The Astronomer

by Charmaine Pauls

  It had a strange ring to it, to think of his house as her home. And yet, somehow it felt right. Emilio ushered her into the back and gave Pablo the instruction to go.

  “You look tense,” he remarked, his intelligent eyes observing. “Job going well?”

  “It has its challenges,” she said vaguely. “How about you? How’s the new development progressing?”

  “As planned.” He took her hand. “I have to attend the inauguration tomorrow and I was hoping you’d come.”

  Fraya realized again how little she knew about Emilio and what his work entailed. It seemed only fair that she would show a measure of interest.

  “Alright.”

  His smile was broad. “And then I have a surprise for you.”

  “A surprise?” she said with alarm.

  “I’m taking you on a holiday.”

  Fraya drew her hand from his. “Holiday? I’ve got to check in at head office in four days.”

  “Not anymore. I’ve arranged everything with Welser. He agrees that you deserve a honeymoon.”

  “You spoke to my director behind my back? I thought we talked about this.”

  He seemed unaffected by her dismay. “It wouldn’t have been a surprise otherwise.”

  Fraya stared at the window, at the landscape that passed by, trying to find the words to defy his well-intended gesture.

  “And don’t be alarmed, but my family has arranged a welcoming dinner in your honor tonight.”

  “Again?” she said, with a tinge of panic.

  “They mean well.”

  Fraya felt her heart skip a beat as Emilio gave her that smile that always put her at ease, as if it was only meant for her.

  “We’re leaving in the morning, Fraya. They wanted to see you before we go.”

  “They wanted to see me?”

  “Of course. You’re my wife, my mate, part of the family now.”

  Fraya didn’t say that she was unaccustomed to the way in which family behaved, especially big ones like Emilio’s, who were obviously close.

  “I’ve asked the housekeeper to pack you a bag, so you can relax this afternoon and enjoy the dinner tonight.”

  Fraya glanced at Emilio. “Where are we going?”

  He took her hand and kissed her fingers. “Surprise.”

  * * * *

  Fraya slipped to her room to work on her secret theory, one not even Saunders knew about yet, and reluctantly set it aside at dusk. She had an hour to get ready for dinner. She took a shower, dressed in a red dress with her black high-heeled sandals, and was just brushing out her hair when Ana knocked and entered her room.

  “Hey Fraya!” Ana rushed over to hug her. “We missed you.”

  Fraya wasn’t sure what an appropriate response was, so she only smiled at the younger girl in the mirror.

  “Let me.” Ana took the brush. “You’ll look great with your hair taken up. Do you want me to do it for you?”

  “Oh, that’s kind, but I just leave it to dry naturally.”

  “Nonsense.” Ana twisted a few strands, piled it on Fraya’s head, and inspected Fraya’s image critically. “See? That looks wonderful. Where’s your hairdryer?”

  Fraya gave in meekly. Ana was a nice girl and she didn’t want to seem rude. “In the bathroom.”

  Ana fetched the dryer, and commenced to style Fraya’s hair.

  “There you go,” she said after half an hour. “That suits you perfectly.”

  “Thank you,” Fraya mumbled.

  “Mom and granny are already here. They’re probably ordering the cooks around and stressing the kitchen staff. Shall we go down and see what they’re up to?”

  “Not so fast,” Emilio said from the door.

  Both women turned to see him leaning in the frame with a huge smile on his face, his eyes smoldering, looking impossibly handsome in a black shirt and tailored black pants, his hair smoothed back and tied in a ponytail.

  “I would like a moment alone with my wife,” he said, his eyes fixed on Fraya.

  Fraya felt her heart beating faster. A flush crept into her cheeks. She had been wondering when Emilio was going to claim his mating right. He had been too mild and tame in the car, letting her off the hook too easily. He was like a cat playing with a mouse.

  “I’ll be in the kitchen,” Ana said brightly, shooting them both a radiant smile as she made her exit.

