Page 5

Chapter Five

Eden

I grab on to Retmor’s neck out of necessity. I’ve never had a man pick me up or carry me. I don’t even remember being held like this as a baby. I assume someone held me, rocked me, and fed me, but I was too young to remember.

He’s so huge. I hold him tighter, afraid if he lets go of me I’ll get badly injured falling. I’m so far off the floor. “Where are you taking me? I can walk.”

He smiles at me. “Upstairs to my apartment. You won’t walk for a long time, Little one.”

I frown, confused. What does he mean by that?

We enter a white hallway, and Retmor presses a button on a wall next to some strange silver doors. A moment later, the doors slide open on their own, and Retmor steps inside.

I gasp as I glance around. We’re in a tiny room. “What is this?”

He narrows his gaze. He does that a lot, as if he’s more confused than I am. “It’s an elevator, Little one. Have you never been in an elevator?”

I shake my head and then grip him harder when the doors close and the box we’re in shakes. It’s moving. A squeal escapes my lips.

Retmor holds me closer. “You’re okay, Eden. It’s only for a few seconds.”

Suddenly, the box stops moving, and the doors slide open again.

I breathe easier when Retmor exits the metal box and steps into a room. I look around. It’s lavish. The room is spacious. The furniture is huge, much larger than any furniture I’ve ever seen. Why would anyone need this much space?

“Where are we?” I’m scared. I’ve never been alone with a man, except for my first husband. That thought brings bile to my throat, so I shake it off.

“My apartment. Well, I just got here today, so I guess it’s not really ever going to be mine. I won’t even sleep in the bed.” He chuckles.

I have no idea what’s funny. “I don’t understand.”

He draws in a deep breath and continues walking toward the massive windows on the other side of the room. “There’s a lot you don’t understand, and that’s going to make my job ten times more challenging than I expected.”

I gasp when we get close to the windows and squeeze his neck harder than ever. I struggle, pushing against him. “Please… Put me down.”

He hesitates. “Are you afraid of heights?”

“I… I don’t know… How are we up so high?”

“It’s only the fifth floor, Baby girl. It’s not a skyscraper.” At least he has stopped moving. In fact, he squats down closer to the floor and sets me on my feet. He wraps his arms around me, though, holding me against him.

We’re only a few feet from the window, and I start shaking. “So high…” I say as I peer over the edge.

“Nothing will happen to you, Little one. I promise. Nothing will ever happen to you. From now on, I’ve got you.”

“I don’t know you,” I murmur.

“You will, Baby girl. You will.” He points up into the sky through the window. “Do you see those lights?”

“Yes. The stars.”

“No. The cluster of lights.”

I glance at him. “Yes. Those are the stars that lined up in rows a few years ago.”

He blinks. “Who told you that?”

I shrug. “The elders.”

“Who are the elders?”

“The leaders of my compound.”

“They told you those were stars?”

I nod.

“Well, they’re not stars, Little one. Those are lights on the mothership.”

I gasp. Is he crazy? I push against the arms he has wrapped around my waist, but he doesn’t budge. He’s far too large for me to fight against.

“Eden, that’s a spaceship. It came from Eleadia. I landed there on a transport vessel a few days ago before I came down to Earth in a pod.”

I shake my head. “There’s no such thing as spaceships.”

He frowns. “Even your own scientists have spaceships, Little one. Many of them. Humans have been traveling in space for decades. They’ve even landed on your moon.”

I inhale sharply. “Those are lies.”

He slowly shakes his head. “They’re not, Little one. I fear many things you’ve been told were untrue.”

I’m breathing heavily as I turn in his arms to stare at him. He might be right. In fact, with every passing moment, I fear he’s telling me the truth. I’m certain some of what I was told was false, so why not all of it?

Tears start falling down my cheeks. I’m suddenly very tired. I lean into the man who’s holding me. I don’t understand what his plan is, but I don’t have anyone else to trust, so I need to hope he’s telling me the truth.

He picks me up again and carries me to a huge armchair, where he sits, arranging me across his lap. He fingers the material of my skirt. “Do all the females where you come from dress like this?”

“Yes. Modesty is important to my people.”

His jaw tightens as if this information upsets him. He lifts one of my hands to his face and rubs my knuckles over his smooth skin. He has shaved recently. I’m not used to seeing shaved faces. The men in my compound do not shave their beards.

