by Myra Star
“Caleb.”
Her voice came out as a sigh; she didn’t have the energy to say all that she wanted to.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he soothed, “it’s over now - I’m so sorry, Lily.”
She looked across at him, noticing that his sleeve was torn completely away from one arm, and his bicep bled profusely.
“You’re hurt!”
“It’s nothing - it’s just a scratch,” his reply was offhand, but the slight wince as he moved told her that he felt it more keenly than he was willing to let on.
“We need to get you help,” she cried, frantically trying to get back up - the wound to her head making her feel woozy.
“It’s fine Lily; once they realize he is gone, the battle will be over. I can get help later.”
“Caleb - get up, I’m not taking no for an answer.”
She loomed over him, holding out her hands to help. She tried to avoid looking at the slumped bodies around them, knowing full well that it was a sight she wouldn’t be able to forget easily.
He rolled his eyes at her and smirked.
“Why must you always disobey me?”
“I’m your wife,” Lily replied slyly, “is that what I’m supposed to do?”
“No - I’m absolutely certain you’re to love and obey me.”
Lily laughed. He heaved himself up, staggering only a little. Lily noticed that his leg too, was bleeding.
“Caleb! There aren’t just scratches!”
“I’ll be fine,” he sighed with resignation, “Let’s just get out of here.”
“Lean on me.”
Lily inserted herself under his unwounded arm and together they staggered toward the doorway. Lily felt the beat of his heart against her cheek, strong and steady.
It was a reassuring sound, and she found herself wishing that the hallway would continue its winding path for a while, so that she might enjoy feeling safe, even in this dank part of the palace, tucked beneath Caleb.
“I didn’t anticipate my wifely duties would consist of this.” Lily laughed.
“Well,” he replied tersely, “there are far more pleasurable ones too - but you seem reluctant to return to those.”
Lily blushed before answering.
“I am not the one who stayed out of the room last night,’ she whispered softly, “that was you.”
Caleb stopped in his tracks.
“Lily, if I had only a faint inkling that you wanted me there, nothing would have kept me away.”
Lily smiled up at him.
“I’ll remember that - in the future.”
He nodded, and smiled back at her.
“Be sure that you do.”
Chapter Twenty-One
After Lucifer fell, the battle didn’t last long. A soldier of Epsilon carried out his corpse, and placed it at the top of the palace steps for the invaders to witness.
Without Octavia or Lucifer, payments would not be made, and the mercenaries had no interest in slaughter without financial reward.
A few nights after the attack, when the dead had been buried - a handful of soldiers lost their lives, and only two civilians thanks to the merciful brevity of the battle - Caleb announced that there would be a feast held at the Palace, for all the inhabitants of Epsilon.
The banquet hall was nowhere near large enough to hold the entire village, so tables and chairs, camps and additional kitchens were temporarily erected in the gardens. It had taken three days in preparation but now Lily had worked side-by-side with the palace staff to add the finishing decorative touches.
There was still so much that was strange to her about this planet; the archaic pastimes, economics and speech, coupled with unbelievably advanced technology; lizard men and women who lived alongside the “human” species, and the flying Kiterfugam like Heli who were kept as pets, and many other strange traditions drenched in antiquity.
Despite the elements of alienness that were part of Epsilon, Lily had no real choice but to consider it home. Caleb had spent a few days under medical care; on his return, he had told Lily that he would take her back to earth if she wanted - it would be almost two centuries before her birth, but it would be earth. She had refused him.
Her feelings for him grew daily; they had adapted their relationship to a more platonic space - Caleb had provided her with her own room, and since the day of the attack no mention had been made of progressing their relationship to something more akin to husband and wife.
But they had spent more time together, dinners and garden strolls in the evenings, trips to the village so Caleb could guide her around.
At first she had felt somewhat rejected; his words on the day of the attack had indicated that he wanted to continue their physical relationship, and so Lily had wondered what had changed.
However, as his demeanor had continued to be flirtatious and kind, she assumed he was giving her space and her rejection turned to gratitude. It was space that she needed, emotionally and physically, to come to terms with the vast loss and physical humiliation she had been through since her craft had been ambushed by the intergalactic pirate travellers.
“Do you need help?”
Lily, startled, dropped the lantern that she’d been trying to hang from the fiber lines running from the various trees and monuments across the garden.
Caleb picked it up from the floor.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s fine - I could use the help.”
She smiled up at Caleb. He had clearly been in the training yard with the other soldiers. His shirt was damp with sweat, sticking to the outlines of his muscles and turning the cotton almost see-through.
A warm glow bubbled to life in the pit of Lily’s stomach as she watched him stretching up to reattach the lantern.
“Are you looking forward to this evening?” Caleb asked when he’d finished.
“I am,” Lily blushed at the intensity of his gaze - she felt like he had loaded his sentence with innuendo, but it was probably just her imagination, “it will be fun.”
Get a grip, Lily.
“Good.”
His look became even more heated, and Lily could have sworn his golden eyes had almost blazed in the dimming light.
“Are you going to change?” Lily asked, in an attempt to quell the tension that she felt building within her.
“I am.”
Caleb smirked down at her, and gently removed a strand of her hair that the breeze had lifted from behind her ear. His fingers gently brushed her cheek as he did so, and Lily’s body responded by flooding with heat.
“I don’t know how much longer I can stay away from you.”
