Malachi

by Ashley West

"That's me," I said, going under and bursting back out again. I loved the water.

  "Nathaniel, I could never swim that far," she said.

  "Vandwans can. It's one part of our adaptation."

  "Oh," she said, accepting the explanation quickly. She began trailing her fingers in the water, in lazy figure eights. "Nathaniel…"

  "Yeah," I said, lying on my back and floating. I could hear her voice through the water in my ears.

  "I wanted to thank you for your kindness."

  I righted myself. She had a serious look on her face.

  "And for not pressuring me about sex. I suppose some husbands might. I appreciate that you're trying…" She blew out her breath in frustration. "This sounded different in my head," she said. "And now I'm screwing it all up."

  "You're not screwing it up," I said, gently. "It's not the easiest thing to come to a strange planet and marry an alien. I wanted to make it as painless as possible."

  "It hasn't been painful," she said. Were we floating closer to each other?

  "No?"

  "When I got to the spaceport…" she said, apparently changing the subject.

  "Yeah." We WERE floating closer.

  "I saw this guy."

  I frowned.

  "And he was cute," she said. "Handsome."

  "Handsome," I repeated, wondering where this was going. What was she doing checking out strange guys at the airport? I supposed I shouldn't feel jealous, but the fact was, I did.

  "I thought to myself, what am I doing checking out this other man when I'm supposed to be coming here to get married to someone else?"

  "Right," I said, my gaze never leaving her face.

  "He had the most incredible eyes," she went on, looking up at the blue sky that was completely cloudless. I looked down at the water, feeling my frown deepen. After the conversation we just had, why would she be saying something like this? Was she messing with me? "They were an odd color — turquoise."

  I whipped my head up.

  "Just like the water here. Is that common on your planet? That color of eyes?"

  I stared at her steadily.

  "No."

  "I thought not. He looked damned good. Seemed to have a pretty nice body under his clothes…" She swallowed, glancing down at my chest and back up to my eyes — my turquoise eyes. "And I couldn't stop staring at him."

  "You couldn't?" I moved a tiny bit closer.

  She shook her head, never breaking eye contact.

  "And neither could he, it seemed. He was blocking traffic."

  A corner of my mouth turned up.

  "But I knew it could never be." We were almost touching.

  "No?"

  "Of course not, because I was waiting for my fiance to pick me up."

  "I see. He wouldn't approve."

  "Of course not."

  "Imagine my surprise when my fiance showed up…"

  "Yeah?" I looked at her, waiting to hear the end of the story.

  "And he was the same guy."

  "The man with the eyes that you couldn't stop staring at?"

  She nodded.

  "What did you want that guy to do? The one with the turquoise eyes?"

  She only hesitated a moment.

  "I wanted him to kiss me," she whispered.

  The moment the words were out of her mouth, we both leaned towards each other. Our lips locked and I was on fire. She had her hands around my waist and was pressing her breasts into my chest. I rested my hands on her hips, above her bikini bottoms. The feel of her smooth skin was overwhelming.

  She opened her mouth, and I slid my tongue between her parted lips. She made a little mewling sound and pulled me closer. I lost myself in the feel of her lips, her soft breasts, her skin.

  A minute later, she pulled back, breathing heavily. I stepped away.

  It was too hot. Too intense.

  She put her hand to her mouth.

  "I don't usually do things like this," she said.

  Well, if she were talking about getting so caught up in a kiss that I lost track of time, space, and myself because I was so into her, I'd have to say...

  Me neither.

  Chapter Eleven

  ASHLYN

  My nipples were pebbled, and my core throbbed between my legs. My breathing was becoming harsh and erratic, and I could hardly see straight. Need was coursing through my body and I couldn't even think.

  I'd never been kissed like that before in my life. And once again I let my mind wonder. If kissing him felt that good, what would it be like to make love to him?

  But I had pulled back for a reason. Things were moving too fast. My mind knew that I couldn't sleep with a stranger. My body said I could.

  I might have thrown caution to the winds and come away on this whirlwind adventure to another planet to save my family, but I couldn't change a lifetime of prudence overnight.

  I put my hand over my swollen lips.

  "I don't usually do things like this," I said.

  His muscular chest was heaving, and those turquoise eyes possessed desire. For me! It was a heady feeling knowing that a man like him wanted me. It made me feel powerful. It made me feel beautiful. It made me feel unbelievably sexy. And I wanted him too.

  But I wasn't going to have him. Yet.

  I couldn't do casual relationships. That was a recipe for disaster.

  He moved away from me, and it was for the best, no matter how much my body protested. We needed some space between us.

  ________________________________________

  We spent the afternoon swimming and chatting. He told me about his grandfather and how he had helped him to restore the Dream. I told him about my brothers. It was nice.

  I had a nap and woke to find him watching me with a soft expression in his eyes. From someone else it might have been creepy, but from Nathaniel it was romantic. The sun went down, and Nathaniel's housekeeper arrived with a meal in a basket.

  "I thought we'd have dinner down here," he said, watching for my reaction. "Is that all right?"

  "Sure," I said. "I'm starving. All this swimming and sunshine is making me hungry."