  Emilio closed the door behind her. The simple turn of the key seemed like an erotic movement, and Fraya instantly felt her breasts peaking. As she got to her feet, Emilio quickly crossed the floor and stopped with his body flush against hers, pinning her against the dressing table with the drawers at her back.

  “You look ravishing,” he said, his eyes traveling over her.

  Fraya touched her hair. “Ana played hairdresser.”

  “She did a good job.”

  His hands went to her waist, pulling her toward him. His head moved down and his lips found the flesh of her shoulder. He planted soft, caressing bites up the side of her neck. Fraya felt his fingers tighten on her waist. With a swift movement he lifted her onto the dresser. Emilio’s hands went to her knees, spreading them.

  Fraya was uncomfortably aware of the noises coming from the commotion downstairs. A long table had been carried into the courtyard and was being laid.

  “Your family is downstairs,” she said awkwardly.

  “They’ll wait.” His hands moved up her thighs.

  “Why now? You could have demanded me earlier.”

  “You were preoccupied and your mind was somewhere else. I told you I wouldn’t take you if you didn’t want it.” His thumbs brushed over her hard nipples. “But I bet you’re wet now.”

  She gasped. There was no point in denying it. His mouth found hers, his lips moving impatiently, stoking the fire she felt spreading through her body.

  He pulled away to look into her eyes. “How turned on are you Fraya?” Even as he spoke his hands moved back to her thighs, stroking up the tender flesh until his fingers found the elastic of her silk underwear.

  Fraya’s head fell back as his fingers slipped past the fabric.

  “You want me, baby,” he said, his voice triumphant.

  He hitched her dress up and removed her red panties in one, quick action.

  “We don’t have much time,” he said, his lips against her jaw, “but I promise to make it worth the while.”

  She wanted to undress him, to feel his skin against hers, but he didn’t allow her the luxury as he hastily unfastened his pants, his burning eyes holding hers.

  When he kissed her lips again her hands went to his hair, pulling him closer, demanding the release for the heat he ignited, but Emilio wasn’t to be commanded. His kiss turned tender, his touch gentle. He nipped her lips softly before he pulled away.

  “Let me watch you.”

  In the next instance he slammed into her, taking her with a forceful, possessive thrust. Fraya had to bite on her knuckles to muffle her scream. Emilio’s hands moved to her lower back, his flat palms caressing her skin. As he started to move slowly she closed her eyes, but his voice pulled her back.

  “Open your eyes, baby. I love to see you come for me. Do you know how pretty your eyes are when you come?”

  His words alone were enough to send her over the edge. Her stomach contracted deliciously. He held onto her back with one hand, while he slipped the other between their bodies, the pad of his thumb adding pressure to the pleasure he was giving her in steadily intensifying strokes. Fraya thought she was going to lose her mind. She bit her lip and let her head fall back against the mirror.

  “No, baby,” he crooned, “look at me.”

  It was with much effort that she obeyed. When she whimpered softly he increased his pace. Her mouth opened, but she miraculously managed to contain the sound.

  “You’re killing me, Fraya.”

  She saw him gritting his teeth and knew instinctively that he was close to his release. She grinded against him, pulling him into her with her
legs locked around him. She had to hold onto his shoulders as her back arched, the intensity of his look driving her to the final explosion of her senses with her name a whisper in the air before he buried his face in her neck, his teeth lightly clamping down onto the soft flesh of her shoulder.

  She was reluctant to let go of him just yet, but he loosened her arms that had gone around his neck and gave her a soft kiss.

  He chuckled. “We’ve made a grand mess of your hair.”

  “Ana won’t be pleased.”

  He brushed a strand of hair that had come loose behind her ear. “We’ve got to go downstairs, and you’ve got that just-fucked look.”

  She flushed at the thought of his whole family knowing what they’ve been up to.

  “Go ahead,” she said. “I’ll take a minute to try and do some damage control.”