He murmured the words softly, almost as if he were speaking to himself. Lily stopped breathing, her heart hammering in her chest. She fixated on his lips; the smooth, perfect lines of his mouth, slightly open as if he were breathing in her scent.
“Then don’t,” she whispered.
He bent down to kiss her, their lips touching tentatively at first - both hesitant and unsure, as if the other kisses were long-lost memories, and their bodies were both new to one another.
Then Caleb trapped the circumference of her waist with his hands, and pulled her roughly toward him. His ardor increased, and Lily welcomed it - shivers of lust and craving exploding in her abdomen.
Lily felt his stiffness pressing against her, and she inhaled sharply. Their tongues met, stoking the fire that was building within them both. Lily clung to his muscular frame, letting her body grow limp in his arms as she became light-headed and dizzy.
Caleb groaned against her, “I want you Lily, I want my wife.”
He broke the kiss, lifting her upward into his arms. At his words, she felt wetness flood her, and sought out his lips again.
He moved her up against one of the cypress trees, its soft boughs tickling her back, and then together they pushed through the tree cluster, into an empty clearing.
Caleb lowered her back down. The grass was soft underfoo
t, with small buttercups flowering at intermittent points. Lily could hear the laughter and chatter of the villagers in the distance, but here all was silent save the sounds of their shortened breaths and the tussle of Lily’s robes as Caleb’s hands caressed her waist and backside, running his hands up to her full breasts and heaving chest.
Lily’s hands ran up Caleb’s chest, feeling his still-damp muscles flex and twitch beneath her touch. She inhaled his musky manliness, a scent that was starting to become achingly familiar; infusing her body with shudders of lust and wanting.
He lay her gently down on the grass, running his hand along the length of her body. Lily luxuriated in her bed of fragrant moss and grass, the heat of the earth pushing its way up to meet her and the blazingly hot touch of Caleb’s skin on hers.
He removed his clothes first this time, flinging them aside to lie gloriously naked next to her. Her gaze fixed on his manhood, large and ready for her, his tip pushing against her silken robes at the top of her thigh.
Caleb leant down and kissed her breasts, slowly opening her robe while his mouth licked and massaged the increasingly exposed flesh. She wiggled in his arms, her body arching to meet his, wanting his mouth to continue its kisses and licks as she spiraled into a heightened state of need.
He pushed his palm between her legs and she cried out softly, anxious that they were not overheard, but unable to contain her instinctive responses.
“I want you so much Lily,” he groaned, “you’re so soft.”
She kissed him hungrily, her body filled with aches that demanded release.
“I need you inside me,” Lily panted, “I’ve waited too long - please my love.”
His tip pushed at her entrance. Lily gasped in anticipation, before he pushed upward into her, and she buried her face into the sweet, sun drenched smell of his hair so as not to call out. Her muscles throbbed, clenching and flexing to welcome him inside her.
My husband.
The thought that this insanely beautiful and brave man belonged to her was intensely erotic; Lily was unable to stifle her cries of pleasure, her soft moans where answered by grunts from Caleb as he tried to hold himself back and prolong their pleasure.
His muscles were taught as he rhythmically pushed within her, his breath short and ragged as he denied himself release.
Lily felt waves of sheer pleasure building up inside her, flowing through her body and she dug her hands into him, craving more and more of his body against hers.
They called out their release together; Lily’s legs wrapping wantonly around him, and Caleb holding on to her as if he never wanted to let go.
As their breathing regulated, and their heart rates subsided, Caleb smiled down at her.
“You can’t imagine how often every day I’ve wanted to do that.”
“I think I probably can,” Lily blushed, “you do strange things to me, Lord Commander.”
Caleb smirked in satisfaction.
“Will you move back into our bed? I hate sleeping without you.”
He avoided eye contact with Lily as he said the words, as if he was ashamed of his need for her.
“And I hate sleeping without you too - of course I will,” Lily replied, “I want you, Caleb. I want this marriage to work.”
A small, shy smile - one that Lily had never seen before, lit up his face while his golden eyes gleamed in the dying light.
“Lily, the moment I saw you, I wanted you. I know I made you unhappy by marrying you, but it was the only way I knew to make you mine - I just couldn’t stand the thought of you continuing to exist in a world that I couldn’t be part of, much less allow you to rot in that place…It’s hard to explain,” he hesitated, “I just think, despite the inconceivable odds, that we were meant to be together, you and I. And all the universes and solar systems couldn’t get in the way.”
Lily was stunned by his words. He’d never let on that he had such feelings toward her - and though they were fully reciprocated, Lily was stunned into silence.
“Say something,” he urged.
“I’m yours Caleb,” Lily whispered softly as she stroked his jaw, “I’m glad I married you. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not grateful for you saving me - in more ways than one. I have a life beyond my wildest dreams now - and still you’re the best part of it; you make me feel alive.”
He kissed her again, softly, sweetly, and Lily smiled against his lips.
“I want to do it again.”
“What?” Lily asked, confused by his request.
“Marry you. I want to do it again - I want you to answer your vows willingly, and I want to answer mine without any other motive other than that I love you, and want to spend the rest of my life loving you.”
“In that case,” Lily smiled, “I do.”
Caleb took her into his arms again, and together they watched the night’s stars appear, blazing across the sky as the laughter and merriment of their guests floated over from the palace.
The both idly wondered about hurrying to join them, but their world of two was exquisite; they let the moments gather on to minuets, sated, happy and at home.