I hold his gaze while he slides my fingers to his lips, mesmerized when he flicks his tongue over the middle one. I gasp and try to pull my hand away. This is so inappropriate. He’s not my husband. He shouldn’t take this kind of liberty with me. It’s not right.

His hand is much larger than mine. It’s larger than any hand I’ve ever seen. And he easily holds my fingers captive as he parts his lips and lets my finger slip into his mouth.

Something pierces my finger, like a thorn. I yelp and tug my hand, but Retmor doesn’t let me go. Instead, he switches to my pointer and brings it into his mouth, too. Another strange pierce makes me cry out. “What is that?”

He lowers my hand, still holding it. “My quill, Little one. It’s behind my front teeth. I’ll use it when I feel it’s necessary to calm you.”

I stare at him, eyes wide. This is madness. I look down at my fingers. They look fine. And oddly, I do feel calmer.

Retmor cups my face with his other hand. “That’s my good girl. Deep breaths.”

I find myself obeying him, inhaling long and slow and releasing it.

“I know you’re going to be confused a lot in the coming hours, Little one, but I need you to always remember that I will never let anything bad happen to you.”

“I shouldn’t be here,” I whisper. “It’s sinful to be alone with a man.”

“Is it sinful if that man is your husband?”

“No.”

“Think of me as your husband then, Little one. On Eleadia, we call our females mates. You’re my mate.”

I frown.

“Mates are predetermined in my world. Fate chose you for me. We’ll never know why, but you’re mine. Can you feel the connection between us?”

I nod because he’s right. I feel the pull. It’s so odd. I’ve felt it ever since I opened my eyes and saw him staring at me. It’s stronger now. I feel safe with him. I want to snuggle against him. I’ve never experienced this sensation before.

“Tell me why you escaped your home tonight, Eden.”

I feel compelled to be honest with him. For one thing, I’m not capable of anything but honesty, but also, I’m drawn to him specifically. I believe him when he says he will keep me safe. “I was married to one of the elders in our compound for five years.”

Retmor’s eyes pop wide. “How old are you?”

“Twenty.”

“You were married at fifteen?”

“Yes.” I’m not sure why he’s so shocked.

“Humans don’t marry that young, Little one.”

I lick my lips. “My people do,” I tell him.

He’s very stiff. Even his hand around me tightens. “Go on. You said you were married. What happened?”

“He died.”

Retmor’s eyes grow even wider. “From what?”

I shrug. “He was old. I think he had a heart attack.”

Retmor blinks. “How old?”

“Seventy.”

Retmor gasps. “You were married at fifteen to a sixty-five-year-old human male?”

“Yes. Is that weird?”

Retmor starts laughing. “At the risk of being the pot that calls the kettle black, yes. Very strange for humans. Is that something they do in your compound?”

“Yes.” I’ve recently realized maybe it wasn’t okay, but I didn’t know that before. “Why are you laughing?”

He stops laughing and rubs my back. “I’m far older than your husband was, Little one.”

I frown. “You look about thirty.”

“We age very slowly on Eleadia. I’m one hundred and twenty-seven.”

I stare at him. Surely he’s kidding. Just as I think maybe I’m making a horrible mistake in trusting him and start to push away, he lifts my hand to his lips again and pierces my two remaining fingers. It happens so fast I don’t have time to react.

A strange calm washes over me. The information hasn’t changed, but I don’t feel as panicked. “Don’t do that,” I say, tugging on my hand.

“I will do whatever it takes to protect you, Little one, including from stress.”

“Where did you say you were from?” I ask.

“Eleadia. It’s a planet far away from here. Our transport vessels travel very fast, but it will still take us six months to get home.”

“You’re going to take me to another planet?”

“Yes, Baby girl. As soon as the doctor on the mothership clears you for departure.”

“People don’t travel to other planets,” I tell him.

“They do, Little one. They have been for some time. Ever since you first noticed our spaceship above Earth. I’ll take you to the mothership in a while. You’ll see.”

I look toward the window. “You’re going to take me to those lights in the sky?”

“For a short while until we leave for Eleadia, yes.” He touches my fingers with his lips again, not pricking them this time. “Tell me more. Tell me what happened to make you flee your compound.”

I lick my lips. “When my husband died a few months ago, the elders decided I would marry another man. Marcus. I’m supposed to marry him this Saturday.”

“And you didn’t want to?”

I shake my head. “He has three wives. I overheard them talking about him a few months ago. He’s very mean. He hits them. He also…”

After a few seconds, Retmor speaks. “He also what, Baby girl?”