  He smiled indulgently. “Don’t take too long. I may miss you.” His smile was brilliant as he left her room and closed the door quietly.

  Fraya still found the intensity of Emilio’s family overwhelming. She wasn’t used to the attention that his grandmother, parents and cousins showered on her, but as the dinner wore on, she started to relax and enjoy the fun they poked at each other. Finally she was part of a family, something she had wanted and dreaded simultaneously. She had a feeling they were going to creep into her heart and leave their mark. That is why, when Ana pulled her aside after dinner, and asked softly, “Are you really not sharing a room with Emilio?” concern pleating her smooth brow, Fraya said, “Of course we are. I just have a room I can use when Emilio needs his rest, or I mine. We work long and different hours.”

  Fraya prayed that Ana wouldn’t sense the lie.

  Ana’s face lit up. “Alright. That’s wonderful. It would have been awful if you had anything but a happy mating. Nothing like those arranged ones.”

  Fraya looked into her coffee cup so that Ana couldn’t read her eyes. She felt horrible lying to Emilio’s cousin. She realized with a start that she had just done what Emilio had asked her to do–to pretend that they had mated for love.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The sun was bright in a blue, cloudless sky the following morning. Emilio was happy about the good weather. The inauguration of the new hotel in Casablanca, an hour’s drive south of Santiago, was being held outdoors. He glanced at Fraya sitting next to him in the XJ100. There was a shine in her eyes and she had a rosy glow on her cheeks, though her expression was apprehensive.

  “We’ll leave straight after the ceremony,” he said. “It shouldn’t be more than an hour.”

  When she turned her face to him her smile took his breath away. “I’m happy to see something you’ve created, besides the condo.”

  She sounded sincere, and for a fleeting moment he felt his hope rising. Since the day they had met in Zone 11, he had learned all there was to know about her. Now that she was his mate, he wanted to share everything with her–his work, his passion, his love.

  The car pulled up in front of the new Avalon Hotel, one in a chain of boutique lodges situated through the southern zones.

  A doorman stepped up to open the door and to escort them into the foyer. Emilio was pleased with his latest edition to the franchise. His designs for these hotels were similar in elegant simplicity, yet each was unique, extraordinary and distinguishable. For the Casablanca Avalon he had used the same linear lines and natural materials as for the others, but the man-made river that ran around the square building set this one aside from the rest. The hotel was situated in the middle of its own green zone, a rare and exclusive phenomenon. Each bedroom on the ground level exited into a small private garden. Each garden was connected to an extended park with a grand swimming pool by a wooden bridge. The bridges blended into the natural scene of reeds and water lilies with a special whitewashed floor treatment and low lantern posts doubling as night illumination and side barriers. The building itself consisted of many different sized squares, one stacked on top of another, each at a slightly different angle, giving the impression of a multi-angled and multi-dimensional building, when in fact the whole construction was mere squares stacked into a bigger square. It was both economical and visually appealing, exuding modernity and elegance while the rock and wood used for the walls, complemented by huge unframed glass windows, gave it a tranquil feel, as if it was an extension of nature blending into the hillside.

  The landscaper had done a great job with the front gardens, incorporating a small lake with ornamental fish and bird watching decks. The vineyard beyond made a beautiful backdrop for the first and second floor rooms that had angular balconies due to the architectural stacking technique. Like the bridges, they only had waist-high stone pillars topped with fixed lanterns as balustrades, obstructing as little as possible of the magnificent view.

  Emilio took Fraya on a tour of the grounds, pointing out some of the design principles. She was quiet throughout the short excursion and he couldn’t tell if she was bored or not, but when they had completed a full circle, she looked up at the double-volume entrance and said, “Emilio, this is a work of art.”

  “I’m glad you like it.”

  “Now I understand why you said you didn’t like the Domfront hotel.”

  As soon as the words were out, she glanced at him, a guilty look in her eyes.

  “I didn’t say I didn’t like it. I only said it wasn’t practical.”

