by Milly Taiden
“To be fair,” Liv said, coming to Karel’s defense for some reason. “I don’t think any explanation would have helped. I mean it sounds crazy unless you’re actually here seeing things yourself.”
“I know, darling. But in his haste to take you to his home, he forgot to make arrangements for your stuff and your belongings.”
Oh, shit. She thought she’d be on vacation a few days. Not living here. On one hand, she’d always despised the judgmental bullshit from the people in earth’s society, and by being on another planet, she wouldn’t be subject to that anymore. On another hands, she would never see Monica or her kids again. Or could she?
“Could I go back to earth to visit, if I wanted to?” she asked.
“Of course,” Gerri reassured her. “You’re not a prisoner in Aurora. You can come back whenever you want. You will find the time difference will make things harder for you. But you should never feel like you can’t return to earth.”
Would she want to, though? Maybe, maybe not. It was nice to know she had the option. Still, she wasn’t as torn up about leaving her home planet as she thought. Her grandmother had always acted like Liv was a bother. Her sperm-donor never made a move to get to know her. And even Monica went months without calling, at times. The only person she’d miss was her neighbor. “Damn. I have no idea what to do.”
Gerri grumbled, “I swear I will stop catering to shifters if they don’t start listening to me. I’ve never met a more hardheaded bunch.” She rubbed her temples and shook her head. “I can handle your stuff. Anyone you want me to contact?”
Liv thought about her grandmother but decided against it. “Give my stepsister Monica a call. She can have someone get my things.”
“And what would you like me to tell Monica?”
“That I decided to live off the grid and will figure out when I want to get in touch with her.” She glanced at Bella’s raised brows. “I always joke about doing that, but she never really thought I’d do it.”
“Anyone else?”
“My neighbor Cassie. She will worry when I don’t show up for our weekly spa session.”
Gerri nodded. “Okay. If you think of anything else, contact me. And for the love of my remaining hair, please try to control your men,” she eyed Liv and Bella. “I know it’s not an easy task, but if you two don’t, I will be forced to start smacking people upside the head.” She grinned at them and blew a kiss. “I’ll be in touch.” Her holo-image blinked out.
Liv didn’t get a chance to ask further questions. There was a slight knock on the door and it opened slowly. Karel peeked his head into the room, scanning the bed and then the rest of the space until he found her sitting, biting into another cookie.
“Hi,” she said between bites. There was a lot she needed to discuss with him, but Bella being in the room stopped her.
“Karel, I tempted Liv into eating with me. Are you ready to go?” Bella asked.
He gave a short nod. “Yes. I came to make sure you were feeling better.” He scanned Liv’s face, his eyes filled with concern.
She nodded. “Are we going to see your mom now?”
“Yes.” The ominous tone of his voice made Liv’s belly ache and the cookies taste like sawdust. It had to be hard for him to be away from his mom when things were so bad. Not that she had any clue how sick she was, but he’d said she was dying. That was as bad as things could get.
“Let me shower and change and we can go.”
FOURTEEN
“No,” Liv said emphatically. “I’m not teleporting. I’m sorry but there has to be another way.”
Karel glanced at the device in his hand and then back at her. “There is. We can take a transport vehicle. I use mine for rare outings, but I keep it here at the castle.”
She smiled in thanks. “I just don’t think I can handle going through another one of those machines again.”
“I understand. This will take longer, but we’ll manage to get there.”
She bit her lip. She shouldn’t be slowing them down, but if he wanted her to go with him, then he’d have to change how they traveled. Her nerves were still jittery from the previous earth to Aurora travel.
After a stop at the kitchen to gather packaged food stuffs, they went to a back wall of the castle. He pressed his hand on a rock and suddenly the stone wall disappeared. She gaped at the massive opening. It looked like an under-castle garage. There were very cool looking bikes with no wheels on tripod type bases. The bikes were covered with a glass dome with openings on both sides for people to get to the seats.
“That looks very cool but really fragile,” she told him, feeling the material under her fingertips. The glass felt cool to the touch but really thin. She worried a strong wind would make the whole thing fall to the side.
“It’s a lot sturdier than you think.” He smiled. Her gaze was riveted on the back of the bike where he pressed at the glass and it slid open to show a compartment for their bags. That was one of the coolest and weirdest thing she’d seen in her life.
After loading items from around the garage, he offered her a hand and helped her up the base steps. “Let’s get you seated.”
She climbed into the back of the tandem unit, admiring the view inside the glass dome. He sat in the front seat. The weight of his body made her seat tilt forward and she gasped as she curled her arms around his narrow waist. His ab muscles contracted under her hands. Lord, he was fine and warm. She rubbed her nose on the back of his shirt, happy to press herself against him.
A low groan sounded from the front. “Stop wiggling so much back there, or we won’t be going anywhere except the floor.”
She tried to sit still, but it was damn hard. How often did she get on a futuristic bike with a guy who brought back the meaning of sexy and wanted to rip her clothes off? Not ever.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “We can go now.”
The bike lifted from the base and she tightened her hold on Karel. Oh good god. They were hovering over the base, the bike rising higher into the air.