“He…” I look away, my face turning red. I don’t want to talk about this.

“Tell me, Little one. I need to understand.”

“He holds them down and does things to them they do not like.”

Retmor’s jaw tightens. “He rapes them.”

“I… I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what the women were talking about. I just know one of them was crying, and the other two were comforting her.”

Retmor is stiff. His jaw is ticking. “Did your first husband treat you that way, Eden?”

I shake my head. “He didn’t mistreat me. Mostly he left me alone.”

Retmor rubs a hand down his face.

I look down. “I was scared because Marcus is already angry with me.”

“Why is he mad at you?”

My face heats. “Because I’m barren. He didn’t want me to be assigned to him because I’m useless to him.”

“But a doctor never confirmed this, right?”

“We don’t have doctors. We have a midwife.”

Retmor rubs my back. “It’s possible it wasn’t your fault that you didn’t get pregnant, Little one. It might have been your husband’s fault. He was very old. Maybe he couldn’t get you pregnant.”

I stare at him. “Really?”

“Yes. Likely, in fact.” His brow furrows, though. “Did you want to have children, Little one?”

I shake my head. “No. It scares me. The women scream for days sometimes when they give birth. Sometimes they die. Plus, they’re so tired. They have so many kids. We all try to help out, but the women with lots of kids look very sad and worn out. I never wanted that. I was glad I didn’t get pregnant.”

“You won’t ever get pregnant with me, Baby girl,” he says.

I’m shocked. My mouth drops open.

“Although I look like most human males except for being quite a bit larger, our species aren’t compatible enough for us to impregnate our mates. It won’t be because there’s anything wrong with you. We simply can’t produce offspring together.”

For some reason, this pleases me. I find myself smiling. And then reality seeps in. “You’re going to be my husband?” He has said so, but I’m still trying to grasp it.

“Mate, Little one. Yes.”

He seems nice. Nothing like Marcus or my first husband, William. Maybe I should accept this new fate of mine. “You won’t hit me?”

“Never. Never ever.” His face scrunches up a moment later. “Well… Let me rephrase that. I would never strike you in anger. Eleadians are a peaceful people. We do not spank our mates out of frustration. We don’t even feel the sort of anger I’ve learned humans experience.”

He taps my nose, making me giggle.

His smile grows. “I like that sound, Eden. I hope I can make you laugh a million times in our lives. But let me clarify. I don’t want to mislead you. Eleadian males are extremely overprotective. When we find our mates, we do not let them take chances with their safety. I will do everything to protect you, and that includes insisting that you follow many rules that are in place for your safety. If you break Papi’s rules, I will spank your naughty bottom to remind you to obey Papi.”

I squirm on his lap at the thought of him spanking me. My bottom lip quivers. “I don’t want you to hit me, Papi.”

He sets his lips on my forehead and makes a funny noise with his mouth. “Not hit, Little one. There’s a difference. Most Little girls actually enjoy being spanked. You’ll see.”

I shake my head. “It will hurt.”

“Sometimes, yes.”

Now I’m worried this arrangement isn’t better than the one I left.

Papi cups my face. “I don’t want you to worry about spankings right now, Little one. We’ll cross that bridge later. I need you to know that I would never injure you.”

“Marcus uses a switch on his wives.”

Retmor…Papi furrows his brows. “On their bottoms?”

I shake my head. “Their skirts are too thick. He hits them on their backs or their arms usually. I see them wincing when they work in the kitchen after a beating.”

“What does he strike them for doing?”

I swallow. My face heats again. I’ve never spoken of such things. “Usually for bleeding.”

Papi blinks. He doesn’t seem to know what I mean.

“Their uh…monthly,” I mutter. My cheeks are so hot.

Papi hesitates for a moment and then sucks in a breath. “He beats them for not getting pregnant?”

I nod. “It’s a woman’s job.”

“To get pregnant?” His voice rises.

“Yes, sir.”

“Eden…” Papi takes a long deep breath. “Females cannot control when they get pregnant. And again it’s probably Marcus’s fault anyway. Same as your husband’s. Not theirs.”

“Well, I’m not there now. He can’t touch me. Right?” Hope wells up inside me. “And I’ll be good, Papi. I won’t break any rules. I’ll cook and clean and lie with you and do everything you say. I promise.”

Papi’s face softens. He pulls me closer and rocks me gently. “You will not cook and clean, Little one. Papis take care of their Little girls, not the other way around. I will service you, Baby girl. Forever and ever.”