6. Fallon
6
FALLON
I found it difficult to listen to Warden Tenn as he read out the marriage rites. I was too busy staring at Darcy’s beautiful profile and internally thanking this glorious creature for giving me a chance. Of course, I would have told her about my past eventually. But I’d hoped, like Silar, to have had the chance to win her over a little first.
But it did not seem to matter. Darcy had looked at me and the blight of my past and she had smiled and agreed to marry me anyway. I felt luckier than I had in a long, long time. Maybe ever.
Darcy looked directly ahead at the warden behind his desk, her big, shiny waves of pink hair falling behind her elegant shoulders. Empire help me, but she had beautiful shoulders. Smooth-skinned, curved by muscle and slender bone, and dusted by the same charming little brown spots that were also sprinkled across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. I was struck by the slightly disorienting desire to bite one of them. I wouldn’t, of course. Her skin was soft and my fangs were not.
But for some unfathomable reason, I wanted to.
“Fallon?”
I dragged myself from the dreamy idea of sucking on one of her shoulders instead of biting it.
“Yes?” I asked, blinking at the warden.
“You have to verbally answer this part. Do you take Darcy as your wife, to be legally bound in the eyes of the Terratribe Alliance and under all applicable covenants of the Zabrian Empire?”
“Of course!”
What a useless question. Who in their right mind would say no with a female like Darcy standing beside them?
“Darcy, do you take Fallon as your husband, to be legally bound in the eyes of the Terratribe Alliance and under all applicable covenants of the Zabrian Empire?”
“I do,” Darcy said in a smooth, clear voice, not exhibiting a moment of the hesitation I’d feared to find in her.
“Well, that’s about it. Time for the kiss thing,” Warden Tenn said, his orange gaze swinging back and forth between my bride and me.
My wife and me.
Once again, there was no hesitation on Darcy’s part. She turned her glorious body towards mine.
Kiss. I knew about the kiss ritual. I’d read about it in the human manual I’d been given. Apparently, it was a sign of affection, and it was also used as a pre-cursor to mating.
My blood heated. It seemed odd that we’d progress to mating here and now, but I certainly wasn’t going to complain. I would honour any and all of my wife’s customs. Especially any that would hopefully end with me getting to put my cock inside her.
Kiss. I could do this. All I had to do was put my mouth against hers. And then, hopefully, I could figure the rest of the mating out, too. I’d certainly looked at the images in the book enough times to have at least a semblance of a hope of not disgracing myself.
Darcy rose up on her toes at the same moment I bent slightly forward. I loved how tall she was compared to the others. I did not have to lurch and lean, and she did not have to overly strain to reach her arms up around my neck. Her body pressed briefly to mine, lighting fires in every single one of my nerves.
A perfect fit.
Darcy brushed her lips over mine, and it was as if she’d put those lips directly on the tip of my cock. My shaft leapt beneath the leather of my trousers. I suppressed a groan, my mouth darting forward for more of that petal-light touch. I connected with her harder this time and I tasted wetness.
Oh, this was a very good ritual, indeed. Why was this not part of Zabrian culture? I groaned again, louder this time, sweeping my lips over Darcy’s, drinking down the sweetness of her as my hands fumbled at my belt.
“Do the others stay to watch the rest?” I asked raggedly against her moistened lips, only now remembering that Silar, Cherry, Magnolia, and of course, the warden, were all still in the room with us. Zohro had already left.
“Watch the rest of what?”
Darcy lowered herself onto her heels and stepped back, leaving me standing there with one end of my undone belt in each hand.
“The… the mating part?” I asked, troubled by the way her pale brows seemed to be climbing higher and higher.
“You… You want to have sex?” Darcy gasped. “Here? Now? ”
I didn’t do up my belt, but nor did I continue undressing. Things no longer seemed to be going well enough to warrant the removal of my trousers.
“You don’t?” I asked carefully.
“Uh…”
The green and black parts of Darcy’s eyes tore away from me as if seeking out assistance. It made something clench inside me. That she was looking to others for help instead of looking to me.
“Fallon, what in the Empire are you doing?” Warden Tenn asked.
“I read about the kiss thing in the book,” I said, feeling rather betrayed by the judgmental look the warden was giving me. It was not my fault humans liked to rut each other at their wedding ceremonies! “It said a kiss is used often used to heighten intimacy and excitement before mating!”
Darcy gaped at me while Cherry slapped a hand to her forehead.
“Oh, man. That fucking book,” she muttered. “First frostbite, now this.”
Silar grunted. I had no idea why his wife was bringing up frostbite. Frostbite, which I knew all about, because I had read the book like I was supposed to do!
“Fallon, humans don’t typically just strip down and start banging right there on the altar,” Cherry squeaked, her cheeks as red as the scarf tied around her neck. Magnolia was staring at the floor, her lips pinched between her teeth. I could not tell if she was grimacing or fighting back a smile.
“I don’t know what an altar is. And I wasn’t going to bang on anything,” I muttered, doing my belt back up because, unfortunately, it did not seem like I was supposed to take my pants off after all. “I was merely going to mate my wife.”
“Merely,” Darcy breathed. Like Cherry, her cheeks were darkening, a flush of pink beneath the little flecks of brown colour. Her brows were still very high on her forehead, her eyes much larger in her face than they’d been before.
“That’s what I meant when I said banging,” Cherry clarified. “People don’t just immediately start mating after getting married. I mean, I guess some probably do, but they usually wait until they’re in bed first and there’s no audience.”
“Oh,” I said, fighting a stab of disappointment as I finished fixing my belt. “Forgive me, Darcy. I have never done a kiss before and I… I did not understand the nuances.”
Nuances. Cursed cattle. The kiss thing had been erotic and exciting and had left my cock with an aching strain all along the shaft. Why the blazes did humans do such a thing during their weddings if they did not mean to mate after? How could they stand the sudden surge of arousal? Was it supposed to be like that? Some kind of twisted method of delayed gratification intrinsic to the wedding process?
Torture. It felt like torture. My cock was hard, my body hot, and all I could think about was how good Darcy smelled, how pretty she looked, how much I could still feel the lingering caress of her lips on mine.
“It’s alright,” Darcy said slowly, watching me closely. I ignored the hot pang in my groin, a reaction to the sound of her voice.
“There’s a bucket outside,” Silar said cryptically. He seemed to think whatever he’d just told me was actually helpful instead of just a bunch of nonsense. For as blunt and honest as he could be, sometimes the things that came out of his mouth were about as intelligible as shuldu dung.
Which was to say, not at all.
“A bucket,” I echoed. “Am I…” I lowered my voice. “Am I supposed to ejaculate into it?”
Was that how I was meant to survive the long ride back home?
Magnolia slapped a small hand over her mouth, having heard what I’d said. Cherry snorted and then sighed.
“Oh, Fallon, sweetie, no…”
For the Empire’s sake. Why was everyone being so confusing?
“Why don’t we just go?” Darcy said hurriedly. “Thank you, Warden, for your assistance.”
I cast my wife – my wife! I have a wife! – a grateful look. Where I was buckling under the heady, heavy mixture of arousal and confusion, she seemed perfectly at ease. Her expression was composed once more and after exchanging some information with the warden, including communication signals for their data tabs, she turned and walked out of the warden’s office. Only once, in the doorway, did she turn to look back at me, making sure I’d followed.
She didn’t know me very well yet.
Because if she did, she never would have needed to turn around and check.