Page 18 of Married to the Alien Mountain Man (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides #5)

18

OAKEN

I was rushing through my chores. This was something I never did. For one thing, I enjoyed working on my ranch. I liked being outdoors, and I got great satisfaction from caring for my animals.

For another thing, I’d never had something to look forward to before, besides the prospect of going to bed and waking up to do it all over again so that I might create a well-run home for a wife one day.

But now I had a wife. And I wanted to see her.

And so, I rushed.

By midday, I’d completed nearly everything that required my attention. The only thing left was to take Nali out on her daily hike. It was on the way to Nali’s enclosure that I glimpsed Jaya making her way towards me.

Funny. I’d been standing in the sun all morning.

But seeing her now, it was as if the sun had only just come out.

“Oaken!” she called, raising her hand in a human gesture of greeting.

My wife was waving at me.

I eagerly returned the gesture, jogging towards her.

“Hey, big guy,” she said. Her smile left me rather dizzy, uncentred in the most delightful way. “I know last night was a bit of a disaster, and that I literally fell asleep on you. But I was hoping we might try again today anyway. What do you say?”

Ah. Of course. I knew she’d want to get back to her ship. I just hoped it would not be quite so soon.

“Yes, we can do that,” I said. “I must take Nali into the mountains for her exercise anyway. But…”

“But?”

But if I took her to her ship now, then she would stay there. And I might not see her again until it was time to leave.

I might not even see her when she left.

My chest went tight with constriction at the thought that she might leave without saying goodbye. I hadn’t felt this crushing sort of weight around my chest since I was a child, suffering from lung attacks on Zabria.

I coughed, then pounded on my chest a few times with my fist.

“Are you alright?” Jaya asked. “We should bring some water on the walk.”

“Yes.” I choked out. “Water would be good.” I did not want her getting dehydrated on the way. “You will need the hat Magnolia gave you as well.”

I was glad to see that she was still wearing my socks. They were much better made than the thin ones she’d had on before.

I should know. I had made them.

She must have noticed me looking at her feet, because her weight suddenly began to shift between them, as is self-consciously.

“Thanks for last night. I swear, I don’t usually pass out on people like that. And I don’t usually make them take off my sweaty boots and deal with my blisters, either. I’ll wash your socks and give them back.”

“No need,” I said. “They’re yours.”

Everything I have is yours.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

She gazed up at me with doubts in her eyes.

I wanted to take those doubts away, soothe them. Bury them.

I wanted to do the same with my own.

But she was wearing the wedding ring I’d made. And she was wearing the socks I’d made.

And for now, that was enough.

It would have to be.

“Let us go and fetch your hat. I will also fill my waterskin,” I said. My breathing had mostly returned to normal. Not entirely, though. I was not sure my breathing would ever be completely calm around her.

Together, we walked back to the house where she had left the hat Magnolia had lent her. I filled a waterskin with fresh, cool water, and we set off for Nali’s enclosure once more.

“You had a butt,” she said without preamble.

“I… What?” My translator was heavily context dependant. It currently recognized “butt” as a noun that translated to something like backside or buttocks.

The past tense confused me, though. I was fairly certain I still had my backside. Furtively, I loosened my tail, pulling it from its hook and letting the end quickly pat the seat of my trousers.

Everything seemed to be in order.

“You had a butt,” Jaya said again.

“I… I still have one,” I replied, mystified.

She laughed. “Well, yeah. I figured you did. Butts don’t usually just disappear.”

“I should certainly hope not,” I responded at length. “Are you concerned? About my butt?”

“Well, yeah. I want to know what it is.”

Poor Jaya. She had not received any information on Zabrian anatomy! I had received an entire book on human biology, history, and culture, which included detailed diagrams of everything from eyeballs to hair follicles to genitalia.

And butts.

“It is… It’s in the same place yours is,” I said patiently. We’d reached Nali’s enclosure, and I spun on my heel before opening the gate, gesturing to my backside. “It’s here, between my legs and my lower back.”

Jaya was silent for so long behind me that, eventually, I cast a worried look back at her over my shoulder. She was standing with one hand on her hip, the other over her mouth, as if she was considering something of great educational importance.

Did she really not think I had a backside before this? Where did she think I sat, every time I did so in front of her?

But there must have been confusion before now. Because she was looking at that part of me as if it had just given her some sort of significant revelation. She was staring at my backside with incredible focus. It made me admire her all the more. Clearly, my wife was the scholarly sort, always keen to study her surroundings.

“Do you have any questions?” I asked. “About my butt?”

“About your… Oh. Oh no .” The hand that had covered her mouth flew to her eyes, as if to shield them from something. “That’s not… That isn’t what I… You can put your butt away now!”

