by Black, Tasha
But there was something important he needed to tell her.
“I know that you agreed to my proposal,” he said. “But we were on television.”
She froze.
“I just hope that you did not agree quickly in order to save my pride,” he said. “I am glad that you are here. There is no need for us to rush. I will not hold you to your word.”
He waited for her to reply, prepared for anything.
She was unfailingly polite - he knew this about his mate. He had to be alert so as not to miss it if she lied.
But she smiled up at him, her eyes luminous.
“I’m so happy,” she told him simply. “This is everything I want. I don’t want to wait another moment. I want you to be my mate.”
Kent let the words wash over him - they sparkled with truth and joy.
“I am glad,” he told her gruffly, almost afraid of the happiness that threatened to tear him apart.
“But, I am still kind of curious about one thing,” Margot said.
“Only one thing?” he asked.
She grinned up at him and he smiled back, enchanted.
“Why did you change your mind about Regina?” She looked truly baffled.
“Of course. Let’s sit down,” he told her, taking her hand and leading her to the bed. She had tried to ask him about it before. She deserved to know the full story.
She sat, and he sat down beside her.
“Did you really believe that I would choose Regina?” he asked her.
“I saw you with her,” she said. “And I heard what you were saying.”
“The night I told you I chose you as my mate, I knew what I had to do,” Kent said. “But I wasn’t sure how to go about it. I made a commitment to the producers of So You Want to Marry an Alien. But I knew I could not share my life with anyone but you.”
Margot nodded, listening.
“After the day when we danced, I tried to talk with Olivia,” he went on. “She’s a producer, after all. I told her I needed to choose you, even if it dishonored her production.”
Margot leaned forward slightly.
He was glad she was interested.
“Olivia understood and explained that she would do what she could to help you not be eliminated, but that I needed to make sure she was able to film some scenes with other women so no one else would figure it out,” he said. “She said that the show relied on an element of surprise and so long as I could supply the surprise and anticipation, it was okay that I had already made a decision.”
Understanding lit up in Margot’s eyes.
“But I did not care for this idea,” Kent said. “So I chose to avoid allowing my scenes with other women to become intimate.”
Margot nodded.
“Then you punched Regina,” he said, trying and failing to hide his smile.
“You shouldn’t smile,” Margot scolded. “I’m an adult, I’m supposed to use my words.”
“I am new to this place,” Kent said. “But it seems to me that sometimes, some people need punching. At any rate, when this happened, Olivia explained that you had to be expelled from the show. I was despondent.”
“So was I,” Margot admitted.
“I did not know it, but your friend, Ruby, overheard us,” Kent told her. “She had approached to ask Olivia for you to have a second chance. When she heard me say that you and I were in love, she dashed off and came back with Al, the cameraman.”
“I thought he must have had a hand in it,” Margot said.
“Yes, well, Ruby said that she would take the fall for punching Regina, and Al could go back to the farm and take a shot of her about to throw a punch,” Kent said. “It was very admirable of her to make this offer.”
“That was very admirable,” Margot said, her eyes misting a little. “She’s a great friend.”
“But Olivia wisely brought up the problem of Regina,” Kent said. “She would have to be convinced not to give up the game.”
“Oh,” Margot said, nodding.
“So Olivia met with her privately,” Kent went on. “And it turned out she was much more forgiving of you as soon as she learned that you were a real celebrity.”
“That tracks,” Margot said.
“Regina agreed not to give you up if she was given a featured role in the show,” Kent said. “Which meant that she needed to have a close call. Olivia explained that this meant a scene where the audience would believe that I was going to choose her.”
“Ohh,” Margot said.
“I didn’t want it,” Kent said. “But it was the only way to protect you.”
“So you filmed the scene in the backyard,” Margot said, nodding.
“Yes,” Kent agreed. “But you were not supposed to see it. And I would have explained it to you first, but we couldn’t find you. And then you left…”
His grasp on the human language began to defy him and he felt his emotions overwhelming him once more as they had that night - plunging him toward darkness.
“I didn’t know,” Margot said, squeezing his hand. “But if I had, I would have understood and been grateful. Thank you for giving us a second chance.”
“I will always fight for you,” Kent told her. “It’s funny…”
He stopped, suddenly concerned that his observation might be impolite.
“What’s funny?” Margot asked.
“I hope that this is not an improper observation,” he said.
“Try me,” Margot said, smiling.
“In the movies we were shown to prepare us for your culture, women were portrayed as cruel to one another and jealous,” Kent said. “But you are understanding, Margot. And Ruby sacrificed her own happiness for yours - just as you did for her while baking a cake.”
Margot nodded thoughtfully.
“Was this a wrong thing to observe?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “And you’re right, Ruby was kind and Olivia was understanding. But Regina was cruel, and I hurt her too. It’s not really about women, Kent. It’s about people. People can be kind or cruel, or anything in between. And we’re not always all good, or all bad. We make our own choices for better or for worse, depending on our mood, or our past, or even our feelings of happiness or sadness.”
