Chapter 10
YIRI
Two days. Probably less. I couldn’t wait till the end of the day to give Zacal something. And I had to have something to give him. The alternative was unacceptable.
I checked my reflection in the mirror before I called Cora. My hair was freshly trimmed, my face cleanly shaven, and I’d had the hygiene tech deal with the bags under my eyes. I wasn’t getting enough sleep, and it showed.
I took a deep breath and settled on the edge of my bed, the nexus mod hovering nearby with Cora’s messages on the screen.
I studied the image she’d sent me earlier in the day, unsettled by the tension in her eyes.
Usually innocently wide-eyed, my Aneah looked troubled, and I didn’t like it.
If she were here, I would take care of whatever it was that made her unhappy.
On Venastea, here in Eissoi, here in my arms, what could possibly worry her?
I would see to her every desire and concern. But I had to get her here first.
If I were confronting a violent criminal, I wouldn’t be nervous. But a beautiful female with eyes I couldn’t swim out of? Fuck me. My hands were sweaty. Wiping them on my pants, I initiated the call.
She appeared, the same lines drawn between her eyes as before. I knew it was late for her, but she was fully dressed in the strange blue pants so many humans wore, and a thick, oversized shirt. A brightly lit room with lots of little doors on the walls made up her backdrop.
“Not in bed yet?” I asked.
Her shoulders rose, and she took a deep breath. “No. And I have something I need to say before… um. I just need to say something.”
Would she tell me why she was unhappy? Confide in me, Aneah. Let me make it better for you.
“I can’t keep talking to you.”
I leaned my head to the side, sure I had misheard her.
“It’s for the best,” she said. “I can’t leave Earth. I’m not planning to. I feel terrible for making you think I might, but… I can’t. So…. That’s it. I’m sorry.”
I waited, letting her get every bit of her little speech out, and the longer I waited, the more she volunteered, almost as if I made her nervous, too.
“I did enjoy… this. Um. But I can’t keep taking your money and…
and wasting your time. It’s wrong. I don’t usually do things like this.
I just… I lost my job, and I was kind of desperate.
But… I shouldn’t have. And today, Andrew said some things that…
I just think it’s for the best. Better now than later when…
” She gave a timid laugh, her cheeks burning red.
“You know. Before we… I… or either one of us, really. Not that I think you feel… um. I just mean before someone starts to develop feelings. Regardless of who it is. And this way, you can spend more time talking to women who are really interested in… in leaving Earth, you know? Who want to get married and have… lots of babies or whatever. So… I’m sure you have other women lined up already.
That’s… um. That’s fine. That’s…. Good.”
Is it now? I didn’t believe her for a single click. She couldn’t meet my eyes, and her hands were shaking. Shit, her whole body was vibrating with anxiety.
“I’ll… I’ll go ahead and hang up. You don’t have to say anything.
I just wanted to tell you. Not just ghost you, you know?
Um. B-bye… Bye, Yiri.” Her voice quavered as she said my name, her lip trembling.
She reached for her phone to end the call, looking up to finally meet my eyes at the last second.
I shook my head at her, and she hesitated, one click, two, three.
“Put your hand down, Cora.”
Her fingers curled, and slowly she obeyed, pulling her hand to her chest.
“Tell me about your day.”
“Yiri, I’m serious,” she said. “I’m breaking up with you. You can’t just listen to all that and then ask me how my day was like nothing happened.”
“I didn’t ask how it was,” I said. “Your day was shit. I can see that. I want to know what happened. Why is my wife unhappy?”
“I’m not your wife.”
“Tell me, Aneah.”
“There’s… nothing to tell,” she said. “And… Yiri, you can’t keep calling me that. I’m not… I don’t want you to think that’s what I am to you.”
“Let me worry about that,” I said. “Talk to me. Tell me what your friend Andrew said.”
She sighed, her shoulders falling. “He just reminded me why I even created an account on BMM, and that I’m not one of those women who… who runs off to the other side of the universe for a man.”
“I’m not on the other side of the universe, Cora,” I said. “We’re pretty close, relatively speaking.”
She clicked her tongue, flapping her hand impatiently. “You know what I mean.”
“No, tell me, Aneah. What kind of woman does that, and why don’t you want to be one of them?”
She looked away, tugging at the collar of her shirt. “I don’t mean… Look, I told Andrew at lunch, I get it. Maybe I didn’t when I first signed up, but I understand now how… tempting it is.”
“How tempting what is?”
She gave me her eyes again, and I felt a thrill low in my gut.
“How tempting you are,” she said. “But I can’t.”
“Why not?”
I already knew she had no family and very few friends. This Andrew was barely more than a colleague from her last job. She had nothing to tie her to her home world but fear of the unknown.