  "That's not what's making me hungry," he muttered.

  He smoothed out the sand near where we were sitting, making it flat. Next, he shook out a large blanket and spread it on the sand without a wrinkle. With precision, he placed the salad, seafood dishes, and a container with dessert onto the blanket. Finally, he handed me a plate, fork, knife, and spoon.

  "Dig in," he said.

  I took the plate and cutlery and closed my gaping mouth. I helped myself to everything. It all looked weird. But I needed to be open minded. I wasn't on Earth anymore

  "Are you always so meticulous?" I said, gesturing at the neat picnic.

  He gave me a rueful smile.

  "Yes. It comes from growing up on and off of sailing ships. You can't have a mess on a ship. There's not enough room. Sailors are notoriously finicky about how they keep everything. I quickly learned that if I left a mess, I'd be working three times as long as if I had put things away properly in the first place."

  "Three times as long?"

  "Once for doing it badly. Once for doing it over. And once for getting some other task in addition to the job of cleaning up the mess I had made. There was usually a lecture in there, too."

  "Oh, no," I said.

  "My grandfather always said that if you were going to do something, then you had best do it right. Otherwise, you would redo it, and you would practice some more because you hadn't figured it out yet."

  "Sounds like a tough guy," I said, delicately putting an unidentifiable sea vegetable onto the fork. I looked at it with trepidation and then placed it in my mouth.

  It was delicious.

  It had a strange texture, but the dressing tasted wonderful, and the flavor of the vegetable was similar to a cucumber.

  "Maybe," he said, breaking the leg off a sea creature and pulling out its meat. "He was always fair, and I learned how to be my best from him. He nev
er would accept anything less.

  We ate in silence for awhile, with Nathaniel helping me figure out how to eat some of the stranger seafood. Fortunately, I was a flexible eater. I would eat almost anything back home, and it was serving me well in my new life.

  "There it is," he said, quietly as we finished our meal.

  I gazed out to sea but couldn't figure out what he was seeing. The only thing visible was water.

  "There what is?"

  "The reason I brought you out here," he said.

  We cleaned up the picnic and packed all our things away. I hated to break the romantic mood, but I had to pee.

  "Nathaniel?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Nature is calling me."

  "You have to go in the bushes," he said, apologetically.

  "Okay," I said, making my way through the foliage. I squatted down.

  Nothing happened.

  "Nathaniel?" I called again.

  "Yes? I haven't been able to build you a restroom yet," he said.

  "Could you cover your ears and sing or something?"

  I heard him laughing.

  "Sure," he said. A moment later, an unfamiliar melody drifted towards me. Soon, I was able to relieve myself. As I pulled up my bikini bottoms, I heard a loud alarm like an air siren sound briefly. I wondered what that was and decided to ask Nathaniel about it. Before I could, he had a question for me.

  "One more swim?" he asked, holding out his hand. The look in his eyes drove every thought out of my head, making me forget my question. I took his hand, and we waded into the warm water, which surprised me again. It was like swimming in bath water.

  Unbelievable.

  He smiled at me before taking off, swimming unbelievably fast out into the water. I followed, moving my arms and legs as quickly as I could to keep up. I hoped that swimming so soon after eating wasn't going to get me in trouble. A minute later, he was climbing out onto a shoal, and I was right behind him.

  He took my hand and turned me. In the sky was the moon, shining down on the sea and giving everything a silver sheen. Next to it, was a second moon, like a twin to the first. And below it, curving up over the horizon was another moon! I stared at the sky in astonishment.

  We sat down on the sand in silence and watched the three moons rise into the night sky. Nathaniel pointed out the Vandwan constellations, and I had to admit that it was all hopelessly romantic.

  When he looked into my eyes and leaned in for another kiss, there was nothing I could do to resist. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back. It wasn't passionate this time, but investigative. His lips explored mine, his tongue was teasing rather than demanding, and his hands were all over my bare skin.

  Just when we were getting to the point of no return, the loud siren sounded again, startling us both so that we jumped apart from each other.

  "What's that?" I said, looking around to see the source of the sound.

  "It's the warning bell," he said. I had never seen Nathaniel look afraid before. He jumped to his feet.

  "What's it warning about?"

  "I should have been watching the time better," he said, still not explaining but getting more and more agitated. "We have to go right now. Don't let go of my hand, okay?"

  I nodded, and we jumped together, disappearing beneath the water. If I had thought he was fast before, that was nothing compared to now.

  He had one hand out in front of him and was doing a powerful double-legged kick, with both his legs moving together. The kick was different from the standard flutter kick that everyone used on Earth, where both legs were alternating. We swam through the water and when I thought I couldn't hold my breath any longer, I felt my feet touching the bottom. We were near the beach.

  When we reached land, he pulled me out of the water, not stopping until we were on the dry sand. A few heartbeats later, the sea sucked strongly back, like an enormous drain emptying.

  I looked out to sea and saw that the ocean was far away. It had taken only ten seconds.

  "I'm sorry about that, Ashlyn. I wasn't thinking straight, and I should know better." He looked white.

  "It's okay," I said, trying to comfort him. "We're okay. What was that bell? What happened? What's going on?"

