Page 22 of Rescued by the Alien Bull Rider (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides #6)

ZOHRO

J olene was solemn and a little pale as Warden Tenn read the marriage rites outside the house. When it came time for the human kiss portion of the ceremony, which I was well acquainted with and prepared for after reading Tasha’s book, she asked the warden if it could be skipped.

Warden Tenn furrowed his brow.

“I usually make them do it,” he said, his orange eyes bouncing between Jolene and me.

“I don’t want to make him,” Jolene said stoutly.

Before her, getting a reprieve from the human kiss would have been a relief. Terribly unhygienic, it seemed to me, to put my mouth on someone else’s.

But now that I’d met her, seen that mouth with its pretty smiles, the idea of gently sliding my lips against hers in a human kiss made my body seize up with anticipation.

“You would not be making me,” I insisted.

“It’s alright, Zohro,” she said. Even though something did not really seem alright at all.

Of course.

I’d told her about the details of the murder. Now, she was repulsed by me, but too kind to say so. Instead, she was framing it as saving me from a human obligation.

“Well, if you’re sure…” Warden Tenn said slowly, glancing now at Tasha who stood beside him. “ Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Jolene replied.

Blast.

“Congratulations on your marriage,” Tasha said, though she wore a worried little frown and her tone was subdued. “We’ll give you some more time alone.”

I understood that some humans consummated their marriage with sexual intercourse after the ceremony.

It seemed disappointingly apparent that such a thing would not be happening in our case. But Tasha and Warden Tenn hurried away to give us privacy anyway, the warden’s head bent low towards hers as they whispered.

“Well, that’s that,” Jolene said. Her shoulders slumped, as if she’d just let out a held breath. “I guess it’s time to get to work.”

“Not before we apply your salve.” It came out a little angry. Like a command.

But I was afraid that this awkward stiltedness between us would only grow if I let her go away and do some chores on her own now.

“Oh! I can do that myself. Just let me know the recipe.”

“I already made more this morning.”

“I can put it on. It’s already helped a lot.” She raised her hands between us, letting the bright morning sun illuminate skin that was nowhere near as inflamed as yesterday.

“You cannot put it on your back,” I reminded her, already striding for the house. At least I would be allowed to touch her that way. It was innocuous enough, rubbing cold squash innards on her back. Even if, pathetic male that I was, I found myself helplessly aroused by the act.

Inside the house, we both stripped out of our top garments.

I returned the shirt and jacket to the bedroom, and upon re-entering the kitchen, I found Jolene with her top removed, held in front of her body as she sat at the kitchen table.

I tried not to let myself stare at the elegant line of her shoulders, the slender, pale column of her neck, exposed so much more now that her thick, wavy hair was tied in a plait.

I pulled open the hatch to the cellar and descended, returning with some of the fresh salve I’d made that morning.

I put the jar down unceremoniously in front of Jolene and scooped some of the cool gel onto my fingers. As I stroked the stuff onto the delicate skin of her back, she did the same with her hands, rubbing it in and sighing.

“I really do need to make more of this for Baby Girl,” she said.

“Already done,” I murmured, sliding my fingertips along the hollows and plains of her back. “I’ve frozen a portion of the batch I made this morning. I will do the same next time I make more.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

“And…” Blast it all, Zohro, do not say it. Do not make leaving you any easier for her! “You can take it with you if you decide to go at the end of the trial period.”

Stupid. Stupid, stupid male. What was I doing? I should have been coaxing her into staying with me by dangling the salve in front of her. Like some kind of bribe.

Stay married to me and I will provide you with all the squash innards you require.

Idiot. It was too late now. I could not change my mind, tell her the salve had to stay here, without looking absolutely deranged. Or unnecessarily cruel.

Because, as much as it made me seethe to admit it, I just wanted her to be well, to be cared for, to have what she needed for her daughter. Whether that was here, in my world, in my house, or not.

I had saturated her skin with the salve. There was no reason for me to keep standing there, slowly adding more. And yet, I lingered. I could not seem to stop. If this was all I would get, these touches where I was more doctor than husband, then I would cling to them.

But I could sense that Jolene was finished with her hands and ready to stand. I had to find a way to keep her there. Just for a moment longer.