“I see,” he said, taking it in. “Just like you had to lie in the beginning. To hide who you were, because of what had happened to you.”
“Yes,” she said.
“I wondered why you were lying,” he admitted. “I had seen you at the gas station already, I knew you were kind. But the moment you appeared on the stage, you didn’t say one true thing.”
“You knew I was lying the moment I appeared on the stage?” she asked, her eyes twinkling in amusement.
“Yes,” he told her, knowing the moment had come for him to tell the truth too. “There’s something you should know about me.”
“What is it?” she asked her eyes going wide.
“My brothers and I, we each have… a gift,” he explained. “A special ability that would not be considered a human trait. We believe it is the vestiges of what we were skilled at back on Aerie. It makes us a little bit more than human.”
“Like some kind of superpower?” Margot asked.
“I guess so,” Kent said. “Though I do not think of it that way.”
“What is your gift?” Margot asked.
“I can sense lies,” Kent said.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I mean I can see them,” he told her.
“Like physically see them?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“What do they look like?” she asked, her expression fascinated.
“Like a mist, a red mist,” he explained. “Or like a fog if there are too many.”
“I’ll bet you couldn’t even see the stage when I was done out there,” Margot laughed.
“Indeed I could not,” he agreed, his heart light because she was not frightened.
She thought it was funny.
; “Then you know I’m telling the truth when I say I love you,” she said.
“I don’t need any special gifts to see that,” he told her, and reached out his hand to caress her cheek.
She leaned into him.
When he bent to kiss her softly, her arms went around his neck and she pulled him down on top of her.
His body responded instantly, rippling with lust.
He kissed her with greater intensity, pressing his body against hers.
Margot’s nails sank into his shoulders again, sending that same electricity through him, making him wild for more.
He kissed his way down her neck, unbelting her robe and pushing it off her shoulders.
She slid her arms out of the sleeves and then lay very still, looking up at him.
Kent gazed down at her, overwhelmed at the beauty before his eyes. Her skin looked so soft, her curves so welcoming. He was overcome.
“Margot,” he whispered.
Her cheeks were pink again, but this time he suspected that she was not pleased.
“You are so beautiful. Are you not proud?” he asked her.
“I guess I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to lose weight,” she admitted. “It doesn’t help that you look like you do.”
Oh.
“So it is true that you were running away from a place where they did not feed you enough to maintain your body mass?” he asked. “Where they wished for parts of you to disappear?”
“Um, yeah, I guess that’s what it was,” she said. “I just never thought of it that way.”
“This is unacceptable,” he roared.
“It’s really okay,” Margot said. “You don’t understand. These things are different on Earth.”
“Oh, I understand perfectly well,” Kent said. “This planet pretends to care about mass, but it is really about power. The power to intimidate, the power to make a person wish to disappear, even in part.”
“Wow,” Margot said.
“So long as I am alive, no one will threaten any part of you,” he promised her. “I welcome you to take up as much space as you would like. All of your mass pleases me, I would not be satisfied if you were missing a single gram.”
“Um, thank you,” Margot said.
“And another thing,” he added. “You mentioned that what I looked like did not make you feel better. What did you mean?”
“Only that you fit the… ideal image of a human male,” she said. “And I do not fit the ideal image of a human female.”
“I am glad if my form pleases you,” he told her huskily. “I did not have any part in making it. This body and I have no history, no heritage. But its designer would be happy to hear that it stimulates your senses, as it was designed to do. However, what you said next is untrue. You do fit the ideal image of a human female. You are more than ideal to me. You are more beautiful than I could have dreamed. Please do not make this mistake again.”
A tear slipped down her cheek and he bent to catch it with the tip of his tongue..
He could feel her smile.
“Wait here,” he whispered. “I will remove my clothes too.”
She nodded.
He leapt out of bed and stripped his clothes off as quickly as he could, then crawled back in with her, enjoying the hungry way she eyed his muscles.
When he kissed her again she arched her back, pressing her breasts to his chest.
He pulled back slightly to kiss his way down her neck, then nuzzled one taut nipple.
Margot moaned and arched her back again.
Kent smiled and licked her nipple into his mouth, sucking lightly as he toyed with the other one between his thumb and index finger.
Margot whimpered again, sending his senses almost over the edge.
He abandoned her breasts to kiss her sweet belly, and her inner thighs.
She seemed to hold her breath as he pressed her thighs gently apart.
He looked up at her for a moment.
Her hair was tousled against the pillow, lips swollen from his kisses. Her cheeks were flushed again, with desire this time.
He buried his face in her sex, rejoicing in the sweet sounds she made as he pushed her closer and closer to the edge.
27
Margot
Margot clutched the sheets in her hands as Kent teased and tormented her pulsating sex.
