Billionaire's Holiday Bride: A Bad Boy Christmas Romance

by Serena Vale

  “I’m curious,” she explained. “On Earth, when someone gets old they have wrinkles in their skin… they lose hair… their bones and organs become brittle… like that. If he purchased the moon sixty of my years ago… then by my calendar he’s older than sixty. So does that mean…?”

  “That he’s wrinkled and hairless?” Urala asked with an amused grin.

  Shayla nodded.

  Urala giggled aloud. “Oh, no… mistress. I would be lying if I said that I could measure the calendars of others precisely, but from what I understand your betrothed is not old and wrinkled. He is of one of those races that, I’m pleased to say, do not show their age at all.”

  Comforting, she thought. At least I won’t be getting married to someone that looks like an old geezer.

  “But he is a kind hearted soul, mistress,” Urala pointed out, “And…” she hesitated.

  “What?”

  Urala looked uncomfortable by answering, but she did nonetheless. “That he would take a human wife has made him the subject of much discussion. But he cares nothing for ridicule… he has immersed himself in the culture of your world so profoundly I think he has determined that it’s only logical that he should have a human wife.”

  Shayla had never been one to delve too deeply into philosophy, but somehow that reasoning made perfect sense to her. At least I think it does…

  She and Urala sat and spoke more as days went by.

  In that time she learned a great deal about her future husband. His favorite dish was some kind of a fish that was imported from an all-water world, though she couldn’t pronounce the name. He enjoyed lifting weights and considered watching dancers to be one of his favorite joys in life. He was a terrible cook, though he tried repeatedly to not be so. He dedicated a small portion of his day to business matters that could not go unattended but he spent a larger portion of the day seeing to the disposition of his guests. Urala was willing to bet that once they were formally wed he would give over a portion of his time entertain patrons strictly to her.

  “I’m not exactly thrilled about being a part of someone’s daily schedule,” she admitted.

  “It won’t be like that at all, mistress,” Urala said knowledgeably. “My master, I’m certain, will be as attentive to you as any human male.”

  Shayla wanted to laugh at that, but managed to hide it by asking more questions.

  She learned that Ugil, like herself, had no family that he’d left behind on his home world. If there was one thing that Urala was able to confirm it was that Ugil was alone in the galaxy. That was something that they had in common at least. Overall, the picture that she was painting in her mind was not an unpleasant one at the thought of the man she was only a week away from marrying.

  She leaned back in her chair and a girlish smile split her features as she and Urala sipped at a bottle of wine that she had opened at some point during their conversation. Urala, having become a little tipsy, had laughed and giggled away with her every time she let some new secret spill and Shayla felt as if she were hearing was too good to be true.

  She’d heard stories like this. Stories of men from Earth’s past that had been so selfless and so noble that they couldn’t possibly be real. What she was hearing now made Ugil of Paradiso fit to be among men like King Arthur and Lancelot. Taken together, what she had heard didn’t make Ugil a bad person. But still, the idea of what he was like in person flittered at the edge of her desires.

  She wanted to know what he looked like. She had looked into the many files provided for her perusal for any image of him, but found none. He was a complete mystery to her. She didn’t know if he was taller or shorter than she was… if he had tentacles or legs… if he had hair or scales… nothing.

  I guess I’ll just have to find out, won’t I?

  Chapter 5

  Over the course of the rest of the journey she finally found time between her studies to enjoy herself a little. She made use of the gym and the spa, she found time to actually sit and watch some of the old films that were in the video library, she spent some time relaxing in the Jacuzzi, and once or twice she indulged herself and slept late.

  Before she knew it, it was the final day of their voyage and Urala had advised her that they would make planetfall within an hour or so. Shayla knew what that meant and her body had felt tense for the first time in many years and for the very reason that she was most afraid of.

  Urala helped her get into what was to become her wedding dress. The ceremony would take place almost as soon as she stepped off the shuttle. She had learned that such was the way for Ugil’s people – a holdover from his past life that he had not been ready to part ways with. Marriage remained a sacred thing to his race and exile did not change that.

  Shayla regarded herself in the mirror of her private cabin while Urala helped her into her dress. The dress was a beautiful thing, shimmering white like a traditional Earthly bride’s dress was supposed to be. It was spun from the fibers of some kind of crushed crystal Urala had said and was a beautiful thing to behold. Though she was not as slender as the average bride, she thought she looked presentable enough.

  “You look splendid, mistress,” Urala complimented.

  Shayla sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. With an appraising eye she thought that she could stand to lose maybe a kilo or two from her hips and her thighs, maybe she should have taken some supplements to make her hair grow longer… something. She did not think she looked terrible, but with her military hair cut still prominent on her head under her bridal veil, she began to worry that Ugil would not accept her as he found her. She said as much aloud.

  “I’m positive that my master would take you as he finds you, mistress,” Urala assured her. “I think it likely that he hopes you would do as much for him.”

  She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. A thought and a fear had been dancing in the back of her mind for the last three days now and she finally found the courage to give it a voice. “Urala… what happens if he doesn’t like me?”

