by Rena Marks
CHASING VIOLET
C.L. Scholey
Rena Marks
Chasing Violet
Rena Marks & C.L. Scholey
Violet Knight is tired of men hooking up with her for her money.
She caught the latest loser pants-down and rump-up one week before the wedding. Now she’s upgraded her honeymoon cruise ship for a pampering space-cruise that caters to females only. That’s exactly what her burnt heart needs. A hunky serviceman whose job is to worship the female patronage aboard the month-long trip. Little does she know a pampering space-cruise ship looks awfully similar to a mail-order bride ship.
Cadoc of Docadia finds the girl he’s always dreamed about all grown up and looking to be a bride. To his surprise, she asks him to stay the night. But consummating their relationship comes with a small problem. Turns out she’s the tiny female he rescued all those years ago.
Now he has to tell her they’ve been mated.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Clarity’s Doom
Tempest and the Warrior
Abducted
Stargazer Series
The Hunter
About the Authors
Also by Rena Marks
Also by C.L. Scholey
Chapter One
Cold rain drizzled, blurring the images on the directional signs.
Violet peered around, squinting her eyes to read the symbols. Not that squinting would help her read a foreign language. She should be here with Joshua right now. He knew various languages, and probably, just to show off, had reported to the cruise management that they wouldn’t be needing any translation. Rat bastard.
It was his fault she was on her honeymoon vacation by herself. She’d gone over to his apartment to surprise him a week ago, and the superintendent quietly let her in. Not that she’d let anyone know that, she didn’t want to get the poor man fired.
She’d heard the moans as soon as she opened the door. Confused, she turned to ask the superintendant what exactly those were. But with a red face, he quietly slipped back down the hall, leaving her to figure it out on her own.
“Ooh, Joshua! Just like that. That’s it, baby, right there. Oh, yeah.” The woman’s voice was high pitched as she squealed like an eager pig. Back when bacon was real, and not synthetic. Cruelty to animals and all that.
Her now ex-fiancé grunted. Like a caveman incapable of speech. His bare ass was sprinkled with dark hairs, humping a mile a minute, up down, up down. Nice to find out before the marriage that he had a hairy ass.
What the hell was she thinking? There wasn’t going to be a marriage. Not now. He’d been badgering her for weeks about her no-sex before marriage policy. Here she’d shown up in his apartment to surprise him, with her lacy unmentionables in her bag—only to find him banging someone else.
And by the rate his ass was moving, they were getting close to the finish line.
She was aware of an evil grin as it spread slowly over her face. She couldn’t control the devastation in her life. She couldn’t control canceling the wedding plans, or those of the honeymoon. She couldn’t control the fact that she wasn’t going to get a dime back of any of her money. Their impending orgasm? That was something she could control.
She slammed the door as hard as she could into the opposite wall. The resounding crash was echoed by the hussy’s scream. Plaster crumbled as the doorknob punched into the wall.
“What the fuck?” Joshua’s face drained of color. “Violet? Baby,” he said, leaping from the bed and moving toward her with his squiggly worm shining with body fluids.
Violet leapt back, a look of horror on her face. There was no way he was touching her with that.
“Joshua! Who’s that?” the woman whined, clutching the sheet up over her swollen, silicone-enhanced breasts. All these centuries later, and those wretched, plastic bumps were still in fashion.
“She’s—uh, Vi—my—“
“No one. Please,” Violet deliberately trailed her sight down to Joshua’s flaccid member. She wasn’t giving up a whole lot there. Perhaps no sex before marriage hadn’t been such a great idea. She winced. It would have been horrid to find this image after the legalities. “Carry on. My mistake. I’ll just cancel the wedding.”
“Violet! No!” His eyes hurriedly swept the room for clothing, but it was too late. She was out the door and down the hall, and refused to take the trash with her.
The next day her phone had rung continuously. It was extremely annoying, considering she had so much to do. Cancel the photographer, cancel the flowers, the food, the…everything. Every preparation she’d made, she was the one to undo. And through it all, her other line bleeped constantly. All Joshua’s number. Why shouldn’t he try to get her back? It was her credits that had paid for the entire wedding. Her credits paid for the honeymoon. Both nonrefundable, and the reason why she stood here, staring at two signs written in a godforsaken alien language.
Nonrefundable? Maybe. But she managed to talk them into switching her honeymoon cruise for a luxury spa liner instead. It catered to single women, the resort specialist had said. And after this fiasco, she could use some specialized pampering.
Her choices were right and left. The spaceship on the right was a sleek black design, rounded, and huge. A double-decker.
The one on the left was white, so shiny the opalescent polish looked like the glow of the moon.
She was bumped as three women, shrieking with laughter in the rain, ran by her on their way up the ramp to the white ship. Three women. All young, cute and well-to-do. Obviously this was the luxury spa liner. Who knew what the black ship was for?
She shuddered. Probably one of those pleasure ships she’d read about. Women who had fantasies about wild sex with other species. No, she’d avoid that one.
