by Cara Bristol
“Yes, we’re not far from camp.” He slowed the vehicle.
Hurry. Hurry. I had to tell him before we were surrounded by people.
“You asked what I did…for work…”
“Yes. You said you were a pig farmer.”
That’s what he’d gotten from what I had said? “Do you know what a vid is?” The smell of smoke grew stronger.
“You watch people through a screen on the ’net.”
We leaned left to hairpin around a wall of icy-looking rock and then glided into a small camp of stone domes and Terran military-issue prefab housing units. Torches and a few illuvian-powered lamps chased back the night. We flew past the dwellings and stopped beside a hole in a mountain.
“We’re home!” he announced. I could hear the eagerness in his voice.
He lived in a cave? I’d heard they did, but I hadn’t believed it.
A bear of a man with a strong resemblance to Darq emerged. He gave a half turn to yell back inside, “They’re here!”
“I’m coming!” a woman shouted in perfect Terran English.
Darq grinned from ear to ear, his smile so wide and bright it lit up the night like an illuvian spotlight. “Torg! Meet my mate!” He beckoned me forward.
A blonde about as wide as she was tall, wrapped in a kel poncho, stepped out of the cave. I recognized that face—but from where? Then it hit me—I’d seen it plastered across the ’net during her murder trial. “You’re Starr Conner,” I said.
“You’re Sunny Weathers!” she exclaimed.
Darq looked surprised. “You’ve met?”
“No, but I used to watch her show all the time,” Starr said.
“Show?” He scrunched his forehead in confusion.
“Sunny Weathers’ Excellent Adventures!” Starr said. “It’s a reality show.” Her eyes widened as she connected the dots. “Are you filming?” She swiveled her gaze, and I knew she was looking for cameras.
Darq stood there so happy and proud, I couldn’t say a word. Already, I could tell he was going to be hurt. I didn’t need to humiliate him publicly by announcing the truth in front of everyone.
I hated Apogee for putting me in this position. I’d chosen Dakon to save Devon, but there should have been another way. The producers were crazy to think it wouldn’t cross somebody’s mind that me hooking up with an alien would be a stunt for the show. Gretchen had recognized me right off, and so had some others on the SS Deception. They’d accepted my explanation about being on hiatus, but my story wouldn’t hold up if people started talking.
I needed to confess, but, first, I had to get Darq alone.
“No,” I answered Starr. “I’m not filming.” Technically true, since I’d ditched the cameras. I sought Darq’s gaze. “You asked what I did for a living on Terra—I starred in ’net vids.”
“Oh,” he said, but I could tell he still didn’t understand.
“Welcome to the tribe.” Torg, the brother, got us back on track by finishing the introductions.
“Thank you.”
“Darq has been so excited,” Starr said. “I have, too! It will be great to have another woman in the family. A mate-in-law!” She hugged me.
“Let’s go inside where it’s warm,” Torg said.
Darq touched my elbow. “You go. I’ll join you in a minute. I have to return the skimmer to the shed in case someone wants to use it.”
I followed Torg and Starr through a tunnel lit by flickering torches. The passage led to a large room. “Oh, my gosh!”
Starr grinned. “You were expecting a dank, damp cavern, limestone stalactites and stalagmites, bat guano, and animal bones?”
“This is like a house!” Some sort of composite material covered the walls, and expensive-looking rugs layered the floor. Man-sized—alien sized?—sofas formed a right angle on one side of the cavern, opposite a kitchen area, where I recognized a high-tech flash cooker, a chill box, and an unused illuvian heater.
If not for the fire pit in the center, I could have been standing in a Terran apartment, albeit, a huge one. You could have fit my and Stormy’s entire unit in one corner. I eyed the fire. Centuries ago, Terrans had fireplaces, but no one did anymore. Light a fire in the house? It was dangerous. Some kind of meat roasted on a spit over the flames. No one cooked food over fire anymore, either. But, it sure smelled good. My stomach rumbled.
