by Rachel Clark
The Bride’s Unexpected Change in Plans
It was supposed to be her wedding day…
A broken promise shattered Kimberley’s dreams of a new life. Unable to get back to Earth and forbidden to stay without Desconian partners, Kimberley has no choice but to accept Ewin and Dayved’s offer to help.
In a culture so different from her own—where sexual exhibition is considered normal and the joyful exploration of carnal pleasures is actually encouraged—Kimberley finds herself falling for the men who teach her the Desconian lifestyle. A future with them is a wonderful dream, but they weren’t looking for a wife and she knows she needs to move on.
Dayved and Ewin didn’t know what was missing from their relationship until they invited Kimberley into their lives. Seducing the woman turns out to be lots of sexy fun, but convincing her that they actually love her? That could be much harder than they realized.
Genre: Futuristic, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Science Fiction
Length: 25,602 words
THE BRIDE’S UNEXPECTED CHANGE IN PLANS
Rachel Clark
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
THE BRIDE’S UNEXPECTED CHANGE IN PLANS
Copyright © 2012 by Rachel Clark
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62241-252-5
First E-book Publication: September 2012
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright © 2012
Chapter One
Kimberley pressed the button to replay the last part of the video message again. It seemed so amazing, and even after seven weeks of hectic planning still seemed a bit of a dream.
Juna and Hollank appeared on the screen, their smiles bright and their demeanors happy.
“We can’t wait for you to join us on Descon,” Juna said as her eyes filled with tears and her husband, her tredella, pulled her closer. “I can barely believe how lucky we were to find you.”
“Yes, Kimberley,” Hollank said with a stiff smile, “we’re so very glad that you applied to be a mail-order bride on Descon, and we promise to love you and any children we might have together with all our hearts.”
Hollank hadn’t been the easiest man to get to know long distance—and it certainly hadn’t helped that because of the distance between their planets they hadn’t actually been able to speak face-to-face—but Juna had assured Kimberley that, although Hollank may not show it very well on the awkward recordings, he was definitely looking forward to her arrival.
The couple had a home and a life together, and they were inviting Kimberley to share their happiness. It just seemed way too good to be true.
“You’re going to wear that recording out,” Estelle said with a laugh as she joined her in the exit lounge. “Lucky that we’re almost there, isn’t it?”
“Very,” Kimberley agreed, fiddling nervously with the engagement ring Hollank and Juna had sent her. It wasn’t part of Descon tradition, so the gesture had been even more touching. Her future partners were trying very hard to make her feel comfortable and welcome.
“Attention, passengers,” a disembodied voice said through the ship’s intercom. “We will be landing on Descon shortly. Please ensure that you have collected all of your belongings before disembarking. Thank you for traveling with PIS Transport.”
Nervous now that the time to meet her new partners was here, Kimberley still giggled at the acronym. One of the crew had explained that the initials stood for something similar to “Paul’s Intergalactic Ships” in the owner’s native tongue, but it’s translation to the standard Earth language made many of the crew roll their eyes whenever the captain said it.
“Could be worse,” Estelle said with a wide smile. “Could have been Fred’s Universal Cruises.”
Kimberley laughed with the older woman without really understand the humor, but she was very glad for the chance to release a bit of tension. She’d met Estelle the day they boarded the ship. The older woman was traveling to Descon to live with her daughter and her daughter’s partners and couldn’t wait to meet her grandchild for the first time. For the past three days Estelle had been a pleasant friend, sympathetic ear, and an enthusiastic listener as Kimberley talked almost nonstop about the new life she had planned.
“So your wedding is today?” Estelle asked again. The older woman hadn’t really approved of the way human women were expected to marry the moment they landed on the planet, but it had worked out for her daughter, so she’d assured Kimberley that it would work out for her, also.
“I can’t believe how nervous I suddenly am,” Kimberley said, smoothing her clammy hands down her hips once more. Thank heavens she wouldn’t be wearing these pants to meet her partners. They were creased beyond redemption.
But then she remembered what she would be wearing when she met them and a heated blush traveled her entire body. Completely naked was a rather intimidating way to greet someone, but it was the fact that they would then smooth a type of lotion all over her that was giving her both hot and cold flushes. The lotion was
said to increase sexual arousal to unimagined heights. After living on Earth, where sex and procreation were widely considered the work of the devil, to be suddenly immersed in a culture where sexuality was joyfully explored was going to take some getting used to.
