Dark Matter: SCIENCE FICTION ROMANCE

by Jessica Loft

  Tentatively, she pressed her fingers into the sand. For the first time the wall gave way. As she stepped through she quickly found herself on the other side of the door. She gasped as she saw for the first time the colorful plant covered walls of the hallway. Odd looking ferns covered the walls and ceilings, casting a brilliant green hue over the corridor with the help of more suspended glowing orbs.

  From across the hall, Riordan watched her in amusement as she took in the surroundings. She had a look of beautiful awe on her face. Her parted lips and wide eyes called to him, and he longed to pull her once again into his arms and finally kiss her. The thought of having her as a courtesan suddenly seemed like a good idea. He envisioned her naked and wrapped tightly around him.

  “Come,” he said, his voice holding more gravel than intended. Clara had to jog to catch up to his long stride, but when she finally reached him she asked again what she would be doing for him.

  “My ambassador is going to be gone for a few weeks, and I need someone as his replacement until he gets back. Today I will take you to his office where you can review his files, and tomorrow you will start attending meetings with me.”

  CHAPTER 3

  Clara giggled as Riordan finished a story about his youth, and took another sip of what she likened to wine. It was fruity, sweet, crimson red, and it was playing with her head a little bit too much. Still, she liked how relaxed she felt. It gave her a sense of normalcy that she felt that she hadn’t had in quite a long time.

  “So, your species has the ability to put humans to sleep, huh?” She asked nonchalantly.

  Riordan spared a smile her way, trying not to stare too long at how good she looked in her new dress. They had gotten a lot accomplished in just one day, and he had decided to reward her by bringing her into the royal dining hall for the evening meal.

  “Not just humans. Any living thing really, it just depends on how much of an influence I have to use. I can put beings like your maid, and most humans asleep almost instantly.”

  “Most,” Clara echoed, leaning back into her large comfortable chair. “But not me.”

  When Riordan didn’t reply, she decided to press further. “Do you- can you control our dreams as well?”

  I wish, he thought to himself as he poured more red liquid into his and her glass. I would love to have you crave me in your dreams.

  “No. I can’t control what you dream,” he answered. He watched in amusement as a light pink blush crawled into Clara’s cheeks, and he wondered if perhaps he didn’t have to wish that hard at all.

  “Why did you take us?” Clara asked, suddenly turning to a much darker subject. The sudden change halted Riordan’s good humor, and his smile disappeared immediately.

  “We’ve been over this,” he said, his voice curt.

  “I know,” Clara sighed. “But I just don’t understand. I thought- I thought you were going to be this cold, cruel person. I expected you to be a monster of endless torture, but you’re not.”

  “You don’t know me as well as you think, human,” Riordan said, now his demeanor completely different. He stood up, agitated, and paced over the floor. She had no idea how this last harvest was haunting him, how it was keeping him awake at night. He had been following in his father’s footsteps just like he had always done before, yet when he took the planet Earth, he felt for the first time that he had done something deeply, incredibly wrong.

  Clara could feel the situation turning fast, and she tried her best to backpedal. “Look I don’t know why you’re so upset, it’s not like you’re the one that got captured here!”

  Oops. Bad move. Clara realized quickly.

  ~

  Clara wanted to take back the words as soon as she said them, but it was too late. Riordan looked at her as if she had punched him in the gut, and it caused a hurtful twist in her chest. She had wanted to prove that she could get to know him, not push him away even farther.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, taking a step forward, her hands out. “I didn’t mean to say that. You’re my captor, yes, but you’ve been incredibly kind so far.”

  Riordan’s shoulders began to relax; the golden sparkle returning to his eyes. “I cannot know what it is like to be forced from your home,” he stated, laying a comforting hand on Clara’s shoulder.

  “Well it’s hard,” Clara rasped, her eyes tearing up. “I may not have had much, but I had a cat and I miss her.”

  “Cat,” Riordan echoed, surprised. “What is a cat?”

  Clara laughed and wiped away a tear, thankful that the tension filled moment had passed.

  “It’s small and furry, and walks on four legs. Her name was Jupiter, after one of our planets in our solar system. She always knew when I was sad.”

  Riordan wiped away the tears from her cheeks with his hand and let his fingers linger at her right cheek for a second. Another less known trick his people had was that they could read minds, but he didn’t want her to find out quite yet. He reached into her head and found the furry thing she spoke of. She was fat, white and orange, and purred when Clara touched her fur. Riordan could see the emotional attachment between the human and the animal, and he slowly let his hand slide away.

  “Perhaps we can find you a new pet here,” he suggested. “But for now, it’s getting late, and you’ve had a long day with much to ingest. Starting tomorrow you will rise early and meet me at my chambers for my morning meetings.”