I’d have to do what I’d never been good at, had never bothered to practise.

Making conversation.

Empire help me.

“So,” I said, sounding oddly stiff to my own ears. “Is Baby Girl a traditional name where you are from?”

“Excuse me?”

“Baby Girl. It’s getting translated to baby and girl, the words for infant and female child. I wondered if that was perhaps a family name.”

“No, Zohro. It’s not a family name.” There was a lightness, a mirth returning to her tone.

“It is a very practical name, which I can appreciate,” I told her. “She will be an infant girl and that is what you’ve named her. Although, I suppose it will not be so applicable once she is no longer a baby…”

Jolene’s shoulders jumped beneath my hands. Her strange, loud, bold human laugh filled the room. I knew, if I were standing in front of her, that I’d be seeing all of her teeth right now. And the wet muscle of her tongue.

“It’s not her name. Not her official name,” Jolene said, chuckling. “It’s just something I call her out of affection.”

Out of affection?

What would be the equivalent, I wondered, if I were to do the same for Jolene?

If the child was Baby Girl, I supposed that meant the correct human term of affection for someone like Jolene would be Adult Female.

It rather lacked poetry, in my not so humble opinion.

“I haven’t chosen her real name yet,” Jolene continued. “I think I’ll wait until after she’s born. Oh, hold on. Something’s coming through on my comms tablet.”

She pulled the small tablet from the pocket of the jamdildos pants I’d made her.

“Holy, that’s a big data transfer,” she said, peering at the screen.

“Look at all these files! Surgical Innovations in Human Labour and Delivery… Advances in Pharmacological Treatments of Pre-Eclampsia… The Complete Guide to Caring for Your Newborn Baby: Human Edition… Hey! I’ve already got that one!

Why the hell is Tasha sending me all this? ”

“It’s not for you. It’s for me. My data tab does not have a functioning screen, and I will require the use of yours so that I can translate and read these texts.”

“You…” She craned to look at me from over her shoulder. “You requested all these files?”

“Of course,” I scoffed. “I may have been the most talented surgeon in Zabria before I even reached adulthood, but I have not studied human medicine. While my surgical skills will no doubt transfer over, I must learn the particulars of your anatomy.”

For some reason, when I mentioned learning the particulars of Jolene’s anatomy, her cheeks flushed dark pink.

It really was a marvel – and completely terrifying – how thin human hide was.

To be able to see the rush of blood beneath the surface was as intoxicating as it was alarming.

One little cut, and she would bleed and bleed.

“It’s still so crazy to me that you were a doctor that young. I’m just picturing a toddler going to town on somebody with a scalpel right now.”

“What the blazes is a toddler?”

“A really little kid. The phase after infancy when they’re learning to walk and they’re kind of just toddling around.”

“I never toddled,” I proclaimed. “What a ridiculous notion.”

“Ah. I see. So not only were you an expert surgeon before puberty, you were also born knowing how to walk already.”

“Of course not. I-”

“I’m teasing you, Zohro,” she said, giving me a small grin from over her shoulder. “Just a joke. Although, not the part about you being a doctor so young. That really is wild to me.”

“I was not cutting people open before I knew how to use a spoon, if that’s what you mean,” I grumbled, feeling suddenly self-conscious.

“In early childhood, we practise upon lab-grown tissue and hyper-realistic synthetics. By the time I was treating real patients, and had graduated from the Medical Academy, I was close to the age of fifteen cycles.”

“Is that, like, fifteen years old? Like a teenager?”

“A young one, but yes. I think so. Had I reached fifteen cycles by that time, I would have been tried and convicted as an adult.”

“Wow.” Her eyes went wide. “Timing worked out well on that one.”

“Did it?”

“I mean… You tell me, I guess. Wouldn’t your punishment have been worse as an adult?”

“Yes,” I said bluntly, thinking of the mines.

But at least I would have remained in the empire. I would not have been flung so far from everything I’d known, condemned to waste away listening to the lowing of cattle and scraping dust from my blasted eyes every day until I died.

Although…

Then I never would have met Jolene.

And all at once, exile with the cattle and dust seemed a much smaller price to pay.