“Good morning, Miss…?” The robot at the top of the ramp had a translator attached to his neck. How odd that the robot assumed she was single without reading her ticket. She must definitely be in the right place. A singles cruise. She handed him her ticket, and he scanned it, the lights of his eyes flashing. “Miss Violet Knight, resident of Earth. Welcome aboard the Galaxy Star Ship. I see your ticket is interchangeable, but not refundable.”
“Yes. I’m exchanging it for this space liner.” Why else would she be standing outside in the damp elements, for stars sakes?
His blinking eyes flashed as he transmitted the information from her ticket. “I understand. I now have set you up into room B-381. You’ll love your suite. It has—“
“I’m sure I’ll figure it all out.” It had been a long day. All she wanted now was dinner and a hot bath. A real bath, with liquid water. Not a foam cleanse, not a sonic cleanse. A good old-fashioned liquid bath. Just the way the agent promised when she upgraded from her honeymoon cruise.
“Yes, ma’am. Please follow the lit signs on the hallways to lead you directly to your suite. There is a call button on the inside wall should you need a robo-butler.”
Violet gave a tight smile, and almost rolled her eyes. The bot would have no idea whether she smiled or not. But if someone else was viewing the recording screen, they would pick up on her facial cues.
“Dinner is at seven,” he called out as she began to walk down the long hallway. She followed the arrows that lit in a pale, muted green. As she turned down a hall
that led to elevators, she heard voices. Curious, she wandered over to the large door. A small, round window in the middle of the door was a little higher than her eye level. Raising herself on tiptoes, she pressed her face to the glass to peer inside.
Every race of alien who ever congregated into one spot sat in that room. There were rows and rows of seats, set up like a classroom. Each seat had an arm that swept upward and held a video viewing screen.
Everyone’s attention was glued to the screens. Whatever they watched was obviously intriguing as hell, and it gave her a chance to study them. They congregated in cliques, the guys with the octopus arms in front. Next row had the guys with more than two eyeballs. The horned guys weren’t bad looking.
Ah, hell. What was she thinking? Did she forget she was a scorned woman? She was on a singles, women-only cruise. Obviously these guys were part of the entertainment staff, and would soon be paying her compliments in triplicate. She’d paid a mint for that, and she’d be soaking it all up.
Though, it would be important not to let it get to her head…er, heart. It was a role they played, a job they had. Nothing else.
“New one!” One of the octopus aliens screeched. “I like this one! I haven’t seen one yet with hair as black as ink.” One of his eight arms began rubbing his crotch excitedly.
Out in the hallway, Violet smoothed her own black hair down. It wasn’t exactly fashionable on Earth to wear hair so dark. Not by females, anyway. Most women wore the bleached blond stuff, or dyed their hair the color of Easter eggs. She was glad there’d be at least two brunettes aboard, her and whatever woman they viewed.
“Sir! May I remind you that touch in a public place, even if on yourself, is not appropriate and against the rules of the GSS—the Galaxy Star Ship. That is violation one. Two more and you shall be sequestered for the rest of the trip.”
The octopus alien hissed at the tall, humanoid robot who spoke, but he was immediately hushed by the growls of the other aliens in the room.
“Silence,” one horned guy bellowed, his gaze intent on the screen.
The robot who walked back and forth in the front of the room continued. “Speciman V is a newcomer, requesting a ticket change at the door to board our liner. We do not have much information on her because of that, however, I’m sure the upload will not take long once we square away the records.”
“Miss Knight? Do you need assistance?”
The small, rolling bot behind her almost made her squeal in surprise.
“No,” she said, and dropped down to a flat-foot stance.
“Your quarters are this way,” he said, rolling down the hallway. She was expected to follow. Apparently it was bad form to spy on the staff.
The green arrows were flashing the way, leading straight to her room. But she didn’t need to pay attention to those, the rolling bot kept his speed adjusted to hers.
“Here you are, Miss Knight. Do you require any assistance?”
“No.” One press of her thumbprint opened her door.
“Thank you. Should you need any help in the future, please press the bot key on the inside of your door. Dinner is at seven. All guests of the ship are required to attend. Thank you.”
He wheeled down the hallway, leaving her to close the door behind her. Lights came on automatically.
The suite was beautiful, clean lines of black and white tempered with bright splashes of blue. There was a small kitchenette, more like a mini-bar, really. To the right was a living area, the small sofa in a deep, dusky blue. Down a narrow hallway was the bedroom and bathroom.
She made her way to the bathroom to see if there was a real, live tub as promised.
The sparkly, white tub sat atop the heated marble floor. Elegant, to say the least. It was exactly what she would have wanted if water on Earth hadn’t been such a precious commodity. Earth had poisoned their oceans centuries earlier, and water was recycled and cleaned for drinking purposes only. Bathing had been replaced with sonic cleansing.
“Yes,” she said to herself. “I struck gold.”
She reached over and flicked on the faucet. Warm water began to flow into the tub.