  Together they walked back to Clara’s rooms. She noticed as they entered the lush walls of the corridor that the color of the lights in the glowing orbs were slowly changing. Riordan noticed her looking, and explained that the orbs in the castle were programmed to signify what part of the day it was on the outside. They were brightest yellow at noon, and then throughout the day they slowly shifted towards a soft blue until night was completely fallen. It wasn’t often that he was able to leave the castle anymore, and he liked to be reminded of what it was like to be outside.

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Clara praised, her voice low and soft. They were close to her door, but she wasn’t quite ready to leave him yet.

  “Why can’t I go outside?” She questioned. Their arguments had been strong and full of passion, and for some reason she was able to forget, a little too often, that he was her captor, and she his prize.

  “You must stay in your room at nights,” Riordan ordered, closing the space between them. It is the safest for you.”

  Clara lifted her eyebrow, confused. “Why? What’s out there?”

  For a moment a number of emotions passed over Riordan’s face. First annoyance, then confusion, then finally worry.

  “I have plans. For change. But there are some beings here that are happy with the way things are and don’t want anything to happen. You are, more or less, a ranked slave. The farthest thing to a citizen that an outsider can be, and it makes people uncomfortable to see any slave in the street by themselves.”

  His hand dropped down to hers and he wrapped his long warm fingers around her palm. “I want you to; I need you to be safe,” he all but whispered. Without realizing it his body had leaned even closer to hers until he was all but towering over her. She looked so small and vulnerable to him, and in that moment he forgot about her smart aleck attitude and her outspoken ways. He saw someone that he wanted with his entire heart to protect.

  “You need me?” Clara rasped, her thoughts back on the very same phrase she had heard him say in her dream. Desire and longing took over the places in her brain where fear and unsurity had been residing, and she felt her fingers tighten around Riordan’s.

  “Yes,” Riordan replied, his voice low and gravelly. To prove his point, he used his weight to push Clara’s body into the soft, cushiony leaves of the fern covered wall, and let his lips fall over hers.

  Desire coursed through the both of them as Riordan’s firm lips worked and massaged Clara’s plumper mouth. His tongue, teasing and curious, slid over and between her lips into the warm, wet cavern of her mouth. He felt th
e vibrations of her moan deep within his stomach and he pulled her tighter, letting her fall completely into his arms. Her pliancy and willingness excited him to no end, and before he knew what he was doing he had her hitched around his hips, the skirt of her dressing falling to the sides as her bare legs wrapped strongly around his waist.

  He sighed in relief. It had been ages since his mind wasn’t completely wrapped up in royal decrees or battle strategy. He had tried not to allow himself to loose concentration from his royal responsibilities, but his body knew exactly what it wanted as soon as his fingertips came in contact with her warm smooth skin. As he continued to kiss her, flashes of her dream flooded into his mind. He saw the pure ecstasy on her face as he tasted her in her dream. The very image was driving him insane, and he knew that he had to find out for himself exactly what the human vixen tasted like.

  “My Lord!” Twila gasped, halting everything.

  Riordon froze with Clara’s body pressed up against the wall. He watched as all the pleasure drained from her face and embarrassment quickly replaced it. Her emerald eyes, once glowing with passion, dimmed greatly, and she began to struggle against his chest to be let down. Riordan obliged, begrudgingly, and didn’t try to stop her when she ran into her room.

  Twila’s face was blue with mortification as the King turned an evil glare towards her. Though she had served in the castle for many years now, she had yet to actually be alone with him. It was terrifying.

  “M-my Lord, I’m so- I mean I didn’t, I couldn’t”-

  Riordan held his hand up and reigned in his frustration. Sensible thinking told him that there was no fault in blaming the woman for the interruption. No matter how ill timed it was.

  “It’s fine slav-what’s your name?”

  “Twila, my Lord.”

  “Twila. It’s fine, Twila. However I’m sure you can understand that I need your absolute discretion on what you just saw.”

  Twila nodded her head vigorously, and with nothing else to say to her, he motioned with his hand for her to leave. Riordan all but grunted a goodnight and continued his way down the hallway.

  As soon as she entered the room she saw Clara pacing back and forth over the floor, the fingers of her left hand held up to her mouth as she chewed on her nails. Even in the evening light Twila could see that her long chocolate brown hair was mussed and her cheeks were flushed.

  “My Lady,” Twila said softly, stepping closer. “Are you all right? Was he- did he force you?”

  Clara laughed almost bitterly and stopped pacing to sit on the edge of her bed.

  “No, Twila. He didn’t force me. It was unexpected for both of us. We had been arguing. But, it wasn’t rough, it was still sweet.” She felt her tears mist in her eyes as she rolled them up to look at the ceiling.

  “God, what’s wrong with me? I want him. I want the person who made me into a slave. That is so-sorry for the language, but that is just so fucked up.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Earth

  “This is a suicide mission,” a man named Otis grumbled, loading the crate of water jugs onto the alien spaceship.