Starr shrugged out of her kel and motioned for me to hand her mine. I don’t know what surprised me more, the antique hall tree with umbrella stand and hat rack that she hung them on or Starr’s “condition.” The reason she appeared so roly-poly was because she was with child.
“You’re pregnant!”
She massaged her huge stomach. “Two more months to go!”
Good galaxy, she looked like she was two months past her due date. Of course, it stood to reason seven-foot aliens would sire big babies. I gulped. My pretend marriage would go unconsummated, but just in case I accidentally fell on Darq’s manhood in a weak moment of lust, I had the insurance of a contraceptive implant.
“Have you picked out a name?” I asked politely.
“Starlet,” Torg replied, and Starr rolled her eyes.
“Starlet,” he repeated.
“He wants to name the baby after me,” she said.
“Our daughter will be our little Starr. Does Starlet not mean little star?” Torg looked to me for confirmation.
I’d just gotten here. No way did I want to get in the middle of a marital tiff. “So, you’re having a girl,” I said.
“Yes! I produced a female.” He thrust out his chest.
That elicted another eye roll from Starr. “I helped some.” She rubbed her abdomen.
Grease from roasting meat dripped onto the flame, causing it to snap and sizzle. Torg scooted over to the pit. “My brother instructed me to turn this,” he said.
He’d no sooner rotated the meat when Darq entered the cavern. He hung up his fur. I don’t suppose you’d call the material he uncovered buckskin, as I’m sure his tunic and pants were sewn from kel and not deer, but that’s what his clothes looked like. The suede-like hide molded his barrel chest, massive biceps, and muscled thighs. Damn, he was fine!
He handed me my bag and smiled. “Here you go.”
“This all you brought?” Starr asked. “I expected the second phase of women to bring more stuff.”
“Yeah, well, they accidentally”—on purpose—“forgot to unload my trunk.”
Starr shook her head sympathetically, and I sensed she and I could become good friends. It would be nice to have a girlfriend. I missed my sister a lot. The ship’s communication ports didn’t have FTL capability, so it would have taken months for a message to get to her then months for a reply—and by then, the ship would be back on Terra. I wondered how Devon was doing. Had he had his surgery? I hoped that Andrea woman I’d heard about could help me find out.
Darq glanced at the meat then at Torg. “Did you turn it?”
“Of course I did.” Torg brushed at his mouth. I suspected he’d forgotten a few times.
“Did they show you the cave?” Darq asked me.
“We didn’t get a chance,” Starr said.
“Come, I will show you the rest, and then we will eat.” He led the way down a passage beyond the sofa area. Illuvian lamps lit up the tunnel, showing what the cave looked like without Terran modifications: rock walls and a hard-packed dirt floor. At a fork he pointed to the left. “My brother and Starr have a bedchamber that way. Mine—ours—is over here.” We veered right.
“Our room” was a quarter of the size of the big cavern and had been left in a more natural state, the gray stone walls uncovered, the floor mostly bare. A stack of kel furs served as the bed. Wood coals glowed in a small pit within a ring of rocks.
“The fires keep the cave warm.” I rubbed my hands over the heat. Illuvian heaters were much more efficient, but I had to admit a fire was mesmerizing and homey.
He nodded. “Insulation from the elements is better in a cave than in the Terran cabins. And the cave is more spacious. You’re limited to one room in the houses.”
His gaze shifted to the bed of kels and then to me. Was he thinking what I was thinking? Two bodies moving in sync, alien muscles bunching, horns quivering—did horns quiver?—oh baby, oh…I struggled to focus on what he was saying.
“But if you would prefer a Terran cabin, we can get one in the next supply shipment,” Darq offered.
If the stone walls offered protection from the cold, they could muffle sound. Not that there would be any noise emanating from this chamber. No heavy breathing, no impassioned cries of, “Take me now, you alien hunk.”
I could not touch the alien.
I needed to talk to him.
Tell him. Tell him now.