As much as I wanted to do what she’d asked me, I could not see how that would be possible.

“Sorry. I cannot put it away.” I gestured helplessly at myself. “It comes with me everywhere I go.”

“That’s… Oh, God.” She finally lowered her hand from her face. “Sorry. That is not what I was asking about. At all.” She cleared her throat loudly and made a show of not looking at my backside. Sensing she no longer needed it in view, I turned to face her once more.

“You said we could go to my ship, but ,” Jaya said, her voice sounding a little higher than usual. “And you never told me what the problem was.”

Realization dawned.

“Apologies,” I grunted, awkwardly scratching the back of my neck. As I did so, her white, brown, and black eyes followed the line of my raised arm to my chest, down to my belly, to my belt, and then very swiftly back up to my face.

“When you used ‘but’ in the place of a noun,” I went on, “my translator began to struggle.”

“Your translator and I have that in common. Absolutely on the struggle bus over here,” she groaned. But there was mirth in her eyes now. “Sorry for the confusion.”

“Please, do not apologize,” I said quickly. “I was the one who misunderstood. And I… There is no real problem. I just…”

“You just?”

“I just do not want you so far away, that is all. I wondered if there might be a way to move your ship closer to my property. So that when you are doing your repairs, you would be near me.”

Jaya’s lips parted. My ears picked up a soft but swift inhalation on her part.

“You want me near you?”

“Yes,” I said emphatically. “I will camp beside your ship when you sleep, of course. My tent is still packed and ready. But I must rise early and do things here during the day.”

Even one day seemed like a very long time to go without being near her.

I thought of all the thousands of days that awaited me after she left, and the world seemed to get just a little smaller. A little less bright.

“I don’t want you camping out near my ship,” Jaya protested. “You yourself said there are a lot of predators out there. What if something happens while I’m asleep?”

“I’ve spent nights in worse places,” I said grimly.

I would rather have spent every night for the rest of my life camping in genka-infested valleys than return to my uncle’s home.

Especially if those genka-infested valleys were where Jaya was.

“No, Oaken,” she said sternly. “No way. Now that I’ve seen how creepy those valleys are at night… I won’t allow it.”

“Forgive me for asking,” I said with a grin, “but how, exactly, do you plan on stopping me?”

Her mouth opened and closed several times. Then, throwing her hands in the air, she said, “Fine! I’ll move the ship!”

Surprise – then elation – poured through me.

“You can fly it?” I asked. “Even with the damaged parts?”

“I’ll need to do some repair work first,” she said. “A lot of the connections are blown from the strain on all the systems. But I should be able to do a short flight in the planet’s atmosphere. Do you have a place you want me to land it?”

“There,” I said at once, pointing to the fenced-in pasture closest to the house. I didn’t currently need that area for my herd.

“Alright,” she said. “Then let’s get to it.”

* * *

I worried that Nali might exhibit some of her usual laziness on our journey to retrieve Jaya’s ship, but surprisingly, she did not. When Lala removed herself from Jaya’s pocket and scuttled on the ground ahead, Nali hurried to keep up with her, as if she did not want the little bot to leave her behind. From time to time, Lala would say something to Nali, and Nali would bleat enthusiastically back at her.

“Those two are becoming fast friends,” Jaya said, glancing at me from the side as we walked through the rocks and the dust. “Just like us.”

My chest puffed. Jaya considered me her friend.

Somehow, this seemed even more significant than being her husband. Because marriage was something I’d simply offered her.

Her friendship was something I’d earned.

“Just like us,” I agreed, tipping my hat towards her.

Jaya was moving faster than last night. Between the better socks protecting her feet and the rest she’d gotten, we made much better time. It was not too long before we were rounding the pink outcropping of stone I remembered from yesterday. The Lavariya came into view.

Jaya audibly sighed and, relief thick in her voice, murmured, “Right where I left her.”

She ran over to her ship, calling hastily back over her shoulder, “You don’t have to stay for this part, Oaken. I’ll bring her back to your place when she’s ready tonight!”

“I have already completed my daily chores,” I replied. I did not plan to leave her side if I could help it. Predators could be active during the day as well as the night. Besides, this would give Nali a good, long time to spend in her native habitat.

I tried to force myself to focus on Nali, but my gaze kept going back to Jaya. I liked the way her sinewy arms flexed as she hammered and yanked and fastened. I liked the way she removed her hat in the shade and then tied the longest parts of her hair up in a knot on the top of her head, exposing the elegant line of her neck. I liked the way her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth when she was concentrating very hard on something. A wet, pink point that made my breath hitch and my cock throb.

Being with her, getting to observe her at her work, left me ensconced in the hazy quality of a dream. Time moved differently that it should have – feeling slow, but going fast. So fast that I was jolted by her eventual call of, “OK! It’s done!”