  “Mistress?”

  “Say… when he sees me… that he doesn’t like that I have short hair… maybe he had some different idea in mind for a human bride… something like that. Can he just decide to send me back home or something?”

  Urala looked at her curiously. “Is this what you’re hoping for, mistress?”

  She shook her head. “No… it’s simply what scares me.” That was true enough. Over the last few days she had grown accustomed to the idea of living on a paradise that encompassed and entire moon and being attached to the man who owned and operated it all. But the fear that he wouldn’t like what he saw in her was the same as she feared that a man of Earth might not care for her. That the size and shape of her body, the color of her skin, her nationality, something of that nature, would be enough to turn his desire to dislike frightened her. And she did not know what the consequences were of being rejected by an off world authority if he was not pleased with her. She could not go home… she could not stay… so what would become of her then?

  The thought put a genuine fear in her.

  Urala put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I think you have nothing to fear, mistress. Nothing at all.”

  Urala’s words were comforting, but there was a lingering fear in her heart that refused to let go. Shayla could only firm herself and prepare to do what she knew she had to.

  There was a gentle chime over the speakers of the cabin and she knew what that meant without needing to ask.

  “We’ve arrived,” Urala said for her. “It’s time.”

  Shayla had learned the routine from beginning to end of how things were to proceed. It was all simple enough and it would not take more than a few minutes to go from being a newly arrived person on this planet to being the wife of the man who ran it all. The simplicity of it, she knew, should have comforted her, but all she felt now nervousness.

  Minutes ago there had been a gentle bump under her feet. So she knew that the shuttle was now on the g
round and she felt the heavier pull of the extra gravity on her knees, but managed to compensate well enough. Landing meant that the process of marriage had already begun. She knew that they had arrived at Ugil’s private port and when the doors opened, her intended would be standing there and the marriage ceremony would commence almost immediately. After that, the rest was a cake walk.

  I hope.

  Standing before the airlock of the shuttle, Shayla felt her nerves becoming unsteady. She managed to hold herself upright and almost laughed, thinking that just a couple of weeks before she had been a soldier – of a sort – and that standing at attention should have been easy for her. Now, she could hardly imagine a harder task.

  “I’m not permitted to go any further than this, mistress,” Urala said once they had reached the airlock.

  She looked back to her friend. “What?”

  Urala shook her head. “This portion of the ceremony is for you and my master alone.”

  Shayla almost protested, but she nodded. The consummation of the marriage would take place immediately following the vows. And it was a time that was – by almost everyone’s tradition – a private time. It was only logical that Urala would not be there. “Yes… of course.”

  There was a second chime overhead and she knew what that meant as well… her future husband was approaching and would be outside the airlock within seconds. Her nerves began to grow more unsteady.

  “Mistress…” Urala said, her voice becoming urgent. “You have nothing to fear… I’m certain that my master will find you most pleasing. And I’m positive that you will find him exactly the same. Fortune is on your side.”

  There was a final chime.

  “Good luck, milady.” With that, Urala turned and vanished from her side, leaving Shayla alone at the closed airlock hatch.

  She turned her eyes forward and took a steady breath. The airlock hatch before her hissed and slowly began to ascend like the curtain at a stage play. She felt a tension creep into her veins as a sweet smell swept into the small room. There was a fragrance that she could not identify, but it smelled sweet like flowers and was soothing. As the door slowly began to open, a figure was brought into her sight one portion at a time.

  At first, all she saw was a pair of feet, covered in some kind of formal footwear. The feet looked human, nothing strange about that. Following that was a pair of legs… also covered in a pair of trousers that looked human enough. Then came a pair of hands that were held firmly at the sides of a very human-looking torso. And finally the image of a face came into her sight.

  Her breath was nearly stolen by what she saw there.

  The face that looked on her… was human, and a handsome one at that. The man standing before her wore a face of fair skin and was maybe a centimeter or two taller than she. But his eyes and hair were of a deep brown, his scalp was long, reaching down to his shoulders and tied in a neat ponytail in the back. He looked almost unshaven, the stubble of his cheeks showed that he had not shaved for at least a day. But he was… oddly… human. But by the manner in which he was dressed he looked as a man out of time. From her study of history, he would have looked right at home in the old European Block circa 18th or 19th century… like a gentleman of some forgotten period of time.

  She almost forgot to speak at the sight of such a handsome figure, recalling that her time of the ceremony had finally come. “I… I am Shayla Umbetki,” she said, “and I am for you, Ugil of Paradiso.”

  The man before her smiled, a radiant expression. “And I, Ugil of Paradiso, accept and welcome you Shayla Umbetki.” He stepped sideways and offered her his left arm like a gentleman would from some of those old films she had seen.

  I had to cross the entire galaxy to find a real gentleman, she thought with a grin.

  She almost tripped as she stepped forward and managed to slip her arm through his. Right away, she noticed something different about him. His skin was warm, as if he was radiating some kind of energy but she did not speak to this. Part of the ceremony required silence until their vows were spoken, after which she could ask all of the questions that she liked.