“This thing flies!” she squeaked.
“Yes,” he said and pressed a hand to hers around his waist. “It’s fine. You won’t feel a thing.”
No. But she’d see it. They shot out of the big room and into the forest so fast, she scrunched her eyes closed, fear alive and well in the pit of her stomach.
“How are you doing back there?” he asked. “I sense your tension and it’s driving my jaguar wild. This is going to be a long ride if you don’t enjoy it.” He sighed. “Open your eyes, my love,” he said softly. “You’ll like what you see.”
She blinked one eye open and then the other, her gaze scanning the passing trees. Rows of what looked like birchwood in multiple purple hues dropped light pink flowers over the ground. It was like being in a magical land. The farther they went, the thicker the trees became. The ride was seamless. Without wheels on the ground, there were no bumps. In fact, there was no noise at all. If she’d kept her eyes closed, she wouldn’t have known they were moving.
“This is amazing,” she said to herself. “All the colors.”
“Just wait,” he said and veered to the left, taking a sharp turn which put them over a beach. She saw the pink waves flowing onto the shimmery pale-yellow sand. Her fingers itched to touch it.
She glanced at the ocean. It appeared calm, but waves pushed to the shore with powerful glides. She wanted to strip off her clothes and dive in. Or dip her toes. She wasn’t stupid. She had no idea what the hell was in that water, and as pretty as it was, it scared her too.
They flew over the beach for a while. She was so mesmerized by the water and glittery sand, she didn’t bother making conversation. She wasn’t fond of the beach unless she went somewhere like the Caribbean. She loved beaches with trees by the water. She’d spent a lot of time in her childhood visiting the Dominican Republic with her grandmother. She had a beach house in one of the most popular resort destinations and took Liv often.
Many hours passed, sitting o
n the beach, watching the waves come in and the sun go down. Liv didn’t know how to swim, but she still made sure to get in the warm tropical waters.
Her fear of drowning kept her from learning to swim properly. She glanced at the pink waves again. She wondered if the water was very deep or at her knees like the beach in Tahiti.
Her grandmother loved to travel and being in charge of Liv meant she took her along. Tahiti was like the Caribbean but a lot less commercialized and calmer. The water was crystal clear and her love of wading to her knees had been fulfilled.
“Your oceans are so pretty and pink,” she told him. “I thought oxygen in water made the water blue on earth.”
“I don’t know a lot about earth, but here, our seas are pink because of a mineral that lives in the sand. When combined with water, it lets out this color.”
“That’s amazing.” She pressed the side of her face to his back, loving the strength of his muscles and how good he was about answering her questions.
“I’m glad you like it,” he replied. “We’re going to be spending the night close to the beach.
“Why?” She frowned. “I thought you said we would get to your mother’s fast?”
“We didn’t teleport. That would have gotten us to her within moments. By driving, we are forced to a slower speed. It will take lots of hours before we get there and night is approaching.” He slowed the bike. It didn’t feel like they’d been going that long, but she noticed the light that had been high and bright before, had lowered to a soft dusky glow of the descending suns.
That was another thing. They had two suns. Both moving in tandem, giving the planet a bright and light feel. She’d thought with twin suns, the temperature would be scorching hot, especially since they looked to be way too close for comfort, but she’d been wrong. The weather was nice. The breeze helped to make the area feel incredibly tropical. One of her dreams as a kid was to live on a tropical island.
Karel stopped the bike near a bushy trail. In stunned amazement, she watched the bike descend over a flat patch of land, to rest on the ground.
FIFTEEN
She closed her eyes and inhaled, taking in the moment. She was on another planet. The vacation she’d been denying herself had finally come and it was literally out of this galaxy. Not to mention she was with a man so hot, her skin sweat from just looking at him.
He slid from of his seat and helped her out. Wind ruffled the trees, whispering through the branches and gliding its cool fingers over her skin.
He pulled her into the seductive cage of his arms and brushed his lips over hers. Little fires broke out in her core, heating her from the inside. He glided his tongue over her lips. Tasting. Probing. She opened hers in a soft sigh and he plunged in, his tongue immediately caressing and curling over hers. She clung to him, her soft, curvaceous body pressed tightly to his muscular, harder one.
The kiss didn’t grow desperate, though she felt like she was. He kept it light, playful with a hint of ownership. A reminder of who was in control: him.
She opened her eyes the moment he drew away, taking in his stubbly beard, and licking her lips. She had a thing for men with stubble. On Karel, it looked like he’d just gotten out of bed and with his short hair tousled from the wind, she had no issues imagining him in bed with her--doing all the wonderful things he’d done before.
It felt a lifetime ago since then, but it had only been hours.
“I’ll set up our tent for the night,” he said and moved to the rear of the bike. He grabbed their duffel bags and headed toward two giant trees with long crooked branches that intertwined creating an X.
“That’s kind of up there,” she mentioned, making conversation. “Are your trees always so tall and gnarly?”
He laughed and took a bunch of thin sheets out of his bag. “Yes. Aurora is very old. It is common to find trees millions of years old.”