“Done?” I asked, feeling as if I’d just been dragged from hypnotic slumber. The moment before, I’d once again found myself entirely preoccupied with that exposed slip of skin along her abdomen and lower back. Every time she leaned over, or stretched, the hemline of her top crept even higher, and a hot thrill flared in my belly. I hadn’t even noticed that the sun was now diving towards the horizon.

“Well, not done , done,” she replied, wiping her hands on her trousers. “But done enough that she won’t blow up in the two minutes it’ll take to fly to your place.”

“Blow up?” I asked, rattled by the image. “Is that a possibility?”

“Not anymore.”

“Good,” I sighed. “Well. I suppose that I will begin the journey back with Nali. We will meet you there.”

“Sure,” she said slowly, her eyes intent on me. “Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you wanted to come along.”

Come along. In her ship.

She wanted me to come with her.

“I do not think that the warden would approve,” I said, even though I was already striding towards her.

“Warden, schmarden,” she said. Her lips curved conspiratorially. “I won’t tell him if you don’t.”

“Yes,” I said on a ragged exhale. “Yes, I will come with you.”

She wanted me beside her. At least for this short stretch. And I refused to let it go to waste.

I’d lost too much, too early in my life.

I would not lose out on this.

It took only a moment to collect our hats, the waterskin, and to usher Lala and Nali on board. As we crossed the Lavariya’s threshold, Jaya briefly took my hand to pull me all the way inside.

When she touched me, I did not breathe.

“Welcome to my home,” she said, releasing my hand and moving further into the space. I could sense the happiness in her, the pride for what she had here. And for some reason, it made me want to hold her.

To distract myself from the urge, I turned my attention to examining my surroundings. The Lavariya was certainly a small vessel, but it was more than adequate to house one or two adults. We were in the centre of the ship. To my left lay the ship’s controls and the pilot’s chair. To my right were the living quarters. I could see appliances, boxes of supplies, sets of tools, the suit and helmet she’d had on when she’d landed, and another compartment beyond that I assumed was storage or perhaps a water closet.

“This here,” Jaya said, rapping her knuckles against a large panel, “is my bed. It folds out from the wall. The bathroom is back there, in case anyone needs it.”

I risked a glance at Nali, silently commanding her not to urinate or defecate anywhere she was not supposed to.

“There are other seats that fold down from the walls, too,” Jaya continued. She pulled at a latch near me, extending a seat with a safety harness from the wall. “You sit here for the flight.”

I did so, and Jaya immediately leaned over me, securing the harness across my chest and checking the buckles. As she worked, I was afforded a glorious top-view of her bosoms, thanks to the way the neckline of her top gaped at this angle.

But then I remembered she’d mentioned last night that staring at a woman’s bosoms was rude. Sadly, but silently commending myself for my strength, I pulled my gaze away.

“Should be a pretty smooth ride. And super short,” Jaya said as she headed for the pilot’s chair. Because Lala went with her, Nali tried to follow. I shot my tail forwards and looped it around Nali’s body, pulling her to me and placing her upon my lap.

“We cannot distract her,” I admonished quietly. “Jaya has important work to do.”

She got right to it. Her fingers flew across various buttons and boards at her disposal. She seemed calm, confident, entirely at ease.

She seemed happy.

“Ascension protocols engaged,” she said as Lala sat the round ball of her body on a curved spot on Jaya’s main control board. “Systems check.”

“All systems besides sonic recalibration are functioning within expected parameters,” Lala chirped.

Around us, the powerful thrum of engines vibrated.

“Alrighty, then,” Jaya said. She craned her neck to grin at me. “Giddy up!”

My guts seemed to slowly rise, then tumble back down all at once as the ship lifted off the ground.

“Lala, activate the displays, please,” Jaya said. I jerked in my seat as a huge swath of the front of the ship lit up, showing me my mountains from an angle that I’d never seen before. We were among them, rising above them, the peaks shrinking below us.

The sky was hot and blue and we were in it. The world below dropped away.

And the view was magnificent, and it was breath-taking, and it was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But…

But it did not compare to seeing Jaya now. I watched her as she worked, so capable, so strong, and felt awe for her slip between my ribs like a blade.

This was where my wife was meant to be.

A little part of me was punctured by that truth. The selfish, secret part that had already begun to wish so desperately that she might stay.

But I could not offer her anything as remarkable as this. My ranch was not a ship.

And I was not her fate.

Jaya twisted to look at me again, and she was smiling so beautifully. Above that smile, her eyes searched mine expectantly.

She wanted to see my reaction to the flight.

She wanted me to enjoy this.

So I punched down the pain and I smiled right back. I managed to croak a single word.

“Magnificent.”

Because she was.