She was lost in a storm of pleasure, desperate for release, yet wishing it would never end.
Kent clenched her thighs, feeding on her frantically, as if he couldn’t bear to stop.
When her hips lifted involuntarily to meet his mouth, he pulled back and crawled up to her.
Margot opened her arms to him, reveling in the beauty of his masculine features, the glisten of her juices on his lips.
She had never thought she could be so wanton - no man had ever made her feel so fearless and sexy.
“Are you ready, my love?” he asked her. His voice was rough, but his words were gentle. He would stop now if she asked.
“Yes, please,” she whispered. “I need you.”
When he pressed inside her she saw stars.
He was enormous, but he moved so slowly, so tenderly that she felt almost no pain.
When he was fully seated, he paused for a moment, holding her close.
“Margot, I am yours,” he told her.
“I’m yours too,” she said. “I will always belong to you.”
Then he began to move again, and she lost herself in the sensation, glorying in every long, slow stroke.
Too soon she felt the fire rising in her core.
He felt it too and gave her harder, faster strokes.
“Ohh,” she whimpered.
He slid a hand between them to gently stroke her clit.
Margot clung to him as she soared and then shattered in a tsunami of pleasure, just as he cried out and she felt him explode into her.
The air seemed to go out of the room for a moment.
Then she blinked and there was nothing but the light suffusing the room and the tremors of the pleasure with her mate still inside her.
Kent collapsed onto his side, pulling her against his chest.
“I love you,” he told her. “I always will.”
She blinked, imagining she was seeing things.
But it was still there - an almost invisible silvery mist shimmering around him.
“I love you too,” she murmured. “I think something happened to me though.”
“Did I hurt you?” he demanded, looking horrified.
“No,” she said. “No, not at all. But when you speak, I can see… a shimmer around you.”
“My gift,” he murmured. “Sometimes when one of my kind clicks with his chosen mate, the resulting bond transfers some form of his gift. This is very lucky.”
“You see lies,” she said slowly.
“But I’m not lying,” he said.
“Then I’m seeing the truth,” she breathed.
“Amazing,” he whispered. “I’m so proud of you. I’m the luckiest creature in the universe.”
His whole body was haloed in shimmering silver.
Truth.
28
Margot
Margot sat in a booth at the Stargazer Diner, squeezed cozily between Kent and Ruby.
Across from them Kent’s brothers, Parker and Wayne, barely fit on the bench.
The five of them were sharing an enormous platter of appetizers and talking excitedly.
“I can’t believe you’re really doing it,” Ruby said again.
“Which part of it?” Margot asked, giggling a little.
“All of it,” Ruby squealed. “Let me see the ring again.”
Margot held out her hand to show off the slender band with the petite diamond.
“Wow,” Ruby said.
“You like it, Ruby?” Parker asked her earnestly from across the table.
Ruby looked up at him and blushed straight up to her hairline.
“Um, yes, it’s lovely,” she said in a
very stiff, very un-Ruby-like way.
“I love it too,” Margot said fondly, hoping to take attention off her friend.
“But it’s the wedding show I really can’t believe,” Ruby went on, sounding more like herself. “I mean obviously any woman would love to marry a hunky alien, but giving up A Lion’s Game and all those other opportunities to do another reality show?”
“Well, I figure if those other producers are really interested, the offers will still be there when we’re done shooting,” Margot said. “It’s a very tight production schedule. And if not? Well, I guess they weren’t that interested.”
When she looked up, she saw Parker was grinning at Ruby.
Was there something going on between those two?
She looked back at the woman who was swiftly becoming her best friend.
But Ruby was lost in her fries and decidedly not looking at Parker.
“There you are,” Olivia called to them from the door to the diner. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
She scurried over, her iPad already out, fingers dancing across the screen.
“We just wanted to take a little break,” Kent said.
“You can’t do that,” Olivia spluttered. “We have too much to plan.”
“Olivia Fontaine, sit down and eat French fries,” Wayne said, his deep voice cutting easily through the noise of the crowded diner.
Olivia opened her mouth and closed it again,
Then she pulled up a chair and sat down.
Wayne grinned and pushed the tray of appetizers toward her.
“So I have some updates for you,” Olivia said. “First of all, everyone’s thrilled that you’re onboard. And donating your salary to charities that help with teen depression is a really amazing gesture.”
“Wow, Margot,” Ruby said, looking impressed.
“The only reason I got all this attention was because those kids called A Lion’s Game out for what they were trying to do to me,” Margot said. “It’s only right to give back.”
“That’s lovely,” Kent whispered into her hair, squeezing her shoulder.
“Anyway, everyone loves it,” Olivia went on. “And we looked at the focus groups. Ruby, you were a fan favorite. You tested well and people responded to your friendship with Margot. We’d like to bring you onboard for the sequel as a wedding planner.”