“Marvelous,” she murmured, swirling her hand in the water beginning to pool. Amazing. Her whole hand was wet, at once. Her entire body could be, also. She looked around the bathroom for towels. Bingo, plenty of soft, fluffy blue ones. A white bathrobe hung inside the door. Provided her clothing had arrived, there would be no reason not to soak in the tub.
She hurried to the bedroom, hardly noticing the beautiful décor in there. Instead, she threw open the closet doors. Her clothing had arrived and was hung in neat rows.
So right there, in the bedroom, she stripped everything off and headed back to the bathroom, where the tub was now half full.
She slid in and bubbles began to froth. Heavens. She’d almost forgotten how a liquid bath felt. She moaned out loud.
“Computer, dim lights, please.”
“Good day, Violet. My name is PS-3.” The computer spoke even as the lights dimmed. She could stand the water a little hotter.
“PS-3? That’s hardly a name. I’ll call you…Jilly. Jilly, heat the water two degrees, please.”
“Of course, Violet. Would you like it to bubble also?”
“Yes, I would. Thank you.”
Warm jets cascaded water against strategic spots on her back and thighs. Oh, good lord, people had no idea how lucky they once were.
“Jilly? Will you tell me about the mandatory dinners?”
“Yes, Violet. The dinners are the only mandatory rule aboard the ship. They will contain nearly every inhabitant of the ship and only a skeleton crew of robots will serve. The purpose is for everyone to get to know each other. It is important to have natural contact for humans and other species to prevent isolation sickness.”
“Isolation sickness?”
“It is a link to a type of depression. A person desires to remain alone more and more, even though it makes them sadder and more frightened of the outside world.”
“What do you mean by the outside world?”
“There are many outside worlds, and sometimes inhabitants aboard the ship request a landing onto a new friend’s home planet for visitation. They request a pick-up from the ship upon the return trip to Earth, or one from one of our sister vessels.”
“I had no idea we were allowed to leave the ship.”
“Yes, Violet. You are. A month is a long time to be sequestered aboard a ship. You are welcome to visit any planet along our path. You need simply to fill out the proper paperwork for a return trip home.”
That was easy enough, though there was more than likely nowhere she would be interested in visiting.
“Would you like to read a book while you enjoy your bath?” Jilly asked.
“I would. Great idea.”
“I aim to please, Violet.”
From the wall, a robotic arm extended, holding an electronic book reading device. Though she preferred a good, old-fashioned paperback, an e-book was a necessary commodity. It took up less space, and from it, she was able to pick her genre.
She wiped her fingers off on a towel hanging near the tub, and then flicked through the selections. She picked a steamy romance, and settled in to read.
Occasionally, she had to ask Jilly to reheat the water in the tub. That was the only way she was aware that time passed before Jilly spoke.
“Violet? Dinner is forty-five minutes away. I’m not sure how long of a notice you would like in order to prepare.”
“Prepare? What kind of preparations?”
“This first night’s dinner is a formal affair.”
She signed. “I’ll just touch up my hair and makeup and throw on a dress. Remind me in another fifteen minutes.”
“Will do.”
She grumbled during the last timed call, but managed to get out of the tub, dried off and dressed. Just as she put on her earrings and gathered a handbag with lipstick in it, Jilly spoke.
“Violet, you have
an incoming voicemail from Joshua Seatra. Would you like me to play it?”
“Are you kidding me? He traced me here?” Her annoyance was brimming. “Hell, no, don’t play the message. Delete it and block further access.”
“Done. Would you like to fill out your ship questionnaire?”
“What is that?”
“The questionnaire is designed to optimize your cruise experience. It is your responsibility to answer as truthfully as possible.”
“What kind of questions are on it?”
“Your personal preferences as far as men and relationships are concerned. Your views on romance and marriage, or in other cultures, matings.”
“Hmm. Let’s do fill it out while I touch up my makeup.”
“Question one. Do you prefer humanoid aliens? Or do you have no preference?”
“No preference.”
“What is your idea of a romantic date? A man who opens your hovcar door, or a man who meets you at the restaurant?”
“Old fashioned is best. He’ll have to open the doors for me.”
“How is your sex life? Demure, kinky, or non-existent?”
“Non-existent. I had been refraining from sex during relationships. I may be re-evaluating that rule.”
“What is a deal-breaker in a relationship? One. A male with multiple relationships. Two. A workaholic. Three. A male with children.”
“A cheater is a deal-breaker. If some cultures are okay with multiple relationships, I guess that’s up to them. But a woman who doesn’t know and her guy has women all over the place? Deal-breaker, and that’s why I’m here.”
“Ahh, that answers the next question. You are a scorned woman.”
“Scorned woman? That’s a little harsh.”
“Facts are facts, Violet.”
Violet winced. “You’re the harsh one, Jilly. Not the question.”
“Whatever, Violet. Next question. Do you want a man’s entire devotion, or would you consider that smothering?”
“Hmm. I think every woman craves a man’s entire devotion.”
“Would you be willing to give up your entire life and culture for the right man?”