  "The tides on this planet are different from Earth," he said, and we sat down on the sand. "With three moons, the gravitational pull is strong. When the tide goes out, it is overwhelming. People caught in the tide will die, no matter how good they are at swimming."

  I looked out to sea. I felt scared now, knowing we narrowly escaped danger. It was silly to be afraid after the danger had passed, but I couldn't help it. I swallowed hard and looked at Nathaniel.

  "We're okay, Nathaniel. You got us out of there. We're all right. How could you swim so fast? It was inhuman," I said. I remembered how long he had held his breath yesterday, and wondered what other things I didn't know about him.

  "I'm not human, Ashlyn. We're water people," he said, waving a hand. The differences between Earthlings and these aliens appeared inconsequential to him. "You could have got hurt, and I should have known better. Any Vandwan knows the tides like the back of their hand. From birth, we are taught to get out of the water when the first bell sounds. I don't know how I missed it."

  He paused his hand on his forehead, thinking hard.

  "Oh no," I said. "When I made you cover your ears and sing. There was another warning bell. I heard it then, but I got distracted and forgot to ask you about it."

  "If anything had happened to you, I would never have forgiven myself. I've been irresponsible." He got up and began pacing back and forth on the sand, running his fingers through his hair.

  "Nathaniel," I said, getting up and putting my hand on his arm to stop him. The electricity shot through me — and him too, by the look of his face. He froze, looking at my hand and back to my eyes. "We're both still alive."

  "Right," he said, nodding to himself but still looking troubled. "Right. We should be getting back."

  That's right. We should. Morning would come early.

  Two days were left before he was gone.

  NATHANIEL

  The next morning, we sat at the breakfast table on the outdoor deck. We ate delicious green porridge. Chefs made the porridge from a rare seaweed. I gave Ashlyn a long explanation, but she wasn't interested in how the we made the porridge; she simply wanted to eat it. Almost all of our food came from the ocean.

  "I've noticed everyone else calling you Nat," she said as she stirred her bowl of sea mush. I stopped eating and cut my eyes over to her.

  "Most people do," I said.

  "I was wondering why you never asked me to call you that?"

  I didn't know what to say, so I stalled. "Well," I said, and took a few more bites of porridge. I sighed, knowing that I should have told her to call me Nat when I met her. I needed to just tell her the truth, even though it was kind of embarrassing.

  There were many things I was not telling her, but this one was particularly personal. By now, it didn't matter if I told her about my real life. I would be gone overmorrow and we would hardly see each other until the end of the year.

  Something in my gut said that didn't make it okay, but I ignored the feeling and tried to answer her question without making myself look like an ass.

  "You know I told you about my Grandpa?" I said.

  "Yes," she said, with a quizzical look on her face. She didn't see how this was related, and I couldn't blame her.

  "Didn't you wonder about his wife?"

  "I didn't want to ask because I assumed you had a reason for not telling me about her."

  "She was close to me. My grandmother was my heart." I looked down at my porridge, stirring it idly. "There's no other way to describe it. My parents were away frequently, and my grandparents practically raised me. My grandmother was quiet and faded into the background, but she was the soul of that ship and their home."

  "What does that have to do with… ?"

  I interrupted her.

/>   "My grandmother is the only person in the world who ever called me Nathaniel. No one has called me that ever since she died."

  "Oh," Ashlyn sat back, putting down her spoon. She still didn't understand but to me it was important. I hadn't realized how big of a deal it was until right now when I told her.

  She studied my face as if I were a puzzle she was trying to figure out. I stood up abruptly with a lump in my throat. I wasn't hungry anymore.

  "I've got some things to do now, but I'll see you later," I said.

  She looked sorry she had asked. Well, that couldn't be helped.

  When I got to the door, I called back to her.

  "Ashlyn?" She lifted her face up from where she had been staring at her porridge, a sorry look on her face.

  "I like how you say my name," I said. "But you can call me Nat if you want to."

  Chapter Twelve

  ASHLYN

  Nathaniel, or Nat, whatever his name was — asked me how I wanted to spend the day. I told him that I wanted to go sailing again.

  It would be better if we kept busy with other people around.

  I expected him to take me to the main dock where his crew anchored the Dream. He surprised me by taking me to a little inlet down the beach instead. Moored there was a sailboat large enough for two or three people.

  "If you're going to learn to sail," he said, "You should start small."

  "Is that what we're doing?" I said.

  "Being on Vandwa for a year you're going to be on the sea, trust me. If you're going to be on sailing ships, you need to have a rudimentary knowledge of what's going on."

  "I know you have to duck when that thing swings across," I said. "I know that much."

  He grimaced.

  "We'll start with vocabulary," he said, pushing a little rowboat into the water and holding it for me. "Climb in."

  We sailed all morning, with him teaching me how to pull things and duck when the boom swung across. I felt quite accomplished at the end. For his part, he seemed surprised at how quickly I picked it up. I wondered again if he thought I was a dumb blonde.

  When I had found out that he was a scientist, I imagined that he would be nerdy. Could you get more prejudiced and stereotypical than that? I was upset he might think like that about me!