She stared at him in shock. She’d never heard of a tree being that old. She stopped asking questions and instead focused on watching him.
He laid a sheet on the flat grass and frowned. If they were sleeping on that, she was in for a rough night. But before her eyes, the sheet started to reshape, thickening and changing to look like a mattress.
Holy shit! They wouldn’t have to sleep on the ground and she wouldn’t have to make the acquaintance of otherworldly bugs. She definitely didn’t want any creepy crawlies getting friendly with her mouth, nose, or ears while she slept.
Karel grabbed another sheet and hooked it to a corner of the mattress. The sheet stood straight and twisted into a rope growing longer. While that one twined, he hooked another to the other corner and let it twist. After all four corners had an attachment, together they reached toward the branches.
The cords lengthened and wrapped around limbs, lifting the mattress two feet off the ground. She squatted to look under the mattress and noticed the bottom appeared to be sheet metal and the top plush like a normal mattress.
“This is insane!”
“What’s insane?” he asked, standing back to glance at the hammock bed. He placed another thin sheet on top and it extended over the mattress and thicken into a throw blanket. With a firm set of his lips, he turned to her. “It’s not the castle, but we’ll be able to sleep. I don’t want you on the ground.”
She curled her hands at her sides to keep from throwing herself at him. “You have been catering to me since I met you,” she said. “I could have slept on the ground, if necessary.”
He nodded, cupping her face and pinning her with his stare. “I know, but it is my honored duty to make sure you never have to.”
Her heart thumped twice as fast in her chest. “Life isn’t always comfortable. There are a lot of difficult situations we all face at one point or another. This would have been no different.”
“That’s true, but you’re important to me,” he reaffirmed. “It would be different if it felt like a job, but making you comfortable and happy makes me happy.”
“I wish more people like you existed.” She sighed, remembering the difficult times she’d had as a big girl with people, and even her family. “I’ve never been anyone’s priority.”
“You have gone through a lot,” he said, his eyes bright with that animal she knew lay beneath the surface. “I can’t make your past disappear, but I can tell you that it doesn’t define you. The woman you are is the woman you want to be.” He caressed her jaw. “Everything you went through made you stronger. Taught you to be the woman you are. It helped to decide how you would approach the world.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I wish more women like you existed, because then other men would appreciate getting to know someone who has endured a hateful society filled with negativity, but thrived as a person.”
“That’s probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” she mumbled, her throat filled with emotion.
“It’s not meant to be nice. It’s the truth. This bed,” he said, pointing at the raised bed, “it’s a small luxury I can give you. I know you are unsure about me, about us. That’s okay. The fact you are giving me a chance tells me all I need to know.”
“What’s that?”
“That you are more than my mate,” he replied. “You’re the woman I’ve been waiting for. The one who won’t be easy all the time, but will make my life easier to bear.”
She licked her lips and cleared her throat. This was getting way too emotional for her. She really liked Karel. More than liked at this point. She wanted him in her bed, and to spend lots of time with him to see where things went.
“Do you have water?” she asked, in an attempt to take control of her body. Her hormones were in a frenzy.
He gave her a look that told her he knew she was trying to divert his attention, but he let her and reached into the open back of the bike for a jug. He pulled out a small plastic cup and filled it before handing it to her.
She drank the cool liquid in two quick gulps.
“Come on.” He grinned. “Let’s go to the
beach and watch the suns set.”
He brought his bag with him.
They sat on the beach, quiet for a long while. “Is the water deep?”
“No. This area has long, shallow slats of beach. Why?” He glanced at her tank top and shorts. “Do you want to go in?”
Yes. She really did, but she was scared. This was a different environment. What if they had strange animals in the water? Her fear of drowning made itself known at that moment.
He must have read the indecision on her face because he got up and yanked his shirt over his head. Her attention stuck and stayed riveted on his contracting abs. He had such a gorgeous body. All toned and muscled without being overly bulky. Though her caramel skin looked chocolaty compared to his much paler one, he still made her mouth water. His pants came off next. Oh, my. He was naked. Very, very naked. And hard.
She stared at his manly goods for way too long before lifting her vision to his face. A wicked twinkle flitted through his eyes and a sinful smile spread over his lips. “Come on. You’ll love it.”
Yeah, she bet she would. She also loved ice cream and cake but both were bad for her. Ah, what the hell. What was that saying? You only live once, or some shit like that. That was a good excuse.
She stripped, conscious of her naked state and the fact he stared at her like she was offering her body to him for a meal.
The sand felt ultra-fine and soft between her toes, molding around her feet. She wiggled her toes and lifted a foot off the sand. Her brow furrowed in confusion.
“It doesn’t stick?”
“What?” he asked, glancing at her foot, appearing confused as well.
She grinned and lowered it to the ground, grabbed a handful of sand, letting it run through her fingers, watching every single grain fall without leaving anything on her hands. “The sand. It’s not sticking to me.”
“It won’t. That’s not how it works. Sand here is not clingy. I am not sure of the properties of your earth sand, but the sand in Aurora will never stick to you.”