  Ugil guided her down a small companionway and up a set of stairs. At the summit, there was a genuine alien standing there in a small empty room that was large enough to house only the three of them. Not big on having witnesses here, she thought.

  The alien was a gangly creature, looking as though it had been built from toothpicks and given a small measure of muscle and sinew to keep it standing. Its head was long and elongated at the mouth and a pair of toad-like eyes looked upon her as she and her groom approached. The creature also wore no clothing, but it wore a star-shaped medallion at its chest that she thought bore some meaning.

  They stopped at an arm’s reach from the strange creature and it stretched its arms out, revealing that it had no more than two digits on either of its thin hands. The pendant on its chest began to glimmer electrically as words issued forth from it, sounding digitally translated.

  “Here I stand… witness to a union of two hearts… and to follow will be the union of two bodies,” the creature said.

  He’s a priest, Shayla realized.

  “Ugil, the master of this world and those that claim it as their soil, has chosen to take this, Shayla Umbetki as his bride and life partner,” the priest went on. “Both come from worlds far distant, but both come here and now, and claim this moon as their new home.” The priest put his elongated fingers together. “Ugil, do you claim this woman as your wife?”

  “I do,” Ugil said, not taking his eyes from the priest.

  “And do you, Shayla Umbetki, claim this man as your husband?”

  “I do,” she said, her voice carrying more enthusiasm than she thought it would, surprising herself.

  The priest made a gesture with his hands towards the sky, as if he were making an invisible offering to a witnessing god. Then he brought hands back down and as if he were splitting that invisible offering in two, he passed that ethereal offering to both she and Ugil.

  “In the sight of the gods, your two spirits have been divided and shared. One half of your souls now reside within the other.” The priest folded his hands and gave a slight bow as he took a step back on birdlike legs. “Go now, and join the flesh so that it matches your spirit.”

  Shayla felt her excitement rising as Ugil led the way from the small room and deeper into the complex that would become her home. She didn’t know where they were going, but was able to take in the sight of the area around them. It looked almost like an arboretum of some kind. The buildings were dome-shaped and covered with glass, housing plants that she didn’t recognize. She saw no other signs of people anywhere else about and it seemed, if only for a moment, that they were indeed alone.

  “I’ve given the staff the afternoon off,” Ugil said as if he could sense her thoughts, though his voice lightly trembled. “We are alone here.”

  She felt a smile touch her lips as she measured the unsteady tones in his voice. He’s nervous. “I’m pleased to hear it.”

  Chapter 6

  He looked at her and she could see a nervous glare behind his eyes. “You are… pleased with the service? I tried to copy it as best as I could from what I’ve learned of Terran literature and religious practices. I hope it sufficed?”

  “It was perfect,” she said honestly. It was true. She had long imagined what her wedding would be like and the thought of long-winded speeches had always worried her. She was also pleased that there was no need for the exchanging of rings. She had always thought that to be a rather trivial tradition when the exchanging of vows held more power. At least they did from her view point.

  “I’m happy to know it,” he said, his voice still slightly shaking. “And… are you pleased with me?”

  She could stop herself smiling. “I am… but…” she felt her own nerves become unsteady as the question formed in her mouth, “are you… human?”

  Ugil shook his head. “No… I’m not.”

  “You’re not
?”

  “No…” he sighed as if uncertain how best to explain himself. “I am what is called – at least by the classifications of your people – a meta-morph.”

  The thought struck her as if she had just been hit in the solar plexus by an invisible sledge hammer. “You’re a shape shifter?”

  He nodded. “Yes. I can appear in many different forms…” he looked nervous once again, but also looked determined to carry on with his explanation. “I have no skeletal structure… at least not in the sense of most creatures in the galaxy. I have the ability to assume another form if that pleases you more?”

  “No!” she said, stopping in her tracks and putting a hand on his. She noted that his skin seemed very soft, almost like cream. It was as if she could take his flesh and mold it into any shape that she pleased. The notion held a strange kind of appeal as part of her mind began to wonder what possible faces she could put on the man before her. “No… I like this form very much.”

  He looked relieved to hear it. “I am pleased to know this.”

  She smiled at him.

  He guided her to a room that was easily arranged simply for the consummation of their marriage. The room, like every other that she had seen, was dome shaped and roofed with a glass ceiling that showed her a bright sky above her. Outside that window, she could see the gas giant that Paradiso orbited hanging in the sky. It was an orange color, that planet, and it filled the room with matching light. Though orange had never really been a favorite color of hers, there was something appealing in the mood that the lighting set.

  In the center of the room there was a bed. It was large enough to allow at least six people to sleep side by side and a devious smile touched her face as she realized the kind of sexual acrobatics that could be performed on such a thing. She began to wonder just how much of Earthly culture that her new husband had really studied and she hoped that somewhere in the course of his learning he had lapsed in his studies.

  Might have to teach him a few things, she thought with an inward explosion of excitement.