She could hardly wait.
“Come on,” Estelle said as she hooked her arm through Kimberley’s. “I’ve heard that Desconian customs can be a really long process. Let’s not be last in line.”
Kimberley nodded enthusiastically and headed toward the ship’s exit and her brand-new life.
* * * *
Ewin checked his timepiece for the fifteenth time in as many minutes and tried not to regret covering his friend’s shift. It wasn’t really an assignment that required a member of the royal guard, but it was important that the human women about to step off the transport ship were protected.
Of course, it didn’t help his patience that the intergalactic shipping terminal was swarming with people and that the passengers he waited for were already late disembarking.
Over the years the organization in charge of the human mail-order-bride scheme—the Desconian Fertility Committee—had changed a lot of different rules and regulations about how the women were selected, but it seemed that they’d finally smoothed out most of the wrinkles. These days, potential brides were introduced to, and given a chance to know, a Desconian couple long distance—almost a full year before they were expected to marry. They had to undergo several months of correspondence, medical testing, and navigate various other hoops and jumps before the Descon couple was able to submit the application to claim their human wife. The human women weren’t even allowed to travel to Descon until the rigorous screening process was completed to the committee’s satisfaction.
It meant that far fewer women were coming to Descon but fortunately also meant these new stringent rules seemed to be working. The kings still insisted that the mubellas or mubellabinas were married and claimed in Desconian tradition as soon as they landed on the planet, and so far it seemed to be the best choice. Unclaimed human women wandering the planet was not a situation the authorities wanted or needed. If they came to Descon, it was for the express purpose of getting married. Thankfully, with the chance to get to know each other first, the new triads were proving successful, and fewer human women were asking to go home.
Ewin glanced at the partner assigned to him for this endeavor and tried not to roll his eyes. The kid was young, inexperienced, and completely, utterly flabbergasted to be working alongside him. Considering that the security guard spent more time staring at him than checking the surrounding area for threats, Ewin had several very good reasons for feeling irritated.
Finally the five human women they’d been waiting for stepped out of the customs area and were escorted to them by the ships’ security personnel.
“Welcome to Descon,” Ewin said, stepping up to introduce himself when it was obvious the young man was too distracted to do it. “I’m Ewin, son of Dweena. Your luggage will be delivered to the administrative area, and we will escort you directly to your claiming ceremonies.”
Three of the women giggled nervously, a fourth rolled her eyes, and the fifth paled enough to look like she was going to pass out.
Hell, Ewin hoped she wasn’t going to pass out. That hadn’t happened in a claiming ceremony since Cindy Richards had swooned spectacularly three years ago. He couldn’t help but smile at the memory. Despite being an intergalactic ambassador, the woman had been completely overwhelmed by the mubellabina claiming ceremony. Of course, it hadn’t helped that she’d believed she was there as a witness, not the bride, but once the misunderstandings were sorted out, she’d fallen deeply in love with Eric and Loukie instead of running back home, so it had worked out in the end.
It was a short walk from the space station to the government’s administrative block, and Ewin was grateful that they didn’t have to wait long. Two of the women were taken into the preparation rooms immediately, while the other three were offered refreshments and a place to relax.
It was a little annoying that they were required to continue guarding the women even though they were inside the administrative block, but security had been tightened considerably after one of the brides had been abducted from a preparation room. Ewin couldn’t help but smile at the memory. His boss, Jerrod, had been frantic to find the woman he loved, but it had been the people of Descon themselves who had proven their worth that day. A crowd of Desconian citizens had very literally blocked the man’s path off the planet and held him there until the royal guard had arrived.
Considering some of the stories that Cindy and Serena had shared with him since, he was doubly glad that Serena hadn’t been taken. Life on the planet called Earth sounded truly depressing. It seemed almost ironic that a planet with so many confusing and perplexing laws against sex and sexuality could still be overpopulated.
