Entered in the Alien Bride Lottery by Margo Collins (best large ebook reader TXT) 📗

his desk, shuffling through some of it. He flicked his fingers once, an obvious dismissal, and the door opened.

His secretary stepped in. “I’ll show you the way out,” the human male said.

We followed the secretary all the way out into the primary corridor. “Do you know how to get back to the games area from here?” he asked.

“I do,” I said shortly, not even bothering to thank him as he returned to his office.

Alone in the hallway, Natalie and I stared at each other for a long, silent moment, her eyes searching mine as if to find an answer there.

I knew what I wanted. But I couldn’t make up her mind for her.

She finally broke the silence. “What do we do?

“That has to be up to you entirely,” I said. “I would be thrilled if you decided to skip straight to wedding planning. But if you would rather return to the games, I will accept that, as well.”

“You will?”

All I wanted to do was bury my hands in her hair and pull her to me for another kiss. But I wanted her to want to be with me as much as I wanted to be with her. “If we go back to the games, I promise I will not hurt you. And I will spend every second I have trying to convince you that we belong together.”

The column of her throat moved as she swallowed nervously. I wanted to stroke the pale skin there, follow a line down to her chest, to the swell of her breast.

Slow down, I admonished myself. It would do no good to get myself overexcited about any of this. Not until I was certain of Natalie’s consent.

“Maybe we should go talk about it.”

“We still have not eaten,” I reminded her. “We could take a little time to discuss this.”

She nodded. “Let’s go back to the food court and see what we can come up with.”

I still carried the food we had gotten in the food court. But by now, it had grown cold and inedible. I dropped it in the nearest waste receptacle, listening to the whoosh of the station’s recycler whisking it away. I turned to Natalie. “Let’s go pick up new plates of sandworms and see what we can come up with.”

She froze, her eyes huge. “Did you say sandworms?”

“Yes. I thought you liked them.”

“Those were worms? I was eating worms?”

I laughed. “They are a delicacy on Khanavai. Once they’re dead, anyway. The live worms are disgusting.”

A shudder ran through her entire body. “I don’t think I could eat them again now.”

“What did you think they were?”

“Some kind of pasta.”

“Pasta? What is that?”

“Long, thin noodles made of grains. We boil them until they’re soft. They have a similar texture to your… sandworms.”

“Sounds bland. I’ve had some of your Earth grains. I could hardly taste them at all.”

“We put various sauces on them. Just like you did with that dish.” She obviously couldn’t bring herself to say the word worms again.

I chuckled. “That’s not a sauce. Sandworms are cooked in their dying excretions. That’s what gives them such an amazing flavor.”

This time, Natalie’s swallow seemed more convulsive than nervous. “Maybe I could just get some coffee. Do they sell that at the food court? Earth coffee, I mean. I don’t want anything made from worms or bug guts or something.”

This time I was the one who shuddered. “Coffee? That bitter, dark drink? And you think sandworms are foul?”

“Coffee is fine if you put cream and sugar in it.”

“Wait. Isn’t cream made from cow-squeezings? That’s much more disgusting than sandworms,” I teased.

“Cow-squeezings? Oh, God. I’m never going to eat or drink anything again.”

It was good to be able to make her laugh. By the time we reached the food court again, we were ten minutes into our hour to decide.

Natalie sat down with a cup of Jalevian tea, first having quizzed me on the ingredients used to create it.

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, a reminder of her experience with Tiziani. “I can’t believe Vos gave us that ultimatum.”

“I can,” I said darkly. “I’m beginning to think the Bride Games aren’t as straightforward as they’ve always been made out to be.”

“Oh, I’m sure of it.” She rubbed her hand across her forehead. “I don’t know you. We’ve barely met. I can’t agree to marry you.”

I inclined my head once, just enough to let her know that I accepted what she said. “Then we have no choice but to return to the games.”

“The thought of that makes my stomach hurt,” Nathalie confessed.

“I will protect you.”

“You can’t be there every single moment.”

The growl that I had been holding in ever since Vos made his offer once again threatened to escape. “Tiziani will not have another chance to hurt you. I swear it.”

And if he tried, this time I wouldn’t simply throw him across the room. I would rip him to shreds with my bare hands.

Chapter Fifteen

Natalie

I just have to get through this nightmare once more.

I mean, the other things that had happened today hadn’t been quite so bad. The luncheon …well, it was over, at least. Cav rescuing me, our time together since then—those things had been good.

And after we finished this stupid spanking ceremony game, the worst would be past.

They had sent us to a different spanking room from the one that Cav had ripped the door off of that morning. This one had a purple chair instead of a blood-red one. Otherwise, they were exactly alike. My heart started pounding as soon as we walked in, and Cav glanced around the room assessingly.

“That chair is a terrible set-up for the spanking ceremony,” he announced.

“What?” That was not at all what I had expected to hear from him.

“Oh, I’m sure it appeals to the old-school Khanavai, the ones who don’t want to give up any of our old traditions or accept any new ones. That’s ridiculous. Khanavai and humans have been intermarrying now for, what, almost sixty of your Earth years? Our cultures are bound