“Is there a human man there who wants to provide for you, protect and cherish you?”
She didn’t answer, so I changed my approach. I had hoped to avoid this conversation, at least until she was here, where I could plead for her understanding. But maybe this was better. Maybe.
“Since we are making confessions, I have one for you, too.”
“Don’t tell me about them,” she said, stopping me. “I’d rather not… do that, okay? I get it. I’m fine with it.”
“Are you talking about other women, again, Aneah?”
“Yes,” she said, scowling. “Of course. But like I said, I’d rather not.”
“Good, because there are none to talk about.”
She rolled her eyes, and I ground my teeth.
“You don’t believe me.”
“Why should I?”
Fuck, her defiance only made me more certain she was mine.
“Once I have you in my reach, I’ll fix that attitude for you, wife.”
“Excuse me?” she gasped, but she shifted, rubbing her thighs together, and I could make out the outline of her pebbled nipples under her shirt.
“I’ve never had a wife, so we’ll have a little trial and error to see what works. Do you think I should make you come until you beg me to stop and promise to behave? Or should I keep you hovering on the edge of release, only to deny you over and over again?”
She held my gaze, flushed and stubbornly refusing to answer, but it didn’t matter. I had her undivided attention.
“There are no other women. I signed up, I answered the stupid fucking questions, and then I searched for hours until I found you.” I leaned closer to the mod, resting my forearms on my knees.
“It’s been pointed out to me that I could have looked for a mate years ago.
Should have, maybe. Timing never felt right. ”
“So why are you looking now?” she asked, a hint of petulance still in her tone.
“Time ran out,” I said, honestly. “And here’s where I make my confession, Aneah. The arranged match my cousin is expecting was meant for me, but I’d rather kill the female than look at her.”
“Jeeze.” Cora blanched. “That seems…. Kinda psycho, Yiri. Who says that?”
“It’s a long story,” I said, “but she betrayed someone important to me.”
“Okay….” Her brows drew together as she took in everything I was telling her. “Just say no. You don’t need me for that.”
“I could say no,” I agreed. “But it would cause trouble for my family and everyone who works for us. I’m my uncle’s heir, so I’m the match they want. The only way I can say no is if I am already mated. If I can manage that, my cousin will marry the female, and all the trouble will be avoided.”
“So find a mate,” she said, her jaw tightening. “It won’t be me, but you could pull plenty of beautiful women.”
“I have to give my answer in less than two days.”
She threw up her hands, making a frustrated noise. “You shouldn’t have put all your eggs in one basket then. Why weren’t you talking to other women if it’s this important to you?”
“I want you.”
“Why?”
I shrugged. “I’m attracted to you. You let me be myself without taking offense.
You let me be in control without acting like it’s a threat to your feminine power.
I can’t stop thinking about you at all hours.
When I should be sleeping, when I’m trying to work.
I’m always distracted, wondering what you’re doing, who you’re talking to, what you’re wearing, and how you did your makeup. ”
“Those are nice things for a boyfriend to feel,” she said, softening a little. I didn’t like what my translator was telling me about boyfriends. “But you’re asking me to marry you. To be your mate. That’s a big deal.”
“It is,” I agreed. “But I want you. That’s not going to change. If I had time to give you, I would spend a year courting you over the nexus if that’s what you wanted. I don’t have time, though. So I’m offering you everything else.”
“Everything else?” She crossed her arms, making a show of not being interested.
“Come here, be my mate, and let me show you how well I can love you.”
“You’re telling me to be your mate,” she said. “To marry you.”
“Yes.”
“Telling, not asking,” she stressed her point, arching a brow.
“I don’t ask for anything, Aneah. I demand. I take. But if you want me on my knees, just say the word.”
“It’s customary for a man to be on one knee when he asks a woman to marry him,” she said with a haughty lift of her chin.
My mouth curled up a the corner as I slid off the bed, the nexus mod following me as I knelt on one knee. “Like this, Aneah?”
“Like that. But don’t think I’m going to say yes just because you’re pretending to have some manners for a minute.”
“Cora, Aneah, will you marry me? Will you come here and be with me? Will you stand by my side, strong and beautiful like the queen you are meant to be? Will you let me love you and teach your body pleasures it has never known?” My words started out teasing because I loved seeing the fire in her, but as I spoke, the weight of what I was asking her for settled into my bones and reaffirmed the rightness of her.
And the utter and complete wrongness of being D'vinda’s mate.
“The truth is, Cora,” I said, swallowing down my pride for the only creature worthy of it, “Without you, I won’t survive the year.”
She didn’t ask if I meant it. I did. And when she gave me her answer, I knew without doubt she was meant to be mine.
“I’ll think about it.”