  Aaron nodded his head as he took the crate out of his hands, and carried it to the cargo area. Setting it down, he turned and replied. “Yes. But what choice do we have? We need to rescue our women, and reclaim our planet somehow. Or we have to try at the very least. We’ve had every mechanic left working on this giant hunk of metal, and by some miracle we’ve got it to work. Don’t you think that’s some sort of sign?”

  “But we don’t know how to drive it. And we have no idea where we’re going,” Otis countered.

  “Wrong,” James said, entering the conversation. He was an Air Force pilot that had flown multiple different ships throughout his colorful career. “If I can get it off the ground, I promise you I can fly it and figure out how to reverse the coordinates. We can do this. We have to.”

  ~

  “Something is different about you my King,” Gregor, his Chief of war council stated, laying his large purple hand on Riordan’s shoulder.

  Riordan tore his eyes away from Clara’s beautiful, laughing face, and turned towards the elder Guardianite.

  “Hmm? How so, old friend?”

  Gregor took a seat next to Riordan at the royal dining table, and leaned in close so that no one could hear him.

  “Ever since your father’s death you have ruled exactly as he had. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; your father was an excellent ruler. However, in these last two weeks I’ve seen a change in you. You are actually participating in our meetings with ideas instead of just attending them. I had no idea that you had such wonderful thoughts of change for our people. Tell me, what is this difference?”

  Riordan couldn’t help the small smile that slid across his lips as his eyes returned to Clara. She was wearing the blue dress today, the one he had gifted her on the first and only night that they had kissed, and he recalled the memory happily. Since then she had fallen into the role of his ambassador beautifully. At first his cabinet balked at the idea of having a human so close to their political affairs, but her smart brain and quick tongue quickly won them over, and she was now welcomed warmly to every meeting.

  Gregor chuckled, and leaned back. “Never mind. I see now.”

  “My Lord,” Twila said with a bow as she entered the room. “They have arrived.”

  Riordan’s eyebrows rose as he came to his feet. “Really?” He asked, his voice suddenly falling to a whisper. Twila nodded her head as she struggled to hide the smile on her face.

  “They’re waiting in her chambers.”

  He thanked her for her help, and quickly went over to where Clara was talking to the Mistress of the Keys. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” he apologized. “But I must steal Clara away from you, Madame Key keeper.”

  The older woman with a sharp nose, black eyes, and grass green skin gave him a simple nod and walked away, leaving Clara and him alone. When she asked him what was wrong, he told her with a straight face that she must follow him. Confused and slightly scared, she took his hand and let him lead her down the hall.

  “I don’t understand,” she said, slightly frightened. “Where are you taking me?”

  In an answer Riordan turned on his heel, pressed her against the wall, and kissed her fiercely. He loved how she melted instantly into his arms, and he wondered to himself why he’d waited so long to enjoy her sweet taste again. Perhaps after this, he would not have to worry about such things.

  “Come,” he stated, pulling her back into the hallway again towards her chamber door. He stopped just in front of it, and told her to go in. Not sure what to think, she looked over at Riordan almost untrustingly before she timidly stepped through the quicksand door.

  Clara gasped as she saw the sight in front of her, and all but squealed in delight. “You’re here!” She crooned, running into the arms of her friends Katy and Emily. The three women collapsed into one another’s arms as they held their friend and cried. Though Emily and Katy had only just met a few hours ago, they already felt connected through Clara, and were overly joyous about being reunited with her again.

  Then, just as Clara began to stand up and get herself together, she heard a familiar purr coming from her bed.

  “Jupiter!” She gasped, spotting her furry friend on her bed. The old cat meowed in joy as she saw her owner, and truffle shuffled her way to the edge of the bed and into Clara’s arms. Clara laughed as Jupiter purred happily while it ran its head up and down her arm. Looking up, Clara saw Riordan leaning casually by the door, looking very pleased with himself.

  Thank you, she mouthed, her eyes brimming with tears. The handsome king gave her a single nod, then left to give the women some privacy.

  “So tell me, what is going on out there?” Clara asked. Twila was kind enough to bring them a traditional Guardianite tea that was sweet and bright orange, along with an assortment of odd but delicious pastries.

  “Things here are not as bad as I had feared,” Emily said,
speaking first. Her long blonde hair was chopped off in a pixie cut, and she wore a long black skirt with a slit up her thigh, with a matching crop top that tied in the back. She looked vastly different than when they first met. She no longer looked frightened or insecure, but strong and even aggressive.

  “The man that bought me is a warrior who is training me to spar and battle with him. He’s a little gruff sometimes; you know, the way these men are different than our human men. But he is mostly kind and…very sexy.” Emily winked at the two other women and they giggled.

  “Then again, I don’t think there are any unattractive males of this species,” Katy added with a giggle. “None that I’ve seen at least.”

  “What about you Katy? Are you safe?” Clara asked.

  Katy nodded her head with a small smile. “Yeah. I was. But I’ve been actually bought by the King. He’s brought me here to work with you.”