“Kimberley, your turn,” one of the attendants said in a happy voice. The human woman smiled excitedly, climbed to her feet, and headed to the preparation room. But just as she reached the doorway, a second woman came up behind the first, whispered something in a low voice, shook her head, and then backed away. The first woman reached out to touch Kimberley’s elbow and smiled reassuringly. “Sorry, sweetie, false alarm. It seems there has been a slight delay. Your claiming ceremony has been moved to a later time. If you just take a seat, we’ll give you another call shortly.”
Ewin watched the smile slip from the human woman’s face. She nodded slowly and twisted a ring on her finger nervously. “O–Okay,” she said haltingly. “Thank you.”
She quickly returned to her seat, her trembling fingers still turning the ring over and over. When she noticed Ewin watching her, she forced a smile onto her face and tried to look relaxed. But as one hour rolled into two and then two into three without any word from anyone on what was happening, not only was Ewin’s patience running thin, but it was also obvious that Kimberley’s nervousness was getting worse.
“Go and find out what’s happening,” Ewin said to his fellow security guard.
“But we aren’t…um…supp—”
Ewin cut him off with a growled, “Now!”
The young man visibly paled as he nodded his understanding and left the room quickly. Kimberley gave Ewin a brief smile but went back to twisting the ring on her finger. Even from several feet away Ewin could see that the skin under her ring looked red and sore. Clearly the woman’s concern was overriding her pain sensors.
“He’ll find out why there’s a delay,” Ewin said, trying to act like this sort of thing happened all the time. Hell, for all he knew, it probably did. There was always a glitch or two in any plans, no matter how organized the people involved tried to be.
“Thank you.”
Kimberley gave him a tremulous smile and then dropped her head forward. He’d seen the telltale glisten in her eyes but hesitated on what to do. It was obvious the woman was upset, yet he was fairly certain cuddling someone else’s mubellabina wasn’t on the list of his guard duties. But when her shoulders shook slightly, he couldn’t refuse to offer comfort. To have come all this way to get married would have been very stressful. To have something delay the ceremony probably tripled her tension levels.
“Kimberley,” he said quietly as he sat beside her. “He’ll find out what’s going on and get it fixed. It shouldn’t be too much longer.”
“I’m sorry,” she said in a shuddering, breathless voice. “I just…” She lifted her face and gave him another of those tremulous smiles. “I should have known my wedding day wouldn’t go as planned. It’s not like anything else in my life happened the way I wanted it to.”
He placed his hand high on her back, rubbing gently between her shoulder blades as the woman wiped at the few escaped tears and tried bravely to pull herself together. After a few moments she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Thank you.”
“Any time,” he said, leaning back in the chair, but instead of taking his hand awa
y like he should have, for some reason he continued to draw little circles on her spine. It wasn’t until she sighed softly that he realized what he was doing. He withdrew his hand quickly and got to his feet. He tried really hard to think of something neutral to say that would put them back on familiar ground. “I guess you’ve had a few busy days lately.”
“Yes,” Kimberley said with a soft laugh. “Packing up a crappy life and heading to the promise of something better is always hard work, or so I’m told.” She gave him a smile that suggested that this was her usual personality, not the nervous, distressed woman she’d been for the past few hours or the weepy one she’d been minutes ago.
“I’ve heard that life on Earth is hard.”
“It is for some. My life wasn’t all bad,” she said with a shrug. “It’s not like I was destitute or abused or anything like that. It’s just a really difficult place to build a happy life. I couldn’t imagine trying to raise a family somewhere as crowded and polluted as my hometown.”
“So you came to Descon to have children?” Ewin wanted to roll his eyes at his inane question. Of course she came to Descon to start a family. It was why the Desconian kings were encouraging human women to come live on the planet.
Kimberley must have realized the ridiculousness of his question because she simply nodded and asked a question of her own. “What about you? Do you have a family?”
Ewin smiled as he thought of his tredellabina. Dayved was the love of his life. “I have a husband,” he said, deliberately using the word they used on Earth. He’d heard that some humans had a dislike for same-sex marriages, although he seriously couldn’t understand why. “But we’ve never really discussed finding a mubella, a wife, together. Dayved is quite happy running our home his way. I don’t think he’d appreciate a woman trying to take over.”
Kimberley raised an eyebrow and gave him a quirky smile. “You never considered finding a woman who wasn’t interested in taking over the home duties?”
