by Evelyn Marks
“Of course, why’d I even ask,” she said wryly. A much more comfortable silence ensued while we ate.
“Rea, in your job description you will be responsible for liaising with the palace along with Ambassador Burton...?” I asked.
“Yes...why what’s up?” she asked, curious.
“Burton has informed me of this...marriage case come to him and expressed that he’d like for you to have equal part in handling it,” I told her slowly.
“Really?” her interest piqued and a true smile spread across her lips. “He did tell me about it and that he’d want my help for it,” she said. “So why are you taking interest in it? I was under the impression it’d be a civil matter for the courts if anything,” she said. I took pause, perhaps it was because I hadn’t expected her to have put much thought into it.
“It would be...but it has come across my desk because the man involved is now a part of our military. Upon closer inspection, my investigators have found that he is a fugitive on Earth. There is all manner of minutia that would need to be taken care of by the smaller courts if I choose not to give a direct order to deport him. I’m simply waiting for the initial marriage fraud hearing to make a decision on revoking his legal access to Radon.”
“So you’ll be releasing him of duty to the military, ending his marriage, and deporting him where he’ll most likely be getting arrested?” Rea asked.
“Yes...his crimes that have mounted on Earth are incredible. I can’t believe he made it this far on Radon. The processes when inducting people to our military is very lacking,” I mumbled.
“What’s he done?” she asked.
“Everything short of murder. Which one is not allowed to leave their home planet for committing, as I’m sure you know,” I said.
“Wow...” her eyes were alight with excitement, purpose.
“So I was hoping that you could sit in on a briefing of the case. To fully get me up to speed. You’d need it since you are also just coming in on the matter,” I told her.
“That sounds great it’d be a big help,” she smiled. “I won’t have to study another giant binder,” she chuckled.
I smiled. Seeing how she lit up when discussing her work was warming to see. Perhaps the way to Rea’s heart was in my grasp after all. “It will be tomorrow, I’ll tell Burton that you’ll be joining us for the meeting,” I said.
“Okay...can’t I just let him know myself?” she asked, her brows furrowing a bit.
“Yes, you may...” I said slowly. I wondered why she’d want to speak with Burton on her own.
“I just like to do things for myself is all. I mean, you already have so much done for me,” she said.
“That is how I was raised. My father took care of everything for my mother,” I told her.
“Well yeah there’s a fine line when it comes to that with me. A lot of what you do can seem controlling,” she said. I did not know how to immediately respond to that. “Or like you’re trying to keep me in a bubble,” she added.
“I don’t wish to control you Rea...you’re free here. To do what you please,” I said.
“Which is why you have Saphia reporting to you everything that I do when we’re apart?” she asked. The conversation had taken a turn I wasn’t quite prepared for. I took a deep breath and tried to collect my thoughts.
“I had doubts. I thought you would make arrangements to return to Earth,” I told her truthfully.
“I’m not Darion. I’m not gonna just pack up and leave. Though you must admit I still have a right to,” she said.
I took another deep breath and then nodded. “Yes, I know. It is not often that I’ve felt off balance and it’s because of you. So forgive me for inadvertently trying to put you in a bubble. I just want to be sure of you—of us,” if there was anyone I could be so truthful with about my feelings, it must be my wife.
She considered what I said and then licked her lips before speaking. “We’re both still figuring each other out and that’s fine. You’re making it so that I can have a life here and I’m not just going to up and leave unless you give me a reason to,” she said. “I’d just like to feel like a normal person again. One who can go where she pleases and call her friends whenever she wants,” she added.
“Okay then...” I exhaled deeply and then nodded, “it’s a deal.” I smiled and she mirrored my expression.
“Good, I think we’ve made progress as husband and wife,” she said contentedly.
I chuckled. “Should I feel so flushed and slightly panicked?” I asked. Rea laughed then and nodded.
“That means we just made a compromise and you put your trust in me,” she said, grinning. “What you feel now is almost how I felt when you kidnapped me,” she added. She giggled when I laughed at that. If we were at a place where she could joke about the abduction, I figured we were alright.
Chapter 8
Rea
I WAS A LITTLE SURPRISED at how quickly Darion paid up on what he agreed to over dinner. He gave me my phone and had it fitted out to work with Radonian satellites. He also gave me a computer, which he’d taken when he took me from Mars. As soon as I turned my phone on though, I saw about a thousand texts and calls from Mia and my brothers. Then only one voice message from my father.
“I’m scared to listen to that one,” I murmured.
“Scared?” Darion asked, concerned. He had been scrolling through all the e-mails that I had yet to read on my laptop.
“My best friend and brothers have left me hundreds of messages, and my father left only one,” I told him. Darion took my phone and played the message from my dad’s deep commanding voice.
“Rea, I hope you are aware of the panic you caused here and on Mars. I have all manner of your friends calling me to ask ‘how could I let you run off to Radon?’ This is beyond reproach embarrassing and frankly stupid of you. If you don’t return my call within the next two weeks I will assume that you’ve fully cut yourself off from the family and will take steps to have it done for you officially.”
With that the recording ended. Darion laughed once, without humor and then shook his head sadly. “He sounds like my father...”