“This…this will be fine.” I hugged myself, gearing up for the confession. After he heard what I had to say, he might banish me to one of those Terran huts. We certainly wouldn’t be sharing one of the kel beds.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
Cold-hearted to have agreed to this adventure. “No, but I have to tell you something.”
“What is it?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of silver. Son of a production company executive. The cambot wagged from side to side, as if someone in the control room was saying, “Shame on you. We’re onto your tricks.”
How had it found me? I slapped a hand to my neck. The “translator” formed a slight bump under the skin. If Apogee producers had arranged for the SS Deception to “forget” to unload my luggage, I wouldn’t put it past them to have implanted me with a homing device. Those bastards!
“Sunny?” Darq’s forehead furrowed in concern. “You wanted to tell me something?”
With the camera rolling, I couldn’t tell him the truth without violating my contract. The viewing public had to believe I’d come for the right reason—and two million dollars so a little boy could get an artificial heart wasn’t it.
“I’m glad you chose me—and I like your cave very much. I would prefer to stay here than move to a Terran hut.” Living with Torg and Starr, we’d have less privacy—it would be easier to hold Darq at bay, easier to avoid succumbing to my urges. Hands off the alien.
“That makes me very happy.” A slow smile spread over his face, and his eyes crinkled with relief. He’d been afraid I was going to say I didn’t like him. The trouble was, I did like him.
What a mess.
The original plan had been to bring the alien aside, tell him the truth, and ask him to play along. Stupid idea. Emotions aside, what was in it for him? A big fat nothing.
Now that I’d met him, I realized my plan belonged in the hall of fame for idiocy. He’d be more likely to out me with the production company and the viewing public than play along with the deception. Why should he help me, when I’d hurt his feelings and dashed his chances to get a mate?
The contract required me to remain for one year, a long time to suppress my urges and hold him off. Nobody’s headache lasted that long. Right now, we were in the nice-to-meet-you phase, but eventually he would expect the relationship to progress to a physical level. Not to mention I had needs, which hadn’t been met in months, and I’m talking double digits. So, I wouldn’t be averse to a romp between the kels with Mr. Tall Darq, and “Horny,” except he would read far more into it than sex.
Think, Sunny, think.
Gah, I couldn’t put two thoughts together to form a sentence because he was watching me with a hopeful, happy puppy-dog look on his face.
“I should unpack.” I slipped my bag off my shoulder. “Is there a place where I can put my things?”
“Starr has some boxes she calls trunks. I’ll bet she has an extra. Would that do?”
“Perfect.”
“I’ll get you one. Be right back.” He trotted off.
I released my tension in a long sigh and dropped my bag on the kel bed. Thank goodness I’d anticipated foul play and packed my most important stuff in a carryall. I unzipped my white suit, stepped out of it, wadded it into a ball, and tossed it onto the bed in disgust. Scientifically advanced? Useless piece of—
“Don’t do that again, Sunny.”
I stifled a shriek and whipped around. About a half meter from my face, the cambot hovered like a hummingbird. “Ditching the camera in the woods was no accident,” a familiar voice boomed from the bot. “You’ve been trying to hit the camera. You’re on the verge of violating the terms of your contract.”
My heart pounded, but I refused to show how intimated I felt. I flipped my hair and glowered at the tiny lens. “It’s not my fault the cameras couldn’t keep up with the snow vehicle. And obviously, they aren’t lost because they’re here, and you’re talking to me.”
If I could communicate with the show’s producer back on Earth, the cambots had to be FTL-equipped. Only a faster-than-light transmission could allow us to converse without a noticeable time delay, and technology like that didn’t come cheap. Those little buggers had to cost more than the two million dollars I’d been paid—and there were six of them. No wonder Apogee had freaked when I’d started swinging.
The appearance of cambots with real time communication capability meant I could expect “coaching” sessions on what to say and do from now until the end of this stint.
Shit on a cracker. They would try to force me to try to create romance by leading Darq on. If I didn’t go the direction they wanted me to go, the situation could get ugly.
I glowered. “By the way, how did you manage to find me?”