  “I can see a similarity between this hotel and the condo design,” she said quickly.

  “The condo isn’t done yet. It still needs an indoor garden, a guestroom and a study.”

  “There’s more to come?”

  “I haven’t showed you the plans yet. Things have moved too fast.”

  She regarded him for another moment, seemingly mulling some idea over in her mind before she said, “The building of the condo must have started long before you and I...”

  He waited, but when she didn’t say more, he said, “It started twelve months ago.”

  “Even if you hated me for what had happened, you still decided to build us a condo?”

  “I told you it was going to be a wedding gift. Gene was ... is ... still my friend,” he said reluctantly. He didn’t like to be reminded that she had, until less than two weeks ago, still belonged to his best friend.

  Fraya simply nodded.

  The director of the hotel group, Fernando Martínez, approached them. He extended a hand. “Hola Emilio. Congratulations with the nomination for the Hotel of the Year Architectural Award.”

  “Thank you. I just heard this morning,” Emilio said. “This is my mate, Fraya.”

  Fernando held out his arms. “Que linda!” He took her shoulders and kissed her cheek. “I’m so happy to meet you, at long last. And you are more beautiful than any of Emilio’s designs,” he said in a deep and pleasing voice, his Chilean accent strong.

  “Thank you,” Fraya said.

  Fernando released her. “Shall we go? The press is waiting in the conference room. The cocktail party for afterwards has been set up in the garden. I’ll take care of your beautiful bride while you make your speech, Emilio.” He put a fatherly arm around Fraya and escorted her into the building.

  * * * *

  Fernando had offered Fraya refreshments and a chair at the back of the conference room, from where he had said she could easily slip out if the speeches got boring, but she sat glued to her seat while Emilio spoke about his design, and the importance of conservation. She learned that the hotel was developed as a natural eco-system and that only local people and companies had been employed in the hotel’s creation. It was an investment for the region, but what surprised her most was that the local community was allocated a share in the hotel, thereby involving them in its management. It was ingenious, she thought. Not only would the community benefit, but the proceeds would also help retain a beautiful piece of nature. And by having a personal interest in the project, the development had been well received and supported from both local and national government. No wonder Emilio ha
d no problem to get contracts in different zones.

  A new appreciation for her husband started blooming inside of her. He was talented and good at his job, no doubt one of the best in his field in the world, but what made her proud was the way he had not only taken, but also given back to the indigenous people who inhabited this land. But the final gesture of human responsibility that blew her away was Emilio’s announcement that, as habitual, he used part of his personal proceeds to acquire land that he donated to the local municipality for the building of a much needed school, the design of which he offered to do for free.

  As Fraya scanned the crowd of media and local authority representatives cheering and clapping, she realized that the majority of them were women, and that all of the females, young and old, were staring at Emilio with doting eyes. Hungry eyes. She realized with a shock that her husband was a celebrity, in his own right, and a well sought after one, who had just been mated to her, maybe for only a year.

  Still pondering her strange feeling on seeing the women’s reaction to her mate, a sensation she had never felt before, not even when Gene had told her of his affair with Zita, Fraya found herself once more in the car, en route to a private zone station where Emilio’s jet was waiting.

  He turned to her with a broad smile. “I hope you hadn’t been bored too much.”

  Was he kidding?

  “It was enlightening. I had no idea how much you did in terms of charity.”

  “It’s hardly charity. It’s only fair.”

  “Not all businessmen will agree with you. Is that your standard way of conducting affairs?”

  “I do what I can. We all should.”

  “Yes, but not everyone does.”

  His fingers brushed over her knuckles. “You seem tense. Are you excited about our trip?”

  She wasn’t going to tell him that her emotion, one she could have sworn bordered on jealousy, had unsettled her. Instead she said, “Am I allowed to know where we’re going?”

  “Zone 76.”

  She looked up at him, surprised again. “Costa Rica?”