“Yeah well, that’s Richard Norwood for you,” I sighed.
“Rea, I am sorry. When I acted, I did not truly think to how this would—”
“It’s fine Darion. I’ll call him back and my brothers and Mia, take the tongue lashing and assure everyone that things are okay,” I said.
“You should not have to take a tongue lashing...” he murmured. “Not the bad kind anyway,” he added.
I giggled and then kissed his jaw. “I’ll be on the phone for a while. Maybe you can have a good ‘tongue lashing’ ready for me when I get back?”
He held my chin between his thumb and forefinger and kissed me deeply. He licked into my mouth and circled his tongue around mine before nibbling on my lip and then pulling away.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I said when I recovered from the kiss. He chuckled and then nodded. I took a deep breath and then got up from the bed to walk out onto the balcony. The first person I called was Mia of course.
“You bitch,” was how she answered. “How could you do this to me? You just freaking up and leave when I’m not looking? Then leave me some lame ass excuse and that’s it?” she yelled.
“Mia, I’m sorry I—”
“No, I don’t want to hear it. Are you alive, are you healthy?” she asked.
“Yes...”
“Fine. I need time to get over how mad I am at you, then we can talk,” she huffed and ended the call. I sighed and then moved on to call each of my brothers before dealing with the disapproving call to my dad. He was surprisingly less upset than I thought he’d be. He approved of who I’d chosen to ‘marry’, even though we went about our marriage ‘distastefully’. He just wanted to meet Darion when we next visited Earth. After about three hours spent on the phone I slowly made my way back into the bedroom.
“You look haggard and aged,” Darion commente
d.
“Gee, thanks for that. Here I thought I was drop dead gorgeous,” I quipped.
“Of course you are. But also, haggard and aged,” he joked. I set my phone down on the mantle, far across the room, before joining him in bed. “I took the liberty of sorting through your e-mail if you don’t mind. I figured I could help you with that at least.”
He showed me my computer. He’d sorted everything into folders. Separated junk from old work e-mails and miscellaneous verbiage from Sherry.
“Thank you,” I said, smiling. He closed the laptop and put it down on the floor.
“You’ll work tomorrow though. I believe I promised you something,” he said. He slid down the bed and pulled off my pajama shorts. He opened my legs to settle his shoulders in between them and kissed my inner thigh.
“I have a question...” I said, my voice low as warmth uncurled from my belly.
“Hmm?” he nibbled the sensitive skin of my thigh before he slid his finger up along the seam of my sex.
“If you’re supposedly asexual, how do you know how to do sex so well?” I asked.
He laughed hard, I felt the bed shake under me.
“I am simply good at discretion is all Rea. You don’t believe I’m asexual...do you?” he asked as he slowly pushed two fingers into me. I gasped and then moaned when he thrust his fingers against my g-spot. “Do you?” he asked again.
“No, nope,” I said, breathless. He hummed and then slid his tongue against my clitoris. My hips thrust against his mouth and he pressed his free hand against my belly. He flicked his tongue against my clit relentlessly while thrusting his fingers into me. I gripped the sheets tight. My body tensed up for the orgasm. It gushed through me in waves. I ground my hips against his mouth as I came. Before I could even recover from the orgasm and see straight, Darion’s cock was pushing into me. His groan mirrored mine when he filled me up. He gripped my waist with both hands and then pounded into me. It didn’t take long until I orgasmed again. I lost track of how many I had. When he was finally spent, I passed out.
Chapter 9
Rea
I GOT READY WITH DARION for the first time in the morning. We showered together. It was nice. He was like a normal guy, a husband even. He was doing everything he could to make sure I was happy and I had to give him credit for that.
“Are you ready to go to the meeting?” he asked me. We were just about done with breakfast.
“Yes, I’m excited,” I said and got up from the table. “I called Burton already to let him know I’ll be there. He’s glad that I’m going since he won’t be able to make it,” I told him.
“How come?” Darion asked.
“He said he had something that came up at the last minute that he needed to take care of,” I said. Darion nodded thoughtfully and stood up while finishing the last bit of his coffee. Burton sounded a little weird on the phone. He kept asking how I was doing, which was strange.
Once Darion was ready I followed him to the other side of the palace. It was funny to see more people walking around. Everyone with their own things to get done. I’d pretty much stayed to the quiet side of the palace. Where there were only groundskeepers or maids and such walking around.
“The meeting will be held in my formal study, this way,” Darion said. Even his stride had changed. He walked with more purpose than I’d gotten used to seeing. When we got to his study there were six people already gathered in the room. A few sat on one of his couches, the rest were standing around the desk.
“Chief Darion, Ms Norwood,” said Nye, whom I recognized as Darion’s clerk.
“Hello Nye,” I said. Darion simply shook his hand.
Darion said, “I don’t want this meeting to take up the entirety of everyone’s day. Why don’t we get down to it?”
Darion gestured for everyone to go ahead. He gave me his chair behind his desk and then stood to my right. I couldn’t help but feel special at the gesture. I took my tablet out from my bag to take notes. There was a short interlude where everyone introduced themselves to me. There were two government investigators, a persecutor, two generals and then Nye of course.