Instead of replying, the cambot zoomed up and away to a dark corner, and a half a heartbeat later, Darq’s shadow spilled into the chamber before he entered with a small wooden trunk.
“Who were you talking to?” he asked.
Chapter Six
Darq
As I neared my chamber, I could hear Sunny speaking—and I could have sworn I’d heard a male Terran voice, too. Impossible. No one had entered or left the cave. Of course, she was alone, but the question popped out of my mouth. “Who were you talking to?”
Her cheeks turned pink, and she shifted her gaze between her feet and the ceiling. “Uh, nobody…except, um myself. I, uh, do that. Talk to myself. You’ll catch me talking to myself a lot. It’s a bad habit.”
“It’s okay. I talk to myself a lot, too.”
“You do?”
The company of my clan did not fill the ache for companionship. I nodded. “I have to talk to somebody. I was happy when Torg met Starr, but I spend less time with him than I used to.” Warmth filled me, and I smiled. “Now, I have you, and I’m not alone anymore.”
“Oh…Darq.” Her voice and mouth quivered. “Is that the trunk?”
“Yes.” I set it next to the wall, close to the bed, fireside, where I assumed she would sleep.
She’d removed her strange white garment, and I enjoyed how her leggings hugged her long limbs. Her upper clothing covered her from neck to wrist, but it couldn’t conceal the swell of her breasts. I had hopes of seeing her naked, but when I’d gone to get a trunk, Torg had cornered me with a lecture.
“Do not expect relations right away,” he had said.
Starr had giggled. “We had relations right away.”
“They are not us,” Torg said to her, but focused on me. “You must give her time to get comfortable.”
“How long will that take?” I asked.
“She will let you know,” he said unhelpfully.
Starr was happy to provide a trunk but insisted on showing me every one she owned. Big, little, wooden, leather, straw—every combination. She’d arrived with even fewer possessions than Sunny but had since acquired many, many items and chose this moment to share them with me. I wanted to get back to my mate!
I grabbed a medium-sized wooden chest and walked out. “Thank you,” I remembered to add.
The fire in my sleepi
ng chamber had burned down to glowing embers, so I tossed on another log. Out of her bag, Sunny pulled a wide-sleeved flowered garment in a slinky fabric that would provide no warmth at all, two pairs of more suitable woven foot coverings, a hair grooming implement, three scraps of material Terrans called panties, an odd black slingshot, a transparent pouch overstuffed with little tubes, colorful powders, brushes, and paints.
Her face crumpled. “Oh, no, I forgot it. I left it on the ship.”
“What?”
“The picture of my family.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“I still have Mr. Buddy.” She pulled out an animal totem with brown patchy fur. It had four limbs, a white snout with a black nose, two fuzzy ears, and appeared to have had two eyes at some point, but one had fallen out. She hugged the ugly thing to her chest.
“Mr. Buddy belonged to my nephew. He gave it to me before I left.” She stowed her possessions in the trunk. Her shoulders slumped with the closing of the lid, and she placed the animal totem on top.
For the first time, I realized how much she’d sacrificed in coming here; she had left kith, kin, and her home world. I had surrendered nothing; I had only gained. I would work very hard to please her, to ensure I was worthy of the sacrifice.
As worthy as a liar and cheat can be. How I wished I had drawn the chit honestly so I could shout to the world that Sunny was mine without worrying they would figure out who had Romando’s chit.
My plan had been ill-thought-out. Plan? There had been no plan. I’d found the chit and reacted. Torg had believed my lie that an error had occurred, and we’d been awarded four chits. He’d never gotten suspicious when everyone had learned Romando had lost his. I hadn’t lied to him before, so it never occurred to him to doubt my story. The record, which I’d forged, would back it up if I was ever questioned.
However, it would be a long time before I could relax without wondering if someone would recall I’d drawn no chit.
It’s not too late to make it right.
I could announce what I’d done, give up Sunny and let her go to Romando, and accept my punishment. It would bring shame to my tribe, and I would never be given a chance to enter the drawing for a female.
