearly there is a certain amount of attraction between the two of us." Her eyes cut sideways, and she checked me out. I was so shocked at her directness that I didn't reply. Her eyes clouded. "Or, I thought there was…"

I snapped my head around to her.

"You could say that. Although, I think a certain amount is a bit of an understatement."

We were getting in up to chest level, and her breasts were starting to float. I was relieved that our waists were submerged because I was getting hard. I hoped she wouldn't look down through the clear water because it was becoming more and more apparent.

She smiled a little self-conscious smile.

"I was wondering what the rules are, I guess. I've never been a mail-order bride before, and I don't know what I'm doing."

"I don't know either," I said. We floated, paddling around in the warm water as he spoke. "But I think we should look at it like we're dating."

"Dating?"

"Yeah. Well, I like you, and you like me — at least a little bit?"

She grinned and started to swim with her head up.

"We're trying things out."

"That sounds less intimidating than being married," she said.

"Exactly."

"And about the sex…"

"You want to have some?" I said, hopefully. She laughed, and I took that as a good sign.

"How about we take it a day at a time, and we'll see what happens? I'm going to swim now," she said.

She didn't answer my question, but took off with a powerful front crawl, pulling herself quickly through the water until she was so far down the beach that I began to worry a bit. What if she got in trouble, and I was so far away that I couldn't help her? She was an excellent swimmer. But no human could compare with a Vandwan. They simply weren't in our league.

I saw her stand up and wave to me. I waved back. Then I dove into the water and began to swim. When I popped up beside her, she was floating beside me in stunned amazement.

"What?" I said.

"That was a long swim."

"Yep. I'm a fish," I said, joking.

"I think you are," she said, she looked a tiny bit confused.

"That's me," I said, going under and bursting back out again. I loved the water.

"Nathaniel, I could never swim that far," she said.

"Vandwans can. It's one part of our adaptation."

"Oh," she said, accepting the explanation quickly. She began trailing her fingers in the water, in lazy figure eights. "Nathaniel…"

"Yeah," I said, lying on my back and floating. I could hear her voice through the water in my ears.

"I wanted to thank you for your kindness."

I righted myself. She had a serious look on her face.

"And for not pressuring me about sex. I suppose some husbands might. I appreciate that you're trying…" She blew out her breath in frustration. "This sounded different in my head," she said. "And now I'm screwing it all up."

"You're not screwing it up," I said, gently. "It's not the easiest thing to come to a strange planet and marry an alien. I wanted to make it as painless as possible."

"It hasn't been painful," she said. Were we floating closer to each other?

"No?"

"When I got to the spaceport…" she said, apparently changing the subject.

"Yeah." We WERE floating closer.

"I saw this guy."

I frowned.

"And he was cute," she said. "Handsome."

"Handsome," I repeated, wondering where this was going. What was she doing checking out strange guys at the airport? I supposed I shouldn't feel jealous, but the fact was, I did.

"I thought to myself, what am I doing checking out this other man when I'm supposed to be coming here to get married to someone else?"

"Right," I said, my gaze never leaving her face.

"He had the most incredible eyes," she went on, looking up at the blue sky that was completely cloudless. I looked down at the water, feeling my frown deepen. After the conversation we just had, why would she be saying something like this? Was she messing with me? "They were an odd color — turquoise."

I whipped my head up.

"Just like the water here. Is that common on your planet? That color of eyes?"

I stared at her steadily.

"No."

"I thought not. He looked damned good. Seemed to have a pretty nice body under his clothes…" She swallowed, glancing down at my chest and back up to my eyes — my turquoise eyes. "And I couldn't stop staring at him."

"You couldn't?" I moved a tiny bit closer.

She shook her head, never breaking eye contact.

"And neither could he, it seemed. He was blocking traffic."

A corner of my mouth turned up.

"But I knew it could never be." We were almost touching.

"No?"

"Of course not, because I was waiting for my fiance to pick me up."

"I see. He wouldn't approve."

"Of course not."

"Imagine my surprise when my fiance showed up…"