The meeting took about two hours and I learned a lot about Ronald Wilson’s evasion of just about every human government. We were dealing with someone who was running and hiding and didn’t want to be caught. Right after the meeting I had to hurry to get to work. Only when I called Saphia to see if she was with the car, she didn’t answer. Darion had me use his driver in the meantime.
When I walked into the embassy the receptionist, Rory, looked up at me with wide eyes. “Ms Norwood! Oh, good you’re here. We were just about to call you from the palace,” he said. He spoke as if he were relieved.
“Oh, well I told Burton that I was going to be at the Ronald Wilson briefing,” I said.
“Yes, but Burton just called an urgent meeting that you’re required to attend,” Rory said. He looked over his shoulder and then gestured to one of the guards that usually hung out in the lobby. “They’ll escort you back ma’am,” he said.
“Why do I need security...?” I asked, but by then two uniformed guards were flanking me.
“This way Ms Norwood,” one of them said gruffly.
“Do you guys know what’s going on?” I asked curiously.
“All we know is that Ambassador Burton would like you looked after,” he told me. Whatever that meant. I held onto my questions until we reached the super secretive meeting room. It was practically a bunker underneath the main building. Sitting around the conference table was Burton, two of the major human military commanders that were stationed on Radon, as well as the main human prosecutor and Burton’s other secondary diplomat.
“What’s...going on?” I asked slowly. I wondered why the hell I’d been pulled into a meeting with a bunch of heavies from the embassy.
“Please have a seat Rea,” Burton said. He gestured to a chair at the end of the table. As I sat down someone else walked in. It was Saphia.
“Saphia? What’s going on?” I asked, beyond confused.
“Saphia has brought it to my attention of your situation with Chief Darion,” Burton said. He leveled a steady gaze on me. After a beat of silence the realization hit me and my heart dropped. I tried to maintain steady breathing, but a freak out was trying to break through.
“My situation?” I asked woodenly.
“Yes, of you having been abducted, of your marriage to him having been forged,” he said.
“It’s alright Rea, we’re all friends here. You can tell us what happened, we only want to help,” the prosecutor said. If I remember correctly, her name was Alicia.
“You told them...?” I glanced at Saphia who barely looked remorseful.
“Yes Ms Norwood, I was concerned after what you told me. Of course, I wouldn’t just sit idly by. I had no way of knowing if Chief Darion’s hold on you prevented you from going forward yourself. After all, he had me keeping reports on you,” she said. “I figured you were simply frightened of retribution from him,” she explained.
“Rea, be honest with us, were you abducted?” Alicia asked. Abduction wasn’t a petty crime. It was a serious thing across the galaxy, up there with murder. Darion could get into a lot of trouble if I said the words.
“What if he did?” I asked slowly. Everyone looked at me the same way then. As if they were sorry for me. As if I had Stockholm syndrome or something.
“Well we’d put him on trial for forgery and abduction. When found guilt he’d likely be demoted from Chief of Radon by the High Council here and they’d mete out punishment accordingly. We’d take you back home to Earth and make sure you’re well taken care of. We know how important your job is to you and there’s plenty of work throughout the solar system in various intergalactic affairs offices that we can set you up at,” she said.
I took a deep breath and then glanced around the room as I considered the situation I was then in. A big part of me was quietly pining to stay with Darion. But then there was that other compartmental
ized side that was still a bit mad at him for abducting me and causing so much upheaval in my private life with my friends and family.
“I need to think about this...it’s a lot,” I said eventually.
“Rea that isn’t an option. Either you say the words now and we move forward with this, or pretend this meeting didn’t happen at all. It is the Chief of Radon we’re dealing with here. This would be monumental,” Burton said. I opened my mouth to speak and give the right answer. I just didn’t know what that was.
I had to say something.
“Okay...well...”
To be continued...
Book 3: Tested Love
Rea has made her choice and deep down she knows Darion is the one. She’ll have it no other way than to be with him. Darion makes a huge gesture and admits his feelings for Rea, things couldn’t have been more perfect. Until the circumstances of how Rea was brought to Radon comes back to haunt them. Their short honeymoon phase abruptly ends when faced with mistakes they both have made. Mistakes that lead them towards an uncertain future.
Chapter 1
Rea
THE ROOM WAS TENSE. Everyone was waiting for me to finish my sentence. Hell, I was waiting for me to finish my sentence. What did I want? Really? Could I stomach getting Darion’s life flipped upside down. Like he did with mine? Then again, I was really starting to like life on Radon a lot better than my life even on Mars. Then Darion...well I was falling for him too and I didn’t want to be separated from him. I had a gut feeling about that, I couldn’t deny it.
“This isn’t what you all think. If you look into it, sure...I was brought here questionably. But being on Radon is something that I want, me. If not, I would’ve asked for help when I started here. Darion and I have a real relationship and I don’t want to be apart from him,” I said. I wouldn’t make excuses for Darion. I wouldn’t tell them that he’s changed, or he made one stupid and impulsive mistake. That would make me sound weak and exactly like I had Stockholm syndrome.
